[Lee Burbidge]

Who would join a Co-Operative? What do you mean?, I hear you say.

I have seen a lot of concerned window cleaners voice their opinions on loosing work to National Cover as big name brands decide to cut costs and use a National Cleaning company.

But what says we cant bid for the contracts as a Co-Operative. Think about it for a second.

No added costs that the national cleaning company would have to add on. More work given back to local window cleaning companies. A Co-Operative would buy the Nationals into the idea. All it takes is working out what benefits we can all offer as a unit.

With the right organisation and comitment and will, this could be done. Entry to such a Co-operative would mean basic requirements in Health & Safety and training would have to be sorted for each member. As a 'national' itself, standards would have to be high in order to compete with the bigger boys but not impossible to achieve.

Anything put in place to join such a Co-Operative would be benefical for the window cleaner in his business as a whole for other business.
Memebership of such an organisation would be seen as a good thing by prospect clients and may increase your companies turnover through work not from the Co-Operative.

Do you think it could work? What is the weakness of this idea? How can we make the idea stronger!?

Some might not care. That is cool. But I know if this org was available today, I would join for the extra work.

Would you?

I love the saying 'Always say yes. Then work out how you going to do it after'

 

[Pope vader]

it is  a good idea, but wouldnt work,  simple because who would control areas,  ie dave morris and dean cover large areas,  if they pay the same price as someone else and get more work then this is unfair,

who will be contact with the nationals  who will handle the money

this is what national window cleaner thing is hoping to get to, but i think it is open to, to much back handers and trouble 

[trevor perry]

its a good idea but as said would be very hard to put in place, if someone managed to do it then yes i would join

[Seers]

Hi,

That's already one of the long term goals of Nationwide Window Cleaners. It's something we feel is achievable but it is going to take time to get enough coverage across all of the UK.

Instead of squeezing the prices all contractors would be at the same level of the sub-contract ladder. Without us taking any value out of the contract. We have been talking to two nationals now and as you mentioned the buyers do like the appeal of a "co-operative" bunch of window cleaners providing a national coverage, with local service.

But you can't take on a national contract with Debenhams for instance and then tell them that you can't actually cover x , y, and z towns yet.

This time next year we may have it sorted. But one thing I will say is that it's not without it's problems...

Cheers,

Huw

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

I've priced up some work recently being done by a national. DISGRACEFUL standard of work & for the money being charged I wouldn't get out of bed!! They can keep it!! 

[Llaaww]

The only thing that the nationals have got going for them is a single billing system.

All of the billing is simplified, so the national client recieves the minimum ammount of paperwork to process.

On that basis the national cleaner will point out that it is cheaper to proces one bill than it is to process several hundered, produced by individual cleaners.

Time and time again people take on national contracts, only to fail to provide a quality of service across the board. What then happens is that individual stores become so filthy that the manager will take on a local windie simply to get the job done. Before long bells ring in the head office and the national cleaner is found out to have been billing for work that hasn't been done and is sacked.

The stores are then picked up by local windies across the land as they become filthy, and the individual manager is forced to do something about it.

National company is then aproached by an ambitious cleaner and the whole cycle starts again.

It has happened with all of the national chains at one time or another.

Unfortunatly for me I just lost a favourite, but I won't make it easy for them to keep it. It will become a thorn in the side of whoever has taken it on.   

[Smudger]

Some good points here & this should be an interesting thread,

for my part thats what the FWC should have been doing for it's members over the last 10 years bidding for contracts and then making the work available to the membership.

Main problem with co-operative who runs it and what do they get for the time and trouble ??

While the bean counters constantly run companies and have no idea of what service they are actually getting then
nationals will always be given the work - even if its only because they can afford to have a lawyer & office staff to draw up paperwork

Darran

[Seers]

Hi,

Yeah, but imagine if another organisation came along, lets says the NWC.

And they allowed every window cleaner who joined to spread their membership cost over the course of the year, gave them a listing on a leading industry directory, built them individual mini-websites, got them to the top of google for their local area, chased national commercial contracts and distributed the work throughout the network and allowed for a single billing system to national retailers.

It would sound like a good idea wouldn't it? I wish I'd though of that....

Cheers,

Huw

[Pope vader]

there already is huw, didnt window washer do something like this 

[Seers]

Hi,

Well it's worth a go anyway!

Cheers,

Huw

[Pope vader]

i hope it works,  think if run right it could be great,  just think politics will destroy it

[Seers]

Politics? I've never voted so I wouldn't know!

Cheers,

Huw

[Smudger]

Hi,

Yeah, but imagine if another organisation came along, lets says the NWC.

 but does the NWC come with a bi monthly magazine full of ...  er...  stuff  and stickers

Darran

[Small but perfectley formed]

Whos going to supply the brown envelopes ? 

[Moderator David@stives]

It will never work

Who is going to work for the cooperative in gaining the work

You will need t retain an excellent business development manager, back room staff to process
Paperwork, deal with dockets, run the help desk,

If someone is clever enough to gain a £2mill contract , do you think
They won't be tempted in winning it for there own company and not for
The cooperative

Who is going to manage the areas, it would  be impossible to allocate
All the work to 1000 window different window cleaners and expect all paperwork back each month
without major cock ups

[andyM]

Hi,

Yeah, but imagine if another organisation came along, lets says the NWC.

And they allowed every window cleaner who joined to spread their membership cost over the course of the year, gave them a listing on a leading industry directory, built them individual mini-websites, got them to the top of google for their local area, chased national commercial contracts and distributed the work throughout the network and allowed for a single billing system to national retailers.

It would sound like a good idea wouldn't it? I wish I'd though of that....

Cheers,

Huw

Really?

[Seers]

Hi Andy,

Yeah, we have got a lot of the mini-sites on page one so far for each local area. And we hope to get them all there in the coming months with a bit of hard work.

Cheers,

Huw

[Window Washers]

Hi Andy,

Yeah, we have got a lot of the mini-sites on page one so far for each local area. And we hope to get them all there in the coming months with a bit of hard work.

Cheers,

Huw

Huw are you getting a little carried away and no disrespect in this question as I do respect what you say but getting them all there, really ??

[Seers]

Hi Ian,

We think it's possible, but only time will tell. It's a way off yet and part of Phase 2, currently 90% of the mini-sites are page one. It's one thing getting the sites there in the first place but it's another thing keeping them there long term as you will know.

But even if they are each on page one it doesn't mean you are going to get tons of enquiries unless people search. But it's a decent bit of extra marketing for people.

I had had a couple of beers last night so I may have been suffering from delusions of grandeur!

Cheers,

Huw

[matthewprice]

i lost a large job last year two blocks of old folks houses 80 flats plus common areas lost to a glasgow based national  i heard they got the contract at £80 a block even as a coop how could we compete with these very low prices