Before going to prison, K, then a mother of four children including a 9 month old baby, found herself ‘moving with the wrong people’. She received a five- year sentence for a drug related offence and served two and half years in prison. ‘I felt embarrassed about going to prison. I had let everyone down, myself, my friends and family and most of all my children’.

However K is proud to say that she was a model prisoner. The shock of landing up inside made her reassess her life and determine to grab everything that was on offer. ‘Being imprisoned was a real roller coaster for me but I decided to go on every course I could. I did beauty courses and many others but I did really well on a cleaning course and gained my NVQ level 3. Towards the end of my sentence I went out of the prison and went to college.’

After release it took K a while to get back into the routine of life on the outside and eventually she felt ready to contact the organisation Women in Prison who had helped her with courses. It was WIP that recognised that K had the germ of a good business idea and put her in touch with Startup.

K worked with a Startup business adviser to develop her business idea for a small cleaning business. Startup bought her the necessary equipment, and helped her develop her marketing materials and to get insurance cover.

Having a criminal record is proving to be an obstacle in gaining the type of commercial contracts that would be most profitable but K is gradually building up some individual repeat business and gaining business through word of mouth. ‘I am a good cleaner – I really know how to get things looking good! People are amazed how a place looks after I’ve been through it.’ But getting work is hard – K enlists her friends and family to leaflet all over London. K doesn’t have any transport of her own and has to use a mini cab for non local jobs. ‘It’s not good for my profits but I have to take what I can get. I am trying to find someone local who can help me out by driving me to jobs.’ Having a prison record is also an obstacle to gaining good contracts. ‘For commercial cleaning I have to declare that I have a criminal record and then they simply won’t take me on for contract cleaning.’

K remains optimistic about the future. ‘My children are supportive – the older ones babysit the younger ones if I get work in the evenings or early mornings. It’s not easy but I really don’t want to rely on benefits if I can help it.’

K is determined to set a good example to her family ‘I want people to know that life doesn’t end because you go into prison. I want to do really positive things with my life. I will not ever go back there again.’