End of year – A message from our Directors 2020

Posted December 16, 2020

Once upon a time there was a pandemic…

Throughout the boardrooms of the UK and around the world it resulted in cancelled contracts, redundancies and closed businesses. It has devastated families and wrecked lives and there is no denying it has changed the world forever.

But as we approach Christmas, the various vaccines provide a glimmer of hope that a different normality will emerge and businesses will be able to rebuild, invest and grow again.

MAXX, like most businesses, had a rollercoaster ride this year. When we packed up the office and everyone headed home back in March, we did wonder what was about to hit us…

It is however, testament to our team, our clients and our suppliers, that as we now look forward to the festive holiday, MAXX is stronger than ever.

Here are a few reasons why we think this might be;

  1. Working remotely has enabled us to learn how to become more agile and efficient in communication. We’re able to work more flexibly and productively than ever before.

  2. We’ve built stronger relationships with our partners and suppliers helping each other survive and succeed throughout the year.

  3. We invested time into our existing client relationships and customer experience. The energy we previously spent on lead generation was directed into providing valuable advice and content for our network, allowing us to seriously step up as thought- leaders in our field.

  4. We’re incredibly proud to have won new clients and contracts with some outstanding companies, balancing any loss from companies that had to unfortunately freeze their budgets this year.

Here are a few things that helped us to negotiate 2020:

1. Utilising project management and CRM tools

It was easy for us to move to home working, already largely a business working in the cloud, we just needed to pick up our machines and take them home. It was definitely harder for the creatives, who crave personal contact and collaboration, but with constant communication we have made it work. WhatsApp has become our fun, sharing tool for chat and achievements, but our project management and CRM tools, Trello, HubSpot and Google Suite have helped us run a smooth operation.

2. Incredible clients

Our clients have seriously been amazing. Supporting us throughout and willing to still invest in our skills, providing new work all the time. We also have to thank every client that saw through existing contracts instead of putting them on hold, we are forever grateful for this support  – we thank you all!

3. Great supplier relationships

We’ve always focused on building a network of seriously credible suppliers and partners across digital, video and print. These relationships allow us to offer such a diverse range of options and services to our clients. Our suppliers and freelancers have shown incredible support and dedication that we are enormously grateful for and they are more a part of our family than ever before.

4. A dedicated team

The team has been frankly monumental!

We have been constantly impressed with how they adapted to remote working and how they have worked tirelessly to meet deadlines (not all of them reasonable!). It makes us smile to think back to last year when we implemented “flexible working”, how progressive we thought we were when we introduced a more relaxed working day with core hours! Fast forward to April and Covid delivered the ultimate in flexible working:

 “Work when you can, for as long as you can to still do a brilliant job –  but we understand that might be a Sunday night or at 6am or most likely both, whilst working around childcare and home-schooling!”

How much freer we all feel now to take control of that work life balance.

5. Keeping our office open and available

Although we followed guidelines and went fully remote where necessary, we have opened our building when it is appropriate to do so and encouraged the team to come back if and when it works for them. Some have returned, many drop in for small meetings or collaborations. There are no rules except to do the right thing for yourself, your family, MAXX and the clients you work with.

6. Supporting the mental health of our team

We feel that this flexibility in the way we have been working combined with regular communication has been fundamental to our team wellbeing. Being kind to each other, and to ourselves has been a vital mindset – reducing burn-out and allowing everyone to work in a way which makes them most productive.

As we look forward to 2021…

We’re so excited to continue making strong progress across different aspects of the business. Our video and animation department is growing faster than ever, delivering consistently exceptional work across a number of industries. We expect this to continue as video becomes an ever more important marketing channel for companies to invest in.

We’re also very pleased to announce that we have a new paid advertising and SEO specialist joining us in the new year to help support our impressive growth in digital marketing. This appointment helps take our technical digital marketing capabilities to a new level and will massively benefit a number of our clients.

We don’t have all the answers, but we are excited to see what 2021 delivers. We are looking forward to new clients, projects and people, as well as working with familiar faces. We can’t wait to  share more of the wonderful work the team creates across our range of services; digital, web, design, video, social, content, SEO and paid advertising.

Have a relaxing, slightly quieter than usual, Merry Christmas and here’s to a much-deserved prosperous and healthy New Year!