Kiwi Business Story: Mark le Grove from Collision Connect

Mark Le Grove owner of Collision Connect is an Owner Manager Programme 51 alumni.

This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 26 July 2022, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.

First ever job?

I was a sweeper boy at a place called Marshall transmissions. They fixed transmissions and cars. I wanted to be a mechanic when I was at school, and when I was about 14 years old, I would turn up to sweep the floors every night, and I would rub up on the hoists to get greasy, because I wanted to look like I worked on cars. I still remember a tradesman being like ‘you sweep our floors, how do you get so dirty?’, and I would say no idea. I thought I knew everything when I left school, and I knew I wanted to be a mechanic, which I did for about a year and I hated the grease, especially under my nails.


What did your career journey look like? And then how did that lead to starting something of your own?

I did an apprenticeship in panel beating and worked for a few places in Hamilton and Waikato before moving to Australia. There again I was car painting and learning a few new techniques that they didn't really use in New Zealand. New Zealand traditionally, up until recently, it was quite far behind the rest of the world in terms of Business Strategy. The technologies that people use, especially in our industry, were sort of 5-10 years behind some of the European sites.

But then I went to Europe as well and worked at a few panel shops over there but also worked at a cocktail bar and I even ran a hostel, all that stuff that you do when you are backpacking. I then came back home and got into the trade. I was managing a site and I was offered a job to be a manager of a bigger site.

I was in Huntley, and I was talking to the owner at the time, and he was asking what I wanted to do. I said, at some point, I wanted to open my own shop, and he goes, well, how about buying this one now. About eight weeks later, we had signed a purchase agreement and I just jumped in. We had a year’s handover, which was probably too long, but I also have a lot to learn that it took 12 months, and soon enough I was running the shop fine, but I knew nothing about running a business.


What is one thing you wish you knew before you took over Collision Connect?

There are a few things. I wish I had more financial knowledge around like reading my P&L. Understanding what bank covenants are, I knew I had them, but I did not know what they were.

There is a whole lot of learnings that you do need when you go into business, especially if you want to grow and be successful. I wish I knew what questions I needed to ask. I did not know what questions I needed to ask to find out the answers that I needed. That is what I got out of OMP. I now know what I need to ask and who I need to ask. I do not need to know everything, there are so many experts that do.


What has been your biggest challenge within the business? And how did you overcome it?

Learning to manage people. I was naturally a people person anyway. But having to have hard conversations with people. Especially because I bought the company that I was working in. I was everyone's mate, I had to go from mate to manager, which was and is still a tough transition. I now have a business partner. He is better at those conversations than I am.


What keeps you going personally and motivates you every day?

I just get excited about business and opportunities. My business partner, Aaron, and I work very well together. We are like chalk and cheese, he is highly organized, OCD about the way things is laid out and very process orientated. I love processes, I just hate implementing them, and I am not exceptionally good at sticking to them. We will put something in place and Aaron's very good at tuning it out, whereas I am more of that upfront Idea person. I love thinking five years ahead, the bigger picture. Then the other part has been like motivating the team and seeing the team achieve their goals. Creating targets and then smashing them.


What advice would you give someone wanting to start a business right now?

Just be confident, if you have an idea, just go for it, especially the younger people that want to get into it. I'm 30 and I know we quite often hear; you are crazy getting another shop, but if it fails it doesn't matter. You learn from failures, and you are never going to learn if you do not do it, so just give it a go.


When did you first hear of The Icehouse, and was anything holding you back before you made the decision to do the Owner Manager Programme?

I heard of The Icehouse through BNZ. I was talking about doing a sales skills course, because I did not know how to do that sort of stuff. I went to one of the sale programmes. I think it was Derek that took the course, the guy who was sitting next to me had just finished his Owner Manager Programme. I asked about it and he said it was the best thing he had ever done. Now it is the best thing I have ever done; it took me from a tradesman to a businessman. I could run a workshop before, now I can run a business.


What changes did you implement to your business after completing the Owner Manager Programme?

So many. Firstly, we have changed our brand. We decided to go out and expand and we knew the market was limited to our industry, our net profits were limited, we couldn't grow until the town grew. So, we needed to expand elsewhere.

The other part is really focusing on the culture at work. We have always had quite a good culture but putting in the effort to work on the culture constantly. We have bought in more reviews and surveys for the staff, and they give us very honest feedback on what they think of us and how their shops are managing, how they are running and the problems they're facing. It's all anonymous, they can be as harsh and honest as they want. We also got honest feedback from it and have been able to implement new procedures.


Anything that you implemented and changed into your lifestyle?

Reading more or listening to audiobooks more. The part that I said in OMP that I did not like, was more the resilience stuff around like your own personal growth. I think if I did that now, I would be more into it, because I was also still so new in my business journey, I remember thinking that stuff can wait. Now I see how important it is to do it, like going to the gym in the morning. I took up MMA and I started training for that and now that is my meditation. I have realized now, if I do not do that, I do not make as good decisions during the day. No point being strung at work for 14 hours, when you could go there for 10 hours, go for a walk with your kid and go to the gym, as you are still going to get the same amount of work done just without pulling your hair out for the extra four hours.