Living Clean

Single mum Julie Bishop set up environmentally-friendly cleaning firm Living Clean in Norwich in 2002, fearing chemicals in conventional cleaning products were responsible for her and her son's asthma and her father's cancer.

From a modest start using a £1,000 loan from Weetu to buy a cheap van, business has boomed and the company now employs 20 staff, has set up a second office in Holt and is looking to set up franchises to take the service nationwide.

The service covers businesses and homes across Norfolk and Suffolk.

After being initially forced to import the products, she now has a contract with a local chemical firm to produce and supply an array of cleaning

One of the challenges she faced as a woman was the initial guilt of arranging childcare for her son Paul Newman, now eight.

The 39-year-old, below, from Thorpe Saint Andrew, said: "I had just moved to Norwich and didn't want to put him in nursery. 1 booked him in for a couple of days to start with, but I realised I wanted to commit to the company full-time.

"By that time, happily, he was quite settled at nursery and there haven't really been any hiccups.

"He has had to come to a couple of meetings and an awards ceremony with me, but other than that it's been fine."

And she said being a woman was no barrier to setting up successful businesses - as long as you have the "vision" and dedication.

"It's like a roadmap, you need to know where you are going and you need to be persistent for that dream to happen," she added.