What will September bring for Mark Fletcher?

September is upon us; summer holidays are over, and children are back to school. We’re in the final quarter of 2022 and talking to businesses about what September will bring for them.

Mark Fletcher who is an Aspray loss assessor, based in Swindon and working across the town, North Wiltshire, Cirencester and parts of Berkshire. Mark helps people make successful building insurance claims and helps return their property to pre-loss condition.

What’s coming up for your business in September?
September is the start of my new financial year, so I have new sales targets and business objectives. Also, to add to my Aspray Swindon Franchise I am taking on the Gloucester and Cheltenham Franchise, which is really good news. I have carried out a lot of claims in the territory before including Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud, Nailsworth, Woodchester, Stonehouse, Cirencester and Bourton on the Water, and look forward to serving these areas once again.

It’s ‘back to school’ month – is this relevant to you personally or professionally?
My son will be back to school at the beginning of September, after having had a lovely summer holiday with a holiday trip down to Weymouth to see his grandparents, meeting up with his mates and having days out. It’s time for him to go back and he is looking forward to a new tutor and seeing his other mates that he has not been able to see over the summer.

It will also be the first time my daughter has not been returning to full time education, although hopefully she will be starting a new job in the middle of September. For me on a personal level, although I will miss them being around, where I work from my home office, I am looking forward to it being a bit quieter and less disruption.

World Gratitude Day takes place this month (Sept 21) – what are you grateful for at the moment?
At the moment I am grateful that I am working in a role that, although it will be impacted due to cost of living as people will not be making claims if they do not have the excess available, it has proven to be over the years and along with operating throughout COVID as pretty recession proof.

Who are you grateful for at the moment?
I am grateful for our introducers that continue to recommend us to their clients to support them with their building insurance claims. These are insurance brokers, plumbers, leak detection companies, letting agents and block managers. All of whom we supply a claims management arm to their team and who they feel comfortable with the support we offer their clients.

To our contractors and suppliers who continue to work hard and support us in the reinstatement of people properties to pre-loss condition.

Also, to our Aspray Head Office who are on hand to support on claims, along with building the introducer network, accounts and marketing.

What are your hopes for business for the rest of this year?
I have a nice supply of claims heading into September that are at various stages that will be completed and also some set to start. There is also a pipeline of claims coming through, which will be increased as October comes, and people start putting their boilers back on and noticing the leaks that will start to occur. I would imagine there will also be a new stream of subsidence claims coming through, as we have had a pretty similar summer to that of 2018, with the ground being dried out.

We are dealing with a lot of messages around ‘bad’ news such as the rising cost of living, inflation rising and interest rates rising. How are you keeping positive – what tips can you share with others?
For the business we are constantly looking at reviewing our overheads and look at where we are buying materials. Rather than using the van for every journey, I am looking at using the electric car as much as I can, even loading up with drying equipment for drying projects.

On a personal level, again we have reviewed our Utility Bills with Darren Chapman at Utility Warehouse and have moved utilities, broadband and some mobile devises across to them which has given us a significant saving on a yearly basis.

For more information visit: https://aspray.com/swindon/