After some strenuous research, Neil chose the Jani-King franchise, mainly because he believed it offers the best model and a good guarantee of income in the tough first 18 months of trading. He explains: “I liked the Jani-King model, although coming from the financial services industry, I was not entirely convinced that the guaranteed income would materialize, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was in fact provided with a number of contracts to start the business.” After 20 months Neil has already achieved a staggering annualized turnover of £3/4 million, mainly derived from contacts provided by Jani-King.

Neil believes that the people management skills he brought with him from the financial services industry are key to success in operating a Jani-King franchise. “It’s all about people management, building relationships at many different levels,” he explains. “You have to be able to maintain good relationships with local managers in stores, who have often been forced into a nationally contracted supplier and are loosing a certain amount of control over their suppliers. You have to be able to manage and motivate cleaning staff, who are usually minimum wage, poorly motivated people. And you have to manage your relationship with your franchisor who has a brand to protect, whilst retaining your own identity and the sense of being your own boss – which is often why people get into franchise operation in the first place.”

Operationally, he has been pleased with the level of support from Jani-King: “Guy Strang and his team have been invaluable in providing essential support in the basics of running a cleaning business,” states Neil. He admits he continues to struggle with the franchisor/franchisee relationship: “Wanting to be your own boss versus needing a certain amount of support is always going to put some degree of strain on you and your relationship with your franchisor. The Jani-King business is changing, improving, - providing us with more national contracts which is excellent for our businesses, but requires more monitoring and control – which is culturally difficult when you want to be your own boss!”

Although his business grew quickly, Neil is the first to admit that starting up a franchise has not been without its challenges. Explains Neil: “My business grew really rapidly because I had the opportunity to acquire another franchisee’s business in addition to my own contracts. With hindsight, it would have been wiser to go more slowly. I was unprepared for the volume of work I was taking on. Coming from the safety net of corporate life, there is a culture shock when you find out about the full set of skills that you need. I had at one time almost 110 employees, and the payroll work alone took a huge amount of time. Because you are also sorting out problems and issues, managing and checking on cleaning staff a lot, it does seriously impact on your free time in the first year.”

Neil is ambitious for his business, and knows that freeing up more time to concentrate on acquiring new business is essential. He plans to continue to improve the skills of his supervisors, and recruit more, ensuring the day to day running of contracts is managed efficiently by them. “Time management is my priority at the moment,” he grins ruefully. “That and getting myself some time for a holiday – although I can’t see one on the horizon just yet!”