Every few weeks, we’re going to be bringing you the face behind some of our bestof bolton businesses. This week, it’s the turn of Daniel Sharples from P&D Heating and Bathrooms to go under the spotlight.
Both myself and my business partner Danny had previously worked together for Bolton Council for quite a few years. We gained invaluable experience working for the Council, and probably came across many situations that we wouldn’t have working for a private company.
Working in all areas of the gas and plumbing sector allowed us both to gain many new skills which are still extremely useful to this day.
We would be lying if we didn’t say that money was one of the driving forces in starting our own business, but the main driving force was probably the freedom that came with running our own business. However you are never quite prepared for exactly what running your own business entails until you are actually doing it – and it has definitely been a very steep learning curve but one that we have ultimately enjoyed very much so far.
Our line of work sometimes really isn’t an easy business to be in. There are huge competitors with a massive amount of advertising ‘clout’ and they are very difficult to compete against. However we have found our niche in this market by staying a family run business dedicated to customer service, after-care and a high standard of work in whatever we do.
The industry itself can be quite demanding and trying at times, but the relationships we build with our customers are always the most rewarding part of the job. The majority of our customers are either long-term repeat customers or people who have heard of our work from family and friends.
We love that word of mouth still plays a large part in our business as you just can’t beat a recommendation ‘from the horse’s mouth’.
Surprisingly even for us, quite a lot of our customers are people who have had dealings with large chain bathroom stores and have found them to be impersonal and often quite unprofessional. We would much rather be recognised as a company who take care of their customers and offer a complete service under one roof without the hassle of dealing with multiple companies to get a job done.
We don’t want to become like just another large chain of faceless bathroom stores that take no real care of their customers – where often customer service grinds to a halt once a sale has been made.
As mentioned previously a large part of our business is repeat custom and recommends, which we wouldn’t have if we didn’t look after our customers and treat them as individuals.
Be sure that you have the knowledge to really talk-the-talk in your business sector. But also get some hands on experience in that sector before you start. Without our earlier work with the Council it would not be possible for us to have started P&D at all. And most of all - make sure that you will continue to enjoy the work you are doing!
