[Gerald Ash]

Hi everyone, Newbie here. Just worked out that if I were to charge £7.50 per house & cleaned one house per hour I would earn a good wage.
       It gets better, if I charge more, do more then I can work two weeks a month & have two weeks off.
    I`m fat & old & lazy.
      How realistic is this idea to earn a months wage in two weeks?
  I`m not taking the p*** I`m serious. Advice please.
Also please give advice on pole work infact any advice would be gratefully recieved.
  I will not take work from any other window cleaners on principal.

[richard jagger]

I don`t think window cleaning is for you, we don`t need fat lazy buggers in this industry.So why don`t you just go and sign on it sounds more your style. Try cleaning up a ladder in this weather, I don`t think so, you make it sound so easy.

[gavinb]

Yes its soooo  simple ....

Good luck with it and while your at it stick ya pole up ya backside .

[Neil Jones]

So funny, if you had two of you, you could aim for a months work in a week and have three weeks a month off, then sign on for the rest of it.

[Dave Willis]

Fall off your ladder, claim benefits and never work again. No brainer really. 

[tompoole]

Think you're over charging :-)

[Gerald Ash]

Why the hostility? All I want is to earn a living instead of claiming benefits.
   I don`t need to earn a fortune & I`ll do a proper job.
       At first I`ll work hard to build up a customer base, the two weeks a month will be in the future not immediately. I know it`s not easy I`ve ran a few businesses before so appreciate that you get what you put in.
    I apologise if I sounded flippant but I`ve been a carer for over twelve years & now find myself on a job market in my late forties with little chance of employment.
    I see an opportunity to build something to earn an honest living.
 To be honest at my present health I wouldn`t employ me so it`s my only hope.
   Also, anyone thought of cleaning cars with pure water. Would it negate the need to dry the bodywork? Please be kind to a fat old man.

[home6442]

At £7.50 an hour you would hardly make min wage after expenses.
Also its not a job to be thinking about if not in good health.
Up and down ladders or rowing a pole in all weather you need to be fit.

[home6442]

Cleaning cars with pure water wont make a difference because
unless you remove all the wax [which you dont want to do]
it will still leave marks if you dont dry.

[Gerald Ash]

Thankyou John, I take that onboard. My relative health is poor but I am able to walk sixteen miles a day so am fit.
  Just an idea on cars, glad I didn`t try it.
     Also plan to build up services to wheelie bin cleaning car valeting & patio/driveways but am starting with absolutely nothing so will take time.
  All I have is a overdraft maxed out & a pair of hands. saving up for equipment to start. Any reccommendations?

[Jim Waugh(Albright & Shiny)]

Right you need a little perspective thrown at you.

Any form of self employment is not about making a wage its about running a business. A wage is the last of your worries.
Your first problem is cash-flow. Cash needs to be coming in so you can pay it out, If you dont do your paying out other businesses will avoid you like the plague.
This means before you do anything you need a backup fund of some kind. Read the post on here from the people who cant get out to work cause of the weather.

Your hourly rate has to take into account your overheads. i.e. how much an hour is your transport, insurance, advertising, equipment, Backup fund etc. Then and only then you ned to draw a wage... Oh and you need to take into account the Tax mans share... If you dont do that he will bite you on the arris hard.

Another thing you cant work 40 hours a week as in a normal job. cause you have the windows to do. plus you have to manage all the other aspects of your business. Promotion, collection, doing the books. maintaining the vehicle and kit.. Its all time..

Plus you cannot physically clean glass for 40 hours so when you calculate your hourly rate you have to take into account how much of your working week will be taken up with answering phones, driving between jobs. taking holidays etc.

There is a calculation somewhere that a=in any one man business you will only spend an average of 25 hours on the tools.

So to work out your hourly rate you have to add up all your overheads including your wages, and add a bit for profit and investment in your kit.  then divide that number by 1300 (number of hours you can spend on the tools in a year) and that will tell you how much you have to charge every hour you have a pole or a squeegee in your hand...

eg wages 20k. overheads 30k profit 10k total of 60K  divide that by 1300 and you need to average of £46 an hour when you are on the glass..... So your working week will cossets of 25 hours where you are earning £46 an hour. But you will have another 30+ hours when you will be running around doing business stuff at £0 per hour.

In short unless you are willing to work your backside off 60 hours a week. go and work for someone.. dont work for yourself..

[Gerald Ash]

Thanks Jim. I intend to work bloody hard & have built up a business before but not at this industry. I`ve worked with customers all my life & have excellant customer skills.
  The pay off for hard work is being able to ease off later on, not totally but some.
  My intention is to be able to work my nuts off for two weeks then two weeks to relax.  If I can do that in three years I`ll be lucky but I`m sure it`ll work. 

[Jim Waugh(Albright & Shiny)]

If it helps Im also getting into this as a part time business. I Will be retiring from my current drudge with a small pension which makes the wages issue easier But I will still have to work to make ends meet 

I will be doing a 5 week round working 4 having 1 off.... I couldn't see two weeks grafting two weeks relaxin work , certainly for me. purely due to the overheads running on while the cash aint coming in..

Thats my plan but I know from past experience that It wont stay part time and Ill end up putting every waking moment into it..
It may work It may not but Im giving it a go...

[home6442]

I have to disagree with you Jim I am a self employed window cleaner I dont
run a business and dont want to, so all I need is a wage after expenses.
I know a window cleaner who got up one morning borrowed a ladder
Paid £30 for some cleaning tools walked out the door and earned a wage.
Didnt even own a car.
He worked put a few pound away each week and built up from there
Work for what you need to earn to be happy nothing else counts.

[Jim Waugh(Albright & Shiny)]

John at the end of the end of the day whatever you call it its still a business. you need income, you need to earn enough to make a wage  after overheads. and the tax man still wants his chunk.
Its down to the individual how high their overheads are whether it be £30 for a Bucket and a squeegee or a full blown fleet of vans.and whetehr you want / need to build in an elemt for expansion/ rainy day fund or not The principle is the same..
The point I was trying to make is that you have to charge more per hour than just what you would like to put in your pocket.
I appreciate that there are people who do this  at many different levels. some part time. some running franchises. but at the end of the day there is more to it than just the hourly rate. price per window.
Im one of them I want a business to top up an income. But I have had to think long and hard about what I need to do and how I need to do it..

What window cleaning does allow is people to start with minimal investment

[dave0123]

Thanks Jim. I intend to work bloody hard & have built up a business before but not at this industry. I`ve worked with customers all my life & have excellant customer skills.
  The pay off for hard work is being able to ease off later on, not totally but some.
  My intention is to be able to work my nuts off for two weeks then two weeks to relax.  If I can do that in three years I`ll be lucky but I`m sure it`ll work. 

If you have run a business before then you should fully well know that £7.50 turnover per hour is stupid amount of money .. you might as well just go and work in aldi 2/3 days a week they pay about 8 quid and its warm

[richard jagger]

Maybe you should talk to Matt Bateman. He sounds just like you at times.You could even work for him.

[Window Washers]

At £7.50 an hour you would hardly make min wage after expenses.
Also its not a job to be thinking about if not in good health.
Up and down ladders or rowing a pole in all weather you need to be fit.

£7.50 an hour you would never earn min wage after expenses.

you need to be fit to be a window cleaner (well semi fit)

[Johnny B]

Gerald, welcome to the nuthouse.

As you will have read this game means different things to different people, therefore you can either build a lucrative business, or make a wage to meet your needs. The choice is yours and it doesn't matter if your views differ from others.

If you wish to make £7.50 an hour and it meets your needs, then no one should criticize you for this. However, as has been said, there are overheads to meet which will need to be taken into account. Most guys on here are WFP, for which the overheads are higher, or you could start by going trad (far cheaper and will get you started).

If you haven't done window cleaning before, it may be an idea to gain some experience by helping a windy with his own work, or you could practise on your own windows and build up some confidence. It will also give you an idea how long it takes to do a house like yours and gauge how much you could charge/earn from similar houses.

Best wishes,
John

 ,  

[Gerald Ash]

Once I have the tools the only expenses will be rubbers & other consumables. I will be walking to the estates where I will work so no car/van expenses.
   As I`ve said starting with nothing, I only quote £7.50 as at that amount it would be possible to survive but I want to live & at the moment life is a misery.
     I will succeed in this because I don`t need to earn a fortune so can build up slowly if that`s the way it goes.
                             Everyone has to start from somewhere, if I had a few thousand to take lots of training & buy a nice profitable round I would but at present I have eighty pence to my name.
      Every single person here once cleaned their first window for their first customer without the knowledge they have now.
       My biggest assets are I`m as strong as an ox & bloody minded so that will see through if nothing else & as I`ve said I will not take work from others because I wouldn`t like people to do it to me.
    Believe it or not I could survive on one house but rather do that every thirty mins
   Thanks for  that Johnny b, I`ll get there & you never know this time next year I could be a millionaire.
    Earning a decent wage after expenses would suffice though.