“Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.” – Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter.
It’s nice to know someone else gets it. You might have a business that you are truly proud of and that others only see as the success it is today: but sometimes you are proudest of where you have come from and the hard work it took to get there.
Now we certainly aren’t comparing our success story to Twitter’s, but our story is built on timing (not always to our advantage), perseverance and a whole load of trying.
We are Sarah Keegan and Clair Payne, founders and owners of The CS Partnership. Our partnership of working together began in 2005.
Back then, we took responsibility for leading one of the largest property departments in the country, with a team of 100 submitting 4,000 completed property transactions a month to H.M. Land Registry.
The environment was diverse and challenging as, on one hand we undertook bulk, low margin work that relied heavily on case management systems to drive profit. At the other extreme we handled some of the most prestigious bespoke property development work in the country.
So, what are we most proud of?
Not only surviving in that fast-paced environment but thriving: we grew the department’s turnover from £1.8 million per annum to £3.95 million per annum in only 18 months.
Learning to constantly innovate and adapt to suit our varied client requirements and constant changes in practice and procedure.
When the markets crashed in 2008/9 and our team’s work dropped overnight from 4,000 transactions a month to approximately 1,500 transactions a month, how we reacted is probably one of our proudest moments.
At a time when we really should have waited for the markets to recover we decided to grab an opportunity we had been approached with to head up and build a property department, with literally a blank piece of paper and a pen and an opportunity to start from scratch.
We got to build it from nothing, one process at a time.
We took the opportunity to question everything. Every method, process and system to determine where there was overlapping, excessive costs and inefficient practices.
It forced us to become sharper, faster and better and we loved every minute of it. So much we chose to start from the beginning again and founded The CS Partnership.
Now we carry out the same service across all areas of law – Wills and Probate, Court of Protection, Family, Child Protection Services, Litigation, Accounts, Compliance, Commercial, Corporate Support, Corporate and Residential and Commercial Property.
