Two brothers launched a lifestyle concierge service after taking on tasks their peers didn't have time or the knowhow to do for themselves. Now Ten Group is a £22m business, with 340 employees and 450,000 members

Alex Cheatle When we started out people didn't know what lifestyle management might be. They thought, 'if it saves me a bit of time and gets me something I might not otherwise get then great'. We didn't have much in the way of contacts or knowledge. We realised that we were going to need to hire and train a range of experts. We hired first where our need was greatest—motoring. Our first expert was a guy who used to own three car dealerships.

Andrew Long We didn't have the buying power or the market presence back then so I spent a lot of the first six months running around sorting out people's whites from their colours. We said, 'you've got a load of things on your to-do list, I can be your lifestyle manager'. At that stage it was probably, I can do it quicker than you can do it. It was meeting
a real challenge that people had of getting a work-life balance.

AC We had a poacher-turned-gamekeeper policy. To have an ex-car dealer buying cars for our members was great. To have an ex-tradesman organising tradesmen for our members was great. Gradually, as we got bigger, we could afford to have more experts in specific areas. We've got everything from golf [experts] through to Broadway theatre now.

AL We've been lucky because we've always attracted great talent—I suppose because it's an interesting and exciting business. We provide a lot of training and mentoring. One of our visions when we set up the business was that we wanted to create a new profession; you start a career that lasts five or 10 years. Now we can articulate that to new starters.

AC The industry has become a lot more sophisticated. When we started the internet was slow and clunky and a bit rubbish. Now it's pretty damn good and we can't just research things for people, because they can do that themselves. We have to have the expertise, buying power and ability to get things done that even the very best PA couldn't organise.

AL The green concierge service [aimed at helping homeowners improve the energy efficiency of their property] felt like a natural thing for me to get stuck into. My father, a scientist, took the decision to stop flying and live a fairly sustainable lifestyle in the early 1970s. I was brought up being told not to stand in the shower for 10 minutes and that sort of stuff. It's frustrating, but it's quite clear to me that the average consumer doesn't really care about sustainability at all. The high-energy users haven't changed their habits.

AC We've done well over a million jobs now but the things that are still most difficult are like when someone wants a reliable plumber on a bank holiday weekend. The regular things are often the toughest. We do get asked to be emergency translators quite often by Italians and Russians.

AL We have to understand our members individual by individual. What one member means by a good restaurant could mean different things to different people.

AC I tend to be more excited by what our members want, and Andrew is more focused on how we can get it for them. I'm more about making sure we're always doing the right thing for our members, and we've got the right culture in the business and we're hiring the right people. Andrew's job is to get stuck into the engineering behind the service, which means that we can deliver it.

AL Because we're brothers and know each other so well, we've got a bond of trust that you'd never get with any other kind of business partner. When you're inevitably stuck in a position where you have to make tough decisions, we've always been absolutely honest, which helps. I've seen others who struggle to speak their mind.

AC I think we're quite different. I tend to work backwards from where we want to be. So I'm very interested in where we want to be in five years' time. Andrew's much more focused on where we're going to be in five months' time. So he works forward from the present and I work backwards from the future.

AL If we had two Alexes we'd probably have grown out of control with no process and order. And if we had two of me we'd have had a very small, fabulously run business that wouldn't be anywhere near as big. We're different but complementary.