The story so far
Cornish Changeovers was created during the Covid lockdown in 2020 when the world as we knew it changed. After working for a poorly managed cleaning company, we decided that we could do better!
After much deliberation and market research, Cornish Changeovers was born. There were a few things that we had decided from the outset would set us apart from our competitors; Employment rather than Self Employed Contractors, Great customer communication, a welcome pack that showcases what Cornwall has to offer, wages that were fit for the hard work that is involved and finally, that the houses we took on were a joy to clean. It would be the kind of property we would love to sit and have our "crib" in as not many get the opportunity to enjoy such properties.
We started small, Shaun's first (great) idea was to own and launder all of our linen ourselves. There were many benefits to this, one being we had more control over the quality and weren't reliant on anyone else. Secondly, we were able to offer weekday work in the laundry for the team that cleaned with us at the weekend. We built a laundry in a shipping container and filled it with oversized domestic appliances. We then started thinking how else we could maximise the hours we could offer people. We began making our own soap for the welcome packs and stopped using throw-away plastic bottled hand washes. We also started producing the welcome packs ourselves during the week (more weekday hours for the team) and boxing them for ease and continuity.
We also have a farm (Farmer Shaun's) that is open to the public on weekends serving our home-grown produce, alongside a farm shop that is open 7 days a week.
The ethos of our farm is to provide affordable and ethical produce using regenerative farming principles for the local area. We feel you shouldn't have to be rich to be able to be local, healthy produce. This has also become yet another avenue we can maximise the hours we can offer the team. Many of our team have additional skill sets from previous jobs. Some of these are used to offer our "additional services" such as painting and decorating, Fire Risk Assessments and Handyman work, we even have a member of the team who used to be a mechanic and now does all the work on our vehicles. Others we use for the farm and the shop. For example, we have team members that bake cakes for the farm shop as well as scotch eggs, homemade jams and even someone that used to work in a circus and has a great manner with all animals that helps us on the farm.
The tourism industry gets a lot of stick down here from locals. As much as we feel where they are coming from, without tourism and holiday homeowners, we would not be able to employ everyone we do with great wages, job prospects, contracts and holiday pay. We also wouldn't have been in the position to start this farm without the cleaning business going into orbit. Thanks to our customers, we have made a difference in the community and plan to continue doing what we're doing and we have our customers to thank.
By working with us you are supporting the local economy, you bring with it jobs, better restaurants, work for tradesmen, customers for local crafters and much more. Thank you!
