My End Of Year Message

Wishing you and yours a Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year

As Christmas trees are illuminated and advent calendars opened, we look forward to spending some peaceful time with our friends and family. 2022 has not been without its challenges but we have been so encouraged by the resilience of our community and its ability to continually adapt – especially those small businesses who have endured and continue to strive forward.

This year has seen change across the board, not least our mourning of The Queen and celebrating the start of the reign of King Charles III.

It has also been a year for us to welcome change, and growth. 2022 has seen us return to meeting people face-to-face as well as embracing the new hybrid approach to business as usual. In conjunction with our Big Business Supporting Small Business steering group, we added a new Masterclass focused on climate change. Our Military in Business Networking® events continue to evolve and we are so grateful to have welcomed wonderful new Ambassadors this year.

The Knowledge Exchange Hub, such a valuable resource for both new and experienced entrepreneurs, has also had a significant upgrade and refresh this year, with Business Captains and members working together to constantly benefit small businesses in the military family. This support network will be increasingly important as we enter 2023 with the cost of living crisis, as more people look to supplement their earnings with additional income streams or embark on a self-employment journey.

Delighted to meet up with an old friend, Gabby Roslin, and a new one, Lauren Mahon at what was an amazing awards – The Suns Who Cares Wins – Celebrating extraordinary people from our Healthcare and NHS!

We are also excited with the publication of the second issue of Military In Business® magazine, an undertaking that has been an aspiration for some time. We’d love your feedback on our content and participation in future issues. Please do sign-up for the magazine if you haven’t already at here.

We were so thankful to be able to host the 2022 Soldiering On Awards in person – we hope you enjoy seeing all the winners a little later in the magazine! The 12th annual ceremony was the biggest in the Awards’ history – thank you so much to all who made this celebration possible.

2023 brings some great opportunities but we also know it may be challenging for certain sectors, so in true XFE spirit we will endeavour to support one another and hope for fewer challenges and more opportunities. It’ll be our 10th Anniversary in July 2023 and we look forward to sharing much more about the Cadets in Enterprise, Masterclasses with a procurement, supply chain management and business development bias, and stories of many more military entrepreneurs!

Ren