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Starting A Window Cleaning Business

butch

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9
Hi all

Im new to this and you have all probably answered this question a million times before. If any help and advice that would be awesome.

Im in a very well paid job at the moment but have always wanted to do this. What advice would you give to get going. Im a successfull salesman but want my my own business and this is what i want to do. im not going to rush into it and giving my self 6 months to prepare. What advice would you give. I intend on using traditional methods and a wfp methods and will have about £500 to start for equipment and about £300 for marketing.

Suggestions please. Nice to meet you all

Regards

Butch

 
Hi Butch and welcome, firstly go through the forum and type in what your looking for lots of advice and info on just what you need... /emoticons/smile.png

 
Any personal advice would be beneficial. I have seen many threads, however i would appreciate advice on my personal curcumstances which i said in my introduction. Thanks instrength, i will look now but any personal advice would be great.

Regards

Butch

 
Welcome!

When I started I made sure I done any job I was asked even if it was like 25mins away and only £10 (or less) as you never know where it'll lead. For example neighbours asking for a window clean as well etc..

Also start with wfp straight away, don't bother doing them trad then switching them over later. I haven't got one but people seem to love the backpacks to start with them move from there.

 
Hi Butch,

Spending that amount of money to begin with is a reasonable amount to see if window cleaning is for you; although you don’t need to spend 6 months preparing to find this out - Buy what you need and canvass some customers and get cleaning, 1 week to do this is plenty of time, why not give yourself 2 weeks!

By the end of the 2nd month you will have probably recouped you initial investment and will know (if not before) if window cleaning is for you.

Then you can then plan beyond this and invest more, confidently.

Richard

 
Learn trad AND WFP mate. Will come in very handy when someone says 'ooh, can you do the insides too?'

WFP: Get this deal from WCW : http://www.windowcleaningwarehouse.co.uk/shop/index.php?option=com_aceshop&route=product/product&path=131_248&product_id=4032 -

If you ask them nicely they will upgrade you from a 18ft pole to a 22ft pole for an extra fiver - which makes it a great deal. All in including tax and postage comes to about £230 I think. I have this backpack and I love it, I prefer it to the van mounted system, and the gardiner trolley we have because it's just so light and accessable and easy to use. I have mine mounted on the frame from a pensioners shopping trolley that I bought in a charity shop for £3.80. It's tied on/fixed on with bungee ropes from the pound shop and literally today I have been doing WFP work from about 7am to 5.30pm and used this ALL DAY. Maybe it's because it's my new toy but I love it, would highly reccomend. (The lid is a bit pants tho, seems to leak a lot unless you really screw it on tight).

You will need either an RO system or a DI filter depending on the TDS of your water (RO=Reverse osmosis, DI = De Ionisatin, TDS=Total dissolved solids, you want this low so that nothing is left behind once the water evaporates, no minerals or etc to leave marks on the window) - I see some cheap ones on ebay for about 30 or 40 quid but I don't know enough about these to reccomend them. RO Man do some good decent cheap systems. 25GPD will be fine.

The last thing you'll need for WFP on a budget is to go down to those hand car wash places and ask around for some 25 litre barrels. They'll be happy to give them to you as they normally have to clean them out before they can bin them for health and safety reasons. Take home, rinse out, rinse out again, rinse out again until you can't smell the soapy stuff, stick some pure water in there, rinse it again, put more pure water in and then test the TDS - if it stays low/the same as whats coming out of your filter system then bam, you've just got your first water container. Get 10 of them and you've got 250L of water storage. Stick em in your car or van with the rest of your kit and away you go!

As for trad gear - When I started out I got loaads of stuff, different squeegees, different cloths, different rubbers, loads of channels etc etc - having refined things a bit my trad kit now consists of a 10inch squeegee with unger super soft rubber and an ergotec handle, which sits in an ettore bucket on a belt, some random cheapo Tbar with an ettore porcupine sleeve on it to soap up the windows, an unger 6 inch scraper and some unger microfibres. And a bucket. You'll also want to buy some Ecover dish soap and some white vinegar - use a squirt or two of ecover and a dash or two of white vinegar , mix it about a bit with the applicator and boom you're away. I know people on here use other things (Looking at you H) but really there's no substitute for good trad work (Sorry H) and people will be suspicious of you using anything else because it doesn't look 'pro'. (Sorry H, again, you knows I loves ya brother!)

That, in a nutshell, is my fast-typed because i'm supposed to be doing other stuff version of how to get started, kit wise. Good luck!

IMPORTANT EDIT!!

Scrap the marketing budget mate, spend it on kit. marketing in our world is basically knocking on peoples doors between 5pm and 8pm and saying "Hello, my name is (name) from XYZ window cleaners, we're cleaning some other properties in your street and I just thought I would see if anyone else is looking for a window cleaner for their home. We also do gutter cleans and pressure washing (if you do those.)

Repeat, repeat, repeat, and soon you'll have lots of clients. Hopefully. Good luck again!

 
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