There’s two of us; Lucy Ratoff and Paul Bryce. We also happen to be partners. We got together in 2002. 18 years….!
Working together was never on our radar. That changed in June 2020. Lucy got an offer from her boss at Prestige Recruitment. Would she consider taking over the fashion and retail business?
“Out of the blue” is an understatement. After the initial shock, we talked it through. The pros, cons, risks, challenges, opportunities, potential rewards. Whatever else we could think of. Could we actually work together? What would it mean for us?
For Lucy it could be business as usual. She started division 20 years ago. Knows it inside out. Absolutely loves working with her clients and candidates.
Paul had been working in change management for 14 years and self-employed since 2011. It could be time for a change. He could project manage the business set-up then focus on research and business administration.
We spoke to Paul’s accountant. We knew he’d ask a lot of questions and challenge our thinking. He did and his thoughts matched ours; we have a good mix of experience, character and attributes.
We talked it through again. Maybe we could work together. What are our ground rules?
- Remember; it’s our choice; it’s an exciting opportunity; it’s for the long-term
- Figure out our roles and responsibilities
- Do the best we can and focus on controlling what we can control
- Health and wellbeing is as important as anything else
- When we’re at work, we work. When we’re not at work, we don’t
- We should also aim to do some good too; for the planet and people
Technically, we’ve been working together since June. There’s been a few challenges and we’ve had to worked through them. And no doubt there’ll be more after we go live on 01st October.
But you know what? We can’t wait……