Introducing....!

This road has been a long and winding one. My parents owned their own small business selling and installing light truck accessories. They bought the business in 1989 and ran it until 2011. The early years I mostly swept and mopped the floors in-between roller blading around the showroom. The business was open six days a week and my parents worked together - so every Saturday from 8:30am to 2pm, that's where you would find me, my brother, and sister. Summers were spent six days a week at the shop. During these years my dad instilled upon us the value of work and pride in completion. He also taught us his sales approach/strategies, and tips and tricks for accomplishing tasks such as using a siphon to drain a boat. His motto "Where there's a will, there's a way" lives on in me to this day. As I got older, I became intrinsic to the business in the summer months with my labouring skills. My twin brother and I still fondly reminisce about certain installs such as the pest control trucks loaded with enough rat poison and other harmful chemicals to take out entire families of rodents. A certain pest company routinely used my parents’ business to get their caps installed that protected their equipment, materials, etc. I just wish they would have emptied the beds of their trucks before bringing them in as it was always a tight squeeze - literally crawling over top of the gear to install the clamps that would hold tight the cap to the bed rails of the truck. All while trying to hold my breath and operate a pneumatic impact wrench to tighten the 9/16" bolts. My fondest memories though were watching my dad walk customers through the decision-making process - asking the customers what they were looking for and then offering his opinions and viewpoints as to what product might be best. At this point he had been selling, installing, fixing, repairing, warrantying, truck accessories for decades, so he knew which products would last and not cause him issues, and which products to avoid as they weren't worth the hassle or customer disappointment. It was a finely crafted art form and a dance that I loved. How those customers viewed a little 12-year-old boy at my dad’s elbow makes me chuckle. Relatively quiet, I added nothing to the conversations... just my intent stare and chuckling at my dad's jokes. I stopped working with my dad at 17 when he made me get a different job. I'll never know exactly why, but he had his reasons that become clearer/make more sense the older I get, especially as I became a dad myself.

It was natural then when I started my career, that I gravitated towards business development, sales, and ownership. Since my dad, I've had the privilege of many great teachers along the way. Both in the organizations I worked for, and the owners/managers/non-profit organizations I worked with. Over the years I successfully helped grow an engineering firm and general contracting company. Ownership though was the one thing that eluded me after my engineering company was bought and sold twice, and the contracting company a small family-owned business.

Apologising for the long read so far, let's get to the point - Goat Restoration Ltd. - is the culmination of so many years of hard work and inspiration. The "Goat" portion of the name was imagined back in 2018 when opening a business of our own was still a dream on paper. Now, after 16 years in the building renewal and restoration industry, that dream came true May 13, 2024, 3 weeks ago. In three short weeks we have completed four projects with another three in progress. These projects have been small handy person type repairs such as installing a vent grill on the underside of a balcony slab where the unit exhausts air and grinding the bottom sill of a door to prevent sticking in the warmer months. Doing the work myself and being able to take a photo and stand back and just look at what was accomplished, brings this journey full circle as I get to say, "thanks Dad".

What's next for Goat? Tenders, quotes, investigations, and more projects. Where there are buildings with problems, we'll be there to help.