Jani-King Franchisee David McNeil

The Franchise Magazine:

Through taking the Jani-King franchise route, David and his wife Sonia were able to start their own business and reach an impressive first year turnover of £500,000. In fact, things have gone pretty well for the couple and the business has grown in line with their hopes and expectations: turnover is now £600,000 on an annualised basis with a good profit margin, they have over 100 employees (with three of these forming the management team, the rest being cleaning staff) and they have 54 clients, often national brand names - with the five biggest (Next, H&M, Superdrug, Odeon and Tenpin Bowling) accounting for 70 per cent of turnover. Jani-King’s national sales force has been instrumental in acquiring national account brand names on David’s behalf.

“Jani-King are very honest about what to expect in each stage of the business as it develops and I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he reflects. “You need a cross-section of skills to be successful. For example, you need good people skills to get staff to do an excellent job for clients whilst managing them at a distance. Because most of the work is done early in the morning, I can’t personally be with more than two clients in any one day, so it’s impossible to oversee everything. Fortunately, my years in the corporate world taught me how to manage people.”