Firstline Cleaning Services is a family run company that offers high quality cleaning services, both commercial and domestic, with a fair, employee friendly environment.
Angie’s family had decades of experience in the cleaning industry, and she grew up very familiar with the conditions many cleaning staff face. This inspired her to start her business to use the expertise of family members in a fairer, more equal company structure.
When she joined the Inclusive Entrepreneurship Programme, Firstline Cleaning Services had already begun trading and had some clients already. However, receiving the grant really allowed her to improve the efficiency of her business by purchasing specialist cleaning machinery and creating marketing for it, such as social media advertisements and setting up a website.
Before receiving the grant, all entrepreneurs on the programme were offered a one-to-one consultancy session to go through with an expert how much things like marketing actually cost in order to be effective and if there are other elements that they may not have included in their budget. Angie found this a particularly useful step, as she realised there were things she missed off her application form budget and ended up receiving a larger grant than she had applied for.
While on the programme, Angie presented an Action Learning Set on how to increase engagement with potential clients and convert it into contractual agreements. She found this method of learning highly insightful as being questioned by people who have nothing to do with the business gives a completely different perspective and reveals areas of improvement that may not have been seen otherwise.