In the press

Eve Magazine - April 2008

Women doing their own thing - "The Decorator"

My five best decisions

1. Sticking to my guns on standards of customer service - I can be quite obsessive about it.
2. Getting an amazing PA. She gave me back my relationship with my husband.
3. Buying Smart cars. We plaster them with advertising, they don't come with road tax. don't incur congestion charges and can squeeze into tiny spaces.
4. Expanding to Brighton. It's great for business and the sea views are also good for the soul.
5. Moving out of my spare bedroom and getting an office a short walk from home so I can switch off at the end of the day.
   

Picture a burly builder and Kerrie Keeling is the last person who'd spring to mind but she's injected a shot of glamour into the industry and now counts Gordon Ramsay among her clients.

Your mobile number's hot property, you can take a three-hour lunch break whenever you fancy or even the whole day off. And you won't give people heart failure if you come into work in jeans and trainers. So how does Kerrie Keeling, 33, manage this laid back lifestyle? A former investment banker in London, Kerrie quit the City in 2003, much to her colleagues' surprise, to become a painter and decorator. Never one to do things by halves, five years on, her unique building and property maintenance firm A Woman's Touch has 40 staff and is thriving. Kerrie spotted a gap in the market for customers fed up with rip-off merchants. "Being an all women outfit has raised some eyebrows", she admits. "But it's made the business boom. Customers love the fact we are tidier and more conscientious."

Kerrie is just one of a growing band of women jacking in desk bound office jobs and politics for hands-on roles in plumbing, electrics, tiling and decorating. "The bonuses are bigger than any you get working in the city," reveals Kerrie. Cleverly, she's set her team up with Smart cars and collapsible ladders so they can negotiate space-starved London, and the company sends it's estimates and quotes through BlackBerries. So how the heck did Kerrie make the shift from Reiss suits to overalls? Read on...

What made you give up your city career?

"I'd been in investment banking since 1996, and trained with a major bank in New York, which was amazing. It felt like a slice of Sex And The City: all meetings with international hotshots and long, luxurious lunches. But the back-stabbing politics got me down. I felt mentally drained from playing a part every day. On a big salary with generous bonuses, I spent my money on weekends away diving in the Red Sea, and a gorgeous river view flat by the Thames, but I was left wanting more. The moment when everything changed was in 2003. I was sitting in a meeting and heard myself actually talking about 'singing from the same hymn sheet' and 'thinking outside the box'. I thought 'Aargh! You've become one of them!' and decided that was it."

But banking to painting and decorating? It's kind of a big leap!

"Around the same time I had a tiler and plumber working on my new flat. He was really sloppy and every night I'd have to come home and clear up his cigarette butts, wash his mugs and snap down the loo seat. He cut the tiles in the middle of the living room floor and the whole place looked as though it had been in a snowstorm. The combination of hating my job and having a rubbish plumber came together as an idea. People were sick of being taken for a ride by wheeling and dealing builders; I could change all that. I left banking in 2003, after writing my business plan at my desk. I didn't want people saying I left because I wasn't a success, so I got a promotion to vice president then handed in my resignation. I started out decorating on my own with a bashed-up car and my dad's tool kit, filled with tools my grandad had handmade."

How did you get the training you needed?

"I did short courses on plumbing, tiling and decorating in various London colleges. My aim was always to build up a base of female staff and not to do all the work myself, but I wanted to know what I was doing in all the disciplines so that I could price up jobs."

What was your first day like in your new job?

"Funnily enough, the doorman at the smart flats in Paddington where I spent my first day decorating had ignored me when I'd gone past in a suit for a meeting a few months before. When I was in overalls, carrying a ladder, it was totally different. He asked me whether he could help, and said 'Good for you, love,' when I explained what I was doing. I instantly noticed that people were nicer to me."

What were your set up costs?

"I started up with just £200. Before leaving my City desk, I'd sent an email to all my well-paid banking colleagues, so I had an instant database of potential clients."

Do you miss the power suits and killer heels?

"Not the heels, no! My husband says I'm more relaxed and more fun now. The power suits have gone - they're a bit like armour. You can hide behind them but it's tiring trying to be someone else all the time. Now I do lots of talks at colleges, and feel brilliant about being able to give something back."

When did you know you'd made it?

"We did some decorating work for a Gordon Ramsay restaurant, working all night so the restaurant could open the next day. Gordon floated past us at some ungodly time in the morning and said, 'Fantastic!' That was one of his nicer F words."

Any mistakes?

"Mmm, waiting too long to get help when I had too much on my plate: finances, accounts, sorting bookings, ordering materials, managing staff. In 2004 I had a big computer crash. I had a bog standard PC, and when the crash happened I called the helpline and they advised me to wipe the whole thing. I was scrabbling around trying to remember email addresses and quotes. It made me feel very vulnerable After that I realised it was worth taking on a specialised IT company to design a system for me."

What about people who say that women can't do the jobs as well as men?

"There are always going to be people who ask, 'How can women lift a bath?' Well, we talk to each other, work as a team and get the job done. It's not all about brute strength. We can also get in to small spaces a bloke wouldn't even attempt."

What's been the best bit?

"Last year I got to meet the Queen when she hosted a reception for women in business. I was surrounded by millionaires and stars - Elle Macphereson, the late Anita Roddick, Sharon Osbourne, The Duchess of Cornwall and Princess Anne. When the Queen asked me what I did, I think she was quite surprised. She said, 'You should talk to Anne about that.' Then Anne suggested several influential people I should talk to , who were interested in getting more women in to the construction business."

The downsides?

"For the first few years I was paying myself below the minimum wage. I had to increase my mortgage and rent out my flat to keep going financially. I was decorating all week, then doing accounts in the evenings and at weekends, without a boss saying, 'Keep going, you're doing a good job.' Nice comments from clients could make my week."

What is your typical day like now?

"I do less hands-on work now, but my days are still varied: booking appointments, sending out estimates, project planning and sorting out materials. Watching my baby enterprise grow is wonderful."

And what about the future?

"We've set up offices in Brighton and southern Spain, so now I want to see those flourish, and set up a franchise system. I'd like to get to the stage where I'm learning from someone else's mistakes rather than my own!"