Bethan Customs Consultancy Celebrates 11 Years in Business

In 2025, Bethan’s Director, Nicola Alexander, shared “the good, the bad and the unseen” from 10 years in business and it got her thinking about what another year in business has actually taught her… apparently quite a lot! 

“I still don't have a formal business plan (I know, I know …). I still get things wrong. I still occasionally wonder what on earth I'm doing. But 11 years in, I know far more about the kind of business I want Bethan to be and, perhaps more importantly, the kind of business I don't want it to be. So, in honour of 11 years of Bethan, here are...

11 things 11 years of Bethan has taught me.

1. You don't need to have it all figured out.

Clearly. See aforementioned lack of business plan! You need a direction. You need to know why you're doing it. You need to be willing to learn and change direction when something isn't working. But sometimes you also just need to start. Had I waited until I knew exactly what I was doing, had the perfect plan and felt completely ready, I'm not convinced Bethan would ever have existed.

2. Trust your team and let them do what they do best.

This has probably been one of my biggest lessons. Team Bethan don't need me hovering over them and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't thank me for it either! They have my trust, they have the freedom to go and do what they do best and they absolutely nail it. They take huge pride in their work and work seamlessly together behind the scenes to make Bethan what it is. I know I can rely on any one of them when I need them, just as they know they can rely on me - and on each other.

I've learned that my job isn't to have all the answers or have my fingers in absolutely everything. It's to make sure they have what they need, be there when they need me and then trust them to get on with it.

3. Values REALLY matter.

We Care. We Trust. We Embrace Change. We Are Curious.

We don’t even have them written on any of our walls! But they genuinely guide how we work, who joins our team, who we choose to work with and the decisions we make. I've tried to convince myself before that misalignment will somehow work itself out. Spoiler alert... it doesn't!!

If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Trust your gut.

4. Know your numbers (and never lose respect for the money!)

11 years ago, I genuinely worried about signing a £30-a-month phone contract in case Bethan didn't survive long enough to pay it. And I'm still pretty tight with Bethan's money now! I still question spending. I still think “do we really need that?” And there's probably still a little bit of self-doubt somewhere that wonders what happens if it all disappears tomorrow. Maybe that's imposter syndrome? Maybe it's just remembering where we started?  Either way, it keeps my feet firmly on the ground and means I never take what we've built for granted. 

I don't actually want to lose that little bit of caution, it keeps me humble and reminds me just how hard we worked to get here.

Know your numbers. Respect the money. And never confuse turnover with money in the bank!

5. Saying no can be as important as saying yes.

This one took me a while. In the early days, saying no to work felt terrifying. What if nothing else came along? 11 years later, I've learned that not every opportunity is the right opportunity. Not every piece of work is right for Bethan. Not every client will be the right fit for us, and equally, we won't be the right fit for everyone. And that's okay.

Being busy isn't the same thing as being successful.

6. Just be a decent human (Don’t be a d*ck!).

This probably isn't going to feature in many business textbooks, but it's something I feel really strongly about. Do what you say you're going to do. Own it when you get something wrong. Be kind. Treat people properly. And do the right thing even when nobody is watching! So much of Bethan's growth over the last 11 years has come through relationships, recommendations and people trusting us with their businesses.

Your reputation follows you, and I will never take the trust people place in us for granted.

7. Care. Properly.

About your clients. About your team. About the work.

We're dealing with customs, but we're working with PEOPLE. Our clients know how much we care about their businesses and their success because we show them. We celebrate the wins with them, we worry about the tricky stuff with them, and we genuinely want to make their lives easier. That's always been a huge part of Bethan and always will be.

8. Ask for help.

You don't suddenly become an expert in finance, HR, marketing, IT and everything else because Companies House gives you a registration number. Enter Bethan's key service providers!

I genuinely see them as an extension of Team Bethan. They know us, they understand our business, they challenge us, they answer my MANY questions and they bring expertise in the areas where we need it. 

We absolutely could not do what we do without them!

I’ve learned that you don’t need to know everything yourself, you just need to know when to ask for help and have the right people around you. Bethan’s key service providers bring expertise that we don’t have in-house, and I trust them to do what they do best, in exactly the same way I trust Team Bethan to do what they do best.

9. Your business should support your life, not consume it.

Bethan has given me the flexibility to be at school shows, sports days, parents' nights and the moments that matter. I'm incredibly proud that we've built a company where the team has that same flexibility too. It works because we trust each other, support each other and know someone will step in when needed.

That said... Client has a deadline? We are ALL over it. Flexibility doesn't mean a lack of commitment, quite the opposite. We care enormously about what we deliver and the commitments we make.

I just don't believe doing a great job and having a life outside of work should be mutually exclusive.

10. You WILL get things wrong.

Oh, I have got things spectacularly wrong over the last 11 years. People. Decisions. Ideas. Investments.

I've ignored my gut. I've overthought things. I've underthought things. I've convinced myself something would work when deep down I knew it probably wouldn't. And I'm fairly certain I've thought “WTF am I doing?” more times than I could possibly count. But that's business. And life, really. You learn from it, you sort out what you can, you apologise when you need to, and you move on, hopefully a little wiser and try not to make the same mistake twice!

Getting something wrong doesn't make you a failure. Thankfully, because I'd have been out of business years ago if it did! 

11. Define success for yourself. 

This is the big one for me. 11 years ago, success probably looked like growing a successful company and earning enough money to give my kids the things I wanted to give them.

Today, it looks quite different.

It's having an incredible team I trust completely. It's having clients we genuinely care about and relationships that have lasted years. It's doing work I'm proud of. It's having a company that feels like the company I always wanted to work for, for me and for the team. It's having people around me,  inside Bethan and outside it, who I can rely on. And it's still being able to show up for the people I love and the moments that matter.

Turns out the things were never really the point.

So, Happy 11th Birthday Bethan. Still learning. Still evolving. Still surrounded by some bloody brilliant people. And still firmly believing that #customsiscool.