Chris Moss

5 min read

Lessons learned in 2020

Updated: Nov 17, 2022

As we go into Autumn, my focus moves towards reflecting on 2020 and planning for 2021. My focus in 2020 was to build foundations personally and 'Assembling the Assets' within the business. The aim of the year wasn't to push for growth, but instead get the foundations ready for easier future growth.

Before Covid, 2020 was set to be a slightly slower paced year, however the pandemic created unforeseen challenges within the business forcing a different strategy. This year made me bring out my A-game and step up, in order to keep the show on the road.

I have always tried to be a high performer personally and professionally, but this year really put this to the test.

Before I jump into this blog - I want to thank the team at Oversubscribed for helping me pull these blogs together and support with my social content creation. If you are interested in raising your profile online, head over to Oversubscribed.

Here are my lessons learned this year:

1. My energy will run out

With some long days and weeks this year, it became clear that if I don't rest, I don't perform at my best. I enjoy pushing myself and enjoy working, causing me to find it counter intuitive to manage my energy. The issue is I end up working all hours at 75% productivity with reduced creativity.

Lesson Learned: Work Harder, Rest Harder

Moving forward I am going to monitor my energy and make sure when I work, I work harder. But when I rest, I rest harder. For me this means regular massages, 8/9 hours sleep, weekends off (when needed), holidays and switching off with no guilt.

2. I can't do everything as well as I think

This year I saw the power of how good people, with the correct set up, can advance the business far more quickly than I can. I have worked with many amazing people over the last 8 years but haven't always given them the correct environment to flourish. This year the team created some amazing campaigns for Dominos, o2, Netflix and many other great brands.

Lesson Learned: Team work makes the dream work

Moving forward, I aim to make sure I have the right environment, finances and company setup to let the people around me flourish.

3. Unexpected things will happen

Covid caught me off guard and impacted all areas of my life. I have never experienced a recession, uncertainty in the economy or a pandemic. While I knew a recession was due, I hadn't prepared as well as I thought and had got used to operating in a good economy.

Lesson Learned: Prepare for the winter, it will come

While I hope we never again have a pandemic of this scale, I am sure there will be hard times again. Next time I will be prepared to reduce the impact and even prosper.

4. Looking good makes me feel good

This year I have taken better care of my health, dropping some weight and generally looking after myself. This has had a noticeable impact on all areas of my life.

Lesson Learned: Look good, feel good, be good

I aim to prioritise my health and general appearance moving forward as this really worked this year.

5. Not all businesses can be large businesses

Over 2020 I studied and observed a number of businesses to work out what made them able to become larger companies or why they stayed small.

Lesson Learned: Choose your plane wisely

Not all planes can fly at 42,000 feet, only the ones planned and built to do so. I think businesses are very much the same. Moving forward I want to make sure I understand the type of business I am running or getting involved in, before trying to scale it.

6. Focus on product/service development

We focused heavily this year on developing better ad products across our media company and found new sales and retaining clients far easier. Historically I have been too quick to drive sales when my focus should have been on building 5 star products and services.

Lesson Learned: Exceptional Product = Exceptional Sales

Moving forward I am going to make sure we have products and services that sell themselves before we scale up our sales efforts. Even if this means slower growth to start with.

7. Play the long game

We had a couple of clients this year that were very small accounts with low profit margins but still got the same level of service our far larger clients would get. Both of these accounts ended up growing into far larger accounts with other areas of their business bringing us on to run marketing campaigns.

Lesson Learned: Seek service not silver

This hammered home that adding huge amounts of value and playing the long game is the best way forward. If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Moving forward I plan on creating more value in all relationships.

8. What's right for others, might not be for me

It's easy in the world we live to think we have to conform to a path that society and others see fit. While a well trodden path is likely to be a good one, it became clear this year that what's right for others might not be for me.

Lesson Learned: Live YOUR life

My aim moving forward is to carve out the journey I want to take and not worry about what others might think. (Easier said than done).

9. Everything has an effect on me

This year I have been able to spend time with really good people. Without realising it, these people have had a huge impact. On reflection, all the things I have seen and done to date have skewed my thinking and decisions I've made.

Lesson Learned: Choose your influencer wisely

Moving forward I aim to choose what influences me (as much as possible). Even down to social media accounts I follow.

10. It's worth taking time to build things

This year we spent time and money building assets within the business that have been far harder than I thought. We have started to get traction with these that have already yielded good results. While we are only 5% complete on the project, it's become clear it's worth building.

Lesson Learned: Harder to build, harder to copy

I know when the project is complete, it will be almost impossible to be copied without a similar effort. This gives us a huge competitive advantage and an asset that can be used for far longer. I plan on taking time to build businesses in this way moving forward.