Member Article

Time to reflect to achieve business growth

When Linda Hugill of Mungai Mirrors expanded the company’s range of specialist acrylic safety mirrors, just months after moving into new factory premises in Chester le Street Co Durham, she knew she needed support to grow the business and develop the team to keep up with sales.

With people buying the 100% shatterproof mirrors for their home, gardens, businesses and schools, Linda and her fellow directors, husband Keith and son Russell, were inundated with orders which left them with no time for anything other than work.

An introduction to local Business Coach, Janice Ross, was the beginning of redressing the balance as Janice spotted the opportunities for Linda to increase sales whilst reducing their workload in the long term. NBSL stepped in to support Mungai Mirrors through the Leadership and Management Advisory Service, and the business’s strategic planning began in earnest.

Since then, Linda has enjoyed in-depth strategic thinking sessions with Janice, during which she has developed their plans to grow the business, based on their goals as a company and as individuals.

As Janice says, “The first step was to coach Linda through defining their most profitable products, and the demographic of the buyers of these products, such as wholesalers, commercial clients and the educational sector. We then worked together to identify and locate such clients and Linda learned how to build relationships with them, thus leading the company along the route of changing their client mix.”

Mungai Mirrors are adding vinyl wall stickers to their range in November, and the full range or mirrors and stickers can be found at www.mungaimirrors.co.uk, with discounts offered for schools and educational establishments.

Excited by the developments, Linda said, “We’re renowned for our exceptional customer service and to ensure this continues we needed to review how we ran the company. With the support of Janice and NBSL, I’ve developed a plan to encourage relationship building with the right type of clients, streamline our working practices, secure better deals with our suppliers and use new ways to reach our new target sectors.”

Janice commented, “The grant support NBSL has been able to offer Linda has been key in enabling Mungai Mirrors to draw breath and plan strategically. As the provider of the development support to Linda and her team, I have found the help of Joy Gair and the Funding team at NBSL to be invaluable – they made the process of securing and drawing down the leadership grant support so ‘user friendly’, and centered it around the growth needs of Mungai Mirrors.”

NBSL has secured ERDF investment of £2.38 million to deliver this type of support to the North East’s private sector businesses employing between 2 – 249 employees. The ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013, managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government, is bringing over £300m into the North East to support innovation, enterprise and business support across the region. The Leadership and Management Advisory Service will make a major contribution to the ambition of the ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-13 by increasing the numbers and survival of business start-ups in the region and increasing business productivity.

Janice added “I originally worked with Joy on a 1 to 1 basis to fully understand how the Leadership and Management Advisory Service could help businesses and where I, as a development provider, could fit in. From this, I was able to introduce Joy to some further business networks and events, resulting in additional leadership development provision being added to the menu of development opportunity now available through the programme..”

If you want to know more about how NBSL can help to develop your business and your people, why not visit the website www.nbsl.org.uk/what-we-do/help-businesses-to-grow or speak to a member of the team on 01670 813322.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Phil Langton .