Robert Lloyd somehow managed to escape the family tradition of being involved with the theatre. He began his working life as a window cleaner, and through sheer hard work and determination, built his business into a large contract cleaning company with contracts for many of the then recently built office blocks in Croydon and elsewhere. As a child however, he did work for his father Harry, delivering his posters around the theatres of London. On one occasion he forgot he had them and left them on the bus, getting into serious trouble with his father as a result. Perhaps this was enough to avert his mind from the theatre.