Midshire Business Systems
Focus points
Finance / Operations & HR / Sales & Marketing / Entrepreneurship
I started Midshire Business Systems Northern Ltd with just an engineer who relocated from Birmingham. The first few years were incredibly tough. We started with no accounts and built from the ground up.
As the company grew my attention turned from pure survival to developing key areas of the business. We launched our first website, developed our first real brand, gave customer facing staff branded uniform and branded our vans.
We took the plunge and bought a larger premises - 1 Bredbury Court. This, with hindsight, was pivotal to our long term success. We took on an in-house Marketing manager which totally transformed our business. At the point of selling the business, our marketing team was 4 full time staff.
We created the award winning Midshire Academy, bringing in young staff on apprenticeships in all areas of the business. We effectively built a conveyor belt of staff ready to fill the gaps created by our continued growth. Many of those apprentices are now senior managers in the Sharp business. Some others have gone on to senior positions with other leading companies. Working with and developing these young people was the most rewarding role I had.
“Building an environment which centred around our Midshire family was the key to success”
We moved into IT services and started looking after our customers networks. We developed 'Desktop Monster' our own Hosted Desktop from scratch. That was real IT.
We always ensured we got the best talent available for every role. Whilst the very best people can sometimes be a challenge to manage, when the chips are down and your backs to the wall you need to be surrounded by the best people. I was lucky enough to work with the very best.
We got more involved in our local community and took CSR very seriously.
We opened offices in Cardiff and Sheffield.
Our service department became ever more sophisticated. We brought on specific industry specialists to ensure the smooth running of the department. We developed software to improve our response times, minimise our stockholding, manage our fleet more effectively and maximise our service profitability.
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“Julian has been integral to the development of our business, I'd recommend him whole heartedly if you are looking for a solid sounding board and someone who can really relate to the struggles of growing a business”
Daniel Simmons, Founder
Populate Social Ltd
“Julian has been integral to the development of our business, I'd recommend him whole heartedly if you are looking for a solid sounding board and someone who can really relate to the struggles of growing a business”
Daniel Simmons
Founder
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