Furniture company finds fresh new focus

Emmanuelle first heard about the Help to Grow: Management Course from Leeds Beckett University, signing up for its September 2023 cohort. 

At that time the business was approaching the £1m turnover mark and had a goal to surpass that in the following year. It had also recently created a leadership team of three people. 

“I felt it would be really beneficial for me, to take a step back from the day-to-day running of the business, to think about our processes, how we managed our staff, and to acquire some language and a way of thinking to enable us to have those conversations about what growth really meant for us.”  

Emmanuelle is in no doubt about the most useful aspects of the course. 

“Being in the same room with other businesses of different sizes and experiences was brilliant. Everybody had insights that were helpful for others, and it was a really supportive atmosphere. 

“I enjoyed the fact the course is so varied too. It really is a 360-degree look at all parts of your business.” 

The strategy module also proved invaluable to the company. 

“It wasn’t that we never thought about strategy before, but it was always this kind of woolly thing that we didn’t really know how to grab hold of. 

“During the course I learnt things that I could immediately take to my leadership team and say, ‘This is how we need to think’, and we’ve never stopped thinking since then! If you can get your whole team on the same page and you have a common language, you’re able to think about your business in a more profound way.” 

With this renewed strategy came greater clarity and focus. 

“Because we work across so many different sectors, I think it was sometimes quite hard for us to identify any kind of mission, but the course helped me to bring all the strands of the business together. 

“It made us focus on what the common theme is for all our customers. Ultimately, we provide a service, and that service is transforming design into products that people can sell, and that’s really been our guiding idea since then.” 

Emmanuelle says the results of this clarity have been better communication and easier decision-making.  

“It's helped us decide what we're going to do and, more importantly, not do. As a small business, the tendency can be to say yes to everything, so it's helped us become really focused.” 

This, in turn, has led to the ability to communicate more effectively with the company’s leadership team, who were all relatively new in their roles when Emmanuelle completed the course. 

“I was able to run workshops with them based on learnings from the course and help them feel confident to operate as a leadership team without me, to make decisions and propose ways forward, knowing that we’re all working from the same plan.” 

Emmanuelle cites the Business Canvas Model, explored in the strategy module, as one of the most helpful learnings from the course. 

“If you don't have structure, sometimes you can just talk forever and never do anything. Whereas this model allows you to say, ‘Okay, let's change that bit and then see what that does.’ You don't have to completely remodel your business straightaway.” 

The improvements in communication have extended to customers, with the business now having the confidence to attend more networking and other events, including the Clerkenwell Design Week in London – one of the UK’s biggest shows for furniture designers and manufacturers. 

“We’ve also been using the Bain pyramid, to help us look at how we meet the needs of our customers. What is it that we bring to the relationship? What do our customers value about us? When you do B2B, you tend to think about businesses, but in fact, you’re still dealing with people in those businesses, rather than the business itself.” 

Following these changes, there have been improvements in the company’s financials, with turnover now surpassing the £1m mark (£1.1m), and revenue coming from a wider range of clients. 

“We were aware we had become quite dependent on one large company for a large proportion of our work, so a key target in our strategy was to diversify our customer base. 

“In this past financial year, we can really see that we have more diversity in customers and the turnover with them is growing too. This shows us we are attracting clients that are a better, more profitable, fit for us.”  

Plans to increase turnover on Dovetailors’ own products are already yielding fruit with sales in this area rising since Design Week.  As a result, expansion is on the horizon with plans to move into larger premises which will enable the company to purchase more machinery and employ more staff.  

While Emmanuelle acknowledges that finding the time to take part in the Help to Grow: Management Course was daunting, the business has benefitted from it in so many ways that she is now considering sending a member of her team on the course. 

“Yes, it’s time consuming, and yes, it can be a bit scary to think of starting something new like this, but I think it's really good to see from the other business leaders on the course, that ultimately, no matter what size or shape of business, we're all struggling with similar issues.  

“It’s definitely one of the most valuable programmes I've done as a business leader.” 

Find out how the Help to Grow: Management Course can further your business here.