Rob and his friend Brandon met in college and bonded over their shared interests. While Rob wanted to pursue a career in IT, Brandon dreamed of starting his own business. During their third year, Brandon convinced Rob to join him in establishing a cleaning services business. Brandon had identified a market niche for such services in their local area. While finishing their degrees, Rob found a job listing at a major London cleaning company, allowing them both to gain professional cleaning experience before striking out on their own.

1. It is time to begin my adventure in tracing the origins of a successful business.
In order to do so we have to go as far back as the very start of the story, the birth
of an idea and the shaping of a plan to achieve it, as well as finding some
courage to pursue the dream of being independent.
So Rob and his friend Brandon met at college and soon it became self-evident
they would be friends for life. They had the same interests, very close hobbies,
even worked together on some joint projects during their seminars. But while
Rob was strongly career-oriented and still concentrated on the idea of getting a
job in the IT sector, while Brandon dreamt of establishing his own business
venue. During their third year in college, Brandon finally gained the upper hand
and managed to convince Rob to abandon his plans for a lucrative programming
career and join him in what later proved to be the adventure of their lives.
Brandon had surveyed the local business environment and soon found out there
was a market niche for cleaning services in the area. He was clever enough to
realize back then they did not need much money to start, but it would be
paramount to acquire some working experience.
Since it was their last semester of the bachelor’s degree they could spare much
more time on their rapidly shaping plan. Funny enough it was Rob who
stumbled upon the job offer of a well-known London cleaning company,
employing new recruits. I guess any successful venture needs just a little bit of
luck and in this case they hit the jackpot. Not only both of them were approved,
but they had the good fortune to work in the same team. Soon Rob and Brandon
became real professionals in domestic cleaning and actually could spot the
problematic areas in any room they would enter. Spreadsheets with the best
detergents were soon made, price analysis and value diagrams were constantly
updated and six months after they had begun, they probably could run the
business better than their managers.
They decided to continue working though in order to acquire the necessary work
ethic. The contacts they created and the things they learnt during the next twelve
months were invaluable. But they felt they were ready and it was just a question

2. of good timing and precision to start their own cleaning company. But that
would be another chapter in the story.