(almost) always thinking

I’ve been shopping for a very small, very basic horsebox (actually more of a horsevan).  In the process of comparing different suppliers, I ended up in a little industrial estate in the North East, where just the kind of thing I was looking for was being turned out of a tiny workshop.

Since just one of these horsevans pretty much filled the workshop, I was wondering how they managed to make a business from it, until they offered to show me vans at different stages of completion, which involved driving round the industrial estate to visit neighbouring businesses.

It was a brilliant example of a good, old fashioned, non-digital networked economy.  The paint job was done round the corner, servicing and MOT was across the road and the flooring for the van’s storage area was offcuts from a shopfitters down the street.

By working collaboratively, all these businesses were punching above their weight and also bringing in cross-referrals.  As a bonus, being able to chat to the people who are actually going to paint, service, build and finish your vehicle has to be a big selling tool.