CASE STUDY
Business : Elevana Location : Royal Wootton Bassett Founded : 2017 No of employees : 15
The next 12 months are going to be tough , but there is no doubt that our business is in a much stronger position than it was before the pandemic
Elevana is a leading name in the house building business . Our unique services help clients save time , reduce costs and minimise stress levels to boost customer satisfaction .
Our expertise lies in creating Instructional videos , demonstration and handover services to builders , customer service training , and home demonstration and handover training .
Our business had to change completely as a result of the pandemic . Prior to the lockdowns , all of our services , except videos , were delivered face-to-face .
We have gone from a face-to-face only training and demonstrations company , to a firm that has e-learning and virtual classroom capability , a unique augmented reality home demonstration system and a large order book for instructional videos .
Finding our strengths
Furlough was a great help at first , giving us some breathing space to look at our options . Our turnover fell dramatically in the first six months .
Luckily , the Elevana team is flexible in its thinking , and we relish change which means that everyone could come together and discuss ideas to steer our future . In our business there is no such thing as a stupid question or a silly idea .
Investing in technology
As face-to-face demonstrations and training were no longer on the table , we had to find new ways to support our clients . We created a package of technology-led training , demonstration and instructional videos . To enable this to work we needed to invest in new video camera equipment to support the increase in demand for video work .
Engaging with the Growth Hub
I ’ d known of the Swindon and Wiltshire Growth Hub for several years and got in touch to see if they could help us . With the team ’ s support we successfully applied for a grant and received funding for a new video camera . They also introduced us to a local Swindon company to help us find an apprentice to support us with the video work . We successfully appointed the right candidate , and she is already very accomplished behind the camera . Thanks to these steps we now have the ability to double our output in the future . We have also been looking at exporting opportunities as we believe there is potential for some of our business to start trading overseas . We recently attended a series of Growth Hub exporting webinars which we found useful in getting to grips with what ’ s needed to achieve this goal .
Looking to the future
I think the next 12 months are going to be tough , but there is no doubt that our business is in a much stronger position than it was before the pandemic in terms of being able to offer a more diverse set of services to our clients . We have invested in a new Learning Management System and a system that allows us to conduct demonstrations remotely over the internet . Once things open back up properly , we are looking forward to achieving a healthy mix of digital and face-to-face work .