Laurence Willis

Custodian of a 100-Year-Old Business, Focused on the Next 100

Hi, I'm Laurence,

This may sound strange, but I am oddly excited about the industry of water softeners and drinking water filtration – I really do live and breathe water quality.

Water is such an important part of our lives, and I believe we should get the best from it without all the stuff that makes your skin itchy, clouds up shower screens & sanitary ware or clogs up boilers.

We should have glorious cups of tea that taste wonderful instead of having to make our way through unsightly scum floating on the top. A glass of water should taste pure and clean, without the cloudiness or smell of chlorine or sediment floating around, and this wonderful clear glass should cleanse your palate, leaving you feeling totally refreshed.

I don’t just work with water — I understand it, I improve it, and I help people get the very best from it.

🎒 Arriving in the UK – A One-Year Plan That Got Out of Hand

In 1994, I arrived in the UK from Southern Africa with a backpack and a plan to stay for just one year.

Life, as it turned out, had other ideas.

I found work at the beautiful Bibury Court Hotel in the Cotswolds, and it was there that I first became aware of just how different the water in Britain was from the water I had grown up with in Southern Africa.

Everything in the staff quarters seemed to be covered in a white residue, and the housekeeping team regularly complained about scale. The hotel had a water softener, although at the time that meant very little to me — other than that Dave, the maintenance man, was forever complaining that it wasn’t working properly.

I had absolutely no idea that water softeners would eventually become such an important part of my life.

Not long afterwards, I decided to try life in Scotland.

That move was not a particularly clever one.

I spent an uncomfortable four months attempting to sell timeshares in Aberfeldy. It turns out I’m absolutely useless at hard selling, and was eventually fired. When I lost the job, I also lost the accommodation that came with it. Suddenly homeless, my car became my refuge. For around three weeks I slept in it while frantically looking for another job.

Then one day, after another unsuccessful day walking around town job-hunting, I returned to where I’d left my car.

It was gone.

My car — and, at that point, my home — had been stolen.

I remember the horror of that moment. It was a bitterly cold November, and suddenly I wasn’t just struggling or sleeping in my car. I had absolutely nowhere to go.

I remember finding a doorway on Aberfeldy High Street that never seemed to open and was relatively isolated from the elements, and this became my shelter. I had only a very lightweight red sleeping bag, and I remember surviving on baked beans straight from tins while trying desperately to keep warm.

I was literally freezing.

I was the only homeless person in town and felt incredibly isolated and scared. It seemed as though nobody wanted to help me. For around two months, from mid-November 1995 until early Jan 1996, that was my life.

And then a stranger did something that would have an extraordinary impact on me.

One day, a lady walked past and stopped to speak to me. She apologised that she couldn’t help me, but said she had an idea.

A little while later, she came back.

In her hand was a book: "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" by Susan Jeffers.

It was the first self-development book I had ever read.

And it transformed my life!

Something in that book made me realise that fear didn’t have to disappear before I could do something about my situation. I could be frightened, embarrassed and uncertain — and still take action.

So, armed with Susan’s advice, I swallowed my pride and telephoned Andrew, the owner of Bibury Court Hotel back in the Cotswolds, and asked him for his help.

His reaction wasn’t what I’d feared; He called me a “silly fool” for not contacting him sooner and arranged for money to be sent to the local Post Office so that I could afford the bus fare back to the hotel.

I collected the money, climbed aboard a National Express coach and went straight back to work at the hotel. But I was a changed person. I had left confident and happy, and returned quiet, timid, and it took me a good while to rebuild my confidence!

That experience has stayed with me throughout my life.

"Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" also started something else. Today, my library contains hundreds of self-development books — and I’m pleased to say I’ve read them all, some several times.

Over the years, I’ve probably bought close to 30 copies of Susan Jeffers’ book. I give them to people I meet who are struggling, particularly those experiencing homelessness or finding themselves unable to find work.

It’s my small way of passing on what a stranger once gave to me.

Being homeless taught me a critical life lesson about resilience, but perhaps more importantly, it taught me that resilience isn’t about never finding yourself in trouble.

Sometimes it’s about recognising that you’re in trouble, finding the courage to ask for help and then doing something with the help you’re given.

And sometimes, it begins with the kindness of a complete stranger.

That lesson would prove invaluable more than once in the years ahead, as you will see as you read on.
‍

📈 Gaining Valuable Business Experience – Learning from the Best

Virgin Holidays

About a year later, I told Andrew about my dream of being a future Richard Branson. He suggested I get a job working for Virgin, and I eventually found work with Virgin Holidays.

I applied for several jobs at Virgin, from the Airline to their London head office, and they all rejected my applications — seven times!

Eventually, desperation overcame common sense — or perhaps it inspired a little creativity.

I attached my CV to silver and red helium balloons, and drove from the Cotswolds to Virgin Atlantic’s head office in Crawley and carried my 'cv' into the reception area, while being laughed at by the staff coming in from their lunch.

It was an unusual way to apply for a job, but it worked.

I was invited to interview and subsequently offered a position with Virgin Holidays.

I loved working for Virgin, and one of the greatest lessons I learned there was that loyal customer relationships could be created very easily over the telephone.

Travel agents would sometimes sit on hold waiting for me to become available, much to the frustration of one of my bosses. But I enjoyed taking the time to build relationships with them, and those conversations often turned into lasting professional connections.

I also met Richard Branson three times during that period.

On two occasions, Ron Simms, the managing director, knew how much I revered Richard and brought him over to my desk during visits to the office. I didn’t have much to say on either occasion, but I valued those moments enormously.

In those days, Richard also held staff house parties in Oxfordshire at his recording studios. I had the privilege of attending one of them and somehow ended up talking to his wife in the kitchen.

For someone who had spent so long trying to get a job at Virgin, those moments felt extraordinary.

Working there reinforced something I had begun to understand during my time at Bibury Court Hotel: success was often about people. It was about making a connection, listening properly and creating enough trust for someone to want to deal with you again.

However, I was not Virgin material, and, despite earning employee of the month and two free flights anywhere Virgin flew, I kept putting my foot wrong, and was eventually fired.

Kall Kwik Printing

I then found a job working at Kall Kwik Printing Crawley for a terrific couple called Paul and Sue Willis.

Paul and Sue had made a name for themselves by buying and turning around bankrupt printing businesses, then selling them on again. They had a fantastic work ethic and tremendous integrity, and I look back on those days with great fondness.

At a very young age, they taught me skills that have stood the test of time and influenced many positive decisions I have made since. They instilled in me much of the common-sense business thinking I still rely on today.

Working with them gave me an early understanding of what it meant to run a business properly. It wasn’t simply about making money. It was about taking responsibility, treating people fairly, working hard and making sensible decisions even when circumstances were difficult.

Paul and Sue also showed me that a struggling business could be turned around with the right combination of discipline, creativity and determination.

We have remained close friends ever since, and Paul has continued to be a mentor to me, long into retirement.

🔧 Gaining Technical Understanding – From Boilers to Water Softening Mastery

Eventually, I decided that I wanted to explore a little more of the UK and, in 1998, I moved to North Wales, where I began working for British Gas.

This was the second time in my life that I really started thinking about water. The water in North Wales felt completely different from what I had become accustomed to in the Cotswolds and Sussex. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, but water would eventually become a huge part of my life.

During the seven years I spent with British Gas, I was fortunate to be given some wonderful career opportunities. I started off as a temp on the LPG Emergency Team in Wrexham, later taking on the role of investigating and responding to all operational customer complaints, and then, when that role was eventually relocated to the main Customer Relations team in Oxfordshire, I was given the role of managing a hugely important project for British Gas - Telemetry - ensuring customer gas tanks did not run out of gas!

My work eventually brought me back south, first to Brighton and later to Kent.

British Gas also gave me an excellent technical understanding of central heating systems and helped me develop something that came quite naturally: solution-based fault-finding.

I loved getting to the bottom of complicated technical problems in customers’ homes. I remember the day when my technical boss joined me on a very challenging sales call, and in the car after told me that he thought I had a “very scary technical ability for someone of your age.” That same man, Tony Jones, is, by no coincidence at all, Managing Director of Harvey Softeners today. I'll tell you how that role came about a little later on this page.

Although I learnt an enormous amount at British Gas, I found the environment intensely stressful. There was constant pressure to meet monthly targets, and even though I was operating above the £1m sales target as a Leading Salesman, I couldn't handle the stress and eventually became quite ill.

Then, one day, I met a chap called Jeremy Crush at my local Grahams plumbers’ merchant in Ramsgate, Kent.

Jeremy ran a water-softening business called E R Longley Hydroworks, which his grandmother had started back in 1926. He was incredibly proud of the heritage behind the business. I eventually went on to buy the business many years later, and you are on that business webpage now.

Jeremy heard and saw how stressed I was, and suggested that I should leave British Gas and consider working for a water-softener manufacturer. He told me it was a great industry, but also remarked that very few young people seemed to be coming into it.

I bumped into Jeremy several more times after that, and each time he gently encouraged me towards joining the water-treatment industry.

Eventually, I saw the light.

After some thought, I took his advice, and went to work for EcoWater.
‍

🚰 Diving into the Water Softening Industry – The Turning Point
‍

🌍 Working with EcoWater – Progress with the World’s Largest Water Softener Manufacturer

I joined EcoWater as a Sales Representative, managing the Tapworks domestic water softener trade division across Kent, Sussex, Surrey and London.

As the division grew, I demonstrated a strong technical aptitude and was given the opportunity to establish EcoWater’s UK commercial softener division. It was an ambitious project, with equally ambitious targets. I travelled across the country, training larger and more technically focused merchants, including BSS.

I quickly exceeded our targets and was both delighted and surprised to be offered the role of National Dealer Manager for the UK. In that position, I was responsible for developing and growing our network of local business resellers.

This was when I met Jeremy Cush, the owner of Hydroworks, for the second time. On this occasion, he was a client, and we had a good laugh about how often our paths seemed to cross.

One experience from my time at EcoWater has stayed with me.
‍
Around two years into my role with Tapworks, the Managing Director discovered that I was gay. He called in my boss, Brett Benson, whom I worked very closely with, and suggested that the company should let me go. His concern was that trade plumbers and merchants would stop buying our products if they knew I was gay.

Brett told me about the conversation later that week. Laughing, he explained that he had told the Managing Director that not only did the plumbers and merchants probably already know, but they liked me because I was so different from any other representative in the sector.

He was right.

The plumbers and merchant staff were incredibly supportive of me, especially because of the effort I put into helping them grow their water softener sales. It was a powerful reminder that being yourself is often one of your greatest strengths.

Over the following years, I received several promotions and enjoyed an exciting career that brought increasing responsibility and opportunity.

Then, in November 2008, just as the Credit Crunch began to hit the UK, I was made redundant from EcoWater.

I remember taking the call at the start of a two-week holiday. I was heartbroken.

Losing my job eventually meant losing everything, including my beautiful bungalow in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent, leaving me homeless for the second time in my life. It was a frightening and painful period, and the financial consequences affected me for many years. Losing my job, then losing my home, left me with more than £30,000 in negative equity and debt.

It was one of the most difficult periods of my life, but it also became part of the journey that eventually led me to where I am today.

💦 Aquafactors & Aqua Nouveau – Stepping into Kinetico’s World of Water Softening

By this stage, I had fallen in love with the water-softening industry and knew that I wanted to build my career within it.

The managing director of Monarch Softeners, Kevin Johnson, was good friends with the owners of two businesses in Basingstoke: Aquafactors, which manufactured window-cleaning equipment, and Aqua Nouveau, a large Kinetico water-softener dealership.

Kevin knew that the owners were looking for somebody to run the Aquafactors side of the business, and he recommended me for the role.

I knew absolutely nothing about window cleaning equipment. Nevertheless, I was offered the job, and I accepted.

Within a few months of joining, Aquafactors went into receivership. I was in shock. By a stroke of timing and luck, I was promoted to Group General Manager, taking responsibility for both companies, including Aqua Nouveau, with the task of stabilising and rebuilding the group.

It was a demanding role and I worked close to 80 hours a week. I was attempting to turn around a manufacturing business that had gone into receivership while also running a substantial Kinetico dealership.

Aqua Nouveau sold around 400 water softeners a year, but Kinetico constantly pressured us to meet demanding manufacturer sales targets. Those targets were difficult enough in themselves, but they became even more challenging when combined with the wider task of trying to rescue and rebuild the business.

I had a great deal of fun during those two years, particularly working with the owner, Alan. We remain close friends to this day. Alan has since moved into the flooring industry, which he loves, but our friendship has continued.

My time at Aqua Nouveau also shaped my views about the relationship between manufacturers and local dealers.

By this stage, I had fallen in love with the water-softening industry and knew that I wanted to build my career within it.

The then founder and managing director of Monarch Softeners, Kevin Johnson, was good friends with the owners of two businesses in Basingstoke: Aquafactors, which manufactured window-cleaning equipment, and Aqua Nouveau, a large Kinetico water-softener dealership.

Kevin knew that the owners were looking for somebody to run the Aquafactors side of the business, and he recommended me for the role.

I knew absolutely nothing about window-cleaning equipment. Nevertheless, I was offered the job, and I accepted it with the intention of helping to turn the business around.

Within a few months of joining, Aquafactors went into receivership. I was then promoted to Group General Manager, taking responsibility for both companies, including Aqua Nouveau, with the task of trying to stabilise and rebuild the group.

It was a demanding role. I was attempting to turn around a manufacturing business that had gone into receivership while also running a substantial Kinetico dealership.

Aqua Nouveau sold around 400 water softeners a year, but we were under constant pressure from Kinetico to meet demanding manufacturer sales targets. Those targets were difficult enough in themselves, but they became even more challenging when combined with the wider task of trying to rescue and rebuild the business.

I had a great deal of fun during those two years, particularly working with the owner, Alan. We remain close friends to this day. Alan has since moved into the flooring industry, which he loves, but our friendship has continued.

My time at Aqua Nouveau also shaped my views about the relationship between manufacturers and local dealers.

I became increasingly uncomfortable with the way manufacturers set sales targets for independent businesses. In our case, Kinetico expected us to achieve significant sales volumes, but provided very little support with lead generation. We were expected to sell hundreds of water softeners while carrying the financial and operational responsibility for generating the business ourselves.

If those targets are not met, the consequences could be severe. Dealers will face penalties, lose commercial advantages or even be cancelled. Most dealers in our sector can sell only one brand. Although they may describe themselves as independent, they are effectively tied to the manufacturer, rather like pubs that are not free houses.

I believe that is poor business practice.

A local water-softener dealer should be able to operate as an independent business, making decisions based on what is best for its customers and its own long-term future. However, when a manufacturer imposes demanding sales targets without providing meaningful support to generate the leads needed to achieve them, the dealer is effectively forced to focus on selling that particular brand.

The manufacturer benefits from the sales, while the local dealer carries the cost of advertising, staffing, premises, vehicles, administration and customer service. If the dealer fails to hit the required numbers, it may also face financial penalties or the loss of commercial support.

This creates an unhealthy imbalance and makes genuine independence extremely difficult.

My experience at Aqua Nouveau left me firmly opposed to manufacturers imposing sales targets on local dealer businesses unless they also commit to making a meaningful contribution to lead generation and business development. I believe more local businesses need to be prepared to challenge that model and insist on a fairer relationship.

It also reinforced something else I had begun to understand: the local dealer is often the part of the industry that carries the greatest responsibility. Dealers meet the customer, explain the product, install the equipment, handle complaints, provide servicing and protect the brand's reputation.

They should not be treated simply as a sales channel.

They should be treated as essential business partners!

That experience gave me a much deeper understanding of the water-softening industry, not only from the perspective of selling and installing equipment, but also from the perspective of running a dealership under commercial pressure.

It was an important stage in my career, and it would influence many of the decisions I made later.

🔵 Harvey Water Softeners – Lessons in Leadership & Integrity

When I was made redundant from EcoWater, many of the dealers were deeply disillusioned with the direction the business was taking, and several approached Harvey to ask if they could sell his product instead. Harvey heard my name mentioned several times, and he started to come up with a plan as to how he might bring the EcoWater dealers under the Harvey brand.

At the time, however, Harvey already had a large, established dealer network, TwinTec, which was fiercely protective of its allocated territories and marketing benefits. He could not simply fit another twenty-six EcoWater dealers into the existing structure without creating serious territorial conflicts, and the head of that network threatened him that if he touched the EcoWater dealers, the TwinTec dealers would walk!

His solution was to create an entirely new brand, and give them a small amount of benefits and no marketing support other than a manager's salary to oversee them

Harvey first approached me and asked me to come to the office for coffee. I was adamant I could not do that. My understanding of Harvey had been shaped largely by the experiences and opinions of Alan and Joe of Aquafactors and Aqua Nouveau, who had both previously worked with him. I had heard their perspective, and it had left me with serious reservations about the man and the company.

I explained to Harvey that I was not comfortable meeting him because of who I worked for, and I did not feel it would be respectful to their position.

Harvey was very understanding, and also characteristically direct. He bluntly ended the call. I remember thinking, 'How rude.'

A couple of weeks later, I received a telephone call from his PA, Jacqui, asking whether I was ready to sit down with Harvey. I gave her the same explanation: I could not simply disregard the position of the two people I worked for.

To my surprise, Jacqui also ended the call rather abruptly. My opinion of Harvey Softeners was becoming increasingly negative. Little did I know that this was their way of hooking me and reeling me in slowly.

Several months later, someone close to Harvey called me with comments I couldn't easily disregard, and I agreed that the time was right to meet. He and I arranged to sit down in a local pub over a pint.

Harvey explained that, after my redundancy from EcoWater, many of the former EcoWater dealers had become disillusioned with the direction of that business. He wanted to offer them an alternative, but the existing Harvey dealer network, TwinTec, could not accommodate the EcoWater dealers.

Where the Minimax brand came from

He said the new brand needed a name and wanted my opinion on what it should be called, floating several ideas, including Minimax.

I liked the name Minimax immediately, and Harvey agreed it had potential. He then said that if I joined him, Minimax would become my brand.

At that point, however, Aquafactors and Aqua Nouveau were in a critical financial position. I did not feel able to leave the company and go to work for Harvey - the timing was just very bad. I felt a deep responsibility towards my current team, many of whom were at risk of losing their jobs.

Harvey respected my decision. He told me that if my circumstances changed, he would keep the opportunity open for a short while.

He approached me a couple more times over the next several months, but I still felt unable to leave. I knew Aquafactors and Aqua Nouveau could not survive, but I didn't want to give up on the staff!

Then, one day, Harvey’s son, Casey, came to the office to see Alan. I bumped into him on the stairs, and he told me that seeing me was actually the real reason he had come.

He said that if I did not make the move then, I would never get another opportunity.

That conversation finally changed my mind.

I decided to join Harvey Softeners.

By the time I arrived, the former EcoWater dealers had already been taken on board. They formed a very small dealer group, generating only a modest level of sales.

Minimax was effectively a new business within Harvey Water Softeners, and I was responsible for building it.

The Drinking Softened Water story

Along the way, Harvey set me an important challenge: To attempt to re-educate the dealer and trade network that drinking softened water was both safe and healthy. Harvey never really intended to set me this challenge, but he felt I wasn't listening to him, and almost fired me for insubordination, as I was like a dog with a bone on this subject. I was adamant that I could change the narrative within the sector, and eventually he relented. I rewrote the industry guidance based on fact, and once he checked it for accuracy, I travelled the country training dealers and plumbers alike. The needle began to turn, and progress began across the sector.

For many years, the Minimax dealers operated with an inferior guarantee compared with the established TwinTec network. TwinTec dealers offered a ten-year guarantee, while Minimax dealers initially had only five years.

Minimax also received no dedicated marketing support. Apart from the work I personally carried out, the dealers were largely left to develop the brand themselves.

That made the challenge considerably harder

Over the next few years, we worked incredibly hard to make Minimax impossible to ignore. I developed the dealer network, improved the systems supporting it and helped individual dealers become more professional and commercially successful.

Gradually, sales began to grow.

Eventually, Minimax sales approached TwinTec sales levels. What had begun as a tiny group of dealers with a small turnover was at last becoming a serious rival to the leading water-softener brand in the UK.

A few months after we overtook TwinTec, without any marketing support and an inferior guarantee, Minimax was awarded the same ten-year guarantee as TwinTec. We still did not receive the same level of marketing support, but this was a significant victory for the Minimax brand and for the independent dealers who represented it, who were all so excited and proud of their achievements

The brand had earned its place in the market.

My relationship with Harvey Bowden, and his son Casey

During my time at Harvey Water Softeners, I also came to understand Harvey himself much better. So much so, we became quite close, and he would come along as I ran incentive product launches across Morocco, Italy, Venice and the UK. In later years, as I bought Hydroworks, Harvey was my mentor at first, and after retiring, our relationship became a friendship.

When I first joined, I was sceptical of both him and the business. Negative opinions I had heard over the years had shaped my view, and I didn't initially believe in Harvey’s self-described “force for good” approach.

Many competing dealers, both within the Harvey network and elsewhere in the industry, used to talk about Harvey as a short man who appeared unexpectedly, like a Jack-in-the-box, and made a nuisance of himself.

It took me nearly six months to discover the other side of Harvey Bowden.

Harvey knew full well, after I joined, and probably long before I joined, that I was sceptical of him and his business, yet for some reason he still gave me an opportunity and employed me. But he got his sweet revenge - he challenged me constantly and worked me hard. Whenever he felt I wasn't looking after a customer properly or reacting appropriately, he would summon me to his office. More than a few times I thought that walk to his office would be my final one.

At first, this was difficult.

Gradually, however, I developed a grudging respect for him. Then, one day, something clicked. I finally understood him. I started to really enjoy working with him, and we built a bond that just worked. For us both.

I quickly realised Harvey never told a lie - not even small white ones. He was deeply ethical, passionate about British business and extremely knowledgeable about our industry.

He was also completely committed to helping small local businesses thrive.

I came to regard Harvey as my ally, my mentor and my coach. Harvey and his wife, Ann, have been important people in my life over the years, as have Casey and his wife Vicky.

We didn't always agree, particularly when it came to managing the dealer business. However, I believe Harvey and Casey respected my differing opinions. Over the years, I took the dealer network to a completely new level. Casey was tough on me too, until I smashed his sales conversion rate, and then again when the Minimax brand smashed TwinTec brand in sales.

Tony Jones, Current Managing Director

Harvey’s ethics were deeply ingrained in him, and they filter through every part of the Harvey business to this day, even under the ownership of Culligan, thanks to Tony Jones, my former British Gas boss, who joined through Brian Kiell while I was running the Minimax Excellence programme. Tony started as Head of Sales and is now Managing Director, and I often feel like he is a clone of Harvey.

Casey Bowden, Harvey's Son - former Managing Director and incredible business leader

Harvey's son, Casey, was Sales Director when I joined in late 2009, and soon afterwards became Managing Director. Under his leadership, Harveys kept growing at a rapid rate of knots. The business continued to thrive, all these years later, and it was an exciting time to be part of the organisation.

Martin Hurworth, Technical Director and the man who transformed Harveys technology

The company’s pursuit of improvement also led to the appointment of a new Technical Director, Martin Hurworth. Martin was an exceptional person. Initially, we got on very well while he was Technical Director. However, when he took over from Casey as Managing Director and, in effect, my new boss, he tried to manage me very differently from what I had become accustomed to.

We clashed. A lot. I knew my days were numbered.

Looking back, I realise how much I learned from that experience.

By this stage, I had already been thinking about buying a dealership. I had started discussions with several business owners who were considering retirement.

The irony is that despite the rocky years when Martin was MD and until I left the company in 2016, he and I are now tremendously close. Martin became my rock for a long time, and it was Martin who suggested I change my job title to Head of Future given the business is 100 years old now. I thrived on Martin's energy and his determination to always do the right thing.

Martin had a profound influence on Harvey Water Softeners, as well as on my own business and team.

Although I was independent and believed in recommending the right softener for each customer’s home, Martin respected that position. He continued to support me with advice and encouragement, even though I sold all makes and models, including EcoWater, Hague and many other brands.

His commitment to doing the right thing for the customer remains a powerful example.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad - and how that influenced the Minimax Dealer Network

While I was running Minimax, I began to study business systems more seriously. I spent a year mentoring directly with Robert Kiyosaki’s 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' American Team, and the business principles I learned were transformational. Not only did they help me to start my own business, Marlau Homes (prior to buying Hydroworks - both still trading and thriving), but they helped me to completely change the way Minimax Dealers saw their own businesses. Robert's only request as he trained me was that I teach other people the techniques he was teaching me.

I increasingly talked to dealers about systems, financial understanding, the Cashflow Quadrant, leadership and the importance of building businesses that could operate successfully without relying entirely on the owner.

These ideas helped massively accelerate the growth of the Minimax network.

Modelling Excellence in the sector, and using that to treble sales of the channel (in one year)

However, towards the latter part of my career at Harvey Water Softeners, I began to feel restless. I wanted a new challenge, but I was also conscious that leaving could damage my reputation.

I did not want anyone to look back and say that I had failed to complete something, had neglected the dealer network or had been a poor Dealer Manager.

I wanted to leave a legacy.

I contacted my former British Gas sales trainer, Brian Kiell, and arranged to meet him at the Village Hotel in Maidstone. I explained that I was thinking about leaving Harvey Water Softeners and wanted to create something lasting before I went.

Brian encouraged me to model what excellence could look like in our industry and then create a three-year training programme to teach the dealer network how an excellent business should operate.

The idea immediately appealed to me.

I had already spent several years talking to dealers about business systems, and I was excited by the progress we were making. Brian’s suggestion gave us the opportunity to formalise those ideas and create a structured programme that could benefit the entire network.

There was, however, one major problem.

Minimax was still receiving very little marketing support. I was concerned that the investment required to create and deliver the programme could ultimately become my downfall.

If the programme had been designed for TwinTec, I knew the funding would probably be approved. But there was no guarantee that Harvey Water Softeners would invest significantly in Minimax.

Brian reassured me that if I could demonstrate a substantial increase in sales — effectively transforming the size of the Minimax network over three years — then the company would have to recognise the value of the programme and invest in it.

Together, we created the presentation.

Brian then asked me to present the proposal to Harvey, Casey and Martin.

I genuinely expected to be thrown out of the room. It was the largest investment Minimax had ever requested, and I knew that the proposal represented a significant risk.

I delivered the presentation and waited.

Casey and Martin watched my presentation, and it did not go down well. Their reaction was cautious, and it was clear that they were not convinced by the scale of what I was proposing.

Harvey, on the other hand, immediately said that he wanted to sign it off.

He explained to Casey and Martin that I was effectively proposing to treble sales in three years, and that nothing they were doing at the time could achieve that level of growth.

He then made the consequences very clear. If I failed to achieve the goal, they could simply fire me. The responsibility was mine to make it work.

He signed it off.

In our first year, we achieved the three-year target.

By the second year, the local dealer businesses were creaking under the pressure of their own growth. Towards the end of that year, I began to realise that my one-to-one dealer meetings were becoming less about chasing numbers and more about helping couples manage the relationships within their businesses.

The businesses were growing faster than their owners had expected. In many cases, the pressure was affecting not only their finances and operations but also their marriages and personal relationships.

It was a very exciting time, but it was also a period when many dealers needed a different kind of support.

I remember visiting one particular dealer in Wiltshire towards the end of my second year of running the Excellence Programme. I had asked Harvey to join me because I wanted him to see the situation for himself and offer advice to the business.

Harvey and I were sitting in the back of his car, with his driver taking us towards Wiltshire, when Harvey asked me what the purpose of the visit was.

I explained that the couple concerned were struggling with their relationship, as were so many dealers experiencing the rapid growth within the network. I told him that we were going to talk to them about their relationship and help them work through the pressures they were facing.

Harvey was livid.

He told me that we were not marriage counsellors and that it was inappropriate for me to arrive without a proper agenda focused on sales targets, performance, revenue and manufacturing feedback.

I tried to explain that the network had moved on from all of that. The businesses were now growing so quickly that they needed a different quality and level of support.

Harvey remained angry. He told me that by the time we reached the dealer’s home, I had better have a proper agenda.

Sitting next to him in the car, I felt embarrassed and changed the plan.

When we arrived, we walked into the dealer’s home. Harvey immediately saw how fractured the couple’s relationship had become.

And then we returned to the original purpose of the visit.

Harvey gave them stunning advice. He understood the situation almost instantly and helped them see what was happening within their business and their relationship.

Afterwards, we created a regular plan to visit dealers who were struggling so that we could help them manage the personal and professional pressures created by their growth.

That experience taught me something important about excellence in business.

It is not simply about sales numbers, revenue or performance targets. Those things matter, but they are not the whole story.

Business is about people.

It is about helping people achieve what they want, supporting them when success creates new pressures and recognising that growth can affect every part of their lives.

The Excellence Programme had begun as a plan to increase sales and build stronger businesses. It became something much more valuable: a way of helping business owners create success without losing themselves or their relationships in the process.

The results were phenomenal.

The Minimax network grew from the smallest dealer group in Europe to the largest. More importantly, it developed an excellence mindset to match its commercial success.

The programme became the legacy I had hoped to leave behind.

Looking Back and working with the amazing Brian Kiell

Looking back, my time at Harvey Water Softeners was one of the most important periods of my professional life.

I arrived with doubts about Harvey, the business and the brand. I left having helped build Minimax into a serious force in the UK water-softening market.

More importantly, I left with a deeper understanding of leadership, ethics, loyalty and the importance of creating systems that allow other people to succeed.

Harvey gave me the opportunity.

The dealers gave me the challenge.

Brian helped me create the framework.

Martin and Tony helped shape the business around me.

And the Minimax dealers proved what was possible when people were given the right support, the right systems and the belief that they could build something exceptional.

🏠 Marlau Homes – A Journey from Struggle to Success

Mark and I started this business in October 2013 after working closely with Robert Kiyosaki's USA 'Rich Dad' team from 2012.

At the time I was £30,000 in debt and had no savings, and no pension. I had lost everything after being made redundant from EcoWater, including my home, and I simply did not know how I was ever going to get out of the mess I was in.

I received a phone call from my sister who told me about Robert, and suggested I look into mentoring with his team. By this point, I was desperate to find a way out of my financial mess, and so I made contact. They quoted me an eye-watering amount of money for a year's worth of coaching, and gave me very strict rules of engagement which, if I didn't adhere to them, would see the mentoring cancelled and my investment lost. I think the integrity of those rules convinced me I had to find a way to do it, and out came multiple credit cards to pay for the coaching.

What I learned from Rich Dad Poor Dad was transformational for me, and through the skills I learned, I cleared my debt within a year. We were encouraged to look at creating a business, and then spent the next year training in a specific sector to give us that sector expertise (out came the trustee credit cards again to pay for the training).

We eventually settled on starting a business in property investing (How we were so brazen, I am not sure, as I didnt have any money to buy any property). However, it worked, and within a year we had purchased several properties. Today, Marlau Homes holds assets in the 7-figures, which we hope offers inspiration to anybody else equally in a bad place in their lives that all they need is to have self-belief and a plan.

Over the years, Marlau Homes grew to become one of the leading Yorkshire Landlords, providing professional Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) and residential buy-to-let properties to tenants. Since Brexit, we have scaled back the business and sold a couple of properties to pay off debt, and the remaining portfolio is now buy-to-let only. All profits go towards servicing our investors, and reinvesting in the properties so that our tenants have excellent-quality homes to live in. We don't draw any of the profits out for our personal use. For us, this has been an exciting journey.

We are committed to providing quality affordable rental accommodation. We believe that everyone has the right to be housed in great accommodation that provides for their comfort needs and gives them a place they can call home.

💙 Giving Back – Charity Work & Mentorship

I am passionate about improving standards in public life, and this is why I invest a lot of my free time in helping to lead charities. I fully subscribe to the 'Nolan Principles', which underpin service in those who serve the public in any way.

The Nolan Seven Principles of Public Life are:

• Honesty,
• Integrity,
• Objectivity,
• Accountability,
• Selflessness,
• Openness, and
• Leadership

These are high-level ethical principles, rather than rules, that require essential responsibility of those in public office that they serve the public interest.

❤️ Mankind UK – Supporting Survivors, Leading with Purpose

This is a very personal thing to place on a business website and it's taken me a long time to feel able to do so. I am very proud to be a trustee of the men's sexual abuse charity Mankind which work nationally.

As a child, I experienced a very significant incident over three days perpetrated by five men and one woman, and I was not meant to get away from them, let alone survive.

The way trauma works, as I now understand, is that you can forget about things because your brain tries to protect you and help you survive. Understandably my parents were very pleased that I was able for many years to move on from this.

When we adopted our two children in 2016, it triggered memories I didn't at first understand or could comprehend. Through four + years of very intensive therapy, I have had to relive those experiences in awful detail all over again. This has been a very painful and challenging journey for me, my husband and my two children, plus my parents, as everyone rallied around me to help me through processing these memories. I should also acknowledge the incredible team I have at Hydroworks who have supported me 100% through this journey with compassion and complete understanding.

I was approached by the chairman of Mankind and asked if I would be a Trustee and Director for the charity, and as a survivor, I believe this places me in a very unique place because I can make a difference to other men going through the difficult journey where they too have experienced unwanted sexual encounters. As a Trustee, and as a male survivor of childhood sexual violence, I am therefore of the unique group of individuals classed as 'experts by experience'.

If you know anyone who needs help because of unwanted sexual encounters, a great place to start is the 1in6 self-help website the sector has created, which is full of helpful information and resources.

👑 The King's Trust – Bringing Hope to Young People as Authorised Business Mentor

A great mentor doesn’t just give advice – they listen, understand, and help reframe challenges into opportunities. That’s exactly what I’ve had the privilege of doing through The King’s Trust.

One of my mentees has a brilliant business, but progress had been slow for them with cashflow dwindling. Our first meetings weren’t about quick fixes despite how much we needed them – they were about building trust, understanding her goals, and proving that I truly “got” her business.

After navigating the initial months with steady groundwork, something clicked, and I felt we were ready to move to the next level.

We took a step back and reframed her entire approach. We looked at 1-5 years ahead instead of just the short term and then by making a few key shifts, we mapped out a strategy that could grow her business 5X. Seeing the light bulb moment happen in a business owners eyes, especially someone so young, is so very exciting and is the reason I do this!

Sometimes, mentorship isn’t about huge breakthroughs overnight – it’s about the right conversations at the right time that lead to game-changing decisions.

💡 The right business mentor won’t tell you what to do – they’ll help you see what’s possible.

📈 UK Gov Help to Grow – Authorised Business Mentor

I was delighted to have been invited to become a government-backed business mentor, helping UK businesses to grow.

Being in business for yourself is hard, especially if you employ people. You have to be focused on running the best business you can, as your team are counting on you.

Helping a business owner to identify if growth is right, and then determining the right kind of growth, is just one of the areas I enjoy exploring.