Businesses sparkle

Cleaning up in IT

Claire Burke set up her unique company Keep IT Clean when she was 24, using a grant from the Prince's Trust.

She was dyslexic and struggled at school, leaving Cromer High School with no qualifications.

After school she worked as a shop assistant in places including Jarrold and Budgens until she decided to set up her own company.

Now the 33-year-old runs her own computer equipment cleaning business from her home in Three Score. It employs 8 staff and has corporate clients across the region.

She said: "In my early 20s I thought to myself, I am not clever enough to work with computers, but I needed to do something with computers because that was the way forward.

"I started thinking about who cleans computers and then I found a missing link in that area, I found out there are a whole load of people who come in and clean the offices and carpets and toilets but it is desktops and the keyboard where the most bacteria are kept.

"I said to my mum 'I am going to start up a business cleaning computers' and she asked me where was I going to get the customers from." That spurred her to prove her mother wrong.

Before starting the business in 1997 she spent seven months researching it, finding out about suppliers, products and clients and cleaning techniques.

Her clients indude Archant Norfolk, the publishers of the Norwich Evening News, Mills and Reeve and Central Trust, along with smaller businesses.

One day she saw Anne Francis' number in the community newsletter Bowthorpe News and decided to give her a ring.

She said: "Biz Fizz is like coaching, you need to ask her what issues you will be coached in and she will support it and she has a panel of people who advise her.

"Now I would like to look at recycling and find out how I can advise my clients on recycling their equipment, so I have 'phoned Anne up about that and she will find out for me.

"I went to see her when I was in turmoil after having two young children and she was an ear for me and she listened to me. Whenever she comes across anything that is relevant she will tell me about it."

Mrs Burke said she made sure all her clients knew her personally and she thinks that made a difference. Now she does not do any cleaning at all and instead is focused on getting new clients and managing the business.

She has recently started working with Bowthorpe business consultant Mark D'Mello, who she met through BizFizz.

She said they were focusing on getting listed in web directories, linking with different sites and working with Google. She said other plans were setting up telesales and offering briefings to health and safety staff in companies.

Next she is looking at setting up different teams in other locations such as Ipswich.

She said getting the right staff was the hardest part and the way she did it was by deciding if she would let them in her home. "They are the face of the business," she said.

Eastern Daily Press, 2006