From paving slabs in Devon to building a group

Building is the family trade. Long before JHE Group, before Oman, before any of the brands I run today, there was a yard in Devon. My grandfather and my father ran a business there called Heywoods, making paving slabs — concrete, moulds, hard graft, quite literally in the business of laying foundations.

I grew up around that idea: you make something solid, you put it where people will stand on it for years, and you take quiet pride that it lasts. I didn't go into concrete. But I went into building.

The instinct travels

When I started my first business in Oman, I didn't have a grand plan to build a group. I had one company and a simple belief — run it properly, and look after the people who run it with you. Then one became two. A gym sat naturally beside a tour business; a tour business beside a car-hire business. And a few years on, two software brands that reach far beyond Oman.

People sometimes ask why the businesses are so different from one another — fitness, travel, mobility, technology. The honest answer is that the sector was never the point. The thread isn't an industry. It's a way of working: build for the long term, run with discipline, and back the right people.

What building a group has taught me

A few lessons have cost me more than others to learn.

You can't carry it all yourself. Early on, I was the answer to every question in every business. That feels productive. It isn't — it's a ceiling. The moment you want something to grow beyond you, you have to let other people own real decisions, and live with the discomfort of them doing it differently than you would.

Structure beats hustle. Energy starts a business; systems keep it alive. The unglamorous work — clear ownership, honest numbers, knowing exactly who is responsible for what — is what lets you sleep, and what lets you add the next thing without the last one falling over.

Protect the engine while you chase the new thing. It's easy to pour all your attention into the exciting young venture and quietly neglect the established business that pays for it. The mature businesses aren't boring. They're the foundation. Mind them.

Hire people you'd trust with the keys. A group only works if each part can run without the founder in the room. That means hiring for judgment and integrity, not just skill — and then actually handing over the responsibility.

The materials change — concrete, then companies, then code. The instinct is the same: build something solid, and build it to last.

Why I'm writing this

I'm starting this blog because I've spent years heads-down building, and not much time reflecting out loud. These are notes, not lectures — what's working, what I've got wrong, and what I'm still figuring out as the group grows across Oman and beyond.

Three generations ago it was paving slabs in Devon. Today it's a group of brands across four countries. Different materials. Same family trade.

— Joshua