Why are we doing it? Because our tiler was sick of travelling across London for work and getting home after 8pm! So we started with a letterbox drop to local areas to advertise for work nearby.
Very soon his friends who are builders, carpenters, painters and decorators wanted a space on our drop sheet. Then we thought to include gardeners, cleaners, and suppliers of home products - and why not a forum for gardening and local issues since many of us garden, and a bit of creative fun for the kids from our favourite artists and authors - and while we were at it, a bit of information on things to do locally - all these things would be good to include too! And we found that many people are glad to give a discount off normal prices for the privilege of shorter travelling time and petrol money saved. Our customers know they are supporting a greener London, and richer home life: having the time after work to enjoy life pottering with a few organic veggies, and breathing cleaner water and air, is something we all wish for I hope!
Tell us what discount your business can offer on what sort of work or products, or phone us. We accept good reliable people, with 2 years or more experience in your trade or product supply, and you need a mobile phone so we can contact you. We go through some verification steps (there are a few things on the form we need to know from you, business name, insurance), we will keep your references information to hand and we will charge you fifteen pounds. We charge this through our credit card provider, the Royal Bank of Scotland people Worldpay. We dont keep your credit card number (or customers' credit card numbers) on our system. Join now
After customers have received your products or services, we do a follow up to see if both sides of the equation were happy. We like suggestions for new products and improvements. You might even be able to suggest a way to improve our system!
Here are some examples of discounts we've negotiated with suppliers: £100 off selected spas; £30 off a computer upgrade in SW regions; £30 off ten two-hourly gardening visits/£3 off per visit. Sometimes the discount will only apply to the immediate area the tradesperson lives in - or the discount may vary depending on how far away from your home you are prepared to travel. The idea is to encourage everyone to work more locally.
How to work out your discount: add up the cost of train and bus fares, petrol, parking, congestion charging and car maintenance, and wages from hours lost in commuting. The normal cost of those things to you per week might be quite a lot! Then work out how much and how long it will take to work locally, and what discount you would give for the privilege. The difference in cost will give you an idea of the discount you can offer. If you like you can offer a different discount amount for each postcode, just put in the postcode where you'd most like to work, and the postcodes next to yours will come up. You can decide what discount you would give for each postcode, depending on how close it is, and how you'd need to get there and so on. If you want to do this now, click here.
You might think we've been eating too many pecans and have gone nuts, but we're also thinking this: that by working in our own neighbourhoods, and generally working closer together, we will start to forge new community links. Knowledge about good work spreads from house to house, and following good work and good treatment, good pricing and people skills will be called for again and again by our neighbours. And it's a more interesting place to live when people talk to each other! We no longer walk down the street to the shoemaker's house to get a shoe mended, as he's out working in a shop on the other side of London. But little enjoyments like a recipe swap or a shared thought can lead to a new adventure! Food in particular is a great place to start. By sharing, someone might learn to cook vindaloo while someone else might learn to cook peking duck. A friend of mine who speaks Polish said he might put up a note to offer help to translate for others and help with bus cards and paperwork in his spare time. A good example of how word gets around locally happened at my home. I've been giving away cress from the garden, which is as tasty as rocket in a salad. The waves and hellos I've been getting have spread to three streets! Aside from the monetary value of making a living, this is really what we mean by a local services network - a support net for somewhere friendly, peaceful and fun to live.