A DAY TO REMEMBER – 18 YEARS IN THE MAKING

Poppet a brief history..

It’s Monday the 20th July 2020 and for so many reasons, this is no ordinary Monday morning. In truth, Mondays will probably never be quite the same again, nor any other day for that matter. But today, this very day, represents a huge milestone for our business and for my personal journey.

Today we launch our brand-new website, and as any business knows, this is always a great reason to be very proud and embrace the moment. Even existing businesses enjoy the feeling of refreshing their content from time to time, and it’s usually a great reminder of our evolution as businesses, and people. However, behind the ‘18 years in the making’ title, sits a poignant back-story that brought Poppet Construction to this moment.

When I set-up Poppet Construction 2 years ago, I had huge ambitions to change the world one construction project at a time. Firstly, let’s talk about the name. Whilst Poppet Construction may feel slightly unconventional for a business in the construction sector, the reason was inspired by the birth of my son, Noah. Setting up a new business and having a new-born at the same time, may, for many people feel like a lot to chew on in one go. Yet for me, it accelerated my passion to build something new and exciting, and as many other business owners will probably agree, the feeling of building something new is unashamedly euphoric. The birth of Noah provided me with the clarity to build the business with solid and robust values. I made the decision from the outset that our business would purposefully influence the sector – a grand statement I realise, yet entirely plausible.

Embarking on such a quest required the 16 years of knowledge that I had earned up to this point. Starting on the tools as a younger man provided me with the insight needed to understand the industry the ‘hard way’. Over the years, and working with a number of well-established construction companies, I enjoyed numerous roles such as; Quantity Surveyor, Contracts Manager, Project Manager, Director and Buyer to name but a few.

Like many new business owners, my years working throughout various construction firms meant I saw the good, the bad and the downright ugly in our sector. “There has to be a better way” I said, and in 2018 Poppet Construction was born.

After the business was established, I made the decision to work on my brand. I engaged a highly respected media company in Chelmsford called RP2, and it was here they introduced me to a truly unique agency called Brand Elect – this proved to be one of the smartest decisions I ever made. From the outset, their energy and enthusiasm brought about a whole new level of excitement about my business – “maybe I can change the industry after all.” We enjoyed a number of brand scoping sessions, and here we were able to map-out the very foundation of my new business. To change the industry, we first needed to build a credible and well-thought through business proposition based on people values and quality workmanship – we called this ‘Hybrid Generation’. From here we were able to establish our product and service offering and people values promise. In no time, the brands’ identity was created, and this quickly enabled us to build-out the story and my dream – the next stop was our website.

Our website was obviously something we wanted to get right, so this needed careful consideration. Getting the balance of informative content and an engaging user journey is something we wanted to perfect. Of course, we recognise that our work will always be our greatest testimonial, but we also wanted to relate everything back to our ‘Hybrid Generation’ narrative.
So, this brings us to this landmark day in my personal journey, and that of the business that I believe so much in. I am very mindful of all the people and companies that have helped me along the way. I thank all those that believed in my vision, and all those clients and partners who have supported us to this point. This day is as much a celebration of your input, and as our business story proudly promotes, if we all work together to create a better environment for our industry, maybe we can all enjoy the
fruits of our hard-earned labour.

Thank you all once again, and here’s to my day to remember, a whole 18 years in the
making.

Paul Goadby
Very proud owner and founder of Poppet Construction