[derek west]

my mates had enough of his job and is thinking of going into window cleaning, he's secured 3 pubs and our house plus a few friends houses and is gonna go canvassing. he's asked me for advice but i know nothing of window cleaning.

any advice on pricing, toe treading etc....

is it easy if you have the drive to succeed, whats the time scale for becoming self sufficient. any advice is welcome.

[steve rix]

Look to charge an average price of £1/£1.25 per window.
Do leaflet and canvass relentlessly.
Dont worry about "tredding on anyones toes", but DON'T offer to undercut their price either.
As to how long it will take to build up a round it depends on how much effort he puts in to it and where his area is, competition etc, and how lucky he is. I've always found he harder I work the luckier I am.
Any way I truly wish him all the best, anything elese just ask on here, most are pretty helpful (with a few exceptions!!)

[derek west]

cheers steve, famtastic advice, gonna help him do a business at the weekend and see what sort of figures he needs to be hitting. thanks again for the advice.

[Tom White]

Derek, probably the best bit of advice you can give yer mate is to join this forum (or any other busy cleaning forum).

[derek west]

will do tosh, his names brian so look out for him.

[SunShineCleaning]

You can build up a business, but don't expect to be able to do this straight away.

Your best advice would be to have 6 months of living expences availiable and bank any income from window cleaning during that time.
Then re-assess where you are in 6 months time, you should by then know if you are suited and whether there is sufficient work/income to make a living.

A pragmatic approch is essential as it takes most businesses 18 months to establish.

[Helen]

my mates had enough of his job and is thinking of going into window cleaning, he's secured 3 pubs and our house plus a few friends houses and is gonna go canvassing. he's asked me for advice but i know nothing of window cleaning.

any advice on pricing, toe treading etc....

is it easy if you have the drive to succeed, whats the time scale for becoming self sufficient. any advice is welcome.

what you doing on the dark side matey
Oh yeah, it' one of those "I have a friend "stories isn't it.........
He needs to get out leafletting, door knocking as much as possible.Try to build compact areas, which will give him £20 to £25 per hour. 
Price around £1 per window, but be realistic.
Get a minimum price in place
The overheads are even lower than CC'ing so that is great for him too.
With a bit of hard work and effort he should have a nice business going in about 6 to 8 months.
If he wants advise or has issues then tell him to shout and "Hels"will answer

[derek west]

thanks sunshine and helen. and helen it really is a friend, you won't get me up a ladder i'm scared of heights . he's helped me on the carpet cleaning a few times on big jobs, he's actually in one of my videos on youtube. he's the one wrestling with a door while trying to hoover. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDnboRtEYxo

i'll have a chat with him and relay all the advice ive received of you guys and gals.

cheers

[derek west]

so ball park figure, how long does it take to clean a 3 bed semi with 10 variable sized windows when your good at it?. its hard to gauge when he's not very fast yet.

traditional

oh and while i'm here, is WFP a lot faster. how long would it take with WFP?

[wpclean]

so ball park figure, how long does it take to clean a 3 bed semi with 10 variable sized windows when your good at it?. its hard to gauge when he's not very fast yet.

traditional

oh and while i'm here, is WFP a lot faster. how long would it take with WFP?

About 15 minutes

[derek west]

so with travelling is that about 3-4 an hour on the house mentioned?

he's been told by someone to charge £3.50 to £4 a house, i told him "don't be stupid. even at 5 houses an hour with all his expenses coming out he'd be lucky to break even and thats without taking a wage.

[Aaron Wells]

the person that told him is clearly a tool! i would not clean a house for less than a tenner (minimum charge)

[derek west]

the person that told him is clearly a tool! i would not clean a house for less than a tenner (minimum charge)

thats basically what i told him though worded slightly different.