Jargon PR makes the top 25 of Thames Valley SME100 Growth 2021

The Business Magazine asked the CEOs and leaders of the Thames Valley SME 100 Growth listing, which celebrates the region’s high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises, to share their experience of managing a company in 2021. We asked Simon Corbett, the CEO of Jargon PR, the following three questions:

• What were your toughest challenges over the past year?
• What were your biggest wins?
• What are your wildest ambitions for the coming year?"

This year, Jargon PR reached number 23 on The Business Magazine’s annual Thames Valley SME 100 Growth index with an overall growth of 37.5%. In May 2021, the Hook-based company was also awarded The Silver Accreditation for Investors in People for its commitment to the wellbeing of its employees.

What were your three toughest challenges over the past year?

Simon Corbett: Continuing our business growth during a pandemic was one of the hardest challenges in the last 12 months. We’ve seen many businesses having to tighten their belts as a result of sales lost during the pandemic. In order to continue to grow the agency, we’ve made some strategic moves to target a variety of sectors and ensure we continue to grow.

Maintaining team culture and supporting wellbeing whilst working from home was also difficult. The UK’s lockdowns and mass uncertainty over the past year have taken a toll on everyone’s wellbeing. As a business, we have a responsibility to support our staff, especially during the tough times we’ve seen. We’ve implemented a new well-being strategy, bi-weekly wellbeing surveys, and a number of new initiatives to support our staff with their well-being.

Navigating an ever-evolving news agenda was also a challenge. People and businesses across the nation have experienced an unforeseeable amount of change during lockdowns and under government restrictions, which has led to a continuously changing news cycle. At Jargon PR, we have reacted swiftly to the daily news cycle to refresh and redirect PR campaigns, to ensure our clients remained on the front foot with accurate and well-informed content and communications at every stage.

Navigating an ever-evolving news agenda was also a challenge. People and businesses across the nation have experienced an unforeseeable amount of change during lockdowns and under government restrictions, which has led to a continuously changing news cycle. At Jargon PR, we have reacted swiftly to the daily news cycle to refresh and redirect PR campaigns, to ensure our clients remained on the front foot with accurate and well-informed content and communications at every stage. 

Simon Corbett, CEO of Jargon PR

Your biggest win?

Simon Corbett: In May 2021, Jargon PR was awarded the Silver Accreditation for Investors in People ‘We Invest in Wellbeing’. Supporting our team with their well-being has been more important than ever and will continue to play an integral part of our culture as we grow. To be recognised by Investors in People for our commitment and action to improve employee physical health, psychological health, and socially, is a huge achievement.

Your three wildest ambitions for the coming year?

Simon Corbett: Achieve £2 million in turnover - we have big plans to almost double our turnover in the next 12 months and expand our portfolio of clients. Contribute towards the planting of 5,000 trees - we’ve recently launched our new Jargon PR Sustainability Pledge, which will see us plant around 400 trees every month on behalf of our clients, in partnership with Ecologi. Continue to grow the agency through strategic business acquisitions - in November 2020, we were proud to acquire B2B PR firm, Vantage Marketing. The acquisition has been a huge success and we’re looking forward to building on this momentum.

Jargon PR is included in the Thames Valley SME100 Growth index for the second consecutive year.  To qualify for the listing, businesses need to be based in the Thames Valley, have a turnover of no less than £1 million and no more than £20m, and to have grown their turnover significantly in the past year.

The 2021 edition of the list is sponsored by law firm Herrington Carmichael, commercial property consultants Hicks Baker and corporate finance advisers Wilson Partners.

Supporting partners are Laithwaites and Lamborghini.

All Thames Valley SME 100 Growth members are now invited to enter the nominations to this year’s awards, which will recognise outstanding achievements in six categories.