Advice appreciated for starting a new window cleaning business

[shazad]

Hi my name is Shazad and I am new to this forum. I have 2 years of commercial and residential window cleaning experience from a company I worked for. Due to the Pandemic I was made redundant and I am looking to open up my own business.

Would be very grateful if anyone can help with advice with setting up my own business. What kind of van and system can you recommend? What insurances do I require for my business? I am interested in the 650 Litre Tank Water fed pole system?  Where can I purchase and get the 650 litre tank system installed from? What kind of system do you think is the best? I have a clientele of a few residential but mainly commercial clients.

 I would be very grateful if anyone can assist me with any of this information.

Kind Regards

Shazad

kind regards

Shazad

 

[Cookie]

Sounds to me like you've as much experience as many on here.

You're going to need a decent sized van to carry 650L of water (Transit sized with 1,200kg+ payload). I would suggest giving Pure Freedom a call - they're usually pretty helpful.

 

[Deleted member 7446]

Hi my name is Shazad and I am new to this forum. I have 2 years of commercial and residential window cleaning experience from a company I worked for. Due to the Pandemic I was made redundant and I am looking to open up my own business.

Would be very grateful if anyone can help with advice with setting up my own business. What kind of van and system can you recommend? What insurances do I require for my business? I am interested in the 650 Litre Tank Water fed pole system?  Where can I purchase and get the 650 litre tank system installed from? What kind of system do you think is the best? I have a clientele of a few residential but mainly commercial clients.

 I would be very grateful if anyone can assist me with any of this information.

Kind Regards

Shazad

kind regards

Shazad

Good evening. Using the forum search facility will best aid you in finding all of the relevant answers and trusted information you require as your question is one that has been covered almost weekly by many wishing to start out

 

[shazad]

Sounds to me like you've as much experience as many on here.

You're going to need a decent sized van to carry 650L of water (Transit sized with 1,200kg+ payload). I would suggest giving Pure Freedom a call - they're usually pretty helpful.

Thank you for your help I will contact Pure Freedom. 

 

[Part Timer]

Thank you for your help I will contact Pure Freedom. 

As you're in Bradford PF are only an hour or so away. Check your TDS and if you have storage don't get a van mounted system.

 

[shazad]

As you're in Bradford PF are only an hour or so away. Check your TDS and if you have storage don't get a van mounted system.

As you're in Bradford PF are only an hour or so away. Check your TDS and if you have storage don't get a van mounted system.

thank you mate

 

[Daftoldgit]

As for the insurance, you need liability insurance and a health insurance that gives you sick pay, neither is compulsory, but recommended

 

[Spit & polish]

Offer trad your grow faster than just wfp i get knock backs sometimes as people want trad and id rather not carry a ladder for every window, i only use a ladder if its a hard to reach window.

 

[dazmond]

Offer trad your grow faster than just wfp i get knock backs sometimes as people want trad and id rather not carry a ladder for every window, i only use a ladder if its a hard to reach window.

really bad advice IMO......WFP does a great job in the right hands...the last thing he wants to be doing is climbing ladders just to clean an upper window....

 

[Mx19]

Yeah absolutely no reason to offer trad. Learn to do it and have it in your arsenal definitely but no need to sell it, just have it saved for you when you think it’ll be easier (internals or the odd shop front etc) nowadays more and more people understand wfp and even those that think they want trad realise they don’t actually care once they realise wfp does just a good, if not better, job.

 

[Pjj]

You just need to know how to clean properly with wfp NEVER OFFER TRAD AS AN OPTION , shear madness .

 

[Spit & polish]

Alot of people i have canvassed have said the same " i want a bloke who goes up the window and cleans sills properly, i have had 2-3 pole guys and the sills were never clean".

I know i could have picked up at least 10 who said this, but i just thanked them and moved to the next one.

 

[Pjj]

Alot of people i have canvassed have said the same " i want a bloke who goes up the window and cleans sills properly, i have had 2-3 pole guys and the sills were never clean".

I know i could have picked up at least 10 who said this, but i just thanked them and moved to the next one.

Again it’s knowing how to use the pole properly we never get any complaints about dirty sills and we clean over 4,000 accounts a month Ime sure if there was a problem we would soon know about it we have some very fussy customers in multi million pound properties ??

 

[Spit & polish]

Pjj again if someone has had 3 people do wfp their view is formed so unless they watch you for about a year they wont believe you and will want what they know works.

 

[Iron Giant]

Some people want trad because a wfper has provided a below par service, yet some don't look at the fact that most ladder monkey's don't touch the frames, whether trad or wfp we all know there is plenty offering a poor service.

I cleaned our immediate next door neighbours windows on Monday after having the gable end ground out for re-pointing, she has a wfp cleaner, but she said she was amazed at the job I did and the windows have never looked so clean. 

 

[Pjj]

Pjj again if someone has had 3 people do wfp their view is formed so unless they watch you for about a year they wont believe you and will want what they know works.

I offer a free clean and walk away , every single one has phoned and said why don’t they look like that when my cleaner does them , they then become a new customer this isn’t boasting but it’s what I have done for years it takes the wind out of there sails they don’t know what to say worst case scenario is they get a free clean and you have lose 15-20 muinits time , as I say they have always phoned back accepting cleaning with wfp , but obviously the clean needs to be right . 

 

[spruce]

Then you will get the odd one who wants the windows cleaned wfp and then get the ladder out to squeegee them dry. ?

Still think and smile about the couple's house we cleaned for 4 years. They were never in but always happily paid on Friday collection night. Then the last time we cleaned she was in and was disgusted we didn't dry the windows off. She tripped her switch. "You have always been happy with the results of the job we have done these past 4 years." "Yes, but I didn't know you weren't doing them properly."

He then dumped us as he had found a window cleaner who did them properly. To clean the bathroom and toilet window traditionally a trad cleaner would have to walk over a tiled extension roof.

She was and still is a travel agent. And we take her advice when booking a holiday! ?

 

[Part Timer]

I offer a free clean and walk away , every single one has phoned and said why don’t they look like that when my cleaner does them , they then become a new customer this isn’t boasting but it’s what I have done for years it takes the wind out of there sails they don’t know what to say worst case scenario is they get a free clean and you have lose 15-20 muinits time , as I say they have always phoned back accepting cleaning with wfp , but obviously the clean needs to be right . 

Why do you bother? You're very very busy yet will offer someone a free clean to get a customer that doesn't like the method? I'm nowhere near as busy and wouldn't entertain offering a free wash.

 

[NewGuy]

Why do you bother? You're very very busy yet will offer someone a free clean to get a customer that doesn't like the method? I'm nowhere near as busy and wouldn't entertain offering a free wash.

Ditto...!  I'll charm them for 2 minutes to convince them and if this fails, I'll walk away (which hasn't happened yet).

I simply tell them to give it a try and if they don't like the result, they can end my service (which hasn't happened yet).

I wouldn't entertain the notion of providing freebies.

 

[dazmond]

i just say dont pay me if your not happy with the clean to any sceptical folk........some people have just had rubbish cleaners in the past whether they are wfp or trad.....ive never not been paid yet and all have agreed to an ongoing regular service......i must be doing something right!

 

[spruce]

Why do you bother? You're very very busy yet will offer someone a free clean to get a customer that doesn't like the method? I'm nowhere near as busy and wouldn't entertain offering a free wash.

I personally would never offer a free clean.

In the early days we purchased a trad, mainly dormer round from glass cleaners and converted it to WFP. We had to tell the customers on our first day out that they only needed to pay us when they were happy with the job. Yorkshire folk aren't very trusting at the best of times. I know, I'm married to one. Here's a foreigner offering a process they had no knowledge of and never seen before. We got paid for every job we did when we pitched up the following morning. I was actually rather depressed on the way to the round on that second morning, but even I was gobsmacked at how good and clean those windows and frames were in the early morning sun. News spread very quickly on the estate and we had no problems from then on with the system.

These days virtually everyone knows wfp. If we do a new clean we don't even discuss our cleaning method. I've only ever had one say they didn't want me using a pole. I thanked them for their enquiry, wished them a good day and walked away. I had no plans of falling from my ladder at their house.