Kevin’s initial business model was for a service manufacturing and repairing industrial gear boxes, based on the skills he’d acquired at his previous job and during his degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Glamorgan. He then contacted Business Support Wales who assigned him a Graduate Start Up business mentor.

Cover all your bases before you begin trading. Do plenty of pre-launch marketing to get your name out there and establish some early customer interest.

Kevin Roberts - FK7 Ltd

The FK7 website went live two months before Kevin actually started trading. But during this time he received countless phone calls asking if his service covered general automotive repairs as well as transmissions. “I reckon I had to turn down approximately £2k worth of work,” explains Kevin, “it was then that I realised I needed to diversify my service offer.”

And it was just as well he did as the industrial transmissions sector has been badly affected by the recession; Kevin believes FK7 might not have survived if he hadn’t adapted his business model. “It’s been a challenge but it was vital that I took it on.” The main hurdle was meeting the additional costs.

Fortunately, Kevin received a Graduate Start-Up bursary which financially supported the business during this change of direction and, now that 80% of his business is given over to fleet vehicle maintenance, Kevin is pretty happy he took the risk.

“Business Support Wales helped me organise my ideas into a coherent business plan with regimented cash flow forecasts. It was great to know the person on the end of the phone remembered all about me and my business. I didn’t have to explain it every time!”