My first week.... OMG...

Hi all,

My work partner and I we started our window cleaning round properly after the last few weeks just doing the odd customer as they trickled in, for the last month or so we have been out flyering and advertising hard, and we have managed to pick up 30 customers in the last month.

 Full of enthusiasm we started on Monday, rightly or wrongly we have not charged a first clean price, but being sticklers for a good job every house was was you Ubix’d and cleaned. 

 We averaged 6-7 houses each day, all went well and had some fantastic feedback from all our customers either on the day or by text, I found it a little tiring but all was good.

We had four days of work finishing with seven larger houses on the Thursday and OMG I feel exhausted!

I have been a decorator for the last 10 years so I’m used to manual work but I must say it’s harder than I thought it was going to be. Also after four days I have about £200 in my pocket and (£200 in my work partners in my pocket), I know these are first cleans and next time should be much easier but wow I just wasn’t expecting it.

i know maintenance cleans are quicker but still feel we have to speed up a lot to hit a decent wage. 

I won’t lie I used to see the window cleaner waving that pole about, then 10mins later he was gone with his cash, but my my, respect the window cleaner, it’s tough!

Skywalker said:

respect the window cleaner, it’s tough!

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You wait till you're doing 24 houses a day each, 5 days a week, then you will know how tough it is ?. Until you start to build the muscles you use all the time it will be tiring, you will also be putting to much pressure on and gripping the pole to tightly which will get better with experience. This is a physically demanding job that for 80% of the time is either to hot or to cold, it is however, as far as I know, the best paid manual job out there. 

Maybe on the wrong forum here, deep down we’re all lazy ba**erds lol

Na well done! Keep it up. I remember the first month I felt like I had been beaten up everyday working for my old boss

Not many people understand how demanding and exhausting the window cleaning world is, unless your a fellow window cleaner. Hats off to us all. Im 12 years in. 550 customers and clean on my own.

In a few short years,you'll look back on your first week & laugh about it. Me, I'm still mentally scarred thinking about it. Until those maintenance cleans came around, it was hell!

My first day I did 14 first cleans and 2 conservatory roofs.

I was dead

Got talking to another windy and his boy. I said climbing ladders all day has a detrimental effect on my knees especially as one gets older. He said he will be okay because he goes to the gym and exercises his legs. After I realized their set-up I told him he has nothing to worry about with him doing the ground level and the boy up the ladder every house. No wonder he has problems retaining staff. :1f644:

Yeah consider it a success as part timer said its all about muscle groups, when you use them regularly it does become to feel more natural. First two houses of the day for me it’s always “aww man” after that you’re in the rhythym and before you know it its over. The only exception being this time of year where the heat drains me and i get more and more tired as the day goes on. Coming through the door this week after work ive been like a zombie. 

When we were building rounds we found that 10-12 first cleans a day was the absolute maximum and we also work as a pair (thats not including restoration work obviously just standard wfp first clean) i didnt even know windows could be restored until id been doing it a considerable length of time. Cant believe it looking back now i never knew what a magic sponge or the pink stuff or unger rub out even was ? this forum has done so much for me i hope it does you the same you pick up so many tips and the community spirit is so nice

I would definitely charge at least 50% more for a first clean as they can and do take you up to 3 times longer than a regular clean, if you haven't got a FB business page get one set up and get those happy customers to leave a review and for those that don't use FB get a free listing on Google and get them to leave a review on there as this will rank you higher on a search. 

Start a stretching routine for the neck and shoulders, and learn to use the other side of your body when poling! Do those two things and it'll massively help your body out with aches and pains.

Be aware from the start which parts gets the most sore, and try to remedy it before it becomes chronic.

As has already been said, dont use too much pressure when scrubbing let the bristle tips do the work. Dont pinch the back of the neck when looking up, try to keep your spine aligned and look up using your eyes as much as possible. Keep your core engaged when poling and try to keep your elbows tucked by your sides, my elbows and knees both hurt on a daily basis and its no fun!

Yeah when I started out a few years ago I was absolutely knackered after a full day! Some days I would get home, have a wash, tea, and be in bed asleep by 08:00, and I am quite a fit guy. Just being active all day wears you out. I’m used to it now and think it is the best manual job out there. This time of year I love it!

Oh, and yes, for a first clean you should charge at least 50% more. Sometimes if I’m taking over from another cleaner and they’re not bad I will charge a regular price if I really want it, but generally 50%-100% more.

chelmsclean said:

My first day I did 14 first cleans and 2 conservatory roofs.

I was dead

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One word man... How?

I can canvass for hours and only get one or two custys... 3 on a good day..

When I started out I would get the customers lined up , tell them you will be around within the next couple weeks , that gives you time get these customers signed up ,  

First cleans are rough ! Both on water and yourself ,Next time its nothing compared to the first one .

Tango said:

One word man... How?

I can canvass for hours and only get one or two custys... 3 on a good day..

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Just hit a sweet spot. Someone in my village stopped doing their work, I knocked on one of their customers who told me which houses they did. I got them all.

I only canvassed for a few weeks.

Everything else came to me, through my website, a local magazine I went in for 6 months, or word of mouth.

Since then I've done a few Facebook ads to fill in a few gaps bit that's all.

Anyway I never cleaned as i went. I told them all I'd be along on Thursday. 

Thursday was a TOUGH day.

Especially as the two roofs were drastically underpriced after being given terrible advice to charge £1 a panel.

£1 a panel... well I ain't much better at £1.25 lol. That's cos i figured i needed to come up with some sort of way to guesstimate a price for quotes etc but i do try to quote over that if i can. I didn't use to, i used to do £10 for small - medium houses and it wasn't getting me anywhere much.. until another windy gave me a client that was a tiny house and paying £15 (he didn't even tell me that - i had to ask the customer lol). Anyway i got that one and felt like it was rockstar money.. been trying for that bit more ever since. Some get picky and i'll eventually cave just to get the work but those ones tread a fine line if they don't go monthly or 6 weekly.

I was a trad cleaner for 4 years before I switched to WFP. Got everything sorted, all the gear, van mount, SLX 22....practiced on my own windows first. I'll never forget that moment when I thought to myself after giving my windows a clean that first time, 'I'm not gonna be able to do this'. I genuinely thought I wasn't gonna be able to cut the mustard of having to clean 20 houses a day I just didn't think my body could cope. I'm not the biggest guy in the world. But, I HAD to. I cracked on and yeah, I ached for a good few weeks until my body adjusted and the muscles that were needed developed and the work became easier. Even now when I take a few weeks off when I get back to work some aches creep back in. After 1.5 years WFP now my hands STILL ache. Not as much as they used to but it's still there. It does get easier you'll be flying in no time.

Well done starting out isn’t easy it’s a steep learning curve you will quickly realise that you have underpriced stuff but you will learn from that and won’t make the same mistake again we have all been there and done that , first cleans will take a lot longer as well getting used to the pole will also take time but give it a couple of months or so and you won’t look back jobs will be so much easier and quicker , I remember when I was on my own and had over 400 first cleans to do when I went from trad to wfp , I thought I had made a huge mistake but 3 months in it all paid off and I was doing work much faster and had two spare days a week to get more work , the rest as they say is history ???

Part Timer said:

You wait till you're doing 24 houses a day each, 5 days a week, then you will know how tough it is ?. Until you start to build the muscles you use all the time it will be tiring, you will also be putting to much pressure on and gripping the pole to tightly which will get better with experience. This is a physically demanding job that for 80% of the time is either to hot or to cold, it is however, as far as I know, the best paid manual job out there. 

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There was me thinking it was a footballer. :1f602: