Everyone needs a Helping Hand: The Lancashire cleaning company on the front line

Helping Hands was founded in 1999, with Suzanne having come up with the idea for a cleaning firm after having twin boys and taking time off work from her job as a financial administrator for Lancashire Constabulary. Returning to the job, she quickly realised how demanding it was and told her husband it was time for a change.

“I’m very fussy about how clean my house is and I’d always found that cleaners were either good at turning up but couldn’t clean up or good at cleaning up but never turned up,” says Suzanne, 54, with a chuckle. “There was definitely a market for a good cleaner out there, so I grabbed a mop and bucket and here we are about 20 years later.”

Suzanne started out life as a business owner by cleaning for the other mums at her sons’ school, but her reputation and client list soon grew.

“At the start, I was on every clean overseeing it all and it was great, but people had told me horror stories about other cleaners, so I wanted to grow the business but make sure we remained consistently good,” explains Suzanne, who lives in Mellor. “It got to the point where I couldn’t be on every clean, so Magda, who’s still with me now, started running a team and we keep the same principle to this day: there’s always a supervisor on every job.”

The business’ development has been exponential. Now employing 35 people and working across Lancashire, Helping Hands covers everything from home maintenance, grounds maintenance, facilities management, and commercial cleaning to in-home respite care, gardening, and specialist services including carpet, oven, window, and conservatory cleaning. From cottages to golf clubs, they’ve got it covered.

“Our growth has been very organic and it’s all come from client demand,” says Suzanne. “You’ve got to be so good to survive, so finding staff has been the hardest thing as we’ve got quite a rigorous recruitment process. They have to clean my way, and that’s always been very thorough.”

Despite the increased importance of cleanliness highlighted by the outbreak of Covid-19, not even Helping Hands was impervious to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, however.

“Covid-19 was a massive shock,” says Suzanne. “We just had to stop overnight and I was just sat at home thinking that we may never open again.

“I’m a control freak and suddenly everything was out of my control, so it was devastating,” continues Suzanne. “It had a huge impact on me mentally and I lost weight. It made me poorly it was such a big worry.

“Fortunately, one of our biggest clients still needed us as they were key workers,” she adds. “Knowing we were still needed kicked that passion back into gear and once we could see light at the end of the tunnel, that was it.

“Because all my staff were furloughed, I went off in my uniform and cleaned three sites a day myself, which really brushed away that maudlin mentality.”

With business having picked up enough to allow Suzanne to un-furlough 10 members of staff, things are looking decidedly brighter.

“This whole thing has made me look for other opportunities and things we can do with the business to stand out even more,” says Suzanne. “We’ve even got a special virucidal misting machine for more precise cleaning now that places are starting to open up.

“Clients are coming back, which is amazing, and it’s been lovely to get new clients as well,” she continues, with the company having recently won a contract with a holiday lodge operator to clean holiday homes as the industry starts to pick back up. “It’s been an emotional time, but I’m very proud of my business and my staff.

“We’re all over it like a rash now; we’re geared up and ready.”