I have had the great pleasure to interview some of the UK’s highest profile and most success entrepreneurs and they all have one thing in common – Strength, Determination and Vision.
My favourite interview to date has to be Charlie Mullins founder of Pimlico Plumbers – He is absolutely as sound as a pound. You cannot help but love him to bits. He is down to earth, passionate and has a totally mad sense of humour. Underneath the cool exterior is a man who is totally proud of what he has achieved and so he should be. He has an amazing business, an awesome family and I absolutely certain that every employee that works with him adores him.
Charlie’s oldest employee is a gentlemen called Buster. I think Buster is about 103 now and he is still going strong.
Yes Everybody loves Charlie!
I am attaching a list of all y interviews and pages that Charlie has contributed to my business over the last two years. I hope that you enjoy reading and watching what Charlie has to say.
Thanks a Million Charlie – Hopefully the next time we meet up I can sort you out that Scottish Haggis I promised you.
Charlie interviewd by Bradley Chapman on Raw Business Youtube Channel.
Charlie Mullins spoke today on the bad news from the high street with Moben, Kitchens Direct and Dolphin Bathrooms all closing and it’s not looking like they will reopen, with the loss of more than 550 jobs.
“They are not exactly direct competitors but it’s close enough to home to make me sit up and take notice of what’s going on, and consider what exactly the difference is in these times between staying in business and going to the wall. As best as I can see survival in business, as in any walk of life, at any time in history has a lot to do with adaptation to your circumstances. Maybe less survival of the fittest, than survival of the quickest [to adapt], as waiting around doing nothing new and hoping things go your way doesn’t seem to be any kind of sensible tactic.
That’s my best theory and I’m sticking to it. Once upon a time to have a Dolphin bathroom was a bit special, but in recent years they just didn’t come up to the mark, and as such were no longer seen by many people as value for money. It may sound harsh but if you go skint, and it’s not because people don’t know what you have to offer or where to find you, then surely it has to be a case of ‘seen it, and didn’t want it any more’.
Hopefully all the sleep I keep losing wondering what else we can do to add something to what we already have, that will give customers better value for money, are worth sacrificing. Speaking to the accountant yesterday it looks like it was with sales for our last financial looking like going through the £16 million mark. In the last 12 months we have started doing locksmith work, upgraded our call centre technology and communications with engineers, concentrated even more on staff training (for old and new employees), and at the moment we’re running a summer 15% discount offer on labour. The reason I believe we are still expanding is that we are able to continue to come up with all these little tweaks quickly, rather than is the case with less flexible companies where there are meetings to be had before even so much as a memo gets drafted. Or worse companies that know there is so much internal red tape involved in doing something new or different that they don’t even know where to start as far as coming up with something that people actually want. Seems to me Dolphin et al have followed the Woolworths/ HMV example”.
Bradley Chapman is a highly motivated and hands on results driven Sales and Commercial Interim Director. With a recent three month interim London based contract in the property investment sector, Bradley helped to double sales from £6 million across a three month period to over £17 million.. For interim enquiries please email bsc41@hotmail.co.uk
Bradley Chapman - Motivational Entrepreneur
