I occasionally get asked questions about my time in business and apart from the usual “Why did you start up in business?” or “What’s the proudest thing you’ve achieved?” one of the most popular includes “Have you or do you clean anywhere that’s been haunted?”
Blog
The Living Wage Challenge
There is little doubt that the Governments announcement of the new Living Wage a few months back is great news for those working for or in the region of the current minimum wage.
I don’t like politics but….
When it comes to politics I tend to glaze over. I can’t get enthused about what they stand for, what plans they have or what they say they’re going to do for my region, my friends, my family, my business or simply, just me!
Reflections of 2014
A year ago Hazel and I sat in the Marriot Hotel in Panjim, Goa, on a winter break overlooking the Mandovi River and talked about goals and aspirations for both our business and personal lives for 2014. We find Christmas and a New Year a great time to look at what’s been achieved and look forward to the next 12 months.
Determination, like no other
One of my favourite TV programmes is the BBC’s DIY SOS. I just love the way people pull together and make things happen, in fact make things right for those desperately in need of a little help. I’m always astounded by the way people give up their time and money to assist where it’s needed the most. Often these individuals and groups are strangers and simply give because they can and have a desire to ‘give a little something back.’
The Price of Productivity
Being in the industry we’re in we’re often providing quotes for prospective customers and as our sales team have been on holidays through the summer, I’ve been going on a few of the bids, just like the old days, before we had a sales team when I did them all myself.
Why I don’t do buffets
Luckily enough I’ve been to a few birthday parties, anniversaries and a couple of ‘Sportsman’s Dinners’ over the past month or two and at those events with a buffet on, I’ve made sure I had something to eat before I got there. Sounds ungrateful? Well read on.
Back to School
On Tuesday the 8th July I’ve been invited back to my old school, Ponteland High School to participate in their ‘Entrepreneur Week’ where the students join in various tasks and to give them many different opportunities to see if they have the ‘bug for business.’
Controlling Cleaning Costs
One of the areas we work extremely hard at is helping our customer to control their costs and adding value where we can. Most of the cost is simply labour charges, you’re paying for a cleaning operative to physically do a task and therefore reducing the number of tasks or making a task easier or quicker (increasing productivity) will help. There are some things where clients can also help themselves and ensure cleaning costs are kept under control and here are a few examples of where money can be saved.
Cross Contamination Surprises
Over the years we’ve visited a lot of potential clients and poked our heads in to a huge number of cleaning cupboards. As I’ve recently been training new Business Development Managers, I’ve been back in to visiting buildings and looking around the areas used to store mops, cloths and associated equipment etc.
