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Finally Getting Round To Posting.....

RealKidJoker

Active member
Messages
116
Name : Pete

Cleaning Method : Planning on traditional domestic at first, hopefully move onto commercial WFP and traditional once established.

Years cleaning : 0

Area : Dumfries

About me : Hi all. I'm 28 years old and I've been following this forum for about 6 weeks now as I've been thinking of starting up on my own for a while. After losing my job 2 weeks ago I've went into overdrive coming up with business plans, costs etc.

The issue I've got is wether to do some market research first and do some canvassing to find out if it would be worthwhile starting out, or should I get all the equipment first so that I can start immediately if needed?

I know all about the council fees, insurance etc but I was also looking at the BWCA (British Window Cleaning Association) about doing one of their 1 day courses with certificate. Has anyone else done a course through them?

There's about 260 houses in the estate I live on. It's not a council estate but a private development, but there's older council areas directly across the road. I've never seen a window cleaner in the area, and a google search bring up 5 or 6, but even half of these are cleaning companies that will do windows.

The topics are very informative and the banter seems good.

Cheers

Pete

 
Name : Pete

Cleaning Method : Planning on traditional domestic at first, hopefully move onto commercial WFP and traditional once established.

Years cleaning : 0

Area : Dumfries

About me : Hi all. I'm 28 years old and I've been following this forum for about 6 weeks now as I've been thinking of starting up on my own for a while. After losing my job 2 weeks ago I've went into overdrive coming up with business plans, costs etc.

The issue I've got is wether to do some market research first and do some canvassing to find out if it would be worthwhile starting out, or should I get all the equipment first so that I can start immediately if needed?

I know all about the council fees, insurance etc but I was also looking at the BWCA (British Window Cleaning Association) about doing one of their 1 day courses with certificate. Has anyone else done a course through them?

There's about 260 houses in the estate I live on. It's not a council estate but a private development, but there's older council areas directly across the road. I've never seen a window cleaner in the area, and a google search bring up 5 or 6, but even half of these are cleaning companies that will do windows.

The topics are very informative and the banter seems good.

Cheers

Pete
Welcome pete!
your first stop should be here: https://www.windowcleaningforums.co.uk/forum/63-traditional-window-cleaning/

look at the first 2 posts in that section it will give you all the answers you need! also type in window cleaning into youtube there are hundreds of videos for you to watch forget training days practise on your own house. friends houses etc: then just practise. practise,practise,

every thing you need to know is all here on this forum!

And i would recommend you do a facebook page just for your window cleaning add as many friends as possible!

there is lots more you can do, but have a good read on here and any help you need just ask there all very helpfull on here!

good luck!

james:

 
Thanks James.

Yeah there's some great videos on YouTube, especially the unger ones. I'll have a look at the link you provided. It doesn't look as easy and as dumb as most people think, requires a lot of skill.

Cheers

Pete

 
The link doesn't seem to be working for me James. Thanks for the welcome dodger. I've actually got a meeting at the job centre this afternoon to discuss job seekers allowance initially, but there's a new scheme started called New enterprise allowance where people who are looking to start their own business still get the same money weekly - (£65ish) but get access to a voluntary business tutor who's started a business from scratch to help with business plans etc, and get to go on business gateway courses. You get £1000 towards setting up costs of your business also which you don't pay back I believe...

Maybe worth noting for any future guys that become unemployed to look into. NEW ENTERPRISE ALLOWANCE the scheme is called.

 
Welcome to the best window cleaning forum around! :Image12: We seem to be having problems with links not being clickable, but i am working on it to get them back again. :Image9:

 
Being in Scotland you'll need a licence. Do you see yourself cleaning neighbours windows even if you've not done the job before? Appreciate you've not got a job atm, but it could be a bit daunting. I'd put the feelers out for customers before you splash out on gear.

 
Yeah the license I'd get from the local council which is £222. Don't know if this is per year or 2/3 years. I'll look more into it. I was planning on getting the main trad equipment -

 
hi Pete

welcome to the forum, you will soon pick up lots of work if your keen to work, when your canvassing Pete dont just leave the flyers chapping on the doors and talking works well.

duncs

 
Welcome to the best window cleaning forum around! :Image12: We seem to be having problems with links not being clickable, but i am working on it to get them back again. :Image9:
Its a good looking wee forum but nowhere near as informative, personal & professional as Link removed
In my humble opinion of course....

 
Entitled to your opinion but no need for comparisons, we don't try to be anybody but ourselves. /emoticons/wink.png

 
Thanks for the welcome guys. I've been reading everyday while plotting my attack in the background. Ha. Something that I found useful was this tax calculator.

http://www.listentotaxman.com/index.php

Helpful for working out how much you're looking to earn etc. My thoughts are to hopefully get 150 customers eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) and charge at least £10 per house. This would work out at 7.5 houses per day (call it 8) and a gross salary of £18k per year or net salary of just over £15k after tax and NI. £1254 per month after tax which is ideal for me. Ideally if I was successful enough in building a larger round I could double this figure, as I'm sure even the slowest window cleaner could do 8 per day. 16 ~ 20 houses per day would be perfect.

I've been practising on my own windows but the water is very hard here and always seems to leave some scummy residue which seems to appear after the window has been cleaned and I've thought it was ok. I take it a reverse osmosis machine could help with this issue?

I'm going to knock my first doors tomorrow evening, starting with my cul de sac. See how it goes. Pretty nervous actually. But as my dad said to me when I was younger.... "Greedy wains get battered, quiet wains get f**k all...."

Will update accordingly, but hopefully you's will find the salary calculator useful.

Cheers

 
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