School does not have cleaning in budget...what to do???

Kyleb15

Kyleb15

New member
There is a huge elementary school in my area that needs a terrible cleaning. I would estimate the job anywhere from 5 to 10 grand. I do not know exactly. I offered to do a free, no obligation cleaning, just to show them what a difference it would make. They replied with, nope it isn't in our budget. What would you guys do? Wait out till next year? I was thinking about telling them I will do it for the price of chemicals, or maybe completely free. Just to use it as a job that I've done. Maybe convince them to let me do one half and leave the other dirty for an advertisement. How would you folks go about doing this?

Keep in mind there is no one that cleans in the area, I am creating the market right now.
 
There probably isn't much of a budget. I would move on and look for other takers. That's a big job to do for cheap or free.

Then again I'm not you and I don't know the customer. If you really think that there is hope, simply don't give up till you can give them a demo!
 
If you have the time And the money, And if it's in a zone where people spend money on their homes, Think about doing it in exchange for very visible signs (nice signs, not just coroplast single color) Thanking YOUR NAME HERE for our beutiful school. As well as in all bulletins.
 
My time is free. I can easily dedicate a weekend to doing the job. Money on the other hand would be an issue. But the fact that I could possibly reach tons of families and homeowners is the real attraction. The school district is huge. They have 19 elementary schools, 3 juniors, 3 middles and 4 high schools. If I could get on the newsletter, or bulletin, and put a big banner in front it would be great. Very little work on there part for a big job done for free.
 
Yes it is one school. What I meant was the district is large...so the possibility of getting my name out there is high. I also have not seen all of the other buildings so they may want to do cleaning on them next year if need be.
 
Can you exchange for advertisement in the year book?
Maybe a sign in the gym or the auditorium?
Your logo on some t-shirts?

I would find something to swap it out with. But if you can't then make a big deal of it that your helping the community and call some news channels to come out there when you do it.
 
If the princible stil wont agrre, take pictures to the board and ask them why these poor children should get their half a$& education in such filth when I'm offering basically free services.
 
Ashley Phillips said:
Can you exchange for advertisement in the year book?
Maybe a sign in the gym or the auditorium?
Your logo on some t-shirts?

I would find something to swap it out with. But if you can't then make a big deal of it that your helping the community and call some news channels to come out there when you do it.
Click to expand...
Now that is a great idea! If I'm doing all this for free then they better put me in every ad they have.

The news idea is just brilliant. I never would have thought of that! I think they would really go for it too, a small business giving back to the community, helping out the schools.

Hot Shot Power Clean said:
If the princible stil wont agrre, take pictures to the board and ask them why these poor children should get their half a$& education in such filth when I'm offering basically free services.
Click to expand...

That is also a great idea. The person I have talked to is the building services director, so he is the main guy. But I do not believe they have power over the board, especially when I am offering a free service.
 
The thing is I haven't price them. I even said I'd do a section for free and if they liked it then we could go further. But I don't doubt that it is out of their budget.

We are talking roof cleaning here, I can do a 3,800 sq ft roof in an hour with everything cleaned up.

But I have not tried emailing the school board president. I really do not want to clean the roof for free. I might be able to talk them into pay for the chemical cost. I dunno. I may just wait it out and see if they fit it into the budget.
 
What is your charge for the 3800 sq. ft., just curious because my thinking is like John's.
 
Here is a partial pic of the school. As you can see the roof is huge, much bigger than what the pic shows. Plus there is more school behind that. The way the school is laid out cleaning wouldn't be a problem because as you can see there aren't many weird designs or landscape in the way.

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I would approach the Superintendent of Schools, maybe by email at first. There are normally discretionary funds that could be put toward a job like this. Those funds are usually held by the Superintendent and released as needed. Of course, with the economy, those funds may already be gone.
If roof cleaning is not a commonly know practice in your area yet, it may just be an education thing. Thats what I am faced with. If you let the Superintendent know what the problem is and that it CAN be corrected, they may move forward.
If you decide to do it for "free", I would request banners in all gynasiums and/or at the High School football fields. I like the idea of the yearbook ad and your logo on t-shirts. An artical in newsletters and on the districts website wouldn't cost them anything more than they are already spending for those items. Television coverage is a win - win. You look good and the district looks good for working with you to address the problem.
No matter what, you have tremendous potential to get good press from doing this job. Human interest stories are pretty popular with News stations here, so getting a crew to cover this shouldn't be too difficult. It doesn't get much better than a small business owner giving back to the community on a fairly large scale. I think $5K - $10K is pretty large scale, especially for a small business. I admire you for considering doing the job for free in the first place.
Good Luck!!
 
Realisticaly, I'd wouldn't spend a ton of time on this, $10k is a huge amount for a school district. I would do some follow up calls, emails, etc. but that's about it.

I would take the $ from the materials cost and time you are considering giving away, and have some professional door hangers made up and get them out.

It would be a better idea if this were a commercial establishment, schools only have so much $ to pass around especially in this economy.
 
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