WHO says accountants are boring. Steve Smith is an accountant, a former semi-professional footballer and is in a tribute band to the Blues Brothers, performing in gigs around the country.

Now, at 52, he has launched his own business. Steve has invested in a franchise with Chemex International, supplying cleaning and hygiene products around North Leicestershire.

 Chemex is Europe’s leading supplier of cleaning and hygiene products and provides businesses with cleaning products and free advice and training on health & safety and hygiene matters.

He will be targeting businesses in healthcare and hospitality – nursing homes, hotels and pubs – all areas where cleanliness and hygiene are crucial.

But his patch, including Loughborough, Coalville and Melton Mowbray – is rich in food processing industries and he says Chemex products are necessities for them.

After a successful career in farm management, John Bennett has just made a complete, mid-life switch.

John, 41, has invested in a franchise with Chemex International covering South Nottinghamshire, including Nottingham city centre, Southwell, Grantham, Long Eaton, Bingham and Radcliffe-on-Trent.

Chemex is Europe’s leading supplier of cleaning and hygiene products and provides businesses with cleaning products and free advice and training on health & safety and hygiene matters.

“I graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in agriculture and worked for 16 years in agricultural farm management. I ended up managing a large, intensive arable, vegetable and root crop farm in North Nottinghamshire,” said John who lives at Oxton.

Andreas Protopapas knows a thing or two about cleaning and hygiene products. His enthusiasm for his chemical supplies business is only exceeded by his passion for Chelsea Football Club and Anorthosis Famagusta FC. So what makes an ex finance manager take the plunge into the heady heights of business ownership?

Andreas worked for 13 years with Shell in Cyprus and Ireland. After Shell closed down its operations in Cyprus he spent a short time with a local IBM distributorship. Having worked for a large company and being used to the autonomy of decision making and professional culture, Andreas decided it was time to do something completely different.

A Tenby business is celebrating 20 years in business by beating the recession with a flood of new orders.

Dave Ferguson who runs Chemex Tenby and Swansea franchise has won 37 new accounts so far this year.

Dave invested in a franchise with Chemex - Europe’s leading franchised supplier of specialist cleaning and hygiene products - in 1989 and now has a loyal customer base and a reputation for excellent service in the tourism and catering industries.  

But he’s not stopping there and has renewed his franchise for a further five years.

Ex-chairman of the bfa, a current bfa board member and the driving force behind one of the franchise industry’s biggest success stories. When it comes to business, Melvin Lusty seems to have the Midas touch. Vicki Cunningham from the Franchisor News Magazine quizzed Melvin on the secrets behind his success and life after Rainbow.

How did you get into franchising?
My brother decided to buy the franchise for ServiceMaster, but he ended up making a total mess of it. He wrote his van off in the first few months so I would get home in the evening with the car and go cleaning with my brother. My brother had borrowed my father’s redundancy money to buy ServiceMaster but he ended walking away from it.

A Berkshire businessman has won a top award for his work in protecting people from potentially lethal superbugs.

Cleaning and hygiene specialist Paul Torrent has been working closely with residential care homes in the county to provide a defensive shield against hospital acquired infections such as MRSA, C difficile and Novovirus.

Paul who runs a franchise for Chemex International covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Middlesex has been working closely with local care homes since he launched his business four years ago.

Now Paul has beaten off competition from 90 other franchisees to be chosen as the company’s most outstanding franchisee. The award reflects Paul’s performance, innovation and excellence of service.

Paul whose businesss is based at Old Windsor said: “Unfortunately, hospital acquired infection can pose a major problem for residential care homes but we are able to provide them with specialist advice and products to prevent potential outbreaks.”

Only last month Paul was able to make available the only cleaning product in Europe that guarantees to kill C.difficile spores on contact – AntiBak. The product has attracted national media coverage and is being trialled by NHS hospitals.

Since his business launch in 2004 Paul’s success in the care home and catering sectors has seen turnover rise by 12 fold to £150,000 a year. He has plans to extend his area to cover Watford later this year and expects to be taking on more staff to help meet demand.

Previously, Paul – a former Reading FC youth footballer – worked in the sports retail sector but he says switching to his new role was the best move he has made.

Paul said: “I gain tremendous satisfaction from running a business which is helping the community while at the same time assisting my customers to make their businesses safer and more successful.”

More information on Chemex AntiBak can be found at www.chemex.org.uk.

There is much talk of doom and gloom in the economy and with money tight you might be more wary about going into business for yourself. However, when is a good time? The fact is that businesses are built in recessions too.

In almost 25 years of trading, Chemex has experienced periods of both recession and boom. Whilst the UK is by no means in a full blown recession, consumers are concerned about the current state of the economy.

The credit crunch means that lenders will be more careful about providing money for business start ups outside of franchising. For established and credible franchisors, funds are still readily available through the main banks who will typically lend up to 70 per cent of the franchise investment.

Additionally, essential services such as cleaning and hygiene products where health and hygiene related issues create the demand, are not tied into consumer spending. Due to the nature of the products and their continuous demand this is also a repeat order business. Although not recession-proof, the extensive and diverse range of Chemex products provide choices for the customer who will always need cleaning and hygiene materials whatever the state of the economy.

It is generally accepted that the failure rate for franchises is lower than that of stand alone business start-ups. However, it is important to choose your franchisor wisely and find something that you will enjoy doing which has the potential to realise your dreams and aspirations. Get rich quick schemes are seldom stable and for the long term. Promises of fast cash and immediate returns should ring alarm bells. Traditional businesses require hard work, planned growth and business acumen.

Chemex provide a detailed introduction to their business for any potential franchisee which includes a meeting at their head office in the West Midlands, discussions with franchisees over the telephone and time spent in the field with a franchise operator. Their selection program is designed to find the right match of candidate as the next 25 years growth will see many of its franchisees moving towards the management of multi- van operations.