Ashley Davies, finance director of A&R Contract Cleaning Specialists Ltd, explains why Rayner Davies should win the Leader of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
A true leader is someone who inspires others around them to reach further, whilst supporting them to achieve their ambitions, I can think of no better example than Rayner Davies.
Rayner became a young mother at 16 before leaving school with one GCSE and has suffered from chronic depression over the years. Despite her hardship, Rayner was determined not to give up and began offering ironing and domestic cleaning services, which soon became popular among local residents.
She decided to sell the successful ironing business to work full time as a professional cleaner, and founded A&R Cleaning Specialists in 2010. She plans to double the number of staff to 86 over the next 18 months.
Rayner’s ‘it can be done’ mentality inspires those around her not to give up when times are tough, to develop themselves personally and professionally and to aim higher. She firmly believes in providing the same support and mentoring to all her staff that she received from her family and friends, which helped her achieve her ambitions.
She supports her team in many ways from actively listening to them and celebrating successes together, to recognising the importance of a work-life balance by offering flexible working arrangements. She chooses to promote staff internally and offers NVQs in cleaning and customer service, which her staff can use to improve their future employability.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
