THE KBBREVIEW INTERVIEW | Paul Rowland and Angelika Kotarska
Q & A
Q: Angelica, this is your first visit here. What do you think? AK: It’s amazing, and the way it’s tucked away round a corner makes it even more of a surprise when you walk in. Just incredible.
Q: Paul, congratulations on your Special Achievement Award, how does it make you feel? PR: Very old! But I’m very proud as well.
Q: What would your advice be to Angelika on building a strong, diverse, customer base? PR: I do think that the higher up the market you go, particularly if you’re at the premium end, a lot of consumers need the help of professionals to make decisions. So you may be working not just with the consumer, but also with their interior designer or architect too, so you need to start building relationships with the trade. Rather than just dealing with Mr. and Mrs. Consumer once a decade when they’re replacing their bathroom, you’re also dealing with professionals who need to do four, five or six projects a year. So if you can build relationships with them that can last you’re assured of getting what you’re after, a project business. Relationship building is the best form of marketing that you can do, without a shadow of a doubt.
Q: What are you doing for your marketing Angelika? AK: Not much. Online ads and Instagram, but I don’t find they work, if I’m honest. Facebook ads are the worst. I try and keep up with posting what I’m doing on social media as that’s what seems to draw a lot of people in - especially when you use hashtags. That’s how they search and find you.
Q: How do you view your relationship with your suppliers Paul? PR: Suppliers are crucial, they should never be seen as people you want to hit on the head with a baseball bat. They’re partners in your journey and they want you to be successful so use their knowledge and understanding of the industry. Brassware suppliers are the crucial ones to work with because brassware is 33-34% of a bathroom sale, on average. The higher up you go, if it’s a Dornbracht, for example, it’ll be 50%. If you’re using someone like Crosswater or Vado it might be more like 25-28%, but it’s always vital to get that right. If your suppliers understand what you’re trying to do, they should help you on that journey because they know you’re successful and will work with them as partners rather than constantly trying to push back on pricing. You’ll also find that you’ll get a reputation and other suppliers will come to you rather than you having to try and knock down their door.
Q: How have you chosen the suppliers you work with now, Angelika? AK: When I first started, I knew roughly which suppliers I wanted to work with, so I got in contact and went with the ones that offered me good terms or displays. After I opened, suppliers started approaching me and that’s when I really saw the difference in what they were offering and how they were introducing products to me. Some seemed really unsure and I thought ‘I don’t know much about you, you’re not selling it to me and how can I sell something that I don’t know about?’ I can’t open up an email in front of a customer and read from it. I need to know how I would explain it to them.
Q: You’re a one-woman band at the moment but you’re going to need a team eventually. How do you feel about delegation? AK: I did actually think about employing people and put some adverts out. But then when I had candidates coming in it just didn’t make sense. It didn’t feel right, and I didn’t know if I could trust them. What was on their CV was not necessarily right and I need someone I can trust and leave in the showroom when I’m not there. I know how it is working for someone compared to working for yourself. You can see how different it is and to trust someone with your business, you need to have total faith in them. If
28 • June 2024
I’m capable of doing, for example, a design from start to finish in a week, I expect the same from them - and if they say they’ve been in the industry for, say, 10 years, then they should be doing it much faster than me.
Q: Paul, do you share Angelika’s trust issues with recruitment? PR: I think 99% of people actually want to do a good job so if you sell the story of the business right, you’ll get somebody that may want to grow it with you, who could end up being your right-hand man or woman. Please don’t be cynical about recruitment. You will know in your heart of hearts when you’ve got somebody and even though you’re young, I can tell you’re a pretty good judge of character - and you have to be if you’re in sales. But don’t be a cynic about it: recruit hard and manage easy is the mantra. It’s going to be really interesting to follow your story.
Q: Paul, the advantage of a long tenure is that you have experience of running a business through every possible state of the market. What’s your view on being able to manage businesses for the long term? PR: While I don’t think you can really see market-changing events like Ukraine, Covid, or Brexit coming down the track, you can be certain they happen every seven years or so and the downturn is much faster than coming out the other side. So yes, you want to invest and you want to grow, but always make sure you’ve got cash reserves to be able to get through a period when sales are not coming in. They say you’ve got to work really hard during a downturn but I think when things are good you should work twice as hard. You can really take your competition on and make sure that your share of the market is maximised. It’s all about using the good times to squirrel away and prepare for winter.
Q: Angelika, since your business opened, the market’s been flat at best and horrible at worst. How easy has it been to learn what ‘normal’ is? AK: When I started it was up and down and I found myself thinking ‘oh my God, am I even doing the right thing?’. I had loads of enquiries but wasn’t always making the sale because the price wasn’t right or they were finding things cheaper online. I just try to push as much as I can and whenever you see an advantage just grab it. I would go out on building sites looking for business and it either paid off or it didn’t. And when it did, that’s when I thought ‘OK, I’m doing something right’. PR: I’m really pleased to hear that because I believe that when times are tough, the majority of retailers stare at their front door hoping it will go bing bong… and it doesn’t. And if you do nothing, you get nothing. If you go out to building sites and network with designers and architects, you’ll drive business. So I think what you’re doing is absolutely fantastic.
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