Simon Whitehead, Anglesey Carpet Care

An overview of yourself and your current role.

We took the decision to move our family from Altrincham in 2018. At the time (pre pandemic) my plan was to continue to work in Manchester and travel every day. Since then, however it became clear the time and money spent travelling was better put towards working on building a similar business closer to home. We also decided that because of our skill set and location, we were better suited working with other businesses and so started pushing our commercial cleaning services above the domestic side of the business.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I love meeting new people and seeing their work environments. I love to help people when possible and one of the projects I have been working on recently is, restore don’t replace. It’s great to see reactions from people to some of the things we can do while saving them (sometimes vast amounts of) money.

Was a role like this always what you aspired to?

No. It is something that I found with some trial and error but love what I do now.

Tell us about your previous roles/business journey.

I trained originally as a Mechanical engineer in Manchester and worked for a few years within education. My aim at that point was to become a teacher. I got speaking to a friend who asked me to help him with a cleaning business he was setting up and saw an area in carpet cleaning that interested me. I started my own carpet cleaning business in 2012 and have taken it upon myself to find and undergo the best training from within the UK and around the world. During lockdown we were lucky enough that most training providers turned to online training which opened up doors to providers that had previously meant a trip overseas. I pride myself in the fact I am one of the best trained and skilled operators within the UK and I am looking to set up my own training school to help pass on the knowledge we’ve gained.

up with my family and 3 children. I am a local scout leader and because my kids are of the right ages I work with Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.

When I have time (which doesn’t happen too often at the moment) I like to walk and hike along the coast and in the Snowdonia mountains. I also have a keen interest in photography and like to visit RAF Valley and the hills around Machynlleth to photograph military aircraft in training.

In an ideal world, what else would you like to be?

I would like to be training new comers to the industry. I love my business and in the most part the industry is full of great people so wouldn’t really want to be doing anything else (apart from sitting on a beach somewhere)

What advice would you give to anyone else in business?

Tell

us a bit about what you do outside of work to relax.

Outside of work much of my time is taken

Be tenacious and willing to take risks. I have found that taking calculated risks from time to time can really pay off and help your business grow but you’ve got to be willing and prepared to lose sometimes. After all its your failures you learn the most from.