[Mike Burd]

Heard it all now. If you’re not earning £85k per year as a part time, sole trader window cleaner you’re doing something wrong 

My friend locally is a sole trader, works 8-2pm and has for the last two years had to stop working for a few days every month to stay under. He's pretty much stopped pressure washing because it'll take him over if he does much and turns all new work away. He's quick though.

[deeege]

Not sure what your doing wrong but I work 8- 2 . 4 weeks on 2 weeks off and have to be really careful not to go vat registered again . By 1 o’clock I’ve had enough for the day and can’t wait to finish but we work really hard

What money do you do on average a day, turnover?

Where are you based?

Two of us turnover £500-£600 a day , based in Bedfordshire .
I didn’t realise you were a sole trader.  I couldn’t do anymore time on the glass. I find it too boring and feel I’ve got my work /life balance just right. I wouldn’t class myself as lazy . I reckon if your averaging £50 an hour turnover ( not 10
Houses an hour!) then it’s not a bad living soletrader or otherwise.

my partner is a renal nurse, treating patients with kidney problems , dialisis etc....
she often reminds me that I earn more than the junior doctors on her ward, and whats more I work far less hours and have hardly to next to nothing stress .
when you look at the positives ,  it realy is a nice position to be in.
we forget how lucky we are.

Shes right, of course, but comparing to a junior doctor (notoriously overworked and underpaid) isn’t the best comparison.

Also that same junior doctor, if they went on to consult could easily earn £100k+ staying within the NHS or double that with private work, whereas we have a much lower ceiling with what we can earn.

[deeege]

Heard it all now. If you’re not earning £85k per year as a part time, sole trader window cleaner you’re doing something wrong 

My friend locally is a sole trader, works 8-2pm and has for the last two years had to stop working for a few days every month to stay under. He's pretty much stopped pressure washing because it'll take him over if he does much and turns all new work away. He's quick though.

Not doubting it but at a guess I’d say he’s in the top 0.001% earnings wise in this game then.

[NWH]

It only takes a couple of regular contracts each month  with a decent route of windows before you know it you’d be up near it, I can see exactly why he’s doing what he does.

[dazmond]

as long as your happy with your hours and income who cares?every window cleaners situation is different,some have kids and mortgages and want to pay it off early so work harder and longer,some window cleaners charge a lot more because their outgoings are very high or like luxury holidays and/or cars/motorbikes,etc and can charge higher rates......

some guys just want to pay the bills and keep their head above water and dont care about building a business,some just want to top up their pensions or earn enough for a few basic luxuries like a few beers on a friday or saturday night......

no right or wrong.....

have a great day chaps

[dazmond]

Im 8.00am - 4.00pm.

If I finish the actual windows early I'll canvass the rest of the time to do a full 8 hour day.

Get the feeling from reading on here that others are swanning off at 1pm. Not sure how you can afford to do that financially every day. Also lazy in my book if you are doing that all the time. Different if you're semi retired or something.

ive never done a full 8 hour day for many years mate.....short days and 4 day weeks is where im at these days......


i dont take many full weeks off a year(usually around 4 weeks a year)but i have many 3 day weekends and sometimes 4 day weekends like this past week(i worked mon-thurs last week and ill work tues-fri this week)

[NWH]

4 weeks a year when you’re self employed is a lot Daz.

[Stoots]

Not sure what your doing wrong but I work 8- 2 . 4 weeks on 2 weeks off and have to be really careful not to go vat registered again . By 1 o’clock I’ve had enough for the day and can’t wait to finish but we work really hard

What money do you do on average a day, turnover?

Where are you based?

Two of us turnover £500-£600 a day , based in Bedfordshire .
I didn’t realise you were a sole trader.  I couldn’t do anymore time on the glass. I find it too boring and feel I’ve got my work /life balance just right. I wouldn’t class myself as lazy . I reckon if your averaging £50 an hour turnover ( not 10
Houses an hour!) then it’s not a bad living soletrader or otherwise.

my partner is a renal nurse, treating patients with kidney problems , dialisis etc....
she often reminds me that I earn more than the junior doctors on her ward, and whats more I work far less hours and have hardly to next to nothing stress .
when you look at the positives ,  it realy is a nice position to be in.
we forget how lucky we are.

Shes right, of course, but comparing to a junior doctor (notoriously overworked and underpaid) isn’t the best comparison.

Also that same junior doctor, if they went on to consult could easily earn £100k+ staying within the NHS or double that with private work, whereas we have a much lower ceiling with what we can earn.

Not true

An employed doctor can only ever earn the maximum ceiling for what he does, granted it may be a high ceiling but its still there.

We on the other hand are completely in charge of what we earn and there is no limit on what we can earn if we choose to build a business big enough.

[KS Cleaning]

Not sure what your doing wrong but I work 8- 2 . 4 weeks on 2 weeks off and have to be really careful not to go vat registered again . By 1 o’clock I’ve had enough for the day and can’t wait to finish but we work really hard

What money do you do on average a day, turnover?

Where are you based?

Two of us turnover £500-£600 a day , based in Bedfordshire .
I didn’t realise you were a sole trader.  I couldn’t do anymore time on the glass. I find it too boring and feel I’ve got my work /life balance just right. I wouldn’t class myself as lazy . I reckon if your averaging £50 an hour turnover ( not 10
Houses an hour!) then it’s not a bad living soletrader or otherwise.

my partner is a renal nurse, treating patients with kidney problems , dialisis etc....
she often reminds me that I earn more than the junior doctors on her ward, and whats more I work far less hours and have hardly to next to nothing stress .
when you look at the positives ,  it realy is a nice position to be in.
we forget how lucky we are.

A junior doctor will get holiday pay, sick pay, maternity/paternity pay, pension etc. They won’t need a van for work,  they won’t need to buy equipment, they won’t need an accountant etc, etc, etc.
 A customer once complained to me that I was on surgeons wages, I responded with some of the above, it had the desired effect, he went back into his house with his tail between his legs.

[NWH]

He earns way way more than any junior doctor and I know that for a fact.

[NWH]

Forget junior doctor ask what a fully qualified doctor gets in his pocket after Rishis had his hand in it,it ain’t anymore than some on here and in a lot of cases it’s a lot less.

[deeege]

Not sure what your doing wrong but I work 8- 2 . 4 weeks on 2 weeks off and have to be really careful not to go vat registered again . By 1 o’clock I’ve had enough for the day and can’t wait to finish but we work really hard

What money do you do on average a day, turnover?

Where are you based?

Two of us turnover £500-£600 a day , based in Bedfordshire .
I didn’t realise you were a sole trader.  I couldn’t do anymore time on the glass. I find it too boring and feel I’ve got my work /life balance just right. I wouldn’t class myself as lazy . I reckon if your averaging £50 an hour turnover ( not 10
Houses an hour!) then it’s not a bad living soletrader or otherwise.

my partner is a renal nurse, treating patients with kidney problems , dialisis etc....
she often reminds me that I earn more than the junior doctors on her ward, and whats more I work far less hours and have hardly to next to nothing stress .
when you look at the positives ,  it realy is a nice position to be in.
we forget how lucky we are.

Shes right, of course, but comparing to a junior doctor (notoriously overworked and underpaid) isn’t the best comparison.

Also that same junior doctor, if they went on to consult could easily earn £100k+ staying within the NHS or double that with private work, whereas we have a much lower ceiling with what we can earn.

Not true

An employed doctor can only ever earn the maximum ceiling for what he does, granted it may be a high ceiling but its still there.

We on the other hand are completely in charge of what we earn and there is no limit on what we can earn if we choose to build a business big enough.

That’s why I qualified what I said by adding ‘private work’, the earning potential is unlimited. Also I was talking about the comparison to a sole trader/single operator, which has a ceiling to the size that you can grow.

[NWH]

100k for a junior Doctor lol you are way off  believe me no where’s near that figure,I don’t know where you’ve seen that written but that’s 💩.

[deeege]

100k for a junior Doctor lol you are way off  believe me no where’s near that figure,I don’t know where you’ve seen that written but that’s 💩.

Learn to read please.

[Don Kee]

100k for a junior Doctor lol you are way off  believe me no where’s near that figure,I don’t know where you’ve seen that written but that’s 💩.

I’ll bet you bumped into a consultant and junior Doctor the other week and they gave you all their wage figures, right?

[NWH]

🤣🤣 clueless

[james peters]

Not sure what your doing wrong but I work 8- 2 . 4 weeks on 2 weeks off and have to be really careful not to go vat registered again . By 1 o’clock I’ve had enough for the day and can’t wait to finish but we work really hard

What money do you do on average a day, turnover?

Where are you based?

Two of us turnover £500-£600 a day , based in Bedfordshire .
I didn’t realise you were a sole trader.  I couldn’t do anymore time on the glass. I find it too boring and feel I’ve got my work /life balance just right. I wouldn’t class myself as lazy . I reckon if your averaging £50 an hour turnover ( not 10
Houses an hour!) then it’s not a bad living soletrader or otherwise.

my partner is a renal nurse, treating patients with kidney problems , dialisis etc....
she often reminds me that I earn more than the junior doctors on her ward, and whats more I work far less hours and have hardly to next to nothing stress .
when you look at the positives ,  it realy is a nice position to be in.
we forget how lucky we are.

Shes right, of course, but comparing to a junior doctor (notoriously overworked and underpaid) isn’t the best comparison.

Also that same junior doctor, if they went on to consult could easily earn £100k+ staying within the NHS or double that with private work, whereas we have a much lower ceiling with what we can earn.

Its not a comparison as such.
my partner was just merely pointing it out.

[Mike Burd]

Heard it all now. If you’re not earning £85k per year as a part time, sole trader window cleaner you’re doing something wrong 

My friend locally is a sole trader, works 8-2pm and has for the last two years had to stop working for a few days every month to stay under. He's pretty much stopped pressure washing because it'll take him over if he does much and turns all new work away. He's quick though.

Not doubting it but at a guess I’d say he’s in the top 0.001% earnings wise in this game then.

I don't know. I think it's a doddle to get there. The reality is that many windowcleaners are either lazy and get to say £30k a year for three easy days a week or daft and charging peanuts.  There's some that get 200 customers, think they've made it,  stop canvassing  and then go into a depression and post on Facebook every time they lose one because they are too idle to knock doors.

Wherever you are in the country, with a bit of acumen and hard work, £50-£60k a year shouldn't be difficult.

And..... customers you pick up through leaflets or door knocking generally don't go onto comparison sites or whatever. They just pay what you ask usually. If one's prices are low, it's because of one's lack of confidence rather than being market driven.

[deeege]

Heard it all now. If you’re not earning £85k per year as a part time, sole trader window cleaner you’re doing something wrong 

My friend locally is a sole trader, works 8-2pm and has for the last two years had to stop working for a few days every month to stay under. He's pretty much stopped pressure washing because it'll take him over if he does much and turns all new work away. He's quick though.

Not doubting it but at a guess I’d say he’s in the top 0.001% earnings wise in this game then.

I don't know. I think it's a doddle to get there. The reality is that many windowcleaners are either lazy and get to say £30k a year for three easy days a week or daft and charging peanuts.  There's some that get 200 customers, think they've made it,  stop canvassing  and then go into a depression and post on Facebook every time they lose one because they are too idle to knock doors.

Wherever you are in the country, with a bit of acumen and hard work, £50-£60k a year shouldn't be difficult.

And..... customers you pick up through leaflets or door knocking generally don't go onto comparison sites or whatever. They just pay what you ask usually. If one's prices are low, it's because of one's lack of confidence rather than being market driven.

Before employing, was you over the Vat threshold as a single operator?

[Mike Burd]

Heard it all now. If you’re not earning £85k per year as a part time, sole trader window cleaner you’re doing something wrong 

My friend locally is a sole trader, works 8-2pm and has for the last two years had to stop working for a few days every month to stay under. He's pretty much stopped pressure washing because it'll take him over if he does much and turns all new work away. He's quick though.

Not doubting it but at a guess I’d say he’s in the top 0.001% earnings wise in this game then.

I don't know. I think it's a doddle to get there. The reality is that many windowcleaners are either lazy and get to say £30k a year for three easy days a week or daft and charging peanuts.  There's some that get 200 customers, think they've made it,  stop canvassing  and then go into a depression and post on Facebook every time they lose one because they are too idle to knock doors.

Wherever you are in the country, with a bit of acumen and hard work, £50-£60k a year shouldn't be difficult.

And..... customers you pick up through leaflets or door knocking generally don't go onto comparison sites or whatever. They just pay what you ask usually. If one's prices are low, it's because of one's lack of confidence rather than being market driven.

Before employing, was you over the Vat threshold as a single operator?

No. But that was never my plan.  But I was at the £50-£60 level.