I was a teacher for 13 years, kindergarten and primary and I loved it. I stopped when I had my own children, two boys, and kept busy with a party plan business that brought in a bit of money and was a nice way to get good kidsÍ clothes.

Then I lived in Singapore for a few years, came back, split up with my husband and my kids were still at primary school. So I ran the school canteen and ended up doing five years there; I really enjoyed the school environment. Then I met a family with an autistic child and started doing some child care; as I have one son with Asbergers my background really helped.

I guess IÍve always been in face to face jobs, I like people.

When that finished I thought, what am I going to do now? A friend and I talked about running a caf_ and then I read about a franchising expo in Sydney. I went online to do some research and created a shortlist of five companies. They all appealed so I found out about each of them, got more details about how they communicated and signed up with Duster Dollies [founded by Julie Finch-Scally].

ItÍs a great franchise for mums. My youngest son used to think, yuk, cleaning, then he met a lot of contractors and he is far more respectful now. And my eldest son has helped with filing and with getting products ready.

This franchise allows you to become the office manager. I could fit in being a single mum with school hours and knew I could set it up that way. The hardest thing was the computer work which I had always kept away from. But getting to use MYOB and other programs, itÍs actually been fine.

When I purchased the franchise it was up and running, and had four cleaners and jobs on the books. I didnÍt have to do the cleaning to get the business started but I was trying to learn the ins and outs of the business, and about the computer system. But if I made a mistake Julie was always there to help out. As a franchisee I never feel left alone. We have a conference and awards event each year, which partners can come to. ItÍs always fun chatting to everyone.

IÍm very fortunate, geographically. I cover the Manly area of Sydney, which has lots of one-off jobs and as IÍm the preferred cleaner for a number of real estate agents, we really benefit. One-off jobs pay better money for contractors, but you have to regard them as the cream.

The biggest challenge of the business is managing the balance of clients and contractors; I might lose a customer or lose cleaners if I donÍt have work for them. Everyone gets into their business when they start, and is enthusiastic, but you soon realise you canÍt have a successful ad campaign if you canÍt service the enquiries.

I tend to make sure contractors have what they want. A lot of cleaners have become friends, I have a closer relationship than some franchisees. I couldnÍt work by keeping a distance. I give support and care, and I help them out, and they do the same for me. I get the extra mile from them.

ItÍs certainly worked for me. I have my own business, I can set my hours how I want them to be, I can sail or lunch with my friends and catch up on bookwork the next night.

IÍm never going to be rolling in it but I can change the format and bring in someone to do what I do to allow me to work harder to build a bigger business base by buying another area.

In fact IÍve just renewed my franchise for another five years!

Diedre Corner is the franchisee for Duster Dollies in Manly, Sydney.