Case study · Nightingale Electrical · Solar

An invaluable day

Barney sold his van to pay for advertising spend - and made it work.

£2,000 to start, then nothing until your first deal.

Nightingale Electrical on stage at the 2025 mastermind
01The write-upNightingale Electrical

Barney, Nightingale Electrical actually won our "risktaker award".

So what's the story behind that one then?

Nightingale Electrical were one of our first clients, who joined us when we were covering the clients' ad spend and taking commission on the backend. In December of 2024, we moved to a more typical model where the client paid us via retainer or commission but they covered the advertising spend.

Barney was seeing results but the change was going to have a bit impact on cashflow with where the business was at the time.

We were at our own breaking point from a cashflow perspective and unfortunately couldn't let anyone continue on the old model.

Without telling us, Barney decided to sell one of his vans, in order to cover the advertising spend for the new few months. We only found this out later, when we were reviewing results and talking about the new jobs that were coming in.

If we'd have known, we'd never have encouraged him to take such significant risks but thats all well and good in hindsight.

Hence why he rightfully earned our "Risktaker" award.

In this video, he shared his thoughts on the event and working with us in general.

Full transcriptRead the full transcript4 min read · 819 words · open ▾

▶ 0:00Here we are. Bonnie, nice to go electrical. How'd you find today? Yeah. It was it was brilliant. Man, just invaluable really for me. There was there was quite a lot of processes where I feel like I've I've nailed, but then a lot of gray areas where just the gaps were potentially inefficient or or just haven't nailed down.

▶ 0:21And and, yeah, just listening to different opinions, different experts, just just different viewpoints where I just I wasn't seeing them. And now they've kind of answered a lot of my Really? My questions coming here. Well, it's not all gonna happen overnight, is it? So it's it's always just about improving and improving and improving.

▶ 0:39What was the main thing? Do you have a favorite speaker or anything like that? Speaker. I've got there was there was a lot. I've gotta think now. Kieran. Yeah. Really warm to him. Yeah. He was He's fine. He was good. I I didn't manage to speak to him because he had to head off, but I will try reach out to him. I spoke to AJ. He he was brilliant. Alex, lovely bloke.

▶ 1:05Yeah. But but, yeah, he's it's really helpful. Quite lonely sort of thing running a business and It is. Yeah, people don't have a business might not well, might think that's silly, but when when you're running it yourself, you have you just don't know if you're making the right or wrong decisions. But coming here today, yeah, like minded individuals here in well, in the exact same industry and hearing what little things they've added into their business has sort of turned certain results.

▶ 1:37Yeah. It's it's answered a lot of questions for me. I'm so glad. I'm so so glad. And in terms of working with us as an agency, what's your experience been? Yeah. Brilliant. Yeah. As you know, but maybe not who's watching this. Yeah. We were we were one of the the first, say, I don't know, fourth. So yeah. So we we were right at the start.

▶ 1:58And, yeah, it's it was new for me. Obviously, it was just when you were starting, so it it was new for everyone involved. But, yeah, big jump, big big risk, it's yeah. It's gone great. And, just looking forward to sort of just continually implementing what what I've heard today from different people and yeah. Just keep striving to get better every day.

▶ 2:19Hundred percent. I the and the point you mentioned on loneliness is is so important because like, I don't know what I'd do without Joe, like, as a as a business partner. Right? And, obviously, you're I I know you've your partner, etcetera, and Amanda, but you're on your own in assets as the owner of the business. Right?

▶ 2:32Oh, yeah. Yeah. And, like So it's you could put it crudely, but let's say you put a pound on a horse to win a race and you've done all your homework, you'll get you'll get an answer within two minutes. But you make a decision after after all your homework for a business, and you might take six months to know if that was a right or wrong decision.

▶ 2:54And when for me, not having someone to tell me if I'm right or wrong on and I'm just going off my own opinion, coming here today and, like, me explaining to say, AJ, this is what I'm seeing. This is these are the areas that I feel like I just don't know what the right thing. I listened to him and I'm like, okay, you've answered it.

▶ 3:13It's not him telling me how to run a business, but it's just just almost well, yeah. I'm not going, how do I do good? It's more just saying, this is where I see a weakness. What do you think? And then, yeah. Some of it's like confirmation and reassurance as well that you Yeah. Because because you're you're willing to do the work, it's just knowing you're doing the right work.

▶ 3:33Yeah. And just not being busy idiot, which I would say I'm I'm quite bad for. Yeah. It's tough. We've done the same. It's tough. Any final words about today, about us, about anything, about the business? Just yeah. Thank you guys for Thank you. Not just inviting me, but the hard work throughout the year. And, yeah, we do appreciate it.

▶ 3:54I've got loads of areas I need to improve on, which I know is communicating. Turned up to catch up calls. Yeah. Exactly. Bonnie hasn't attended the catch up call since January. Yeah. Yeah. Where I go to reply on WhatsApp, and then I realized you text me that two weeks ago, and then I'm like, yeah. So not not great with that. That's alright.

▶ 4:13But there we go. No. Honestly, you're a start. Thank you so so much. Thank

02Client notes

Nightingale Electrical

Note 1Problem

Making the transition from electrical to renewables is difficult. It takes guts, commitment and sometimes, a lot of risk.

Barney is a particularly special client of ours. We have been working together since late 2024. At one stage, he said that cashflow was a bit tight in the business but that he wanted to continue spending on ads as he was confident that it would pay off. What we didn't know at the time was that he had actually sold one of the company vans, to pay for the advertising spend for the month. Of course, this is not something we would recommend but it is something that we just have to praise in hindsight. Once Barney got past that tricky spot, using the proceeds from the sales he made from the ads, he bought the van back and pressed on.

Note 2Results

Barney bought the van back with money from the jobs the ads brought in.

Now, coming into 2026, Barney is set up to take South Wales by storm. Doubling down on what is working and fixing processes that need improvement. We can't wait to see where he takes it.

03On the job25 photos

Nightingale Electrical, on the job.

Stills from their latest shoot day with us. Tap any photo to see it large.

  • A Nightingale Electrical installer with a finished outdoor home battery install
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer outside a home with new solar panels on the roof
  • A home battery and isolators fitted to a brick wall by Nightingale Electrical
  • Black solar panels on a tiled roof, fitted by Nightingale Electrical
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer on the drive of a home with a finished solar install
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer in front of a house with solar panels on the roof
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer beside a home battery fitted in a garage
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer checking the wiring on a solar and battery install
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer beside a home battery fitted to an outside wall
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer with an EV charger fitted to an outside wall
  • A Nightingale Electrical solar installer shaking hands with a homeowner in the garden after the install
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer crouching beside a newly fitted home battery and smiling
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer with folded arms in front of a wall mounted solar inverter and battery
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer standing beside a white home battery and solar equipment on a house wall
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer pointing up at the solar panels he fitted on a bungalow roof
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer resting a hand on a freshly installed home battery outside a house
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer with arms crossed pointing at a new battery on a brick wall
  • A smiling Nightingale Electrical installer with arms folded next to a new battery and consumer unit
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer standing beside a freshly wired solar inverter and battery on a house wall
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer posing in front of a new solar inverter and battery install outside a home
  • A Nightingale Electrical installer standing in front of the company branded van in a residential street
  • A white home battery unit installed against an outside wall by Nightingale Electrical
  • Solar panels fitted on the roof of a semi-detached house by Nightingale Electrical
  • A wall mounted solar inverter wired to a consumer unit and isolators, fitted by Nightingale Electrical
  • A Nightingale Electrical solar installer gesturing towards the company van parked outside a house
04Their ads48 ads

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