After many years working as an Office Manager within an Army Career Centre, Darren Cassidy from Harrogate decided to take some of his own career advice and make the jump into self-employment. With no previous experience in surface repair, we asked Darren some questions regarding his experiences on training and life as a Surface Medic franchisee.

How was the repair training?

I thought the repair training was set and pitched at the right level for beginners. The level of instruction was excellent as was the manner of the instructors, the training centre is well set out and is also a working franchise operation meaning we had the opportunity to actually go out on the vans attending real life repairs, and this gave me real experience and increased my confidence.

What was the most enjoyable part of your training?

I love learning new skills! I am always looking to improve myself so I absorbed every part of the training, my favourite part was the colour matching and using the state of the art equipment, I was blown away by the technologies of the kit and the techniques taught by Gary Nicholls, I would admit that the training was really quite intense at times.

What was the last repair you did?

A broken tile. Cracks, chips and drill holes in tiles are unsightly and can also pose a health risk. My repair techniques can quite easily overcome this, I created an indistinguishable and carefully matched finish for the customer, who was delighted! We have a technical support manager who helps us once out in the field, his guidance is never too far away and he has 16 years’ experience, I often ping over images for advice.

What’s the best part about being self-employed?

There are two parts to the benefits of being self-employed for me. The first is, all your work is rewarded financially through the satisfaction of negotiating the deal and seeing it through to the end with great results. The second is sourcing the work, finding new contacts whether on social media or word of mouth or simply just dropping into somewhere.
Surface Medic saves my customers thousands of pounds, this is the real job satisfaction for me, at a time when businesses need to cut back and save money, and my business thrives!