Well, what a year that was. None of us could have ever expected the events of this year and what it would mean for our businesses. But here we are, approaching the beginning of 2021. And what will hopefully be a year of positives for us all. 

Everyone has worked incredibly hard this year to overcome the obstacles thrown at us either by the pandemic or the looming Brexit deadline (remember that?) 

We thought what better way to see what’s been… Let’s just say, an ‘interesting’ year with a few highlights. 

The Northern Affinity grew.

There has never been such a need for a support system and community, and that’s something The Northern Affinity is proud to be for our partners. Despite the odds, we welcomed a number of new partners on board. To those of you who have found us in 2020, welcome. We’re chuffed to bits that you’re here. 

We’ve now filled all our available spaces; something we weren’t sure we’d get to say back in March. And yet here we are. 

As we look ahead to 2021, we’re working on ways in which The Northern Affinity can continue to grow; offering the support and circle of trusted colleagues to others in the north. Keep your eyes peeled for this and sign up to our mailing list if you haven’t already. 

If 2020’s proved anything to us, it’s that we need to stick together through troubled times. Pandemic or no pandemic. 

We expanded our online presence. 

Being at home for a large chunk of the year has given a lot of business owners the opportunity to turn attention inwards. Time to put some real time and effort into their marketing and business development. 

We made sure to get busy at The Northern Affinity, too. We took our online presence to the next level by starting our YouTube channel and The Northern Affinity Podcast. A big thank you to all the partners who have taken part in a live video, hosted a webinar and been interviewed on the podcast. Thanks to you, we now have an impressive library of media for everyone to enjoy and learn from. 

We were also able to introduce Workplace as our central hub for all our partners to chat and share their successes, ask for advice and generally, have a bit of a laugh. 

We’re looking forward to continuing these projects in 2021, as well as constant improvements to our brand. Definitely a perk of the rest of working slowing down. Have you been able to spend some uninterrupted time on your business this year? 

We had a laugh along the way. 

Through so many obstacles and hardships, our partners have been able to remain positive. Especially as a large proportion of our partners are self employed, at times this has been a pretty mean feat. 

But through it all, we’ve had plenty of laughs, good spirits and we’ve all learnt valuable lessons throughout the year. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that.  

What is there left to say other than thank you. Thanks for sticking with us this year. We’ve loved having you along for the ride and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for The Northern Affinity. 
If you’d like to get to know us better in the new year, why not come along to our first ‘Getting to know The Northern Affinity’ session on Friday 8th January? We’d love to see you there.