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Hey guys , don't want to be a "lurker" anymore

Wintero

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Hey guys,

Just thought I would introduce myself as I no longer wish to "lurk" and there is a ton of good advice on this forum from what I've seen so far and you seem a friendly bunch (from what I've seen aha)

Basically I'm stuck in a job that consumes too much of my time for the amount of money or happiness I get from it. Mid last year decided I want a new challenge and started to research setting up as a window cleaner. Unfortunately stuff kept getting in the way but this year I would actually like to make a go of it. Now as I originally knew nothing about it I have tried to research areas as best as I can but I'm still a total newbie. I figured that the best way would be to start a fresh round as buying work is expensive and sometimes you seem to get a lot of work that is fairly badly priced ( I could be wrong please correct me if I am ) . I also was going to start off by doing weekends using traditional methods, seeing how much work I can generate, and then buying a WFP system when I commit to going full time. However this point has been raised on the forum before and I cant tell if people like being bothered on a sunday and also I can't really see it looking too professional to only do weekends. Opinions on this more than welcome. Another thing I'm considering is the vehicle I will use, When I first start off I'm thinking of using an astra van. Reason being is cheap to buy and insure (I have just turned 24 insurance can still be a problem for me), a lot of people seem to use cars for window cleaning so I'm sure payload and space must be ok. Also when business grows just move up to something bigger like maybe a vivaro or something transit sized. Again I could be wrong about this but this is just ideas. My final question would be competition. Now I live in the south of England, in quite a well populated area, and I reckon within the 20 roads around my house there must be 6 window cleaners. However, only one has a sign written van, and the others seem to be people who have retired and I guess just do it for fun. The road I live in hasnt been canvassed for the last 16 years. I just wondered if there have always been lots of window cleaners, or the area I live in just seems to have a lot and whether anyone else has this issue. I know thats a stupid question but just wondered if anyone else lived in an area with a ton of competition and did really well anyway because of the quality of work that they did.

Jesus my first post and I feel like I have ranted like nothing on earth ! Any help appreciated, sorry for my rambling and raving

 
Welcome fella

If you need to work weekends then do it

As long as you don't start too early on a sunday or find out who is up early and happy to be cleaned early on sundays

The older generation (retired agegroup) tend to be early risers anyway

When i had a spell of trying out working for the ratrace (never again) i had a round of select customers that i did at weekends and they were fine with sundays

Don't overthink things

If you're gonna start trad get some ladders..get the trad gear..get door knocking and it will all fall in to place

Sometimes thinking it all through too much hinders things

You have all the time while cleaning windows to think what you will do next

 
An astra van would work

Then if you want to dip your toes into the world of stick waggling you can get a backpack and 25l drums and work from the van until you get busy enough to think about van mounts etc

 
Depending what you earn now you will either get to a point that you earn more than you do monday to friday in which case you can jack the job in and hammer the canvassing or you may have to cut back your hours in your job to allow you to expand the window business more which is how i started back up for myself

Just be carefull you don't kill yourself working 7 days a week

It is possible to get enough work to earn 200 quid a day Saturday and sunday..£400 is nice but you will eventually run yourself into the ground if you don't cut back on the other job

 
This is it, what I will most likely do, is hammer the weekends see where I get. Then quit job, work part time on say 3 evenings a week or something, and just hammer the other days. Hopefully, everything will pan out just fine !

 
Good luck @daveyboy1 mentioned, you're looking to move into self-employed window cleaning as you're not enjoying your current job, so don't run yourself into the ground or you'll end up not enjoying the window cleaning either /emoticons/smile.png

Let us know how you get on :thumbsup:

 
Welcome @Wintero. Some sound suggestions above. Glad you made the switch to a non lurker /emoticons/wink.png

Sent from my ONE E1003 using Window Cleaning Forums mobile app

 
Welcome to the forum mate. Work should always come before expensive tools IMO. Pick up some trad gear, bring in enough work to make you very busy, and quit when you have something resembling a round. Use your sick days, holiday pay etc while you can too. All the best to you.:thumbsup:

 

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