St Swithin's Day 2026 - A Blog of Reflection

From as early as 971 folklore reports that:

St Swithin's day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain.
St Swithin's day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair

Which basically means if it rains today it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights. After the summer we've had so far I'm thinking it's probably not going to rain today.

It may come as a surprise to you that the founder of a legal business places any emphasis at all on folklore, but here's why.  Back in 2024 I felt like I was failing when January came and went and I hadn't shared my business learnings from 2023. 

There was a lot of pressure back then to perform and catch a trend (I'm not sure if much has changed) and I had a lot to say but hadn't found the right moment to say it. As the months passed I felt embarrassed to share "late" not on January the 1st, but then I realised, this is my life and my business and if I want to share my learnings a random day in July then I could.

Only it wasn't a random day, it was St Swithin's. I knew that because I'd been pulled into the Netflix series, full of nostalgia. The main line going around in my head:  

It's one of the great cosmic mysteries. How is it that someone can go from being a total stranger, to being the most important thing in your life?

I often feel that way about my business. I had no intent to start a business. I guess I'm what you might call an accidental entrepreneur. I had a high paid job in a law firm in London with a pension and progression. I had just received a promotion, I was on track for partnership, I had my whole life mapped out. Or so I thought. 

I swapped the City life relative security for an idea that I couldn't put down. 

Since then, this business has taken over my life and at times become the most important thing in it It's a business that couldn't even have existed when I was at school in a pre-Internet world and telling my teachers what I wanted to be when I grew up. Yet it's now, at times, all consuming.

And here we are.

Another year on and another year with a lot of lessons learned. 

Previous St Swithin's Days

I'll pause for a moment to share the links to the past two years. I've intentionally not read them before writing so that I can share the raw and real feelings of the past 12 months. But reading them may give you some more context and insight to my life as an entrepreneur. How I've created huge success without really knowing how. I'm a qualified and trained solicitor, not a business guru, or at least I wasn't when I started. I know quite a lot about running businesses now. 

2024 St Swithin's Day Blog

2025 St Swithin's Day Blog

Reflections over the past 12 months

Never has there been a period in my professional career which has tested me and stretched me than in the last 12 months, especially the last six months. 

I've faced some tough questions and for the first time in my life, I can almost immediately feel the lessons as I've learnt them, that's how big these lessons have been.

Acknowledging that is the easy part. 

Yet despite the challenges, things feel very different to how they were 12 months ago. Back then I was working with a very small team, a couple of hours a month with a graphic designer, a social media manager and a VA who did a few hours a week. I did absolutely everything else for the business including all of the client delivery. Even the things I didn't do I managed.

Now things look very different. I have a team and have properly delegated to them. It's been a game changer. So much so that in May we had our biggest revenue month ever. Then in June we beat that. 

I don't believe that it's necessarily empowering for you if I share my revenue figures, but what I will share is that we had increased revenue by around a third, without significantly increasing costs (expenses I had elsewhere ended and they covered the team). That is a pretty amazing achievement (even if I cringe as I acknowledge it for myself).

I feel scared to say it but the business finally feels like it's working.

Wow that's hard to say (write) out loud. But it finally does. It feels a lot more predictable. 

But I feel scared that I'll lose it all.

I feel scared that it's not enough. 

I worry that it's not good enough. 

I've always had those worries, since day one. I've always carried the fear around running a business with me. I'm just learning to handle it better and to use it to empower me and drive excellence and high standards. 

But despite all of that I'm happier than I've ever been. 

Braver than I've ever been. 

I find myself listening to myself more than I ever have before. 

What's happened since last year?

I've closed the law firm. The business that I gave so much to when my daughter's were small. But I believe that it's true what they say, when you're on the wrong bus, the sooner you get off you can start going in the right direction. It's not worth pouring even more into something that I knew wasn't going to be forever. 

Closing the firm has definitely been a interesting experience for my ego. I'm still processing that.

I went on an amazing business retreat for six and seven figure entrepreneurs, to Los Angeles and met Jay Shetty. The biggest lesson there was that I belonged in that room. I knew the same as everyone else, I really felt like I was on the right track and surrounded by great people. 

Things are simpler. 

Doing less makes things simpler. Who knew?! Probably a lot of people. But it took me a while to realise that doing more and trying to sell lots of variations wasn't actually as profitable as having a focus on less things. BUT, and this is a big but, I don't think that you can know what it is to focus on at the start. I had to trial a lot of things and move on when the world moved forwards. I don't think that I could have found this business model at the start so I regret nothing. 

I'm about to move into a new chapter.

Personally and professionally the next chapter of life looks different.

From now on, I'm only building my idea of a successful business.

For me that is impact and revenue driven, around strict barriers of being home and present (two different things) for my two young girls. 

I know it's not trendy to say that you work hard and want to make good money, but I do. I don't know how to create high revenue months without a strategic plan and good execution aka hard work. And honestly, I don't want to. I love what I do. I love the entrepreneurs that I work closely with both 1:1 and within the Hub. I don't want to work a four hour week. I want to support as many UK entrepreneurs as I can to get affordable legal protection in place for their business. 

Growing a business with a baby and then a baby and a toddler wasn't easy. But it's actually harder now they're 3 and 5. They notice when I'm working and they are excited to share their life updates. I don't want to miss a moment of those, and I'm not going to. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading this and that you can take something from it that supports you in your next chapter of business. 

I look forward to sharing more of my founder journey with you soon.
Lucy x

 P.s. If you like this type of behind the scenes founder content then I share an email just like this every Friday. You only get it if you're subscribed to my "Behind the Business" email - get the Friday emails by clicking here.