Marc Smith is the managing partner of Gosport-based GHS Group Ltd, who provide plumbing, heating and electrical services to the commercial and domestic markets. The business is known for its proper, old-fashioned values, and ‘Good Honest Service’.
Originally from the Midlands, Marc didn’t have a clear idea of what he wanted to do when he left school. A careers computer programme suggested landscape gardening, but he didn’t fancy that at the time, so he went to work for ASDA supermarket instead, going on to become their youngest ever manager, and being awarded national ‘Manager of the Year’.
At the age of 22, Marc had an epiphany. He didn’t want to become a retail robot, and when the Government brought in Sunday trading, he wasn’t ready to give up his Sunday windsurfing and kitesurfing. He left, and found a job working on a 65ft Swan sailing yacht, spending the next couple of years sailing around Europe, until he was hit by the yacht’s boom one day, and broke his shoulder.
Marc found out that day how expendable he was, and returned home to find a more secure job and way of life. He married, started a family, and eventually set up a business partnership with a colleague. This lasted for around a decade, until a reality check one day prompted him to walk away and start again.
He joined his father-in-law’s plumbing and heating company in a role focused on business development, and with just a laptop and a phone, he began to bring in new work. In 2015 he finally decided to go solo, launching The GHS Group Ltd.
Marc has always worked hard, but he’s also been clear on what was most important to him – protecting his work/life balance and being there for his family. As an example, he’s made sure he always attended school sports days, believing that if you can’t find two hours out of your life to cheer your children on, there’s something wrong. If he’s ever had to attend weekend callouts because no-one else has been available, he’s found ways of making it up to his family with some kind of a treat the following week.
When lockdown first happened, Marc experienced panic and helplessness as he watched everything, he’d worked hard to build up over the years start to disappear. £70,000 worth of purchase orders were cancelled within days, and he was left with just three boiler services in the pipeline.
After a period of time in shock, sitting in his office and wondering what he was going to do next, his survival instinct began to kick in. His staff had all been furloughed at this stage, and he began to think about how he could streamline and develop the business, and use the opportunity to develop his team too. Weekly team Zoom calls were set up on a voluntary basis to keep communication and connection going, and everyone turned up. They also ran online social events such as quizzes and an escape room, to help with morale.
A friend had encouraged Marc in the early days of lockdown to “Think like a start-up”, taking everything back to basics as if he were starting again from scratch. This gave him a fresh outlook, forcing him to think creatively and innovatively about how he could proceed. He invested in new systems, and began to add content to the business’s website and social media channels. This had the effect of reminding people that the business was still there, as well as helping to advise how they could help themselves when they couldn’t call an engineer out. Marc’s HR manager created some content aimed at apprentices too, offering advice and guidance around presenting themselves professionally when looking for work – all for free. The content was shared widely, helping to raise brand awareness and bring in new enquiries.
A lot of people and charities were struggling financially, and Marc decided he would set up The GHS Trust to help vulnerable people who couldn’t afford to get their boilers fixed. He was also able to raise funds for Havant based charity Music Fusion, and also to help Rowner Community Centre (who were producing ready meals for vulnerable people in Gosport) by fitting a new extraction unit for them free of charge when theirs developed a problem.
As restrictions began to be lifted, business from some clients and contracts started to return – in particular from pubs as they reopened, and also from domestic customers. Things picked up nicely, and Marc believes that he’ll look back on lockdown in retrospect and see that it helped to transform and benefit his business.
The lockdown period also caused Marc to reflect on his homelife. He realised that, whilst he had a beautiful home, it wasn’t well designed for home working and schooling. His children had actually adapted well in the circumstances, and he was proud of how hard they worked. He decided to convert some space upstairs into a proper study area for them, and he also built a home office for himself on a bit of land at the bottom of his garden, with some help from a friend. They are all set up for the future now, should anything like lockdown happen again.
As the saying goes, lockdown showed Marc that when life presents you with lemons, you can choose to make lemonade. He believes there’s no point in feeling sorry for yourself – that you have to look for the opportunities instead, and be prepared to start again from the basics. In his own words, “Gear up, and stay fluid”.
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