A woman who started her own cleaning business with a bucket and mop when her friends jetted off to uni raked in almost £5million last year alone.
Rachael Flanagan, 34, from South Wales, failed her business studies A-level at school so decided to start cleaning houses for cash at the tender age of 18.
While friends and family set off to go to university she grafted at her new business and now employs 320 members of staff as she has won a number of prestigious contracts.
Sixteen years after she started, Mrs Buckét (pronounced ‘bouquet’), is a thriving company – and Rachael has even been to Downing Street to represent the Welsh business.
The savvy entrepreneur explained she spent her business studies A level exam writing out her business plan instead of answering the questions.
Rachael told the Mirror: “I know it’s really wrong now but I just wrote it, then later when I got my A level results I remember standing there and thinking ‘I’ve got a U, I won’t be able to go to university but I don’t care because I want to set up my business’.
“All my friends were like – 'what the hell, what are you going to do, we are off to uni and you are going to be a cleaner?'
“They thought I was bloody nuts! I was just like – well, watch this space.
"What I found hard was – can they take me seriously when I go into commercial cleaning – I’m still in my 20s – still young– if you have a pitch from a 25-year-old woman versus a 45-year-old bloke who has been in cleaning for the whole of his life – who are you going to choose?”
With a mop and bucket, Rachael stared to work and quickly built up to 70 hour weeks cleaning houses.
Early on she decided to train and employ other staff and then won an award at the UK Young Entrepreneur Awards in London.
From then, she stopped cleaning herself and focused on building the company as a business.
In its most successful year yet, 2021, despite the raging pandemic, Mrs Buckét turned over £4.5m.
And, Rachel has met world leaders like Barack Obama as part of the 2014 NATO summit where she was chosen to attend by the Prince of Wales.
And, she’s attended Downing Street twice for St David’s Day receptions and met former Prime Minister David Cameron.
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