3 Years since OTECSA Started, What Have We Learned?

These anniversaries creep up on us, but do offer an opportunity for reflection.

On 3rd November, it will be 3 years since OTECSA was incorporated. Here's some of the main things we have learned from starting a consulting business from scratch.

• There will always be a cliff edge in multi-client consulting, deal with it.

No matter how much you wish your consulting business was going to have a lovely steady flow of business, unless you've got team members embedded in client teams on long term contracts, there will always be a cliff edge. The cliff edge is nothing to fear, the more you live with it, the more you realise it ebbs and flows and hovers there on the horizon. Sometimes it gets close, sometimes it feels far off, you might even reach it, but hopefully by that time you have built enough of a buffer to take your foot off the pedal and decelerate towards it.

• Eventually, you will let somebody down, or somebody will be unhappy.

No matter how hard you try to please everybody, a ball will get dropped somewhere, and clients won't always be happy. In our case, this happened about a year ago where we just didn't give the client what they were expecting. It wasn't pleasant, but we weathered the storm, delivered what was needed and moved on, lesson learned, you can't please everyone.

• You have to find your niche, and play on your strengths.

When you're small, you can't offer everything. We tried being all things process safety to everyone that needed it. We soon realised that what we were really good at, was what people keep coming back for. Sure we can offer the more obscure complementary services, but now we know our core services we can focus on making them the best we can.

• Partnerships and relationships are what make and break the success of your business.

People buy from people (in their trusted network). The bigger your network, and the stronger your relationship with people you solve problems for, the more consistent your workload can be. Be very careful what bridges get burned... if your market is like ours, it's a very small world, you never know who will move jobs to one of your clients next.

• Learn from every experience.

Whether it's a failure to deliver to the required standard, a huge mountain of workload for a short period, a scheduling error that throws a few projects off track, or an unexpected non-work event (pandemic anyone?!), learn from those experiences so you know how to bounce back and hopefully avoid them if you see them coming next time.

We're extremely proud of what we have achieved, in three years we have tripled our permanent staff headcount (from one to three), taken on almost 200 projects and grown the business to a sustainable offering that now includes specialist training, design support and the opportunity to help clients even more through our sister company IDEA.

What's next? Watch this space.

#LOPA #HAZOP #HAZID #RiskManagement #Processsafety

Owen Llanwarne is Managing Director of OTECSA Consulting and works with clients to reduce risks in hazardous processes.

OTECSA are a process safety consultancy based in Scotland with offices in Glasgow and Cornwall. We provide expertise specialising in HAZOP, HAZID, LOPA, DSEAR and Hazardous Area Classification. This includes in industries such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, distilled spirits, petrochemicals, energy from waste, waste management and manufacturing