If We Can, You Can

Author:

Eddie Czestochowski

Business:

Cell Pack Solutions

Published:

12/11/2008 11:40:00

I’m not what you would call a naturally clever person; nor am I a Richard Branson. I suppose I’m a living example that ordinary people can do this sort of thing, and I’m always trying to encourage that message.

My parents were immigrants to England after the war, and I had a fairly quiet upbringing. My life began really when I went to college- I went to Manchester Polytechnic to study Electronic Engineering.

I got through the course by just working very hard; that’s the way I’ve got through everything in life really. When I left college I went to work for a company in Oldham. I was there for nine months until I got made redundant.

I spent three months in internal sales, three months in external sales, and then three months in a factory environment. I thought I was on some sort of management project which the company had planned for me, but as it turned out the company was going under and they were just shifting me around to fill spaces.

I went on holiday for a couple of weeks to clear my head, and when I came back I joined a recruitment agency and got a job selling batteries. I spent four years there, four years in another battery company, and four years in another battery company.

The way my career went was that I got a job, after a year or two I knew it back to front and pushed for promotion but didn’t get it. I then looked for a new job because I felt that everything I was doing wasn’t being appreciated. I did that three times, and by the fourth time I said to myself, I don’t think I’m going to be able to crack this.

So I decided to set up for myself. I took a little unit in Jarrow, 150 square foot, and set up Cell Pack solutions. We make custom battery packs, and essentially what we do is solve problems for other manufacturers; they may be making a piece of equipment that requires a battery to fit a certain space or size, and we help to solve that problem.

Over the years we’ve developed another side to the business where we supply batteries to all sorts of everyday applications, such as dog collars or blood sugar monitors. After ten years with the business, its something that I still love doing.

But at no time did I ever think I was going to set up my own business until it actually happened; I never had any massive plan. But I’d spent 12 years doing it for other businesses, so I knew that I could do it for myself.

I started from scratch though; a blank piece of paper. I began by repairing odd bits of equipment, but then I started to work on bigger projects and I took on a couple of people to help me. The business has grown from there and we now employ 15 people.

Our growth has been measured though. One bit of advice I would say to people is to not rush things- make sure your bases are strong so that you can grow securely and effectively.

I’m at a point now where I really want to move the business forward. We’ve just turned over our first million, but I don’t want to take another ten years to turn over our second. Saying that though, I’ve never chased turnover for turnover’s sake; it’s more important to maintain reasonable profit margins.

I feel I’ve got the infrastructure around me now, and I feel more confident within myself to take the business to new heights. Also, I want the buzz of starting something new again.

Being your own boss- it does tend to take over your life, so there are sacrifices. But the fact is if you’re doing something for yourself, in more cases than not, you’re going to really enjoy it.

It actually makes me quite sad to think that people are out there, stuck in jobs that they don’t like doing but they think they can’t do anything else. There are always opportunities out there, and people can waste their lives by not considering them.

I’m able to see my kids more often than when I was working for somebody else. I used to travel for three or four days at a time at someone else’s beck and call. Now, I can come home whenever I want. That does mean that I sometimes work at the weekend, but my family comes first and my work can fit around them.

The challenges I faced after I made the decision were pretty huge. I had no credit history with anybody, so I had to ask for it. That wasn’t a success, so virtually all my business was done on a pro- forma basis.

What I’ve found is that if you ask for help, people tend to give it to you. I went to companies and told them I was starting a new business, and I was looking to quote for them. But I needed paying up front.

In a fair few cases, people were willing to take the risk with me because I persuaded them that I could do a good job. One supplier in particular, an Israeli company, we’re now classed as one of their top distributors in the UK. A year or two ago they invited me across to Israel for their international sales conference (all expenses paid!) which was a brilliant experience.

Once I started to get a bit of money behind me, I was able to pay my suppliers up front; over time we built up a relationship, they started to give me credit, and things rolled on from there.

Suddenly I was getting quite significant pieces of work, and I was in this 150 square foot unit in a business centre. I was soon out of space. So in the evenings we would fill the corridors with tables and set up production there when nobody else was around.

I think you have to be resourceful when you’re in business; you have to find ways around any challenges you come up against. Always look for the next opportunity- never stand still.

I think you get two types of business people- the kind that just get their heads down and they’re not really interested in the outside world; they worry about their own thing. And then there’s the other kind, who want to pass on their experiences to other people.

Personally, I love to mix with people that have the same kind of ideas and ambitions- we’ve all got the same problems, we’ve all got the same issues, but we can share those issues and help each other out.