Like many of you, we usually do a year-in-review in December and a look ahead to the New Year. And also like you, our 2020 turned out radically different from the outlook last December! Pretty much nothing happened as planned this year.
The global pandemic surprised us all with tragic downsides: sickness, death, closed businesses and lost jobs, all the momentous occasions cancelled, widespread feelings of anxiety and isolation. So many clients were halted in the middle of their dream of buying a French home or renesting here. Almost everyone counts on picking up the plans again once it’s safe. There are several Britons, however, unable to jump over during the break in lockdowns to establish residency before the Brexit deadline, who are wondering if their French dream is still possible.
Renestance suffered many losses and setbacks in 2020, too. We had to cancel our annual seminar and tours in April, which led to several refunds and negative revenue. In the first half of the year, four members left our Dream Team to pursue other avenues. We also pulled the plug on our fund-raising initiative and an acquisition, as we had to focus on recruiting and revenue replacement. On the personal front, our family struggled for several months due to turmoil with real estate projects. We weren’t sure where we’d be living at the end of one of those months!
But focusing on the negative never reveals the full picture. Just as there were many silver linings from the lockdowns (increased family time, improved air quality, people reaching out to long-distance family & friends, developing new interests and skills), Renestance had a lot of wonderful things happen in 2020 as well.
Impressive new talent joined us over the summer, each of the four recruits bringing a valuable skill set and getting up to speed in record time. The Dream Team is now refreshed, with new enthusiasm and lots of ideas for bringing more benefit to the renesting community. We also brought on a large contract which allowed us to help clients with different profiles than our usual. Fortunately, several home buyers and renesting Britons were courageous enough to take the leap with our help. And since so many of you couldn’t come to us, we adapted to reality and offered several webinars and online presentations. Not only was it wonderful to be able to reach more people, but this boosted Renestance’s visibility and notoriety. We are also grateful for the input of our advisors, the support from our clients and partners, and finally, that our business and families are still healthy! Merci!
Despite all the difficulties, or probably because of them, we have all learned resilience and gratitude over this past year. The next few months will still be rough – we can’t expect miracles just because it’s a new year. But we dare to hope that more dreams will be realized in the coming year, and that we’ll be able to get together again soon!
Joyeuses Fêtes and Bonne Année to you all!
Dennelle is the President of Renestance and a bilingual American who’s lived in France since 2000. She loves so many things about France, its language, culture, geography, quality of life... that she started a business to help others realize their dreams of living in this incredible place.
All articles by: Dennelle Taylor Nizoux
