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Hello everyone I am looking at starting a small window cleaning business to complement my income and was wondering if there is a basic goto business plan that I could download and adjust as necessary. 

 
Hello everyone I am looking at starting a small window cleaning business to complement my income and was wondering if there is a basic goto business plan that I could download and adjust as necessary. 
Hello, have you looked at the obvious for inspiration like the Princes Trust templates or the DirectGov, or the choices of many scattering the Internet. 

If you use the government website and navigate through the BS you'll find the small business start up section

Welcome to the forum by the way. Didn't catch your name. An introduction would be nice as we are all friendly family here.

Kind regards Austin 

https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan

 
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Are you looking for a ready made business plan for window cleaners, or just an example template?

 
Hello, have you looked at the obvious for inspiration like the Princes Trust templates or the DirectGov, or the choices of many scattering the Internet. 

If you use the government website and navigate through the BS you'll find the small business start up section

Welcome to the forum by the way. Didn't catch your name. An introduction would be nice as we are all friendly family here.

Kind regards Austin 

https://www.gov.uk/write-business-plan
Hello Austin 

Thank you for the info I will look into this tonight. 

I'm Gary work in the security industry as a consultant for the last 20 years but I'm finding myself with lots of free time so need to keep busy so part time extra work will be great and I would aim to get a small business going and hand it over to someone in the family. 

 
Hello New Guy 

Thank you for your Responce 

I'm not sure maybe a ready made one but with the ability to adapt when needed. Or I could use it as a guide. 

Many Thanks 

Gary

 
Maybe a silly question but why do you need a business plan? Is it that you are trying to get finance? If not then you might be over complicating things. While it's good to have goals most of the business plans I have ever read are 80% garbage, they are just based on optimistic guesses to try and impress someone. The ones I have read wouldn't help the businesses succeed or grow faster as the people who write them don't actually know how to run a business in the sector they are intending to compete in.

You need to be able to do a good job cleaning windows, be friendly, earn enough to pay yourself and keep money back for tax, sickness, holiday pay, equipment etc.

Just so you know I haven't started cleaning windows yet due to shielding since last Feb! I have started, and successfully ran 3 businesses, and subsequently sold 2 of them.

 
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Maybe a silly question but why do you need a business plan? Is it that you are trying to get finance? If not then you might be over complicating things. While it's good to have goals most of the business plans I have ever read are 80% garbage, they are just based on optimistic guesses to try and impress someone. The ones I have read wouldn't help the businesses succeed or grow faster as the people who write them don't actually know how to run a business in the sector they are intending to compete in.

You need to be able to do a good job cleaning windows, be friendly, earn enough to pay yourself and keep money back for tax, sickness, holiday pay, equipment etc.
I completely agree Ched. 90% are fictional goals and figures with a load of BS about where you see yourself, what services you offer and generalised yawning material.

If you aim to do a business startup scheme where you require a personal loan then the government NEA programme may be of benefit to you 

 
Maybe a silly question but why do you need a business plan? Is it that you are trying to get finance? If not then you might be over complicating things. While it's good to have goals most of the business plans I have ever read are 80% garbage, they are just based on optimistic guesses to try and impress someone. The ones I have read wouldn't help the businesses succeed or grow faster as the people who write them don't actually know how to run a business in the sector they are intending to compete in.

You need to be able to do a good job cleaning windows, be friendly, earn enough to pay yourself and keep money back for tax, sickness, holiday pay, equipment etc.

Just so you know I haven't started cleaning windows yet due to shielding since last Feb! I have started, and successfully ran 3 businesses, and subsequently sold 2 of them.
Yeah I agree completely and it seems to me there is a simple fundamental for any business - aquiring customers. How are you going to get enough new customers to survive? And what sort of budget do you have for this?
Are you going to knock doors, invest in a website (that ranks well), advertise, flyers or what? How are you going to grow the business because it's not easy and new customers don't just appear. Speculative business plans about future growth are meaningless and just optimistic guesswork.

 
A business plan can be helpful. In fact, I would advise most people who are setting up a business to have one. They can be amended over time to cover ever changing circumstances. 

They can help a business set out their direction, guide them through the years and keep them on their chosen path. 

A good business plan will cover what the business need to do internally, externally, look at what equipment they need, budgeting, competition, marketing and so forth. 

I was intending to draft one myself but decided it wasn't needed for window cleaning with just myself. But if I were perhaps thinking of expanding in the future, or diversifying, then I would definitely have drafted a business plan. 

 
I personally don’t see that a business plan is of any use to us whats so ever , when I started all I wanted to do was be my own boss earn enough to pay the bills , over time I expanded changed from trad to wfp had more customers than I could cope with so just expanded what I was doing , now have 3 vans and 6 guys , I could easily double that within a year but Ime not interested I want to be doing less and cutting back , but I have never needed a business plan to accomplish what I have done , or if I have it’s been very simple and in my head , realising I cannot do all this work I need help so took someone on then just kept repeating this , it’s not difficult to do you don’t need a degree in business studies to run a successful business especially when starting out , the more work and staff you have the more complex organising it becomes but the principal is the same wether you work on your own or have a dozen vans . Once you become known in your area and build a good reputation the work comes to you not you looking for  work , we don’t  advertise at all only ever put a tiny add in the local paper when I first started , all work is now through our website , but most comes from recommendations or walk ups , obviously you need to decide how you are going to work when and ware you want to work and decide what your target customers are , then get out knocking doors and sell yourself and your services , I think a lot try and over complicate starting up a small business we arnt trying to impress lord sugar with un realistic business plans . 

 
I did a business plan over 21 years ago, just because I could get about 1k for nowt off the Gov in the form of a grant otherwise I wouldn't have bothered and just cracked on.

 
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