2025 Year in Review: A CEO’s Honest Reflection on Growth, Hiring, and Hard Lessons
2025 Year in Review: This is a candid look back at what we built, what broke, and what this year taught us about growth, hiring, and leadership. There’s always a point in December where the calendar finally stops asking questions. No more meetings to prep for. No more deadlines pretending they’re urgent. Just a quiet stretch where you can actually look at the year instead of sprinting through it. This is that pause. 2025 wasn’t a year of tidy growth or clean wins. It was a year of figuring things out while they were already in motion. Some things [...]
Your Calendar Is a Reflection of Your Priorities: Edit Ruthlessly
You can say whatever you want about your priorities, but your calendar doesn’t lie. It’s the clearest measure of CEO time management there is. You can talk about focusing on strategy or investing in your people, but if your week is packed with reactionary meetings and admin tasks, you’re not leading… you’re surviving. Your calendar tells the real story. Your calendar is your mirror. It shows how you make decisions, how you avoid discomfort, and where your business is leaking energy. If it’s crammed with noise, it’s time for a reality check. Because here’s the thing most CEOs won’t admit: [...]
If It Feels Hard, You’re Missing a System
Running a business shouldn’t feel like dragging a tractor through mud. If every week feels like a scramble, you’re not bad at what you do… you just don’t have enough structure holding things up. Most owners think ease comes from working fewer hours or hiring more people, but that’s not it. Real ease shows up when everyone knows what’s going on, where to find what they need, and what “done” actually looks like. Ease isn’t luck. It’s built piece by piece. The way you organize the back end of your company matters more than most people want to admit. [...]
Why Every Business Needs Playbooks (and How to Start)
Ask ten business owners how they keep their company running, and you’ll probably get ten different answers. Some will tell you everything lives in their head. Others will point to a handful of spreadsheets or sticky notes. A few will admit that most of their “system” is just texting people when something goes wrong. The truth is, a lot of businesses run this way for a long time. But sooner or later, the wheels start to shake. People leave, deadlines get missed, and the founder ends up working nights just to keep the lights on. That’s where playbooks come [...]
Why Summer Is the Perfect Time to Go All In on Your Business
Let’s be honest: summer has a reputation for being slow in business. Clients are off on vacation, email replies slow to a crawl, and meetings start getting rescheduled “after Labour Day.” It’s easy to feel like this season is a write-off... something to coast through until fall kicks things back into gear. But what if you flipped that? What if summer became the most powerful time of year to tighten up your business, get clear on where you're going, and set yourself up to finish the year way ahead of where you started? Because while everyone else is checked [...]
Growth Through Feedback
When feedback is viewed as a tool for growth, it becomes an opportunity to improve rather than a criticism Think about the best mentor you’ve ever had - not the person who was always great at what they did, but the person who encouraged you to keep working and get better as you went along. How did they let you know when you missed the mark or redirect you to a more effective path? It can be hard to face your mistakes but when you know your team or client will bring it up when you’ve stumbled - nicely [...]
Letting Someone Go: The Hardest Part of the Job
Letting someone go is the hardest part of running a team—but sometimes, a bum just belongs on a different bus. In this post, we talk about how we handle offboarding at Northern Primrose with dignity, clarity, and a 24-step process that’s always evolving. We also unpack the role of feedback, why cultural fit matters, and why “I take feedback well” isn’t always true in practice. At Northern Primrose, we’re in the business of building efficient, values-driven teams. We help businesses streamline, scale, and succeed—not just by putting bums in seats, but by making damn sure they’re in the right [...]
A Day in the Life as a Virtual Executive Assistant
Days at Northern Primrose vary from VEA to VEA, however, our structure, vision and values are the same. We provide top-level administrative and operations support so our clients can focus on growing and scaling their businesses. We provide affordable solutions to clients who aren’t ready for full-time administrative support, but recognize that they need to delegate their administrative work in order to scale and grow. As an Operations Strategist, it is my responsibility to ensure that clients' operations are running smoothly, that junior executives are up-to-date on task details, and that we are efficient in delegation while offering solutions [...]
Work from Home Life – From One of Our Own, Claire Myra
Working from home sounds like a dream, especially when you’re used to starting your workday extra early to get yourself ready, commuting to your workplace, and spending money on food.I want to talk about the ups and downs of working from home. Sometimes working from home isn’t as glorified as it seems. It can become lonely, boring and distracting some days.Take it from me - I’ve always wanted a work-from-home job because to me it meant lounging in my sweats, not worrying about putting makeup on, and saving money on gas and food. I work from home now and although [...]
Say It to My Face (Nicely)
Northern Primrose started as just me—a solopreneur, accountable only to my clients. Fast forward five years, and while we still prioritize client feedback, we've expanded our approach. Now, we actively encourage our team to both give and receive feedback. Feedback is essential for growth—whether between colleagues or between leadership and the team. Continuous improvement stems from continuous feedback. When these conversations flow easily, collaboration thrives, and that’s where the magic happens. Building a Culture of Feedback vs. a Culture of Silence Creating a feedback-driven culture—especially in a remote workplace—is a challenge. Too often people choose silence, hoping issues will [...]
Game-Changing Technical Skills That Will Help Grow Your Business
It’s hard to believe that it was just about 30 years ago that people really started to use the internet more frequently. That may seem a long time ago to some, but for us Gen X’ers and late Millennials, that wasn’t that long ago. Tech has moved at a super pace – Google Chrome was only introduced in 2008, Zoom in 2013, Slack in 2014, TikTok in 2016, ClickUp in 2017, and ChatGPT in 2022. And countless more tech apps and tools have been launched since this time. Even if some of the aforementioned apps don’t seem familiar, strong chances [...]
Why Mindset Matters More Than Talent
In this gig economy and remote work era where being a social media travel influencer is an actual job, oh, the times have changed. The days of climbing very slowly up the corporate ladder, doing the same thing day in and day out, while waiting for the folks on top to retire are becoming rare. Our digital world is moving at a super pace and companies are looking for the best employees who can keep up. You may have heard the saying, an organization is only as strong as its people (or some version of this saying). Truer [...]
10 business lessons I learned in 2023
This month marks the four-year anniversary of Northern Primrose. When I started the business in 2020, it was just me with one client…
Why you need a strong backend office strategy before considering selling your business
For an entrepreneur, making the choice to sell a business is a big decision. It involves many considerations, and it’s potentially the most significant transaction you will ever undertake that impacts your future…
Is working remotely full-time a dream job? It depends
The idea of working remotely full-time can seem like a dream job, but it can be challenging for some people…
