Founder and chief executive of Mrs Bucket Cleaning Services, Rachael Flanagan, said the business is on track to see revenues more than double over the next three years while entrepreneurship promotion needs to start early in schools.
Addressing a meeting of Cardiff Breakfast Club, at Glamorgan Cricket, she said the commercial cleaning business grew strongly last year and will continue to expand.
Ms Flanagan, who started what was then a domestic cleaning business aged 18 back in 2005 with just £20 and 5,000 marketing flyers, added:“We now employ over 400 across South Wales and Bristol and last year grew by 120 people and will grow again this year by a similar number. Our turnover is £7.5m with a goal over the next three years to reach £15m to £20m. It is an exciting time.”
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She said the business is focused on organic and not acquisition fuelled expansion. She added: “The market is there in Wales and we are ramping up our sales activities.
Ms Flanagan described Covid, like for many businesses, as being a huge challenge, but a vital learning experience that served to strengthened Mrs Bucket’s leader team.
She explained: “Covid for me was probably my biggest leadership challenge. I was literally working 16 hour days and we lost 50% of our business (office closures) which put a huge strain and stress on the company. We were also working 24/7 cleaning ambulances and getting 3am phone calls.
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"At the time my parents were living with me and our two small children. It was really challenging, but in challenge you learning. I learnt how important it was to be a visible leader and that you can never over communicate. We also worked a lot on our brand and purpose. So, when everyone was watching their pennies during Covid, we took a big risk and spent over £150,000 on our rebrand and putting in the right team to grow the business to the next level.”
She recalled after two years as a sole-trader cleaning homes in Swansea, that she needed to start recruiting.
She said: “At 20 I realised I needed to employ somebody and that was the scariest moment. I was working 60 hours a week and couldn’t do it all as I had a waiting list.” She then turned to “Shirley” who had worked in her father’s catering business.
She said: “How does a 20-year-old negotiate with a 50-plus women that she needed to work for? It took two house visits and three phone calls, but I made sure Shirley, who was a brilliant cleaner, worked for me. We would then train people up with us in the Mrs Bucket way.”
She said changing the perception of the cleaning industry, which has an ageing workforce, need to be about people and innovation. She added: “We now have robots that are cleaning sites. It is all about making it professional and focusing on the end result for the cleaning teams and the client. The cleaning industry is massive and growing all the time and we want to attract and retain a diverse workforce. We have also invested in a training academy as people are the absolute heart of our business.”
Mrs Bucket invests a far higher percentage of its revenues on technology than the industry average as a whole at around 7% (£500,000).
Asked in a Q&A session after her address what advice she would give to anyone starting out in business she said: “Focus time on marketing. You can have really good product, but if you not getting it out there and selling, it is going to be a waste of time.”
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On encouraging entrepreneurship she added: “I think for me it starts at school. I was recently at two schools and only one little girl out of a class of 30 knew what an entrepreneur was. I just thought why aren’t we championing it more as a career path. So I would love to see entrepreneurship championed and role modelled more at a younger age.”
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