Keeping Focus: On or In the Business?

I'm puzzling over a bit of a dilemma this weekend.

I have two distinct aspects to my business born of the expertise of myself and my co-director. The organisation was set up as an engineering firm, but as I have become increasingly involved, and since I sold my shares in another company I owned which sold tools and engineering supplies, I have been increasingly interested in developing a sales dimension to L&B Technical Services Ltd, using our expertise to supply tools and welding consumables to trade, industry and commerce in the South East of England and up the East Coast (Suffolk/ Northamptonshire/ Linciolnshire/ Herefordshire/ Peterborough/ Norfolk). A couple of years ago now I merged a third business I own with L&B Technical Services Ltd, which also sells engineering and welding products. Obviously this is an allied area of industry and there are distinct advantages to the amalgamation in terms of sourcing product.

We have secured some important distributorships, notably Huntingdon Fusion Techniques superb range of Pipe Purging Equipment and Kemppi, probably the most popular brand of welding plant in the world today!

Our engineering function is currently much larger than our supplies function, but I would like to see that change and have been dabbling quite a bit, employing different sales people and admin staff to see if I could find someone who would really make it roar ahead. I haven't.

In fact the sales thing is quite extraordinary. How does one find a decent sales person these days? Even with my extensive connections in the marketplace, I don't even know anyone good enough to poach even if I could! I think the model used to be that someone would join a trade counter and learn about products and services, eventually seeking promotion to field sales. Things are very different today with on-line buying and the job of the sales rep seems largely redundant. Still, the same old players are out there earning a living, so there must be something to say for the tried and tested way of doing things.

So now I face a dilemma. I could just leave the sales function bubbling along as it is and through all my energy and commitment into the engineering aspect of the business, or I could do what I do best and get out there and sell to the customers myself. This would be fun and I know I can do it, but can I continue to effectively work on the Company and work in it at the same time? Taking your eye off the ball can be the worst mistake anyone makes in business, but does getting more involved with the work of the Company mean taking my eye off the ball or being more on it?

Another part of the equation is that I feel quite stagnant in the office. I would like to get out and about and shake things up a bit; see where I can take it. It could be a healthy and valuable change for me to get out a bit and see the customers, after all who has more passion and belief in L&B Technical Services Ltd and the products we supply than me?

If you would like to know more about the products and services we offer at L&B Technical Services Ltd, please do not hesitate to call and arrange a meeting, or check out our website here for mechanical and electrical engineering, facilities maintenance and engineering consultancy and here for hand and power tools, fixings and fasteners, abrasives, welding plant and consumable and other allied products.

Save a fortune by changing your lights

Lighting can account for over 20% of a typical home or office's energy bills (depending on appliances), so making your lighting more efficient is an easy way to save money. This is especially true if you use Tungsten Halogen Lamps to light your premises.

At L&B Technical, we specialise in replacement LED fittings which offer the same luminescence at a fraction of the cost of TH lamps and we have been rolling this out in prestigious offices throughout the City of London.

If you replace a 50W halogen down-lighter with a 6W LED you will typically save around £5 per year per lamp, or, £90 by the time you need to replace the bulb. Multiply these figures by the number of standard light bulbs in your house or office and you'll see the kind of savings you can make.

Another major factor is how often you have to replace lamps. If you are confused because some lamps in your office seem to need replacing every five minutes, whilst others seem to last indefinitely, you might be surprised to find out that this is probably due to heat and the space you have in the ceiling void to allow heat from your lamps to dissipate. Temperature is the primary factor that limits the lifetime and light output of a lamp. It is common knowledge that electronic components do not perform as well, or last as long, when exposed to heat. A typical lamp will lose half its lifetime for every increase of 10 degrees celsius, and this applies to all lamp technologies. In ceilings, temperatures can rise to 65 degrees.

LED stands for "light-emitting diode." LEDs are small light sources that become illuminated by the movement of electrons through a semiconductor material. LED lighting is the most energy efficient lighting in history, producing energy savings of up to 80 percent when compared to traditional halogen lighting. A 20W lamp outperforms a traditional 150W lamp in every category, with a power factor of >0.7

Contact us now and we will arrange a survey of your premises. See how much you can save!