EXECUTIVE: Highland firm aims to break the mould with 'no-nonsense' approach
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Taking the leap from being employed to starting your own business can be daunting and it involves risk. But that is exactly what Iain MacPhail did in 2020 when he started IDM Safety Solutions with one wage – he’s not looked back since.
His business has soared since inception, and he now employs 12 people, with the hope to expand his headcount year-on- year. This year IDM ranked in the UKs top 100 SMEs, and in 2022 it won business-to-business start-up of the year for Scotland, alongside Iain picking up the accolade for start-up entrepreneur of the year at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
IDM Safety Solutions provides health and safety services, electrical services, and project management. Its motto is ‘no-nonsense’ by creating new ways of doing old things.
I met Iain at his office on Seafield Road, which looks more like a music recording studio, than it does a health and safety establishment. The aesthetic resembles the brand of his business – edgy and formidable.
Speaking about IDM, Iain said: “Our clear goal is to provide no-nonsense health and safety advice and consultancy services. Our mission is to protect businesses and to ensure the safety, health, and welfare of their employees.
“We are all about honesty with our clients – we have a team of professionals who will tell our customers exactly what changes and adaptions to their business will cost, rather than that coming as a surprise later.
“I don’t like extras, as people don’t budget for extras.
“We have our own in-house trades people, who will not berate businesses, and will let you know what adaptions are needed and how you can do it.
“We want to challenge the way things have been done, or are done, by asking ‘why not?!’ It’s worked for us so far, and I believe it will continue to do so.
“We are often told how things should be done, but it is about asking ‘what is the right thing to do here?’ ‘Why should we do it that way?’ And that is not about being pig-headed, but it is about doing what makes sense for customers, and for staff.”
Overarching IDM Safety Solutions is the IDM Group – this feeds into a variety of different strands of IDM. Speaking about this creative thinking which is breaking the mould of how business is done, Iain said: “We have created IDM Group – this is our umbrella company that sits over IDM Energy, IDM Heb and IDM Safety solutions.
“IDM Energy focusses on our renewable energy solutions such as solar, wind, air source heat pumps and EV Charging technologies. IDM Heb is our business in the Hebrides which follows on from my grandfather’s and father’s business, Long Island, which was operating from 1972 until very recently.
“IDM Group will be able to feed into these other businesses, and it will help us to expand and invest into other areas. What I would like to be able to do is be at the size where we can invest and help others with their businesses.”
For Stornoway-born Iain, IDM is more than a business: it is his investment in his homeland, by creating opportunities for those that live here.
“I want to retain business and jobs in the region, so that people don’t have to find career opportunities elsewhere”, explained Iain passionately.
“IDM Heb is about creating the opportunity for people back home who don’t necessarily want to move away, but they want to travel, and they can come back and forth between the companies.
“People from the Highlands can also then experience island life, and they can do that without having to uproot their life. It creates flexibility for people to experience life in a different way.
“It’s a wee bit different but why not?! Why not just try it and what is the worst that’s going to happen?! It all goes belly up!?”
IDM is about people and ensuring that they are given the chance to grow, learn and feel like they are part of a family.
Iain said: “When I started IDM I always said that I wouldn’t take anyone on, or it would be about two years and I’d maybe take one person on. But I now have12 folk and it is a real buzz creating opportunities for people and having them on this journey while they also grow and develop themselves.
“Without this incredible team we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.
“When you are working in a team, you all need to be going in the same direction and be able to trust and lean on one another.
“We all just want to make a better life for ourselves and our loved ones – so if that is everybody’s aim in life then we should do that together.
“It’s my responsibility as an employer to help them fly.”
Iain has learned a lot in the last two and half years, both about himself and about business. He shared: “I’ve learned that having self-belief and putting your mind to something can make it work. When that clicked with me, it made such a difference.
“In business I have learned that I knew more than I thought I did! It is also all about individual relationships – you have got to be honest, transparent, and work out solutions with people. If you treat others kindly and with respect, they will do the same back.”
Iain added: “Creating IDM is like finding what I was meant to do all along.”
Contact details:
W: www.idmsafetysolutions.co.uk
T: 01463 213480
E: info@idmsafetysolutions.co.uk
