Why BuildROI Exists
Where It Started
Alongside full-time work, I've spent many years buying and improving property: having homes refurbished and rented out, and trying to think outside the box, like buying the flat next to mine so I could build a studio flat in the space above, or renovating a flat in Paris that I let as a holiday rental for years before selling.
Following that logic, in 2016 I bought a run-down house on what I consider a great street, knocked it down and replaced it with a new-build three-bedroom house, complete with the latest air source heating. Planning rules limited how much I could enlarge it at once, so the work had to run in phases between 2017 and 2023. It cost more, in time and money, than doing it all at once, but it has paid off, both as a home and as an investment. It's also where BuildROI began.
What I Kept Seeing
Over all those projects, the same thing happened. The start of a job is busy and fast, with plenty of hands on site. But once most of the money has been paid and the next job is lined up, the team thins out, and it's the finishing that shows it.
In my experience, that's rarely about the builder's character. Most of us know we'll still have work in a year's time, but builders often don't. They're supporting themselves and often their families, so it's common sense to earn as much as they can while they can.
Two Problems, One Answer
Nobody recommends a builder because they arrived on time and had the first stage done in week one. They recommend them because the finish was right. Good builders already know this, but we're all human, and knowing the work will be checked keeps everyone focused on getting it right first time.
Large projects keep standards high with project managers and clerks of works, something a domestic job has never been able to afford. Meanwhile, many of the experienced tradespeople I hired had more knowledge than most, but their bodies could no longer keep up with full days on the tools.
BuildROI answers both at once: homeowners get their own project manager, and experienced tradespeople get a role that uses their knowledge without the same physical strain.
Why the Evidence Matters
For almost 20 years I worked in sales in the world of global news data, managing the processes and analysing the data to get the most value from it: repeating what worked, and highlighting what didn't so it could be put right quickly.
It taught me that the data and the processes have to work for every party involved. Not most of them, all of them. Every building project is the same.
Where Things Stand
I'm almost 63, retired, and working on BuildROI full-time. It's at proposal stage: no live projects have been completed. That's why I'm asking for a pilot, independently evaluated by a body government chooses. If it works, it grows. If it doesn't, it stops.
If you'd like to talk about it, I'd be glad to hear from you: jim@buildroi.co.uk.
Jim, founder of BuildROI