Sutton and Croydon merry maids making money despite recession (From Surrey Comet)

Sutton and Croydon merry maids making money despite recession

6:20am Friday 23rd July 2010

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A working mum who made a clean break from big business to start up on her own has seen her firm grow despite the recession.

Debbie Walker, 45, left a career in corporate sales to take up the Merry Maids cleaning franchise in 2003 after deciding she wanted to spend time with her newborn daughter.

Seven years later and the two-person company has grown to include 14 maids working Croydon and Sutton - and business looks in no danger of slowing down.

Mrs Walker said: “One of the main things for me is my staff. Having been involved in recruitment I knew getting the right people in was really important.

“I need them to be able to go in and see little old ladies and pass the time with them while frantically getting on with their job, or chat with a lady who’s just had a baby, or work with a load of builders.

“We get a horrendous amount of applications - the girls always say ‘you’re so fussy’ but you need the right people.

“A lot of them are similar to me - they want to finish by about 3pm so they can pick children up from school and they have still got part of their lives left in the day.”

Now a mum of two, Mrs Walker said the help offered by taking on a franchise was a key element of her business.

She said: “Having come from a corporate background I saw the benefits of having people doing things like HR and marketing, and I get all the benefits from them while still running my own business.

“My advice to anyone starting up now is to be brave, get the right people working with you, and have a good plan about what you want to do daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.”

More details about Mrs Walker’s company are available at merrymaids.co.uk.

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