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 [...]
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 [...]
5 Ways a Virtual Executive Assistant Can Help Grow Your Business This Year
Want to grow your business? Hand off your least favourite tasks to a virtual executive assistant so you can focus on the big picture
3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Executive Assistant
Consider these tips to increase productivity and get more out of your executive assistant.
5 Top (and free) Project Management Tools We Use With Clients
In the last 10 years or so, the rise of virtual teams brought the demand for cloud-based project management applications to the masses – and thankfully so, as they’ve become necessary tools in today’s digital world.
9 Tips to Boost Your Remote Productivity
Remote work has become a norm for professionals worldwide. This newfound flexibility, however, comes with the need for self-discipline and effective time management. If you're looking to supercharge your remote productivity, here are my top hacks to help you stay focused and achieve your best work.
Want more time? 5 big tasks you can hand off to your virtual executive assistant
One of the biggest challenges that all business owners eventually face, particularly as their company grows, is the amount of tasks that start piling up. They become stretched too thin trying to keep up with the essential tasks it takes to run their business, while trying to also focus on productivity and growth. Stress builds, mistakes start to happen leading to setbacks, missed opportunities, unhappy clients and burnout.
5 Social Media Tasks Your Virtual Assistant Can Do Daily
Many business owners have a love-hate relationship with social media. At minimum, they may see the value of having a social media presence and so will share a post from time to time for basic upkeep. Their potential clients may not necessarily follow them on social media, but they will poke around to see when was the last time the business posted something, what kind of posts they share, and if their tone of voice and what they offer aligns.
How to improve your leadership style
Here’s a secret that some businesses don’t know: the executive assistant is a valuable resource in understanding the health of a company’s leadership….
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…
