Telecommunications is a fast-moving world where staying ahead of the game is of paramount importance. But it can also be a highly profitable business, as Brendon Cross has proved in the last 15 years, running two successful companies.

In effect one was born out of the other after he sold Spire Telecom and went back to basics with STL, which is rapidly developing in its own right. It was in 1995 that Spire Telecom was born, providing telecommunicatons systems for local businesses and filling a gap in a market dominated by BT.

Having worked on the sales side of telecoms before, Mr Cross knew there was money to be made, but at the beginning, like many other entrepreneurs, he found himself wearing a lot of different hats.

“In the early days, selling was the easy bit. On many occasions I would end up discreetly helping the contractors with the installation before changing back into a suit to collect the cheque.

“What we did was carve out niches. We supplied a lot of telephone systems to medical centres, primary care trusts, business and innovation centres and law firms.”

It was a successful formula. So much so that in early in 2004 Spire Telecom was sold to Carphone Warehouse in a multi-million pound deal. Mr Cross, 45, a former pupil of Fitzharrys School, Abingdon, added: “We weren’t planning to sell any of the business. They made us a great offer, the experience was a really good one and we got paid everything and on schedule.”

That left Mr Cross with “a bunch of maintenance contracts” and a healthy sum of cash.

“I spent some time thinking about what it was that I wanted to do. In January 2005, I started again and began to build the business up once more.”

Five years later, and STL employs 30 staff and has a £5m turnover, a figure which has grown by 20 per cent in the last year — a significant achievement given the recession.

Mr Cross added: “There is no doubt a large part of what we do helps people to control expenditure.

“Also, 18 months ago we had a discussion about working 50 per cent harder to stand still. But what has happened is that we have actually moved forward.

“People work here from early in the morning to late at night, but we have a small management team and half of our people have been here for ten years or more, and many of the others have been here for more than five years.”

About ten per cent of work time is dedicated to training as the business stays on top of the rapidly-evolving technology of telecoms, while major efforts are made to satisfy the needs of the company’s 1,200 customers.

Some of them have stayed with the company since the early days of Spire.

In 1997, Mr Cross established a fruitful relationship with the BAR Formula One racing team at Brackley, which has carried on through Honda’s involvement, and into its championship-winning incarnation, Brawn GP.

He explained: “It is an extremely strong relationship from which we benefit hugely.

“As well as providing services we run seminars at the Brackley headquarters and offer factory tours. It is a very specialised part of the business.”

STL provides a full communications package from desk top telephones to trackside communications. It extended its F1 involvement after signing a similar agreement with the Force India team.

Elsewhere, the deregulation of the industry has meant STL can buy services at a discount from the network providers such as BT and Vodafone and sell them cheaper to the customer as a result.

The company can also upgrade local exchanges with more modern equipment, meaning better service to local customers.

For example, it is currently piloting a 24mb broadband service — faster than the equivalent BT trial — allowing businesses more speedy downloading and uploading of various different forms of media.

Mr Cross is also a firm believer in the mutually beneficial relationship between business and promoting the environment.

As a result, he has introduced a carbon offset scheme called Green Minutes which works with the CarbonNeutral Company where STL makes a contribution for every telephone call made. The longer the call, the higher the donation to a Chinese hydro-electric scheme, although Mr Cross is keen to develop a more local initiative.

Green Minutes customers also have free access to audio and video conferencing facilities, which he believes will help them avoid travelling to meetings abroad, providing a greener alternative.

Innovation is continuing and Mr Cross is working on a new application for mobile telephones which will allow users to transfer calls. He is also devising a way for people to make calls from overseas back to the UK without incurring roaming charges.

The question remains whether Mr Cross will again be tempted into selling the business.

“I have no intention of doing so, although we still have interest,” he said.

“The first sale removed a lot of our resources and there are lessons we have learned from that. We are a profitable local business with local suppliers.”

Having started his working life as an engineering apprentice at Didcot power station before moving to Culham to work on the JET nuclear fusion project at Culham, and then progressing into telecoms and running his own companies, Mr Cross feels he has a lot to offer those starting out.

He now helps other young entrepreneurs with their business ideas by acting as a mentor for the TBAC enterprise agency, which was relaunched this year.

Mr Cross said: “I went to see TBAC in the early days of Spire, and I have always been happy to speak to anyone thinking of going it alone.”