[Paul Coleman]

good on you Ian for thinking it thru but I am not getting at you

but bringing to attention the fact that you would get a hire van, but then you would need to get a tank etc as I dont believe they would have this stuff fitted
in the hire van

If I was in such a situation for a while, I would fill containers and work from a trolley.  Not pleasant since I am used to a van mount but certainly doable.  My insurance doesn't cover hire van but it would probably be cheaper to buy an old one for a few weeks than to hire one (unless it was from the other parties insurance of course).  Bear in mind that quite a few people work from a trolley as their main system and they seem to manage OK.

[Ian_Giles]

Were I to work from a hire van that is exactly what I would do, go back to the trolley...no...come to think of it I would do as I did with my van before I fitted the tank in the back.
I'd fill up my water containers and work from the back as before.
Even when I was using the car, the trolley was virtually redundant.

Ian

[matt]

this is the point

get a trolley system , try it out, if you dont get on with it (for some strange reason) then if you have built it yourself, you have wasted 500 - 600 quid, not a major issue

than if you need a bigger system in a van, buy a tank and away you go, you wil stil use the same pump, poles, brushs, hoses etc etc, just change the 25 L barrels for a tank

[Ian_Giles]

Nicely put Matt

Ian

[tartan cleaning]

hi I would definately say i was better off though the outlay at first is a lot you can gain extra work to cover costs i have increased my income since going wfp coming up now 18mths well worth the investment just won a large contract in nottingham have put in more quotes for other work I would not have even entertained before using poles. 

[matt]

guys i compliment you all fighting your corner well, especially ian giles good replies

you know when you have a good system when you can defend it from all angles

so i decline fighting the corner for the traditional guys, how ever I thought I would have got backup from the odd traditional window cleaner or wfp who has had a bad experience


so you are all doing better wfp - good on you, however no one did a comparison between cost of traditional compared to wfp, oh well cant get all the answers

co,mparing costs is a little haqrd though

my ladders and trad setup cost me about 250 quid

my DIY WFP system cost me about 600 quid

ongoing costs of WFP, my RO system is now 3 years old, i spend about 10 quid a year on resin

BUT you do buy the odd connection that breaks, or the hose gets a hole in it (about 6 quid for 10M's)

i stil do trad downstairs and i buy GG3 and rubbers and scrims (which cost me more than 10 quid a year)

BUT the WFP system earns me more, not because of the speed i work, because im not so tired

[Neil Williams]

More work carried out per person per hour/day

As a business if you spend little on expenses (trad) then little comes off your tax bill at end of year. if you spend a lot of expenses (wfp) then you get a smaller tax bill atend of year. So the expenditure question is not a question here.
Output of actual work is.

[neil100]

YES and Yes again.

I spent 15k setting up last winter between October and December.

I have used wfp from January this year or 48 weeks.

I bought a brand new van,had a van tank system installed by Facelift.Bought 7 poles and a Static RO system in my garage with a 40 40 RO. Loads of stress setting up as I was very unsure weather it was a wate of money. 11 months on and its all rosey in the garden.

I thought it would take me three years to get back what I outlayed thats £15,000.00. In week 46 I had recovered the full ammount of my setup costs. What I mean by that is I have compared my best ever year as a trad w/c with this year cleaning wfp, I have earned todate an extra k16 above my best trad w/c earnings for the same time period.

I have a domestic round, I have more customers now as I clean windows a lot faster but do not work any longer.

Its not just about costs setting up, look at it  from the other side, you have something that will make you money faster for less effort and less health risks. Plus the bonus of owning something that gives you a feeling of pride and satisfaction.

This year I have paid of my set up costs from now on its all extra profit.

Nel.

[pjulk]

I do make more money since i changed to WFP than i did traditional.
But on some jobs there is not much difference on time compared to trad.
But others i do in less than half the time.

Today for instance i earn't twice as much as i could do traditional and i was not slow traditional either.

Its not like that everyday though i wish it was but the worst day i would at least earn the same as traditional.


Paul

[paul mather]

Most definitely, at least £100 a week, probably more. All that & the extra incentive that I will never fall off my ladders again, it's a no brainer.

[AuRavelling79]

Yes and I'm not very organised either.

[gmcs]

Oh YES The best money spent ........sorry about the ladder boy though

[Helen]

short answer .....YES.
It has been worth all the cost and "teething problems. No matter what the profit margins etc, just imgaine the cost of all equipment going up next spring when the HSE really start clamping down on the window cleaning industry. For those of us that have organised ourselves and are used to it we will have no bothers and issues with HSE if and when we get investigated for our methods used! That is worth a million by itself