[donna n]

Hi everyone.

I introduced myself yesterday but me and my sister are thinking of starting up a business in September cleaning domestic properties initially and then maybe going onto the commerical side.

Did you all have full time jobs initially?  If so, how did you start out in this business?  I work full time, my sister doesnt but I would be doing all the paperwork and getting the jobs.  My background (for 3 years) was working for an employment agency, getting new contracts and recruiting temp staff.  I have now been working as a Marketing and Events Manager for the past 5 years.  She would be doing the labour during the week with me working on Saturdays.

Is this feasible?  How long did it take before this became your full time occupation?

Thanks in advance.

[Paul Kettless]

Hi Donna,

Our company is a family run business, and your question is very similar to the one that we were asking ourselves when we first founded.

Both my wife and I were working full time for an employer, and it all started with Michelle taking some holiday cleans on weekends to earn some extra cash, we sooned realised that this was a good business opportunity, and after talking about it for nearly a year took the plunge.

We visited business link, who gaves us some good advice, and went to the bank with a business plan.  Michelle handed in her notice, and at the time we only had 6 regular customers.  Obviously, our business account, had a loan for set up costs, van, letterheads, business cards, cleaning equipment, iniforms, advertising etc, and a whopping great overdraft to cover her loss of earnings at the start.  The cost of the loan was more than she actually had as income at that time, I can remember us both thinking what the hell have we done .

For the following year and a bit, I worked full time, and on evenings and weekends did all of the paper side and advertisng side of the business, whilst Michelle and her team of staff cracked on with all the labour intensive stuff.  At the moment we have approx 100 customer accounts, some large, some tiny, and seven extra staff all working on a part time basis..

After nearly two years of business I am now taking the plunge and joining the business full time, as planned within our five year busines plan. However, it is still very scary, but you must think positive.

Obviously you have some selling experience which will certainly help your company start off on the right foot.  My main piece of advice to you is that if you are going to do this, do not try and cut corners, IMO it has to be all of nothing.

Planning is the future of your success, no business plan, and you company will struggle before you even get started. Hopefully, this helps answer your question, "is it feasible", well yes, we did it, so can you...

Good luck

Kind regards
Paul

[donna n]

Thanks Paul.  We are going to organise a meeting with our local Business Link soon.  We arent starting until September but we want to get the ball rolling.

Thanks for the advice - hope we are as successful as you seem to be!

[Paul Kettless]

Your very welcome, we do not see ourselves as sussesfull yet, infact I still think that it could all go belly up at anytime.  I believe that success will be the longevity of our company if we are still as strong in the market place 5-10  years from now then we will be happy.

One thing I forgot to mention is make sure that you are fully insured, police checks etc, as most customers that we have are very hot on this side of the business.  Customer service/rapport is IMO paramount in this industry.