Case study 2: Oakleafe Property Services

The client

Oakleafe Property Services Ltd is based at Midas Business Park, off Wantz Road in Dagenham. It is a small, long established family owned building and construction business, employing four people. They refurbish all types of domestic and commercial property and specialise in damage claims through insurance companies.

Through the BRM service the barriers to growth and business support needs were identified and discussed with the owners. Using the health check template the key issues affecting the business were identified. Then a simple but effective action plan was agreed and managed by the BRM service.

What support did they receive?

The BRM project identified opportunities and signposted the business to various support providers including:

• Gateway for Business: Support for a new emarketing programme, which included an upgrade of the website and training
• Train to Gain: A training needs analysis undertaken for all staff, which helped to identify
  ongoing development needs, which led to further training – attended at Construction Skills; Management Development
• Leadership and Management Grant – used to engage a business coach which has transformed the business
• East London Business Place : Tendering advice and company policies
• BRM : Investor in People accreditation pilot project
• Advice & support in the participation at B&D Annual business awards

What did they achieve?

In a period of 18 months since the first intervention Oakleafe Ltd has:

• Better vision of the future and business development through the strategy and marketing advice provided by the BRM project and other business support providers.
• An increase in customer enquiries through the updated website and e-marketing. Also the
  ability to understand the ongoing improvements that need to be made and the ability to track the number of enquiries.
• An improvement in managing staff and ensuring that safe practices are always used, through the construction skills management programme.
• Has been able to develop a full set of company policies and improve the way it operates through the use a business coach.
• ISO reaccreditation and IIP accreditation
• A number of awards at the recent Barking & Dagenham Business Awards: – Winner of Green Business – Winner of Customer Service – Runner up in Marketing Excellence – Runner up in Supporting Education, Training or Development

  Collectively, the management team acknowledge the multiple successes it has had due to BRM engagement and strongly feels that the profile of the firm has gone up locally and in their business circles and it strongly recommends businesses to take up the BRM business support.