Our franchisee in Kent, Chris, bought the business in 2021 after managing it for 10 years. He describes his day to day life.
6.00am – I am awake and ready for the day – first on the agenda is making my long-suffering partner of 30 years, Claire, a cup of tea. Whilst having cereal I do my daily “brain workout” with online word puzzles. I leave for the office at around 7.30am.
8.00am – 8.30am I utilise this “quiet” time to deal with overnight emails, check the bank account (very important to keep on top of debtors when you are running your own business!) and create my plan for the day.
8.30am – 11.00am As the office staff arrive, we discuss anything that has come in overnight, or issues from last night’s cleaning. I am fortunate to have an experienced and motivated team, most things they just tell me that they have dealt with!
11.00am – 1.00pm If I am not out seeing customers or quoting (I still like to keep my hand in with this. It’s one of the most interesting things about the business – you never know what kind of business and people you will be seeing), I will probably be reviewing our marketing, analysing our performance against budget or reviewing our field staff rostering and performance.
1.00pm – 1.30pm Lunch is usually a sandwich at my desk whilst watching BBC news.
1.30pm – 5.00pm I will have a multitude of things needing my attention – booking a service for a van, authorising payments, checking stock levels etc.
5.00pm – 5.30pm – I try and get away from the office soon after 5pm – on a Thursday I leave a 3.30pm to go to my guitar lesson. I always wanted to play an instrument, so last year took the plunge and booked lessons – you’re never too old to learn a new skill! It’s a challenge but one that I enjoy – most evenings I try and practice for 30 minutes.
Evening – in the summer I will try and get to my allotment – weeds seem to grow whatever the weather! Often I will think of something that I need to do the following day – so on to the laptop to make a reminder for the morning!
