With you working from home a lot, what’s been your broadband experience?

Having much faster speeds and better reliability with Trooli means I am able to be a lot more productive with my work. When we first moved in however, we had BT broadband which was slow and unreliable and made working from home quite a disjointed experience. So, we switched to another “superfast” provider and they weren’t very fast either. Now, I know that was because they were FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet) and still using the old copper wire network, which restricted speed. Most FTTP (Fibre to the premises) providers only covered London, but fast forward a year or so and I found out that Trooli was installing FTTP in Kings Hill, so we immediately signed up, got it installed and it’s been great ever since.

So, talk us through a typical day.

My days vary and no two days are the same. I have production days for when I design and edit, or I have conceptualising, planning and strategic days when I am in contact with other people, usually involving a lot of video calls. All involve me being heavily online whether it be researching, editing, file sharing or liaising with clients. What I enjoy the most is working on multiple projects with different people, and working from home for the majority of my time gives me the freedom to plan my days and be in charge of my own schedule.

What difference has Trooli made to your business?

Trooli full fibre has made a tremendous difference to my business. Before I had Trooli, I was having to make extra provisions like downloading files the night before I worked on them which seems so archaic now. I was also having to contend with really low upload speed 10 or 20 megabits per second which isn’t good for how my business works. I work with huge files you see, so uploading work for a meeting could take ages – I could not go back to working like that again. The reliability is also much better with Trooli, and I now get 300Mbps upload speed which matches my 300 download speed, so everything happens immediately.

It sounds strange but actually the internet stops being an issue, it suddenly is what it always should have been, just there, just servicing you. You shouldn’t have to think about it, you shouldn’t have to worry about it and that’s what Trooli full fibre does, it just allows you to get on. Whether it’s work, watching a box set or keeping in contact with people, it’s just there.

Mats Person, Freelance Creative and Art Director
matsperson.com

What inspired you to start your own business?

The main reason I started this business and what we enjoy about the services we provide is, we can take a client’s problem and push it right the way through to a black and white solution.

The other reason was because being my own boss and working from home is really important to me for the flexibility of my life, I have a young family and far too many hobbies! I run, which is very useful to get the mind cleared in between various bouts of productivity, and I also do a lot of online Sim racing, which helps me relax.

We’ve got a great lifestyle balance and a big help in us achieving this is having a fast and reliable broadband service.

What are the challenges of being a business owner in your industry?

It’s been tough. Clients have been cautious to spend and it’s a competitive market. We’re very lucky that we have core clients who’ve supported us from the beginning and the results they’ve had with us mean they’ll continue to do so. We’re not massively focussed on growth for growth’s sake, we want natural growth, over time through recommendations, so we’re pretty confident and positive for the future.

Last but not least, why Trooli?

Quite simply, it is the best broadband for my business. No one else in Uckfield offers the speeds and service that Trooli provide.

I first saw the Trooli branded vans whilst I was out running. They were building the network in our local area and the vans were everywhere. I signed up to a waiting list and as soon as the network was live, they got in touch and we were straight in with the 500Mbps plan.

The fact we can get these speeds in rural East Sussex gives us the confidence to grow and also means we can compete against London based companies without the costs and the commute of being in the capital. The experience so far has been more personal as a result of them being local.

The Trooli team were great to deal with and the installation was easy, even in the middle of a pandemic! We’re definitely recommending Trooli to friends and other businesses because so far the experience has been terrific.

Jason and Hayley Dilworth, Owners of Prestanda Limited
prestanda.co.uk

What do you think makes Goblands Farm appealing to tenants?

Goblands is a very relaxing place to be, we’re told. We’re surrounded by the countryside which is naturally good for the soul. Many of our tenants are ex-commuters from the city or surrounding towns, so they totally embrace having a place of work that is close to home yet separate from their home life. That extra dimension that you get from being in a rural environment, and the ability to just go and take the dog (several people have dogs here), go for a walk, decompress. I think that’s crucial to us and important to our tenants.

We offer flexible space with ample parking and, thanks to Trooli, ultrafast broadband, giving our tenants speeds that easily compete with town centres. Trooli broadens our appeal and our ability to market the business units to those that wouldn’t have considered us before. I can’t imagine anyone being able to do business without a fast, reliable broadband connection, especially out here in the countryside. And the fact Trooli focus on rural areas was a key selling point for us.

What broadband tariff are you on, Duncan?

We’re on the 900Mb package. Like many businesses we run an offsite backup which requires significant upload bandwidth. As landlords, it also enables us if necessary to provide temporary broadband services to tenants when in transition between premises without affecting individual speeds at all. Apart from that most of our need is general business use, transferring files, browsing, video calls and so on and we’ve found that speed is so seamless, and it’s worked out brilliantly for everything we need it for. In terms of our tenants, they range from the 300Mbps to the 900Mbps package, depending on their business need, and of course, size.

What do you think the future looks like? What are the challenges ahead?

I think the future for rural business centres like Goblands is really bright. The social change we’ve seen over the last year with city centre businesses reducing office space and the decline in people wanting to spend time commuting and having a better work, life balance, will stick. The challenge for me is that we keep evolving the business centre by maintaining high standards, from a technical services point of view, but also ensuring we listen to our tenants, see them regularly and understand their business needs.