Different Strokes started life in 1999 and was founded by Robert Crawford, who at the time was an amateur cyclist when he began working as a one-man band painter carrying out small, domestic projects from his bicycle, with tins of paint on his handle bars and a ladder over his shoulder. Following the successful completion of his first contract, the work kept coming in, and in 2001, Different Strokes Painting and Decorating was born. By this time Robert realised he needed help and employed two decorators, and in 2002, enrolled the help of May, his girlfriend, to look after the financial side of the business. Robert married May in 2006 and the Different Strokes family began to grow.
