[applepicker]

I f I earn £1170 after tax (£60 a day) and do my on the side jobs on a Saturday- £70 on average cleaning windows.  And I jacked main job in or got fired, would I be able to survive and earn that sort of money cleaning windows?   How long would it take?   I would work from car initially- buy water trolley- get another pump and battery etc.    Got trolley and pole and ladder and trad gear.

[Don Kee]

£70 a day, 5 days a week is almost impossible mate...
You're best off signing on and sticking with doing your saturday stuff

[slap bash]

Its not as easy as it sounds mate. You will have to find 200 regular,well paying customers before the winter. Its a big ask.

[capn sparkle]

Blimey mate if you're already making £60 a day why on earth would you want to be a window cleaner???

Stick with what you're doing fella! You're minted...

[britishwill]

They are winding you up!
Of course you can earn that money.
Work hard and you will earn double that.

Go for it

[Mist A Bit]

Do the maths, you only need 6 house, s a day at 10 quid each  , as draft as it sounds , that sort of round could be built within a week. I would go to a good area with larger houses and pick up 3 a day at 20 quid each. When I started 14 years ago I left my job for a round bringing in 600quid a month. It took me another 2weeks to get it up to 1000

[SB Cleaning]

Do the maths, you only need 6 house, s a day at 10 quid each  , as draft as it sounds , that sort of round could be built within a week. I would go to a good area with larger houses and pick up 3 a day at 20 quid each. When I started 14 years ago I left my job for a round bringing in 600quid a month. It took me another 2weeks to get it up to 1000

yes but I bet it was a lot easier picking up customers 14 years ago...there's a lot of windys about these days and I think it would be hard going to pick up good reliable well paying customers in that time.

[dazmond]

You can earn triple what your earning a month mate but it's took me many years.if you have a strong inner drive and good work ethic you can succeed but you need to be confident and bang them doors day in/day out and leaflet.work hard every day.

Self employment is not for everyone though.

Good luck

Dazmond

[SeanK]

Depends on how many hours your doing on a Saturday to earn that £70 and if you believe that its possible
to earn more if taken more serious.
The good news is you don't have a massive target to reach to be better off than you are now even with the added expenses
that come with working for yourself and you already have one foot through the door.
As for the length of time it might take well how longs a piece of string, it all depends on how much competition you have and
how good you are at attracting custom.
It would be better if you had a few quid banked to take the pressure off until you get where you need to be.

[slap bash]

Its not that easy building a round these  days I guise it will depend on the amount of competition . I know for sure in my area you will stand no chance as many don`t  use a window cleaner.  If it was me I would build a Sunday round and  and if that worked out I would take some holiday time and try it first. Jobs are scarce and once you out you will not get back in. To all the well intention-ed advice offed only take advice from those who have built a round lately. When the banks crashed and cask became tite building a round became more difficult 

[Phil J]

Hey Slap,
I was stuck in a crap dead end job that I hated. I kept checking eBay and Gumtree. When the right round showed up I got a bank loan and handed my notice in. Best   move I've ever made!
Go for it, pal 

[Flash..]

Just remember that you are taking home £60 per day after tax and national insurance, plus sick pay, holiday pay, pension possibly and no overheads like insurance or equipment.  You will probably need to earn about £100 to achive all this self employed.

[Jonny 87]

Just remember that you are taking home £60 per day after tax and national insurance, plus sick pay, holiday pay, pension possibly and no overheads like insurance or equipment.  You will probably need to earn about £100 to achive all this self employed.

Agree with this.

Some feel window cleaning us easy money and a doddle.

This isn't the case. Self motivation plays a big factor. Are you determined to get up  and out there every day, dealing with all the rubbish customers that you pick up when you first start out.

It can be demoralising and so many people fail. I think window cleaning must have the biggest turn around of self employed people of any job out there. I see it in my area.

Don't take the decision to leave your employment lightly.

[EandM]

Remember that Window Cleaning isn't a job but rather a way of life. The money is good, conditions & flexibility are excellent but it's all down to YOU and no one else. If you want to work for someone and let them do the thinking then that's fine but Window Cleaning is a very different proposition. As long as you appreciate that going in then you'll be fine.

[martin hulstone]

I would always recommend trying to buy well established work if you are starting up from new, canvassed or door knocked work is demoralising and most new window cleaners will give up within months. You will generally be just getting new customers that other windies have fired off for various reasons (locked gates, insist on text day before to which they can ask u to leave it till next time, moaners etc etc) always try to buy established and then pick up work along the way, preferably that approach you.

[slap bash]

Hey Slap,
I was stuck in a crap dead end job that I hated. I kept checking eBay and Gumtree. When the right round showed up I got a bank loan and handed my notice in. Best   move I've ever made!
Go for it, pal 

Hi Phil when was that Mate? There not much o the market these day.

[Johnny B]

Its not that easy building a round these  days I guise it will depend on the amount of competition . I know for sure in my area you will stand no chance as many don`t  use a window cleaner.  If it was me I would build a Sunday round and  and if that worked out I would take some holiday time and try it first. Jobs are scarce and once you out you will not get back in. To all the well intention-ed advice offed only take advice from those who have built a round lately. When the banks crashed and cask became tite building a round became more difficult

So true. I relocated to Ireland nearly 4 years ago when the economy was in the bog, and started up again from scratch. It has been quite a journey,  what with dealing with people who say they want a regular clean, only to say otherwise when I've gone back when scheduled; non-payers, or those who gave me the runaround, or being turned away because it was forecast to rain! It took 2 years of canvassing, I cleaned any that I picked up, and over time the tide has slowly turned in my favour. Work is now coming to me from all angles due to recommendations from good, established customers, and all the messers are history.

Has it been easy? No! There were times when I thought that I was losing the battle, but from the start I told myself that failure is not an option, so I ploughed on , but it took a lot of self-discipline, self-motivation and the determination to keep going.

If I can do it, then most people can, but it's vital to plan very carefully how to go about building a window cleaning business, especially when considering leaving a steady paid job, because it will take a few years to build.

John

[NWH]

To get regular money coming in every week you need to be earning more than your looking at taking home every week,if you want £300 a week going in your bank or dropping  on your mat you need to be earning £600 cos not everyone pays on time.  I'm usually owed what I can earn a month constantly,this should give you a clue to the amount of work you need and it's a lot more than you think. It takes years to build a good regular money coming in without having to collect business.

[Stoots]

I quit my job last april due to being generally depressed an fed up with life (just got divorced and wasnt thinking clearly),  i started doing car valeting quickly realisng it was tricky to get regular work, so poop myself and got a 30 hour per week job. After some though i cam up with the window cleaning idea, only i was too scared to knock doors, realising this i paid a canvasser to get me off the ground last Nov with about 300 quid of monthly work, since then ive mainly used facebook and a self built website to get my self to about 700 a month of regular work, started doing the car valeting again and get about 300 a month from this. Ive done a bit of canvassing but its been a huge roadblock for me, regardless im now moving in the right direction and am getting my hours reduced to 16 per week. i have booked another canvasser in for august hopefully this will be another 500 a month of work.

My target this year is 2k a month turnover which i expect to achieve. The point is its a long road, you will want to quit, its really hard chasing payments and sifting thru poope cuties but the more work you put in the less likely you will quit, i wouldnt quit this now for any money in the world, the challenge of pulling this off to me is far greater than the security of a job.

[Johnny B]

Will probably lose job in September anyway so it might be how it goes.   How do i tell the jobcentre I am slowly earning money ?  Can you still get housing benefit until the business builds.   Also, most of my customers want me there when I work, what do you tell them if you want to do the job when they are at work?   Where could I buy   a small round (not get ripped off)?

You will need to register as self employed with HMRC. Tell the job centre that you will be signing off from job seekers allowance (if you are claiming it now). If your income is low, have a look on Gov.uk and find out how you can claim housing benefit if you are renting. If you have a dependent family, you may also be able to claim working families tax credit, and your wife may be able to get child's tax credit. You could also be entitled to council tax benefit as well. These benefits are reassessed every 6 months or so, as your earnings will fluctuate over the course of the year, and any overpayment of benefits will be clawed back. 

If your customers want you there when you work, but this causes you inconvenience, why not suggest that you could put a note in the door when windows have been cleaned, then go back a couple of days later (giving the customer ample time to check they are satisfied with your work) to collect your money. If they are not happy with the clean, offer to put any issues right before accepting payment.

Can't help you with buying a round. I've always canvassed my own, then once I had been going a while, work would come to me via recommendations/walk-ups etc.

Hth,

John