Hi, I’m Mark Taylor. I was raised in the beautiful Bay of Plenty, spending my younger years living in Whakatane.

With outdoors, tourism and culture on my doorstep, I found myself spending most of my weekends hunting and fishing with my family. For a young Kiwi, I was in my element.

Attending Whakatane High School from 2001 to 2005 was the highlight of my schooling years. Taking a liking to wood tech class, I found myself building all types of items during lunchtime and class time hours.

In my final months of school, it was a given for myself what I would choose to do when I left school.

In 2006 I enrolled at a Pre-Trade Carpentry Course in Whakatane called Trade Education. Graduating from this course set me up for the workforce.

Throughout my working career as a Carpenter, I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to work in both the Construction and Residential industry. Through this work, I gained great knowledge of the wider building sector.

After spending 4 years in Auckland, building and surviving the challenging recession, I moved back to the Bay, building in Mount Maunganui. This was the perfect place as the building industry was growing fast.

I was lucky enough to have met Hannah (my wife) while living and working in Mount Maunganui. Now married with 3 kids, every day in our house was busy but enjoyable.

During this time, I lost my mother in a long battle with illnesses. That made me realize that life is too short to just dream and hope for better things. I knew it was time to put my dreams into reality.

I spent 2 years reading books on business after hours to prepare myself to make the move.Finally, the time had come to hand in my notice and begin my next adventure.

Giving up a well-paid job as a Foreman at the time was the biggest risk to take when having a family to take care of and a mortgage to pay. I surrounded myself with positive people, and always kept my passion for working hard and delivering a great job my priority.

From building decks to fences, I found myself growing as a person and also as a business owner. Soon enough I had a team behind me helping me do what I do best, delivering an exceptional finish through passion and trust. This has worked well for me in business and has created many new pathways of networking and friendships from previous jobs.

There are 3 key skills that I feel place me above most in my industry: being honest with all clients, having great communication through the good or bad, and most importantly for me, having Respect.

As I continue to grow my business in this fast-paced industry, I look forward to what the future brings for myself and my business. Business isn’t always about just making a profit.

For me, behind every job, there is money BUT always an opportunity for self-reward and Friendship.

MLT Builders