Newbie thinking of starting up in the summer

[Iron Giant]

every day when it's horrible and wet, week after week..coming home smelling like a drown rat every day.

Are you cleaning the outside of a submarine 

I would wish you good luck, but to be honest your going to need a lot  more than luck to be able to succeed. And even if you do, you'll be sick and tired of the job by the time you are earning any decent amount of money.

I have started some adult learning to hopefully start a Degree in Law at the open university . I am not an academic type, but I am so fed up of this trap I have put myself in..I have no idea if I will suceed but I have to try something. 

It's a trap, because I earn more than most general practitioners make now, but I have no qualifications to do anything else that pays anywhere near as much. 

So if you want to trap yourself into a job, window cleaning is the way your going to do it. 

Crikey, you really are a ray of sunshine, totally baffled as if you earning so much money why you are so sick and trying to get out of the industry, It will be my 20th year this year and I am far from sick never been so happy, when I look around my local area people working for minimum wage and just getting by, absolutely no hope of me getting a decent paid job  that will pay me what I earn now as I am thick as two short planks. 

 

[Joshyouare]

Having read a few replies on here, I'll add my little tuppence worth. 

You won't last. 

So many people want to get into window cleaning in the summer, they think they will make a bunch of dosh, and be able to look forward to the next summer doing the same again. 

In truth, you need a lot of customers, at least a few hundred. And they need to be good regular customers, all year-round.

As many have said, it's hard graft. I have been in this job 20 years nearly and if i had the chance to do things again, i wouldn't choose window  cleaning. 

Yes it's good money, when established but it's boring as hell, the weather is always against you, and people treat you like poop.

You have to be strong willed, organised, and be able to motivate yourself, every day when it's horrible and wet, week after week..coming home smelling like a drown rat every day.

I personally know of 5 people who started up window cleaning, just like you. Every single one of them quit within 3 years, that is a fact.

I would wish you good luck, but to be honest your going to need a lot  more than luck to be able to succeed. And even if you do, you'll be sick and tired of the job by the time you are earning any decent amount of money.

I have started some adult learning to hopefully start a Degree in Law at the open university . I am not an academic type, but I am so fed up of this trap I have put myself in..I have no idea if I will suceed but I have to try something. 

It's a trap, because I earn more than most general practitioners make now, but I have no qualifications to do anything else that pays anywhere near as much. 

So if you want to trap yourself into a job, window cleaning is the way your going to do it. 

Don't really understand why someone would have to be lucky to succeed in window cleaning, sure you can get unlucky but it's proven that if you work hard, window cleaning is a business which most will succeed in. I agree to an extent that it gets a bit boring but whatever profession you choose you're going to be doing the same thing time and time again. 

For me being outside and being able to see instant results is something which I think would make quite a lot of people happy.

 

[cleaniac]

Fair enough comments. 

That's just my opinion.

 

[Dave B]

I built my new round (after selling up and moving from london to Hertfordshire) up in no time at all during winter.

Don't listen to the nay sayers.. if you get your nut into it and knock loads of doors you will do fine.

Unlike the previous poster I have got good qualifications and ran a warehouse during the 2012 Olympics for wincanton and still earn more doing this which is why I went back to it.

If you put the effort in you'll do fine.

 

[spruce]

Slightly off topic but I have often wondered how many of the new posters on here looking for advise to start window cleaning actually do make a success of it.

I was 'forced' to become a window cleaner - no job and a mortgage. It was a daunting situation to suddenly get told on a Friday afternoon that you have 2 weeks pay and a driver will take you home as the company car stays with us here. For me I had always been employed and now I had no option but to make it work.

My son had been given a small 3 day a month round to do for an extra income. But he was never motivated to work it. I had ladders, a van and I used his trad equipment. Then was the desperate drive to scout for more business. My son knew how to clean windows but I had never done it before. I practiced a bit on our house and if I remember my son went out with me the next Saturday just the once.

He bought another round and supposedly did a clean with the sellers. As 90% of the houses were dormers I had to invest in a wfp system as I wasn't going to kill myself climbing on roofs to reach upstairs windows.

 

[cleaniac]

Slightly off topic but I have often wondered how many of the new posters on here looking for advise to start window cleaning actually do make a success of it.

I was 'forced' to become a window cleaner - no job and a mortgage. It was a daunting situation to suddenly get told on a Friday afternoon that you have 2 weeks pay and a driver will take you home as the company car stays with us here. For me I had always been employed and now I had no option but to make it work.

My son had been given a small 3 day a month round to do for an extra income. But he was never motivated to work it. I had ladders, a van and I used his trad equipment. Then was the desperate drive to scout for more business. My son knew how to clean windows but I had never done it before. I practiced a bit on our house and if I remember my son went out with me the next Saturday just the once.

He bought another round and supposedly did a clean with the sellers. As 90% of the houses were dormers I had to invest in a wfp system as I wasn't going to kill myself climbing on roofs to reach upstairs windows.

This is entirely my point.

Sorry to sound negative fellas, but the long and short of it we end up window cleaning because at the time there wasn't any better options.

Anyone who goes into this business with £ signs in their eyes and thinks that they will be consistently earning 70 or 80 grand a year in the next 2 years  (as I'm sure most newbies do) need to have a reality check. It takes years to build up a reliable income from window cleaning. I can think of many other jobs & professions that pay way more than VAT threshold on a salary if you can put a few years of study into it. 

This is the reason why I am looking into doing a law degree, as an undergraduate. 6 years of study, and I can become a lawyer (If I pass the bar) set up my own practice after some working experience,  and earn a few hundred quid an hour, without having to get wet, soggy, muddy. 

Still keeping the window cleaning business going, as I'm paying for the tuition out of my own pocket, but I need to try something else now and see if I can improve my life by not having to graft outside in all weathers..I have had enough of it. If I don't try, I will never know if I was able to do it.

No disrespects to do anyone who views window cleaning as the best thing since sliced bread..

 

[BWC]

This is entirely my point.

Sorry to sound negative fellas, but the long and short of it we end up window cleaning because at the time there wasn't any better options.

Anyone who goes into this business with £ signs in their eyes and thinks that they will be consistently earning 70 or 80 grand a year in the next 2 years  (as I'm sure most newbies do) need to have a reality check. It takes years to build up a reliable income from window cleaning. I can think of many other jobs & professions that pay way more than VAT threshold on a salary if you can put a few years of study into it. 

This is the reason why I am looking into doing a law degree, as an undergraduate. 6 years of study, and I can become a lawyer (If I pass the bar) set up my own practice after some working experience,  and earn a few hundred quid an hour, without having to get wet, soggy, muddy. 

Still keeping the window cleaning business going, as I'm paying for the tuition out of my own pocket, but I need to try something else now and see if I can improve my life by not having to graft outside in all weathers..I have had enough of it. If I don't try, I will never know if I was able to do it.

No disrespects to do anyone who views window cleaning as the best thing since sliced bread..

It you don’t try you will never know is the same for the original poster. I’m sure you will have people who are going to say you’re going to fail too on your new venture but it sounds like you have made your mind up, know what you want and are going to go for it! And I take my hat off to anyone who really decides to get out of their comfort zone to better their life’s. It all depends on how much we want something, I believe if you want it enough you will find a way! Good luck. I started my business in September. Not the most ideal time but it has grown well and I’m happy with the rate of growth I have had. I’ve started off in the rain and cold so anything else is a bonus.

 

[cleaniac]

It you don’t try you will never know is the same for the original poster. I’m sure you will have people who are going to say you’re going to fail too on your new venture but it sounds like you have made your mind up, know what you want and are going to go for it! And I take my hat off to anyone who really decides to get out of their comfort zone to better their life’s. It all depends on how much we want something, I believe if you want it enough you will find a way! Good luck. I started my business in September. Not the most ideal time but it has grown well and I’m happy with the rate of growth I have had. I’ve started off in the rain and cold so anything else is a bonus.

Listen, I hope the OP does make a success of it, really I do. And I wish you well. 

It won't come to you on a plate, but then again nothing ever does!

Hope your not too discouraged by me. Go and get it. But do it now, not 3 months time or in the summer.. now.

I can't register for my tuition at the open university until May. And the course won't start until November. But it hasn't stopped me from starting with my law studies already. I bought the books and have already been sticking to a 15 hour a week study schedule..  

Likewise with you, go and do it now. You may have a coal for summer.. But a newsflash..It gets really competitive in the summer with new prices..your golden canvassing times are now when the weather is pooh.

 

[Joshyouare]

Listen, I hope the OP does make a success of it, really I do. And I wish you well. 

It won't come to you on a plate, but then again nothing ever does!

Hope your not too discouraged by me. Go and get it. But do it now, not 3 months time or in the summer.. now.

I can't register for my tuition at the open university until May. And the course won't start until November. But it hasn't stopped me from starting with my law studies already. I bought the books and have already been sticking to a 15 hour a week study schedule..  

Likewise with you, go and do it now. You may have a coal for summer.. But a newsflash..It gets really competitive in the summer with new prices..your golden canvassing times are now when the weather is pooh.

I really do get what you're saying but you're contradicting yourself. In 6 years it takes to get your Law qualification you could quadruple your window cleaning business and not have to actually be out on the glass. Everything just takes time. 

 

[BWC]

Listen, I hope the OP does make a success of it, really I do. And I wish you well. 

It won't come to you on a plate, but then again nothing ever does!

Hope your not too discouraged by me. Go and get it. But do it now, not 3 months time or in the summer.. now.

I can't register for my tuition at the open university until May. And the course won't start until November. But it hasn't stopped me from starting with my law studies already. I bought the books and have already been sticking to a 15 hour a week study schedule..  

Likewise with you, go and do it now. You may have a coal for summer.. But a newsflash..It gets really competitive in the summer with new prices..your golden canvassing times are now when the weather is pooh.

That’s the sort of mentality you need to give yourself the best chance of success! ?? And how you described things shouldn’t discourage the original poster if he/she is genuine about wanting to do this. He will have people telling him this plenty. It’s your experience you’re sharing and there’s nothing wrong with that. Me personally would rather hear the real struggles and hurdles I may face so I can prepare and overcome rather than everything through rose tinted glasses and getting blind sided. I spent so much time preparing and researching to start this. I have nowhere near the experience you have but I have the same mentality as many of you to become successful! 

 

[cleaniac]

I really do get what you're saying but you're contradicting yourself. In 6 years it takes to get your Law qualification you could quadruple your window cleaning business and not have to actually be out on the glass. Everything just takes time. 

I dont want to be in window cleaning full stop. I need a new challenge, and employing a load of people has it's headaches..What with the new pensions regulations for employees..that's a nightmare waiting to happen for many of you who are not getting the correct legal advice, so when I pass (if I do) get in touch and I'll be happy to assist you with the legal requirements of employment..?

There is little point in having a business that turns over 300k a year and your earning the same if not less than when you were just 2 people. One person said on another forum Turnover=Vanity Profit=Sanity, for the headaches??

And finally,.law actually interests me. I find it fascinating that a species can be intelligent enough to establish laws and rules. ITS fascinating.

 

[Part Timer]

I dont want to be in window cleaning full stop. I need a new challenge, and employing a load of people has it's headaches..What with the new pensions regulations for employees..that's a nightmare waiting to happen for many of you who are not getting the correct legal advice, so when I pass (if I do) get in touch and I'll be happy to assist you with the legal requirements of employment..?

There is little point in having a business that turns over 300k a year and your earning the same if not less than when you were just 2 people. One person said on another forum Turnover=Vanity Profit=Sanity, for the headaches??

And finally,.law actually interests me. I find it fascinating that a species can be intelligent enough to establish laws and rules. ITS fascinating.

This job is no different to any other, once it becomes a drudge it's time to move on. Where this job, in my opinion, is exceptional is that you're paid a professional wage for a relatively unskilled job. Before everyone gets on their high horse there is far more physically hard jobs that pay an awful lot less.

 

[Suhrly]

@cleaniac wow mate your long post there really saddened me actually. Seems like you're really not happy at the moment so I hope you get the life you're chasing. 

I would dare guess the majority of us on this forum like, dare I say, love our trade. Being your own boss, working the hours what you want etc etc. I remember working in warehouses and factories. The last factory job I had I literally walked out half way through my shift I just couldn't stand it any longer. Sure it's not all roses and we all have our days/weeks where we may feel totally fed up. But if the day comes where you absolute dread a Monday morning or dread getting out of bed then yeah, maybe you need to look to do something else.