Business Success for C4L Aided by FastGrowth Services
Bournemouth-based provider of data centre and Internet facilities, C4L, has bucked the economic downturn, almost quadrupling in sales turnover in the last three years.
Its success, says Managing Director Mathew Hawkins, is underwritten by ‘Vector Boards’ – a ‘hands on’ business school and one-to-one GOLD mentoring programme for managing directors and business leaders run by FastGrowth Services, whose involvement has played a key role in helping C4L maximise its potential in a growing market place.
The goal of FastGrowth Services is to assist its clients to triple their company value in three years. It is a claim substantiated by Hawkins, who explains: “Three years ago, we employed 14 staff and had a turnover of £1.5m, providing services to 150 customers. We now employ over 40 staff, have a turnover approaching £8m and provide services to 540 customers across the UK.
“Our success is in part as a result of the natural boom in companies recognising the bottom line and disaster recovery benefits of hosting their data in a centre such as ours. However, attendance at Vector Boards and the invaluable GOLD one-to-one mentoring has given me the focus, drive and positioning I needed for my business not just to succeed, but to excel in this growing marketplace.”
Vector Boards have had a profound strategic impact on C4L, triggering many ‘Eureka’ moments. Hawkins cites the significance of support from other Vector members and attendance at honest, open and confidential forums to discuss problems and successes of each other’s businesses as a key factor in its success.
At Vector meetings, each FastGrowth Strategy Workshop focuses on one area to assist the business in achieving its goals and also provides the tools to see them realised back in the office. The result has been an increase in sales, improvement on the percentage of the overall operating profit and the transformation of the company’s value multiplier.
Hawkins also extols the value of one-to-one mentoring, which he says has proved crucial to the growing business: “Tackling strategic issues at timely intervals for the development of key elements, such as marketing strategy, team management and reporting have helped to consolidate the company for further growth. It is my intention to more than double C4L’s current turnover in 2012 to £18m and establish an international presence. It is a vision inspired by Vector Boards and one which is wholly attainable, because we now have the strategy and tools to achieve it.”
Christopher Bayliss, Managing Director at FastGrowth Services Ltd said: “C4L is a prime example of what can be achieved from our Vector Boards and GOLD Mentoring. Over the past 5 years we have assisted more than 50 companies in Southern England to more than triple their value in 3 years”.
