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What did you do before window cleaning

A carer for adults with learning disabilities. Loved the job but pay was very poor. I liked the idea of being my own boss and working outdoors and saw potential in window cleaning. Our old window cleaner used to charge £10 and took 15 mins tops so thought “I’ll have some of that!”

 
I had a few spells plumbing, a small  length of time on gas also, and a long spell as a chef. Qualified in both.

Couldn’t see myself working 16 hour shifts in a 40 degree kitchen all my life. The stress was unbelievable. Easy way to end up in an early grave. Employment conditions nothing short of terrible.

i didnt fit in well plumbing either. I’m a good plumber but there’s so much you need to be able to do with it (tiling/carpentry, bathrooms) etc etc and i struggled with these aspects. Also got very stressed out on gas, didnt last long. I went through a fast track course rather than time served and struggled on site big time. The risks are high if you mess up. Carbon monoxide/gas explosions etc etc are all potential hazards. It got to my head and i couldnt relax. Plumbing & gas isnt the most pleasant of trades either when you’ve ripped out a few university toilet blocks smelt tens of thousands of peoples bodily waste you’ve either got the nose for it or you havent, and i havent. Unless youre earning mega money its not worth getting involved in those sort of jobs and of course the money isnt in it. On the domestic side its naff as well working in all sorts of run down estates you never know if theyre drug addicts or whether theres needles lying in unsuspecting places, heating on and theyre on the sofa smoking all day naaaah ? no good.

In the end i just wanted something i could do on my own terms, outside in the fresh air. What was the simplest easiest way to go self employed..window cleaning ?‍♂️

 
Ime a sprayer and panel beater by trade , did that for 16 years but  pay was rubbish so left , been an on call firefighter ( watch manager )for 30 years love the job but the politics and red tape are unbelievable , we are a very busy station up to 90 shouts a month balancing that with running your own buisness is very difficult so reluctantly I decided to leave 18 months ago life has been a lot easier since but I do miss the shouts .  Drove hgvs for wincanton  transport for about 4 years but was away from home a lot and never knew where you were going to be next so gave that up , started working for a friends company as a heating engineer did that for a bit and window cleaner now for 20 years , since wfp buisness has boomed wish it was about when I left school ???

 
Left school at sixteen and straight into a plumbing apprenticeship.

Hated it.

Every day.

Hated it.

Lasted two years and in the naivety of a headstrong eighteen year old i thought there must be something better than seeing what people had eaten the night before and steel wool splinters in your fingers.

Thatcher and mass unemployment put paid to my idealistic "the worlds my oyster" dreams and i ended up signing on for a bit.

I met a girl now my wife and her father had started up window cleaning after taking early redundancy and he asked me to help him out a couple of days a week.

He got busier and i ended working five days a week for him but was cash in hand on the black weather permitting.

At the ripe old age of 24 i borrowed a grand off my parents and bought a mark 1 Ford Fiesta and with the help of Thatchers Enterprise Allowance Scheme i started up my own business.

30 years on i am still at it and to be honest i love it.

Apart from the fact i have to work tomorrow but to be fair it will be only the second Sunday i have been out in all that time.

 
Sales support manager for an agricultural machinery supplier.  I managed the warehouse,  after sales and transport and In the end the demands on me were more than i can handle.   I was sitting at my desk watching the window cleaners do £100 in 15 minutes, and wondered why i was taking the world on my shoulders for people that would never appreciate  or understand how hard i worked for them.   So with a wife,  two kids, a big mortgage and few savings I handed in my notice.  Looking back - I think it was quite brave having never cleaned a window before, but I did have great family support who had faith in me making a success of it.  At the time,  it felt like I was heading for an emotional breakdown,  so leaving my previous employment was the only choice I could make

 
Did you guys ever worry about dropping from a (better job title role) to window cleaning IV been offered. Job window cleaning done a few hours trail and I loved it but I'm a paint sprayer at the moment and feel like I'm being a dropout in a way but I just don't enjoy it ?

 
Did you guys ever worry about dropping from a (better job title role) to window cleaning IV been offered. Job window cleaning done a few hours trail and I loved it but I'm a paint sprayer at the moment and feel like I'm being a dropout in a way but I just don't enjoy it ?




Funny you say this a friend friend of mine started window cleaning from school and I was an apprentice sprayer panel beater and I thought I was a cut above him doing a skilled job , but he always earned far more than I ever did for what as far as I was concerned an unskilled job , now I don’t care what job I do provided I can pay the bills and earn reasonable money and be my own boss being a window cleaner doesn’t bother me in fact many of my customers that are white collar workers little do they realise I earn more than they do per hour ???

 
Funny you say this a friend friend of mine started window cleaning from school and I was an apprentice sprayer panel beater and I thought I was a cut above him doing a skilled job , but he always earned far more than I ever did for what as far as I was concerned an unskilled job , now I don’t care what job I do provided I can pay the bills and earn reasonable money and be my own boss being a window cleaner doesn’t bother me in fact many of my customers that are white collar workers little do they realise I earn more than they do per hour ???
Would you do it if you were Guna take a pay cut for a while though I will be self employed but working as a subbie 

 
Would you do it if you were Guna take a pay cut for a while though I will be self employed but working as a subbie 




I did initially take a pay cut when I started window cleaning but had money coming in from the Fireservice each month ,so this helped pay the bills , if you have the drive and confidence that you can make it work go for  it , I wouldn’t want to  be beholding to someone else for sub contracts for my income but to get me going I would do it , and build my own work at the same time then once I had enough I would try and buy the sub contracted work or give it up . 

 
Did you guys ever worry about dropping from a (better job title role) to window cleaning IV been offered. Job window cleaning done a few hours trail and I loved it but I'm a paint sprayer at the moment and feel like I'm being a dropout in a way but I just don't enjoy it ?


It never occurred to me that I was "stepping down in the world" as I've never looked down on anyone else before.  I soon realised when I started, that most other people do - and I struggled with their new perception of me.  Only since making a success of it, have I been comfortable with being "just a window cleaner"...

 
I did initially take a pay cut when I started window cleaning but had money coming in from the Fireservice each month ,so this helped pay the bills , if you have the drive and confidence that you can make it work go for  it , I wouldn’t want to  be beholding to someone else for sub contracts for my income but to get me going I would do it , and build my own work at the same time then once I had enough I would try and buy the sub contracted work or give it up . 
Thanks for the advice bud ye it's good gig get a van fuel payed but your self employed so will be good to get some experience and just enjoy being here there and everywhere and being active 

It never occurred to me that I was "stepping down in the world" as I've never looked down on anyone else before.  I soon realised when I started, that most other people do - and I struggled with their new perception of me.  Only since making a success of it, have I been comfortable with being "just a window cleaner"...
Ye I'm not the kind to look down at all but unfortunately most people are but I think I am just overthinking 

 
Before I found my calling in life as a window cleaner I was part of a rebel alliance that worked tirelessly to bring down an evil empire... Well, I worked for the  Government in education and children’s rights ( mind numbing ) a more backward organisation you’ll never find, I spoke my mind and now I clean glass and I’m  the better for it.

I love to see how uncomfortable previous work colleagues get when they ask what I’m doing now. If they only knew how much happier I am knowing what I say goes! 

This job is more mentally stimulating and challenging than the nonsense I previously endured.

 
I was in child care. My mum runs her own business doing it but no money in it anymore. Folk can’t afford/don’t want to pay to have their children properly taken care of and all the grants have been cut. Then to really help make sure the industry dies, they insisted every lead practioner (the person in charge of the club/nursery) now has to have a degree. So we have a generation in there 40s, 50s having to go back to Uni to qualify to take care of children despite doing it forever! 

I was meant to become a lead practitioner and was looking at this, looking at spending at least two evenings a week at classes (on top of working at the job itself during the day) for 3 or 4 years, and comparing it to the prospective pay for all this work.

Like I said, it’s a dying industry. 

 
All sorts lol. Never really fell into anything much that I liked and the things I wanted to do were out of reach due to a **** youth / education caused by a troublesome parent who was a massive hinderance.

So my last (and current) job was with a large national retailer. I got that job in October after having been out of work for 6 odd years on health grounds. Health wise I still ain't right but i'm coping (ish). Anyway before that i did all sorts from civil service to cab driving - the latter being the most fun at weekends when you had all the party goers / home goers. Got a bit lonely at times but when you had a passenger(s) it was so easy to get chit chatting and it was awesome.

Anyway.. my current job was 20 hours but that got axed down to 12 due to my partners working shifts being so erratic. Needed to do something.. so our windy suggested the idea to me. Completely sold me on "no stress in this job", "if i don't want to go out one day i just don't go", "i go out when i want" and several other key phrases that appealed to me. Not having to give anyone my address, be qualified, be accountable to the boss, work specific hours etc is very appealing. I may *only* be a window cleaner but it's the best job I've ever had / done for working conditions. Although there are still other jobs I'd like a crack at (and maybe once earning enough via this i might look at those as self employment ideas), I'd be quite happy to carry on as a windy.

 
Left school at 16 to work for the family business, buying aluminium scrap to be melted down and converted into de-oxidising ingot for British Steel Teeside as was or to German, French, Italian and Japanese Steel works, or die cast companies. Our biggest customer on this side made the sole plates of irons for Tefal.  Multi million pound turnover with circa 25+ employees. 

Family business sold late 80's, ran the business for the new owners and had countless disagreements until closed end of 98. Kept on till resigned April 99. Self employed working with the original parent company but built up another business supplying a mixed metal product called Zorba for the Chinese, including travelling over there. Made £60k a year profit, played golf twice a week and market 20 phone calls a month. Now that was a job to die for but unfortunately got shagged by the Chinese. 

Set the windows up for my son in February 2011 and ended up running it from May 2015 to prove family doubters that in 2011 I was right and they were wrong. Still do the scrap job, very hard to walk away from £20k a year wages for 10 hours a month. Love the windows business, almost find it therapeutic, physically getting tougher but as I'm 55 I wish I was 35,  Wish I knew what I know now, regarding window cleaning, 20 years ago when building this the of business would've been a doddle. 

Not trying to bull ? anyone, if you know anyone that is seriously big in the scrap game tthey will either know me or know someone that does. If they don't they're not as big as they think.?

 
I did varied jobs from school trainee bricklayer then dry lining worked at various other jobs including window cleaning on and off and never knew what I wanted to do at all and had no drive as such or purpose, then I decided to set up window cleaning over 19 years ago and never really looked back the same year my wife and I planned on getting married and buying our first house and my wifes mam asked her when I was going to get a proper job ? she has never asked again. In my family's eyes i was never going to be the one to succeed as I was marked as failure for many years, turns out those mf's were wrong ?

 
I did my apprenticeship at a school as a computer network administrator. Then I got hired at an optometrists, setting up a new computer system. The software company went bankrupt and I ended up selling spectacles instead.

Then I got an offer for working as a window cleaner part time for more pay than the shop full time, and my the shop couldn't match that.

My boss was one of the rich men of the city and used to laugh and point fingers at me when he drove by a place where I was cleaning. ?

I had all the paperwork ready to start my own business, but due to a car accident I had to stop cleaning. After rehabilitation for the injury I got hired at a large-ish apprentice (?) school at the computer department, and I did some teaching work (analog signal electronics and some automation) as well. That was a great job, but the bureaucracy and inside bickering and politics just ate away at at me.

When we moved to the Faroe Islands I started cleaning windows again, and then my wife and me started our own business, and a year later got the opportunity to buy out a well established business focused on commercial cleaning from a friend who moved.

I can say I have never been happier with my line of work than I have now

 Running a business have been my childhood dream, and I have started subbing out work now as I have too much to do comfortably.

 
Joiner to trade which I enjoyed but far too many tools required to be professional. Joined fire service and it was great, money rubbish but the pension great till they cut it. When I retired I set-up a recycle company and then the oil price collapsed and so did my company. Moved into solar panels and the Gov cut the feed in tariff and my solar job disappeared. Moved into wooden fencing which I really enjoyed but it was only seasonal. Then my window cleaner fell off his ladder and never came back so I bought a starter pack and did mine and the neighbor. Next thing I knew I had customers up the street and then round the corner. 2yrs later I have over 70 customers all over the place and any money I make I just reinvest in the business. Next month I get a 9k grippatank system installed and my business will have no debt. I make most of my money from add-ons, yesterday I did a £160 fsg clean where I fixed a gutter union and a blocked downpipe so they gave me a £15 tip. All my big add-ons come through Checkatrade, if I wasn't so busy I would join trustatrader as well. 

 
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Served my time as a welder but really didn't like it so as soon as I was done my 4 years I left. That was to the late 80s and then right into the 90s I done different jobs and enjoyed the rave scene and loads of partying. 

Got into window cleaning about 20 odd years ago helping some other bloke then about 17 years ago I bought a round and just went from there. 

I love being my own boss and working outside. 

 
Really interesting thread.

I was a flat roofer labourer for 6 years. Worked for the same guy. Lovely guy. But i was never gonna get the wages I was aiming for. So had to leave.

I quite enjoyed it though. I Had most of the tools. Mixture of sub contracting & his own work. We traveled from Bournemouth, to Brighton, to North London to Barnstable (that was a long day!!) We did all types of flat roofing, torch on felt, loads of different types of single ply (the rubbery stuff) and liquid plastics (basically very good & expensive water proof paint) 

But I didn’t have enough confidence to ever do it on my own. 

I actually left to work for another wfp window cleaner. He got a second van on the road etc, I did 3 days a week for a few months, loved it.

But then started up on my own.

Best work decision i ever made. 

Its funny I remember telling my old roofing boss if I can long term earn £100-£120 with him (before tax) I’ll be happy. 

Now id be annoyed if I didn't that in 3-4hrs or whatever, doing easier work. (Not that money alone is the key to happiness)

My plan was to be a plumber when I left school. Did city & guilds 1 year full time course at college. But I wasn’t that into it tbh. And I came to realise I’m not good at fiddly & some complicated things. 

And here I am, 5 years in. 

 
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