The story of Liam Lynam Electrical is one that shows if you have a dream and are willing to work hard enough to pursue it, that you can turn it into a reality. Our Topic reporter caught up with the affable Rochfortbridge Electrician this week to find out a bit about his Electrical Contracting business and how it operates.
Liam started his working life in Westmeath Motors in Mullingar at a young age, valeting cars in the workshop and preparing new cars for sale. “I have wonderful fond memories of my time there and will be forever grateful to the late Ray McIntyre senior and his sons Noel and Ray, for giving me the start in my working life,” Liam says firmly.
“The expression of horror on Mr. McIntyre’s face one day when he saw me manoeuvring a brand new Saab car around the forecourt as a fresh faced 16 years old lad, I will remember forever,” Liam chuckles.
The apprentice
It took a lot of thinking and head scratching on Liam’s behalf to decide between a career in the motor industry or the electrical industry. As luck would have it, a position became available with the then Electrical Contractor, Colm Arthur in Rochfortbridge, for a first year apprentice and Liam went for it.
“I was on a month’s trial but after a week, Colm offered me the job and I jumped at the opportunity. I learned an awful lot working for Colm and got great experience in all aspects of the electrical trade, from house wiring to agricultural works and commercial works,” Liam tells us, adding that “Colm became an excellent mentor to me and instilled the use of common sense and logical thinking when it came to fault finding.
“This is something you can’t learn out of a text book and it’s something that is still extremely beneficial to me to this day. I am very grateful to Colm for the training I got and firmly believe with smaller companies, apprentices come out better skilled than they would with larger companies, where they are pigeon holed doing one thing for months or years on end. Myself and Colm are still friends to this day.”
Going solo
During Liam’s apprenticeship, it was always his dream to one day own his own company. In the summer of 2008, not long after qualifying as an electrician and at the start of a massive recession, Liam decided to go solo and set up Liam Lynam Electrical. “It was a massive gamble setting up a business when so many others were going to the wall at this time but sometimes in life in order to realise your dreams, you have to take risks” Liam said.
Business went well and after the first few jobs, Liam was convinced he was on course to become Ireland’s next millionaire, however when the bills started rolling in from suppliers, revenue and all the other business related expenses that Liam hadn’t considered, the millionaire thoughts quickly vanished!
Liam soon got back on level footing and with each job, he forged a reputation for carrying out a very high standard of work and charging a fair price. It was a basic but winning formula and these ethics were winning Liam repeat business and recommendations from clients.
A few years later, it got to the point where Liam needed another electrician to help him get through the workload.
His reputation was everything and he had to be sure he could find and take on someone with the same work ethics as himself and the same ability to do first class work. He was lucky to meet with the legend that is Johnny McCormack and he agreed to join Liam and help him out with his increasing workload. The Bunbrosna man was a perfect fit as he is a highly experienced electrician and has a great personality and good nature. After a few years, Liam employed Shane Doran as a first year apprentice.
Shane has since qualified and become a very competent member of Liam’s team.
Liam currently employs Johnny and Shane and has two other apprentices he’s training up; Amy Hogan and Matthew Hope, both of whom are very hard working and willing to learn.
At this point, Liam adds, “I would like to thank my team for all they do on a day to day basis.
We were curious to know more about Amy and the fact that there are not that many female apprentice electricians around. Liam said that “Amy has a great flair and is always ready to work” and smiled as he remembered the words of one client who said she was “like a ninja to work!” Amy herself told us that she loves the job as it’s the best of all worlds; “you can have the craic and learn at the same time – you can’t go wrong with a job like that” she said.
All in a day’s work
Liam and his team mainly operate in Westmeath, Offaly, Longford and Kildare. Having a team of five allows the business to tackle all types of jobs, from new house wiring to re-wiring, agricultural electrics (milking parlours, etc), maintenance works and emergency callouts.
Liam says, “We are big enough to tackle larger jobs in a timely way but small enough to look after smaller jobs, such as replacing light fittings, adding extra sockets, upgrading fuseboxes and the like. To me, every job is a job worth doing, whether it’s a call out for a simple job or wiring a large school; every job and customer is treated with the same respect.”
Liam tries to keep one day a week free to do multiple small jobs as this allows them to keep all their customers happy and ensures they are not waiting for months on end to get an electrician to do a small task.
While Liam and the team enjoy the varied work they do, Liam says they get great satisfaction from tackling jobs not many other electricians like, such as re-wiring houses. Liam points out “we offer exceptional service, where the rewire, along with all plasterwork repairs and cleaning can be completed within one working week. This is proving a very popular service for people and we find that other electrical contractors are recommending us for this work”.
Back to School
One of the contracts that Liam is proud to have is the Electrical Maintenance contract in St. Joesph’s Secondary School in his hometown, Rochfortbridge. Liam proudly says “It’s a fantastic feeling to be back in my old secondary school in a different capacity and to be fixing problems in the school, rather than creating them!”
Another great moment for the company was working on the house of an elderly lady in Tullamore whose house was destroyed by a fire. Thankfully she was not hurt herself in the fire but her home was badly damaged. Her insurance would not pay out so multiple good hearted business people, builders and tradespeople clubbed together along with her grandson, and rebuilt her home for her. Liam was only delighted to carry out the re-wiring for her at no charge and said “Seeing her reaction and the reaction of her family when they saw the ‘new’ house, was a far better feeling than any size of a cheque going into your wallet.”
A big Thank You
As Liam’s business goes from strength to strength, Liam is mindful that he could not have come this far without his dedicated team and his loyal customers through the years, many of whom he has had from his first weeks in operation. We’re sure all our advertisers and readers will join with us and wish Liam Lynam Electrical all the very best for the future as his business continues to grow and employ local people and provide them with lifetime skills.
It is only fitting that we leave the last word to Liam, who, with sincere sentiment says “from the bottom of my heart, I’d like to thank all our clients for their continued business, support and recommendations over the years and their role in making my dreams a reality. I would also like to thank all the building contractors that recommend and employ us to carry out the electrical installations on their client’s projects. It means an awful lot to me.”
For more information or to get in touch with Liam Lynam Electrical contact Liam on 086-319-6403 or email: lynamelec@gmail.com
