12:00a.m. 3rd September 2008

TT Building Consultant owner Stuart Titheradge stepped away from the old Maroochy Shire Council to run his own business in 1992. Photo:Barry Leddicoat/177914

Just because your business is based on the Sunshine Coast, don’t think you can’t compete against some of the biggest corporations in the country ... just look at TT Building Consultants.

The business, started on the Sunshine Coast by Stuart and Robyn Titheradge in 1993, is one of just three companies on the national Defence Infrastructure Panel – the other two are Sinclair Knight Merz and Maunsell Bassett, although Connell Wagner and Arup are reserves.

The panel members conduct fire safety audits at thousands of Department of Defence buildings across Australia and Stuart said TTBC had actually completed as much as 80% of the work available since the DIP was established in 2004.

“We do all of the audit and advisory work in Queensland as far up as Mackay, all of South Australia, and a lot in the other 12 defence regions as the contracts come up,” he said.

TTBC has nine staff employed to carry out the fire safety work, which it co-ordinates from the Sunshine Coast.

It also has a separate division that concentrates mainly on certifying buildings in new and existing aged care facilities for fire safety and OH&S regulations.

Like the Defence Force contracts, that work did not exist when Stuart decided to step away from his job as a building inspector with Maroochy Shire Council in 1993 and set up his own business.

“At that time, buildings could only be certified by local councils. But we’d heard private certification was going to be introduced – probably by 1995 – so I decided I’d get in ahead of the game and go out on my own,” he said.

“I’m not a gambler, but I’m prepared to weigh things up and take an educated risk.”

But even Stuart admitted he could never have foreseen what the company would end up doing, and how big it would become.

“When we started, I thought we might have Robyn and I and maybe one other person in the business once we got going,” he said.

“But we got so busy almost right from the start that I had to bring my brother Barrie down from Townsville to help us out.

“Once we got going the opportunities just kept coming up.

“It certainly wasn’t part of the plan to be where we are today.”

In fact at the start, there was no plan. Stuart admitted that like so many start-up companies, the need for a business plan only became evident several years later when he realised they had a tiger by the tail.

“It was in about 2001 – I think we had six staff at the time – that I realised we needed a business coach,” he said.

“We came up with a business plan to concentrate on bigger clients like the aged care providers, large architectural firms ... and the Defence Force work.

“I was actually a bit reluctant to drop the small residential certification work because that was why I’d gone into business in the first place – I always liked to help people and teach them things.

“But once we made that decision to concentrate on commercial projects, things really took off.”

While business is booming, Stuart acknowledged there were risks, not the least being the company could lose defence as a client.

“They could turn off the tap at any time, although if they did that we could quite easily move back into building certification if we wanted to,” he said.

“The biggest threat as I see it is losing good staff, and finding new ones.

“There are actually very few people out there with the qualifications we need.

“We’re very lucky we’ve got such a good team.

“Every one of my staff has the ability to sell what we do to clients, and every one of them is proud to represent our company.”

Stuart, who recently turned 50 and has become a regular in several major car rally events in his Evo3 in recent years, admitted his next big challenge would be creating a succession plan.

“Robyn and I have both worked all our lives, and we’re still enjoying the ride,” he said.

“It’s hard to step back. Ideally I’d love to see the business sold to someone within the company.”