A Look Back on 2020
2020 At a Glance
This year has been extraordinary in many ways for everyone. I can’t think that anyone has escaped the 2020 Effect this year. I myself, despite helping others to create and work on their 5 Year Plans, have had to change my own plans several times this year as a result of different factors, none more so than the Coronavirus.
This year has required a great deal of soul searching and thinking on our feet. No matter the situation we find ourselves in, I find myself thinking of my friends & family who have suffered this year. There have been those who have actually caught the virus, and family members who have passed away. Families separated for the majority of this year on different sides of the world and huge shifts in economic situations, redundancies, furloughs and having to move to the other side of the world as a result.
However, today, rather than looking back at the negatives I want to look back at the positives and record what we have managed to achieve despite the difficulties this year has brought us. Apart from the fact that we are safe, healthy and in a fairly fortunate position to be able to live out this pandemic in our own home here in France we have started 2 businesses in potentially the middle of the worst ever of economic situations of our generation– Gite de la Maison de la Tour (a gite business which has only actually been open for 6 weeks this year!) and C&E HR Consultancy which has been my primary focus for the past 6 months.
What has C&E HR Consultancy achieved this year, in it’s first year of business)?
Our biggest achievements this year have included:
1. Setting up and managing a new Website – www.candehrconsultancy.com
A friend helped to set up the website initially but once it was handed over to me at the beginning of this year I embarked upon a very new journey. I had to very quickly get to grips with managing and updating my own website. Since January I have added private group sections, a Blog, a Shop linked to PayPal, a mail subscription pop up linked to Mailchimp and much more. Managing your own website is definitely a skill I would recommend and if you can, I’d certainly recommend that you build your own from scratch so that you learn from the get-go.
2. Social Media Marketing - @cande_hr_consultancy on Instagram, @candehrconsultancy on Facebook and https://www.linkedin.com/company/31450168/admin/ on LinkedIn.
This has definitely been a massive learning curve for me. I’m currently managing 3 Instagram Pages, 3 Facebook Pages & 3 LinkedIn Pages which can be mind boggling at times! I have however, through a process of real trial and error, started to understand who my audience really is and what they want to see. It becomes more and more clear what people engage with and what I can offer them. I have to say it’s actually something I very much enjoy playing around with.
3. Online Shop - https://www.candehrconsultancy.com/purchase-your-services
Although this needs a lot of work, having a shop where people could understand clearly what I offer and how much it costs was important to me. I think that many people believe that Mentoring and Professional CV Writing are out with their budgets and it is certainly my intention to ensure that these are accessible to everyone. I need to set up the shop on different platforms as well but for now this has been an interesting step in the business setup process.
4. Blogging - https://www.candehrconsultancy.com/blog-1-1
- https://anglophone-direct.com/its-a-bloggers-world/
- https://emirateshr.com/forum/careers/
I’m no stranger to writing and creating content in different formats but doing a regular blog for the purpose of the business is certainly new to me. I had no idea it was going to become such a massive part of this new business venture. My routine is to publish one blog every Monday afternoon on the website which is then sent to the PO Life magazine here in France and the Emirates HR Forum in Dubai.
I had to learn how to write for the purpose of essentially bringing traffic through the website and potentially bringing in custom. I had to learn how to find the best photographic content and make the blogs interesting. Once again, it is something I very much enjoy.
5. Service Lines
The most popular services I provide are Coaching & Mentoring Programmes and more so Career Guidance programmes for people of all walks of life; CV Writing in English & French and Five-Year Planning.
Next year I believe my biggest service lines will be online Learning & Development in the form of Work/ Life Balance Workshops, CV Writing & LinkedIn workshops and more!
6. Bureaucracy
This is super important. Having a Professional Tax Account here in France, registering the business, paying quarterly Social Security and much much more! It’s definitely been a massive learning curve and if you plan on setting up a business in France I would definitely recommend getting some good advice.
Here are some key figures from 2020:
My plan was always that C&E HR Consultancy would be only a small part of my future career; however, for the past 6 months, given the nature of this year I have been spending more and more time on it. I do stand by my initial mission; in that I want C&E to be accessible to everyone, and I want to be able to offer bespoke services for everyone, which means that my numbers will never be huge.
What next?
We’re running an International CV Writing workshop on the 23rd January. A 1 day Zoom workshop with free CV Health Check, pre- course tasks and the perfect formula for writing your own CV for only €49. (Get in touch now to book up; gift vouchers available.)
Writing a CV is a very personal thing; having somebody write it for you without your input can mean you lose the essence of the CV and potential employers fail to see the ‘real’ you in there. So rather than having a stranger do it for you over the course of a week or two why not spend a day with me and learn how to do it yourselves? Essentially you should be creating a new CV for every post you apply for so having somebody do each one for you could cost a fortune! However, for 49 Euros you will learn the basics and get your essential CV structure set in stone ready for any potential positions.
Once we’ve completed the CV Writing workshop the plan is to run a LinkedIn Workshop and another Masterclass which will be renamed the Work/Life Balance planning course. The plan is to continue to add new service lines every quarter throughout 2021.
So, despite the trials and tribulations of 2020 there have been some small successes and taking a step back to reflect is always a good idea. There is learning in everything we do and none more so than the learning I have had to do this year. I suggest everyone takes a moment as we near the end of this year, to reflect upon what they have achieved this year.