Entrepreneur Adam Whitehouse is the brainchild behind technology repair specialist TMT First.
The 48-year-old started the business in 2006 and today leads a team of more than 120 staff as company chief executive.
Here, as part of our How I Made It series on BusinessLive, Adam tells us how he started the Newcastle-under-Lyme business and reveals what the future holds for the company.
How did your career first start?
My first business was called The Mobile Trader. It was a shop which bought phones from consumers, tidied them up, reset them and sold them on. That business grew to a chain of five and TMT First was born out of and named after that business.
TMT First is an authorised Samsung repair centre. We carry out repairs on phones, tablets, laptops and wearables for consumers as well as businesses at our on-site repair centre. We also carry out secure data wipe, configuration, customisation, and quality control services. Our mission statement is 'keeping consumer technology alive for longer.'
What was your 'eureka moment' when you realised you had a good business?
A member of John Caudwell's team came into the Mobile Trader shop and needed a solution to a problem they'd encountered with some mobile phone software. I was able to deliver the solution and it meant, as a business, I was helping with large volumes of phones – often 10,000's at a time. It was at that point I realised that there was a market to support with large volume mobile phone configuration and that was where the seed was sewn to set up TMT First.
With the beauty of hindsight, what would you tell your younger self when you were starting out?
Realise that everyone in business has the same kind of problems which we all have to figure out along the way.
To be more careful in terms of who you trust – certainly when you're first starting out in business; inexperience sometimes means you put trust and faith in people you shouldn't.
Lastly, bring in the right people around you. Have teams who are better at their roles than you would be and let them be great at what they do. That gives you the peace of mind to be able to do your role with a fantastic team behind you.
What does the future hold?
Our aim is growth but not at the environment's expense. It's more important than ever to protect it, whilst being as economically sustainable as possible. That's at the very core of TMT's values. We want to help keep technology alive for longer, it's better for the planet and the consumer. Eighty per cent of carbon generated in a mobile phone's life is generated during the manufacturing process – if we can extend the life of a device from two to four-plus years, it better for everyone's pockets and for the environment.
A lot of our development going forward is focused around sustainability.
If you weren't running your businesses, what would you be doing?
I'd tell myself to get fitter and I'd certainly spend more time with my family.
I've worked for myself for so long now that I might struggle to work for someone else. I would like to use my experience to mentor other business owners in the tech space.
Who is your role model in business?
I don't know that I have a specific role model. I certainly respect and admire people who have built businesses that make a real difference, whether that's from a philanthropic or environmental perspective. I love to see people who have a great idea follow it through to successful delivery.
Which business or business person is getting you excited at the moment?
What Tesla have done is amazing. They entered a marketplace and changed it for the better. They're not just about manufacturing electric cars now – they're bringing clean and renewable energy into people's homes through solar power and home battery packs. They're essentially leading the way.
Finally, which business idea do you wish you had had?
I already have so many ideas that I've not yet had time to try. I admire entrepreneurs that have found a niche, gone with it and haven't been afraid to disrupt a market. Every successful business owner will have failed at some time. Fail fast, move on and have the drive to be successful next time.
