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A Woman's Touch Limited (Winner: Female Entrepreneur 2007), Wimbledon
Developed by Kerrie Keeling, an ex-investment banker, A Woman's Touch is a building and property maintenance company with a twist - the majority of the workforce are women! Staff include female brick layers, plumbers, tilers, carpenters, electricians, decorators, architects, estimators, plasterers and office staff (and a few very well trained men as well!)
A Woman's Touch cover large projects such as basement and loft conversions, all the way through kitchen and bathroom fitting and refurbishments, down to small decorating and maintenance jobs. They currently cover London, Brighton and Southern Spain.
Keeling won 'Female Entrepreneur' in the BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur awards in 2007. We caught up with her to find out about her success and to get some useful tips for women who want to start their own business.
How did you begin?
I had some work done by a bad tiler who was messy, rude, left the loo seat up and left dirty cups around the house. This made me spot an opportunity and a gap in the market. I had studied business studies and Spanish at university so always had an idea that I would set up my own business.
How did you build the business?
By listening to my customers and what they wanted. We start out just decorating but then customers started asking if we offered more and more trades so we gradually added these, to the point where we now offer everything to building the entire house, and now reach further afield than just London.
What was your most testing time and how did you get through it?
Cash flow is always difficult to manage. We have to deal with cowboy clients who never have any intention of paying and then have to go through a difficult and lengthy legal process. We currently have six legal cases ongoing, but so far have had a 100 per cent track record.
What was your most inspiring/happy moment?
There have been two; the first one was meeting the Queen last year. She held a reception for women in business at Buckingham Palace and I was surrounded by famous faces including Camilla Parker Bowles, Sophie Wessex and Princess Anne. The second, was doing some work for Gordon Ramsay which he was really pleased with.
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