Not Just Anybody

The first three years are the worst. Survive them and the rewards should start to flow. So entering a fifth year of existence, and growing, is a cause for some metaphorical uncorking of the champagne bottle; a metaphor for Metamorphosis and its perhaps better-known sister company Help Unlimited. And the “sister” description is not inappropriate. These are businesses owned and run by women, and British women at that, albeit one is now a Spanish citizen.

My association with Help Unlimited goes back to the time of its inauguration in early 2004. I had actually known one of the owners, Jenny Upton, for longer; indeed she was one of the first people I met on moving to Mallorca. Unlike the guy in the bar who reckons he knows the ropes in Mallorca but doesn’t, Jenny does, and it was that knowledge that was at the heart of the business. Four years on, and I’m still learning what that business – Jenny and Christine Brown’s business – is about; in accordance with the Metamorphosis name, it has been a transformational process. Four years ago, there was the basis of Help Unlimited, a business, as the name implies, that offered (and still does offer) help and assistance. But the evolution of the two strands has embraced the now core operations of property management and home design, some key contracts coming along the way.

When Jenny and Christine were starting out, they wanted, naturally enough, to promote the Help Unlimited concept. How long was I there that day in March 2004? I had this idea for a sort of wall shot of Jenny and Christine and their assistant Sonia (who still works for them). The three of them against a wall of the office, making as if they were talking and acting naturally. Sonia breaking out into fits of giggles all the time was just one of the problems with the shot. Jenny thought it too posed. I still have the photos somewhere, though my life would not be worth living were I to post any here. One or two, I thought, were really quite good. In the end, we settled (or rather they settled) for a shot looking at a PC screen. And as the business has changed, so has the marketing image, an entwined H and U for Help Unlimited becoming a motif, the by-line “for when it matters” still alluding to the essential assistance basis of the original business concept.

Jenny and Christine are opposites. This may explain why they are successful. One of the most over-used and therefore most meaningless words in management and business is “team”. Too often, all that team means is a group of people. An effective team requires different elements; contrasts in styles – of working, thinking and of personality – are all important. Countering Jenny’s direct style is Christine’s reflective; Christine’s background in finance might be said to be indicative of this. For every push there needs to be a pull. This is the stuff of real team composition with its theoretical roots in Jungian extrovert-introvert psychology.

Which is most certainly not to say that they cannot combine forces. It’s what I like about them in a vaguely masochistic sense. Remember the old Monty Python sketch about the five-minute argument. It has been known for me to ask if I am due the five minutes or full half-hour of mickey-taking.

Compiling this piece made me wonder how many businesses I know here that are female-run. There are plenty of husband-and-wife “teams” as well as daughters in a variety of businesses, but female ownership or senior management, now I think of it, does seem quite uncommon. The estate agencies, Vogue Properties, Going Direct and the northern franchise of Engel & Völkers, are owned and run by women. Otherwise, it is quite difficult to pinpoint too many. So in a male-dominated business society, Jenny and Christine have started to flourish. It has been hard work and not always easy. But that is where perseverance and sound ideas come in, and they are reaping dividends. The only drawback is that they are now too busy to give me the full half-hour.

Help Unlimited / Metamorphosis, C/. Llebeig 14, Puerto Pollensa. www.helpunlimited.net


QUIZ
Yesterday – it was of course Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer”, and Mark Knopfler wrote it. Today’s title – where does this come from? Think “help”.

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