Driving in to work this morning it dawned on me that this week marks three anniversaries in the last ten years.

Cancer Research UK and their Race For Life events hold a personal connection with me. My Mum had a ten year battle with cancer which eventually took her away from us in 2007. I remember supporting her in 2005 at the York event, unbeknown how much of an impact this would have on a personal and professional level.

In 2009, as part of working at Minster FM, I was asked to present on the stage at Race for Life York which was a real emotional affair. The irony is that that emotional connection has not gone away even now. I still feel a lump in my throat when the last person walks through the finishing line ten years later.

From presenting in 2009 we have moved on in 2012 to providing many of the event services you see at every Pretty Muddy and Race event in the Yorkshire region. That’s 26 – 30 events over a four month period every year. In that time we have helped over 250,000 people raise over £25 million in Yorkshire for Cancer Research UK. This is something I’m really proud of and I know my Mum would be too.

Moving forward to 2016 and The Soapy Group was launched from my dining room table this week. Sophie and myself had been working independently from the February but made the brave choice to combine our forces and launch Soapy. Launching Soapy wasn’t enough though, we also moved into our first office suite four weeks later.

I remember at the time Sophie questioning why I was adamant that we started with a four desk office. I was sure that it wouldn’t take long for us to outgrow this space. Launching a business and its positioning was a challenge with ups and downs. I would say that this 18 months was a real eye opener and many lessons were learned in respect to our service offering and the type of clients we wanted to work with.

The frustrations and limitations of this office space became more apparent in early 2018. We knew where we wanted to grow and as soon as the office became four we agreed our next office move.

The third anniversary this week is the move to our current office. A more permanent space that reflects who we are and the talented Soapy team that has grown to five of us. We still have a little more room to grow in our current space, but I have a plan for our continual growth.

September seems to be a milestone month for Soapy and moving forward this doesn’t seem to change. We are launching our new strategy for growth; a new service for UK businesses called ‘Brand Bubble’ just in time for the Brand Yorkshire Conference on 3rd October.

This sees a shift for The Soapy Group and the services we offer clients. Marketing services achieve a better result when they are co-ordinated as part of a defined strategy. Brand Bubble will help our clients invest wisely and achieve better ROI. We will no longer offer single service marketing products to new clients from October.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from my late Mum was that life is a journey, not a destination. The story of The Soapy Group continues and I’m really looking forward to cementing our reputation as Yorkshire’s leading marketing company for growth.