Life is full of milestones. First steps. First words. First day of school. All of them triumphs and successes. But what does success look like for a company? Your first customer? Your first million? A new office? Again, all significant achievements. But there’s something particularly satisfying about hitting a nice, large number.
Almost 12 years ago to the day our first customer came through the proverbial Kingsbridge doors. In a slightly uncanny piece of synchronicity, a few weeks back those same doors opened for our 50,000th customer.
The contracting world was an altogether different proposition in those days. No gig economy. No major IR35 reform. Nowhere near the 5 million or more contractors, freelancers, and self-employed working for themselves that we see in 2019. But in some ways it was the same.
Contractors still showed the same drive, ambition, and verve to carve out a niche and make it their own. Whatever the future holds, there will always be a clamour for specialists who are experts in their fields.
We’d like to say a big thank you to all of our customers, past and present. We’d like to say thank you to all of the brilliant companies we partner with to bring contractor insurance to the masses. And we’d like to say thank you to all of our staff for getting each and every one of those customers through that door in the first place.
So, what’s next? We certainly don’t have the time to rest on our laurels. The industry is evolving quicker than ever before. We’ve got to navigate Brexit and whatever it brings. IR35 reform in the private sector looms on the horizon.
There’s uncertainty right at the top of the British political tree. And still the number of contractors continues to grow. Getting the right insurance in place is more important now than it ever has been in the past.
So, that’s where we’re going to start. With the next customer. And the next. And the one after that. Here’s to 100,000!
