On a single mission to enhance your customers experience and make a success of your pest control fixture.

I started my own business in October 2010 after becoming aware of a gap in the local services market for a locksmith. I enrolled in an intensive locksmith course, where I trained and successfully learned a lot of the skills of a locksmith. This was a very interesting experience and I have learned so much about business and myself. In being a small business I controlled the marketing, sales and back office, so it was a huge learning curve, but my previous career experience was a great benefit.

I started with Dunnes Stores in Scotch Hall, Drogheda as a trainee manager at the age of nineteen. It was only open six months so it was a really good store to start in as it had still all the high standards in place from the opening. Here I was trained in procedures and policies in security, customer services, human resources and back office paper work. I was over the menswear department which had one full timer and two flexi staff. My hard work over the six months paid off as I was moved to open a new store in Letterkenny. I got to work very closely with the store manager as Scotch Hall had a computer system that was being rolled out to all stores at the time and I was the only one who had experience of it. Here I was put in charge of the home wares department; it was one of the busiest departments in the store. I had six staff to manage one full time, two flexi staff and three evening/weekend staff. In July 2007 I moved to the Maynooth store. It was a very busy store with a high foot fall as it was located close to the University. Here I got to settle in to the store and move around and experience all the departments. I got to learn more about the KPIs of the stores from stock control, variation, budgets, and controlling overheads such as lighting, heat and staff costs.In September 2009 I moved to Henry Street. This was a great opportunity as it was a top 3 flag ship store with a turnover of €12m+. I got to do the night pack coming up to that Christmas and we were putting out 12 to 15 pallets of stock a night with a staff of five.

When I was seventeen I started my own part time business. I bought two bouncing castles which helped me buy my first car when I turned 18. It helped me a lot as I was able to afford to pay for most of the car and insurance without needing a loan.

I worked in the family hardware business on Saturdays while still at school. When I started I had jobs like sweeping and cleaning the paint machines. That summer I took up a summer job as a store man taking in deliveries, checking stock and putting new products live on the EPOS system.I quickly moved on to the shop floor dealing with customers. Where I would assist customers find the products they were looking for, gave advice on paint, gardening products and kitchenware, took sales and helped customers to their cars with sales.In 2004 I was given the store supervisor position within the store. With accepting this role came extra responsibility of opening and closing the store, cash office duties and ensuring operation procedures between the two stores were In order.I also got to go more trade shows and deal with wholesale representatives’ when it came to replenishing stock in the stores. This gave me great confidence and made me push for high standards in store and improve sales while also giving the customer a pleasant shopping experience with good customer service.