The first thing you notice when you visit the Sunrise Cleaning empire is how much it doesn't look like one. Bruce Farley and Phillipa Rutherford operate their 110-employee business out of their home office, which is sited on a 5-acre Buddhist retreat the couple created on gorse covered hills from the company's success.

When Bruce Farley began Sunrise Cleaning in 1986, his main motivation was to be his own boss. A cleaning business for sale had bad will and an expensive price tag, but the idea stuck so he got himself some gear and started door knocking.

Bruce professes not to have had any great ambition but within six months he had so much work he needed to hire staff to keep up with commitments. Twenty-three years later and the expansion has never stopped.

"When I started the industry was in turmoil. You had very limited choice and it was like musical cleaners. Every year they'd put out tenders. So I could see that client retention was a way of growing business. Even in those days, I would fly to Wellington to meet the property manager of the banks so he knew who I was and I would show him that I was serious about providing good service and that I wanted to keep the contracts."

Not one to rest on his laurels, Bruce and his staff still try to go the extra mile. A reappraisal of their business five years ago caused them to implement changes as to how they did business and who they did it for. Despite turning away a lot of casual work, the company went on to make more that year than they had before.

Making more money meant more demands on their accountant. David Kenning has been Bruce's accountant since the very beginning. The business's success now necessitates a lot more than accounting. Bruce and Phillipa have sought WHK advice on asset protection, tax liability and trust formations. "We've had huge meetings in the last year or so with David and Mark [Davies, Tax Associate] and it's probably the biggest restructure that we've ever done. The other thing we've been doing with Mark and David is looking ahead. We're having a harder tax year for future benefit and there is a lot more long term planning involved."

Last year the company won, at the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce Awards, both the Port Nelson Large Business Award and the Westpac Supreme Award. This replicates their success in the Telecom 2005 Home Business Awards where they won both the Business Excellence and Supreme Awards.

The couple don't just view success by the bottom dollar and are justifiably proud of the Buddhist centre (opened by the Dalai Lama in 2002). "We wouldn't have been able to do that without Sunrise Cleaning", says Phillipa. "We're part of an international network and we have people from all over the world coming here. This is a community service funded by the business."

So, what's on the horizon for these serial award winners? Bruce is looking forward to his son, Jess, joining the company this year. Probable expansion is on the cards and, no doubt, a few more planning meetings with WHK. "They're the experts. I'm not an accountant, I don't do budgets or Profit and Loss, just seat of the pants kind of stuff. I'm not even good with money."

He may not be good with money, but Bruce Farley certainly knows how to create a success story.