Talk 2 Christian

In the first age of Northstar kind

For many years I was zipping around as an engineer bouncing around from one site to the next, working in almost every conceivable industry, supporting their IT needs.  I worked alone, solving IT problems in places like law firms, shipping brokers and even a bank in central London. I also worked with Architects offices in Essex and a longstanding client to this day, a Handrail manufacturer and installer in Chatham Historic Dockyard.  They’re always an interesting company to work with!

In the second stage of Northstar kind

Fast forward to June 2004 and I relocated to Brighton on the South Coast of Sussex.  Faced with the challenge of trying to find some new clients a little closer to my new base of operations, I joined some business networking groups including BNI and The Chamber of Commerce.  It was around this time that I set sights on the idea of building a ‘proper’ business and to build a crew to support me and so we could support larger businesses.

I also have to admit I wanted to have proper holidays too, which didn’t involve walking around with a phone to my ear and a laptop in tow as well!

It took a few attempts and the banking crisis of 2008 certainly didn’t help me, but I learned two important lessons back then.  One: Stop listening to the news!  It’s SO doom and gloom at times.  As an eternal optimist, hear that negativity 24/7 didn’t help.  Two: Focus on the things you can change and don’t worry about the things you can’t.  So I remained resolute that this was the ambition for me and the direction to take Northstar IT.

In the third age of Northstar kind

Back in 2011 I moved the business to its current location on Lancing Business Park, and soon after the move recruited my first full-time engineer.  The team continued to grow until it got to the stage where we were a little cramped so I managed to acquire the neighbouring unit in 2017.  This not only secured the future of the business in it’s current location, but also meant my ambitions for the business were secured too.  Then came the exciting refit which has given us modern and functional facilities including a meeting room, an air conditioned engineering lab and a dedicated office space for a team of 8 office based IT Support Engineers.  We even have showering facilities now, so to help keep the team healthier but to date I am the only one cycling in! *cue slight smug smile*

This also would mean that I needed to move off of the front line of Engineering Operations and evolve more to the front of the business, so it could continue to grow.  To achieve this I have been working more as a dedicated account manager and learning more about marketing and even management.

One of the things I am most proud of is creating jobs.  I don’t have a fancy business degree or an investor bank rolling the business, I just have my determination and passion for customer service, but this has led now to having a team of people that are delivering the services I started.  So that pride is now equally in my team, and I feel I am genuinely really lucky to have a truly great group of people to work with.

In the fourth age of Northstar kind

Well this is the REALLY exciting bit…  Where are we going now?

My ambition personally is to head the marketing of the business, and to continue investing into the growth of our services and team.  I believe we have space for a fulltime office based team of 25 here at our current base of operations.  If you add work from home staff, or a flexible team, it really could be “the sky” or in my mind the galaxy is the limit!

However for now 25 is the number I have in mind, and if for no other reason is one of my core values for the business is personality.  For us to remain personal in what we do and how we do it, we need to know about our customers and they need to know us as individuals, afterall we’re a sum of our parts.  I feel when we reach that number, we are striking the right balance in delivering everything we possibly can, without sacrificing that core value.

So for the time being, set course for sector 25 Mr Sulu!

If you would like to talk to me, drop me a line on 01903 259923 or fill in the form below and I’ll jump on subspace at lightspeed!