High-flying couple make ace take-off

Jul 23 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

Giving advice to business start-ups isn’t the fastest route to fame and fortune, but for some people that’s not the point. Alastair Gilmour meets two high-flyers more interested in flexibility.

HOW to get a small business off to a flying start is a frequently-asked question. Forests of books have been written, fortunes have been made and a whole advice industry built around observing market conditions, developing the right product, producing a unique idea and inviting opportunity to knock.

All are valid approaches, but so is heading off to meet a colleague in a £20m vehicle at 630 miles an hour. Initially guided only by a voice in your ear, you make visual contact; you latch onto him; he in turn tries to shake you off; he swoops and climbs, you swoop and climb; left, left; right, right.

Chartered surveyor David Griffiths was a flyer, learning operational procedures in a Hawk fighter during six years with the Royal Navy (the aircraft the Red Arrows use). Now the Jesmond, Newcastle-based lieutenant is involved in a different career with his wife Jill – a chartered accountant – and their company InsightNE which offers a complete package to start-up businesses.

Jill, a former finance director at property and construction firm Adderstone Group, handles the full accountancy function while David’s expertise in property valuation, funding and investment may see him take off in a different direction, but it makes a neat and flexible fit.

The couple could have set up a business anywhere in the country – Belfast and London were under serious consideration – but they chose Jill’s native Newcastle through their confidence in the regional economy, its excellent transport links and its user-friendly reputation. Plus, it’s where the couple wanted to settle and start a family after meeting in London.

“Working with start-up businesses isn’t where the big money is,” says Jill. “I wanted to do it because I know what a difference it makes. It was a huge step, I didn’t have letterheads or anything, I just left paid employment and started.

“I was used to long hours, earning good money, but we were coming in every evening not being bothered to cook then going out to eat.

“Our lives were flying by and we were working all the time – as it turns out, we’re working all the time now. We have 80 clients, all who have come through recommendation – we’ve never had one leave in three years – and everything from a joiner on a building site to garages, pubs and a construction firm with a £16m turnover.”

Three years in and InsightNE is a high-flyer with city-centre premises in their sights. Trainee Katy Curtis has joined full-time and is being guided through professional qualifications, with former Nissan paintshop chemist Josie Clements filling in two days a week.

Baby Albert, now 14 months old, is looked after “70/30” by David – hard work, but it gave him the opportunity to do some of his own forward planning and forecasting until a 50/50 childminding ratio can eventually be reached. He looked at Jill’s professional qualifications, saw how they could ease her into any sector, and decided to get some of his own. As if being swept along with a Rolls-Royce engine at his back weren’t enough, he credits Northumbria University with additional momentum. He was accepted on to a Masters degree course despite his unorthodox background.

“I didn’t have a degree or the normal seven years’ relevant experience, but I had officer training and told them I’d bring diversity to the course and an extra element,” he says. “They were great in the retraining and their ability to see potential in individuals from different disciplines. But, it took me a long time to get out of the Navy way of thinking.” Another hurdle was that potential employers always seemed interested in talking to him, but never came up with a job offer. “Interviews would go very well,” says David, “but they’d end up saying we’re not quite sure how we can use you.” Following university, he did professional training as a chartered surveyor at DTZ, the Newcastle real estate services firm, where he reacted positively to the purchase, sale, leasing, acquisition, development, funding and planning of commercial and residential property.

“Valuation and surveying is easier than being an officer in the Navy,” he says, “and I can use my life experiences and man-management skills. I needed to know everything from the engine room to the deck and had to be professionally competent. Now I have to know how much you can rent a building for and how much to build it for. If you don’t know what it’s worth, there’s no point in building it in the first place.

“It’s quite unusual for a chartered accountant and a chartered surveyor to be in business together but there’s lots of cross-over and cross-selling. We regard the surveying side of the business as a value-added service to the accountancy clients and we also provide a discrete commercial property investment function, an area in which we intend to grow, even given the deflated market.

“For example, companies such as Brims Construction – one of Jill’s clients which has had a very successful first 18 months – are bringing new sites online and I can help them make the end-product more viable and advise on specification. We’re planning ahead all the time, developing into a niche investment practice. Areas like sale and lease-back will become more common in the current climate which allows freeholders to sell their interest in a property and take an occupational lease.”

Taking £20m-worth of advanced technology up to 43,000ft in seconds may be a fleeting memory, but there’s one part of his naval career David certainly won’t miss. “We used to fly at nights over Crossmaglen (the Irish borderland),” he says. “The Navy did nights and the Army did days. I can tell you it was a real experience around Hallowe’en when all these rockets were going up and pinging off the sides of the helicopter. I’m thinking, one of those could be the real thing.”

www.insightne.com

It was a real experience around Hallowe’en when rockets were going up and pinging off the sides of the helicopter