I get up around seven in the morning and I'm normally in the showroom by about eight ready to open at nine. We have to be here early to sort out the fitters before any customers arrive. I used to open at seven but people don't want you arriving at that time. They're still in their dressing gowns and haven't had chance to use the bathroom you're about to rip out.

We set up in 1994 and have a turnover of about £500,000. I live about three miles away from the shop and usually drive in although I've also got a store at home. I used to keep all the vans there too.

We're a small family business; only three of us are full-time including my son Matthew. We used to have six fitters but now we sub-contract out. The new legislation on that does affect us. If you've got good fitters you want to hang on to them. Problem is they don't want to be employed. It makes deciding who you put on your books and who you don't difficult.

The showroom is on a small industrial estate near the town centre. We mainly do bathrooms although we've just diversified into kitchens; we sold our first one this week. We're getting quite a few competitors springing up like Bathstore and Plumb Center so you've got to make sure you get a decent slice of the cake.
People call us the Tardis because there's more to us than meets the eye; we have about 14 bathroom displays. On a typical day I'll be in the showroom. I think of myself as a pretty hands-on director, on the front line. If anybody has any issues I'm always there.

Upmarket
Our showroom is a bit different; it's higher quality than you get elsewhere round here. We supply products like Teuco and Laufen. We also do Keramag furniture and are a main dealer for Vitra and Kermi. Our most popular products, believe or not, are things like soft close and removable seats which are still new to a lot of people. Generally we don't get too many problems with our suppliers and products are unlikely to be damaged. The headaches come when they're not boxed.

Once we've sorted the fitters out, I'll normally be chasing and processing orders and making sure everything is in place for bathrooms we're about to start work on. Matthew will be looking to get us new business, and I'll be working on the enquiries that we've already turned into orders - processing them and checking invoices. I'll also be writing and updating price books and making sure the showroom is up-to-date with pricing. Some days I might be developing internal promotions, or talking to suppliers, or sorting out returns. There's always something to do. A lot of my time is also spent talking to reps. I might have a dozen of them coming through the store during the course of a day.

We grab lunch on the way through, we don't close, and I'm often here until six or seven. On the other hand, Matthew is out a lot, his main role is overseeing a lot of the fitting work.

One of the problems I face is getting customers to come in together and make a decision. I've just been talking to a guy whose wife sent him in to choose some tiles, but you know for a fact he'll need his wife to come in before he can buy them.

Quiet life
Business is a bit up and down and the reps tell us it's generally pretty quiet out there. But we're not really geared up for volume anyway. If 20 people came in the shop we'd think they'd been a fire somewhere else. Saturday is the busiest day; you can get 10 customers at a time.

We used to have a trade counter, but now I try to give the store more of a boutique feel. I put on the soft music and let them browse. We also get a good level of phone enquiries. We're pretty up-to-date with the latest systems - we have Virtual World software and an EasyQuote business system that ties everything together.

I describe our customers as 'headless chickens' because they don't really know what they're looking at. They don't want you to approach them because they feel threatened. They don't understand the products, and there are so many these days.

Normally I close at about 5.30pm but it depends. If someone comes in at the last minute we'll wait until they've had a look round. When it's your own business you can do that. Last Friday I left at the normal time, but ended up being here until 11pm mending the floor of a van.

When I'm not in the showroom, I'm normally in the garden or on the internet, that kind of thing. I've got a pretty large garden so I spend a lot of time there. I'm 59 this year, but I'm not about to hand over the reins just yet. We've extended the shop four or five times so the next step would be to switch premises. The sites aren't really suitable at the moment but we'll keep looking.

Top Tap
Nelson Way
Boston
Lincs
PE21 8TS
(01205) 354545