Property Investment, Mentorship & Construction Success | Melissa Potente

What does it really take to leave the corporate world and build a successful construction business? 

In this episode, Melissa Potente shares her journey into commercial and residential construction, revealing the challenges, wins, and lessons learned along the way.

We explore the realities of the construction and property investment industry, the importance of mentorship, and why Melissa is passionate about encouraging more women to enter construction. She also discusses her coaching work, upcoming projects, and how she uses social media to grow and promote her businesses.

This episode is packed with insight for anyone interested in property, entrepreneurship, career change, and women in business.

🎧 Listen now for practical advice and real-world experience from the ground up.

Key Takeaways

• Melissa transitioned from a corporate job to the family construction business.
• She modernized the family business and expanded into residential projects.
• The construction industry has seen a shift towards more female representation.
• Melissa emphasizes the importance of mentorship in property investment.
• She enjoys helping others achieve their investment goals through coaching.
• The residential division focuses on high-end clients and complete turnkey solutions.
• Social media plays a crucial role in showcasing her businesses.
• Melissa believes in the importance of education for success in property investment.
• She advocates for more women to consider careers in construction.
• 
  

Follow me: 

Instagram: @lifeofafemaletradie_ 

Tiktok: @loaftpodcast

Facebook: Life Of A Female Tradie

Youtube: @lifeofafemaletradiepodcast

Follow Guest: 

Instagram: @MJPHomes

LinkdIn: Melissa Potente

www.inndecs.com - Commercial Property

www.mjphomes.co.uk - Property Investment Help

www.meliora-renovations.co.uk - Residential Property 

Chapters

00:00 Background and Career Path

02:42 Transition to Family Business

05:24 Building a Workforce and Team Dynamics

08:01 Challenges of Running a Business

10:55 Experiences as a Female in Construction

13:37 Coaching and Mentorship in Property Investment

16:16 The Importance of Property for Self-Employed Tradespeople

18:11 Investing in Property: A Win-Win Strategy

21:09 The Renovation Journey: Challenges and Triumphs

23:15 The Role of Social Media in Business Promotion

25:02 Personalized Mentorship in Property Investment

27:04 Exciting Projects on the Horizon

28:51 Encouraging Women in Construction and Property

31:39 Breaking Barriers: Accessing Property Investment

34:24 Balancing Multiple Ventures: A Side Hustle Approach

34:59 Quick Fire Questions: Insights and Prefer

Transcript

Melissa (00:10)

I'm Melissa Potente, I run a commercial and residential building company, but I'm also really passionate about property investment. So we own a portfolio of properties and I also help coach others now that want to get into investing.

Laura (00:25)

Fantastic. Well, thank you very much for giving me some of your time today. I know you are, you're welcome. I know you are very busy. I like to start a little bit by getting some background on my guests. So where did you start? What was your first kind of step on the employment ladder?

Melissa (00:30)

Thank you for having me.

Sure.

So I was always like one of those people at school that like I never really knew what I wanted to do. And I was always quite envious of those people that were like, I'm going to be a doctor or a dentist or what have you because that had a pathway, right? So you could just follow that pathway to said job. I never really knew what I wanted to do. So I decided to just do a business course in London, a degree and then

Laura (00:46)

Okay?

Nice.

Melissa (01:10)

I got a job at News International, which is News UK now. So I'm going to show my age now, but this was back when newspapers used to be important.

Laura (01:18)

Of course, yes,

it's not that long ago.

Melissa (01:21)

So I

used to, I was a business analyst for the advertising revenue and I just got really disillusioned with the corporate world quite quickly. I was there when they closed the news of the world with the phone hacking scandal. So like 300 people lost their job in one afternoon. And I thought, like, you think you're valuable, but in a company like that, you're just, you're just a number, right? So.

Laura (01:35)

Wow.

Yeah.

Indeed.

Melissa (01:46)

At the same time, my dad had been saying to me that he wanted to retire. He was thinking about retirement. Did I want to come and take over the family business, which is the commercial building company? My brother had already been working with him for a couple of years. Um, and I just thought, do you know what? Let's give it a go. Um, you know, if it's wrong, I'll change it, but let's try. And, um, lucky for me, um, uh, it's all worked out very well. And.

Laura (01:58)

Mmm.

Melissa (02:16)

Obviously my brother and I, were able to kind of bring the business, like modernize it, bring more clients on, know, develop it. So we grew the business in the first couple of years and then dad finally retired just before COVID. So he found it quite hard to let go at first. And then when COVID hit, he was like, this is brilliant. And then off he went on lots of holidays.

Laura (02:33)

Okay.

Melissa (02:42)

Although he does, he does, we do still drag him out of retirement every now and then when it gets too busy and we need some, extra pair of hands. So that was how I became part of the building industry and our commercial fit out company specializes in bars, pubs, hotels and restaurants. So it's like fast paced refurbishment fit out. Also didn't do very well in COVID because yeah, hospitality took a real

Laura (02:46)

Hahaha

Love line.

Okay.

Yeah, tough market that.

Melissa (03:10)

nose dive. we pivoted a little bit and we've also got a separate residential division now and we focus on like high net worth individuals that want a build company that provides a complete turnkey solution. So from start to finish working with their architects, working with their designers, you know, the best customer service, the best possible quality, just because

Laura (03:24)

Okay.

Melissa (03:33)

We can't really compete with Joe Blog's extension, right, because there's too many of those types of builders. And in the commercial landscape, you already have to provide that extra amount of service anyway. So it felt like a good fit for us just to do that. So between the two now, the landscape's a lot better. And then the investment side of things, a bit like your dad, Laura, you were telling me about your dad's investments. My dad always invested in property as a side hustle.

Laura (03:38)

Yeah.

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Melissa (04:02)

And

so ⁓ eight years ago when me and my brother obviously were making some money in the building company, we decided to invest the profits and start our own portfolio. And so we've been doing that for eight years now. And I really, really enjoy that. I really enjoy the transformation of, you know, we do a lot of, I'm sure you like the buy refurbish refinance model.

Laura (04:14)

Nice.

Yes.

Melissa (04:25)

So we take the house that's absolutely hanging and we refurbish it and bring it back to life. So that's good fun. And now I love it so much that I'm helping other people who want to start investing as well. So I give them a bit of like a one-to-one mentorship coaching for anyone that wants a bit of hand holding in their investment goals. Whistle stop tour.

Laura (04:28)

haha

Okay, amazing. Well, a lot to unpick there. brilliant, I love

it. So sticking on the family business, the commercial construction, how did you initially find the workforce to complete the jobs that you now take on or have taken on with that?

Melissa (04:54)

Mmm.

Yeah,

yeah, so we're luckily enough as well as inheriting the business, inheriting dad's subbies as well. So we've had teams of subbies that have been working with the business for like 30 plus years. And so because we've been able to give them continuous business, we're good payers, know, all of that sort of thing. Yeah, they stuck by us. They know they know what we expect.

Laura (05:12)

Okay.

Wow.

All the good stuff, yeah.

Melissa (05:29)

we give them repeat business. we're quite, I say lucky, but actually we all work really hard. you know, when, somebody hasn't delivered, you know, you just can't use them again. You can't risk your business. you really? But yeah, so I was quite lucky in that respect, although we have had a little bit of a flux of retirees. like there was a, yeah. So actually decorators, Laura, quite a few of dad's old chums.

Laura (05:42)

No

Have you?

Yep.

Melissa (05:55)

Have now retired and we've had to go and find some more businesses. One is a female only, they're called Gloucestershire Gloss Decorating Company. they're brilliant. All the girls there. I started 14 years ago and it is obviously, it looks much different now. But back then I just, I pretty much took on all of the existing contacts and then as times going by we're having to.

Laura (05:55)

Okay.

Come on, amazing.

Melissa (06:25)

find new ones where we need to.

Laura (06:27)

Yeah, think, yeah, it's definitely a time where a lot of the older trades people are stepping back and an influx of youngsters or even people taking a redirection in their career path are coming in. So it's fantastic that you've brought on board a female decorating company. That was going to be my next question.

Melissa (06:35)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes, yeah.

I mean, there's not enough, like we're not lucky enough to have like any electrical or plumbing female only companies just yet. know there's a few like one woman bands, but we need like a team for what we do. Yeah, so.

Laura (07:06)

I was going to say, yeah, there are a

lot of singular sole traders when it comes to us females as opposed to team workers. So, yeah, I can appreciate that. So moving on to your other construction company, you say residential driven.

Melissa (07:11)

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah,

so it's ⁓ a division that we run like under the index banner and it's called Melora Excellence in Renovations because it's me, my brother and my sister that all work together now and my dad's Italian so when we were developing this business we were like right we're gonna brand it you know we're gonna go and create this new business name and then we realized that

we've actually created a name that's quite hard to pronounce and spell and all of that but in ⁓ Latin it means in the pursuit of better. So, yeah.

Laura (07:54)

Nice. I was going

to ask you how do you pronounce it? So I love that. I was wondering if there was a hint of Italian in there. Yeah.

Melissa (07:57)

Yeah.

Yeah, well

when we went to the branding team they were like, we really like your surname and I was like, I'm not going to pay nine thousand pounds to walk out of here with my surname but on the branding template they'd put all these other Latin words and when I saw it and I looked it up I was like, right that's the one, yeah.

Laura (08:19)

Clever, very good.

So obviously running these businesses, you've mentioned you've got three now. What's the hardest part of running your own business, would you say?

Melissa (08:28)

Yeah.

I think it's the spinning plates, isn't it Laura? It's like, making sure you don't drop one. I mean, I am lucky that I'm not on my own because my brother's ⁓ essentially a construction manager. So the site-based stuff, he's in control of the guys and the subby team's on site. And then I've got my sister in the office who runs the office. We've also got some part-time admin and the girls are booking in the jobs, programming it all.

Laura (08:45)

Okay.

Okay.

Melissa (09:00)

ordering materials, you know, so I'm lucky in the respect that I can kind of focus on getting the business, client development and that side of things, winning the business and then obviously I've got a team that helped me then deliver it. So we're quite lucky in that regard that there's enough of us to kind of spread the workload around but you know.

Laura (09:09)

Yeah.

Melissa (09:22)

we often joke that when it gets really busy, because your mind gets so full, doesn't it? it can be quite stressful too. ⁓ Because you know that, like I think if I forget to order something or if I forget to book someone in, like it could really ruin a And make the guy's jobs on site much more difficult. So I think it's that constant like.

Laura (09:27)

It really does.

have a knock-on

Melissa (09:44)

Have I remembered everything? Like is everything programmed That sort of thing.

Laura (09:48)

Yeah. And it's, I feel like it's different when it's your own business. You, you're not just thinking about making sure all the boxes are ticked. It's also making sure that you deliver it in the correct way to the client, to the customer, isn't it? Because it's all, all reputation based and you want to keep that level of clientele, don't you?

Melissa (10:01)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes.

Absolutely. sometimes, you know, like hear horror stories of other like building companies. And I think I don't understand how they get more business because it, I feel like if we did a bad job, it would, it would ruin our reputation because it's such a small, like Gloucestershire is quite a small area. And although the commercial side, we kind of go across the Southwest, there's also a quite a small industry in itself. You know, project managers move within different breweries and different companies. So I just think you can't, you just can't risk it.

Laura (10:15)

I know.

Yeah.

No, no, I agree. Definitely. think it's, yeah, when you dig down into the workforce as well, it's the same when it comes to the hands-on trades. If you do a bad job, then, you know, you would think that you wouldn't get any more work, but you're still here follow on from jobs and you think, how did that person get away with leaving that like that? You know? So, yeah.

Melissa (10:47)

Hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, we get it all the time. We

went to do like a small repair last week, even though we were like crazy busy at a hotel because they were like fully booked. And it was just to replace the shower screen. where whoever did put the shower screen on the fixture for the screen, they hadn't fixed it into the tiles, they glued it. So when they took it off, it took the tiles away with it. So like.

Laura (11:17)

Yep.

⁓

Melissa (11:23)

a two minute job

Laura (11:24)

no.

Melissa (11:24)

has now turned into like a full tile repair job and we've got to find the tiles and like you know all of that so but you think like I don't know I don't know who did that we won't we won't ever know but now we've got to fix it so it's a bit annoying here

Laura (11:28)

Yeah.

Yeah. Goodness me. What a thing. What a thing.

Wow. So obviously you run your businesses with your brother and your sister. How do you find being a female in such an industry? crossing two industries here, both the construction side and the property side. How do you find being a female within those

Melissa (11:54)

Mmm.

Yeah.

Laura (12:00)

circles.

Melissa (12:01)

definitely changed. remember back in the day when I would go to a site meeting, say, with a brewery, so say with Green King or Heineken, and they're all guys, And they're all of a certain age. And there was very, I always remember feeling not nervous, but maybe anxious to say the wrong thing, because if you get something wrong,

It's like, it's because she's a woman, you know? So you're always like trying to prove yourself that much more. But then the proof was sort of in the pudding. So as we delivered jobs and they were good and they would learn that you knew what you were talking about and that you could perform. But it's kind of flipped a little bit now because now we get clients coming to us that are like, want, so I had a meeting with a designer last week. She was like,

Laura (12:29)

Mm-hmm.

Melissa (12:53)

We want to work with you because you're female led. So I was like, ⁓ well, that's nice. Yeah. So it's kind of now become, it's a bit of a USP. And I think like on the residential side, especially, it really helps clients trust you. Or we find that like, I mean, this is a massive generalization, but I'll say it anyway. Perhaps traditionally, if you had a builder come to your house, it might be.

Laura (12:55)

Nice. Yeah.

Okay.

You

Melissa (13:21)

an older gentleman and perhaps the wife might not feel like comfortable enough to ask a question in case she asked a stupid question, whereas they get me and possibly my sister come along, we sit down, we have a cup of tea. Like it's very easy to build rapport quite quickly and trust as a woman, I think. So it does have its plus side these days. But it has changed.

Laura (13:37)

Yeah.

Definitely.

Melissa (13:48)

lot and I think that generally as well like a long time ago if you'd have walked onto a building site you maybe would have had some men that were that made you feel uncomfortable that that's just not socially acceptable anymore wherever you go in whatever atmosphere right and so now that that doesn't happen at all because it's frowned upon it's even like it's not really even a

Laura (14:01)

Yep.

No.

Melissa (14:15)

a thing anymore, know? Yeah, yeah, which is

Laura (14:15)

A thing. Yeah, yeah.

Definitely. mean, I speak to women both sides of the coin when it comes to site work and residential work. And yeah, there's been mixed, mixed comments on how they get treated in both scenarios, you see, by both men and women. you know, it's a topic that is spoken about as

Melissa (14:24)

Mm.

Mmm.

Hmm. ⁓

Yeah. Yeah.

Laura (14:42)

a stigma? Is it a stigma kind of thing? Like a thing? But is it still a thing is the question really.

Melissa (14:45)

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah,

although I mean, I do wonder if, you know, like site banter and stuff, like I imagine maybe if I was a female working on site, I imagine that might be a different scenario, whereas I'm just coming in like site meetings, you know, like in and out, I'm not there day to day. I don't know, I'd like to think not, but it's definitely changing, changing for the better.

Laura (15:01)

Mmm.

Yeah.

Mm.

Definitely, definitely. And you obviously mentioned that you now do some coaching in the property world. Tell us a bit more about that, because that is super interesting.

Melissa (15:23)

Yes, yeah.

Yeah, so I used to obviously have people be like, can you help me do this? I was like, yeah, sure, you know, help you with your investment. And then someone one day was like, you really should charge people. And I was like, oh, yeah, because you've got all this experience. because I find it really rewarding, like helping someone because, you know, the extra income really can change people's lives.

Laura (15:41)

For your expertise.

Yeah.

Melissa (15:58)

And also for me, like with the kids, it's a massive like peace of mind thing because as much as I love working and going to work, if something happens to me, if I fall ill, I've got income coming from the rental side. So it's a massive like peace of mind thing for me. And it's helping people, you know, with that sort of thing. I have one client whose wife got breast cancer.

Laura (16:16)

Yeah.

Melissa (16:24)

And it's such a sad situation as well because her brother also died. had this accessible bungalow. They were going to sell it. And I was like, just rent it out as an accessible bungalow for care. And I think they get like, it's like a one bed bungalow. think they're getting like 1400 pounds in rent. And now they're going to refinance it so they can buy their own like Airbnb, which they can holiday in and also rent. it's that kind of like that when shit hits the fan in life, you know, you can help people.

Laura (16:35)

Oh wow

Goodness me.

you

Melissa (16:53)

with property to really provide some much needed peace of mind at times like that.

Laura (16:55)

Yeah.

Definitely.

Would you say that obviously a lot of us tradies are self-employed and would you say that property is a good choice for self-employed people in the trades to have in the background? Because obviously one of the major things we struggle with is we don't get sick pay.

Melissa (17:06)

Mmm.

I know,

I know, yeah. So if you don't show up for work, I talk about this all the time, it's like that active income thing, right? And I just mentioned it, that if I don't go to work, you don't get paid. If you don't go into work, you don't get paid. Whereas property will pay you whether you're on holiday or you're sat in your living room, you know, that income's coming no matter what. And I think the good thing about business owners and people that have got their own business is they've got a business mindset.

Laura (17:39)

That's it.

Melissa (17:48)

and you need to think about property investing as a business. And so they've already got all of that expertise and knowledge then of running their own business that they can apply to property. So I think it's a win-win really. And everyone can bring their own, I call it like superpower. Like obviously yours is decorating and you must be multi-trade because you've obviously mentioned about doing your own houses.

Laura (17:51)

Definitely.

I have touched on a few bits of Bob's. Yep.

Melissa (18:13)

Yeah, yeah, so you

that's your superpower. Maybe somebody else is like I work with a lady who's an interior designer. So obviously when she gets to the, you know, the finishes and the dressing, like that's her supervisor, everybody's got their own little bit that they can bring to it. And so I know I'm biased, but I just think it's like, is a win win for me because you say you've

Laura (18:26)

Yeah.

you

Melissa (18:41)

you've built some money up in your business, you've worked really hard and you've got this chunk of profits and you know you want to invest it. If you go and stick 50k in stocks and shares, that 50k is 50k. If you're going to put that on a buy to let mortgage, you can obtain an asset four times greater with that 50k and benefit from the value of it being four times greater, right? But then at the same time, it also pays you passive income. So, and it goes up in value over time. So for me, I'm just like.

And don't get me wrong, I do have some stocks and shares and I have a pension. I think it's important to your finger in other pies. Yeah, yeah, but for me, hands down, investing in property, I think is just a win-win.

Laura (19:18)

a variation yep

Definitely. I'm a little bit biased as well because ⁓ I enjoy it too. I've got a couple on the books and being a sole trader and then juggling renovations, it is hard to do the two and make sure that you're not doing too much. ⁓ But the process from buying to renovation and then renting out at the end, it's...

Melissa (19:29)

Yeah, because you enjoy it too.

Yeah.

Laura (19:54)

Yeah, I would advise anybody to try it, but make sure you do your research first, right? You don't want to go in... Yeah, do your numbers.

Melissa (19:59)

That's it, yeah. Get your spreadsheets out, yeah. Because then

this is what I mean, like, you know, people say like property investment's dead. It's not, it's just the days of just going and buying a two and a three bed and sticking someone in it and hoping for the best is gone. You just need to think about it, do your research, treat it like a business, not just, you know, hope that it works out, do your research and do it properly. But then Laura, you'll know that like once you have...

okay the renovation process can be difficult but once it's rented out okay you might have the odd you know email from a managing agent to say a window needs fixing or something but 99 % of the time it's passive right and then you can you can let it do its thing so

Laura (20:42)

Yeah,

all of a sudden a year's gone by and you've you've you've not heard a peep out of the tenants, you know, unless they've this is it. This is it. Unless they need like the gas certificate doing or, know. But again, if you've got a management company, they'll knock an email to you, this needs doing. Yeah. So, yeah, definitely. If anybody listening wants to get into property, make sure you do your research.

Melissa (20:45)

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Because you did it so well.

Yeah, yeah.

This is due. Yeah. Yeah, that's it.

Laura (21:09)

reach out to someone like Melissa even, get some tips and everything.

Melissa (21:10)

Yeah. Because education

is just fast tracking success, right? know, if like, educate yourself and work with someone that's done it before, then, you know, you're going to you're going to avoid the pit holes.

Laura (21:16)

⁓ yeah.

Definitely, definitely. So just touching back on the construction companies that you've got, the top of your head, can you think of a particular renovation job that you have thought, wow, we've done a blinder here,

Melissa (21:32)

Mmm.

Mmm.

So we did build a spa. We built a spa pavilion in Cirencester at Stratton House Hotel. I mean, I say we. I was actually, think I ⁓ had a, I think we started in the January and I had Frank at the end of the January. So I was actually, yeah, that was it. was the time when I could remember preparing, booking it in. I was pregnant with Frank.

Laura (21:50)

Hahaha.

Melissa (22:07)

I was homeschooling my other little boy, because it was COVID, massively pregnant. And we were trying to book all this stuff in for the spa to start in January. Obviously, it's a terrible time to build as well, isn't it? We started on site, but because it was COVID, people weren't coming out to site. like, was considering it was like quite a bad time for building. We pulled a blinder there to have pulled that off, I think. And I think the guys did it in something stupid like.

Laura (22:19)

Yep.

Melissa (22:32)

five months, I think it was open within six months. Award-winning spa, yeah. So yeah, so my brother did a phenomenal job there, really.

Laura (22:36)

Wow.

Amazing and what was that called again?

Melissa (22:48)

It's Stratton House Hotel, the garden spa. yeah, yeah. Yeah. Pousine hot tub. And I think he's on about next year. He wants to extend it now and do like a cold plunge pool thing. And yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Laura (22:50)

Okay, so anybody looking for a spa day, go and check it out.

Ooh, fancy. Yeah, very

nice. So with you having the three companies and now starting your coaching, do you find that social media plays a big part in getting the word out there and promoting your businesses, et cetera?

Melissa (23:15)

Hmm.

Yeah, yeah,

I think so. mean, Inndecs, the commercial one is a bit of a, it's a bit of a niche, right? So, that's more of just a showcase. So we use our socials like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, just as a showcase of like, this is what our business does. And a bit of like brand awareness, because at the end of the day, unless you're a project manager of a hotel or a pub company, you're not really going to be interested in us.

Laura (23:30)

Hmm.

Melissa (23:51)

Whereas the residential division is a much bigger sell. So obviously we invest a lot more in like video and professional photos on that side of thing, because I think people need to look you up and look at what you're doing to trust you and believe that you can deliver the quality of finish that you're saying that you can.

Laura (24:03)

Okay.

Yeah.

Melissa (24:16)

So we do invest quite a bit of money on that side of things. And then MJP, the property side, again, it's like a bit of a showcase. And then I guess with the coaching, it's social proof for me, isn't it? It's like, I can teach you how to do this because I can show you I've done X, Y, So people, because there are a lot of coaches out there these days that maybe haven't actually.

Laura (24:28)

Yeah.

There are.

Melissa (24:40)

put the boots on,

but they say they're a coach where it's social proof, isn't it, when you can share what you're doing.

Laura (24:47)

Absolutely, absolutely. And with the coaching, what could people expect if they come to you for some help and say, I dropped you an email and said, I want to get into property, can you help me? would they expect?

Melissa (25:03)

I'm

more of like a mentor. I think there's a lot of courses out there that kind of like a one size fits all, because it's like an online platform. Whereas I believe that everybody's investment appetite risk strategy is quite personal because Laura, you might be like, right, I want to do five HMOs because I want to generate 50K in five years.

Laura (25:20)

Yeah.

Melissa (25:30)

So that's a particular strategy, but then somebody else might come along and they just want it to be a retirement piece and they're quite happy for them to just be vanilla by to lets and they're gonna buy one every two years. So those two people are completely different and you can't really have one online course that's gonna help those two people because their vision and goals are completely different. So I'm more of a mentor where I sit down with them, we work out.

Laura (25:44)

Yeah.

Melissa (25:56)

what your investment goals are and the timeline. And then we match the strategy to that. And then I go along with them, then like teach them about the strategy, you know, buy the property, introducing to my power team, because that's also really important. I've obviously been through lots of good and bad people along the way. And so now you get like my mortgage broker, my accountant, you know, all of the people that I trust, you get connected with them. And so it is quite a hand holding.

Laura (26:00)

Okay.

Yeah

Wow.

Melissa (26:23)

piece. But sometimes I think like people just need like with property it is it is a big investment. I get it. And sometimes people like everyone wants to invest in property but they're like but I'm going to do this first or I just need to do this before I do it. Sometimes you just need me going you've got this you've done the research here's your spreadsheet here's the numbers and I just give you that little little push on WhatsApp. Come on have you have you put the offer it you know it's that accountability piece that just like.

Laura (26:46)

Haha

Melissa (26:51)

gives people the confidence to go for it.

Laura (26:54)

Definitely, brilliant. Is there any big events or projects on the horizon that you want to or can share with us?

Melissa (27:04)

So, well I'll give you a quick rundown of what we're doing at the minute. So, Melora, the residential building company, is on a big project in Oxford called Mana Farm. We're in phase one of that. It's beautiful, like, multi-million pound Manor Farm, which has been empty for like two years, I want to say, which blows my mind. I don't understand how people have these properties just sat there. But the client lives in Frankfurt.

Laura (27:14)

Okay.

No.

Melissa (27:30)

So we've extended one of the dwellings, splitting it into two, and then phase two will be the cottages, so developing them. at the end, it will just be like multi-generational living on the site in Oxford. Yeah, so that's a lovely project to be on. Inndecs the commercial fit-out is at a hotel called Tewksbury Park, and we're just doing some of the hotel bedrooms, so a fit-out job there. We're also doing a dog groomers in Cheltenham.

Laura (27:41)

Okay.

Okay.

Melissa (27:57)

which should be called Sofetch. And then we've got a couple of other little smaller projects that we're doing for Stonegate, which are kind of like creating these sort of oldie-worldie like outdoor drinking sheds, I guess you'd call them. And also doing another like external drinking area there in Thiel and Reading. And then we've got some other projects now that we're hoping to book in for the new year, one's at

Laura (27:57)

Cool.

Okay.

Melissa (28:24)

care home to residential conversion. And we're also looking at a hotel block development for heart stone ins. So there's loads going on at the minute. That's what I mean, like my brain's like, my God.

Laura (28:33)

Mmm.

Wow,

very exciting stuff though, yeah. That's brilliant. So is there anything that you would like to speak about that I've not touched on yet?

Melissa (28:43)

Yeah, it is,

Maybe we should talk about how we can get more girls into thinking about working in the industry because I feel like construction and property is so well suited to women because you've got to be organised, you've got to be quite analytical sometimes with the numbers and everything. But I guess I never really saw it as a career path for myself because I didn't see any other women doing it.

Laura (29:17)

Yeah.

Melissa (29:17)

So it's like trying to make sure that younger girls can see women in these positions so that they can think about that as a career path for themselves. So just trying to get out there and promote what you do as much as possible. And I do quite a few talks and panel discussions and stuff. And I want to try and get into a school if I can.

Laura (29:28)

Most definitely.

well.

Melissa (29:42)

just

to say, well, this is what I do and I am a woman, but just so that they can see you because I think that will change things. Yeah, yeah.

Laura (29:46)

Yeah.

Yeah, just change the mindset really, isn't it? It's like,

I always compare it to the lionesses, the footballers, you know, until like, if you can't see it, it's hard for you to imagine that you can be it, isn't it? It's that whole thing. And I guess it's the same with little boys and footballers, et cetera, but they're everywhere, you know? But for us women, we also need those...

Melissa (29:59)

Yes. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Laura (30:17)

inspirational figures to look at and think, actually, I quite like what she does there. I've got some of those skills and I can develop the rest of them, And I think that's where part of my want to do the podcast came in is because to share the start to current journeys of all these amazing women in the construction industry.

Melissa (30:19)

Yeah. I can do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mm.

Laura (30:42)

on the tools, off the tools, behind the scenes, et cetera. If that can get out there and or mums can share it with their daughters or listen to this person, know, it just opens a whole new world for women and girls coming into their own, doesn't it?

Melissa (30:44)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Great, yeah,

agreed. So yeah, we've just all got, I think we've all got a little bit of a job and a responsibility to just try and, you know, promote what we're doing to the younger generation just to see. I mean, we did do, we've got our apprentice, Harry, he's brilliant, but we did go to the local colleges apprenticeship like evening last year. And there were a few girls that came up.

Laura (31:12)

Definitely.

Melissa (31:24)

that were doing their carpentry course and I was like buzzing. was like, oh, this is, you know, there was only a handful, but the fact that they were there, I was like, okay, all right, this is good, you know.

Laura (31:34)

Yeah.

Definitely.

that's great. And one thing that sticks in my head about property is when you're kind of uneducated about it, you don't know and you think, well, I know a house isn't just a couple of hundred quid.

Melissa (31:49)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Laura (31:57)

Is it right that you have to have tens, hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bank to get into property?

Melissa (32:06)

Well, it's a tricky one to answer because there are a lot of gurus out there that will say you don't need any money to invest in property and there are some strategies you can do where you don't need that option agreements and that sort of thing. They're quite complicated. Whereas I much prefer, I mean, or you could work with investors.

There's a couple of people I've worked with that maybe have other family members that have got some savings and then they've all worked together. So they've got the education, the family members have put the savings in and then they've used that money then to go and invest in property. But I believe that it's already difficult enough without starting from zero is really hard because if you've not invested in property, you need to go and get an investor that doesn't know you from Adam.

Laura (32:35)

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah.

Melissa (32:59)

That's a really

tough sell, right? I've not done it before, but I think I can do it. Can you give me 50K? It's quite a hard sell. So I tend to work with people that have got some savings. It's normally cash that they've built up through their business. They've worked really hard. They've got this surplus cash. They don't want to just invest it back into the business. They want to put it somewhere else. I've not.

Laura (33:11)

Okay.

Melissa (33:24)

I said yes and no because there are strategies where you don't need money but I think that it is obviously easier if you can start with some money in your pocket. And maybe the second or third project you're working with investors because by then you've got proof, you've got a couple of projects you can showcase, I've done this, do you want to come on board, they get some interest, then it gets much easier. But to start off with, yeah, yeah. And even with option agreements,

Laura (33:32)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it snowballs, doesn't it? Yeah.

Melissa (33:53)

with an option agreement, you're going to go, it works a lot with like maybe like older landlords that are trying to sell off portfolios. So you could go and proposition them that, you you buy it in five years time, but then you still then don't own that property for five years. So, you know, there are ways of doing it, but I like to do it the good old fashioned way. Yeah. Yeah.

Laura (34:05)

Yeah.

So that's fair enough. No, there's nothing wrong with that. If it works, it works, you know?

That's it. Amazing. Okay. All brilliant information there on, yeah, getting into property. It's great. It's a great angle to have on the show and how it blends in with us tradies. So yeah, thank you.

Melissa (34:24)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, because

it is a side, you know, I always say like, is totally possible. I've got three children, I run two businesses and I invest in property. Like if you do it the right way, it is totally possible to run it as a side hustle.

Laura (34:51)

Yeah,

Awesome. Well, thank you very much for that. And we've come to the point where I like to do a quick fire question round if you're up for it. Cool. So start off with an easy one. Tea or coffee?

Melissa (34:59)

Okay, let's go for it.

Hmm.

⁓ coffee. I'm obsessed with coffee. I've got a really bad coffee addiction. Like so bad that I might, the beginning of my day is dictated by getting a coffee. It's really bad.

Laura (35:17)

I

was gonna say, it's kind of a silly question, cause you've got some Italian in you, so, you know, it's, yeah.

Melissa (35:22)

Yeah, yeah, I,

yeah, and if you were going to ask me cost you a Starbucks, it'd be Starbucks. That's a coffee, yeah.

Laura (35:28)

Me too, me too. Yeah,

amazing. Bathroom transformation or a kitchen transformation?

Melissa (35:39)

⁓ that's a tough one. I'm going to say kitchen because I think kitchen is the heart of the home. Bathrooms are nice. Don't get me wrong. I love a good bathroom, but you're going to spend a lot more time in your kitchen. So kitchen.

Laura (35:53)

A fancy meal out or a cosy night in?

Melissa (35:57)

Fancy night out just because I don't get many of them these days. Me and my husband don't get many fancy nights out these days because we've got too many kids. So yeah, no fancy night out.

Laura (36:00)

Hahaha

Nice, nice. A bridging loan or private investor?

Melissa (36:12)

or private investor only because a bridging loan, the fees and the interest would be much more expensive than the interest you'd pay to a private investor. So if you've got private investment, always go for that rather than the bridging.

Laura (36:29)

Cool. Driver or passenger?

Melissa (36:32)

Driver, think. I think driver, yeah. Yeah, although my husband never lets me drive and bring the car together, I think I'm more like, my foot's always going, like if I'm in the passenger, I'm always like, slow down. So no, do, yeah, driver.

Laura (36:36)

yeah

You

and serviced accommodation or HMO. ⁓

Melissa (36:52)

Oh, there's so many pros and cons to it. I love service accommodation because I love the dressing and the finished product. I don't like the fluctuation in the income. Because HMOs, you you got flat income every month, right? You know what you've got. But you have got the licensing. Oh, that's a tricky one.

Laura (37:05)

Mm-hmm.

Melissa (37:18)

I'd say HMO when you start off because it's good cash flow and it's steady and then more service accommodation as you get more experience because you can afford then for the fluctuations in the income.

Laura (37:21)

Yeah.

Nice. Yeah. I like that one. Brilliant.

And a beach holiday or long weekend away.

Melissa (37:42)

beach holiday. 100%. And you? Yeah. You're saying long weekends.

Laura (37:44)

yeah. Same, yeah. I

I'd take either at the moment. Just get me out of this cold, you know?

Melissa (37:52)

Yeah, something, anything, yeah, yeah,

yeah. No, yeah, beach holiday would be lovely.

Laura (37:57)

Yes, please.

Awesome. Well, I've come to the part at the end of the show where I like to ask same three questions to everybody. And obviously with you not being on the tools, we're going to tweak it ever so slightly. So if you could be a qualified tradie on the tools, what would you choose?

Melissa (38:04)

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

or a chippy all day long because I always admire like how satisfying must it be to like make something and then like at the end of the day look at that and be like I built that like I'd be a chippy if had my time again. Yeah, is it really, is it?

Laura (38:26)

Hello.

Yeah.

Again, I'll say it, it's the most popular. It's the most popular. It really is. Even myself,

I would choose that too. we've had some amazing carpenters and joiners on the show so far. So it's definitely popular one. next question is, what trade would you like to see on the show next?

Melissa (38:41)

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm.

O-N-

I'm trying to think of something that's like maybe not as...

if you had a plasterer on?

Laura (39:03)

Not yet, actually, no.

Melissa (39:05)

Hmm, there's anyone like doing them because you do all these posh plaster finishes as well now these days ⁓ Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I wonder if you could find a female plasterer

Laura (39:12)

Yeah, the Venetian stuff. Yeah, I like that.

Hmm, I will have a look. Yes. Brilliant. Okay, so Melissa, where can people find you on social media and the internet?

Melissa (39:27)

Well, as is a few businesses, there's quite a few. ⁓ They've all got funny spellings. So, so Inndecs is I double N D E C S and we're just inndecs.com and @inndecs on our socials. Melora is ⁓ E L I O R MELIORA excellence and renovations. We're on Instagram, Facebook and our website is meliorarennovations.co.uk and then

Laura (39:29)

Yep.

Melissa (39:54)

mjp at mjp on instagram mjp homes ltd.co.uk or you can just connect with me on linkedin and i've got all of the businesses on there so i'm just melissa potente p o t e n t e on linkedin for anybody that wants to connect

Laura (40:11)

Awesome. Well, for anybody that didn't get that, I'm gonna make sure that they'll all be in the show notes for to, for anyone listening that wants to go and check Melissa out and all the work that they're doing across the board. And again, don't forget to reach out if you're interested in getting into property. I'm sure Melissa will be happy to speak to any of you and moving forward with that, yeah.

Melissa (40:12)

Mm-hmm.

Always happy to help.

Laura (40:35)

Well, again, thank you very much, Melissa. It's been, yeah, really enjoyable to speak to somebody that does the kind of two sides of what I'm into, you know, the trades and property. So thank you very much. You're welcome. And we'll speak soon.

Melissa (40:38)

Thanks so much.

Yeah. Yeah. Good. Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks Laura. Thank you.