LOCAL HERO

You raise me up!

tarting your own business aged 19 might sound like a daunting prospect for most people, but Matthew Wiseman knew his own mind. Studying and sports – two key elements in most people’s school years – weren’t for him, so at 16 he joined the military. But it wasn’t the right choice, so he went straight into work at a local garage instead.

“Even though I was privately educated, I wasn’t really academic,” explains the founder of Wiseman Motor Services. “I was always mechanically minded. We lived on a working farm with a number of outbuildings and I’d been doing all sorts of manual jobs there since I was 12 years old. Whether it was lambing sheep or fixing tractors, that’s what I was more interested in. Even at that age, I had an absolute determination to be successful in what I do. I don’t really compete with others, but I’m certainly personally competitive.”

It didn’t take long for his personality and drive to push his career forward. He saw enough of his first boss giving the garage business a bad name that he decided after two years to go it alone.

However, it wasn’t the straightest of paths. While working as a tree surgeon during the day, Wiseman spent his evenings fixing cars and learning many of the lessons he still uses today.

“I was absolutely determined to create a business that people wanted,” he says. “We’re in a distressed sale industry and I wanted to make that experience as painless as possible for my customers.”

And it’s that determination that’s made Wiseman Motor Services a triumph.

How did your journey into the automotive sector begin?

Good communication and transparency. A customer recently told me he was quite picky about who he has working on his car. Because he’s an engineer, he knows what needs to be done when it goes wrong. He said he liked the fact he could trust us to do a good job. We don’t try and deceive anyone and we still make a living out of the business. We must offer a good service because some customers have been coming to us for every one of the 35 years that we’ve been in existence!

Has the vision for the business changed over time?

Not really. It’s never been a short-term money-making venture. This is a long-term project that’s lasted for 35 years, and I’ll probably keep at it for another 20. We have a couple of staff members who are becoming more involved in the running of the business, and will be a big part of its future. My son’s gone into teaching so he’s not necessarily interested, but these two are of a similar age and place in their lives to him.

“WE STARTED OFF WITH ONE OF THE FARM’S BUILDINGS AND NOW IT’S SIX TIMES THE SIZE OF THAT. WE KEPT DOUBLING THE SIZE AND SPACE OVER A PERIOD OF TIME, AND NOW HAVE NINE RAMPS, WHICH ARE ALWAYS FULL”

Since its origins as a separate division of Autotech Group, Autotech Training has witnessed significant growth and is now a company in its own right with a growing team at the helm