When people see a successful business they will often ask what has made it so and in my experience similar patterns emerge no matter what the nature of that business is.

A set of ‘ingredients’ will be present which combine to form an entity that is capable of generating ideas, directing those ideas into something tangible and marketable and then running in a financially sustainable way which is able to grow freely.

Being raised in a practical home with a father who loved woodwork and all things creative meant that my brother John and I were predisposed to making things from an early age.

Despite this, we attended university and headed down the path of finding a career as we assumed this was the right thing to do if you wanted to secure a decent job.

However, studying locally meant we were able to spend time at home building a wooden boat that we would eventually find a buyer for.

This was followed by selling everything that was not nailed down, remortgaging our parents’ home and building another larger boat.

There followed a period of several years where we managed to cover our costs provided we didn’t pay ourselves.

The turning point came when we looked at the jet tender market (waterjet-powered yacht tenders) and decided that we could do a better job of what was then available from other companies.

Partnering with Roy Parker, a contact we had made whilst building wooden boats, we designed a range of tenders which eventually became the world’s leading product in this sector.

We put together the basic ingredients needed to start any successful business: having a market opportunity — in this case by spotting a sleepy (usually larger) market leader; developing an innovative (or simply better) product and funding the business sufficiently to catapult yourself into a serious player before the competition can react.

Soon the garden shed had been replaced by a factory employing 40 people and building 900 boats a year.

Continuous development has seen us introduce several new models, set up an international network of 40 dedicated dealers and work with many of the world’s largest yacht builders to ensure our tenders fit their yachts.

Our list of customers includes many famous names — we are due to deliver one of our new diesel powered tenders to a member of the Ferrari family although not in red!

And last year we were honoured with the Queen’s Award for Export.

Through this period of consolidation and growth we have developed a core team of people who share our passion and belief.

Without this vital ingredient no business will progress. Finding these team members has often been a difficult journey, not merely as there are few boat builders in rural Oxfordshire.

Like many businesses we have looked to the enthusiasm and can-do attitude of Eastern European workers, but we have also partnered with local school children to give work experience to pupils who will benefit from a more practically based education.

It is vital that we encourage more of our young people to see a future in engineering and manufacturing and as we are now seeing a shift in the global economy, it is no longer a given that these skills should be sourced in another country half way round the world.

Running the business today is obviously very different to when we started, but our passion for continued growth and improvement is as strong as ever.

We are acutely aware of the absolute focus required to maintain and grow market share and whilst we could have diverted resources into products outside our core business, particularly during the worst of the economic crisis in 2008/2009, we chose to concentrate on product improvement and expanding our range.

This investment proved to be the right decision, strengthening our market presence and setting us up for further expansion as the global economy goes through the early stages of recovery.

Preparing for the inevitable ups and downs is another essential element of a successful business and having been hit by the worst recession in living memory during the early stages of our company’s life we have had to learn how to do this in a short period of time.

The underpinning is a tightly controlled financial structure, so you know exactly where you are at any given time.

It may seem obvious but there are many businesses that don’t have this information, or allow themselves to grow without ensuring financial clarity, this may be manageable in the good times but will quickly catch you out when times are tougher.

Our journey so far has been exciting, challenging, and full of hard work — in equal measure, but we are confident that we are well placed for a further wave of growth having constantly tended and adjusted the business along the way.

Get the basic set of ingredients right, keep referring back to them and not only will you be able to grow a sustainable business, but it will be a far smoother and more enjoyable experience.

n Contact: Williams Performance Tenders, 01865 341134 Web: www.williamsjettenders.com This page is co-ordinated by Oxford Innovation www.oxin.co.uk