Office World: One Year On

Tim James founded Office World, based on the south coast of England, in 2004. Despite enjoying increased revenue of nearly 20 per cent in 2013, the company struggled to balance fast growth with the administration and financial juggling that comes with it. Tim made the decision to switch to Office Power on 10 October 2014 so that he could focus more on strengthening his relationships with existing customers and nurturing new prospects, maintaining his strong growth trajectory.

One year on, we checked in with Tim to see how his business has changed since.

“Partnering with Office Power is the best business decision I’ve ever made and the last year has been amazing. The last four months have been the best we’ve ever had in six years. August was the best August we’ve had in seven years. And last month was the best September we’ve had ever!

We are acquiring 20-25 new customers online every month and my web traffic is increasing all the time. These are all brand new customers as previously we didn’t even have a website, and the majority are returning to place follow up orders. My existing customers are all really happy because I have time to get out and see them again and I’ve begun the process of migrating them online.

Financially, I feel stress free! No more worrying about monthly supplier payments. My margins are way, way better – at least 15% higher. The ability to drop my prices means I can now compete with the big boys, something I could only have dreamed of before. And I’m competing with them on big-ticket items, too, like expensive furniture, which we are selling more and more of.

Personally, I now have a lot more confidence and time to invest in finding new customers and building relationships with them to encourage repeat purchases. I haven’t taken a foreign holiday since 1999 but I’m planning to book one in for 2016. And I can do this because I know that Office Power has totally got my back and the business will still keep running even with me away from the helm for a couple of weeks. I see Paul, Simon, Colin and all of the customer services team at Office Power as colleagues, not suppliers – they listen to my ideas and are always there to help me grow the business even more.

One year ago, my goal was for Office Power to make my life easier re admin and finance so that I could focus on sales and marketing. That has worked perfectly and now I’ve widened the goal posts and I plan to further strengthen my sales team within the next 18-24 months allowing me to work even more closely with Office Power on marketing and growth strategy.

Making the move to Office Power requires the will to change and a level of trust. I have been in this industry since 2001 and my business was ten years old so it felt initially like I was handing over my baby to them. But I would urge all office supplies dealers to consider making the move. As I said at start of this conversation, for me, it was quite simply the best business decision I’ve ever made.”