Case Studies

In May 2006 father and son, Ian and Joe Pierson set up I & J Wood Floors based in Clacton-on-Sea, to supply and fit solid wood flooring and real-wood engineered flooring (real-wood laminate).

 

Ian had been a floor-fitter for more than twenty years and although thoroughly familiar with his side of the business, he had no previous experience of running an office. Equally, Joe needed to develop his business skills and in stepped Liz Kelly, business adviser at Colbea, to help.  With her support and specific business skills training offered by Colbea they learnt the basics of financial record keeping. As Joe explains “With Colbea’s help I was encouraged to make cash-flow charts in order to formulate projections of future accounts, which enabled me to get a clearer figure of exactly what sort of turnover was necessary for the business to keep on its feet.”

It was a case of learning as they went along, but backed by the professional and practical business support provided by Colbea they have gone from strength to strength. In particular, Liz talked them through the difficulties and considerations regarding advertising their business, by for instance aiming for more precisely targeted advertising as opposed to spending lots of money on advertising that might not reach their most popular demographic. The most successful of these was to trade business cards and supplementary material with complimentary businesses in their area (tile centres, plumbers, etc). Although most of their business is domestic, as Joe goes on to explain, “The Colbea meetings encouraged the idea of targeting occasional contract work and this resulted in us getting the job to refurbish the floors of two local halls.”

For more information on I & J Wood Floors contact 01255 224025.