Hello world! I’m Matthew from Manchester, U.K. and at the time of writing this page I recently turned 34. I live with my fiancé Mark and between us I want to share our adventures, both highs and the lows of our life together. I have been thinking for quite a long time about starting a blog site and finally today decided to put the effort into setting it up! I did this not just to share things with friends and family, and ultimately the world, but also to have somewhere to decompress and put my own thoughts down in writing to help process all the random things I have going on inside my head…..and believe me there is usually lots of thoughts and ideas going on!

A little about me….professionally I work in the plant hire/construction industry, spending the working week in my role as IT & Systems Director for a specialist lifting company. Having worked in IT and technology for over 17 years across both private and public sectors I’ve seen most things. Watching technology and ideas come and go, moving from one technological fashion and fad to the next, working alongside some great colleagues along the way, some of which have become life long friends.

Outside of my day job and wiring this blog I spend a huge amount of my free time running a number of businesses that I have built up and nurtured. The one I am most proud of is RANGE ROVER OWNER. What started out as a hobby over 20 years ago, growing up with my dads Land Rover’s in our family to quickly turning into a passion when I purchased my very first Range Rover back in 2009. (I went with Range Rover because I felt I needed more comfort than the utilitarian options available in the Defenders of the period!) In that era online forums where the primary method of sharing information online. I spent time detailing the adventures of maintaining and modifying my own Range Rover with upgrades such as facelifts, infotainment upgrades and even building some custom hardware I quickly discovered fellow owners wanted to be able to do the same things to their cars as what I had started with mine. The formation of RANGE ROVER OWNER started in 2015 after being left with a rather sour taste in my mouth when I reached out to what at the time was the only real Range Rover owners club available to join. I contacted their local representative to investigate joining but because I owned what at the time was still a relatively newer model was told I could join, but that they didn’t have much interest in those newer models! This immediately put me off and after giving it some thought I decided to create what would eventually become RANGE ROVER OWNER which has quickly grown to become the UK’s largest Range Rover owners club and spans both a physical club which attends shows and events all over the country, as well as providing online community to over 50,000 members worldwide! Definitely a hobby that has taken on a life of its own, but I absolutely love it. Very challenging at times but certainly worth it, I love especially meeting new owners and enthusiasts that are looking to get into the Range Rover ownership hobby and I think that most people I meet soon realise the passion and enthusiasm I have for everything Land Rover and Range Rover related!

As part of building up RANGE ROVER OWNER I have branched out into creating custom merchandise for the club, including mugs, coasters, branded gear, as well as hats and caps, decals and other collectibles. This has opened my eyes to the enjoyment and possibilities of creating other custom designed gear through other online businesses.

My latest venture, again was born out of the increased need to service the RANGE ROVER OWNER brand. Online marketing platforms can be horrifyingly expensive for small businesses or social clubs to make use of. After being faced with the challenge that the clubs current online emailing platform was demanding an additional £300 a year payment just to retain the ability to send emails out to our members that previously had been included as part of our web hosting package. I decided to do some market research and find alternative options for small/club size organisations to use. I was shocked to discover that there did not appear to be any options for these type of businesses at an affordable price, so I decided to take actions into my own hands and create a brand new marketing platform that could not only serve the needs of RANGE ROVER OWNER, but also be offered to other small businesses or social club organisations at a low cost. ‘The Mailing Club’ was born! – an online, easy to use, simplified email service that can provide the tools and features required in the same way as the larger marketing platforms, but without the horrendous costs and endless options that would never be used by smaller club size organisations. The Mailing Club is still in its infancy but hopefully will begin to grow in the same way as my previous business ventures!