We're not the same business we were 3 years ago. And that's a good thing.

4 hours ago

5 min read

By Darren Lewis | 22-10-26

I was thinking recently about how much Solar Group UK has changed over the last few years.

Not just in terms of the contracts we’re winning or the size of the team, but in how we actually operate as a business. And I think when you’re caught up in the day-to-day running of things, you don’t always notice how far you’ve come because you're too busy thinking about what needs doing tomorrow.

When Stuart and I started building Solar Group UK, we had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted to achieve. We knew the industry, we understood the challenges and, perhaps most importantly, we knew there were things we could do differently. What I don’t think either of us fully appreciated at the time was just how much we’d have to adapt ourselves as the business grew.

In the early days, you’re involved in absolutely everything. Every decision, every conversation, every problem. And that’s quite natural because you’ve built something from scratch and you want to make sure it’s done properly.

The difficulty comes when the business starts growing and you realise you simply can’t carry on working in exactly the same way.

You need people around you who you can trust to make decisions, take responsibility and sometimes do things differently from how you would have done them yourself. That’s not always easy when you’ve spent years being involved in every detail, but it’s necessary. Otherwise, you end up becoming the very thing that’s holding your own business back.

And I think that’s something a lot of business owners probably recognise.

Finding Our Place in the Industry

One of the biggest changes for us has been the type of conversations we’re now having and the opportunities coming our way. Historically, a significant part of our work involved supporting larger organisations, providing the technical expertise and operational support they needed. We built some really valuable relationships doing that, and it’s been an important part of our journey. But over time, things have started to change.

We’re increasingly working directly with asset owners and being recognised for what we can deliver in our own right. We’re having conversations that perhaps wouldn’t have happened a few years ago, and we’re competing for opportunities that would previously have gone to much larger organisations. That’s something I’m particularly proud of, because it hasn’t happened overnight. It’s taken years of building relationships, demonstrating what we’re capable of and, most importantly, delivering on what we’ve promised.

I touched on this when I spoke at Solar & Storage Live recently. I genuinely think there’s been a shift in the way asset owners view the people who are actually operating and maintaining their sites.

Ten years ago, the industry was still relatively young. There was a lot of learning going on, and perhaps the experience of those working on the ground wasn’t always given the weight it deserved. Now, we’ve got people with ten or fifteen years of practical experience who understand these assets inside out. They know what works, what doesn’t and what the consequences can be when something isn’t managed properly. And I think asset owners are starting to listen to that experience much more closely.

For businesses like ours, that’s a really positive development.

The Reality of Growing a Business

Of course, with growth comes a whole new set of challenges. It’s easy to look at a business that’s winning contracts and expanding its team and assume everything must be going brilliantly. And don’t get me wrong, those are good things. They’re exactly what you work towards. But the reality is that every new contract brings additional responsibility. Every person who joins the business is relying on you, to some extent, to make the right decisions. And the bigger you get, the more important those decisions become.

I think that’s probably one of the things you don’t fully appreciate when you’re starting out.

You’re so focused on winning work and establishing yourself that you don’t necessarily think about what happens when the business reaches a point where you can’t personally oversee everything.

You have to change the way you work. You need better systems, clearer processes and people who understand what you’re trying to achieve without needing to ask you about every little thing.

And sometimes you have to accept that what worked perfectly well when you were a smaller business simply isn’t going to work anymore. That can be frustrating, particularly when you’re used to doing things a certain way. But I suppose that’s part of the process. We’re still learning, and I don’t think that ever really stops.

Getting the Right People Around You

Something that’s become increasingly important to me is the people we bring into the business. We’re fortunate to have some incredibly knowledgeable people at Solar Group UK, and I don’t think you can underestimate how important that is in our industry. Technical knowledge and experience are obviously essential, but I’ve always thought attitude is just as important. You want people who care about what they’re doing, who take responsibility and who aren’t afraid to speak up when they think something could be done better. I don’t particularly want to surround myself with people who agree with everything I say. Stuart and I certainly don’t agree on everything, and that’s probably one of the reasons we work well together.

Different perspectives are healthy. You just need to make sure everyone is ultimately working towards the same thing.

And as the business grows, I think it’s important that people feel they’re part of that growth rather than simply turning up to do a job.

We want to build a business that good people want to work for, where they can develop, contribute their ideas and feel proud of what we’re achieving together. Because ultimately, Solar Group UK can’t just be about the two people who started it.

So, what happens next?

I don’t think Stuart or I have ever been particularly interested in standing still. We’ve always had ambitions for the business, and those ambitions have naturally evolved as we’ve grown.

The solar industry itself is changing enormously. There’s more focus on performance, greater expectations from asset owners and some really interesting developments in technology and the way assets are managed. I think there’s a huge opportunity for businesses that understand both the technical and commercial sides of the industry. But we also need to make sure we’re growing in the right way.

Winning more work is obviously important, but so is being able to deliver it properly. There’s no point taking on opportunities if you haven’t got the people, systems or resources in place to do the job to the standard you expect.

That’s something we’re very conscious of as we look ahead.

We’ve invested a lot of time in developing how we operate as a business, and I think that will become increasingly important over the next few years. The goal isn’t simply to become a bigger version of what we are today. It’s to keep improving, keep learning and build a business that’s capable of taking on whatever comes next. And hopefully, in another three years, I’ll be sitting here looking back and thinking exactly the same thing. That we’re a very different business from the one we are today.

I think that would be a pretty good indication that we’re doing something right.