New To The Window Cleaning World...

[Carl Parsons]

Hi Everyone,

I'm want to start my own wfp business next year with a 250 litre tank in the back of a Citroen dispatch. i'm only wanting to do about 25 hours a week an earn at least £600 in the yorkshire area.

im really looking for advice as to how much it cost to maintain all the equipment and if anyone else in the yorkshire area could tell me how much there earning (roughly) per month?

also how much it would cost me for a basic package (tank, pump, poles etc) and where you'd reccomend i should go to for it.

appreciate all your help

carl.p

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

Welcome, Im sure someone here iis from your area and will be able to provide you with the info you need

 

[Dodger]

Hia mate, one or two from your area I think & welcome.

 

[daley]

wot bit of yourks u from ?

 

[mark m]

Welcome to the forum Carl

 

[CNS-southwest]

Welcome mate.

It all depends if you are going to kit out your van or pay someone to do it. Usually £2000-£3000 to pay for it to be kitted out, could do it yourself sooo much cheaper if our any good at DIY lol

 

[Carl Parsons]

cheers for the warm welcome /emoticons/smile.png

im in scarborough area and moving to york 2014. would be great to hear from local people

i'm willing to pay for someone to fit it as im pretty useless when comes to d.i.y

ive spent a few hours looking through the forums on here and learnt quite abit. it seems id be better of buying poles seperate etc..

you think i could get the ro system and tank fitted for £2500?

also guys, thinking about the signage on the van any recommendations on where to get them from? wanting two side signs and a back one, maybe a few bits of writing here and there. any quotes?

sorry for asking so many questions....

 

[Carl Parsons]

also.. the maintanence side, how much you reckon it costs to run a wfp system a year?

 

[daley]

not that local

 

[Gavin]

Welcome aboard buddy

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Iain]

Hi Carl

Welcome to the forum

 

[harunh]

Welcome to the forum mate

how old are u and what did u do before?

What made u choose window cleaning?

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

also.. the maintanence side, how much you reckon it costs to run a wfp system a year?

That will depend on your TDS reading and how much water you use per day / week

 

[Carl Parsons]

That will depend on your TDS reading and how much water you use per day / week

im not sure wat my tds reading here is, i know im in a hard water area and i need an ro tank. an im looking to be doing around 2-3 days a week part time doing around 4 hours a day. am going to be getting a 250ltr tank.

 

[Carl Parsons]

Welcome to the forum mate

how old are u and what did u do before?

What made u choose window cleaning?

im nearly 25 now and am in a fortunate position where ive got a safe income coming in (working from home) but have some spare time i need to fill. ive always wanted to work for myself and also work outdoors (even in winter) im not afraid of hard graft and ive heard some brilliant things about window cleaning. Also am going to looking into joining the business up with pressure washing drives and bins etc.. ive done soooo many jobs i cant count and finally the home business has paid off but im missing the outdoor world!

 

[Carl Parsons]

Hi Carl

Welcome to the forum

cheers for the welcome /emoticons/smile.png

any advice is much appreciated!

 

[harunh]

sounds good mate

good luck

 

[Carl Parsons]

sounds good mate

good luck

cheers, this forum seems like a good source for information on the business, deff be hanging around for info

 

[Paul]

Hi mate welcome to The forum

 

[M.K Cleaners.co.uk]

im nearly 25 now and am in a fortunate position where ive got a safe income coming in (working from home) but have some spare time i need to fill. ive always wanted to work for myself and also work outdoors (even in winter) im not afraid of hard graft and ive heard some brilliant things about window cleaning. Also am going to looking into joining the business up with pressure washing drives and bins etc.. ive done soooo many jobs i cant count and finally the home business has paid off but im missing the outdoor world!

I thought about doing bin to start with... Untill I found out they take 1.50 to clean your bucket here

 

[spruce]

Hi Carl,

On the first post you have advised that you want to work part time 2 or 3 days a week - 25 hours. On one of the later posts you want to work 2 to 3 days but 4 hours a day.

If you want to earn £600 per week that's £24 per hour working 25 hours but is £50 to £75 if you use the figures on the latter post.

I am not sure what window cleaning prices are in York, but if they are in line with general pricing in the North East area then I personally think that £24 per hour isn't a realistic target as its rather high.

You maybe able to achieve this periodically, but not day in and day out, especially to begin with.

Firstly, if the average price for a 3 bedroom semi is £8.00 in York then you would need to complete 4 houses an hour, 32 houses a day. To do that you will need to have compact work where you can get on and 'plough' through it. You maybe able to achieve it in the first couple of hours, but as the day goes by you get tired and your performance drops. (Maybe the price of £8 is a little low as York is part of the daily commutor belt to London, so some of those will have the London pricing mentality. However, having worked in York in the motor trade for a number of years, I also know that York has a large poor population, mainly due to the high cost of owning property.)

Sadly when you start off, the chances of you canvassing compact work to achieve this is just about nil. We have been growing our round for 8 years and have work all over the place as there isn't any compact work left. Any rounds for sale are snapped up.

Next issue is the amount of water you want to carry. My son uses a backpack mainly and works on an average of 18 liters for 1 and a 1/2 houses (3 bed semis). If he could achieve 32 houses a day, he would need 425 liters of water a day. He is quite economical with his water usage.

We also can't count on working a full week because of the weather. Working at 2 different careers does make achieving window cleaning targets more difficult. Sods law says the day you have arranged to spend on your other business, ie visiting customers etc, will be the perfect day for window cleaning.

Over the years I have seen different cleaners trying to incorporate carpet cleaning into their business as a way of beating the weather, but they usually end up with carpet cleaning appointments on perfect window cleaning days and no carpet cleaning when the weather is iffy.

Edited. York is on the river Ouse, which is flooded at the moment. Large areas of York are affected by flooding - during these times people have far more important things on their minds than bothering with needing clean windows. In the 3 years I worked there we had 3 floods, and sales became few and far between during those times and took months to recover. Most households can't get house insurance in York so any repair works are usually funded from their savings.

Some see window cleaning as easy money - it isn't I'm afraid.