Meet Ross Malone: Why I Started Bloom

People occasionally ask how I ended up running a building company.

The honest answer is that I never planned to.

I studied music at university and spent the early part of my career working in live events. Looking back, there are more similarities between events and construction than you might imagine. Both involve bringing together a lot of moving parts, solving problems under pressure and delivering something worthwhile against a deadline that always seems too ambitious.

My route into construction came through property development. My first role involved sourcing properties, obtaining planning permission, managing construction projects and then selling the completed homes. It was a fantastic education because I was involved in every stage of the process, from spotting an opportunity through to handing over the keys.

What interested me most wasn't the property side of things.

It was the building.

I enjoyed taking something that wasn't working and turning it into something that was. I enjoyed the practical problem-solving. I enjoyed working alongside skilled people and seeing an idea become something real.

Seventeen years later, that's still the part of the job I enjoy most.

The experience that probably shaped me more than any other wasn't a project for a client. It was a project on my own home.

Like many homeowners, I appointed a contractor to undertake major works. The project was agreed, the money was spent and the work wasn't finished. More money was requested and eventually the contractor disappeared altogether, leaving me with a half-finished house and a lot of problems to solve.

At the time it was stressful, expensive and incredibly frustrating.

Looking back, it was also one of the most valuable lessons of my career.

For the first time, I wasn't managing a project. I was the client.

I understood what it felt like to worry about money. I understood what it felt like to lose confidence in the people working on your home. Most importantly, I understood how exposed homeowners can feel when they are investing significant sums of money into something they may only do once in their lifetime.

In the end, I took over the project and finished it myself.

Some of the tradespeople I met during that process still work with me today.

That experience has influenced almost every project I have been involved with since.

One thing that still frustrates me about construction is how many problems are entirely avoidable.

Construction is difficult. Existing buildings are complicated. Things occasionally go wrong.

What shouldn't happen is poor communication.

In my experience, most disputes aren't caused by the problem itself. They're caused by how the problem is handled.

Most clients can cope with bad news.

What they struggle with is not knowing what's going on.

Over the years I have worked on hundreds of projects across South West London. Some have been small refurbishments. Others have involved major structural alterations, extensions, loft conversions and complete remodelling projects.

The projects I enjoy most are family homes.

Particularly the Victorian and Edwardian houses that make up so much of South West London.

A family buys a house because they can see the potential, even if it doesn't quite work yet. Over time a plan emerges. Perhaps it's a loft conversion, a rear extension or a complete refurbishment. Sometimes it means taking a house back to brick and starting again.

Those projects are rarely straightforward, but they're often the most rewarding.

One of the reasons I have stayed in construction is that I enjoy the permanence of it.

Most things get worse with age.

Good houses tend to do the opposite.

A thoughtful renovation can improve family life for decades. Long after the builders have left, children grow up in those rooms, people gather around those kitchen tables and life carries on around decisions that were made years earlier.

There is something satisfying about being a small part of that story.

Outside work, I live in SW11 and have done since leaving university. My four daughters attend local schools and most of our projects take place within a few miles of our office on Webb's Road.

One of the things I like about working locally is that it keeps you honest.

I regularly bump into former clients in cafés, on the school run and walking around Battersea and Clapham.

You can't really hide from your reputation when you work that close to home.

And, in my view, that's exactly how it should be.

Like anybody who has spent nearly two decades in business, I've experienced both successes and setbacks over the years and learned something from all of them. Some of those lessons have shaped the way Bloom operates today and continue to influence how we approach projects, clients and growth as a business.

Here’s the link to the Lessons Learnt article.

Thank you for reading

Ross Malone
Founder, Bloom Builders