Getting under the skin of what it takes to run a small consulting firm: My 2023 in numbers
It’s the final day of 2023 and it’s at this time of year that people reflect on how their year has panned out.
For me, the founder of an innovative consulting firm that specialises on strategic effectiveness, it’ been a hell of a year.
Parking for one moment all the ups and downs in my personal life [the conflict in Palestine, getting evicted and a stop-start love-life being some of those “highlights”]; it’s been quite a year for Shiageto Consulting.
A year in numbers
A few weeks ago, at the Baringa Alumni event, the Managing Partner presented the year by reeling off the key numbers that highlighted just how quickly the business had grown.
Unashamedly, I am going to borrow this format from my peer to bring to life the year we’ve had at Shiageto (which is our 4th year in existence) and my own personal contributions.
Buckle up as here we go; these are the headline figures for Shiageto:
11% — Year-on-Year revenue growth [it was always going to be tough to match the 100% growth we saw in each of Year 2 and year 3]
29 — Total number of clients we now have [onwards and upwards; we love you all]
8 — Number of new clients gained in 2023 [we love onboarding new clients]
15 — Number of clients we had paid engagements with during 2023 [it means so much to have repeat work]
11 — Number of countries we delivered work in during 2023 [Ethiopia and Oman were definitely the highlights as I incorporated holidays there]
12 — Number of contractors used to deliver Shiageto workshops during 2023 [hooray for all our extended team, especially as this was the first year they delivered without me]
19 — Number of flexible offices worked from around the UK [this doesn’t include the times spent working from client offices]
1 — Business Accelerator programmes joined
2 — Number of countries listed for tax in
1 — Number of Trademark disputes won
2 — Sponsorship of events and a football team
100s — Number of IQ, EQ and FQ tips shared
And some personal stats:
~450 — Number of hours of facilitation/training personally delivered
880k — LinkedIn Impressions
5000 — new LinkedIn followers gained
374 — Number of LinkedIn Posts I have made to share the journey of Shiageto
41 — Number of LinkedIn Polls I have launched to capture insight from my connections that will help develop Shiageto
82 — Number of podcasts I have been a guest on to promote Shiageto
~40 — Number of videos I have been in to promote Shiageto
15 — Number of guest speaker slots I have been asked to deliver at conferences, members clubs, private dinners and company events
2000 — biggest audience for an individual talk I have delivered [certainly daunting]
>1500 — Number of business voice notes sent
~500 — Number of one-on-one networking coffees I have had [a mix of in-person and virtual; many of those undertaken standing and many don’t even need coffee]
~100 — Number of networking events I have attended
>100 — Number of times I have been ghosted in one form or another
8— Number of articles written for external publications
6 — Number of networking groups I actively participate in
2 — Number of weeks without internet
1 — New Shiageto Towers moved into
1 — Shiagetos broken
~200 — Number of Santander bikes used for work
~150 — days of exercise
~250 — Number of hours spent at airports or train stations
6 — games of golf, even though I’m not very good at golf
10 — number of fake awards nominated for
2 — major embarrassing situations
1 — coat lost
And definitely way too much cake, sweets and other good things eaten
Phew! What a year!
It was so much fun, I can’t wait to see what next year brings.
I hope you stick with me to see how the journey pans out :)
Faris
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness. Connect with him here
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
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