NowThen Cleaners - The Story so far....

3rd July 2019

Startup - £200 and a laptop In 2015, company director Hugo Russell disillusioned with corporate life in London, wanted to set up a modern business that helped both consumers and businesses alike, back in his home city of Sheffield.

After much research, the cleaning industry was chosen; a massive industry with many outdated companies with poor online offerings and a huge inconsistency in standards. Hugo saw a gap to bring a modern cleaning business with online booking that focused on quality cleaning services to Sheffield. Following the extensive research and armed with £200 and a laptop, NowThen Cleaners was born. Hugo has a degree in Management from the University of Leicester and a working background in Digital Marketing, Communications, Sales and Recruitment. All of this helped greatly with the creation of the brand, building the all important website, and recruiting the best local cleaners to join our startup. Year 1 In year one, we started as a B2C business, offering our cleans to customers homes and flats across Sheffield. They could book a clean in as little as 60 seconds on our website. We focused on brand building and looking after both of our cleaners and our customers, ensuring both were happy was key to our early growth. From Crystal Peaks to the Peak District! We cleaned in every postcode in Sheffield and surrounding areas. This gave us a great understanding of the city and all of its lovely customers. Deep cleaning, End of Tenancy Cleaning and  regular domestic customers was the bulk of our work. We found the summer to be a very busy time in the cleaning industry in Sheffield, cleaning for the large volume of student properties in Sheffield as they leave Sheffield for Summer. After meeting with Jim Lawson of the Wosskow Brown Foundation, we were invited to join the foundation and our HQ at the John Banner Centre in Attercliffe was confirmed. The Wosskow Brown Foundation was a huge help in our early stages and we still catch up with Jim and Wosskow Brown regularly. Year 2-3 In year two, NowThen Cleaners began offering B2B commercial cleaning services and starting cleaning for various company offices across Sheffield. We worked hard on establishing our brand and reputation as a quality reliable cleaning provider. We launched our own geo-located app for customers to manage their bookings and for our staff to view their bookings and check in and check out of the appointments. Our app is full of our bespoke cleaning checklists so that our cleaners know exactly what to include on each clean, so that no area goes untouched. Although challenging, we have managed to keep a 100% attendance record across the majority of our contracts. Our staff go the extra mile when short notice cover is required. We've grown our summer changeover client base to include apartment blocks, landlords and letting agents. To cater for our growing business and office team we moved to bigger offices in March 2018 to Meersbrook, S8. In August 2018 we became SafeContractor approved. Year 4 In year four we have really grown our commercial client base, we have clients that now include (but not limited to): Offices, Schools, Sporting Venues, Industrial, Retail, Bars, Restaurants, Opticians, Communal Cleaning, Apartment Block Management. We have increased our service area and now operate across South Yorkshire, North Derbyshire and Leeds. In 2019, NowThen Cleaners joined the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce. We've more than doubled our summer client base, meaning we have a very busy summer 2019 indeed! Future plans... We would love to continue growing our commercial and domestic client base across our service regions. Maintaining high standards is key to our company ethos, we look after our growing team to achieve this goal. If you are reading this and would like to meet to talk about the cleaning requirements at your business please call the office to arrange a meeting 0114 212 7030 or visit our website to learn more about our services and you can also book in a meeting via our Calendly: www.nowthencleaners.co.uk We will also be exhibiting at Showcase Sheffield in October, so come say hello then!