Ajaz Ahmad

Ajaz Ahmad was a successful electrical engineer earning a fine income. Nevertheless, despite giving his family the good things in life, he was at the beck and call of others and found himself working 6_ long days every week. He dreamed of breaking away from wage slavery and finding the freedom to organise his own day but this dream was shattered when the business venture he set up folded after just one-and-a-half years. So, how did Ajaz manage to start again and eventually make his dream come true?

Ajaz believed you must work hard to succeed. He had always given 100%, firstly during his apprenticeship, and subsequently working for various companies as a qualified electrical engineer. However, he had always wanted his own business and tried this in the late ‘90s, setting up a company manufacturing spicy foods. Ajaz admits “the food we made was great, but I found the marketing side of things very hard”.

Eventually, Ajaz pulled the plug on his business and went to work as manager of a household goods store which turned over around £7m per annum and employed some 40 people. As well as general management, Ajaz had to take on HR management for the store. Not only did he enjoy the people management aspect but he found he was good at it, too.

Freedom to be his own boss

However, the dream of freedom remained and Ajaz still longed to be his own boss. In 2003, he started investigating the franchise route into business: “With franchise you get a ready-made brand as well as lots of training and support,” he explains.

In April 2004, Ajaz decided on Jani-King and purchased the franchise for a wide area in the Midlands including Birmingham. “I chose Jani-King because cleaning is a service that businesses always need,” he declares.

“They don’t want the headache of employing their own cleaners, so they’re always looking for someone to outsource it to.” The contract cleaning sector has become more complex in recent years, with an increased focus on health and safety and higher customer (and public) expectations. This has created more opportunities for companies like Jani-King, which provide specialist and legally-compliant cleaning services.

In addition to a strong business proposition, Ajaz found other benefits in being a Jani-King franchisee. “The turnover guarantee that Jani-King offers is very important to a new franchisee. It gives you support and helps build your confidence” he affirms. “Jani-King is a very professional organisation, very on-the-ball. They give us excellent backing, support and feedback. Nothing is left until tomorrow.”

New targets

The Ahmad Jani-King franchise has now reached a monthly turnover of £31,000 and Ajaz’s next target is £40,000, which he should soon reach through adding a couple of additional Odeon outlets to his client base (he already services three of their cinemas). “Our growth was slow at the beginning, then very fast, and now it’s growing at a nice pace,” he remarks. He has found it hard to maintain a steady growth rate but takes this in his stride as an aspect of running his own business.

“I have about 20 clients at present,” reveals Ajaz. Many of these are big names like Odeon, Next, Spirit Group, H&M and Pizza Hut, although his client base also includes smaller companies and some pubs. The larger contracts come through the Jani-King central sales force. However, it’s not just a question of sitting back and waiting for the sales force to deliver. There is no guarantee that Ajaz will get all or any of the contracts in his area. He has to demonstrate to Jani-King that his excellent client service and exemplary cleaning standards warrant being granted the additional business or it may be given to other franchisees.

Ajaz is pleased with how his business is building and he now has around 55 people working for him. The HR experience he picked up in retail has stood him in good stead. “I see my people management skills as something that sets me apart from other businesses,” admits Ajaz. “We keep our cleaners longer than others, which means we don’t need to keep re-training them and they get to know our clients’ premises.” He puts his success down to treating the cleaners well – he pays them on time, listens to their problems, “I laugh with them and cry with them,” discloses Ajaz.

Although Ajaz’s turnover has built well, he still doesn’t consider himself to be successful yet. “I will only think that when I hit the £1m per annum turnover target,” he confesses. In the meantime, he measures success through being able to listen to people, delivering on time and sorting out problems.

Setting high standards

Ajaz Ahmad is a very ethical businessman. He sets high standards for the service he delivers to his clients and tries to make sure they get more than they expect rather than less. “I would consider short-changing a client on service to be the same as stealing,” states Ajaz. “I like to build good relationships and this is what gets me extra contracts.”

When Ajaz took over a new store contract in the huge Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Birmingham he thought its standards of cleanliness were distinctly below par. However, now he reckons it has “the best floor in the centre – a real mirror shine!” Similarly, Ajaz was bowled over and beaming when a Director of one of his other big-name clients told him “I’ve never seen these toilets cleaned so well”. It’s comments like this that give him great pleasure.

“One of my aims is to be seen as a role model for Jani-King,” Ajaz admits. “I’d love it if Paul (Haworth, Jani-King’s Managing Director) said to other people ‘Run a franchise like Ajaz’s – he has very high standards’.”

Freedom to enjoy life

When you ask Ajaz to describe a typical day in his life he retorts “There is no such thing as a “typical” day for me now, they are all different!” But, when pressed, he describes the day he has just had: “I left home at 5.30 this morning but was finished by 12.30. I spent some time this afternoon painting the house, as we have just moved, and then I went to pick my daughter up from school. A real mixture of things!”

Ajaz’s wife has also been greatly involved in the business, particularly at the beginning. However, now that there is a supervisory structure in place, she has been able to step back and take a rest. Ajaz, though, still describes his involvement as “Seven days a week – you can’t let yourself get complacent. That’s when things go wrong!”

When you ask Ajaz what he gets out of running his own business he laughs and says “Sleepless nights, cash-flow issues, complaints to be dealt with…” After a pause he continues, “Monetary reward of course, an appreciation that you are doing a good job, doing different things every day, not working such long hours, seeing a smile on the regional manager’s face – and the freedom to be your own boss!”