10 years of excellence - 10 lessons learned!

As Sellick Partnership celebrates it's 10 year birthday this month, it got me thinking about our achievements and milestones as a business to date… the opening of our newest office in Liverpool this year and internally, the East Midlands division achieving the 'office with greatest growth' award two years in row (and yes, I am blowing my office's trumpet a little), not to mention the Sellick Partnership Group experiencing significant growth in staffing levels and also profit - to date our sales are up 10% on our budget. This is across the board - interim and permanent, public and private sectors and within both the finance and legal sectors, signifying a promising year ahead for our 10 year of business.

Since joining Sellick Partnership I've personally learnt a great deal. Not only have I grown professionally but also individually in many ways. 

The lessons I've learned since joining the business in 2005 to now are vast, so I thought I'd share a few of them with you.

1) Have a clear, yet flexible vision, ensuring all team members are working towards this. Flexibility is key, not only as the economy changes but also the business model.

2) Take care of yourself - health, fitness and good work-life balance.

3) Be an expert with a clear speciality - demonstrate this expertise in all that you do and that includes blogging, articles and your social media profile.

4) Accept that there will be ups and downs. Trust that if you are talented, do all you can and be pro-active, the success will always come. 

5) Review and reflect regularly on your business model… Is it still working? If not, make some adjustments.

6) Build a team of professionals who will support you - they can help you steer the challenges, opportunities and complexities. Play to strengths! 

7) Celebrate success along the way… enjoy your work and those who you work with.

8) Be transparent, open and honest - people will respect you for this.

9) Use your most valuable resource to improve your business model - your employees. Implement a regular anonymous engagement survey for all staff, so you can identify what areas need developing and how to attract the best talent to your business.

10) Finally, live up to your values and mission statement, and ensure all your business objectives focus around them. At Sellick Partnership our values are Passionate, Respected and Engaged.

If you have any lessons learned that you're willing to share, I'd be very pleased to hear them…