“My role is to guide my team; to focus on their strengths and elevate them.”
Meet: Steven Clarkson – Estimating Manager
In our new Rising Stars series, we’re profiling the team members who have grown with M Squared. In our second feature, we meet Steven, who has recently been promoted to Estimating Manager:
Steven sounds like he was made for M Squared. He’s competitive yet methodical – traits that suit his role in estimating – as well as ambitious but loyal – perfect fits for a fast-growing business.
The dad-of-two has harnessed his skills and traits to thrive with M Squared – from overcoming health problems, to helping to embed the business’s unique new technologies, then being promoted to lead his department
He joined M Squared in Spring 2019, having worked as a civil engineer and estimator across four other businesses previously. He has a HNC in Civil Engineering and an SVQ in Construction Contracting Operations: Estimating and has been ambitious since he started working, aged 16.
But health problems had threatened to stall his career and knock his confidence back in 2017.
“I suffer with epilepsy, and I had a point where it was really bad and I was unable to work,” Steven explains. “I’d been made redundant as a company folded and then became very unwell. I had to take a break from work, to get myself well, and I wasn’t able to drive either – both those things give you independence and freedom. It felt like a part of me was missing. I was no longer a confident young man.”
“I’m big on routine, I’m methodical with everything in life, so I picked myself up and found a new routine – all active things and being outdoors. I tried exploratory medications too and managed to see the right consultants, who eventually sorted out medication that cured the seizures. Then I could get to a point where I felt fit to work again.”
Steven started to apply for jobs, soon making it to the final interview for a new role: “But I took a seizure during that. I’d gone back into a stressful situation too quickly.”
After recuperating, he was contacted by a recruiter with two roles – one with M Squared, one with a larger firm: “I came in to see Kerr [M Squared’s founder and manager director] and he put me at ease. I came away from it thinking, ‘this could be the answer’. I’ve been here ever since.”
“I’m healthier, I’m comfortable and I haven’t had a seizure since May 2018.”
He’s witnessed, and played his part, in growing the business in that time. In late 2024, he was promoted to Estimating Manager, responsible for developing bid packages for new jobs: “Management excites me – I’m responsible for improving others. My role now is to guide the estimating team; to focus on their strengths and elevate them, then plug any gaps or weaknesses.”
Developing and improving the team has always been the business’s ethos, he adds: “Year after year, Kerr has invested in staff, especially the guys with the shovel, to make sure they have everything they need to carry out the work. The knowledge we have has improved over the years too, as the team’s grown.”
That expertise is one reason why M Squared’s clients have remained as loyal to the business as Steven has, he believes: “Our size and expertise gives us flexibility. Challenges inevitably come up during jobs – we’re normally the last guys on the site, so it can be down to us to pick up the pieces – and we’re very good at overcoming those challenges. Because of that, contractors give us repeat business. A key component of that is trust.”
He’s just as focussed on maintaining that trust from clients too – “a big thing for me is to reassure clients that they’re going to get what we’ve told them they’ll get,” he says – to continue his, and the business’s, progression.
To support this, Steven’s four-strong team is set to grow in 2025, bringing in two new estimators: “We’re seeking to get folk in who are interested in construction, and keen to learn and progress. There’s flexibility and pathways to progress here. Because of that, we’ve got energy, and we’re invested in M Squared; we’re all looking to build it further.”