Moving a Family from the UK to Florida

I moved my family from the UK to Florida to help bring resin bound surfacing to the USA. That is the short answer. The longer one is about what a move like that asks of you, because a new address does not do the work for you.

Why I looked at the USA

I learned the trade in the UK. I know the work from the ground up. When I looked at the USA I saw an industry that most contractors and homeowners had barely heard of. That gap was the opportunity. Resin Rock LLC was founded in 2023 with one aim: to build the resin bound industry here.

I will be straight about something. Wanting to build something is easy to say from the sofa. A move turns it into a decision with a deadline attached. That is when ambition gets tested.

Moving yourself is one thing, moving a family is another

I can talk about business opportunity all day. It covers maybe half of the conversation. The people coming with you have their own lives to rebuild, their own friends to leave and their own reasons to be nervous. If you only tell the version where you look decisive, you leave them out of your own story.

So I tried to treat the move as a family project from the start. My family were not passengers. If you are weighing a move abroad, ask each person what they are leaving as well as what they are gaining. The answers can change your plan.

A move is a decision. What you do with that decision is the work.

What the move did not fix

Florida did not make me a better operator overnight. The habits I brought over came with me. So did the doubts. The change of country gave me a new market and a bigger stage. Everything else I still had to earn once I got here.

That is why I talk about mindset. Familiar does not mean right, and unfamiliar does not mean better. You have to be honest about what you are moving towards, rather than only what you want to leave behind. If the only reason to go is escape, you will find the same problems waiting in the new place.

Building from Orlando

Orlando has been my home base since I moved. My companies operate from here: Resin Rock, Resin Rubber, Glow Surfaces, Wavefront Studio and Resin Trims. From here I have worked with installers in places like Dallas and Omaha and spoken at events as far away as Riyadh. The move made that possible. It did not make it easy.

When I collected the 2026 Business Elite “40 Under 40” Award at The St. Regis in New York, my family was part of the story I told from the podium. That felt right to me. The move happened because of them as much as for the business. You can read more about my background here.

What I would ask before you move

I do not have a checklist that guarantees a good outcome, and I would be suspicious of anyone who does. I have questions I wish more people asked first.

What am I moving towards, in plain words? Who else is affected, and have I asked them directly? What happens to the business while I am relocating? What will I still be dealing with on the first Monday after the boxes are unpacked?

If you can answer those without flinching, the move is probably worth considering. If you cannot, spend more time on the questions before you spend money on the flights.

What a move does to a business

A relocation does not pause the company. Customers still expect answers, suppliers still expect orders and the work in front of you keeps its deadline. If you are running a business, you are moving a family and a company at the same time, and both need a plan.

Treat the business move as a separate project from the family move. They overlap, and they pull on the same hours. Give each its own list of decisions and you can see what is actually urgent.

A new country also resets your reputation. In the UK I had a trade behind me. In the USA I was starting a company in 2023 in an industry that most people had not heard of, and nobody owed me a first meeting. That is uncomfortable. It is also clarifying, because you find out quickly what you can offer someone who has no reason to trust you yet.

Leaving something behind

I do not want to pretend that leaving was free. The UK is where I learned the trade and where I grew up. A move gives you something and costs you something, and an honest account of it should include both columns.

That honesty helps the people reading this who are deciding. If somebody tells you a move was nothing but upside, they are selling you something. I would rather you hear that it was worth it to me, and that it asked a great deal of everyone involved.

Questions people ask me

Did your whole family move to Florida?

Yes. I moved with my family from the UK, and Orlando has been home since.

Where did you learn the trade before you left?

In the UK. I learned resin bound surfacing there before taking it across the Atlantic.

Can you help me think through moving my business to another country?

That is a big part of what I do in consultations. We start with what you are moving towards and work backwards to a plan.

Talk it through with me

If you are weighing a move, or the business version of one, I am happy to think it through with you. Book a call with me and tell me where you are stuck.