Glasgow property management entrepreneur learns to roll with the punches

Lorraine MacDonald.

Age:

52.

What is your business called?

Speirs Gumley.

Where is it based?

Our office in Glasgow serves west and central Scotland, and we are about to open another office in Edinburgh to serve the east coast, Tayside and Fife.

What services does it offer?

Residential and commercial property management, residential letting and surveying.

Whom does it sell to?

A wide range of customers, from tenants, homeowners and residential landlords to developers, investors, property agents and solicitors.

What is its turnover?

Our turnover last year was in excess of £3.5 million.

How many employees?

70.

When was it formed?

There’s a lot of history behind the company. The Speirs name dates right back to the 1880s, when Archibald Speirs set up business with a Mr Knox in the east end of Glasgow, to form Speirs and Knox. They were closely involved in the surge of office construction in the 1930s and managed many city centre properties. In 1967, they merged with Turnbull Parnie & Adam, a company that dated back to 1827, to become Speirs Parnie & Adam.

The Gumley name was from Edinburgh, where Gumleys was founded in 1898 by Sir Louis Stewart Gumley, a former Lord Provost of Edinburgh. It undertook a similar portfolio of work to Speirs and Knox in Glasgow. We became Speirs Gumley in 1989 after Speirs Parnie & Adam merged with Gumleys.

Why did you take the plunge?

To be honest this was an evolution. Since the downturn in 2008 we had to address many issues quickly, the result being the reduction of staff and certain surveying aspects of the business. It also brought a catalyst for change and I felt that we needed to take a new approach to energise and recharge the business. During this process, some partners were due to retire and I bought out the remaining partners involved in the business. As a result I’m now the sole owner of Speirs Gumley. It’s pretty unusual to have a sole female owner in this industry – and I’m very proud of it!

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

I joined Speirs Gumley at the time of the 1989 merger and worked my way up through the ranks, starting as a senior property manager. By the time I was 30 I became a director; at 35 I became the managing director and at 40 became a partner.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

I couldn’t have done this without the support of RBS, they were fantastic helping us manoeuvre through difficult times and then helping me fund the management buy-out.

What was your biggest break?

Meeting Aileen Pringle, a consultant with RBS. During the difficult times Aileen and our finance director, Charlie Adams, really made me believe in myself and that we could turn things round, which we did very quickly.

What was your worst moment?

Like most businesses, the downturn in 2008 where we had to make many job cuts and quickly. It was critical to do this to protect the jobs of the remaining staff. We have now grown to more or less the same number of staff before the downturn although the growth is in the profitable departments of the business.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

Having the autonomy to re-invest and structure the business.

What do you least enjoy?

Having to nag about housekeeping. A tidy desk is a tidy mind. I just wish everyone would follow this mantra!

What are your ambitions for the firm?

My main business aims are to increase our turnover by 20 per cent over the next three to five years and to steer the ship to achieving a steady but manageable rate of growth. I’m also keen to develop our staff bonus scheme that will implemented in our next financial year.

I also want to continue to develop the Speirs Gumley Foundation, which is our charitable arm. At the moment we support Tennis Scotland, and Tennis on the Road, I am a bit of a tennis fanatic and love what Judy Murray is trying to do for Tennis. we also support Cancer research.

We partner in the Glasgow Schools and Business Partnership through the Chamber of Commerce This programme is to increase the employability of school leavers, and have just recently started working with Rosshall Academy, which is my local school. At Speirs Gumley we work with various property trades on a daily basis and we encouraged these to take part in a “Trades Day” that we organised at the school. The event let the pupils chat to the businesses and find out the next steps if they are interested in a career in trades.

What are your top priorities?

To expand our offering to Edinburgh and the east of Scotland. Further to the recent launch of our new office in Edinburgh, developing this market will be a main priority for the business this year.

To expand on our niche offering for multiple ownership commercial property management services.

To continue to grow our residential letting service. This side of the business has grown by 50 percent in the last 18 months alone, primarily because of the difficulty in raising deposits to buy and also the more difficult criteria people have to meet to get mortgages.

To continue to enhance our I.T. service to allow clients access to more information we hold on their behalf through our Client Gateway.

What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?

I think Government should be more inclusive and consult more with business leaders when introducing new legislation. With the SME community accounting for the vast majority of Scottish business, taking a more collaborative approach with this target audience would allow for much more considered legislative changes from the outset.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

It’s not money or position that makes a person it is manners, in all that you do and say - a valuable lesson I learned from my mum.

How do you relax?

I don’t just love watching tennis, I like to play it too. I find a good game of tennis relaxing. A nice bottle of wine when meeting up with good friends, and music, music and more music help to lift the spirits.