Seven things we’ve learned in seven years
By Sarah and Liz
At the beginning of July Pomegranite turned 7. We didn’t have our usual party (the photo above was taken at last year’s celebration), complete with the impossibly ridiculous quiz, because of the global pandemic (bit of a downer, that), but it didn’t stop us from lifting our heads and acknowledging how far we’ve hiked, and how much we’ve learned, from the day we first sat on the lounge floor to write our business plan.
1) Our team is our biggest asset. One of our greatest joys over the last few years has been seeing our Pomegranites grow in confidence and expertise at work, and as people in their lives. We’ve seen weddings, dog adoptions, travel, bold goals, live performances, emigrations, health kicks, and, perhaps our favourite, long-lasting friendships develop amongst the team.
2) We discovered the power of removing the word “just” from all our emails. Try it. Now re-read them and see how much stronger they sound.
3) Taking a sabbatical is one of the scariest decisions to make, but also one of the best things you can do – for your business, and for yourself. Having built the business to a place where we both could take months off at a time is something we’re incredibly proud of and grateful for.
Liz walked the Camino. It was an incredible journey.
Sarah travelled the world. It was an incredible journey.
4) When you work with clients who are actively making the world a better place, building a website becomes so much more than building a website. Writing a social media post is about so much more than brand awareness.
5) If you level up in terms of the size and type of projects you take on, you’ll need to spend time refining your processes. The last few months have been spent deepening our roots in this way, and it’s exciting how it instantly makes you feel like you can reach higher. An important part of that reaching lies in the support we get from our partnerships with our developers, designers, accountants (thanks Iridium!) and business coach (Anton, you have been an incredible sounding board).
6) As a small business, we are able to do things differently. Sometimes we can make quite radical decisions to make sure that the business supports our lives – and the lives of our team – not the other way around. To have built something that allows us to do that is quite a spectacular feeling.
7) Running a business with a friend is a risk. But if you’re lucky, and pick exactly the right person, you’ll find that, not only can you build an exceptional partnership, your friendship deepens too, in a way that will change your life.