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Master Guild Of Window Cleaners

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was hoping that they actively marketed you, clearly not; especially after reading an entire thread in 2014 that ripped the guild apart.
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Last summer I had a round up for sale.

All priced higher by at least 30% than anyone else around here. All established. All online payers with GoCardless. All easy access with no ladder work.

It was a very sweet round that I was sad to see go but needed to put together some funds for a project.

Anyhow. I advertised the round and it ended up in a bit of a bidding situation with lads in the know almost fighting for it and then I get a phone call Lee Burbridge himself.

It was beyond amusing, he opend with something like 'your round for sale is only worth maybee 3x cleans' and proceeded to lecture me on the value of the round (he knew nothing about the round) and how to buy and sell rounds and basically that I knew nothing about window cleaning. This was all in the first 60 seconds. As it happens he lives about 30 mins south of me and wants to expand this way.

Having spoke to the mighty Lee personally as well as a couple of other lads that have had dealings with him I personally wouldn't have a thing to do with him. I certainly would not pay money to be part of some so called 'federation' of his.

I did years ago join the 'Guild of master window cleaners' as it was aknowledged it was a bit of jest but you got a cool sticker for the van and a t-shirt.

 
Last summer I had a round up for sale.
All priced higher by at least 30% than anyone else around here. All established. All online payers with GoCardless. All easy access with no ladder work.

It was a very sweet round that I was sad to see go but needed to put together some funds for a project.

Anyhow. I advertised the round and it ended up in a bit of a bidding situation with lads in the know almost fighting for it and then I get a phone call Lee Burbridge himself.

It was beyond amusing, he opend with something like 'your round for sale is only worth maybee 3x cleans' and proceeded to lecture me on the value of the round (he knew nothing about the round) and how to buy and sell rounds and basically that I knew nothing about window cleaning. This was all in the first 60 seconds. As it happens he lives about 30 mins south of me and wants to expand this way.

Having spoke to the mighty Lee personally as well as a couple of other lads that have had dealings with him I personally wouldn't have a thing to do with him. I certainly would not pay money to be part of some so called 'federation' of his.

I did years ago join the 'Guild of master window cleaners' as it was aknowledged it was a bit of jest but you got a cool sticker for the van and a t-shirt.
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Thanks for the warning Green. Sounds like a goon and a con. Glad I asked here before committing.

 
Oh a quick FYI. Whilst he's telling me how much a round he hasn't even seen is worth yet it was alreadt under 2 provisional offers of 6x cleans. /emoticons/smile.png)
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yup I seen this round for sale, 2650 a monthly average, if i remember correctly. No doubt a highly professional round, well priced per customer. Pricing is so important, from what I have read, it seems to be the hardest part to get spot on.

 
I was a founding member of the Guild years ago and ran it solo for the couple of years before Lee - it was originally planned to be "for window cleaners - by window cleaners",.. a cheaper alternative to the FED aimed at helping one man bands build their business with things like downloadable flyer templates, stationary templates, H&S sheets etc etc - Plus stickers for your van. Initially we charged £12 a year for membership & it was all done on a not-for-profit basis. If any funds built up in the account we did a give-away for a pole or something similar so all benefits went back to the members.

I quit the cleaning industry a few years back, and couldn't in good conscience run the Guild when I'm not a window cleaner anymore - so I asked around to see if there was anyone interested in taking it over, and Lee got in touch. I didn't know Lee from Adam - but he sounded good on the phone, seemed to have great enthusiasm, loads of industry contacts & some great ideas for the Guild - so I handed over the reigns, and Lee got the organisation, website, membership all for free. The first thing he did was increase member fees to £60 and introduce corporate memberships for £200! The whole thing changed overnight, they introduced a "Guild Shop" for members and tried to get discounts from suppliers, Lee took on a guy called Richard to help out - Richard did loads, and then they had a falling out & all Richards half completed projects were left to rot - including the Guild shop - it all became a bit of a mess.

The Guild now isn't what it was set out to be - - I don't think its really anything to be honest. Nothing seems to have happened in the last 18 months or more.

What does look good is the new one being setup by Mark Munro - the WCA.

Its not officially launched yet - they're still working on a library of downloadable documents, marketing materials etc etc to make the £30 a year membership the best value possible,... but he seems to be getting everything setup really well. www.thewca.uk

 
I was a founding member of the Guild years ago and ran it solo for the couple of years before Lee - it was originally planned to be "for window cleaners - by window cleaners",.. a cheaper alternative to the FED aimed at helping one man bands build their business with things like downloadable flyer templates, stationary templates, H&S sheets etc etc - Plus stickers for your van. Initially we charged £12 a year for membership & it was all done on a not-for-profit basis. If any funds built up in the account we did a give-away for a pole or something similar so all benefits went back to the members.
I quit the cleaning industry a few years back, and couldn't in good conscience run the Guild when I'm not a window cleaner anymore - so I asked around to see if there was anyone interested in taking it over, and Lee got in touch. I didn't know Lee from Adam - but he sounded good on the phone, seemed to have great enthusiasm, loads of industry contacts & some great ideas for the Guild - so I handed over the reigns, and Lee got the organisation, website, membership all for free. The first thing he did was increase member fees to £60 and introduce corporate memberships for £200! The whole thing changed overnight, they introduced a "Guild Shop" for members and tried to get discounts from suppliers, Lee took on a guy called Richard to help out - Richard did loads, and then they had a falling out & all Richards half completed projects were left to rot - including the Guild shop - it all became a bit of a mess.

The Guild now isn't what it was set out to be - - I don't think its really anything to be honest. Nothing seems to have happened in the last 18 months or more.

What does look good is the new one being setup by Mark Munro - the WCA.

Its not officially launched yet - they're still working on a library of downloadable documents, marketing materials etc etc to make the £30 a year membership the best value possible,... but he seems to be getting everything setup really well. www.thewca.uk
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Thanks for the info. I am a bit annoyed that a lot of what was touted, is just a complete lie, and it is clearly just ripping people off. The guys on here have clearly stated across multiple threads that I have scoured, that these federation sites do not get you customers, i.e - their marketing claims are clearly a big lie or at the least largely over exaggerated. I am personally just going to stick with this website, it offers everything that these closed community sites offer, and is far more unified.

 
Last summer I had a round up for sale.
All priced higher by at least 30% than anyone else around here. All established. All online payers with GoCardless. All easy access with no ladder work.

It was a very sweet round that I was sad to see go but needed to put together some funds for a project.

Anyhow. I advertised the round and it ended up in a bit of a bidding situation with lads in the know almost fighting for it and then I get a phone call Lee Burbridge himself.

It was beyond amusing, he opend with something like 'your round for sale is only worth maybee 3x cleans' and proceeded to lecture me on the value of the round (he knew nothing about the round) and how to buy and sell rounds and basically that I knew nothing about window cleaning. This was all in the first 60 seconds. As it happens he lives about 30 mins south of me and wants to expand this way.

Having spoke to the mighty Lee personally as well as a couple of other lads that have had dealings with him I personally wouldn't have a thing to do with him. I certainly would not pay money to be part of some so called 'federation' of his.

I did years ago join the 'Guild of master window cleaners' as it was aknowledged it was a bit of jest but you got a cool sticker for the van and a t-shirt.
Click to expand...
It sounds like this Lee fella went to the same school as Dave Pickering !! (Internet search if you don't know what I mean ) I for one won't be joining his gang!! Rather stay here.

Maybe you guys should get some stickers done for our vans so we can anknowledge one another when we are out - just a thought :thumbsup:

 
None of them will get you work and market you and the federation of window cleaners don't claim they can or will.

They are more their for advice and resources as well as discount on certain products and services.

There is a tender section or used to be one on the FWC site but this info is available any where and a lot of tenders that go up are for government,NHS and county council contracts these contracts never go to the one man banned type of small business.The smaller tenders like you and I would want and go for are never made public.

 
It sounds like this Lee fella went to the same school as Dave Pickering !! (Internet search if you don't know what I mean ) I for one won't be joining his gang!! Rather stay here.Maybe you guys should get some stickers done for our vans so we can anknowledge one another when we are out - just a thought :thumbsup:
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It could be based on how many likes your profile gets. Like a ranking system, as your likes go up the better branding you get associated with the forum /emoticons/biggrin.png

 

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