Member Article

Behind the Business with Teddle

In the latest instalment of Behind the Business, we talk to online independent cleaner booking service Teddle:

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

Our biggest hurdle has been finding an online payment solution that we qualify for and that is flexible enough to meet our needs. There is a lack of options available to UK start-ups and we were turned down by many traditional options. We ended up using GoCardless, which is a terrific start-up and option, but sadly as it runs on the direct debit system it hasn’t provided the flexibility we need. We are currently in the middle of implementing two new solutions, one for taking (Stripe) and one for sending payments. This should give us the flexibility we need, but we haven’t over come all hurdles yet as we still need to get approved by our bank for BACSTEL-iP so we are not out of the woods yet!

What is your biggest achievement in the last 12 months?

In a nutshell finding the right solution for the problem we set out to solve. All three of us felt strongly that technology could be used to solve the problem of finding and booking local service providers in your area. We started out in a small area (South-West London) with 10 service categories, but at the end of last year it became obvious the product didn’t work and the experience wasn’t tailored enough. In 4 weeks we had stripped down the product and completely rebuilt it into what you see now, with a focus on domestic cleaners. It was hairy as we were at the last chance saloon. So our biggest achievement is that we built a product people seem to want to and like using. We no longer feel like we are pushing a car uphill. Now we have a different set of obstacles to overcome!

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

Proving that our business can scale. By the end of the year we want to have launched Teddle in 5 other metro-cities and have a proven roll out method that we can support. We are pouring all of our energy into industrializing the product and the operational processes that support it. We actually find this the fun bit given our background in consulting!

If you had to chose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out a business, or is currently operating in your industry sector, what would it be?

Start small, and whatever you think is small go smaller. People told us when we started out just to focus on one thing and do that really well. We listened, absorbed and thought that is what we were doing. Turned out we had to go smaller to get it to work. This doesn’t mean you have to lose sight of your end goal, you just achieve it in a different way. We still intend to provide local services, but now the execution looks different.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally, and where your organization sits with in it?

The progress around the Old Street area over the last few years has been amazing. There is a genuine bubble of innovation, which is exciting and you can see that there is a lot of energy being poured into making it successful by the government and various organisations. However with that comes a lot of noise and hype. You find you have to work really hard to separate the wheat from the chaff and so I think it will be interesting to see how many tech companies manage to make it big. Europe’s record so far has been pretty dismal.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Teddle .