Yorkshire Christmas catch-up: Martin Hoyle, CEO of New Home Finder

As Christmas is only days away, and the businesspeople of Yorkshire preparing to hang up their stockings, Bdaily is continuing its December interview series with Martin Hoyle, CEO of New Home Finder.

As you already know, we at Bdaily love to bring our readers closer to the stories we write. So this month, we’re asking the questions we don’t usually get a chance to ask - giving you the opportunity to learn more about the people behind the businesses you often read about.

Based in Leeds, New Home Finder is a portal offering a one stop guide to buying a new build home.

Your Business

What were the highlights for your business in 2015?

My highlight for New Home Finder in 2015 has to be rolling out the platform nationally following a very successful pilot in Yorkshire. After a lot of time spent building the solution to allow for it to scale up, achieving the roll out was the culmination of a lot of planning. To see the site operating nationally is fantastic.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently this year?

Engage with the non-executives earlier. Since we started working with the great team of business people we have around us, the business and site has move forward tremendously. I personally have also learnt a lot in a short space of time which has helped my transition to become CEO of the business.

Is there anything we should watch out for your company doing next year?

Growing! We are on a fantastic growth curve, engaging positively with new home builders and companies that can really support our customers in their home buying journey. We are expanding into 12 regions and next year will see a complete national reach, listing new developments from most new home builders.

Your favourites

Have any other Yorkshire companies impressed you this year, if so - why?

Strata Homes – we have worked closely with Strata for some time now and I have seen first-hand how their business is driven by quality and customer experience which has led to them being highly profitable whilst rapidly increasing their development output. They have also managed to fit in a packed and somewhat gruelling charity fundraising calendar of events with all aspects of the business completing tasks and events. Working hard and playing hard for sure!

When business life gets on top of you, what do you do to destress?

After a tough day, I tend to head straight to the gym. Resistance training has always been a key pastime for me and is something I have found to help remove the stresses of the day.

Have any social media accounts caught your eye this year, any favourite pages or people to follow?

NPAS_CarrGate – this is the West Yorkshire Police helicopter twitter account and I find it fascinating to see how organisations such as the police are utilising social media to communicate their activities and engage more with the community. I am always the first to wonder what the helicopter is doing when it is circling above my house and this allows me to find out!

The what ifs

If you could do any job in the world what would it be?

If I were to do any job, it would have to be motorsport related. I have followed the Lemans endurance racing for many years and have also attended the race a number of times. So my dream job would have to be a driver in one of the LM24 cars.

If you could go back in time, which piece of advice would you give your younger self?

Read more. As the famous Jim Rohn would say, “the books you don’t read won’t help” and “The difference between where you are today and where you’ll be five years from now will be found in the quality of books you’ve read”. When I was younger and at school, I really disliked reading and did everything in my power to avoid it. I am sure my English teacher found my excuses tiresome but they worked. However now I see the true value in learning all the time and the wealth of information available if you look for.

What would be the perfect Christmas gift for you?

My perfect present would be a racing car tuition day experience. I have been on a couple of the driving experiences where you get to thrash a super car round a track with an instructor, which were amazing days. However I have never had tuition on the art of racing on a track. This is something I would love to do.

Thanks for your time Martin, Merry Christmas from the Bdaily team!