Central Coast resident, Jim Henry, drifted into the building automation business thirty years ago. Originally from Canada, Jim moved forward from employee, to protégé , to junior partner, to senior partner, and finally principal shareholder of his business, Logical Building.

Over the last 6 months, Jim’s focus has been on providing a more sophisticated business infrastructure that will give him valuable reporting tools, such as XERO and simPRO. Jim credits some of his ability to focus on business improvement to his team, “I have been lucky enough to have a young, energetic and very capable man in Jeremy Cooke to be in a position to take over as general manager”. Consequently, this has allowed Jim to spread his wings into other business ventures while continuing to steer this one.

Jim says the work that Logical Building does is flavour of the month. “We are in a green business, which means a rapidly expanding market. However, this in itself isn’t a guarantee of growth. Our competition are laying people off, while we are hiring everyone we can!”

Over the next 12 months, Jim says they will achieve 2 specific goals:

• Our company will grow by 40% and

• We will become entrenched as a major player in the industry.

As in every small business, there are challenges along the way and Jim knows he needs support, “The primary challenges are getting enough people trained into a very technical business and to get operating systems in place to handle the larger infrastructure.”

For Logical, part of the support process includes a strong focus on the business fundamentals and management,- “David Evers from Robson Partners has supported us by providing strong analysis and planning for our tax position, including structuring our businesses for growth and forward thinking financial planning. He drills down and gets involved in our business, demonstrating a deep personal interest.”

He adds good humouredly, “He also beats me into submission when I get too carried away with something or disagrees when I am too soft on a position! Over the years we have established a very enjoyable working relationship and a high degree of trust.”

Jim says his team has responded positively to the challenges – but there is always room for continual improvement.

“We are lucky to be in an industry where we make buildings more energy efficient. Every time we complete a job, we make Australia greener and more competitive in the world market.”

Jim has a “spread the love” approach to business and has a strong awareness and commitment to the community. “We promote amateur sport and are the largest corporate sponsor of short track speed skating in Australia and we also sponsor a women’s basketball team.”

Jim outlines the future, “I have been bloody lucky in two ways. First, my wife and accountant have counterpointed my weaknesses and balanced my (sometimes unjustified) enthusiasm with common sense. Second, I have had some very good staff coming up through the ranks.”

“I am starting to enjoy having both financial and time freedom for the first time in my life.”