Running a business in the creative sector has never been about smooth progress. It has been about absorbing shocks, adapting quickly and deciding when it is right to push forward again. After more than two decades in business, that judgement call matters as much now as it ever has.

My co-founder Duncan Thompson and I run a creative events company, based in Bridgend. We employ more than 65 people and work with a wide local supply chain. Each year we deliver hundreds of events, most of them the everyday conferences, exhibitions, awards evenings and marketing events that keep organisations and businesses running. They are not always visible, but they are essential.

The business exists because, early on, we saw a gap in the market. After working together in the freelance events world and on the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1999 Rugby World Cup at the Millennium Stadium, it struck us that major projects in Wales were being delivered by companies based elsewhere. We wanted to build something rooted here. In 2001, after a year of planning and securing funding, we set the company up.

Reaching this point means having lived through multiple shocks. The financial crash in 2008 tested demand and confidence. Brexit affected our European customers and suppliers. The Covid pandemic was something else entirely. When regulations say you cannot bring people together, an events business stops overnight. Unlike some sectors that were able to restart quickly, events were constrained for much longer.

We were involved in the first Welsh Government test event at Cardiff Castle, with 200 people carefully spaced two metres apart. It was an early step that helped shape the guidance that eventually allowed the sector to reopen. That period reinforced just how exposed businesses can be, even when they are established and well run.

Like many business owners, I recognise the argument that resilience has become the default setting. We had dips after 2008 and again after Brexit. At the time, my instinct was simply that it was tough and we had to get through it. That is a phrase I hear constantly now. The problem is that for many businesses there never seems to be an end point. Tough becomes permanent.

What concerns me most is seeing businesses in our supply chain running out of options. Month by month, they pay wages, pay rent and hope the next invoice will land in time. Eventually, some cannot keep going. When those businesses fail, it is not because they lacked resilience. It is because they ran out of capacity to absorb yet another hit.

Any business that has survived the last few years is resilient. I fully agree with that. But resilience alone does not make running a business sustainable or enjoyable. For many owners, it currently feels like endurance rather than progress.

Looking ahead, certainty is the issue I hear raised most often. We are only weeks into a new year and have already seen policy changes at Westminster. That matters because it makes investment decisions harder. Delay never works well for business. We are not used to operating in tidy funding cycles. We invest when we need to, replace equipment when it wears out and make decisions based on the information available at the time.

Over the past three or four years, we have continued to invest, but cautiously. Replacing worn equipment. Making some roles permanent. Sensible decisions with relatively low risk. We are now at a point where we could invest more and grow the business substantially. The ambition is there. What holds us back is not a lack of ideas, but uncertainty about what the next few months and years will require of us.

Support has played an important role throughout our journey. I am a member of the Federation of Small Businesses and have used its resources and training. Business Wales has been instrumental for us, particularly around tendering support and helping us onto the Welsh Government Marketing Communications Frameworks. During the pandemic, conversations with peers in England highlighted just how much practical support was available in Wales.

I still think many businesses underestimate what is on offer. Business Wales is a fully funded service that has supported us in difficult times and better ones. There is opportunity out there, including major public sector contracts, but accessing it takes preparation, guidance and time.

After 25 years, I still enjoy what we do and I want to take the business further. We are close to the next phase of growth. To do that with confidence, we need something solid to get behind. Certainty is the key thing. Give businesses clarity, and they will get on with the job of investing, growing and creating work in Wales.

Stephen Burkitt-Harrington talks about this and more in the Business in Focus From Startup to Scaleup podcast. Listen here.