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About Jeff

“The good news about entrepreneurship is that your fate is in your hands. The bad news is that your fate is in your hands.”
– Guy Kawasaki

My Story

As someone who has experienced the highs and lows of success and failure, I know what it means to persevere through the hard times.

As a young man growing up in the East End, I was exposed to the raw entrepreneurial spirit of local business owners. This was an early influence on me and partly why I decided to found my own maintenance company, Essex Air Conditioning (EAC).

Following the financial success of EAC, it seemed to me that continued business prosperity was guaranteed. I celebrated my early victory by buying my beloved football club, Clacton FC, to help it grow and succeed just like my first business. As time went on, I became increasingly distracted by my passion project on the pitch instead of the day to day at EAC.

A few short years later, I was bankrupt. As EAC collapsed into insolvency, I was surviving on government benefits with debts to pay, a family to feed and only £7.60 in my bank account. This, undoubtedly, was my rock bottom – but you’re only beaten when you don’t get back up.

With the last of my funds, I created a new business from my garden shed, one that would grow to become my largest holding – Cloud Facilities Management. I learned from the mistakes that I had made, and changed my approach to be one that focused on people – and within a year, Cloud was producing a turnover of £1 million; and within four years, £70 million. Had it not been for the lessons I learned following the failure of EAC, it is doubtful that I could have enjoyed such levels of success – lessons that I am now dedicated to sharing with as many fellow entrepreneurs as possible.

Cloud Journey

Cloud was started in a garden shed with minimal capital. Jeff Dewing, the founder, transformed the business into a £70 million empire using innovation, resilience, and grit.

Despite having limited resources, Dewing learned valuable lessons from his previous business, Essex Air Conditioning. These lessons, born from failure, provided him with unique insights that set him apart from competitors. Energised by this realisation, he built Cloud to over £70 million in just four short years.

Dewing’s strategy was to differentiate himself by doing the opposite of his competitors

Breaking the Mould

Doing the opposite means going against the grain.  Instead of taking traditional practices as established norms, I questioned them.  Instead of following the work culture of our competitors, I developed our own work culture based on empathy and respect.  Focusing on developing stronger ties with my workforce, and above all else, ensuring that everyone felt valued. Instead of investing in established tools and technology, we at Cloud invested in creating our own innovative and game-changing technologies.

The result was an industry-leading company; both in its use of technology and in its speed of development. Cloud became the UK’s fastest-growing facilities management company.

“As I learned with EAC, complacency is a killer, and initial success does not guarantee continued success. When the pandemic hit, I knew I needed Cloud to build resilience to get through this. I needed to equip my teams with the right work culture to get through this and not take my eye off the future because of a catastrophe in the present”. Jeff Dewing

Entrepreneurship

Jeff has built businesses that have failed and businesses that have been wildly successful. Although success is never a guarantee, He has learnt a few things along the way about entrepreneurship that may help a business’s odds:

A successful entrepreneur has an appetite for disruption.

“Take Cloud – my company has been a gamechanger for the facilities management industry through our use of transformative technology, advanced systems and innovative processes. This won us the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of Innovation. It recognises our outstanding contribution to the facilities management industry and was the first time a maintenance company had been credited for innovation in 10 years. Always look for ways to shake things up, seeing into the future ahead of your competitors pays off”. Jeff Dewing

From Startup to Success

A successful entrepreneur knows their biggest asset is their people.

“To be successful, you need to trust in your workers, and nurture their trust in you. I am a people person, but even those who aren’t can still learn the value of engaging your employees in the right ways and developing a tighter bond that will translate into increased success”. Jeff Dewing

A successful entrepreneur (and leader) shows vulnerability.

“I’m from the East End where showing vulnerability can be interpreted as weak. What I’ve learned, especially through the pandemic, is that showing vulnerability and being transparent with people builds trust and morale if used in the right way, at the right time”. Jeff Dewing

A successful entrepreneur has grit and resilience.

“For a true entrepreneur, failure will lead to success. Years ago, I was running one of my first successful businesses and my own football club, Clacton FC. Following a few hard knocks I lost it all, at one low point I had only £7.60 in my bank account. But I was determined to turn my life around, and eventually built a new business from my garden shed which made £1 million turnover in its first year. Then I took it from £1 million to £70 million within four years. Successful entrepreneurs have the ability to bounce back”. Jeff Dewing

If you want to read the full story of Jeff’s journey through life and business, check out My Book, Doing The Opposite.

MY BOOK

BUY MY BOOK

Find ‘Doing The Opposite’ in hardcover, paperback, audio book and kindle edition on Amazon.

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“This is a brilliant biography about how a boy from Walthamstow in East London ended up having a vision to totally transform the Facilities Management industry and in doing so created a company worth £65m. But it wasn't to be done in the conventional way, it needed to be on his terms.”