Bob Searle was born and bred in Hororata on the Canterbury Plains. He originally trained as a chef but made the move to contracting 26 years ago and is now in partnership with his brother Mike.
Their business grew and they were often operating four tube wrappers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He says back then it was nothing to work two days or more straight and go home for only a couple of hours sleep, a feed and to charge the cell phone.
Several years later they opted to buy balers as contractors were buying their own wrappers and if they hadn’t moved with the times eventually they would have run out of work.
He believes that to operate a successful contracting business you need to be able to operate every piece of gear to a high standard otherwise it’s very hard to tell one of the guys working it how to correct anything that is going wrong.
He also believes you shouldn’t expect anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. And you should always work hard but remember there is more to life than work so be sure that your team gets some time off when possible and treat them how you would want them to treat you if the boot was on the other foot.
1. What motivates or drives you?
Success without becoming the biggest in the world, doing the job right and leaving the customers happy.
2. What annoys you most about contracting, what do you enjoy the most and why?
Contractors from other areas trying to extend themselves into my area. How big do they really need to be?
I enjoy all parts of the business but these days I’m more into being the front man, trouble shooter and organiser. I like to get some time driving a baler but ever year it gets harder to convince people to let me drive their machines.
3. Why contracting – was there ever a time you wanted to do something else?
I trained as a chef but working nights and weekends all year wasn’t for me so then I became a contractor and worked nights and weekends. At least it’s only for the summer months.
4. What are some of the biggest challenges you face this season as a contractor?
The biggest challenges this season has been mainly the weather, it’s a tricky business trying to make even balage when it rains every second or third day. The days that are fine are so busy because you are trying to squeeze in a couple of extra jobs and keep the list of future jobs within an achievable amount. We like to have no longer than seven days wait from booking to getting the job done.
5. If you weren’t contracting, what would you be doing?
Retired and travelling the world. I’d love to just turn up at the airport and take the first flight to wherever it’s going. Or realistically, semi-retired and travelling.
