We sat down with the owners of Superior Design, Paul and Martin, to find out more about running their business, as part of our regular meet the member series.
Paul and Martin started Superior Design because the opportunity to put the years of experience they had gained into a new project was too good of an opportunity for them to pass up. The prospect of being business owners at a young age and doing what they loved, but for themselves, was a huge factor too.
They have always enjoyed working in the industry and being able to make a difference to the lives of their customers gives them great satisfaction. They want Superior Design to become a well-known company that is trusted, local and has a good reputation in Bolton for being reliable, honest and competitive.
This is really important to Paul and Martin because they hate the fact that most of the purchases made from larger national chains and internet sales are very impersonal. They don’t allow their customers to become just another name in the order book, they enjoy giving the personal, 1 to 1 service, to all their clients regardless of the size of the order.
The pair have had many memorable moments running Superior Design, but the most memorable when they were discussing a bathroom and kitchen fitting with a customer. They were explaining to the client that there would inevitably be dust and inconvenience during the work, but her response was she had lived in an African mud hut for years with no running water so a bit of mud and dust was really of no concern to her.
Every business owner always has a piece of advice they’d like to give out to others just starting out in business and Paul’s and Martin’s is to do your research before making any quick decisions, and always be prepared to accept that you will have to change your methods, policies and sometimes entire philosophies in order to keep up with an ever changing world. What works one week can very quickly become obsolete and you have to be ready to react in order to survive.
