Looking to start up using water fed pole

[Crystalalan]

look around Gumtree / Market place for rounds 4 sale/ Just click Window Cleaning in the search bars Someone local may be off loading there **** customers HaHa .
vans for sale from £1000 / £20,000. someone will be selling a cheap run around to get you going . or go buy one on Hp always sell a van if it dont work out

yep so much easier with a van. Also looks more professional even if you drive an old banger like mine

 

[johnny bravo]

if going out with someone for the odd days work. take your packed lunch and tuck your shirt in . you never know it may become a regular couple of days work a week. get you on your feet.

Google window cleaners in your area. ask them if they have any odd days work you can do . they may be looking for someone to give them a hand the odd day when starting back up in January .

id give someone a chance if someone asked.

If they ask for work it means they want to work. good start

 

[spruce]

@GSM .
Just a point to consider.

ATM your boss or business owner you work for has all the worries. You just have to turn up for work, do your job, get paid, and then go home. You get annual paid holidays and could well have sick paid leave included. When the weather is bad in winter, you still have a warm, dry environment to work in. You may get bawled at by your boss occasionally for not achieving sales targets, but being there for 20 years means that your position is more secure as you've proved yourself.

When you start to work for yourself, you don't have any of those benefits. Every day you are forced to not work is a day without any income. I will always remember the bad winter we had on the East Coast in the early 2000's. We hardly did any work for 6 weeks. That was rather stressful as the bills didn't stop coming in.

From my own experience, I had no choice starting a manual labour-intensive career at 52. The first couple of years were a doddle, but I started to go down-hill health wise in my late 50's. I can no longer do an 8 hour working day, perhaps 3 or 4 at the most, and that's with wfp. I'm not comparing you with myself, but the fact is that, generally, the older we get, the less we are able to do. It's something to do with old age.

You also mentioned gutter clearing. If you plan to clean windows with pure water, then I presume you aren't going to use ladders to clean out gutters. Look at the cost of gutter clearing vacuum cleaners and carbon poles and you will see 3 grand is around their cost.

As @steve garwood recommended; you need to do a search and figure out what you can and can't do. For example, if you are able to park a van on your driveway, there is no reason why you can't process water directly into your tank with an onboard r/o system.

You need to focus on just one core service and forget the rest. Once you have achieved that, then you might consider other avenues. One of the local lads does window cleaning. About 12 years ago, he added carpet cleaning to his list of services. He continually had to advertise his services in the local newspaper, and when Covid hit, he lost that side of his business as no one wanted their carpets cleaned.

 

[GSM]

Well you are welcome to come out with me one day if you like.

That's a very king offer are you local to Christchurch area ?, Thursdays are my day off in the week if this worked for you whenever you were available

 

[Part Timer]

That's a very king offer are you local to Christchurch area ?, Thursdays are my day off in the week if this worked for you whenever you were available

He's in Christcurch so the offer might be withdrawn

 

[GSM]

@GSM .
Just a point to consider.

ATM your boss or business owner you work for has all the worries. You just have to turn up for work, do your job, get paid, and then go home. You get annual paid holidays and could well have sick paid leave included. When the weather is bad in winter, you still have a warm, dry environment to work in. You may get bawled at by your boss occasionally for not achieving sales targets, but being there for 20 years means that your position is more secure as you've proved yourself.

When you start to work for yourself, you don't have any of those benefits. Every day you are forced to not work is a day without any income. I will always remember the bad winter we had on the East Coast in the early 2000's. We hardly did any work for 6 weeks. That was rather stressful as the bills didn't stop coming in.

From my own experience, I had no choice starting a manual labour-intensive career at 52. The first couple of years were a doddle, but I started to go down-hill health wise in my late 50's. I can no longer do an 8 hour working day, perhaps 3 or 4 at the most, and that's with wfp. I'm not comparing you with myself, but the fact is that, generally, the older we get, the less we are able to do. It's something to do with old age.

You also mentioned gutter clearing. If you plan to clean windows with pure water, then I presume you aren't going to use ladders to clean out gutters. Look at the cost of gutter clearing vacuum cleaners and carbon poles and you will see 3 grand is around their cost.

As @steve garwood recommended; you need to do a search and figure out what you can and can't do. For example, if you are able to park a van on your driveway, there is no reason why you can't process water directly into your tank with an onboard r/o system.

You need to focus on just one core service and forget the rest. Once you have achieved that, then you might consider other avenues. One of the local lads does window cleaning. About 12 years ago, he added carpet cleaning to his list of services. He continually had to advertise his services in the local newspaper, and when Covid hit, he lost that side of his business as no one wanted their carpets cleaned.

Hi thanks for the advice I take on board everything you say, I am aware age plays a factor in many things as you getter older so have also considered this.
And yes turning up for work at 8.00 and leaving at 6.00 everyday, without to many concerns and payed holiday has been fine for the last 8 years for the company and the same for the company I worked previous doing the same. However there are concerns of redundancy ever looming alongside relying every month on commission sales.
I work one of my days off and have done for the past 5 years gardening for 3 elderly family friends that to be honest I find more relaxing and enjoying being outside through the whole year. I am aware doing this as a full time job and relying on this as a sole income is a completely different ball game, and joined the group here to get more of an incite into going any further before taking bigger steps.
Working for myself was something I have wanted to do for many years but never got further for one thing or another, and don't want to feel I never properly had explored this.
I would need to earn £1300.00 per month to stand still, and after looking into the window cleaning business within my area of mostly retired customers don't believe this to be unachievable, once again I am not naive to believe its a walk in the park by any means but definitely worth looking into.
Regarding the gutter clearance/ vacuum this was something that I would look into later down the road, I only mentioned this as many people have scaled up with offering customers other services when established.
I do though appreciate the advise from someone like yourself and others who have established running businesses, so thanks again.

 

[ched999uk]

If £1300 a month is what you need to live on then you need an income of more like £2000. You will have to pay your own national insurance, tax, sick and holiday pay.
Remember you also have van insurance, van tax, public liability insurance, equipment (brushes etc wear out), mot, repairs, marketing, uniform, gloves, boots, website, to name but a few things you might have to pay out from your income.
Maybe a silly question but if you are currently doing 1 day a week gardening would it be better to expand that into full time?
If redundancy is potentially looming then that might be a good way to start as you would hopefully have a few more ££ in the bank to start - I'm not saying spend it all on kit but that it gives you more of a buffer when you start.

I would say decent earnings are very achievable as long as you put the effort in. While the actual cleaning may be relatively straight forward, it's having to be responsible for everything that can get to people. Remember you have to do everything, from accounts (keep a % of all income back for tax etc), marketing, time management, equipment.
This forum has most of the info you need, read as much as you can and take notes as there are many ways to do the same thing.
Good Luck

 

[Part Timer]

If £1300 a month is what you need to live on then you need an income of more like £2000. You will have to pay your own national insurance, tax, sick and holiday pay.
Remember you also have van insurance, van tax, public liability insurance, equipment (brushes etc wear out), mot, repairs, marketing, uniform, gloves, boots, website, to name but a few things you might have to pay out from your income.
Maybe a silly question but if you are currently doing 1 day a week gardening would it be better to expand that into full time?
If redundancy is potentially looming then that might be a good way to start as you would hopefully have a few more ££ in the bank to start - I'm not saying spend it all on kit but that it gives you more of a buffer when you start.

I would say decent earnings are very achievable as long as you put the effort in. While the actual cleaning may be relatively straight forward, it's having to be responsible for everything that can get to people. Remember you have to do everything, from accounts (keep a % of all income back for tax etc), marketing, time management, equipment.
This forum has most of the info you need, read as much as you can and take notes as there are many ways to do the same thing.
Good Luck

I'd be working his days off until, either, he's made redundant or has enough work to cover his expenses. I would think a full days window cleaning, when up to speed, would generate most of his weekly wages and 2 definitely cover all his costs.

 

[GSM]

If £1300 a month is what you need to live on then you need an income of more like £2000. You will have to pay your own national insurance, tax, sick and holiday pay.
Remember you also have van insurance, van tax, public liability insurance, equipment (brushes etc wear out), mot, repairs, marketing, uniform, gloves, boots, website, to name but a few things you might have to pay out from your income.
Maybe a silly question but if you are currently doing 1 day a week gardening would it be better to expand that into full time?
If redundancy is potentially looming then that might be a good way to start as you would hopefully have a few more ££ in the bank to start - I'm not saying spend it all on kit but that it gives you more of a buffer when you start.

I would say decent earnings are very achievable as long as you put the effort in. While the actual cleaning may be relatively straight forward, it's having to be responsible for everything that can get to people. Remember you have to do everything, from accounts (keep a % of all income back for tax etc), marketing, time management, equipment.
This forum has most of the info you need, read as much as you can and take notes as there are many ways to do the same thing.
Good Luck

Thanks appreciate the comments, yes agree with you of income of £2000 to cover the things you have outlined, do you feel this with the rite effort is achievable over the month ?
The gardening has been enjoyable but I don't believe as scalable from what I can see, I have considered just offering the windows to friends and family on tis day to see how things pan out and to get a better feel for it whilst still working,

 

[GSM]

I'd be working his days off until, either, he's made redundant or has enough work to cover his expenses. I would think a full days window cleaning, when up to speed, would generate most of his weekly wages and 2 definitely cover all his costs.

Thanks for the positive opinion, would you suggest starting of with a trolley set up ie 35 Litre Trolley & Phantom Carbon Bundle from someone like window cleaning warehouse and filling up at pure water station utilising my car on days off to get going ? and maybe getting flyers out to local roads around me ?

 

[ched999uk]

Thanks for the positive opinion, would you suggest starting of with a trolley set up ie 35 Litre Trolley & Phantom Carbon Bundle from someone like window cleaning warehouse and filling up at pure water station utilising my car on days off to get going ? and maybe getting flyers out to local roads around me ?

I do think that £2k a month is achievable - I won't say it's easy as you will have to put the work in to get customers but do a good job, be reliable and you should be fine.

I started out in June 2021 using my car. I bought a Gardiner backpack, SLX27, a Handy Sac trolley and 6 x 25 lts barrels, a 150GPD RO filter system and processed into a wheelie bin (it didn't last long as the plastic can't take being full of water 24/7 and after a few weeks it sprang a leak!).
What would I do differently? Probably nothing really. Backpack is great, still use it for cleaning conservatory roofs and gutters, facia etc with chemicals in, SLX27 probably does 40% of my work now, but now have clx18 - 30% of work and a clx8 for the rest. I found swinging a SLX27 around all day was a bit much for my feeble body .
I did buy a van in Jan 2022 and find it so much easier but starting using the car was good to see if I enjoyed the work and I could gain customers.

Personally I would get a setup that allows you to work out of your car and build up work that way. Remember you need to add business use to your car insurance.

 

[GSM]

I do think that £2k a month is achievable - I won't say it's easy as you will have to put the work in to get customers but do a good job, be reliable and you should be fine.

I started out in June 2021 using my car. I bought a Gardiner backpack, SLX27, a Handy Sac trolley and 6 x 25 lts barrels, a 150GPD RO filter system and processed into a wheelie bin (it didn't last long as the plastic can't take being full of water 24/7 and after a few weeks it sprang a leak!).
What would I do differently? Probably nothing really. Backpack is great, still use it for cleaning conservatory roofs and gutters, facia etc with chemicals in, SLX27 probably does 40% of my work now, but now have clx18 - 30% of work and a clx8 for the rest. I found swinging a SLX27 around all day was a bit much for my feeble body .
I did buy a van in Jan 2022 and find it so much easier but starting using the car was good to see if I enjoyed the work and I could gain customers.

Personally I would get a setup that allows you to work out of your car and build up work that way. Remember you need to add business use to your car insurance.

Thanks much appreciated, I guess after having a look at your new wfp`s you found the two as you said lighter than 1 combined the shorter maybe bungalows, the CLX18 for 3 houses and above etc. Would filling the barrels up at local pure water station also be viable ? And do you mind me asking how many barrels you would go through a day, and did this set up when you had customer return you a viable wage, thanks once again. Oh and yes business insurance added to car totally understand..

 

[ched999uk]

Thanks much appreciated, I guess after having a look at your new wfp`s you found the two as you said lighter than 1 combined the shorter maybe bungalows, the CLX18 for 3 houses and above etc. Would filling the barrels up at local pure water station also be viable ? And do you mind me asking how many barrels you would go through a day, and did this set up when you had customer return you a viable wage, thanks once again. Oh and yes business insurance added to car totally understand..

The CLX18 does most 2 story houses that don't need to reach over conservatories or extensions. The CLX8 I use mainly for bungalows but also sometimes I use it for big conservatories i.e. do all the SLX27 upstairs windows first then CLX8 for the conny and ground floor. Starting out I would just go for something between 22 and 27 ft depending on the type of houses round you i.e. lots of modern stuff can be done with shorter poles but town houses, Victorian houses would need longer so probably just get 1 pole that can do most of your intended work - don't be afraid to tell a customer you can't do a window.
I have a Honda Civic with 'magic' rear seats, so the base folds up. I had 4 barrels in the boot, together with odds and sods. Then another 2 barrels (all strapped down) behind drivers seat, then the trolley folded behind passenger seat along with the backpack. I had a boot liner to catch any water and a rear seat protector. The pole went from passenger footwell over seat towards rear. Remember 25lts of water is 25Kg and needs to be secured in the car as in the event of an accident they become missiles!

On first cleans you will use maybe twice as much water so maybe 40 litres on a 3 bed semi but on maintenance cleans more like 20 litres. Hopefully that gives you an idea how many houses you could do on 6 barrels! Do you have a relative close by that might allow you to process water at their house (you could use a meter to compensate them for extra water and sewerage charges)?

 

[GSM]

Thanks great advice, not sure about being able to process water would need to look into what that entails ie what cost and equipment and how to set up as not properly yet understanding what it involves.
I do however have a pure water station 6 miles from home and thought this may be worth using to start.

If my calculations are correct I think you are saying first cleans I guess fairly dirty windows and frames would equate to around 4, 3 bed semi or maybe bungalows
However next time round prior first clean around 8 ? @ around £12 estimate, giving a return of £96.00 .. Just a rough guess but hopefully not far away to give me some idea.

 

[Clean zero]

I would say that is cheap ,but it depends on your area .Also yes you might get a lot of work but remember your overheads you don’t want to be working your socks of for a bare minimum

 

[Part Timer]

Ignore trying to calculate how long, and how much water you'll use, on a 1st clean as there are far to many variables. When up to speed you should comfortably be able to clean a modern 3 bed semi in 20 minutes and use less than 20 litres.

 

[GSM]

I would say that is cheap ,but it depends on your area .Also yes you might get a lot of work but remember your overheads you don’t want to be working your socks of for a bare minimum

Thanks, no don't want to undercharge I need to try and find the local rate in my area and base it around that.
As someone starting out and learning so much thanks to this forum over the last couple of days I'm trying to get a gauge of what £2000 per month equates to in regular customers required, its just to give me some ide from a business outlook and what I would look to achieve and how quickly. I totally understand this is all guess work at this time, but thanks again for any input much appreciated.

 

[ched999uk]

Thanks great advice, not sure about being able to process water would need to look into what that entails ie what cost and equipment and how to set up as not properly yet understanding what it involves.
I do however have a pure water station 6 miles from home and thought this may be worth using to start.

If my calculations are correct I think you are saying first cleans I guess fairly dirty windows and frames would equate to around 4, 3 bed semi or maybe bungalows
However next time round prior first clean around 8 ? @ around £12 estimate, giving a return of £96.00 .. Just a rough guess but hopefully not far away to give me some idea.

Sounds reasonable but I think your prices may be a bit cheap at an average of £12.50 per house. Although you may have little experience you should charge a decent rate otherwise, as @Clean zero said you will be working your socks off! I aim to win 80% of my quotes, if I am winning more maybe my prices are too low, if less maybe too high. Pricing is difficult at the beginning but it's much easier to price higher in the first place than raise prices after a clean or 2!

Rates do vary across the UK but if you google window cleaners in your town some of them may have put their prices on their website. If not try the county to give you a rough idea. I calculate my price by using a sort of formula, everyone is different. I have a base fee for setup/packup, then a charge per window (more for larger or difficult to reach windows), and a minimum price. That way I know my prices are consistent - although you will make pricing mistakes! I had an existing customer recommend me to a neighbour on a new estate, she queried why her job was a few £ different to next door but 1. Then I could point out that she had some extra windows that they didn't, which she was fine with!

Remember that when you start you will be slow, speed does come with practice. Remember you are swinging a 20ft pole about and you will learn to judge things like how far to extend the pole for each window, what angle the brush needs to be at, what order to do windows in, what route to take around a property avoiding pot plants, wheelie bins etc. Just make sure you do a great job try not to worry about time or water. Tip: Use a univalve, then you can shut off water when the brush isn't on the glass to save pure.

 

[GSM]

Fantastic advice and well noted on everything you have all said, I hope I can get some time out with someone local soon to experience the day.
I know this all takes time and hard work, but I am very motivated and would like the chance to give it a good try.
I currently work 45 hours a week in my current job and then an additional 5 on my day off doing private work, I would like to put this efforts into something for myself.

Very interesting what you explain about pricing jobs and I will take that forward and look into local pricing and quoting each customer based upon there requirements, ie an added Conservatory would make a big difference.
Would you estimate the income I am looking to obtain would would require around 150 customers ? an open question I know and apologise but just trying to gain a goal and time to aim towards.

One other quick question, I guess you are always trying to get property's as close as possible ie within the same road or estate, and I guess its difficult not to know if you are offering your services at property's/areas that other window cleaners already work on.

 

[Pjj]

Fantastic advice and well noted on everything you have all said, I hope I can get some time out with someone local soon to experience the day.
I know this all takes time and hard work, but I am very motivated and would like the chance to give it a good try.
I currently work 45 hours a week in my current job and then an additional 5 on my day off doing private work, I would like to put this efforts into something for myself.

Very interesting what you explain about pricing jobs and I will take that forward and look into local pricing and quoting each customer based upon there requirements, ie an added Conservatory would make a big difference.
Would you estimate the income I am looking to obtain would would require around 150 customers ? an open question I know and apologise but just trying to gain a goal and time to aim towards.

One other quick question, I guess you are always trying to get property's as close as possible ie within the same road or estate, and I guess its difficult not to know if you are offering your services at property's/areas that other window cleaners already work on.

A hundred and fifty jobs at £12 a go will give you £1800 per month , £15 a job will give you £2250 . 150 customers per month working 5 days a week will only be 37 houses per week time wise you could do way more than that once set up and first cleans done providing work is fairly close together , but it’s a starting point getting the first 150 jobs will be the hardest part once you have a small number of regular jobs you will get recommendations and walk ups , spring time coming up is the ideal time to start picking up customers, I don’t know your area but try and push 4 weekly cleans as you will need less customers, if 8 weekly charge more for theses jobs .

 

[GSM]

A hundred and fifty jobs at £12 a go will give you £1800 per month , £15 a job will give you £2250 . 150 customers per month working 5 days a week will only be 37 houses per week time wise you could do way more than that once set up and first cleans done providing work is fairly close together , but it’s a starting point getting the first 150 jobs will be the hardest part once you have a small number of regular jobs you will get recommendations and walk ups , spring time coming up is the ideal time to start picking up customers, I don’t know your area but try and push 4 weekly cleans as you will need less customers, if 8 weekly charge more for theses jobs .

That's great, thanks for the information it helps give me some idea moving forward.
Like others have suggested start building from maybe a trolley set up to begin on my day off and maybe get some flyers out and knock some doors, I live in the south and there a lot of bungalows and Terraced houses as its a largely retirement on the coast here.
Is there any way to try and not upset local window cleaners without knowing where there rounds are, or is just basically relying on customers response, thanks again.