Did you know that we have been trading for more than twenty years?

Alan Points, our founder, set up our organisation back in 2002 after gaining experience as a BSI Client Manager. He recognised that there was an emerging demand for an ISO consultancy service and decided to exit full-time employment to pursue growing his own business.

Read on for a comprehensive insight into the evolution of ADL Consultancy, and what sets us apart from many other firms in our sector.

A twist of fate, and a big decision to make

Around the year 2000, the telecoms business went into freefall, and the company I was working for at the time (BNR Europe, later known as Nortel Networks) made several thousand of its staff redundant, including myself. I must admit, it came as a surprise, as I had worked for the business since 1974. During that time, I had been a Silicon Chip Designer, Design Office Manager, Computer Administrator, and, in more recent years, a Quality Manager.

As I had gained experience as a Quality Manager, I decided to join the British Standards Institute (BSI) as a Client Manager for both ISO9001 (Quality) and ISO14001 (Environmental). However, after two years as an assessor, I realised the travelling was too much for me. In those days we didn’t have sat navs, and I often had to drive with one hand whilst trying to hold a map with the other. I could also see that European Standards such as ISO9001 and ISO14001 were being modified and thus becoming more applicable for many business sectors, even small businesses. Most importantly, there was a lack of consultants at the time who were qualified and experienced enough to support these businesses with their applications.

So, in 2002 I took a big leap of faith and left BSI to start out on my own, as a Quality and Environmental Consultant. I sat down with my wife, Sharon, and we worked out together how we could manage and for how long our savings would last if I did not pick up any clients straight away. We thought we might be able to survive on £200 per week if we were very careful, remembering we still had bills to pay and a family of three to feed. This was a real leap of faith for me, as I had been in paid employment my entire career.

Navigating the world of self-employment

I will never forget how I felt as my last week with BSI approached. I had no clients and suddenly I started to doubt if I had made the right decision. However, on the Friday evening following my last day with BSI, the telephone rang. It was one of the clients I had worked with at BSI, and they invited me to continue helping them as a consultant. I breathed a big sigh of relief, I can tell you!

The following week I gained another client and then another. Whilst the momentum was starting to grow, it wasn’t quite enough to survive on, and I knew it wouldn’t be long until my redundancy money ran out. I didn’t have a website in those days – the internet was not as easily accessible as it is now – so I decided to do a leaflet drop. Those leaflets thankfully generated more positive leads, and at that point I started to truly believe I had made the right decision.

One evening, I decided to create a Corrective Action Database in “FileMaker Pro” to help me capture and manage actions for my clients. Little did I realise what a good investment those evening hours would be, as over the years this software database has been developed to help us conduct internal audits, management review meetings and run analysis reports on actions. It really has served as the foundation on which ADL Consultancy has been built.

Being a consultant hasn’t always been plain sailing

I had one particularly bad experience when the accountant I employed, who came highly recommended from a family member, subsequently stole a tax rebate of approximately £3,000. He stole the money by altering my tax return, and ensuring the rebate was sent to him and not to me. Although the local court ruled in my favour, he still got away with it and there was absolutely nothing further I could do.

Bringing my family into the fold

In 2004, my son David, who was running a small cleaning business at the time, told me he fancied a career change and was considering going back to college. I invited him to join me for a day to see if he liked the work. As we drove home from the client at the end of that day, he said to me that he had already made up his mind and this was what he wanted to do.

Three years later, I had a very similar conversation with my daughter, Lucy, who was exhausted from her employment and also looking to go in a new direction. It didn’t take her long to agree to join us as a Quality Consultant.

Over the years that followed, I could see the Environmental and Information Security Standards gaining popularity and encouraged Lucy and David respectively to embrace these, which put us in a good position to attract new clients.

A pivotal moment occurred when a fellow consultant I knew, and who used to throw work our way, decided to sell his business. We suddenly realised most of our work came via him, along with the odd referral, and we needed to start advertising properly. This led to several heated debates, as I was happy resurrecting the leaflet drop. David, however, wanted to move in a more digital direction and create a website, but this would require a business name, logo, and professional branding.

Eventually, I came round to the idea, and we adopted the name ‘ADL Consultancy’ (Alan, David, Lucy). Over the years, we have regularly updated and developed the website to keep it current and highlight our unique selling point as a consultancy: The fact we are family.

The family ties were further strengthened in 2014, when I noted my son-in-law (Martin) wanted to leave his job in construction. It crossed my mind that Martin’s experience in health and safety could expand the business in an area we had previously shied away from, and so it proved to be.

Not long after that, my youngest daughter, Jennifer, started to help us with admin and invoicing duties.

Finally, in 2016, Martin’s father, Stephen, also joined us from the construction industry. The opportunity to tap into Martin and Stephen’s years of experience in the construction sector has proven to be a master stroke for us. In recent years, the health and safety arm of the business has become increasingly busy, and our clients continue to multiply significantly.

The family ties are still so strong, that my two granddaughters (Sophie and Olivia) have both expressed an interest in joining the business as and when they are old enough!

An impressive legacy

I finally retired from client visits in 2021 at the age of 73 and passed the reins onto David. Over the last two decades, I’ve seen the company progress from my first client call on that Friday evening, to a respected organisation with a stable and varied customer base across many different industry sectors. It’s become a business that supports my entire family.

I’ve also witnessed ADL Consultancy enter the digital age. In fact, during 2023, we are aiming to roll out our new ISO system within SharePoint, a project we have been developing for several years now. The system will enable our clients to better manage their systems whilst fulfilling the requirements of all the key standards.

And the best bit of all? It’s largely modelled on the Corrective Action database I created in FileMaker. It fills me with immense pride to think the foundations I created all those years ago will continue to support the business as we move into a new era.

I’m proud to say, ADL Consultancy was and still is a genuine, family run, consultancy business.

Long may that continue.

Alan Points

Founder of ADL Consultancy