IF I were to give any advice based on what I have learned over the past 18 years since we founded Griffiths Air Conditioning, it would be to exercise some caution in the early days and not try to run before you can walk.
At Griffiths, we still focus on our core services of air conditioning, heating and ventilation, but we’ve also adapted over the years to embrace new products, such as those in the field of renewable energy and solar PV systems.
We carry out a wide variety of work including air conditioning, domestic gas, electrics, plumbing, underfloor heating and ventilation. Renewables such as air and ground source heat pumps, solar PV and solar thermal are also available.
Our clients might use us for one or more of these technologies and many small building companies can see the benefits of having just one engineering contractor, especially as so much of what is being installed these days bridges many different technical areas.
Diversity has been at the heart of our growth, from just the two of us when my son Ian and I started the business, to a team of 22 today. We’ve seen opportunities and built them into our business, keeping all the different services strong and viable.
When the government was offering good feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, many companies formed in order to take advantage of that. They suffered for it when the market became overcrowded and the subsidies were reduced as a result of government policy.
That wasn’t an issue for us as we have built up that side of the business gradually – it’s busy, but it’s not a focal point of our business, so if it goes quiet, it doesn’t cause us any significant difficulties.
In the same way, we’ve always tried to keep a balance between our domestic customer base and our commercial clients. If the commercial market drops slightly, for whatever reason, we still have a strong domestic market, and vice versa.
So, what I would say to new and growing businesses is this:
* Be sure before you start that you know your market. There’s no point in starting up in an area where there is no real demand for the service or in a market that is already saturated.
* Cash is king. Don’t expand too quickly and put everything at risk. Keep things steady and build up your business gradually and in that way you will cope if any difficulties arise
* Remember the golden 80:20 rule that 80 per cent of your business comes from 20 per cent of your customers, focus on customer service and keep your key customers happy.
* Make sure you get the support you need. When we started we were helped enormously by Kettering Business Venture Trust, as a point of support and advice. Over the years there have been various organisations, BusinessLink and NEP, but they all provide an important resource for new businesses, so my advice would be to use them as much as possible.