A FATHER-of-one from Yate quit his high-ranking job to clean people’s homes – taking home less than £10 a week.

But today Darren Clark runs a business empire in Chipping Sodbury called The Spotless Group – employing hundreds of people across its branches.

Darren left his senior position with a supermarket giant in 2011, to start his own cleaning company. And he has since created a total of five firms in six years, which support businesses with advertising, social media and mentoring.

He said: “I’ve always been more hands-on, with the drive to push myself and try something new.

“Setting up my own business seemed like a natural progression.”

Darren, who left school at the age of 16 without any formal qualifications, started out as a trolley boy and worked his way up to area manager.

Then he decided to go it alone and a cleaning firm came to mind.

His early jobs took twice as long as planned and by the time he had paid for cleaning products and marketing, he made just £10 a week.

Darren said: “The first job took four hours instead of two, so I went home and practised a system where I could do it in half the time.”

Spotless Domestic Cleaning is now part of an umbrella group, with an office in Chipping Sodbury.

Darren, who missed out on a formal education as a youngster, has said one of Spotless’ goals is to provide personal development to all its team.