Debbie and Devin Anscomb opened their showroom near Romford back in March 2006. Anscomb Home Interiors specialise in bedroom furniture but over the past few years they have ventured into bathrooms and kitchens.  Debbie took time out of her busy schedule to talk us through a typical day...

7.00am We both get up around 7am every morning. Devin starts by getting our five year old daughter up and they have their breakfast together while I get myself ready. I look after the showroom and Devin handles the installation side of the business.  He leaves the house in the van to meet his apprentice Daniel at about 7.45am and they go off to the site of the current project they are working on. In the meantime I stay and get our daughter ready for school.

8.30am Devin aims to get to the clients house by 8.30am so they have a full working day ahead of them to crack on with the project. I walk my daughter to school and once I've seen her off I head home to do a few chores before driving to the showroom.

10.00am I open the studio up daily at 10am and we close at 5pm every Tuesday to Saturday. We also open by appointment on Sundays if that meets the needs of a client. When I put it like that, my morning sounds quite leisurely but I can assure you it really isn't. The studio is situated in Goodier Park, which is a village on the outskirts of Romford. We're very close to a train station and it's a very residential area, so it's a perfect location for visitors. People tend to come in and see us because they know we're here as opposed to just wandering in off the street, although that does happen occasionally. We may only get two or three people in the studio during any one day but these people have, generally, already  decided that they want to see us.

12pm The showroom is relatively small; it's all on one floor and we have around four bedroom and two kitchen displays. I run it on my own most days, so I don't have a set lunch break. I bring in my own sandwiches and eat them when I get a spare five minutes.

2pm The studio opened in March 06 but Devin has been a designer and carpenter for over 17 years so he is very experienced. I worked in a bank for 20 years so although I lack experience within this industry, I do have a lot of customer facing experience which is perfect for dealing with our customers. Devin actually started the business six and a half years ago working from a small workshop in Upminster, which we still use for storage, where he manufactured furniture. The studio and his expansion plans really came about because we weren't securing enough business and he decided that the only way to guarantee more was to have a place where people could come and view the products when they wanted to. Devin no longer manufacture's furniture, simply because it got to a point where he had to decide either to manufacture or install, he couldn't do both. We are exclusive stockists of Daval furniture in this area.

3pm There are two other independent studios in the local area but they don't do kitchens like us, so we have a slight edge. It's wrong to say that we're interior designers, because that's a very big hat t o wear. What we do here is to guide people towards the style of room that will suit their needs. I'm delighted to say that over the last six months 50% of our business has come from recommendations and you can't complain about endorsements like that. Our membership with the iKBBI has definitely been a positive move for our business in terms of the support we've received from the institute but also because it has helped us secure several jobs. It's another string to our bow if you like, another thing that gives us the edge over our competitors.

4pm There's no doubt that times are tough but we are still working six to eight weeks in advance, and have enquiries and work coming in. We're  still gaining business, it's just more difficult to secure the job than before. Demand is still there, but people aren't parting with their money quite so easily, they want to be completely sure before they say yes. Now isn't really the time for expansion, but eventually Devin would like to take on more of an active role within the studio, and on the sales and marketing side. This would mean recruiting another installation team, sometime in the future, that will also allow us to take on more work.

5pm Even though I work in the same place every day, no day is the same and from the time I arrive at the showroom my day includes a variation of different tasks. On top of dealing with phone enquiries, showroom visitors, scheduling appointments for surveys and designs I'm in charge of ordering the furniture Devin fits direct from the manufacturer, Daval. items on a daily basis.

6pm In the evenings we just chill at home watching TV or catching up with the kids. When we get some free time at the weekend we try and plan some family outings or if the weather's nice I like nothing more than spending time pottering around in the garden.