Corbil Planning celebrates 10 years today!

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of Corbil Planning Ltd.

Looking back, it was no joke starting a new company on April fools day back in 2016, especially considering the circumstances we were in at the time.

Jemma and I had both resigned from our jobs. We had just got our first mortgage together and bought our own family home. Alfie, our eldest son, was just 3 months old when the company was incorporated. The number of clients the company had could be counted on little more than one hand, and the future supply of jobs was unpredictable at best.

To set up a new company in those circumstances was a big risk. Some may say foolhardy (see what I did there!)

Since then, the country has had 6 prime ministers, and no less than 12 housing and planning ministers. We have been through a global pandemic and the largest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Liz Truss tanked what there was left of the economy in the mini-budget of 2022, and things have not improved much what with recent global events and politics.

I’ll be honest, the company has not grown in employee numbers. It’s still Jemma and I working away, keeping things going. But the company has grown considerably in other terms. There is now a much more robust and diverse client base than ever before. Something that we value highly. The work is both interesting and increasing in size, number and complexity. Our development business is also soon to take-off, bringing with it new and exciting ventures, of which there will be more info to follow shortly.

We are still in the same house. Alfie now has a younger brother, Lawrence, and this truly is a family business.

I had never wanted to climb the corporate ladder, and not being suited to the internal politics of local authority, neither had appealed to me. I never wanted to become a manager in the traditional sense, and by past experience neither was that something that I was ever going to be any good at anyway.. Something which I am sure can be attested to by my past colleagues!

Hence, Corbil Planning has not grown beyond a family business, and neither is it going to as far as I am concerned.

I went into this industry to become a town planner, and with the tremendous support of our clients and network that we have established today, that is the best place for me to be. It is what I enjoy and despite the challenges, and there are a fair few of them, it is what I feel that I am best at.

Having grown up dominated by the environment and ethos that self-praise is unbecoming, and to stay silent and let success speak for itself is the proper way to behave, I have largely refrained from social media (or at least these types of posts). This is something which maybe reflected in the slow growth of the company.

However, today is Corbil Planning’s 10^th anniversary.

It has been a large part of our lives for the last decade. I have therefore decided that today, I would jot down my thoughts, and put them on record, if anything then for posterity's sake.

We could not have done any of this without the hard-work and support of my wife, Jemma, and my family.

Let’s see where we are in 2036!

Cheers.