Looking to start a window cleaning business

[dazmond]

over the last 26 years ive seen a lot of window cleaners come and go.....im still going!a lot of people dont stick at it.......

 

[harunh]

This has been a problem in my area. We're saturated with window cleaners and I know of one who has an entire estate stitched up as trad work and it's a big estate too - probably a minimum of 15 roads but everywhere you knock it's a no - got a trad cleaner. Spoke to him a while back and he openly atmitted he got well over 6 weeks of rolling work to keep him busy and didn't want anymore unless convenient to him - oh and he's been doing it 25 years. Fair play to him he's done well but it does make it harder for us newbies to get established. I started in March / April and it's been a constant uphill struggle to pick up regular work. I'd literally canvass all day and get one regular client if i was lucky and the odd one off job maybe two. Some days nothing - those are hard!

I suppose we'll just have to keep fighting upwards price wise so that the undercutters don't undercut too much...

It will only get more saturated, but i think there is still plenty of work out there, we picked up 900 customers this year, next year i need to target 1,000+ , if your finding it hard to gain customers then u are not working hard enough, u can easily doorknock 10 hours per day and pick up a few customers minimum, one day u may get 20 people saying yes the day after u may only get 1 customer, the main thing is that your customer count is going up, if u pick up 2 customers a day over 6 days that is 12 customers per week / 48 per month which is good !

There is a lot of work out there and always will be but the price will be coming down on window cleaning a lot of people will feel ripped of paying £20.00 for a 3 bed semi when every van in the town is equipped with a reach and wash system and will offer the same service for £5.00 and a free £20 note upon the customer signing up, this is how business will work in the new decade u will get new vans kitted out offering silly prices with signing up vouchers etc, people will be prepared to come in to this market with a heavy marketing campaign to gain customers.



 

 

[harunh]

ill be putting up my prices at least 3 times in the next 10 years just like ive done over the last 10 years so ill be ok....what you fail to realize is most customers dont jump ship just because another cleaner is a fiver cheaper,not in the affluent areas i work anyway......customers put trust,reliability,quality service ABOVE the price they pay...... the cheaper new guys havent got this because they are not tried and tested,also they spend most of their working day travelling because they only get the odd job here and there,if their charging buttons theyll soon go out of business...... thats why the very established guys like me can work part time hours for good money.....?......we ve earned it!

the only way is up and that includes prices for window cleaning.......

Thinking of putting my prices up in the next 12 months aswell, will have to take the jump at some point lol and yeah they will jump ship if u read my previous post..

Customers love freebies these days, customers will take a £20.00 note to jump ship of course they would lol,

There is a lot of work out there and always will be but the price will be coming down on window cleaning a lot of people will feel ripped of paying £20.00 for a 3 bed semi when every van in the town is equipped with a reach and wash system and will offer the same service for £5.00 and a free £20 note upon the customer signing up, this is how business will work in the new decade u will get new vans kitted out offering silly prices with signing up vouchers etc, people will be prepared to come in to this market with a heavy marketing campaign to gain customers.



 

 

[Tango]

There is a lot of work out there and always will be but the price will be coming down on window cleaning a lot of people will feel ripped of paying £20.00 for a 3 bed semi when every van in the town is equipped with a reach and wash system and will offer the same service for £5.00 and a free £20 note upon the customer signing up, this is how business will work in the new decade u will get new vans kitted out offering silly prices with signing up vouchers etc, people will be prepared to come in to this market with a heavy marketing campaign to gain customers.

Yet we keep hearing of windys who give up after spending £mega on gear, charging stupidly low prices, failing to make a reasonable profit and then giving up. GreenPro and others have frequently said about those who can't hack it and drop off the radar. Then you have the cold..

Yes I do agree to a point that it's becoming the answer tomore peoples prayers and yes in this area that's definitely happened but I suspect in reality prices will kinda settle at a neutral point where they won't go any lower but won't get much higher either - ruling out further newbies from entering.

 

[THL4KEL]

I know of a few, they got made redundant, or had a workplace accident and got a sizable amount of cash. They set up with top spec equipment and then aim to make £15 an hour, basically because that's all they need to maintain the lifestyle they had..

 

[Suhrly]

This is a really hard question to answer. I could take 3 hours to write this answer out there's so much to consider. Firstly, if you were unemployed the easy answer would be, 'what have you got to lose?'. But with you having a decent wage coming in, and security...it changes the game completely.

When I first started I was only working in bands on the weekend so I had nothing to lose and could take my time canvassing in my area and slowly but surely building my round up. It takes TIME mate. It takes literally blood, sweat and tears to get to where you would like to be in this game. The successful lads on here are the grafters who have been hammering away at this game for years with a lot of ambition. But, we also imo, love our jobs. Now, unless you instantly buy a round from somewhere, bringing in £1500 a month is gonna take some time! Bearing in mind you also have to learn how to actually clean windows as well! Yeah, it's not rocket science but there is a learning curve and mistakes are easy to make if you don't know what you're doing which will cost you customers essentially. I paid my dues doing Trad for 4 years first before I switched to water fed pole and I definitely believe I'm a better water fedder as a result. When we all start up we're gonna be very very slow until we learn the job and start to speed up, so all that has to be taken into consideration too. Have you ever done manual labour before? 

Will you even ENJOY cleaning windows? Will you enjoy heading out to work in the freezing cold all day like at this time of year? Or opposite, working in the scorching sun all day (something I personally don't like). Will you enjoy getting knock backs, dealing with awkward and sometimes nasty customers? Will you enjoy being your own boss and having to be self motivated? These are questions you have to ask yourself and not just 'such and such is making good money so I'm gonna do that'. There's a lot more to it than that believe me!

Are there many window cleaners in your area? Before I would even consider wrapping your job in I would make sure I had a decent 'starting' customer base so you know you'll be at least bringing in some money.

Sorry if this post comes across as a little negative, I'm just very worried when people say they are leaving a good job to start up. I'm just hitting you with the straight up facts and reality of it. Yes, with a lot of hard graft you can make very good money....as long as you're willing to work very very hard.

Good luck.

 

[Iron Giant]

Self motivation and some realisation that you have to make it on your own with no help or back up and no 4 weeks paid holiday, I think @Suhrly has explained things well, there is no point getting all doey eyed about how much lads say they earn on here and people thinking it's an easy job to do, 

My wife sometimes says anyone can clean windows, yes they could I say, but are they capable of running a successful business, they are two very different things

 

[dazmond]

Self motivation and some realisation that you have to make it on your own with no help or back up and no 4 weeks paid holiday, I think @Suhrly has explained things well, there is no point getting all doey eyed about how much lads say they earn on here and people thinking it's an easy job to do, 

My wife sometimes says anyone can clean windows, yes they could I say, but are they capable of running a successful business, they are two very different things

not everyone can clean windows.........look at your customers inside windows....i bet you ll find most people cant clean them to a good standard at all!?

 

[dazmond]

one of the reasons newbies pack in window cleaning within the first year is they cant pick up enough work and cant make half the money lots of us earn hour after hour......certainly not enough to live on comfortably,couple this with non payers/bad payers,bad weather,boredom,etc....you need a very strong self motivation to succeed......

It will only get more saturated, but i think there is still plenty of work out there, we picked up 900 customers this year, next year i need to target 1,000+ , if your finding it hard to gain customers then u are not working hard enough, u can easily doorknock 10 hours per day and pick up a few customers minimum, one day u may get 20 people saying yes the day after u may only get 1 customer, the main thing is that your customer count is going up, if u pick up 2 customers a day over 6 days that is 12 customers per week / 48 per month which is good !

There is a lot of work out there and always will be but the price will be coming down on window cleaning a lot of people will feel ripped of paying £20.00 for a 3 bed semi when every van in the town is equipped with a reach and wash system and will offer the same service for £5.00 and a free £20 note upon the customer signing up, this is how business will work in the new decade u will get new vans kitted out offering silly prices with signing up vouchers etc, people will be prepared to come in to this market with a heavy marketing campaign to gain customers.



 

why do you need so many customers?are you franchising?

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I've noticed a transition stage in the price of window cleaning now going on. The cheap guys are leaving or being squeezed out. Homeowners are willing to spend money on maintaining their property now.

 

[harunh]

one of the reasons newbies pack in window cleaning within the first year is they cant pick up enough work and cant make half the money lots of us earn hour after hour......certainly not enough to live on comfortably,couple this with non payers/bad payers,bad weather,boredom,etc....you need a very strong self motivation to succeed......

why do you need so many customers?are you franchising?

Just put a 5th van on the road, we are always growing year on year, and no we are not a franchise, but i am looking to open a franchise based window cleaning business in the future.

Would be nice to have a company based firm and a franchise based firm operating in the same area ?  What do you reckon @dazmond Lol
 

 

[dazmond]

Just put a 5th van on the road, we are always growing year on year, and no we are not a franchise, but i am looking to open a franchise based window cleaning business in the future.

Would be nice to have a company based firm and a franchise based firm operating in the same area ?  What do you reckon @dazmond Lol
 

theres a guy i went to school with who is a franchisee.....he seems to be doing quite well but works at lot more hours than me.......im happy  working 30 hours a week or less(including admin,purifying water,etc).......im not bothered about employing again.......the simpler i keep my life the happier i am....?..i like being on the tools.....

 

[Iron Giant]

not everyone can clean windows.........look at your customers inside windows....i bet you ll find most people cant clean them to a good standard at all!?

Exactly, nail on the head, the assumption people make that it's easy, I have no doubt most of us if not all have had complaints about marks that have turned out to be on the inside, us wfp cleaners that have been on the go sometime know what it takes to get the best results and work efficiently make it look easier than it is.

 

[cleaniac]

I often say this to new starters. 

Window cleaning looks like easy money; but it reality its hard work.

1. You are not a priority service. 

2. You will be treated badly most of the time to start with. 

3. Your new customer sign-ups will be the dross that every other window cleaner started with, that includes bad payers, dog poop gardens, and messers. 

4. To realistically get to a stable round that is consistently turning over at least £1500 a month; your looking at approx 5 years. You will achieve £1500 in sign ups probably in 15 months; but they will not be stable good customers and you will have to keep replacing the **** customers to keep bringing in the same money for a long time to come.

5. If you are working as a sole trader, beware that turning over anything more than £3000 per month will start to become an issue with personal tax liability as HMRC require payments on account for the following year of one half the tax due for the current year, plus NI. This catches a lot of self employed people out as you have to find another 5 or so grand on top of your current tax bill to put towards the next year; and if you are continuing to grow fast, this issue becomes a big problem for some.

6. Expect to only receive a 3rd of your money at any one time, so if you have a day where you have £300 of work booked in, expect to only be able to live on £100 in the immediate term, and have to drag the payments off of everyone else over the next 2 or 3 weeks.

7. Weather will hinder you; I work in all weathers, but even after 18 years doing this job, quite often i feel like throwing in the towel at winter time when i'm having to come home day after day caked in mud and dog poo you didn't know you mashed into your hoses.

8. Window cleaning can make you good money, but so can any job if you work hard enough. By the time you are turning over £60k a year, as a stable income, you will be well hacked off with the job and it will be too late for you to start any other career...well done you are a seasoned window cleaner...screwed...lolol

Good luck...LOL  

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Window cleaning looks like easy money; but it reality its hard work.

What I will say is this:- After a full day window cleaning especially using ladders it will make you sleep like a baby. First two years is the hardest when more seems to be going out than coming in.

 

[Chris33]

Got to disagree with the comment about 5 years to get to 1.5k a month. I am a sorry but that's ridiculous, it doesnt even take a year. 

With gocardless now too, payments are guaranteed and may bounce (rarely) but you just resubmit again. No dross included. 

Done a fair whack today and all in my bank before xmas, the lot. No chasing. No need to be chasing in this age of technological payment options. 

 

[mike007]

over the last 26 years ive seen a lot of window cleaners come and go.....im still going!a lot of people dont stick at it.......

Agree...lots of Newbies think it is all a bed of roses...they forget about the physical graft,working in poor weather,time lost going from one job to another,poor payers,poor earning weeks,no work no pay.

They think if they set up, customers will come running to them, they can do a couple hours a week and live like kings !!!.

 

[Iron Giant]

Got to disagree with the comment about 5 years to get to 1.5k a month. I am a sorry but that's ridiculous, it doesnt even take a year. 

With gocardless now too, payments are guaranteed and may bounce (rarely) but you just resubmit again. No dross included. 

Done a fair whack today and all in my bank before xmas, the lot. No chasing. No need to be chasing in this age of technological payment options. 

I think you are a proven exception, 3 vans in 3 years if my memory serves me correctly also their is other members on here as well who have done very well in recent years starting from scratch.

 

[mike007]

What I will say is this:- After a full day window cleaning especially using ladders it will make you sleep like a baby. First two years is the hardest when more seems to be going out than coming in.

Agree, same with speeding up with experience. You do not try to rush around faster....you just find you do jobs quicker and more efficiently as time goes by thus increasing your hourly rate without expending any more energy.

 

[Chris33]

I think you are a proven exception, 3 vans in 3 years if my memory serves me correctly also their is other members on here as well who have done very well in recent years starting from scratch.

Na mate. Currently at 1 window van 1 add on one but need staff for add on one again ? cos we are packed on the window one. 

 

[dazmond]

Got to disagree with the comment about 5 years to get to 1.5k a month. I am a sorry but that's ridiculous, it doesnt even take a year. 

With gocardless now too, payments are guaranteed and may bounce (rarely) but you just resubmit again. No dross included. 

Done a fair whack today and all in my bank before xmas, the lot. No chasing. No need to be chasing in this age of technological payment options. 

maybe your an exception but i think his post is more realistic for the average sole trader starting out from scratch....for it to be a STABLE income month in/month out.........