starting up for weekends

Hi all I've always wanted to have a go on my own I'm currently in a transport management position earning £35000 a year but would like to setup just to work weekends at the moment just to get foot in and see how it goes .. any advise would be greatly appreciated ps I have empty medium size trailer that could be kitted out and a 4x4 with a tow bar  

thanks.

Sam

If your only going part time and want to go wfp, I'd got down the trolley/backpack route. Just to warn you, to get 35k a year is going to take a long time.

Sam90 said:

Hi all I've always wanted to have a go on my own I'm currently in a transport management position earning £35000 a year but would like to setup just to work weekends at the moment just to get foot in and see how it goes .. any advise would be greatly appreciated ps I have empty medium size trailer that could be kitted out and a 4x4 with a tow bar  

thanks.

Sam

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... and you have to be super motivated to give up your weekends to work a second job only for the tax man to take most of it. It always seems to rain on weekends as well. Are you super motivated? Your post doesn't sound as though you are desperate to make a go of it come what may - "see how it goes, have a go."

Most guys who start at this time of the year don't last the first winter.

Sorry, nothing against you, but we've seen this a hundred times before. The guys who make a success of window cleaning are the guys with bills to pay, 4 slices of bread left and no money to buy anything. Hungry mouths to feed is a good motivator.

In this job there is no sick pay and there is no holiday pay. If you don't work you have no income coming in. As a sole trader you have no one to cover for you.

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Hi spruce I appreciate your reply and I totally see your point maybe my wording wasn't the best as I didn't want to drone on with a life story .. but I'll give you a insite into my theory or "business plan" I have zero experience window cleaning so the idea of weekends would probably start off doing family and friends for free so 1 people see me about and 2 I get some experience.. "the have a go mentality is me trying to reassure myself that I do have a plan B I'm the major provider for my family (Mrs and 1 child) the house and cars ect dropping everything all at once would be a huge risk and I have £10,000 in the bank I know that wouldn't last long.. I'm a class 1 lorry driver by trade and have been self employed doing so before i moved into management to try and get some business knowledge and I think thats worked.. I would be happy to go back part time self employed driving on the side while I build it up so at least I can keep a cash flow coming in while I build the business.. maybe playing it safe isn't the right way to go I'm extremely motivated person I worked around the clock to establish myself in the transport industry but I feel like I want to do something I'm in control of..

window cleaning on a sunday is a no no for me. would not like it if someone turned up at my house on a sunday to do it.

I actually believe there would be good demand for a "weekend window cleaner" If you target the areas where both people are working and there are electronic gates etc then I think you will get business. Would do it myself if I didn't work all week.

Sam90 said:

Hi spruce I appreciate your reply and I totally see your point maybe my wording wasn't the best as I didn't want to drone on with a life story .. but I'll give you a insite into my theory or "business plan" I have zero experience window cleaning so the idea of weekends would probably start off doing family and friends for free so 1 people see me about and 2 I get some experience.. "the have a go mentality is me trying to reassure myself that I do have a plan B I'm the major provider for my family (Mrs and 1 child) the house and cars ect dropping everything all at once would be a huge risk and I have £10,000 in the bank I know that wouldn't last long.. I'm a class 1 lorry driver by trade and have been self employed doing so before i moved into management to try and get some business knowledge and I think thats worked.. I would be happy to go back part time self employed driving on the side while I build it up so at least I can keep a cash flow coming in while I build the business.. maybe playing it safe isn't the right way to go I'm extremely motivated person I worked around the clock to establish myself in the transport industry but I feel like I want to do something I'm in control of..

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My son had a mate who was a window cleaner. Son had a full time job but wanted to earn extra income cleaning windows on Saturdays. He was given a small round by his mate. It wasn't the most desirable work as the only guaranteed access to the rears was over the side washroom/outbuildings with solid concrete roofs. It was a bit of a pain dragging the ladders across so he could get down the other side. It was enough work for 3 full days.

He lost interest in doing the work within a few weeks and I ended up going out to do it with him. I had to learn to clean windows traditionally. Half the time he found an excuse not to do it and so I did most of it on my own. The worst weather of the week always seemed to be on Saturday.

Then when I lost my job I was 'forced' to go into window cleaning full time to survive by growing the business. Son bought 'us' another round which ended up to be 90% dormers which meant we had to invest in wfp. This was a good thing as I had recently fallen off my ladder thankfully with no bones broken.

Trad cleaning has minimal outlay, but once you start with wfp costs mount up very fast.IMHO your can't be a wfp window cleaner and work 1 day a week as you will 'take forever' to recoop your equipment outlay costs before earning a half decent daily wage.

So some of the comments I made earlier are drawn from our own well of experience.

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Where are you based Sam? Would your employer let you go down to part time. Could you use some holiday days further down the line when you fill your two days up? Have you tried Window Cleaning before. The isolation aspect shouldn’t be a concern due to your driving work, what about grafting in the wet and cold weather for five days on the bounce? I’m not trying to put you off, but it’s not for everyone.


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Parky said:

Where are you based Sam? Would your employer let you go down to part time. Could you use some holiday days further down the line when you fill your two days up? Have you tried Window Cleaning before. The isolation aspect shouldn’t be a concern due to your driving work, what about grafting in the wet and cold weather for five days on the bounce? I’m not trying to put you off, but it’s not for everyone.


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Hi parky

Thanks for the reply.. I'm based in the west Midlands right between wolverhampton and birmingham.. no I've never tried cleaning windows before working outside doesn't bother me before I did my HGV licence I worked in construction done landscape gardening I'm a outdoor kind of guy that s why being in a office is starting to wear me down had to make the move into management tho 1 for the financial gains and 2 to gain the business knowledge side of things .. I deffinatlly wouldn't be able to go part time Im out the house at 6am and don't get back till 6:30pm at the moment so it's more than full time lol thats why if I did need extra income to help while starting I would go back self employed driving any quiet days on the windows and I could ring around and get a drive (lorry drivers are in high demand) partnering up with someone looking to expand would be a nice idea but I carnt imagine 1 it paying enough or 2 it being easy to find someone to let you into there business like that ..

I’m in Telford. I’ve got no problem if you want to come out with me for a day if you can get the time off. I’ve been going two years. So not as experienced as a lot of lads on here and I don’t know everything But I’m doing alright.


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Wow thanks parky if you want to add me on Facebook my name's Sam Stone my profile pic is me racing my kart will deffinatlly take you up on that and come with you for a day ? carnt beat the experience of doing it with someone that knows what there doing

I’m not on FB anymore. I’ll PM you my mobile number. I only really work Monday to Friday, but if you want to come over I can get you using a pole and talk to you about some bits and pieces.


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Parky said:

I’m not on FB anymore. I’ll PM you my mobile number. I only really work Monday to Friday, but if you want to come over I can get you using a pole and talk to you about some bits and pieces.


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Ok no problem my number 07792955620 I'll definitely pop over used to collect out of stadco Telford a lot when I was driving ?

Really appreciate your offer thank you

albootyerbaws said:

window cleaning on a sunday is a no no for me. would not like it if someone turned up at my house on a sunday to do it.

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Interesting as I would feel the same way. However, we have no issues with expecting the supermarket to be open and staff working, we expect B&Q to be open as well as the garage for fuel and the Sunday papers. If my boiler packed up, I would appreciate a repair on a Sunday. So as the Africans in Africa would say, I'm a man with 2 faces.

For us, cleaning residential windows on a Saturday just means parking is more difficult than during the week because more people are at home. But I do commercial cleans on Saturdays and Sundays when they become due.

Sam90 said:

Ok no problem my number 07792955620 I'll definitely pop over used to collect out of stadco Telford a lot when I was driving [emoji106]
Really appreciate your offer thank you

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Delete your phone number off this post you will get sales calls and spamers all day long.

If you start off cleaning family etc for free it will never end and you will spend hours working for nothing.

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