My Toughest

Decision

LEAVING a company, and not in the best of circumstances, can be a harrowing experience for many. For others it is just the push they need to carve out their own career, as John Quinn, of FasCo Engineers Supply, explains.

THE toughest decision I have taken was to quit my job and set up on my own. It meant putting everything I had on the line, but what eventually made it all worthwhile was being able to return to my former employers 12 years later and buy them out.

I had been sales director of FasCo Distribution, which dealt in supplies for engineering firms, for six years when we parted company in 1986. It was not amicable. We had a serious disagreement over company policy.

Starting up on my own had always been at the back of my mind and leaving the job gave me the push I needed.

I started my own engineering supplies company, called Hi-Fas, from my garage. I was working alone, going flat out seven days a week, but to say I was nervous would be an understatement. Not having a regular pay packet was very difficult to come to terms with.

My experience quickly helped me to find my feet. By the end of the first year I was fortunate to have picked up a couple of large contracts and was able to move into premises in Stirling Enterprise Park and take on my first employees.

I can remember saying to our auditor that it would be nice to go back and buy out my former employer, but the paths of the two companies never really crossed in the years that followed.

My own business was growing and had moved from a 1500 sq ft warehouse to one four times that size. By 1998, turnover had reached #3m and it was time for expansion.

Then last year I bumped into one of the FasCo directors at a golf club. He told me that one of his colleagues wanted to retire and no agreement could be reached about how to

re-distribute the shareholding. I left him with the throwaway remark that ''maybe it would be better if I bought the company out.''

It must have struck a chord because it resulted in meetings which culminated in an offer for me to buy them out.

At the time, I can remember sitting in their boardroom and thinking to myself that even if my offer was turned down I would still be happy.

In the intervening 12 years I had gone away and made a success on my own. Just to be able to make the offer gave me great personal satisfaction.

Fortunately, the offer was accepted and the new company, FasCo Engineers Supply, instantly became the largest independent company of its kind, with depots as far north as Shetland.

Parting company with your employer is the sort of thing that happens every day in business, often with disastrous consequences for the individual involved, but in my case it turned out to be the best move I ever made.

p John Quinn was speaking to

Stuart Paul of Paisley University.