The Real McCoy Issue 6

“How I Started RMG From Nothing to Building Something Real”

I left school at 15 years old. No GCSEs. No real plan. Just a pair of hands and a willingness to graft. I walked straight onto a building site and started working in roofing. Lots of pitched roofs, new builds, hard graft. I worked for a family member, alongside my cousin. It was long days, hard work, and no such thing as praise or encouragement.

Truth is, the environment we worked in back then was extremely abusive. What we went through would not be accepted now, and rightly so. But that experience gave me a thick skin and an unmatched work ethic. We were broken down daily, but we kept showing up. That daily grind shaped me, toughened me up for life, and taught me what real graft actually meant.

After a few years, we were on a job in London and I just hit my limit. I looked around and thought, I can do this myself. I want out. I didn’t have a business plan, I didn’t have any savings, and I definitely didn’t have any help lined up. But I had drive, and I had fire in my gut.

Here’s the truth though. When I walked away to go out on my own, I didn’t just leave the job. I left without a single clue about business. I didn’t know how to price work. I didn’t know what made a good product. I didn’t know how tax worked or even what National Insurance really meant. I couldn’t even open an account with my local suppliers because I didn’t understand how trade credit worked. I was so afraid of getting into debt that I paid for absolutely everything upfront. And I did that for years.

This is the stuff they don’t teach you in school. And honestly, it should be. Knowing how to manage money, price a job, pay tax, stay compliant, and set up proper systems is all critical. Just being good on the tools means nothing if you can’t run the numbers. I see it all the time. Brilliant tradesmen try to flip into business owners, and it crushes them. Because the skill set is totally different.

When I started, I didn’t have any of those skills. And I had no one to guide me. You were the only one who stood by me, Nikki. Even though you were in a full-time job and didn’t know anything about running a business either, we learnt everything from scratch. Together. No investors. No mentors. No handouts. Just grit and late nights.

I grew up with nothing. No inheritance coming. No safety net. That gave me clarity. If I wanted a life, I had to build it brick by brick. My mother-in-law lent me £1,800, and that changed everything. It paid for my first van, a set of ladders, and that was it. I was off.

During the day I was roofing. In the evenings I was knocking on doors around Wokingham, trying to win work. I got told to F off more times than I can count. People slammed doors. Laughed. But I didn’t stop. I knew what I was building even if no one else could see it yet.

From there it went: just me, then me and a labourer, then two labourers, then two vans. We carved out our place in the domestic market locally. Then you joined me in the business, and together we’ve built RMG into what it is today. And we’re only just getting started.

Yes, going out on my own was scary. But I never doubted the path. I had a young family, a mortgage to pay, and no one else to rely on. It was do or die, and I did.

What’s wild is how many people assume that being the boss means you don’t do much. Honestly, that winds me up. If you run your own business, you know it’s not nine to five. It’s full time. It’s your life. Your responsibility. When things go wrong, there’s no one else to blame. When things go right, you don’t stop to celebrate. You’re already onto the next thing. The pressure is unreal, but if you’re built for it, it becomes part of you.

I’ve always respected hard workers because I am one. I’ve seen lazy, I’ve seen entitled, and I’ve seen grafters. If you graft, you’ve got my full respect. End of.

For me, work has always been an escape. When life has been hard, when personal stuff has got heavy, roofing gave me focus. Business gave me purpose. Work helped carry me through more than most people will ever know. That’s why I love what I do and why I’ll never stop building RMG. This industry, roofing, construction, running a business, it’s my obsession and I’m proud of that.

We’re not just here to put roofs on buildings. We’re here to grow a company that people are proud to work with. To deliver proper jobs. To build a legacy.

I’m not special. I just started with nothing, worked like mad, and didn’t stop when it got hard.

And I never will.

Daryl Cooke

Director, Roofing Matters Group

📍 Moss End Garden Village, Warfield

💻 roofingmattersgroup.com

📩 daryl@roofingmattersgroup.com