Success Story - Shevek Pring & Tom Lowday

"From £300k to

£3.5 Million Turnover, 8 to 120 staff, & £1 Million additional assets in 4 years"

Tom & Shev were working very long hours, causing stress, sleepless nights. It meant they were not getting the quality time they wanted with their families. They felt like rabbits in headlights.

Now they created a business that provides life changing services to their clients that also gives them the lifestyle and quality time they want with their young families.

Book a Call

Tom

"My life feels good and balanced and I feel an amazing sense of pride about what we've achieved."

Shev

"It's been a big change. It definitely allows me to bring my best self to work as well, which is really important."

Shevek Pring

& Tom Lowday,

Co‑Founders - The Outdoors Group

Meet Ashley

Book a Call

Shevek & Tom's Success Story

Here's Tom & Shev's inspiring story of growing a purpose led business, profitable business that now has the foundations to expand over 500 staff with a turnover of £20 Million and provide life changing services to their clients.

Tom & Shev are now able to enjoy their time focusing on their health, their families and build an exciting purpose driven business.

1: What was your situation before working with John?

Shev:

We had a lot less staff at the time. We'd just opened our first school site and we had grown rapidly to about

35 staff from a very small team and we were kind of a little bit like a rabbit in the headlights. Having to get to grips with running a bigger organisation without really understanding the systems and processes behind it. And that's when we started kind of looking around for some help and stumbled upon you.

2: How did you feel running the

business as it was?

Shev:

It was more the stress than the hours because we were suddenly in a situation where we knew we didn't quite know what we were doing. So, we had a bit of an idea but you have those kind of step changes in business when suddenly the systems that you've always run don't work anymore.

So we knew that what we had been doing wouldn't work going forward and we didn't quite know how to get where we needed to get with those systems or processes. I think trying to run something that is quite innovative and visionary, that people don't really understand that well and then also not having the right systems in place leaves you feeling pretty lonely because you don't really have anywhere to turn and you know the stress is kind of all on your shoulders really. So yeah, we definitely kind of realised that the business was growing faster than we were and we needed to change that around really.

Tom:

Quite stressful because you've started and you've developed a business that you love and you're part of, in our case, part of the delivery team and that brings you a huge amount of enjoyment, but the actual running of the business is still going on in the background.

And then you're kind of torn between these two areas and it's learning how to step away and step back from your direct passion and move into being a business owner and getting that or putting that hat on for the first time. Just that, and not being divided between two places was easier to be just in one camp or the other but at that time where you're divided and super stressful.

3 : What did that situation prevent you from doing, and why was that a problem back then?

Shev:

When you've got a team of maybe eight people, you are the system. Everyone can come to you. You can hold all of those threads and then suddenly, we're a team of 35 plus and growing rapidly and not everyone knows you, you're not accessible. You can't hold it together in the same way. And so we ended up not being able to support people because the people weren't running the systems.

We were trying to run the systems, so that was the big kind of change that we needed to make because actually the systems needed to be there, the people needed to run the system, then we could support them better and we just found that actually that whole kind of element of support that staff needed to do something that was really quite new, just we weren't able to provide that in the way that people needed.

So without getting that right, you don't have a platform for growth. So you can have all the demand in the world, you can have, you know, people banging on your door trying to throw money your way it's not going to make any difference. Because you don't have a platform to be able to actually offer anything.

So that's what we worked out quite quickly, what we needed to do and that was what the next big step really was, was making sure we changed the way that we're operating to make that work.

Tom:

We couldn't get ahead with the strategy at that pace, you know. Things were growing, things were developing and the systems weren't holding the fort and that bogged us down. We couldn't release ourselves to do the proper planning and the care that needs to go into the detail. And so we were literally bogged down, so we had to change.

4: What kind of impact was that having on you
personally?

Tom:

Well, for me personally, at that time with 2 young kids, and you can't afford the kind of holidays that you want, and you have to budget very, very carefully because, everyone with kids knows how money can just evaporate. So, yeah, it was quite testing.

In terms of your time and your mental capacity, I think, as a business owner I found it very difficult to compartmentalise and switch off. So, when you've got a young family and you want to give them time and attention but your mind is still stuck trying to solve business issues and that kind of stuff.

Shev:

Yeah, I completely agree with a lot of that.

I think when you're very operational because you set it up from scratch you, the way you make the business financially viable, is you do more delivery, because that's what you know, that's in your skill set.

And the impact is that you're then doing all of the kind of back-end of the business stuff and stressing about it in your spare time. And you can't really give it the attention it needs. So you never quite get ahead of yourself.

And like Tom said that causes some stress and some sleepless nights and you don't get the quality time that you want with your family.

You know it is a difficult place to be you know, and then you know, in our case. kind of chuck massive growth on top of that, we had a few months of very intense stress. It's a nice problem to have when you're growing and you can see everything that you work for succeeding. But it felt like a long way out to kind of dig ourselves out of that. At the time it was very overwhelming for us for a little while.

5: What did you try to do to try and remedy some of these situations?

Shev:

We'd begun to put a management structure in place to try and separate ourselves out a little bit in order to work strategically. So, I think the nuts and bolts of it all were there, we understood the kind of the concepts of how the business needed to function.

What we hadn't done, though is connect the dots between all of those bits so we didn't have the processes behind it all that really gelled everyone together and made all of those different elements work in the way that they needed to.

So, we were halfway there and we'd got a decent idea of what we needed to do but we haven't necessarily implemented it fully.

Tom:

The other game changer was actually the physical space for me and Shev to get away from the humdrum, to get away from the …

“What about this? What about that?”

We needed to be able to focus otherwise we were always going to be focusing on other people's needs and agendas. And every time that happens, the business agenda comes second. And that needs to come first.

Every time we managed to have time together the business would start taking a leap forward. So we made time to focus strategically on the business.

6: What were your fears and concerns about business coaching and working with John?

Shev:

So I think the first concern was value for money. That might just be me being a bit of a cynic. But, coaching, mentoring, personality tests, psychometrics, all of these kind of tools, you know, there's a certain amount of cynicism that's there and you're thinking is it a gimmick? Because we've never actually experienced anything like that. We were completely new to that.

And we were still in the mindset of not having enough money and resources. We'd kind of grown but not got used to the growth so we didn't feel like the money was available. So it was a bit of a leap of faith to say we need something, we knew we needed something. We needed another perspective here and we're going to give it a go. That was initially definitely a concern.

Tom:

Yeah. I think, fear, because there are a lot of coaches out there and I think the way that they promote themselves can just be like quite corporate jargon.

And we're quite a down to earth, kind of rural, kind of rustic company, especially at that time. And it had to fit the culture of our company. And I think other coaches wouldn't have been the right fit.

7: Now you've been working with John, how has the situation changed?

Tom:

I can't remember the balance sheets exactly from four years ago. But, I think it was around the £1/2 Million mark (it was actually about £300k ). And now at the end of this financial year turnover is going to be around £3 – £3 1/2 Million.

In terms of personal income, we've now got what sounds like an average wage for a CEO in our area in our sector. So, I think that is a lot more comfortable.

Shev:

I'd echo everything Tom said. But also, I think the fact that we now have built those teams, we've got all of those experts sat around the table as part of the company management it is a massive platform.

Where we were four years ago to now is like a world apart. But from where we are now to say 500 employees and £20 Million turnover, the roadmap is much, much clearer.

Because we've got that platform, it is much easier to see how to get there. And that's really exciting.

And, you know, if you’d have said four years ago that I would be sat here in a position to be talking about that kind of turnover I would’ve said you're mad!

I wouldn't have believed that was possible. But now, we've got those systems, those processes, we've got the right people the right expertise involved and the difference that makes is just huge.

8: What have you stopped doing?

Shev:

No delivery. We visit sites on our own terms now rather than having to be part of the ratios or delivering anything. We still spend time on site and that's really important. We like to be there to support our staff and to see what our learners are getting up to but that's on our terms now. And I think that's been a really important change.

Tom:

I don't stress about the same things.

And I take pleasure in different elements and I feel an incredible like sense of pride when people have these opportunities and the learners are growing so you take your pleasure from a different place.

So, it’s not really stopping doing something, but your perspective on everything changes and it's nice to feel like you are a part of it. Some people take an immense amount of pleasure about their work and that is just really, really satisfying. Yeah, the joy.

Shev:

I think, the other side of what Tom was saying as well is that four years ago, every problem we encountered was personal.

They landed with us, whereas having those teams with that expertise the problems are the company's now rather than mine and Tom's personally. So, yes, there are concerns and there are stresses and all the rest of it, but it's not just us that are shouldering it, and I think that's been a big change too.

9: What have you started doing?

Tom:

I've started taking time off when I need it. It's given me that bit of time to be self-reflective.

I go and ride my bike or go for a quick walk on the moor and don't feel guilty about it.

And I think just kind of being the person I need to be to be a good director, a good business owner and that is actually part of my job is to be in a positive headspace. To realise that has been quite liberating because I've always felt guilty when you've got 100 and something staff all working really, really hard and you're like, actually, I'm going to go for a bike ride because that's actually going to help.

So it's really nice to be in that space now.

Shev:

So as well as everything that Tom said, which I completely agree with, the other big change for me is that I'm able to step back now and look at the problems I can solve that will have the biggest impact instead of firefighting. So I can fix things and stop them being problems again.

And that's been really gratifying getting to a point where I really feel like we can kind of draw a line through issues and move forward positively rather than just putting on sticking plasters or firefighting which is, when you're kind of in the thick of it and you're still kind of doing the operation as well that's all you've got time for, you never get ahead of itself. So that's been a big change.

I really enjoy that kind of deep level thinking and that big picture thinking. So that's been a real, a real positive for me to be able to get into doing what I do well and being able to contribute that to the company. I've really enjoyed that change.

10: What benefits do you now enjoy, and how does that make you feel?

Shev:

I definitely feel that that kind of work life balance is much more where it should be.

I’ve got a lot more time for my family, quality time, which is really nice. I've got the flexibility, both financially and time to be able to home educate my children now which is something that I've always wanted to do and never really been able to until now, so that's been huge. That's a big lifestyle change that I'm really enjoying.

The other thing that I’ve really enjoyed is that the business has a life of its own now. So, I feel like I can step away for extended periods and not worry. Before, I'd still try and go on holiday, I knew that I needed to but I'd be checking my emails every evening or be on call. I'd never really properly left the business.

Whereas now when I go away, I can switch my phone off and be confident that it will be fine and there are people in place that can deal with it. And that's been a really big change. And I've really enjoyed that.

Tom:

We are a “for purpose company”. We have vision, mission and values, and as Shev said, the company's becoming more of its own thing now. And to see it being able to move out into the world as its own entity and it doesn't require everything from us, but we're still maintaining our mission.

And one of the key things for me is about financial sustainability and creating sustainable jobs and environmental based jobs and engaging all those young people and we are really doing that. And I think there's an immense amount of pride in that.

It feels like we are a really positive influence in Devon and in the South West. And I feel immensely proud to be one of the like founding members of it. So yeah, that gives me a real buzz.

I've said to Shev:

“I can’t believe it. You know, this is all from our little dream. All those years ago and it's finally here"

It was an incredible feeling.

11: Where do you think you would be now, both in business and mentally, if you hadn’t started working with John?

Tom:

So I certainly don't think we would have grown as fast. I think eventually we'd have learned a lot of the lessons but it will be through making big mistakes and costly mistakes. So, we would not have grown as fast. I think that the journey would have been a lot more stressful because we've had to learn through mistakes rather than just you know, being held to account by you. Which is nice to have someone external to us holding us to account, encouraging us to take out those steps that we needed at each meeting we had. We always came out with a list of actions.

Without that strategy and that support we'd have floundered for a lot longer than we needed to. And I think, it’s very hard to quantify in kind of numbers. But in terms of like stress and productivity and everything like that it's a game changer.

Shev:

I agree with Tom I think the accountability and the outside perspective were massive. I think the other thing for me that was really good was just being presented with lots of business based tools and ideas. I remember when we started out we went through ranking our business against all these different metrics and we sat there and we went:

“These don't apply to us.”

But, six months later, we'd say:

"Oh, oh, that’s what it is”.

It started to fit into place. And it let us get ahead of the game a little bit and kind of see what was coming, and that was just so useful. When we had a problem, we had a toolkit and a language that we can go back to and to help solve it and we hadn't had that before and that was so valuable.

12: What excites you about the future and where do you see this going?

Shev:

So we're at a point where we’ve got all of the pieces of the puzzle for the school that we wanted to set up.

We've proved that it works and I think taking that forward is going to be really exciting, whether that's through more of the same and expanding the geographical reach or whether it's through training other teachers and working with further education and higher education and moving it into a research sphere. That really excites me.

I think every child in the country should be doing outdoor education and should have proper choice in education. And I think the real value in what we do is that we've proved that you can take a completely different educational philosophy and a completely different approach and get really amazing outcomes for learners. And that's huge. I'm really excited to see where that goes just as a concept. Who picks that up next and runs with it and where it goes next is going to be fascinating to see.

Tom:

I’d echo all of that. But also like to be able to follow other people's ideas. We have a great platform, and we have an incredible amount of talented staff.

There's some other educators out there, I think it'll be interesting to give them a platform and give people opportunities through this. So it's not necessarily about growing and expanding in terms of monetary but I think in terms of knowledge and creating a platform for other people to launch from I think would be really
exciting.

13: What would you say to someone else who's thinking about working with John?

Shev:

I'd say, “Take the leap”.

You will reach a point in your business where you need a different perspective, and you need that outside influence in order to kind of shape the next step. So embrace that. It is worrying, and can be quite scary. It can be a big leap, but I'd say absolutely take it, is the first thing.

And the second thing I'd say is, for me the big advantage of working with you was that you took the time to get to know our business. It wasn't just a formula. It was actually

"I'm going to understand what you're trying to do and what you're about, then try and help you on that journey rather than impose something."

That I really welcomed, that's exactly the approach that we needed. And I think when Tom said, not every coach would have worked for us, for me, that's what that was all about. I think if we’d have come along, and it was just really formulaic, I wouldn't have been interested in that.

The fact that you took the time to get to know us and the business, was the key in helping us move forward and take the steps we needed to. It really adds a lot of value to what you offer as a coach.

Tom:

You know, I would say work with John.

As a director it can be a lonely place. I think you need like a teammate, and it's really hard to get that from the people you're line managing. Get someone on your side, and John is your wingman, he’s your team player.

There have been a few times when we had group meetings with other business owners and some of the guys were almost in tears because John had called them and their business was on the edge and he would just drop everything and his schedule didn't matter because John actually cares about your business.

As Shev says, he gets to know your business and gets to know you as a person and what makes you tick, what drives you. He is actually a proper team player.

I think, you know, if you're not going with John, you've got to find someone that does that.

But I recommend John.