Day in the life
A bonnie time
Chartered accountant Harry Batwell lives in his native Scotland and runs Minster Cleaning Services’ Aberdeen branch with his son, Terence. Here, he describes his typical day
7.00am-8.00am
I’m an early riser and like to think about the day ahead over breakfast, then I check my emails and phone messages. Today, I find out that one of the cleaners has been rushed into hospital overnight so I have to get on the phone to organise a relief cleaner to cover her work.
8.00am-9.00am
I’m paying a visit to a new customer’s premises – a church – to make sure that the cleaners know exactly what they’re doing and all the paperwork is completed properly.
9.00am-12.00pm I’m in the office to respond to the daily sales enquiries that Minster marketing activities generate and phoning prospective clients to arrange visits.
12.00pm-2.00pm I work through lunch and go over quotes with Terence to check that we’ve got everything in there that we need – the correct number of cleaners, hours required, materials, etc. Then I email the quotes through to prospective clients.
2.00pm-3.00pm
I spend this time on the phone following up quotes as well as speaking to existing clients to make sure that they’re totally happy with everything we’re doing.
3.00pm-4.30pm
Bookkeeping time – my forte! Things are going well: we’ve had steady growth since we started just under three years ago. Aberdeen hasn’t really been affected by the recession, being the ‘oil capital’ of Europe. It is also an important centre of education, commerce and industry as well as a thriving fishing port and coastal resort with restaurants, hotels, leisure centres and golfing complexes – all perfect potential Minster clients. I also need to deal with some admin matters, for example, one client wants to change the day of their clean.
4.30pm-6.30pm
I drive out to visit a customer in Portlethen – a large contract for a company involved in the oil and gas service industry – to chat about arrangements for relief cover when two cleaners are on holiday. Then, on to Inverurie to see a client in timber- framed house manufacture. I make sure
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Businessfranchise.com | July/August 2014 Harry Batwell MINSTER CLEANING SERVICES
WEBSITE:
www.minsterfranchise.co.uk EMAIL:
minster@minsterfranchise.co.uk PHONE: 0121 386 1722 CLASSIFICATION: Commercial cleaning
everything’s running smoothly and also take the opportunity to drop off some cleaning materials. Finally to Blackburn, I visit another client in the oil and gas service industry where a new cleaner has recently started – all is okay there so I then make my way home. n
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