Four months ago, I wrote an article for this blog called "What the Hell is Cyber Essentials and Why Does My Business Need It?" I was halfway through the certification process, terrified I'd fail, and honestly not entirely sure I'd ever be writing this follow-up.

The Certification Got Us the Contract - A Success Story

How a small business owner went from "cyber what?" to winning our biggest contract ever

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Four months ago, I wrote an article for this blog called "What the Hell is Cyber Essentials and Why Does My Business Need It?" I was halfway through the certification process, terrified I'd fail, and honestly not entirely sure I'd ever be writing this follow-up.

I'm writing it now. And I'm writing it with a signed government contract sitting in my desk drawer.

This is what happened.

Where we started

Let me paint you a picture. Small business. Handful of staff. Three laptops, one of which I was scared to update in case the accounting software threw a tantrum. Our entire IT support was Sandra's son Danny, a nineteen-year-old who learned everything he knows from YouTube tutorials.

We weren't a tech company. We weren't sleek or digital-first or any of those buzzwords. We were just... a small business, doing our thing, trying to keep our heads above water.

Then I saw the contract.

The opportunity

It was in the business section of the local paper. Government work. Proper steady work with reliable payment terms. And here's the thing: it was exactly what we do. Not adjacent, not "we could probably pivot to fit this." It was us. Our skills, our experience, our wheelhouse.

For the first time in years, I felt something I'd almost forgotten: hope.

Then I read the requirements properly and my stomach dropped through the floor.

"Suppliers must hold current Cyber Essentials certification."

I didn't even know what that meant.

The panic

I won't pretend I handled it gracefully. There were some late nights. Some frantic Googling. Some moments where I genuinely considered just giving up and accepting that opportunities like this weren't for businesses like mine.

The certification seemed impossible. The insurance requirements seemed impossible. Everything seemed designed to keep small businesses out of the room where the real work was being handed out.

But giving up meant watching this chance sail past. And I couldn't do that. Not to myself, not to my team.

Finding a way through

I found TransCrypt at midnight, deep in a Google rabbit hole, running on cold tea and desperation. Twenty quid a month. An automated system that would guide me through the process step by step. It sounded too good to be true.

It wasn't.

The platform didn't assume I knew what I was doing. It asked straightforward questions. It explained what needed fixing and why. It treated me like what I was: a capable business owner who just hadn't dealt with this stuff before.

Danny helped with the technical bits. Turns out YouTube University actually taught him quite a lot. Between us, we worked through the requirements one by one. Password policies. Software updates. Access controls. Firewall settings.

None of it was as terrifying as it had seemed at 2am when I was convinced my business was too small and too unsophisticated to ever qualify.

The certification

Six weeks. That's how long it took from starting the process to holding the certificate.

Six weeks to go from "what's a firewall actually for?" to being officially certified.

I put it in a frame. It's hanging on the office wall now, right where clients can see it when they walk in. Some might call that showing off. I call it hard-earned pride.

The tender

With the certification sorted, I could finally focus on the actual tender. And you know what? That part was almost enjoyable. For the first time, I wasn't scrambling to meet requirements I didn't understand. I could concentrate on showing them what we actually do and why we're good at it.

I submitted it on a Thursday afternoon. Then I waited.

Three weeks later, my phone rang.

We won

I'm not ashamed to say I had to sit down. Right there in the middle of the office, I just... sat on the floor.

We won.

A proper government contract. Eighteen months of steady work. Reliable income. The kind of stability that means I can pay myself properly again, that means Sandra's not worrying about her mortgage, that means Kev can stop pretending he's not concerned about his pension.

All because I didn't give up when I hit a wall I didn't understand.

What I want you to know

If you're reading this and you're where I was four months ago, staring at a requirement you've never heard of, feeling like the system is designed to keep you out, I need you to hear this:

You can do it.

Not because it's easy. It's not. Not because you won't have moments of doubt. You will. But because the barriers that seem insurmountable at midnight are usually just unfamiliar. And unfamiliar can be learned.

Get help. Find a service that speaks your language. Be honest about where you're starting from. Take it one step at a time.

That contract you're looking at? That opportunity that seems just out of reach? It might not be as far away as you think.

The bigger picture

Here's something I didn't expect. Going through this process didn't just get us the contract. It made us better.

We have proper security now. Actual policies that everyone understands. Danny's become a bit of an expert; I think he's prouder of that certificate than I am. And when we talk to bigger clients now, we can hold our heads up. We're not winging it anymore.

The certification isn't just a piece of paper. It's proof that small businesses can meet the same standards as the big players. That we belong in those rooms. That we're not too small to be taken seriously.

One last thing

To everyone who commented on my first article saying it helped them feel less alone in their confusion: thank you. Writing about being lost made me feel less lost. Your responses reminded me we're all figuring this out together.

And to the person reading this who's about to give up on that tender because the requirements seem impossible:

Don't.

Four months ago, I was you. Today, I've got a signed contract in my drawer and a framed certificate on my wall.

Your version of this story is waiting to be written.

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This article was written by a small business owner who still can't quite believe any of this actually happened. Sandra cried when she read the first draft. She's a crier, Sandra. We love her for it.