£1.4 Million with Three Part-Time Staff

The idea

I started this company from scratch with the owner and the best salesman from the timber company where I'd previously built an order processing system. We were running it on the side, on top of our full-time jobs. That meant the technology had to do almost everything. We simply weren't available to do things manually.

We sold oak garden products. Pergolas, gazebos, carports, that sort of thing. The challenge was that every product was made to measure, so every order was different. Customers needed to understand what they were getting, how it would look, and what it would cost, before they committed.

In most businesses like this, that means a back-and-forth with a salesperson. Emails, phone calls, revised quotes, maybe a sketch on the back of an envelope. It's slow for the customer and expensive for the business.

The result

The business grew to £1.4 million in annual revenue with just three part-time members of staff. That ratio, that volume of revenue handled by that few people, was only possible because the technology did the heavy lifting.

The 3D configurator didn't just save time on quoting. It changed how customers bought. They could experiment, explore options, and see the price change in real time. It removed friction from the buying process and gave people the confidence to order without needing their hand held.

This is the kind of thing I mean when I say technology can help a business punch above its weight. Three part-time people shouldn't be able to run a £1.4 million operation. But with the right systems, they absolutely can.

If you're local to Staffordshire, you might have seen some of our work without realising it. There are a couple of oak structures in the Trentham Gardens Shopping Village, including a pretty big oak gazebo. That was one of ours.