Coldplay singer Chris Martin has revealed that before his rock band hit the big time he wasn't too posh to polish.

The songwriter has confessed to the Sun newspaper that he used to work in a hotel as a cleaner, which has put him off smashing up his own suites in the rock-and-roll way in which many stars do.

He told the newspaper: "When you're a cleaner and you walk into a trashed room, it's truly annoying.

"All you want to do is go on your tea break - and you get faced with that."

The singer added that other hotel guests should spare a thought for the "poor schmuck" who will be cleaning up their room when they check out.

However, the story served to highlight one important issue, aside from Martin's courtesy when staying away – many people do not start their working lives in the perfect job.

In fact, jobs support group Women in Business is urging females to learn from other people's professional mistakes and turns down the wrong path in order to further their own careers.

Tessa Lyndon-Skeggs, founder of Women in Business for RBS and Natwest, said: "I would say that the biggest challenge for all businesses, whether they're male or female led, is that most small businesses don't know what they don't know until they've made that mistake."

She advocated leaning on peer-to-peer support when starting out in the professional world to ensure that females are learning the most of other people's mistakes as well as their own.

Women in Business had recruited 160 ambassadors based in local areas who females in the UK can lean on when they are starting their own business.

According to the Natwest and RBS Small Business Monitor 2008 only 19 per cent of women have considered setting up their own firm or done so compared with 32 per cent of men, suggesting that many women may be stuck in the wrong job for them,

Figures in the US illustrate that women are capable of starting their own companies and finding the right job for them.

Natwest and RBS' survey of 1,400 small businesses in Britain claimed that if female start-up rates matched male figures then there would be 150,000 new businesses in the UK.

Ms Lyndon-Skeggs concluded: "In the last five or ten years, the support network for women's enterprise has changed hugely.

"So if you are running a business, there is the Natwest Everywoman's Award coming up in November and it's great if you want to apply."