SELECT MEMBER CORONAVIRUS
Powering through
When SELECT Member Matt Burton set up on his own two and half years ago, he had no idea he’d soon be working through a pandemic. But the challenges of COVID have made him even more determined to succeed, through hard work and dedication to customer service
By Tim Power A
fter Matt Burton’s wife announced she was pregnant in 2018, he decided it was time to leave the company where he had been a supervisor for eight
years and strike out on his own. Since then, he has built Matt Burton Electrical, based in Newton Stewart, Dumfries and Galloway, into a successful business servicing domestic, commercial and agricultural customers. Matt came late to a career in electrical contracting. His fi rst interest had been mechanical engineering, which he studied for two years at college. When
Matt’s work takes him to a lot of farms
he couldn’t fi nd a job in this fi eld, he worked shifts at his best friend’s family campsite business and got interested in the electrical industry. Matt said: “My friend Bob was a qualifi ed electrician and ran the electrical contracting side of his family’s business.
“Bob and his family off ered me an apprenticeship and I worked my way up to supervisor. The electrical side of the business grew so that 90% of our work was outwith the holiday camp. “I always knew I would like to start
my own business when I had the right knowledge and experience and Bob’s family gave me their full support. “I was very lucky to have my best friend as my mentor; he was always encouraging and open to my ideas.”
Working together Also part of the Matt Burton Electrical team is his wife Kay, who plays a big role helping with the accounts side of the business, and his apprentice, Jamie Smith, who joined in November 2019. Matt said: “It had always been my plan
to take on an apprentice. It’s not only to give a young person a chance of a career but also because I am very particular on how I do things, so I wanted someone with no bad habits. Jamie stood out
16 CABLEtalk FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021
immediately; he was polite, interested in the job and had the right attitude. Seeing him improving and growing over the last year makes me feel very proud.” Matt also gets great satisfaction from the positive feedback he receives. He said: “I really enjoy involving customers in their projects and the feeling you get from making their ideas a reality. “One standout moment was before
Christmas where we helped a doctor’s family get their kitchen ready for the festivities. Rotting joints in their home resulted in major works for more than a year, with the family using a makeshift kitchen in their workshop/garage. “Once their new kitchen was installed we managed to get the power on by 11pm on 22 December. They could not have been more thankful, with the wife in tears because she fi nally managed to get her family around the table for Christmas dinner. The doctor works
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