NEW BUSINESS GETS INTO GEAR

Interview by Lisa Firth

Raoul Morley’s company Ferrous Engineering is in the latter stage of being set up, and Raoul has been involved in it now for ten months.
"The company provides high quality cycle frames made from steel and aluminium," says the 27 year old. "At the moment I’m particularly interested in developing single speed frames and the components for them."

"I decided to start up my own company because I’d worked in frames and it was something I’d wanted to do for a long time," Raoul explains. "The company I was in was very constraining because I couldn’t develop what I wanted to do or pursue new avenues, and it was just a chance just to do what I wanted to do and push it forward in the way that I wanted to develop things."

"When I started up my own firm I was looking at supplying a need for high-quality products," explains Raoul when asked which gap in the market his products were designed to fill. "There were similar American products but nothing British built and nothing built to the same quality that I’m doing it now, absolutely premier quality, no-one can touch it. The term that was used by one of the country’s leading mountain bike magazines to me only a couple of days ago was that I’d created the ultimate in bike porn, which is quite an achievement I reckon."

While Raoul is still working from home, he is keen to point out how much the company has developed since its initial conception. "I’ve managed to source contractors, I’ve now got regular contractors we use and as a result I’m employing people in the local economy, so I’ve got a couple of sub-contractors who do all the work for me which is great. I’ve also got a guy with an independent workshop who does a lot of the construction for me now."

"Just do it," Raoul advises anyone with a similar idea of setting up their own company. He feels that the Enterprise Exchange was useful in helping him get his original idea off the ground: "I gained a real insight into business from the Enterprise Exchange," he says. "It helped me feel that I wasn’t mad, and that I actually had a good chance of being successful."