4 February 2022
As I write this blog, I can’t quite believe it’s been five years since I started Hive HR Solutions. It’s been an incredible journey punctuated by highlights and lowlights, but I’m so pleased to say that the company is stronger and more resilient thanks to the support of my wonderful husband and brilliant team and how we have overcome the challenges that we’ve faced.
I’d like to share that journey with you and hopefully encourage and inspire those of you who are facing professional challenges or considering starting your own business but find the prospect daunting.
Running my own HR business and helping companies manage their staff was a dream I had for many years, but it wasn’t until 2017 that, encouraged by my husband, I finally took the plunge and started my own business, initially while still employed at Glyndebourne.
My first dilemma was where would I find my clients? That was when I realised, I needed to start networking. I had never done networking before, and I was a bit scared, but I didn’t let that stop me. I joined some local networking groups and discovered that I loved (and still do) meeting other business owners and building relationships with them.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing in that first year. Initially, I had the perception that other people in my networking groups were doing better than me in their businesses, and I almost gave up due to impatience and a desire for immediate success. Luckily, I overcame this misconception by talking to them and realising that everyone faced challenges and had overcome hardships. This encouraged me to stick at it and follow my dream.
In my second year of running Hive HR Solutions things really started to take off and I began to secure some monthly support contracts. This enabled me to be proactive with the support I gave, and I was then able to start building good, solid relationships with my clients.
Working two jobs did mean that I was spinning a lot of plates and working long hours, taking my own client calls during my lunch hour and doing the work late into the evening and on weekends just to keep delivering for my clients. So, in June 2018, I decided to go part-time at Glyndebourne as the hours I was working were punishing and I knew I couldn’t go on the way I was.
2019 was a pivotal year for me. I had pitched to a local company a year before and lost the contract to another HR company, they came back to us and asked us to pitch again. This time we won the contract, and they are still a happy client now.
This did mean that I needed to focus on Hive HR Solutions and finally go solo, so I took the difficult decision to leave Glyndebourne and the security and familiarity it offered.
So, there I was, six weeks into working full-time for Hive HR Solutions, still getting to grips with working alone and not having a team around me, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK. This was followed by an unprecedented lockdown and a new government furlough scheme being rolled out which my clients needed me to understand and implement for them within a very short space of time.
I was very fortunate though that, unlike some other businesses in other sectors, I was able to stay open and my business even thrived. This growth and working with global and large-scale national brands then led me to be able to hire my first team member in August 2020.
This felt like a massive leap of faith as for the first time I had to trust someone else with my clients and my reputation that I had worked hard to achieve. Luckily, things worked out well and the relationship went from strength to strength and gave me the confidence and reassurance to build my team further.
On the back of our success in 2020, it became apparent that I needed to grow my team further to grow my business and take on new clients, so I hired another three HR professionals in 2021.
I also decided at the start of 2021 that it was time to refresh the company’s brand and online presence which meant a new logo, website and company branded photoshoot. By the end of the year, we were also proud to have produced our own bespoke training materials and branded workbooks for clients to use during training.
It wasn’t a year without challenges though. In March 2021, I fell seriously ill and this resulted in me deciding to prioritise my health going forward. My team were incredibly supportive, but it meant adjusting to changes in the business and evolving my role as a business owner.
The various government lockdowns and work-from-home orders meant the team suffered from a lack of hands-on support that is much easier to provide when we are all physically in the office together. Through all these challenges we still managed to deliver an excellent standard of work for our clients and add value to their businesses. We were bold in saying yes to projects and worked effectively as a team to produce a high standard of HR consultancy to our clients.
Over the next few months, I will be introducing each member of Hive individually so that you can get to know them better. Having other HR professionals around me was what I always wanted, to be able to support each other and collaborate with. Being in a team means we can share and understand when we are having a difficult day and equally celebrate the wins.
The team certainly share my passion for the tailored client work we are doing and the strong client relationships we are building. The client work excites me more than I ever thought it would, the projects we are working on now are testament to how far we have come as a company. No client request is too small, but the sky really is the limit on how we work with our clients.
To mark our 5-year anniversary we are extremely proud and excited to share our new website that reflects our growth and team. I hope this new website will pivot our business as it illustrates the diverse work we do and showcases the bespoke services that we offer.
In the next five years we hope to continue growing the team which currently comprises seven members so we can offer even better support for our clients and continue to add value to their businesses by providing tailor-made HR solutions. We also want to continue having an attractive and inviting space for the team to meet and work in and for clients to visit which will hopefully soon include an in-house training suite.
I personally look forward to sharing the journey I have been on and building the business more by attending business events. Lastly, I would love for Hive HR Solutions to be an award-winning business that leads the way in HR consultancy.
Gemma Baxter, Founder and Owner of Hive HR Solutions
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them” – Walt Disney.