Case Study - Nicky Morris

Nicky Morris was 36 years old when she started her franchise from scratch. Four years on, she has a 10-year-old son & a husband employed as a senior manager with a local blue chip company.

My career background has been in banking, business banking, and insurance/investments sales and prior to starting the business I was a full time mature student for 2 years studying for a HND in Business Management.

I was looking for a business opportunity over the course of a couple of years that I felt was right for me. I was investigating all options including franchising. When I read a review of domestic cleaning franchises I knew I had hit on the right idea for me. I have moved home many times and always found it difficult to find a reliable quality cleaner and I knew many people with the same problem. This was obviously an expanding market and I knew there was a place for a more business like approach to home cleaning.

I was attracted to Merry Maids, as I preferred the business franchise plan rather than an agency style franchise where you deal with everyone over the phone. I was looking to build up relationships with both staff and customers. Merry Maids have a proven track record around the world and are the largest domestic cleaning franchise in the U.K. Also the area that I was moving to was available to me and I had the opportunity to tailor it to ensure that I covered the geographical areas that I considered would be a good source of business.

Running a franchise means that you do not waste time learning expensive lessons the hard way but get your business up and running during the first year.

Building up and running your own business is extremely rewarding but not for the fainthearted! You need to be prepared to put in all your time and effort initially. However, as you expand and become more established you not only benefit from higher levels of profit, but also some flexibility with your time, which is essential when you have children. The additional income to our household allows for private schooling for my son, which we might not have been able to afford otherwise.

I have recently received the ServiceMaster Award of Excellence from my Franchisor (one of two awards presented annually to the network). This kind of recognition does make you pause from the day-to-day whirl to note what you have achieved. My business has grown from nothing to a limited company employing 18 people in just over 4 years.

We are currently inviting all our customers to assess our standards and the feedback on my excellent staff and not only their cleaning skills, but also their courtesy and professionalism has been very rewarding to us all.

Daily Routine

Every day I arrive at the office (in a serviced office complex) at 8.30 to ensure the maids have the worksheets, keys etc that they need for the day. This is the busiest half hour of the day getting everyone set off! The maids mainly arrive at 9 am but some come earlier to organise the cleaning kits and cloths.

If it is a day when my office manager is in, I will spend the day out on quote appointments pricing up new work. If I am the only one in the office I spend the day returning calls from the answerphone and answering telephone queries. Generally new enquiries, requests for quotations, schedule changes from existing customers.

Paperwork includes, banking, accounts, VAT return, personnel documentation, arranging marketing, Health & Safety, payroll, processing timesheets & keeping our customer cleaning computer programme up to date. Other issues arise such as recruiting new staff, issuing newsletters to customers, staff meetings, organising the Christmas party, and dropping off spare vacuums if one breaks down! The main skill required is the ability to multitask constantly.

I don't have a proper lunchbreak but I usually leave the office at about 3.30, no later than 4.30. The day is not over then as after collecting my son from school, I need to take home all the cloths to wash and dry which goes on all evening. I occasionally carry out evening quotes and sometimes have to take the odd bit of paperwork or banking home to do.

I work Monday to Friday and do my best to keep the weekends free as the office is closed then. But when it is your own business you have to be flexible and do whatever is required.

After the initial two-week training period and a home visit my Merry Maids operational support manager is always a call away with any query that I have. I am also visited to check how things are going. We meet twice a year for a formal regional meeting but I meet with local franchisees in between and we often phone & email each other for help and support. We receive regular correspondence from our franchisor and there is a formal franchisee representative body to discuss issues and strategy for the merry maids network with the franchisor.

As well as looking to expand our customer base and increase our turnover, I am working on increasing profitability and ensuring we maintain the highest level of customer satisfaction in order to keep the customers we already have. The same applies to looking after your valuable staff. Good employees are harder to find and it is important to value them, as they are the face of your business that customers see on a regular basis.