Your customer’s success is everything

What can you do today to help your customer be more successful tomorrow? Ian Burgess, BigChange’s Chief Customer Officer, explains what you need to know.

I have spent my whole life building businesses and my obsession with my customers has been the constant that unites all my ventures, whether it’s a bakery or a software company.

But when it comes to going the extra mile for customers, it’s easy to talk the talk and far harder to walk the walk. A customer-centric approach takes investment, focus and a relentless determination to keep improving.

This is why, at BigChange, we made sure that as the business grew, we kept revisiting the concept of customer success. Regular readers of this blog will have seen some of my posts on the topic. We were delighted when Ian Burgess, who has spent his whole career helping companies better support their customers, joined the team as our BigChange Chief Customer Officer in September.

So, for any business owners out there who want to build businesses with customer success at their heart, I’ve asked Ian to share some of the insights we have learned on our journey. I hope that you find them useful, and that you and your customers will thrive!

Over to Ian!

Q: What does customer success mean?

In a traditional account management structure, a customer will call in with an issue, the team jumps to sort it out, and it can be chaotic. Customer success is about being proactive, not reactive. You understand your customer so well that you can anticipate their needs.

Q: How does a customer success focus change the structure of the business?

In many businesses, the hierarchy (if laid flat) looks like a conveyor belt. One team passes the order to another and so on. Service teams usually sit right at the end of that conveyor belt.

When you put customer success at the heart of the organisation, it becomes a pivot around which all departments turn.

In BigChange, this means that customer success engages with all teams across the customer journey to ensure they know all about the latest developments that can help customers thrive.

Q: How do you establish customer success processes?

Customer success is an ethos as well as a function. You don’t just introduce a customer success team; you need to get buy-in from the whole business. We created a customer success platform; an aggregation layer on top of the BigChange technology.

We look at things like: when was the last time we engaged with the customer? How are they using the product? What might they like some help with?

Q: Are there any pitfalls to be aware of?

Your customers are busy people so you must only contact them when you can genuinely add value.

There’s no point calling up and saying, ‘It’s raining’ – they’ll know that already. But if you can tell them it’s going to rain tomorrow, you give them insight they can act upon.

This is also why we recommend you have a dedicated customer success team – one point of contact for these proactive approaches.

You don’t want people from lots of different teams calling up with different propositions.

Q: What impact did this approach have on BigChange and its customers?

The more we help our customers to get the maximum value out of our product, the quicker they will grow. And the more value they get from the platform, the more efficiencies and benefits they will experience, which also breeds loyalty to BigChange.

That’s really powerful for us, as you can see in our Net Promoter Score. As we grow, it’s very important to everyone in the business that we stay human.

We will never be a faceless corporation. We are always at the end of the phone, always looking to help. It’s a real differentiator for us, especially at a time when other companies in the space charge extra for this kind of service.

For us, it is fundamental to our core offering.

What do we want? More women on the tools. When do we want it? Now.

What do we want? More women on the tools.

Where are all the female apprentices? Why are so few attracted to jobs in the trades?

These are the questions I posted two weeks ago. Thank you to everyone who shared and commented, I really value all your contributions. This is a topic that is very important at BigChange – and to all our customers.

I want to return to this theme now, during an important week for women, when the whole world is talking about International Women’s Day. Every business, every product, every service benefits from input by a diverse group of individuals.

I’ve been around a long time, and I’ve seen it: teams perform better when they have a balance of men and women. That’s just how it is. 

This is why I was so alarmed to see the research from RatedPeople.com, claiming that women make up less than 1% of carpenters and joiners in the UK, and less than 2% of electricians, plumbers and metal workers. Without more women taking on these roles, championing women-led design, and providing role models for future generations, we are missing out on their vital contribution to the industry.

To find out why there are so few women taking this route, I caught up with Lili Baines, an apprentice at Gas Smart Heating in Brighton & Hove, to find out how she found her way into the trades – and asked how we can encourage more women to follow in her footsteps.

At BigChange, we love people like Lili, and love to see them progress and thrive. Here’s her story.

Lili’s experience

“I started thinking seriously about changing career in the summer of 2020. It was during lockdown, and I was working for a call centre. I had been to university, but it hadn’t really gone anywhere. I came out the other side saddled with loads of debt. I thought, ‘What am I doing? Is this the life I want?’

“During my school days, I was never given the opportunity to think about manual trades or vocational careers. It just wasn’t part of the careers advice when I was young. But while working from home for that call centre, and dreaming about a better life, I started Googling other options. That’s when I found Stopcocks on Facebook.

“It’s a group for women plumbers, and the page was packed with useful information about the training required. I met loads of supportive women through that network and realised that it could be easier than I had thought to start retraining.

“Unfortunately, most of the women on that group were based quite far away so they advised me to start calling up local firms to see if they needed an apprentice. I was lucky; Gas Smart Heating was the first company I found. When I looked at the website, I saw they already had a female heating engineer and the message on their ‘join the team’ page was simple: ‘Get in touch if you share our enthusiasm’.”

‘People want to give you a chance’

“I called up and explained who I was and what I wanted to achieve. I went out with the team over four Saturdays so they could assess my drive and aptitude. In life, if you show a bit of willing, people will usually give you a chance. They invited me to join as an apprentice.

“From the moment I started going out on jobs, I loved it. Doing something hands-on is completely new for me but I have always enjoyed thinking and solving problems and that’s a big part of heating and plumbing. You assess the clues to work out what’s going on. Then, you’re a hero when you get someone’s heating back on or give them hot water.

“None of my female friends work in this industry. Why aren’t there more of us? Part of the problem is that working-class jobs are often considered unskilled – even though that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“You’re told that if you don’t do well in your GCSEs, you can go and do something with your hands, but the truth is, people can make a lot more money – and develop incredible skills – by working in the trades. We need to get rid of that stigma.”

Hard to shake stereotypes

“We still live in a male-dominated world. As a girl in school, you’re taught that boys are strong – it’s always a big strong boy who is asked to carry a chair by the teacher. It’s hard to shake these labels, even when you grow into a strong-willed woman.

“But then I also noticed that many of the stereotypes applied to women are useful in this industry. Being organised, being able to communicate well, these are real assets. And the muscles will come too, in time!

“I do think that having women on the team is a huge benefit. We get a lot of jobs from women who live alone, who feel more comfortable with a woman engineer. They trust that I won’t overcharge them or take the mickey. As a woman sitting in the van, I get a lot of approaches from customers asking me to take on jobs. Women control most of the purchasing power in UK households after all.

“It’s not always easy to be an apprentice. You must make financial sacrifices in the short-term knowing that you are investing in your future. My partner and I live very frugally and that’s part of the drive to make it work. You learn as quickly as you can so that you can progress. This apprenticeship is only two and a half years, so it won’t be long till I’m on a trained gas engineer’s wage.”

Tips for employers

“To employers who are looking to attract female apprentices, I would say that it’s helpful if you already have women on your team. You don’t want to be the first and stick out like a sore thumb. I have also seen reports about a pay gap. Luckily for me, my boss believes in equal opportunities and equal pay. But there is still some sexism out there, and perhaps a lack of progression for women.

“When I first got started, my boss Steve Cahalane took into account that I might not be as strong as the other guys. So from day one, he made sure I had the best tools to make jobs easier. That means the investment in me might be a little higher, but I’m hoping that I’ll be a great return on that investment.

If you think about it, firms everywhere take a chance on a 16-year-old boy to become an apprentice. They may not know what they want to do. They might not really care about the trade. I hope I’m a better bet.”

I stand with my colleagues in Ukraine

Like many of you, I have spent the past week glued to the news, desperately trying to make sense of what is happening to the people of Ukraine. For all of us at BigChange, the conflict feels even more personal because eight of our colleagues are Ukrainian nationals, based in Kyiv. These people are part of the BigChange family. We have laughed together, met one another’s families, and celebrated milestones together at BigChange events.

We have all been scrambling to try and support our people out there. “Do you need money?” was the first question. “What can we do to help your community?” was the second. Our colleagues asked for very little, although they were giving all they had to help those in need. We have sent a truckload of humanitarian aid to Ukraine now through Goods for Good project, and we hope these items will get to the people who need it most. Our CSR team has called an urgent meeting to discuss further options for support. Even my son, Joseph, is trying to do his bit, selling t-shirts to raise money for Ukraine.

But one way I hope to support our friends in Ukraine is by giving them a voice, a platform from which to express their fears, their defiance, their unity, and their resilience in the face of absolute tyranny.

I managed to speak to Liubov, who works in our software testing team, yesterday. These are her words.

“I’ve lived in Kyiv for 15 years. When I started reading reports that Russia could potentially invade, I didn’t believe them. It just didn’t make sense in the 21st Century. So when the war began, and I read that Putin had launched an attack, I was in total shock.

“We gave ourselves two hours to pack all the essentials and take our parents to the west of the Ukraine, where it is safer. We didn’t take much, only our documents – our passports – some money and some food, because we didn’t know whether we might struggle to get supplies later. We packed a few clothes but that was a low priority.

“It took us 17 hours to complete the six-hour drive to the west. Fighter jets were flying overhead. I have never been more frightened. We saw Ukrainian military heading for the border. That made everything real.

“I left Kyiv, but most Ukrainians are more courageous than me. They will stay and protect their homes, and fight back, if they must. Men and women are determined to fight to protect our country. We will not let our cities and villages fall into Russian hands. In Ukraine, people are often divided on issues but right now, we are as one, organised and moving in a single direction, joining forces to save our homes.

“I have been spending most of my time trying to find safe places for friends and family, so I’m always on my phone. People are so kind, giving up their homes for free, bringing in strangers and saying, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll support you’. There are some shelters around, so I’m also trying to share all that information with the people who need it.

“For the first four days, I couldn’t stop shaking but now I am calm. I must keep busy to distract myself from the news.

“I ask that the people and governments of Europe help us any way they can. Our Ukrainian army was not prepared for invasion, so we don’t have ammunition, equipment and weapons, so the first thing we need desperately is to supply our army and protect our soldiers. Our second issue is that is is very dangerous to try and get goods and food to the east of Ukraine, so we need help ensuring that people have emergency supplies. We also need everyone to ban Russia from every possible communication with Europe. This invasion must not be allowed to take place without consequences. We are an independent country. Russian citizens should be made to understand that their President is making terror for other nations, and that he does not deserve their support. They must take to the streets in protest or impeach him. They must make him understand: this is the end of your regime.

“I still cannot believe that we are at war. I was talking to my husband about this yesterday. I said, ‘One day we will tell people we lived through a war.” I’m for peace and resolving conflict through diplomatic means. I believe in democracy.

“I miss my home and I hope I will have the opportunity to return soon. Over the years, I have been offered many chances to emigrate to the US or to Europe, but I decided to stay because I really love this country. I hope that Putin will pull back his army but if he does not, he will still not be successful. We will protect our country.”

To Liubov and her team, I say this: the whole company is behind you, and our prayers are with you. 

Why we need more female apprentices

Trades Women

Not many schools nowadays invite carpenters and plumbers to their careers days to talk about the value of vocational apprenticeships and jobs in the construction trades – and even fewer focus this advice towards girls.

If you know of one that does, I’d love to hear about it, because the number of women who choose a career in construction or the trades remains shockingly low. This, despite the fact that the talent shortage means companies are crying out for skilled workers. And despite the fact wages in these fields have shot up in recent times.

This week, Rated People put out its annual trends report. It’s packed with interesting data about the home improvement boom, the most in-demand trades and the rise of eco-homes.

But there’s an eye-opening section on tradeswomen – or lack thereof.

Women make up less than 1% of carpenters and joiners in the UK, and less than 2% of electricians, plumbers and metal workers.

My jaw hit the floor when I saw those numbers.

This got me thinking about how to get more women into these roles. In fact, I recently spoke with a female apprentice to coincide with International Women’s Day.

But in the meantime, I thought I’d open the conversation by talking about women apprentices – and why I think this could be a key part of the solution.

Challenges and developments for female apprentices

To help educate me about the challenges and developments in this area, I caught up with Derek Whitehead, the Principal & CEO of Leeds College of Building (LCB).

The LCB is the only General Further Education college specialising in construction and the built environment nationally with more courses and levels of courses than any other organisation.

Approx 6,000 students are accommodated annually, with some 2,800 apprentices currently learning with the LCB.

Derek knows the world of apprenticeships inside out. Crucially, because the college works with 1,700 employers, he also has a bird’s eye view of the whole issue.

Surge in employer interest for apprentices

Derek tells me that there has been a real surge in employer interest in apprentices. That many are choosing to train new recruits from the ground up, instead of going the traditional route of hiring university graduates, particularly in level 4, 5 and Degree Apprenticeships.

This is because 80% of an apprenticeship is delivered on employers’ sites and 20% with colleges or other training organisations. This compares to traditional university pathways, where most programmes deliver 100% of the training is off the job.

The government has also done its bit to help employers choose apprenticeships through a scheme that covers all – or most of – the cost of this training, particularly for non-levy paying organisations, and other incentives.

Benefits of apprenticeships to students

For would-be apprentices, this route is also very attractive.

Universities charge steep tuition fees, in addition to students paying accommodation costs, leaving them with huge loans to repay. On the other hand, apprentices earn while they learn and don’t need to rack up these costs.

Derek says that 95% of the apprentices that come through the college are kept on in sustainable permanent employment, with the same employer usually, after completion of their apprenticeship. 

Simply put: it’s hard to think of a time when apprenticeships have looked more attractive.

And yet, of all those students studying at the college, just 7% are women. And while there are more female apprentices across areas such as transport, planning and civil engineering, there are few on the craft side, in bricklaying, plumbing or electrical.

“Yet when women do join, they excel,” says Derek. “Two of our female students recently won national awards, for example, in painting and decorating.”

More awareness needed

The college, alongside many other organisations, is calling for more awareness of the breadth and variety of trades and construction apprenticeships within schools – especially among girls and young women.

“We would love for more schools to equally promote vocational routes alongside academic routes, such as sixth form and university,” he says.

“Often, when we go into schools to talk about the opportunities we have for learners, we are presented with a very small group of students, while a bank or big corporate may address the full year 10 or year 11 cohorts.

“The better schools, of course, invite us in regularly, and carry out visits to the college, promoting good neutral careers advice, and guidance.”

He wants young people to know how much the world of construction has changed and continues to evolve.

“There used to be an idea that it could be dangerous, or that there was lots of lifting and a poor image but that’s simply not true,” he says. “Health and safety legislation means sites are superbly managed, and mechanical devices now do the heavy lifting.”

Committed employers

For women, in particular, Derek wants to get the message out that employers are committed to making construction a welcoming place for female workers, from single-sex facilities on sites to more flexibility around the needs of families and even pro-active policies to encourage more women into the industry.

He says: “It’s such a fantastic and rewarding industry for all to work in with a wide variety of daily work activity, working as part of a team, together with being part of major infrastructure and commercial projects, new housing and/or repairs and building improvement.”

The talent shortage is only going to get more acute, he warns, so we need to take action now.

“Some 225,000 vacancies are projected in our industry,” says Derek. “And that doesn’t include the 38,000 in zero-carbon areas. We need to engage everyone who is currently underrepresented in this industry, from women to people from different ethnicities.”

I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this topic, especially my customers at BigChange, who I know are always on the hunt for new talent.

Do you have any female apprentices? How have you changed your approach or processes to attract more women into the industry?

I’d appreciate the opportunity to learn from you.

Chairman’s spotlight on… Paul Van Heeswyk

Crucial Engineering

Paul Van Heeswyk, founder of Crucial Engineering, explains how he’s using the BigChange platform to boost efficiency and take his business to new heights.

Paul Van Heeswyk is known as “Dutch” to most people, even though he’s actually more Irish than Dutch, and has an accent that’s pure Leeds.

I met Dutch four years ago. He had just started his business, Crucial Engineering, and was building it from the ground up.

The moment I met Dutch, I was impressed. We got chatting at a BNI networking event and he had that entrepreneurial spark about him. When I told him that we had an issue with our office doors – and he explained that fixing industrial doors was his speciality – I asked him to take a look.

He fixed our problem then and there and I invited him up to test-drive our software.

Even though he was still a one-man band at that time, Paul saw the potential for BigChange to help him grow his business faster than he could on his own. He’s been a customer ever since.

I caught up with him recently to ask how business was going and I was delighted – although not surprised in the least – to find out he’s achieved everything he’d set out to do and more.

I’d like to tell you a little more about Dutch, and hopefully you’ll be as inspired by his drive and determination as I am.

Celebrating business owners

As regular readers of this blog will know, I created the “Chairman’s spotlight on…” series to celebrate the amazing business owners I’ve met on the BigChange journey.

It’s an absolute privilege to be able to help these enterprising individuals to grow their companies and be more successful with our software, and I also want to shout about their endeavours from the rooftops! They deserve it!

Like many of our customers, Paul started his businesses after spending years working for other companies and realising that he could do it better.

“I had worked at organisations where the ethics and morals just didn’t align with my own,” he explains. “So I got a van and bought some tools and off I went.”

The quality of his work and Paul’s commitment to customer service ensured that his start-up grew quickly.

Within six months, he was able to hire his first teammate, Chris. “Chris is our operations manager to this day,” he says.

Using BigChange to improve efficiency

Four months into his business journey, Paul decided to become a BigChange customer. “I’d seen the problems that can arise at my previous company,” he explains.

“People thought that I was insane when I first started using it because it was just me, so I was sending jobs to myself and finishing them and sending them back to myself! It seemed as though I was adding more process when I was already busy. But I knew I wanted to grow Crucial, so I needed these systems in place early on. Now that we are 27 people, BigChange is the absolute brains of the business.

“The transparency that it has brought to our financial processes is vital. We use it to quote, raise purchase orders, invoice, you name it. If a customer rings up with a question about a job we completed a few weeks ago, we can instantly bring up the quote, engineer’s photos, reports, invoice, everything. There’s no trawling through folders trying to find historic information.”

Paul believes that BigChange has done more than increase efficiency; it’s reduced overheads and supercharged growth.

“The cost of the software is far lower than what we would need to pay to hire an admin person to do all the laborious paperwork,” he explains. “And when I think about the growth we’ve achieved over the past four years, there’s no doubt that a proportion of that is down to BigChange.”

The start of a great journey

Paul is just at the beginning of his journey with Crucial Engineering. He recently completed the Goldman Sachs Business Growth Programme at Oxford University, an intensive three-month course that he says helped him to formulate his five-year plan.

“We want to become a national player, offering a four-hour response time to clients all over the UK,” he says.

Paul is eyeing acquisitions right now that will broaden his geographic footprint, and also recently bought a glazing business, which means he can produce his own glass and simplify his supply chain.

Crucial Engineering will be a market leader one day. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just look at all the awards Paul has won recently: he picked up this Growth award in Leeds recently and has been nominated in two categories at the Yorkshire Choice Awards: both ‘Independent business of the year 2022’ and ‘Businessman of the year 2022’.

Paul has always wanted to run his own business. He came up with the name Crucial Engineering while he was still in school. “I didn’t even know what the company would be doing,” he jokes. “I just knew that was going to be the name.”

When Paul decided to make the leap into start-up life, he found the name was taken. “I was devastated,” he admits. “My uncle had told me to just buy it years before, but I’d ignored him.”

Luckily, fate intervened and by the following Christmas, the previous owner had dissolved their company and Paul was able to snap up the name.

Now, the sky’s the limit for Paul and his team. “I’m passionate about business and building teams,” he says.

“I’ve always tried to keep a positive mental attitude, I always keep searching for growth opportunities and I love dealing with people, so I love everything about building this company. And I’m thankful to Martin and BigChange for giving us a technology that grows alongside us and keeps adapting to the scale of our ambitions.”

Where are all the jobs for people with disabilities?

Disabled workers

Here’s one thing I know for a fact. Meaningful work is fundamental to a happy life.

Whether you’re 25 or 55, able-bodied, or have a disability, having a purpose, being productive, having some financial independence, and having structure to your days, all these things help to create balance and joy.

This is why I think it is a terrible and worrying truth that so few opportunities are available to those with disabilities in this country. Just 5.1% of people with a learning disability in England are employed. Overall, disabled people have an employment rate that is 28.4 percentage points lower than the able-bodied.

And this isn’t because people with disabilities don’t want to work. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, when asked about the value of work, all 60 participants in its study unanimously agreed that their quality of life would be or had been much better in work than out of work.

One participant said: “It gets you out of the house, you aren’t stuck in being miserable, everyone needs to get out, disabled or not, you need to get up in the morning, it’s a purpose, it’s the satisfaction when you do work.”

This won’t come as a surprise to many.

Significant barriers

Yet even though legislation has required employers to make reasonable adjustments to make work accessible for disabled people since 1996, the pathways into jobs for many with physical or mental impairments just don’t seem to exist.

Significant barriers remain, from the job application process to ease of access to prejudice.

This was not always the case. The Remploy scheme was created in 1946 to help provide employment placements for those with disabilities, giving them training, support, and a career path.

The original Remploy factories were set up for serviceman and civilians who were injured and disabled during World War Two.

These factories stayed open for 70 years, but the government decided to privatise a decade ago and in 2013, all the factories were closed or sold.

This was a tremendous loss to the disabled community. Remploy created 100,000 jobs for disabled people between 2009 and 2014 alone.

This is an issue that is close to my heart. I feel strongly that those with disabilities deserve the right to work and should be supported into suitable roles.

At BigChange, the company I founded in 2013, we have prioritised inclusivity – it’s one of our core principles. Everyone in the business, from RoadCrew to management, understands the need to support one other and embrace diversity.

We do this because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s good for business! World class teams are diverse teams.

Building a more inclusive society

With that in mind, I met with Steve Ingham, CEO of the recruitment giant Page Group, this week, to discuss ways to build a more inclusive society.

Steve has long been a champion of disabled workers’ rights – and has often been a lone voice on this topic.

He said recently: “It just makes commercial sense. You could have a situation where nothing on your website mentions disability. There’s no mention in social media of anyone that’s disabled working for this company. Someone might be sitting there in a wheelchair and they’re the world’s leading cyber expert. They’re not going to come and join you if there’s little evidence that you’ve ever been an inclusive employer.”

I’m hoping that by being more proactive in talking about these issues, I can do my bit for this fight. We need to do all we can to encourage government, employers and charities to champion disabled people in the workplace.

We all have different strengths and abilities in this life and that shouldn’t determine our ability to live a purposeful and happy life. 

Martin Port leads funding round into Rated People

Rated people

Martin Port, the serial entrepreneur behind Masternaut and BigChange, leads investment into online tradesperson marketplace Rated People.

Martin Port is the lead investor in a funding round for online tradesperson platform Rated People.

His seven-figure investment will be used to accelerate growth at the company as it continues to bolster its user base. This is the first angel investment from Martin Port, who joins existing investors Frog Capital, Downing Ventures and Channel 4.

Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace matching homeowners with skilled, local tradespeople. The platform is used by nearly 1 million UK homeowners each year, looking for the right trades businesses who can help them complete domestic and commercial jobs.

More than 50,000 tradespeople are featured on the site, from builders to roofers, plumbers to electricians, and more.

‘A fantastic business’

Rated People, which recorded revenues of £11.5m in 2020, is led by Adrienne Minster, who was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2020 after 4 years in the business as Chief Commercial Officer and then COO.

“Rated People has come through the last two years in a strong position,” she says. “This deal will enable us to accelerate our growth in 2022, and I know that Martin’s experience will help us to add even more value to both trades businesses and homeowners across the UK.”

“Rated People is a fantastic business providing an exceptional service to both tradespeople and homeowners alike” says Martin. “I have been a customer of the platform and was impressed by the concept and execution. I’m a big fan! I look forward to supporting Adrienne as she takes Rated People to the next level.”

Following the deal, Martin is joining Rated People as a Board Observer and Strategic Advisor. He remains chairman of BigChange, the technology company he founded in 2013.

“Through BigChange, which provides technology to help tradespeople grow their businesses, reduce carbon footprint, and drive efficiency, I have come to know the needs of this industry very well” he says.
“I hope to bring all my experience to bear in Rated People.”

Rated People is Martin’s first foray as an angel investor.

“I have loved being an entrepreneur and growing businesses from nothing into international success stories,” he says. “Right now, I’m also enjoying the ability to invest back into the entrepreneurial ecosystem to help the next generation to thrive. It is a privilege to support Rated People in this next phase of its growth.”

About Rated People

Founded in 2005, Rated People is the UK’s leading online marketplace matching homeowners with skilled, local tradespeople.

Over 50,000 tradespeople use the site and 1,000,000 jobs are posted every year by homeowners wanting to make the most of where they live.

Once the work is complete, homeowners leave a review of the tradesperson – and this feedback helps give other homeowners peace of mind that they’ve found someone reliable.

In 2021, Rated People also secured a position on three of the Sunday Times’ Best Companies lists for the first time.

The company featured on the UK’s 100 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For, London’s 50 Best Mid-Sized Companies to Work For and the Business Services’ 20 Best Companies to Work For – a sector-specific category, new for 2021.

About Martin Port

Martin Port is a technology pioneer based in Leeds, Yorkshire.

He is a serial entrepreneur, who has built three successful businesses during his career. Martin founded his current venture, software-as-a-service company BigChange, in 2013. BigChange’s field service management technology is the core workflow tool for businesses employing field service technicians and operators across the UK, Europe, the US and Australia.

BigChange’s tools provide job scheduling, customer invoicing and payments automation, mobile workforce management, and client engagement to 1,900 small to enterprise clients spanning more than 60 industries.

In 2020, BigChange was recognised for its outstanding innovation in the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, the UK’s highest official awards for British businesses.

In 2021, Boston-based Great Hill Partners invested £75m of growth capital in BigChange, valuing the company at £100m.

The deal that opened a new chapter

Great Hill Partnership Deal

On the 4th of February 2021, I embarked on one of the greatest adventures of my professional life so far.

I signed a deal with an American private equity backer, raising £75m to supercharge the growth of my business, valuing BigChange at £100m.

I won’t lie to you. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect. I consider myself a good judge of character and I knew that I respected and liked the team from Great Hill Partners. But you never really know, do you?

Here I am, a year on, looking back over a 12-month partnership and, I have to say… It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I don’t want to get sentimental – I’m not one for love letters – but I wanted to talk about the experience. Often, as entrepreneurs, you hear the horror stories and see the battle scars, but you rarely find out about happy-ever-afters.

I’m here to say that our backer, Great Hill Partners, has done absolutely everything they said they would do. They have operated with integrity. They have supported me as a founder during one of the toughest and most uncertain times in living memory. They have helped this business to scale with a speed and efficiency that I couldn’t not have dreamed of on my own. They have opened doors that would have been bolted shut.

I would like to take some credit for the success of this partnership. As entrepreneurs, you are always told: do your homework. Get to know your potential investors. Speak to other founders in their portfolio. Ask about the awards they have won. I did all of that and more. So, credit to me, I picked the right partner. But no one expected a global pandemic to throw a spanner in the works. The best investor in the world would be forgiven for being rattled by that. But not Great Hill. Instead, they increased their level of support while also helping us access a further £25m to grow the business. We could never have done a deal like that on our own. Instead of putting on the brakes, they let me do what my instincts told me to do: accelerate.

I want to do a quick shout out to the individuals who have helped make this relationship such a success. I want to thank Drew LoucksChris BusbyGreg StewartRyan O’MalleyPablo Ramirez – the dream team that has supported me and BigChange this year. I want to say an enormous thank you to Richard Warley, our CEO, who was introduced to me by Great Hill, and has been a tremendous asset to the business. And last but not least, I want to thank the fantastic people at KPMG, who advised on the deal. We have spent over six years with KPMG, getting to know one another, and now I can genuinely say that I have made great friends in the process.

Many business owners are slightly afraid of private equity. Some with good reason: there are firms out there that give this kind of investment a bad name. But in my experience, any company that is serious about growth, and wants autonomy and firepower simultaneously, should consider it. If we had gone public, I wouldn’t be writing this update, I’d be bogged down in bureaucracy and gagged by shareholder agreements. It’s not for me. At least, not now. Maybe when we achieve our dream of becoming a unicorn, I’ll see things differently.

The bottom line for me is this: if we had never embarked on this journey with Great Hill, we’d be in a very different place. We’d still be successful and growing, but we wouldn’t have been able to invest in people and product like we have this year, creating the foundations for an even more brilliant future for the business. And our growth would be a crawl as opposed to a sprint. So, here’s to a most excellent year, and to the years of growth and success ahead. I’m very glad I signed on that dotted line last February.

Help your stars to shine

Help your stars shine

I’m obsessed with career development. I have always said that people are your greatest asset in business. Helping those people to thrive and rise through your organisation is a particular focus. I truly believe that everyone who works for me has the right to a fulfilling work life, with lots of opportunities for training and advancement.

This isn’t just because failure to offer opportunities for career development is the number one reason why people leave their jobs – it has been the top reason for a decade too, in case you were wondering https://employeebenefits.co.uk/employee-retention-top-5-reasons-employees-leave-their-jobs/ .It’s because this is one of the most basic and powerful ways that you can help your colleagues. By offering career development opportunities, you help them to realise their potential, open doors for them, and show that you believe in them.  

This is why this week’s post is all about Lisa Boonin.

For those who don’t know Lisa, she is one of the stars of our RoadCrew team. I know some of our customers have spoken to Lisa over the past three years. Many of you have praised her effectiveness, positivity, and organisational genius. What you might not know is that over the last 18 months, Lisa has been spending her free time completing an HR qualification from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). And that in April this year she moves into a bright and bold new career at BigChange as an HR administrator.  

I want to talk about Lisa because she is an example of what can be achieved when you take an individual with get-up-and-go, brains, and ambition, and you support them to focus that energy on their career.

Back in 2016, Lisa came to BigChange to do work experience while she completed a business studies degree from the University of Birmingham. She worked across several departments and impressed everyone with her ability to learn quickly and her people skills. She came back after finishing her degree to take a full-time job in RoadCrew.

“BigChange was a fast-growth technology start-up, so I knew I’d have a great experience,” she says. “As a first job, being in RoadCrew has been incredible. It teaches you all kinds of skills, from communication to confidence, and helps you learn the product inside out.”

During her time on RoadCrew, supported by her manager Tansy, Lisa took on many new challenges. She began hosting customer tutorials online and had hundreds of people hanging on her every word for those 45-minute sessions. “It’s amazing what life throws at you, but it was great to step out of my comfort zone, and a real learning opportunity,” she says.

RoadCrew also helped Lisa to hone her organisational skills. “That’s my real strength,” she tells me. “I’ve learned to stay on top of tickets and field incoming queries and manage my time well. That skillset will be so valuable in everything I do in the future.”

During 2020, Lisa began thinking about her future: what path did she envision for herself? What skills did she want to hone? She decided to take a look at HR and, with some help from Sonal, our people director, she chose a course from the CIPD. “I had considered a Masters from The Open University but that would have taken much longer,” she says. “I completed this course in 18 months.” The BigChange HR team helped with some assignments and offered advice and moral support while Lisa juggled her studies alongside house-hunting and planning her wedding. “It’s been a crazy time,” she says.

Lisa is now looking forward to starting her new role in April, when she can put all her knowledge into practice. Her advice to anyone who is at a crossroads in their career: “The timing of this course was perfect because I started it during the first lockdown when there was nothing else going on. I’m young, I don’t have kids to support, and I live with my parents. My advice to anyone is to try new things. Even if you’re not absolutely certain. I could have started this new course and got six months in and hated it. But the leap of faith paid off; I’ve enjoyed every module and now I know this is what I really want to do.”

I wanted to share Lisa’s story because she inspires me, and as a reminder to all of us leaders to take the time to speak to our colleagues about how we can help them take that next step in their careers. We employ stars. Let’s help them to shine.

Chairman’s spotlight on… Steve Cardwell, founder of Generator Power

Generator Power

Last year, I introduced the “Chairman’s spotlight on” series to celebrate some of the incredible people I have met on the BigChange journey. There are too many unsung heroes in British industry: people with fantastic stories to tell who are too busy building their businesses to shout about their experiences. That’s where I come in.

This week, I’d like to introduce you to Steve Cardwell. Steve founded Normanton-based Generator Power back in 1997 and has taken the business from nothing to a £50m turnover and is working towards being a truly national player – he currently serves customers from Inverness down to Reading.

Like so many BigChange customers, he founded his business because he had worked for other people in the sector, learned all he could (the good stuff and the stuff to avoid) and realised he could do it better on his own. “I had a real drive to build a business for myself rather than keep working for other people,” he tells me. “But the problem with generator rental is that it’s very capital-intensive. You don’t have a business if you have just a handful of generators. So I had to jump in with both feet. It took me two years to raise the funding to buy a fleet of generators.”

This is something I so admire about entrepreneurs like Steve: their ability to be “all in”. Steve left no margin for error. He put everything on the line to make his business work. Not many people have the courage and tenacity to make a call like that.

Once Generator Power was up and running, he didn’t sit back and hope the business would roll in. He knew he had to deliver a better service than the competition. This is one of the reasons Steve and I hit it off immediately: we are both obsessed with customer service. “If I have to rely on my wit, charm and boyish good looks, I won’t get far,” he jokes. “We have always focused on delivering something to the customer beyond what our rivals are capable of. That edge is what convinces the customers to write our name on the order, rather than someone else’s.”

He won’t say it about himself, but Steve is an absolute visionary; Generator Power was the first hire company to introduce a “power safe” product, where the fuel tank and generator are housed inside a secure and super-silent container. These were an absolute hit, as fuel couldn’t be siphoned out and the generators couldn’t be vandalised. The entire industry has since embraced Steve’s design and his rivals all now offer similar products.

Right now, Generator Power is at the forefront of innovation once again. “Dirty” diesel may be out of favour, but the company has been investing in renewables and hybrid alternatives for years. “We’re leading the field on this,” he says. “We have battery storage technology, solar arrays, you name it. If we see ourselves as a diesel generator provider today, we’ll soon be out of business. So we have evolved to become a provider of temporary power solutions.”

Markets move so fast these days: no business can stay still, or it will be left behind. After our recent investment round, BigChange earmarked a significant tranche of funding for innovation. “That’s the thing about having a “unique selling point”,” Steve tells me. “People copy you and pretty soon you need a new USP!”

One of the other ways that Steve stays ahead of the competition is through Generator Power’s partnership with BigChange. “We became aware of BigChange a few years ago,” he explains. “We had always used traditional paper-based systems. Our engineers would stand out in the cold filling in job sheets in duplicate – we had real issues with efficiency. The beauty of BigChange is that now we have ditched the paper, and our processes are instantaneous and reliable. If you do lots of work for your customer but don’t charge them enough because the paperwork isn’t there, your business grows but profits stagnate. Now, we make sure the right person is sent to the right job and we charge the right amount for that work in a timely manner.”

As Generator Power continues its journey with greener solutions, BigChange has also helped to bolster its environmental credentials. “Our engineers drive fewer miles and go to the right jobs with the right gear, which has delivered a significant reduction in our carbon footprint,” he says.

Steve has been in business 25 years and still has the same energy and ambition he did when he first started. “This is the best job in the world,” he says. “There’s a new challenge every day and I love it.” As an entrepreneur, you must embrace the high points and stay resilient through the tough times. “When we win industry awards for our innovation, and win contracts with blue chips companies, I’m on a high. But managing people is the biggest challenge. Ask me to deal with a generator, that’s easy, but when you have 284 people on your team, being a leader becomes a lot more complex.”

His philosophy in life is simple. “It doesn’t matter what you do in life but, whatever you do, you should do it with all your might. That’s the philosophy that’s worked for me all my life. Do what you do with enthusiasm. People who are driven, get on. And people who cruise, don’t. I’ve seen people sit in front of a fire and demand heat. If you get up and put wood on the fire, you’ll get heat. But you can’t sit back and expect the fire to light itself.”

If you missed my last “Chairman’s spotlight” you can find it here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chairmans-spotlight-michael-cairns-director-celsius-plumbing-port/