Colourful move by a glass act

Tired of endless meetings, Wellington businessman Mike Anders wanted a change, and he’s already making a splash.

Mike Anders has the gift of the gab when it comes to business but he has turned his back on the corporate world to do what he loves most – work at the coalface.

It all began when Mr Anders set up Wellington company Mike’s Glass 24 years ago, just five years after finishing his apprenticeship as a glazier.

Mike’s Glass quickly grew to a team of 12, largely due to the amount of after-hours work he took on.

“I wanted to be successful and I knew after-hours work was where the money was so I took it. No one else wanted to get of bed and do it. We were working seven-days-a-week, 24-hours a day,” Mr Anders says.

“I still remember sitting in my little van at the lights thinking ‘I want to be a serious contender in the Wellington market, I want to have a company that people recognise and remember’. That was what I pushed for and I achieved that.”

But Mr Anders didn’t expect Mike’s Glass to flourish so soon, nor did he expect to become so involved in setting up a host of other companies that also dealt in glass.

While on the tools at Mike’s Glass, he helped to form a new company to take on national flat glass contracts for insurance companies, a company that now turns over millions a year.

He also had a hand in setting up two other firms and bought out a further two companies.

It’s a lot to take in and it all sounds very confusing, but none of that matters now – Mr Anders doesn’t own any of those companies any more.

He decided to call it quits last year when he realised he’d become so caught up in the corporate world he’d lost sight of what he really likes to do – work on the tools.

“I was earning lots of money but I wasn’t getting any job satisfaction. I was always tied up in meetings, board meetings, budget meetings, meetings about meetings. I got tired of it.

“The people were great that I worked with, but it wasn’t for me. I’m not a corporate person. I hated school, I hate processes. I’m not an academic, I’m a manual-based person, I like working at the coalface.”

So Mr Anders sold up and set out along a new career path that would bring him back to the coalface – manufacturing and installing splashbacks.

Together with good friend Jim Upward, who had also tired of the corporate structure, he set up Upper Hutt-based firm Colorit in January.

For those who don’t know what a splashback is, it’s the back-coated glass painted the customer’s choice of colour and baked after being sprayed on toughened or annealed glass. It’s a field that neither Mr Anders nor Mr Upward knew much about till Mr Anders bumped into an old contact of his late last year.

And it just so happened that this contact had formulated the paint that goes on glass used for splashbacks.

It wasn’t long before Mr Anders and Mr Upward were on their way to Christchurch to visit him, followed by a trip to Auckland to meet his paint supplier.

After drawing up the contract, the Auckland supplier who owns the name Graphic Glass flew to Wellington to give Mr Anders and Mr Upward intensive training on how to make splashbacks.

“If you paint glass it won’t stick, so what they have formulated is a way to get the paint on to the glass. You back it on to the glass and it adheres to it and works really well. It’s fantastic,” Mr Anders says.

Once the pair were ready to open shop they began door-knocking to drum up business, visiting joinery firms, building firms – anyone who might have a use for splashbacks.

It wasn’t long before the jobs started trickling in and now, eight months down the track, Mr Anders and Mr Upward have more work than they know what to do with.

They haven’t advertised, instead relying on word of mouth and referrals from other companies they’ve dealt with.

“We have succeeded in exactly what we set out to do – we’ve started making a name for ourselves. The business is going really, really well and we’re growing like you wouldn’t believe,” Mr Anders says.

To be successful in business is not rocket science, he says. He believes the key is simply relationship-building.

“It’s not always about price. At the end of the day it’s about delivering on what you promise. You do have to be competitive in your game but you have to be able to form relationships.

“It’s about being able to talk to people. You’ve got to have the gift of the talking to people. If you can’t talk to anyone you may as well pack up and go under the covers.”

To be successful an honest approach and delivering on promises are also vital in business, Mr Anders says.

“Always deliver on what you promise and the rest will follow. Delivering on your promise is worth gold because people are going to recommend you to others. It’s the whole word of mouth thing.

“One policy is about being upfront and honest. How hard is it to ring someone to tell them you’re going to be late? Don’t make up excuses. People appreciate honest.”

Reference: DomPost September 2008