Couple painting the town red

A couple who quit their office jobs to set up their own company are painting the town red with their fledgling decorating business.

Francesca Lock and Louise Berriman, both 35, left their jobs in human resources and sales for food processing and packaging company Tetra Pak to set up their venture in Berkshire in 2008.

The pair, who met on holiday in Australia in 2002, decided to move north to Manchester in 2012 with ambitions to grow their company, Berriman and Lock, but found it difficult to re-build their business in a new area and attract the large contracts they wanted.

That was until the couple teamed up with City West Housing Trust and joined its Dont Keep It Under Your Hat programme, which was set up to support people looking to start-up and grow their own businesses.

Lock said: We decided to go it alone after we decorated our house and realised we had a real talent for the job

While we know a great deal about painting and decorating, we didnt instinctively know how to grow our business, especially as we set up during the economic downturn.

But when we sat down with the team, we found that by being two women going it alone, we had our own unique selling point. Since then the business has grown and grown.

The Salford landlords programme helps small businesses based in and around its neighbourhoods to get off the ground by offering free one-to-one consultations and workshops.

Over six months the team helped Lock and Berriman to create a business action plan, and found new ways for the company to diversify its offerings such as selling recycled and re-decorated furniture as a side business.

The housing provider, which owns and manages 14,600 homes in Salford, also introduced the pair to construction contractors Queensbridge, which was so impressed by their work that it took them on to decorate 50 City West properties their biggest contract to date.

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Couple painting the town red