In a few more weeks this bizarre, difficult year will be over. In March, the world changed for most of us. Some people witnessed the pandemic unravel gradually, as they followed the news of the pandemic slowly but surely reaching almost every country in the world, whereas for others it changed everything all at once. I was among the latter, as earlier that month I traveled to New Zealand for my honeymoon, which was cut short with a same-day emergency flight back to the UK and the beginning of months-long lockdowns.
I’ll spare you the details of how we managed to get back (it was difficult), yet it was just the beginning of months of hardships for me and the business. The Careful Feet Digital that I returned to wasn’t the agency I’d left behind just a couple of weeks before. The pandemic was a harsh challenge for many of our clients. For some, it was just a financial hit. For some, it required an urgent and sharp cut in their spending, meaning they couldn’t afford to continue working with us. For some, it meant taking all their marketing in-house. For some, it was the end of their business. We worked with each client individually to find solutions that worked for each business, but it meant a sharp drop in revenue for CFD.
That meant that I spent much of the spring in endless meetings, pitching and networking and selling the services CFD offers. I was awake most nights, strategizing on how to keep the business alive. I had many internal doubts, especially as I saw so many businesses around me collapsing. But here we are: 2020 is almost over and CFD is stronger than ever. We have more clients and have turned over more revenue than in 2019. All that hard work paid off.
Even more exciting, this year we received several accolades – a real sign that our hard work is being recognized globally.
- We’ve made it to the shortlist of the UK Agency Awards as SEO agency of the year for a campaign we did with a large fashion ecommerce company.
- I am among the winners of the 2020 TechWomen 100 Awards! I share this honor with 99 other remarkable women in tech and it makes me happy to be in such great company.
- CFD was featured in Financial Times, I spoke about the lack of access to funding for minority business owners and I’m proud that my insights were shared with the world.
- I was a finalist for the 2020 NatWest Everywoman Artemis Award. I’m so honored to have been a finalist with four other female-founded businesses.
- I’ve become the marketing mentor in residence for Hatch Accelerator. It’s great to be able to share my marketing expertise with female-founded businesses going through the program.
- I was a speaker at the 12th European Innovation Summit at European Parliament! It isn’t every day that people have the opportunity to speak to real changemakers, so it was a huge honor and a stellar way to wrap up such a crazy year.
So that’s it. One of the hardest years for many, including us, but some good silver linings that we can focus on, too. Sending you well wishes and hopes for a better 2021.