IN THE SPOTLIGHT focused on work, but we try to make time where we completely switch off and focus 100% on family. But we are working towards shared goals that benefit our family as a whole, so even if the ‘balance’ feels a bit off occasionally, it’s worth it. Q. Tell us about the ethos of your business and dedication to customer service and client retention in these challenging times: We have a very clear ethos and reputation, and we always say that #TeamRhino is our culture, not just a hashtag. When we first started the business we were determined to only work in ways that made us happy, including the people we work with and clients we work for, and that has continued as we’ve grown. People who know us will know our not-suitable-for-print mantra (we don’t work with d***s), which is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek way of demonstrating our integrity and values. We have a reputation for being proactive, dynamic, and solution-focussed, so our clients have full trust and confidence in us. By putting our clients’ needs at the centre of everything we do, we maintain outstanding client retention rates and have grown from just 12 clients when we started in 2015 to over 17 retained clients just six years later. Q. You are a long-standing Chamber member and now a Premium member, enjoying branding and promotional opportunities, have you found this useful? Our involvement with the Chamber has been invaluable since we started the business, both from the perspective of the exposure we’ve received and also the support the Chamber give us as a growing business. We have explored various advertising and marketing opportunities in other areas, but the work we do with the Chamber is by far the most effective. Because they work with such a wide range of companies, they know exactly the best ways to get your message across, and this has been incredibly useful for us. Likewise, the connections we have made and relationships we have built with the Chamber’s support have been excellent. We’d recommend it to anyone thinking of joining or upgrading their membership.
Q. Rhino Safety has grown into an international success story, tell us about some of the sectors you work with: To many of our clients, we are effectively their outsourced health and safety department. We work with such a wide range of clients, from offices to airlines, construction sites to ice cream factories, and everything in between; so our knowledge and experience covers a huge spectrum of compliance legislation. We now have a number of large clients with multiple premises and sites located around the world, but H&S in the UK is seen as the ‘gold standard’, so they often want us to replicate their UK operations elsewhere, whilst still complying with local legislation. Health and safety has a reputation for being boring and dry, but working with so many different clients keeps every day interesting for us, so we can approach it with enthusiasm and energy. Q. You have recently introduced a new arm to the business with accredited training, how is that going? We originally focused on health and safety consultancy as that is where our skills and experience lay, but we were always very aware that training was something our clients could get huge benefit from. Around four years ago we added an online training portal to our website that enables people to access high quality basic training, but accredited training (such as First Aid and Fire Safety) was something we always wanted to develop. At the end of 2020, the opportunity to acquire two established training providers arose, so we took the leap, even though face-to-face training was very limited due to the pandemic. However, it has taken off brilliantly, and we have already established a very full training calendar throughout the year, so much so that we have taken on a new larger office alongside a bespoke training suite at our base in the Edwin Foden Centre in Sandbach. Q. How do you like to spend your spare time? We walk our two rescue dogs together and have recently bought a lodge in the Lake District which we’re looking forward to exploring! Cate is a lifelong fan of the Alex (Crewe Alexandra), and Simon is a die-hard Leeds Rhinos fan, so we’re often arguing over whether to watch the
football or the rugby! Both of our daughters play football for Sandbach United, so weekends feel sporty, even though it’s mostly observation rather than participation. We also love to binge-watch boxsets and Marvel films, and can often be found indulging our inner geeks with Lego sets. Q. You sound very busy, but you have another business as well, Roar Business Coaching. What is that about? When we set up Rhino we received a huge amount of support from so many other business owners, many of them fellow Chamber contacts. We’ve always been so grateful of that and wanted to be able to do the same for others. After experiencing a business Mastermind ourselves in 2018, we realised that there wasn’t anything similar being offered locally, so we decided to set one up ourselves! Roar offers business coaching, with its main service being a monthly Mastermind membership where business leaders can get together to work through their issues, set themselves targets, and celebrate their achievements. It’s a really exciting and supportive group, and we get as much from it as our members do. Q. What would you say is your greatest achievement to date? Our path to business ownership was not a smooth one, and we’ve gone through some extremely turbulent times and had to make difficult decisions. We think our biggest achievement is remaining true to our values and goals and building a team and company that we are genuinely proud of. We are grateful every day for the successes we experience. Q. What’s next for Rhino Safety? More expansion! We’ve just bought out a fire safety company in Blackpool, and are recruiting for more Health & Safety consultants, so growth is continuous for us. We have always been ambitious and set ourselves audacious goals to see what we can achieve. Seeing our plans come to fruition is incredibly satisfying. _ For further information on Rhino Safety call: 01270 440 341 or email: info@rhinosafety.co.uk
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