HLN Meets: Angela Carney

Tell us about your business

Carney Consultancy is a health and safety, quality and environmental consultancy with a strong focus on training. We set up the company 19 years ago (two weeks before I had my son), to write risk assessments for the construction industry because that was my background. My husband was made redundant in 2008 due to the recession. I was turning work away, so I asked him to work with me. We needed to expand the company quickly as it was our only source of income and the recession wasn’t great. But we survived and, since then, we’ve evolved and grown from just me to five employees during the recession. We now have 14 staff members.

Our service list has grown with us and we now undertake NVQs, training courses, risk assessments, construction phase plans, Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental systems and the ISO standards. We’ve started to diversify to take on new clients and business areas. We’ve learned about new areas of work so we can deliver the same quality of competent advice in the new areas. We’re also driven by our employees – if they would like to do something, we always consider it and pursue new avenues if they’ll be good for everyone on the team. That’s how we became an NVQ centre, because one of the team was interested in building that up. My young apprentice wants to do HR. I plan to send her off to do an HR qualification and eventually we’ll be able to offer that to our clients too.

Have you always worked in construction?

No, I wasn’t always in construction. I fell into it by accident. I left school with three Us in A-levels, which meant I certainly wasn’t going to medical school to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps. I looked into nursing as a career, but while I waited to start nursing school I took a temporary job in a construction company to fill the time.

My father was a civil engineer so construction had always interested me. I was taken under the wing of the training department and was enrolled at Reading Tech College doing a day-release course in civil engineering. But I was determined to do better than the boys so I went to Leeds University to do a full-time degree in civil engineering. It took all the lads four years to get to University through the College route but I completed it in two years.

I worked all the holidays to pay myself through. Once I’d finished I stayed in Leeds and switched to building. I wasn’t a great engineer but I knew my skills lay in site-management. I loved bringing projects and teams together. In 1997 an opportunity came up in Newcastle to take over a project in ICI Wilton to cover some annual leave. After that I got another job in Washington to develop my engineering skills. That’s the approach in engineering – no moving up until you’re a competent engineer. That was frustrating because I wanted my employer to recognise the skills I had that would suit a different role. But as a result of that job I met my husband, who was my boss on the Washington Project. That’s when I transferred up here permanently.

What sets you apart from your competitors?

We’re very flexible in our approach and strive to help our clients as much as we possibly can. Our competitors will say ‘go and have a look online for what you want’ while we’ll find out what our clients need and set out to find it for them. We take pride in delivering exactly what they need and would never say we couldn’t do something.

We’ll always find a way to solve a problem for our clients. That sets us apart. My nature is that I’ll always try and help people. I don’t think that’s because I’m a woman. I know some men who have that nature too. For me it’s about human psychology. I love to learn about people and pass that down to my colleagues too. For me, business isn’t about profit and turnover, it’s about the experience my customers have when they work with my business. If we can sell the experience and make that experience positive, they’ll keep coming back to us.

We’re hoping to roll that out around the region to encourage people into the construction professions. Currently, I am working with another creative NAWIC member, Danielle Blakey of Bowmer & Kirkland, designing posters to go into schools across the North East.

There’s a huge skills shortage in the trades, but the industry is ignoring 50% of the population. It’s pointless pretending it isn’t a tough industry to work in, but we’re tackling the shortage from two directions. First, we’re encouraging girls to do an apprenticeship straight from school to get into the trades, and secondly, we’re looking at women in the early to mid-20s who haven’t yet decided what they want to do. We’re offering them tasters and apprenticeships in the trades.

Then there’s the Phoenix detached youth project (PDYP) in the Meadowell which is for 16-25-year-olds. They run some team building and choose the six best kids. They’re all from difficult backgrounds and we put them through some training for free then try to find them placements with companies. Hopefully, they then get apprenticeships out of the project too, so it’s a brilliant scheme. Last Year PDYP Manager Mike Burgess managed to get five out of the six into permanent jobs in the industry which is a real success story. 

My plan is to pass the company over to the younger generation. Ideally, I want to train the next generation to follow the ethos through so it’s sustainable for generations to come. Then I’d like to volunteer at charities to help out people aren’t as fortunate as so many in the population.

What do you think is the secret to your success?

It used to be really tough being a woman in the construction industry. But I’ve always been determined to succeed. I’ve been busy from day one and I genuinely think that, if you do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it, customers respond positively and will come back again and again.

If you’re prepared to work hard with a clear vision, you won’t struggle. There are always highs and lows, but we adapt and change to suit the market conditions. This year has probably been my biggest learning curve. I’m surrounded by a brilliant team who are flexible and committed to the company so I always feel supported.

I keep an eye on my team to make sure they’re all happy. When they’re not happy I help them do something about it. I’d never want to push them to breaking point and they know that. As a business owner, you can never sit back on your laurels. You always have to have one eye on the horizon to make sure you’re doing the worrying, so your staff don’t have to. We’re a family business and we’re here to work together as a team and look after each other.