Deri Jones & Associates Ltd are an engineering consultancy supplying 3D CAD modelling and 3D laser scanning services – we work across the UK and Europe, predominantly in the marine sector, but applying our skills to everything from glaciers to aircraft. In a nutshell, we supply full sized Airfix kits for steel and aluminium boatbuilders to assemble, minimising costs, or use laser scanners to reverse engineer existing structures.

I started the business to enable me to live in a beautiful part of Wales – options for employment were limited at the time and having managed a company prior to setting up, I was aware of some of the challenges I’d face and had some of the skills required. I had a good understanding of how the internet could be harnessed to enable working remotely from my clients and their suppliers, which allowed us to gain customers across the world.

I've always enjoyed engineering since childhood and the problem solving skills transfer well to running the business. Client phone calls asking “Can you figure out how to do this?....” are what provides the challenges I enjoy. 

The largest issue for a small company based in Mid Wales is for clients to get over the idea that you need to be in their back yard to provide a good service. We’ve found that by concentrating on specialist skills and good use of IT we can gain clients worldwide – it isn’t relevant to the customer if you are in Machynlleth or Cardiff when they are in New Zealand and the project you are working on is under construction in the south of France.

My favourite part of the job is deciding which projects we take on and seeing where the project takes us and what challenges we face. Writing risk assessments for dealing with Polar Bears, or spending several days living on a Gas tanker are part of some of the projects we’ve been involved with, so you never know what the next phone call might bring.

My top tip would be "Have absolute faith in your ideas – if you don’t, no one else will".

Never think that you are too small to try and win work against large companies– often a more agile and bespoke solution works better than a large company’s “this is how we do it……” approach, giving you the edge.