MICHAEL Boyd is intent on improving firefighting in Jamaica — a feat he’s determined to achieve through his fledgling company Safety Solutions and Fire Prevention Systems.

Safety Solutions and Fire Prevention Systems opened its doors last September through a partnership between Boyd and his friend of 15 years Angela Vincent, a paralegal, and his oldest nephew Markland Boyd, who is trained in computer science.

“As a legacy, I would have done well to provide that transition between how we fight fire now and how we fight fire in the future,” said Boyd, who opened the doors to the business with two products — a wireless fire detection system and the clean agent, 3M Novec 1230 fire protection fluid.

To make it happen, the 57-year-old took the bold step to walk away from his secure position as managing director of B-H Paints. And in the short time he has been in operation, he’s been inspired, confident that his business — in which he has invested some $5 million so far — is going places.

Boyd plans to get there through exposing Jamaica to better fire detection and suppression systems and clean agent tools that hold little or no negative implications for the environment. The company name, he said, reflects this.

“I thought that we needed to look at not just providing an equipment, but also providing a solution. Hence, the name ‘Safety Solutions’. So we will go to all ends to find you the right solution based on the hazard type that you have,” he told Career & Education.

“We offer two things — a fire detection system, which is the wireless fire detection and we also offer fire suppression systems and we have different agents. And we go specific to the fighting of kitchen grease so we also have a restaurant fire suppression system,” added Boyd, who holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in industrial arts education from the University of Wisconsin in the United States as well as a teaching certificate from Mico Teachers’ College (now Mico University College).

He brings to his own venture years of experience with big companies, such as Digicel, Desnoes and Geddes, the Jamaica Citrus Company, Coca Cola, to which he said he has made significant contributions, helping to boost their bottomline — in addition to skills in manufacturing.

Still, getting Safety Solutions and Fire Prevention Systems up and running was no cake walk for him.

“In establishing a company in Jamaica, the experience of the past has taught me a lot. But the rigours that you go through, for example, getting your TRN (Tax Registration Number), those processes — those tedious processes — are things that if we could avert would make a hell of a lot of difference in the way people approach it (starting a business),” he told Career & Education.

Banks, Boyd said, need to be more investor friendly and other agencies, less bureaucratic.

“I am a new company, I don’t have a hit list out there or bad debts, etcetera; it should be quite a simple process for a new entity (to set up), but it is laborious and it is rigorous,” he said.

And the businessman continues to encounter hurdles — including cash flow challenges.

“Cash flow is always a constraint to new and young businesses because the revenue side is not going to come in as fast as you expect it to,” he said.

Still, Boyd — who currently has two contract electrical technicians working with him and is looking to hire a secretary — carries on, anticipating that sooner than later he will turn a profit.

“I am going to face competition because it is a new technology and everybody wants to look over their shoulders. (However), I think the point that is hitting home as it relates to the wireless technology is the cost, (which is) significantly less than hardwire or conventional systems,” he noted.

“Look at how many people have died in fires in the girls’ home and (other) institutions. Is it that we don’t care? You can’t place a value on a life and we make it unaffordable because we talk about expensive wiring and so on. This is an option and it’s a less expensive option and I feel good to be a part of it,” Boyd added.

From his office on Shortwood Road, Boyd recalled that he had enjoyed tremendously his work with B-H Paints, but is not too concerned about having stepped away from his field of expertise — manufacturing.

“As you age, you want to move away from things and get into new thing; that’s just me. I have had a very precocious mind from I was a kid. Creativity is just in me — to create new things and to look at how it works and see how I can improve that,” said the past student of Andrew Technical High.

Boyd — the married father of four children — suggested that his creativity and lack of fear in trying new things was inspired by his competitive family of eight boys and a girl. This was enhanced by his own participation in athletics which saw him competing in meets, such as the Penn Relays and the World University games in which he represented Jamaica.

The same level of competitiveness he brought to sports and to his previous jobs is what he will bring to Safety Solutions and Fire Prevention Systems.

“Life is a journey and I am passing through, what I take from it and what I leave behind me is important; I know I am not here for here forever, so as much as I can give, I do,” he told Career & Education.

Meanwhile, Boyd said that although his company’s marketing efforts are low key right now, they would be ramping them up as time progresses.

“I can’t go full scale right now, I understand such things but the capital is just not there to do that,” he said.

However, they are currently building a radio and television advertisement and Boyd is shortly to appear on a television show off and demonstrate the use of his products. They are also looking to partner with the Jamaica Fire Brigade.

“The devices that I have now in terms of fire detection systems, I am looking at a piece of equipment to tie our fire system into the Fire Brigade, that if there is a fire, it passes through here, goes to the fire department, the fire department knows there is a fire and they can understand the location,” he explained.

Boyd’s tips to prospective entrepreneurs

* Find a comfort zone.

* You have to be clear in your mind as to what you want to do.

* You need to understand the market. You have to have commercial awareness if you are going into business; if you don’t have commercial awareness, you are going to have serious problems.

* You have to understand financial management; be cost conscious as a business person.

* Resource management is crucial; financial, human and time management.