Well - here we are then.nn1 year - 12 months - 365 days - 8760 hours - 525,948 minutesnnNot exactly the easiest of economic environments within which to start a business it's true, but at the same time we're more "glass is half full" type of guys than "half empty" and we know that even within recruitment there are still opportunities if you have your offer bang on (together with a modicum of luck being in the right place at the right time and a seemingly limitless appetite for kissing lots of speculative frogs).nnIf you'd said 12 months ago this is where we'd be on our 1st birthday, business wise, we'd have been very happy with that - but of course the expectations and ambitions that drive you also morph as the year progresses, fueled by a healthy measure of impatience, so it's only when we look back at this juncture and remind ourselves what we hoped for when we started, that we then allow ourselves a momentary pat on the back.nnThe first couple of months worked out nicely through projects where we partnered with ThirtyThree - the two biggest being refining the underpinning system that drives the many recruitment consultant sites (UK & global) that are all part of the SR Group , and then into a really interesting one for Virgin Group (careers portal here , my write up about it here ). Both projects helped us learn more that would shape our own steps forward, proved our capability to deliver on time and on budget and also demonstrated how we set out add value every step of the way - but it also re-enforced our belief that being completely "off the shelf" just wasn't good enough for modern business requirements, as no matter how “established” or “fixed” a potential client believes their process to be, like everything in life, there’s a need for it to continue evolving solutions efficiently and swiftly post-deployment.nnSo off the back of Virgin we knew it was time to set about investing our time and effort into our own product, for whilst being hired hands is fine, it’s not what we set out to do for always. And now, having launched HARBOUR® to Recruitment Ad Agency land and had some very interesting conversations over the last month we’re approaching our 2nd year with what we believe to be a kick arse system that everyone we've spoken with is very impressed with and agrees offers a new level of candidate and recruiter centricity that will really realise massive e-recruitment efficiencies for those who use it - a long way over and above the usual suspect ATS providers for sure. But most exciting of all is the fact that through those conversations, as well as having spoken with some media, our thinking has continued to evolve too and so we're now finishing off a neat product offer that we hope will help us get that all important off the ground client profile, all based around HARBOUR® ATS’ unparalleled flexibility, configurability & speed to deploy.nnWe’re not delusional though, and in the current climate our strategy is about ensuring we hang on in there until the world comes back, building clients and reputation wherever we can. But one year in we now have the clearest idea of what we’re about and how we’re going to get where we want to go. The theory we had in our heads when we started out has held up very well so far, and to be honest so have we in practice too, so now it's time to take it to the next level – what exciting times :-D