What do you know, another problem

Here's me on the forums every day, getting as much information as I can, getting all my business ready to start up, struggling to buy equipment but just about managing - even got a few doors knocked and leaflets handed out then what do you know. 760 quids worth of repairs on the car. For a car which I paid 1000 for. Not that I can afford the repair anyway.

The reason I'm making a post about it, is because hopefully, you guys can give me some opinions on the next best alternative.

I recently went through the princes trust with a different business but long story short, I could apply for a loan up to 5000 pounds with them. If I was to apply for a loan would you guys suggest investing in a van and WFP or would you recommend focusing on a car and carrying on with my traditional stuff? The other option is getting a trolley I guess and walking it.

However in personal life, not having a car wouldn't be ideal.

At a young age, car insurance is 1-2k for most so a van I'm guessing is going to be 2-3k from quotes in the past.

Sorry as I know this isn't entirely window cleaning based but feels like everything is against me at the minute and advice is greatly appreciated haha

A car with a roof rack and a large light double ladder. You can buy a Gardiner backpack which should fit in the boot or back seat. A 1.7m WFP will fit in the car as well, trad stuff in the boot and you are good to go. Might as well walk before you can run and customers usually prefer you to trad their windows until you convert them to WFP.

scottish cleaning service said:

customers usually prefer you to trad their windows until you convert them to WFP.

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Ermmm no.  Just tell them it's WFP or no if you want to go WFP.  'Converting customers' is a thing of the past when you're building a new round.  Only applies if you're buying old trad rounds or converting your own existing work. As for 'walk before you can run' again I disagree... paying out for bits of this and bits of that only to need to buy more later and then tell your customers the methods etc have changed is pointless.  

If you can get a loan to set up why not borrow less?  Get a van and system on lease from Window Cleaning Warehouse / The Cleaning Warehouse or Grippa I think it's around £300 per month and just borrow enough to cover the first years payments whilst you build up? 

Do what you need to get by amigo.

4 years ago I had an R reg Nissan almera, stuffed with drums of pure water. Not ideal but it worked. 

solarpanelcleaningltd said:

Do what you need to get by amigo.

4 years ago I had an R reg Nissan almera, stuffed with drums of pure water. Not ideal but it worked. 

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Sounds like what my plan was until this happened.

I’m not going to lie we found ourselves in the same situation. And our van which we paid 1100 for needed a £900 service and a month later the clutch went. We had invested thousands and were right up the creek. We were very lucky and got a loan for a van, carried on and survived.
People tend to perform well under pressure. When your backs to the wall you’ll be surprised how far you will push yourself to succeed. I totally sympathise as you are officially in the deep end.


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Green Pro Clean Ltd said:

Ermmm no.  Just tell them it's WFP or no if you want to go WFP.  'Converting customers' is a thing of the past when you're building a new round.  Only applies if you're buying old trad rounds or converting your own existing work. As for 'walk before you can run' again I disagree... paying out for bits of this and bits of that only to need to buy more later and then tell your customers the methods etc have changed is pointless.  

If you can get a loan to set up why not borrow less?  Get a van and system on lease from Window Cleaning Warehouse / The Cleaning Warehouse or Grippa I think it's around £300 per month and just borrow enough to cover the first years payments whilst you build up? 

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Yeah, see what you're saying. I've not researched into the van and system on lease, and I like the idea however even if I got accepted for it. That'd probably be another 200 a month for insurance for me at least. Is 500 a month a bit too much? I'm not sure. 

Incheck said:

I’m not going to lie we found ourselves in the same situation. And our van which we paid 1100 for needed a £900 service and a month later the clutch went. We had invested thousands and were right up the creek. We were very lucky and got a loan for a van, carried on and survived.
People tend to perform well under pressure. When your backs to the wall you’ll be surprised how far you will push yourself to succeed. I totally sympathise as you are officially in the deep end.


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Yeah I definitely have a tendency to step up a gear (maybe not now that my clutch has gone) once pressure is put on me. It is a shame but what can you do I guess ?

I run wfp out a car, I'll take some picks later, it's not as easy as a van but is doable with some forward planning as you can only carry so much water. I tend to pop home to swap barrels at lunchtime, never been caught short yet

Usually have 6 barrels in car, 4 in boot 2 in footwells, refilling at the moment, so only 3 in there. Bought car for £300 3 years ago, had few problems, last one rendered it unusable until it fixed itself!! 

Clisty1989 said:

Usually have 6 barrels in car, 4 in boot 2 in footwells, refilling at the moment, so only 3 in there. Bought car for £300 3 years ago, had few problems, last one rendered it unusable until it fixed itself!! View attachment 15188View attachment 15189View attachment 15190

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Sounds all too familiar, first car was 600 quid, apparently had loads of problems but they used to fix themself. Most of the problems with this current car have too (obviously not this one).

I know this is what the wfp section is for but does it all run from the backpack then? and also how do you get your pure water? I haven't really researched wfp yet so guess that's the next task.

You reckon buy something cheap then in terms of cars? My first car never really had anything wrong with it in all fairness.

Why spend 760 repairing it when you could pick a cheap van/motor with 12 months MOT for 500 quid. You would get 100 scrap for your old motor.

Backpack and barrels. Pure done via single 11l di in garden. TDs is 70 so can get away with it.

I use to work out of a Nissan primera with barrels and a backpack. Was a bit of a pain sometimes but I was still out earning money and building my round. My first van was a £750 Citroen berlingo and this lasted me 3 Years without much going wrong. Only got rid of It as I wanted a bigger newer van. If your prepared to travel there are always good low millage cars around for under a grand. Vans often have a hard life and are abused. Don't be tempted of buying a older van on what appears to be cheap finance as it will probably be a high millage piece of sh1t. Just seen this on ebay 362477927924
Gives a example of what you can get realitavely cheap

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THL4KEL said:

Why spend 760 repairing it when you could pick a cheap van/motor with 12 months MOT for 500 quid. You would get 100 scrap for your old motor.

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It's a Citroen C1 1.4 Hdi, with that engine they're very efficient, cheap and quite sought after, that'd be the only reason, but I'm thinking of selling it off and getting a new one tbh.

Clisty1989 said:

Backpack and barrels. Pure done via single 11l di in garden. TDs is 70 so can get away with it.

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What's the highest TDS you can have?

You can check mot history of vehicles on gov.uk mot check. That will give you an idea of the past care of a vehicle you might be interested in. I bought a car that had passed every mot without a glitch whereas some I looked at had the same problem year on yeah.you just need reg number.


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