Business has gone through the roof for brothers Maurice and Markus Micklewright since they set up their firm in 2003. Devon-based Nightingale Roofing and Building Services undertakes roofing and associated building work throughout the south-west and expects its turnover to hit £1m this year.
The Micklewrights launched their business with two employees, a van and several thousand pounds’ worth of tools. By 2005 the work was coming in so fast that Markus decided to join the business full-time and the brothers took on more staff.
Maurice, who has worked as a roofing contractor all his life, is in charge of the site work while Markus, who was a general manager in the food industry for 17 years, is responsible for business development, risk management and training.
There’s no doubt that the firm is committed to this final aspect training is something that can’t be done by half measures in the roofing trade. Early on, the brothers realised that they would need to invest in training employees in as broad a range of skills as possible if the business was to be a success.
Train to gain
As a result, Markus contacted Train to Gain, the Learning and Skills Council’s skills brokerage service, for advice about training.
‘Our drive is to be the first-choice roofing solutions provider in the south-west,’ says Markus. ‘Our training needs are driven by the fact that our team needs to be as multi-skilled and versatile as possible. Rather than simply being slaters or tillers, we wanted all of our employees to be able to do things like leadwork, metal roofing and cladding as well.’
Plymouth-based skills broker Janet Powell found suitable NVQ courses through the South Wales & South West Roofing Training Group in Exmouth and also tracked down supervisory skills training courses for their team leaders.
Markus says that the training has given them more skills, greater earning power, job security and job diversity. ‘We can send any of them to a repair or an emergency,’ he says. ‘One week they might be working on the roof of a cathedral, the next they might be on a new-build. They are highly skilled in a variety of systems additional to their areas of speciality.’
The Train to Gain investment enabled the company to win a £400,000 contract that it would not have won otherwise.
So with training under control, what about finance?
Markus says they have not yet sought additional funding. ‘We have an overdraft facility and a very supportive bank manager, which is a vital requirement during periods of huge growth.
‘The business is still growing and we are winning a lot of business. It is evidence of the fact that the combination of training and investing in quality is continually getting us noticed. The challenge for us is managing the growth of business.
‘We know that we want to stay true to what we have become famous for, which is fantastic safety, service, skills and price, and we don’t want to lose that by growing too big, too quickly.’
Markus is looking for controlled growth so the business does not run away with itself. ‘If we can grow the business to a profitable £4m to £5m turnover, we will be a major success,’ he says.
Administration will always be a challenge for any small business, and Nightingale is no exception. But here Markus seems to have landed on his feet. ‘I recruited a business manager to deal with the crazy paperwork trail a growing business produces,’ he says. ‘Her knowledge and experience is amazing and she is buttoning the paperwork down brilliantly.’
Not being tied up in knots by red tape frees Markus to concentrate on the business, and he is clearly hopeful about the future. ‘We have a lot we do well, but we know we can achieve so much more. We still have many goals to meet and that is a great incentive in driving the business forward.’
The main challenges:
• Managing the growth of the business
• Avoiding the overtrading trap
• Maintaining the firm’s brand quality
• Focusing strategy on achieving the business goals
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