Claire has made a great start in the new Cheltenham branch of Green Mop. She has secured a few domestic cleaning customers in the Cheltenham area in her first few weeks of business. Cheltenham householders have responded positively, and are happy to now have an eco friendly cleaning service on their doorstep. Anouk in Cheltenham said, “Thanks for doing such a great job - the house feels great!”.

Claire has also secured a couple of commercial cleaning contracts, with great feedback. One new customer was a little bit cynical about ‘the green cleaning thing’, but was amazed at the sparkling results.

With more competitive quotes out there to be followed up, I’m really pleased with Claire’s flying start. She has lined up some Green Moppers to take on more cleaning work as it comes in, so has capacity for more domestic and commercial cleaning customers. So if you’re in the Cheltenham or Worcester areas, get in touch!

An interview Racheal did with the brilliant Julie Stanford from Essential Business - www.essential-business.co.uk

We are delighted to be shortlisted for The Responsible Business Award at this year’s Brighton and Hove Business Awards.

The BAHBAs are being combined with the Sussex Business Awards. So there will be one big celebration of local businesses at The Grand at the beginning of December.

Wish us luck!

Dealing with commercial waste is an issue for many of our customers. Most businesses that use our services would want to know that the stuff they throw away is dealt with in the most planet friendly way possible. That’s why I was so pleased and excited to hear of the plans that Brighton Paper Round have for the future. They have partnered up with Magpie, whom I’m sure you all know and love, and offer excellent recycling solutions for businesses across our city. They are working towards a Zero-to-Landfill service, with plans to recycle almost everything, including food. Stuff that can’t be recycled will be sent to an Energy from Waste facility to create electricity. All cost effectively. What’s not to like! More info on their website.

I went to the ever popular Brighton and Hove Chamber networking breakfast this morning. We got to talking about how the atmosphere of friendliness is, perhaps, quite unique to our city.

We’re all in it together. Success of our individual businesses will reflect on our community as a whole. If we all support each other and do business with a smile rather than a snarl, then I like to think that this has a positive effect on us all.

We all have competitors, but if you believe you’re offering a great product or service then there is room for us all. We’ll all win some, we’ll all lose some. But let’s stay friendly!

There are a lot of local cleaning companies who Green Mop competes with, along with some national ones. The national companies want to come in and “steamroller” the local ones. So my one plea would be to choose local. It may not be Green Mop, it may be one of my competitors, but please choose a local business. It benefits us all in the long run.
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Did you know that Johnny Sparkles does our site inspections and has his own Sparkle-o-Meter scale? All our hardworking Green Moppers have to pass the Sparkle test to get good marks on the site inspection. So Johnny has demanded his own page on the website so that he can explain what he’s marking people on, how he decides the score and why. He’s like the Simon Cowell of Green Mop - harsh, but fair. Only he can judge if a Green Mopper has The Mop Factor.

So I’m getting the lovely Zone 1 Creative chaps to add the special page. I’ll let you know when it’s ready….
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This is Chris. He takes his work very seriously, as you can tell. He has been chosen as our latest Green Mopper of the month.

Chris is the most helpful and hard working young person I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. This is his second Green Mopper award, and Johnny Sparkles thinks that we should rename it to the Chris Tucker Award as he shows the attitude and work ethic of a true Green Mop hero.

So thank you for all the hard work and commitment you continually show. Thanks for covering jobs at the last minute, and being a great example to all the team.
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We’ve had a good year here at Green Mop. In our fourth year of business, it really feels like we have established ourselves and our direction during 2010.

It’s been a difficult year for businesses, but we’ve still managed significant growth, even with the sale of the domestic side of Green Mop in the summer. Being able to focus fully on our commercial customers has helped Green Mop to push on and increase our share of a competitive market. I’d like to thank all those we’ve done business with in 2010. The whole team at Green Mop appreciate your faith in us.

Our team of Green Moppers has grown too. Cleaning is hard work, and we obviously rely on our cleaning teams to provide a consistently good service to all our customers. We have a wide range of people working with us; students, house husbands, people with day jobs, as well as a core of full timers. All of them have played their part in a successful year, and I thank them all.

So, looking forward to 2011, I hope that even more local businesses will turn to us for their cleaning needs, which will mean more jobs for local people.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas!

This is our lovely Darius who has been voted by the team as the Green Mopper of the Month for November.

Darius is an enthusiastic and hard working Green Mopper and he’s always willing to take on challenging jobs with a smile. His cleaning is always to a very high standard, and he gets consistently high scores on the Sparkle-ometer scale (which is hard because Johnny Sparkles is very hard to impress!).

So, thanks for all your hard work Darius!