This is the latest in a regular series of Business Q&A features published weekly. This week, we spoke to David Whan, owner and managing director of Harrogate-based cleaning company It's Clean.

Tell us in fewer than 30 words what your firm does.

We provide excellent commercial contract cleaning to businesses and organisations in the public and private sectors.

We only cover Yorkshire so that we can give an enhanced service level by remaining local.

What does it take to be successful in business?

Passion. You have to have passion to be the best you can be, whether you're cleaning, training, recruiting someone, or just writing an email.

You've also got to be coachable, because if you're not open to learning, you'll never get any better and be the best you can be.

The company was founded in 1999, but I bought it in 2007, when it had about 18 staff. Before I knew it, it had snowballed to about 50 staff within two or three years.

Over the last four years, it has nearly doubled in size and we now employ about 200 people.

What drives you to do what you do every day?

I spent 20 years in the multinational, corporate life with the likes of Mars, Diageo and Inchcape, but in the end I just felt as if I wasn't making any difference.

So working for myself was something I'd long wanted to do. You're in your own community, and I personally find that more rewarding. You're wearing more hats, and that's more stimulating and exciting. You get a much better sense of 'worthwhileness'.

Before corporate life, I went to Birmingham University, but I dropped out and later I started an MBA at Leeds but didn't finish that either. It was only afterwards that I was diagnosed as being quite dyslexic, which explained why I had found the reading and writing parts of those courses so difficult. At the time, I didn't know how to admit that that was the problem.

As a result, I'm quite a visual learner, and I can walk around a client's building and remember it like a photograph. It gives me an eye for detail that I probably wouldn't otherwise have.

What’s been the toughest issue your business has had to deal with over the last 12 months?

We're finding it difficult to recruit really good-quality people into our sector. There's just not the same appetite for our kind of work as there was five years ago.

There are probably lots of reasons for that – there's the hangover from covid, economic uncertainty, the cost of living, and possibly also the after-effects of Brexit.

It's hard, physical graft, but we've always paid above minimum wage. We'd love to pay more, but it's market-driven – we'd put ourselves out of business.

Which other local firms do you most admire and why?

Bettys & Taylors – I admire their longevity and the way they treat their employees. But the sign of a really great business is when it treats its suppliers with the same respect and care that it does its customers.

Bettys and Taylors is good at everything, from its ethics to the quality of its produce and how it treats its customers, employees and suppliers. You'd be hard pressed to find a better business in the North, if not the whole country.

Another company I admire is Hornbeam Park Developments. It's our landlord, and it's a very well run business.

And finally, Skipton Road Garages, a little family-run business just down the road from Majestic Wines. I've used them for our fleet of cars for the last 15 years, and it's an absolutely outstanding business that you can completely trust – one of the best microbusinesses I've come across in Harrogate.

Who are the most inspiring local leaders?

Sarry Barry, chief executive at Harrogate Town Football Club. It's a difficult business to be in, and what she's done at that club is amazing – it's regularly packed out.

Also, Adele and Peter at The Italian Connection on Cold Bath Road. The food's terrific, and you can not go for ages and Adele will still know who you are by name. That level of service is so rare these days – it's almost a lost art. So much now is branded and homogenised, and The Italian Connection is the opposite of that.

What could be done locally to boost business?

We're lucky in Harrogate, because the town is quite affluent and there's low unemployment. I'm not convinced that North Yorkshire Council can do anything that would fundamentally turn the dial. For me, the big issues are much more national.

The increase in National Insurance, for example, has been devastating. In my working life it's the worst policy I've ever seen a Chancellor make – she's pulled the wrong lever the wrong way. It's inflationary and is killing off competitiveness.

Best and worst things about running a business from Harrogate?

What a great town to live in. Everything's here. How many towns are better? None that I know of, and I've lived all over the country. It's got great people and access to everything you could want. Brilliant.

The worst thing is that we have definitely created more housing ahead of the infrastructure it all needs, and Harrogate is creaking as a result. The schools, roads, hospital and doctors' surgeries can't keep up, and everything grinding to a slower pace.

What are your business plans for the future?

I'll be 60 this year, and I'm not going to go on forever. Luckily, I have a great management team, and we'll just keep on trying to be the best we can be in our area.

We're not looking to become a national company – like Bettys, we just want to be the best in Yorkshire. We'll copy the Bettys model all day long – follow that and you can't go far wrong.

What do you like to do in your time off?

I'm big into racket sports. I think I must be a reincarnated labrador, because I'll do anything if involves chasing a ball.

I also love to travel – I've just come back from France. I'm pretty boring, really. I'm not into pubs and nightclubs – I prefer a quieter life.

Best places to eat and drink locally?

The Italian Connection on Cold Bath Road, as previously mentioned, and also Gianni's Brio on King's Road. It's consistently superb food. It's not fine dining – it's just consistently well done and well presented.

I also like the Tap on Tower Street – it's got that sense of a landlady who really cares. It also serves great great beer and the layout makes it feel really cosy.