[David Kent @ KentKleen]

steve!! get on ebay mate, loads of vans with kit in come up all the time. dont buy a round!!!!!!!!! go out and leaflet/door knock. WFP from the start mate, dont bother with the old trad, I started wfp mid jan and now have a perfectly happy 197 customers all WFP and all of them love it!!!! bought my set up for £2400 (£6000 worth of kit plus the van )
 I have not knocked on a door yet, just leaflets and thats with 4 to 5 other wfp an my town!! I trad cleaned for years mate before having a break from windying. wfp is now the way to go. (in my opinion) Im only down in boro so prices are around the same down here, not as much as the southern guys but do a good job every time and you can charge well!!!
Get cracking mate. loads of work out there if ya wanna find it!!  

[stevegray]

Thats the way i am thinking of going cheers, if you do not mind how much are you charging in Boro? Had thought about becoming a Window Doctor (misted units, broken handles, locks etc) but am more interested in the cleaning side at the minute. Just worried that all the locals are too used to £4 a clean to change.
cheers

[jefftemperley]

the purple rhino site logo looks like the rhino is trying to mount the word purple!!

[paul rulton]

the purple rhino site logo looks like the rhino is trying to mount the word purple!!

it does dont it 

[Dave Willis]

Commercial work? hmm personally I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole for the first year. Get your domestics under your belt first then you'll know what your doing. Learn the trade, decide if it's really what you want. look on ebay and see the expensive systems constantly coming up for sale - why? It's most likely because they haven't generated enough work to make the payments for the lease. Don't get drawn in by the hype - it won't happen overnight and don't forget the winter we have been through, some of us didn't work for several weeks.
The rewards can be good but equally they could be dreadful if you can't get the work. Up to you how you want to spend your redundancy.
You'll find some of the 'experts' on this site are posting all day long - strange that! Some of the highest quotes also come from guys on here with no work. Be careful 

[♠Winp®oClean♠]

Commercial work? hmm personally I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole for the first year. Get your domestics under your belt first then you'll know what your doing. Learn the trade, decide if it's really what you want. look on ebay and see the expensive systems constantly coming up for sale - why? It's most likely because they haven't generated enough work to make the payments for the lease. Don't get drawn in by the hype - it won't happen overnight and don't forget the winter we have been through, some of us didn't work for several weeks.
The rewards can be good but equally they could be dreadful if you can't get the work. Up to you how you want to spend your redundancy.

Wise words, wise words.

The chances are there are LOTS of wfp windies in your area (you've just not seen them) & most, nearly all commercial work is already serviced- it's one thing getting it to start with & another taking it from someone else!

[stevegray]

I have not mentioned commercial work Its the domestic side i would be interested in hopefully. Just a idea at present but one i am very interested in.
Cheers

[Craig 72]

my advice is dont spend silly big money on gettign started, you might not be cut out for it

get yourself either a backpack on a cart or build yourself a trolley, use 25 L barrels to start and get out canvassing, you should be able to pick up a days work ( do it on saturday if you have to ) and see if you like it

you can get yourself setup for 500 quid for a basic kit, you can work out of your car for a while, give it a whirl, you have nothing to lose, if you like then you can buy more expensive kit ( if you feel the need )

dont foget a WFP is just a means of getting pure water upto a brush head, from a 100 quid backback to a 20 K system, its the same pure water at a brush, dont let a slick salesmen take all your money

This is the advice I would listen too and is exactly what I did a year ago.Also the advice on learning traditional skills too.Not difficult to get practice in on friends and familys houses.Good luck.It's not for everyone,this last winter was my first and a very tough one.I'm glad I took the plunge though you can't beat being your own boss.

[Dave Willis]

I have not mentioned commercial work Its the domestic side i would be interested in hopefully. Just a idea at present but one i am very interested in.
Cheers

I mentioned it because of Darrenvps previous quote. He's gone big and spent the money hoping to get commercial work.

I went half way and bought reasonable kit and started from scratch. You need to be prepared for terrible earnings for the first few months (unless you buy a round), large initial costs if you go wfp. I had to make it work as I had no redundancy pay and no other job option. I think I've been lucky and have more than enough work these days. Yes, you can't beat being your own boss but weigh up the pros and cons - no sick pay, no holiday pay and maybe no holidays for a couple of years, the stigma and p taking from friends to start with, working on your own, working in poor weather, short winter days (less money).
Plenty of good points too - no shifts, good pay (eventually), fresh air and master of your own destiny.
So yes of course it's feasible.
Good luck if you take the plunge - keep us up to date 

ps. I started wfp and didn't learn trad for the first year and still only blade insides really. Don't waste you money on the courses  - try and get some hands on experience with someone local if you can. Make friends with the local windys too, they will often pass you work.

[Craig 72]

The trouble with buying a round,unless its really small is the fact that you might be biting off more than you can chew.The first job I did took me about 3 hours and it was a small bungalow.If I was in employment and was considering this lark I think I would canvass and leaflet for work and just work Saturdays to test the water.

[Smudger]

Hi there

The best advice I can give you is - "go and knock" lots of people can go and buy the equipment and be full of good intentions, spend lots on advertising and leafleting, all of that can work, BUT the quickest way to build your business is to a) buy a round - personally you need to be careful here, lots of horror stories (but some good ones too!) or b) BUILD your own round - YOU take responsibility for getiing yoru name out there, we have just done what you are thinking of doing and I we have built it from scratch since september and the redundancy was the best thing to have happened!

See if you have the boldness to knock and learn to feel comfortable doing it, personally IF you can't do this element of the job it will be harder to build your business.

All the best

[richard jagger]

Don’t spend to much. Going  big is a egotistical way to go. Go traditional and build from there as it cost money to live through the starting up times. Canvice and find the work first because if you have all the fancy kit and not cusatomer you have nothing. Always find the customer and spent slowly.For the price of a ladder and squeegee and mop and bucket and some micro fibre you are in business and of course some leaflets.