Business Profile: Nicky Askew
- What’s the name of your business, and what role do you play in making it a success? T-rifik Painters. I take care of marketing and sales, finance, coordinating/scheduling of our projects, and customer communication and service delivery.
- If you had to sum up your business in two sentences, how would you describe it? We are painting contractors. We paint and maintain interiors and exteriors of residential, commercial and industrial properties.
- How long have you been on this journey, and what inspired you to start? T-rifik Painters has been running since 2002 but I joined my husband, Mike in the business in 2010. I had always wanted to run my own business, and Mike was getting too busy to manage the business on his own.
- What led you to this industry—was it passion, opportunity, or something unexpected? I wasn’t personally led to the industry because Mike had started the business, but I have always had a passion for looking at all the trends to decorate a home and watching the property market. I now get to see the transformations of people’s homes and I love that.
- What has been your biggest challenge so far, and what did it teach you? Being a perfectionist. This is still a huge challenge for me. As a business owner you can never have everything up to date 100% especially when much of your day consists of communication with people. The other hats I wear sometimes fall behind. This is really hard for me, but I am getting better at keeping in mind so long as all our projects are running smoothly and we meet deadlines with customers in every aspect, that is the most important part. The world does not fall down if the back end of the business isn’t 100% up to date.
- What’s the one skill or trait that has been absolutely essential to your success? My organisational skills.
- What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received, and how has it shaped your approach? Have many avenues of lead generation. This has helped us to ensure consistent work especially as our teams grows.
- If you had to share one “secret ingredient” to business success, what would it be? I carry out my day as if every day is the first day of our business. This way you keep your edge, don’t take being busy for granted and you don’t get complacent.
- What’s your biggest business goal for 2025, and how have you been working towards it? To keep our pipeline full of projects for the months of October to December. There is usually considerable dips in these months because of the rain. I have been educating people that the rain doesn’t affect the painting. We just don’t come in on rainy days. We are seeing success with this, with the result that our October is booking up with just a few spaces left. We even have a couple of bookings for November.
- Tell us something surprising about yourself that most people wouldn’t guess! I have a serious passion for travelling. If I knew that I could make enough money from vlogging and giving insights on all the different places I travelled to, I wouldn’t hesitate to do this full time.