Helen's post-pandemic review

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, businesses have faced tough battles to maintain income, retain staff and boost employee morale. The world has been turned upside down and only now are things starting to get back to a sense of normality.

Here, Prominent’s Managing Director Helen Rudd looks back at how the agency fought its way through and has come out of the other side much stronger.

 

Let’s not beat around the bush. The last 18 months have been hard.

Personally, professionally, mentally, emotionally, financially; everyone has faced their own battles.

But, in true British Bulldog spirit, the business community has come out fighting and here at Prominent, we’ve never been busier.

Clients are coming to us with a fresh, renewed sense of vigour. With new ideas for their business and with an excitement and determination I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

At the agency, we are in a lucky place. We get to help our clients bring their ideas to life and support them in making their businesses a success. We get excited when they get excited, we are proud when they love our ideas and we are passionate when they ask us to try something new.

In March 2020, a number of clients came to us and said they needed to put their PR on hold while they battened down the hatches and fought the pandemic. Many lost huge swathes of income overnight. Some weren’t even allowed to open their doors. We were sad to lose them, but we completely understood the situation they were in.

And clients weren’t the only ones to leave.

In August 2020 I started my maternity leave and in January 2021 our office manager Hannah also left us to have a baby.

Being at home with a newborn while my business was battling against a worldwide pandemic was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and in the end, I cut my leave short and was back at my desk after just five months away.

So much had changed in a short space of time. Office life was strained due to policies and regulations. We were tied to our desks doing everything by Zoom. Content for every client focused on one thing. It was really hard.

However, since the summer and the relaxation of the restrictions, things have calmed down. Some of our team decided to head off to pastures new, and we welcomed a raft of new faces – revitalised and ready to get creative and dive back into office life. This has without doubt rejuvenated us as an agency. There’s no doubt that sometimes change is needed. Change is good.

What has been particularly heart-warming, is that in the last two months, old faces have reappeared. Four clients who paused their work with us have returned, ready to work alongside us again to fight back and rebuild.

And we have been thrilled to see them.

There’s nothing quite like rekindling old relationships and working together to come back stronger, helping them tell their own pandemic story.

Change has been good for us. Although that change is without doubt tinted with sadness for what we have been through over the last 18 months, it has also given people the opportunity to reassess what they really want from their life and their business.

It has started a ripple effect of creativity, passion and determination to rebuild and succeed and if there is anything the British are good at, it’s fighting back under pressure.

Here’s to 2022 being the best one yet for all of us.

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