50
INTERVIEW THE BIG
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
By Ged Henderson
PARTNERS IN LIFE AND BUSINESS
Marriage lines are important to Heath and Kelly Groves. The couple are partners in every sense and are now set to share the secrets of business harmony with the world.
In what has been “a manic year” for them and their business The Sundown Group, they have still found time to work on a ‘his and her’ book looking at how couples can make business partnerships work for them.
Called ‘The EnLIVEning’ it will spell out the rules each brings to business and it promises to be an interesting and entertaining read.
Heath explains: “I’ve had a set of rules from the beginning and continually review them to make sure I’m not making the same mistakes.
“I’ve now got 56 of them. Kelly has the same types of rules but when you look at them, they are the opposite to mine.
“We’ve both got our own business coaches and they told us, ‘you need to be writing all this down’.
“Working with your spouse or partner is more common than you think; that’s where the idea of the book came from, to show it from both perspectives. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.”
Kelly adds: “We do take different views and it works well for us. The main thing is although we have different opinions, we always come to the same answer, regardless of how we get there.”
She adds: “We both acknowledge that work is work and home is home. That’s been harder during lockdown and I’ve been home schooling our two children as well most of the year. We do support each other well.”
That support has been more important than ever in a year which has seen them both struck down by Covid-19, right in the middle of working towards ISO 27001 certification - an international standard on how to manage information security.
We build very specific products to meet specific needs. We don’t build technology for technology’s sake
On leave in 1998, Heath found out one of his friends was going out with Kelly’s friend. She managed to convince Kelly to go on a date with Heath and now they have been married for 21 years.
Sundown began as a training academy for former military personnel and then an IT provider. It shifted focus in 2009 as the move towards Cloud Technology started to grow, having been involved with the development of cloud technology for Microsoft, specifically O365, Sundown soon became front runners in the cyber security arena.
A four-day audit proved successful but it was challenging to say the least. Kelly says: “We had completely different experiences, no two symptoms were the same.
“Heath lost his sense of taste and smell, I felt like I had brick in my chest and banging headaches and was really lethargic. It was a strange experience.”
Sundown began life in 2006 after Heath left the Army in 2003. He persuaded Kelly to give up her nursing career to join him as operations director.
The couple, both now aged 42, were school sweethearts in Rossendale. They went out for a time while in the same year at Fearns High School in Bacup, now the Valley Leadership Academy.
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