WHILE public spending is under great pressure this week’s SME Focus suggests that new approaches to managing investment improvement programmes have created opportunities for firms.

Name:

Andy Purdon.

Age:

43.

What is your business called?

HR Services Scotland Ltd.

Where is it based?

Hamilton.

What services does it offer?

HR Services Scotland advises SMEs and also larger organisations on human resources, health and safety and employment law, as well as providing health and safety cover. In effect we become the extended HR or Health and Safety department to our clients.

We are not a recruitment company but can manage our clients’ recruitment function.

Our training arm offers packages, most of which are bespoke, in areas such as emergency first aid training, manual handling, working at height and advanced food hygiene.

We also have an online training platform that provides 86 training packages.

What is its turnover?

The business is on target to deliver against our turnover target of £750,000.

How many employees?

14.

When was it formed?

2011.

Why did you take the plunge?

Quite simply I wanted a change. After 15 years in the telecoms industry I felt jaded and knew that the time was right to progress my career in a different sector, preferably running my own show. I had several positive experiences with outsourcing functional services and these gave me confidence that this model could be successful for HR and Health and Safety for SMEs in Scotland. When an opportunity came up to buy into my current business from the administrator I leapt at the opportunity.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

After graduating in Business and Marketing from the University of Paisley, now UWS, I worked for 10 years at BT before being headhunted by Azurri Scotland, then one of the UK’s leading independent telecoms and IT support companies.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

I funded the business initially from personal savings.

What was your biggest break?

We have had good fortune and bad luck in equal measure.

Our introduction to Clydebank Co-op via twitter was a great break. The chief executive contacted us to say that he liked our tweets and blogs and wanted to meet us. Six years later, they remain a key client with whom we have an excellent working relationship.

More recently, we have been asked to supply advice and guidance to local SMEs who want to engage with the supply chain in Hub South West, the major public sector infrastructure programme run through the Scottish Futures Trust in South-West Scotland. The programme requires Tier 1 contractors in major projects such as schools and health centres to channel 65 per cent of their turnover to local companies, so it is important that these are up to speed with the current employment environment, and it is heartening that the programme directors have turned to us for that advice.

In the early days of the business we were flooded twice in a six week period and began to question if the elements were against us. Luckily we had surrounded ourselves with excellent partners who were there to help in our time of need.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

I most enjoy spending time with clients, hearing their stories and understanding what we can do to help them. Lots of business owners plough a lonely furrow and value the opportunity to discuss issues.

What are your ambitions for the business?

I want to see annual turnover grow to £1million over the next three years, principally through winning more retained clients. On the training side, I see much of the growth coming from online training packages.

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

Governments talk incessantly about supporting the SME sector but I come across businesses owners all the time who struggle, often unsuccessfully, to get help. I think there needs to be an incentive of some kind to match up support for those businesses that need it. The entire support structure is too muddled and fails to achieve many positive results. I would like to see the formation of a working party made up of dynamic, clear thinking business people and Government officials to create a new, fresh and effective support structure for the SME sector.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

While my default position was to take people as I find them I have acquired enough experience to be quite a bit more cynical and I do not now take people at face value.

How do you relax?

I like to spend time with my son, Ramsay, who is seven years old. I take him with me on Saturdays to support our football team which, happily for me and thousands of others, is now emerging from a lengthy period of instability. I also attend church regularly and have recently joined the board of our local Church of Scotland.