COMPETE HARDER

I have never been one to sit on the sidelines.

A decade or more ago, I attended so many round tables and discussions that sounded the alarm for a real skills shortage in the tech sector. Without skills how could the industry grow?

So, we reached out to see how we could help. We worked with schools in Trafford to develop tech qualifications. This has evolved over the past decade to include courses, teaching teachers, installing tech suites (Raspberry Pi cafes) in schools and youth centres, and getting as many kids through the doors at UKFast Campus as possible. We even helped to change the curriculum. We currently have 75 apprentices and are recruiting more as we speak. Nowadays, I’m not worried about the skills gap anymore. It’s reassuring to see that we’re certainly not the only business to have got out there to boost tech education.

Yes, there are still many people sitting around talking about the problem, but I believe you have to get out there and make your mark. It doesn’t matter how small you are, when we ventured into the community, there were less than 30 people in the whole company. The schools we work with in Trafford now produce double the technically qualified students than those in Manchester and Salford, so we have first-hand experience of just what is possible when everyone gets behind an initiative.

Deeper pockets and bigger funds

Nowadays, there is a much bigger issue that compounds and actually dwarfs the skills shortage. It’s a topic I have been very vocal about. For a number of years I have openly complained about it not being a level playing field with AWS and Azure having significant tax benefits. It’s a huge problem that puts hardworking UK companies at a colossal disadvantage.

The damage done to the high street particularly by Amazon and AWS has yet to really take its toll. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. But, in spite of incredible efforts to raise the issue at a senior government level, there has been a great deal of rhetoric, but no real action.

I even went to the lengths of joining the Leaders Group for the Conservative Party. I hoped that a seat at the table opposite the Prime Minister, Chancellor and other significant politicians may actually add weight to our plea. Somehow, no matter how it is tabled, regardless of the billions of uncollected revenue they are missing, the government is immovable.

Changing business landscapes

When you exhaust all possibilities of levelling the playing field, you are left with few choices.

1. Give up and walk away, which I make no apology to my competitors, is not an option!

2. Set up offshore like AWS and pay revenue in a tax “efficient” way. That means no revenue is attributed to the UK, despite every penny of it coming from UK customers. This is not an option for me either. Despite of cynics like Owen Jones, who believe all businesses and business owners are bad, I am proud to contribute to this great country of ours.

3. Get stuck in and compete harder.

The third option is much more appealing and aligned with the type of competitive person I am. However, whichever strategy I look at, it all comes down to needing deeper pockets. After all, it’s a huge market and we are up against companies with very deep pockets who not only don’t pay tax, they seem to acquire huge contracts from the government too.

To expand ambitiously is going to require big funds. So, however I look at it, if we want to grow at pace and take on these US giants, which I do, we have to do something about it.

Interestingly, our cloud is growing at around 43%, which is the same rate as that of AWS. However, the significant difference AWS has with its market share means that we will always be falling further behind AWS when growing at the same percentage.

I still remember our very first customer at UKFast, a lady called Bridget Postlethwaite. She paid us ￡19.95 + vat a month, a whopping ￡239.40 for the year. I will never forget how excited we were and what a significant moment it was. It signified we were in business. We both walked to the Natwest to proudly bank the cheque.

ClearCloud

If you want to check out the article in full and learn more about ClearCloud and the future of UKFast, head over to my personal blog post - BEYOND THE COMFORT ZONE - and keep reading!