A moment with Bob Turner:

Bob, how would you explain yourself?

I’m always myself. What you see is what you get and I try and concentrate on the brighter side of life.

A little about the business?

We have always been a family owned and operated business which has always been customer focused, I really get a buzz out of helping people, trying to achieve their expectations and then just a little more, a lot of people have the unfortunate job of never seeing a started and completed job in the flesh, I just love to see a finished job, being creative and working with people or the client to achieve the final masterpiece is a real buzz.

Bob when did you start Turner Projects?

Well the business originally started in 1974, when I started my apprenticeship as a painter working in the Easter Suburbs. Back then it was a lot of manual work with everything was done by hand, drilling, grinding, filing and area were accessed by ladders and scaffolding. It’s changed now with power tool and access machinery readily available. Products and technology have progressed which help the operations of the business.

When you started, how did you get business?

Well that’s a good question and if you want to know something about being successful, which I learned very early on my time here on earth and it’s quite simple and very powerful. Firstly by focusing on people, the customer then comes passion for your work and lastly lots of hard work.

I have always built my business by referrals only, word of mouth, I have never advertised or followed up new business, but I must say in recent times with the introduction of technology I found I was loosing touch with people, websites, email, sms, communication devices facebook, the list goes on, so we looked at the introduction of new business development media, I was not happy about the changes but as you know we all have to change, the boys introduced me to certain things and we looked at what and how I could remain focused and in touch with my people the customer.

The balance and fusion between new and old has been an arm wrestle and the whole time I am mindful of the cost associated with overheads to the business as I don’t want my prices to rise through operation costs, I keep the overheads and operating cost low so this is not passed onto my people the customer. I’m not always the cheapest but not often I’m the most expensive, unless you’re dealing with back yard people.

Motivation?

We can’t afford to make business boring, with the young generation coming through and we talk about new generations xyz, daily work and routine sometimes gets Monday – ing no matter what we do, but I like to have fun, weather just a harmless practical joke or a discussing on who gets their choice of radio station. We always have a smile and chuckle. If a member of my team has something troubling them, without being nosey I let them know on a personal or professional level I’m hear to help if I can, it makes for a better day and a lasting job. The way you treat your employees is the way they treat your customers.

Why keep painting?

Well that’s a hard one, and to be honest I consider this weekly and the answer??

I believe we are all hear for a greater purpose, in life there is no doubt in my mind there is a bigger force at work and I can only hope and pray that I get used through my physical work to reach others, weather just to cheer someone up or chat to a lonely person, distract them from their daily burdens then I’m happy, happy if I’m getting used for this greater purpose.

Conclusion from Bob please?

You give as much as you can until it hurts, lead by example with commitment and purpose, this get absorbed by those around you and when its time for me leave the Company, my legacy is instilled forever.

Where just ordinary people trying to do extraordinary things

A moment with Sam Turner: Operations & Business Development

Dad has taught me everything I know in terms of the trade and how to direct my focus on the customer, it has always been a successful ingredient, but in return I have introduced technology and operational guidelines to streamline the company.

Future planning, purpose and direction are things that are important to me as it assures your longevity and makes things interesting. If you keep focusing of the future you never know what good things are around the corner.

As my father always planned, I see the company as always being relatively small so we don’t loose touch, but being business savvy and effective we are able to take on the large jobs also. We are good at what we do strive to involve ourselves 100% in the projects we take on.

My motto is think big but build small

A moment with Ben Turner: IT and Administration

Apart from working with the tools, my other role is to implement IT infrastructure. We recently updated our entire computer network, including a new server which we can connect to while we are out of the office, this enables us to obtain information immediately, weather it be quotations, or data sheets. This correspondence enables us to act on tasks when we need to, on the spot, making our lives simpler, and your lives more stress free.

I constantly analyze the business, and search for new and exciting tools, which can streamline and facilitate our processes, there is just 8 hours in a day so simply my roll is the increase our efficiency with hardware and software, squeezing in a full 24 hours in an 8 hour shift.