What I've actually done.

The challenge

In 1997 I started JMS with my wife, Anna-Maria - one fax machine on the landing of our home and not a single client. Structural and civil engineering is a crowded, relationship-driven market with a long road to credibility. Building a firm that could consistently win work, recruit and keep good engineers, and survive the downturns that come round every cycle meant getting both the engineering and the business right. Most technical founders only ever manage the first.

My approach

I built deliberately rather than chasing growth for its own sake. Early on the priority was reputation and repeat work; as the firm grew I put in the management structure, systems and commercial discipline that stop a business depending on its founder. I diversified the service offering and spread the firm across multiple offices so that no single market or region could sink us. Through two recessions and a pandemic I held the same line: control cost, protect cash, stay close to clients, and keep investing in systems and - more recently - AI.

The outcome

JMS today is an established structural and civil engineering consultancy of nearly 40 staff across five UK offices, trading without a break for more than 25 years, with turnover of £2.5m+ drawn from seven key construction-sector silos. That spread is deliberate: no single market carries the business. Most importantly, it runs on management and systems, not on me - which is what made everything that followed possible.

The challenge

GCR is a respected engineering consultancy founded by Graham Robertson 50 years ago, with a reputation built over half a century. A business like that carries real value in its name, its people and its client relationships - but it also faces the classic challenge of any long-established firm: how to move beyond the original leadership without unsettling clients or staff. I was approached by a broker handling the sale. The business was in decline and facing a succession problem: the managing director, John Davis - who had himself taken over from founder Graham Robertson - was moving on with no clear plan for what came next. I acquired it.

My approach

I took a deliberate, low-drama approach to changing the leadership. Rather than parachute in outsiders, I rebuilt the leadership from within - the business is now led by members of the original staff, with strategic guidance from me. I brought in the operational and commercial systems used across the group and put proper oversight around delivery and finances, while protecting the relationships and standards clients valued. The aim throughout was continuity: clients and staff should feel the business getting stronger, not feel it being taken apart.

The outcome

GCR moved to a sustainable, management-led footing without losing its identity or its client base. Turnover stabilised at approximately £400k a year and profitability improved within six months of the transition. The result is a business that no longer depends on its founder, is led by people who know it from the inside, and is positioned to keep delivering and growing within the group.

The challenge

Not every opportunity comes from fixing or buying an existing business - sometimes the gap in the market is the opportunity. I saw a need the established players were not serving well: the small-scale domestic market, where local builders routinely hit site conditions that call for a straightforward engineering solution but have nowhere quick or affordable to get one. The bigger consultancies were not set up to serve work of that size economically. The challenge with any start-up is doing it without the slow, expensive trial-and-error that sinks most new ventures.

My approach

I created Beam Designs specifically around that under-served need, and built it lean from day one. I set it up 15 years ago as an internet-based offering built on systemisation: by standardising the process and stripping out overhead, I could offer a genuinely low price to local builders while still holding good margins. Rather than start cold, I gave it the advantage of the group's infrastructure - systems, commercial discipline and back-office support - so it could behave like an established firm while moving with the speed of a start-up.

The outcome

Beam established itself in a market the larger firms had overlooked and has traded successfully for 15 years. The systemised, low-overhead model does exactly what it was designed to do: a lower-price offer to builders, maintained alongside healthy profitability. It is proof that the same discipline that turns around a struggling business can be used to launch a new one cleanly - identifying the need, building the right model, and avoiding the usual start-up waste.