2024 - A year of growth
2024 was a memorable year for many reasons, both personal and professional. From buying my first house to achieving sales beyond my targets, I look back on the year with fondness and gratitude. Going into 2025, I am hopeful for just as much in the way of excitement, challenges, and of course, specifications!
I remember feeling like I had barely recovered from Christmas when we hit the ground running in January 2024. We had a fire test project underway with several live projects dependent of the results. As you can imagine, mulled wine was about the only thing that got me to sleep over the Christmas period: they say don’t make work your life, but when you are passionate about what you do it can be difficult to switch off and enjoy the break.
In January we hit a huge milestone by achieving over and above the intended fire test results for Cavity Barriers within Brick Slip Systems – part of our strategy of testing as many direct wall build ups as possible to offer the market a greater scope of true evidence when it comes to Cavity Barriers.
Not only did this mean we had rigorous test data evidence, it also meant I could satisfy some huge projects and important customers with fully tested, stress free solutions. All of a sudden the grey hairs became less and less (yes, I am going grey at the ripe old age of 25!).
That was just the start of a great year to come, from tackling some of the largest presentations to date and representing Tenmat in various customer facing events to lacing up the steel toe caps for more site visits than I’d like to count.
2024 also brought with it some exciting new ventures – including our partnership with the Manchester Society of Architects. It was great to attend the Festival of Façades event in December and deliver a preview of our cavity barrier CPD to architects. Similarly, we launched our New Zealand focus webinar series earlier in the year which connected us much more closely with contractors and architects in and around NZ – a region I am responsible for growing our presence in.
What happens when you push yourself beyond your comfort zone? For me, 2024 was the year I found out and it made all the difference. Whilst we faced challenges along the way, the end result was an extremely successful year, and I headed into Christmas feeling not only ready for the break, but satisfied knowing that I gave the year my all – and that’s a feeling you can’t beat.
Now that I feel settled in my role, I am asking myself, what next? Where do I want to go and how am I going to get there?
In true Emily Naylor fashion I am looking to have an even better year, being dedicated to the cause and carving out my future, along with renovating our dream home and raising a golden retriever puppy….yes, it’s going to be a busy one!
So the big lessons I am taking from 2024 and continuing into 2025 as I strive to find my sweet spot are:
Input is output
Discipline is the thing between where you are now and where you want to be
Don’t forget to move from your desk and get those steps in before you turn into a lump of mineral fibre
And of course, look after yourself: work is not the be all and end all.
Here’s to a great year ahead!
Emily Naylor
