[supernova77]

Jago,

I wasn't having a go at you mate... I already know that you have a part time round

18 months ago I was in an IT job and thought I would give window cleaning a go. I'm glad I did, but I was just pointing out that it takes hard work and lots of effort in order to earn a good wage at it.

Andy

[Jago]

Tis OK Andy Just Gutted sat here and not earning out there with you guys.

One thing though........

I might be being made redundant haaaaa

so The hand of Fate can deal a hand that looks bad to some and good to others

Did you find the transition hard Andy?

[steveaqua]

it ain't all roses, i've worked 4 hours this morning and have now been rained off this afternoon so i'm now sitting at home watching Mary Poppins and drinking tea...god i miss my old office job i had  Not! 

[supernova77]

Did you find the transition hard Andy?

In a word "yes"!

Looking back I think I rushed into it... But in a way that has been a good thing.

I was an IT contractor... My contract was coming to an end and although they offered to renew it I said no as I wanted to give window cleaning a go!

So I left my office job with about 2 months money to live on - Only having 2 months money to live on was my mistake - I then went out canvassing everyday, all day, all through the winter of 2005/2006... That was really hard work!

A year on though and I am really glad I made the jump... If I was planning it all again though I would definately build up a part time round first and then take the jump.

Andy

[Jago]

Thanks Andy
that is what I am trying to do but the hard part is
Do I invest in wfp only for part time but if i can 1.5 x my work load then i am nearly on enough money (only 500 a month shortof my now monthly take home) so that means my money saved will last longer.
If that makes sense.

[supernova77]

Jago,

Whereabouts in Bracknell are you from? My wife grew up in Bracknell

The problem you really now have is when to make the jump!

If you can't squeeze anymore work in part time then you need to seriously consider taking the jump now and spending all the time your not cleaning out door knocking / canvassing.

So, perhaps it would be a good idea to invest in WFP now... That would then mean that you could squeeze more work in part time which would increase your money and make it easier for you to take the jump at a later date?

(I'm not sure if I'm making sense?) 

Andy

[jeff1]

Well done Jeff! 

The only problem with threads like this is that someone somewhere will be sitting in an office reading this post thinking WOW - I can become a window cleaner and earn £200 per day! Thats £1000 per week! Thats double what I earn in my office job!

In reality its not like that at all. Don't get me wrong good money can be earnt if you are prepared to work hard for it, but being a window cleaner isn't all roses (although its the best move I ever made).

Andy

Hi Andy

Andy, I agree with what you say, but anyone who is sat in an office thinking you can earn £1000 a week, stop and find out how first.
MESSAGE to OFFICE WORKERS

Its taken me 9 years of hard work to get were I am today, all hard work, scraping ice of windows and freezing my B***s off in the winter, if you can't cope with the winters and all the rainy day's, then I strongly recommend you stay in your nice warm office, 99% of the guy's on here have faced cold winters.

Also don't forget its not just a case of getting and cleaning windows, what  about paying tax's,and accountants, what about getting all your insurance's, buying all your equipment, and if you go water fed, maintaning your equipment, buying spares, the list goes on and on, your running a business, not just picking up a wage at the end of the month.

Even Jago who is sat in his office now, isn't stupid enough, to give up a secure Job until he has enough accounts to to help him hand his notice in.
Its sounds to me his family come first, and thats the way it should be. (Well done Jago). anyone in a office take a leaf out of Jago's book and look into it first.
Jago will get all the advice he needs from his fellow WC.

I hope this has cleared up any thoughts to office workers that window cleaning is a bed of roses with lots of cash, work hard invest lots of cash and you may get there.

[Paul Coleman]

Well done Jeff! 

The only problem with threads like this is that someone somewhere will be sitting in an office reading this post thinking WOW - I can become a window cleaner and earn £200 per day! Thats £1000 per week! Thats double what I earn in my office job!

In reality its not like that at all. Don't get me wrong good money can be earnt if you are prepared to work hard for it, but being a window cleaner isn't all roses (although its the best move I ever made).

Andy

Hi Andy

Andy, I agree with what you say, but anyone who is sat in an office thinking you can earn £1000 a week, stop and find out how first.
MESSAGE to OFFICE WORKERS

Its taken me 9 years of hard work to get were I am today, all hard work, scraping ice of windows and freezing my B***s off in the winter, if you can't cope with the winters and all the rainy day's, then I strongly recommend you stay in your nice warm office, 99% of the guy's on here have faced cold winters.

Also don't forget its not just a case of getting and cleaning windows, what  about paying tax's,and accountants, what about getting all your insurance's, buying all your equipment, and if you go water fed, maintaning your equipment, buying spares, the list goes on and on, your running a business, not just picking up a wage at the end of the month.

Even Jago who is sat in his office now, isn't stupid enough, to give up a secure Job until he has enough accounts to to help him hand his notice in.
Its sounds to me his family come first, and thats the way it should be. (Well done Jago). anyone in a office take a leaf out of Jago's book and look into it first.
Jago will get all the advice he needs from his fellow WC.

I hope this has cleared up any thoughts to office workers that window cleaning is a bed of roses with lots of cash, work hard invest lots of cash and you may get there.

Something that I did at the beginning to help me with the transition was to take a part-time job.  I had no work at all when I very first started window cleaning as I had been made redundant.  Luckily, I had minimal outgoings and no dependants.  While I was building up my work over the first few months, I had a part-time driving job so I knew that I would at least have some money coming in.  I was going to pack the driving job in at some point but it was taken out of my hands because the company lost the contract that I was helping to fulfill.  This earlier than expected loss of the part-time job just spurred me on to building my business faster.  Is there a chance you could reduce your hours at the main job to give you time to build your window cleaning business?

[windows_chepstow]

Something that I did at the beginning to help me with the transition was to take a part-time job. 

This is what I did when I left the army and my lump sum was frittered away on a holiday, pot porri and bills.

I took on a Fri/Sat/Sun night security guard job which paid about 6.50 an hour.

It meant I could have time with the family during the day and sleep during the evening when I was at work; guarding a building site.

In the end, I used to take a folding 'zed' bed with me.

Talk about kicking the bottom out of it!

[scrimit2]

Im trad and my prices are low, I try to earn £120 to £150 a day, which Im ok with, I often wonder how much I would earn if I charged as much as some others do locally,

Scrim2, if you think your prices are low and you are doing between £120 and £150 then I reckon you are doing pretty good, the average turn over is around 17k per year, so if you can top £100 every day (as an average over 12 months I mean) then you are knocking out 25k per year...
For you the difference would be doing that work in less time (if you didn't pick up new work that is )

Another way of looking at WFP is the fact that if you are currently happy with your income, if nothing else you will do the work in less time (giving you more free time) and once you have got used to the new way of working, you will also be far less tired at the end of the day too...

Ian

Thanks for the comments, my prices are too low, for example i do this estate, that i took over from another window cleaner with his prices, they are all 3 bed semis, one without a conservatory is £4, i usually do around 32 of those in a day, and maybe 6 or so of them have conservatories, but i can only work that well maybe 3 days a week, aches n pains, lack of infusiasm, weather etc, get the better of me.

how i make those low priced jobs work at the minute, is because i have around 50 houses on that street and its only 2 minutes away from home, i usually only move my car once to cover the lot of them, if i could do them all in one day that is, I guess wfp would work well there, and is certainly worth keeping in mind.

ive been cleaning windows 6 years, and have been carrying too much work for most of that time, ive cut back my round now, the furthest i travel now is 10 minutes or so, and hopefully I see the benifits this year, around £350 a week for 3 days is what im aiming for, which should be do able.  more would be nice but more importantly the free time would be better.

£200 a day sounds great, a grand a week! what a great job we have (most of time) (probably I will have a bad tomorrow now)we can shape it how we want,

scrimit2

[Jago]

Scrimit
            If you put up the price of each house by a £1 because of taxes blah blah blah and rising fairy liquid prices your customers would they moan?

Even 50 pence
but you times that by 32 £16 pounds extra or £32 extra for the £1rise on your day.

32 x £4.00 = £128
32 x £4.50 = £144
32 x £5.00 = £160

If 6 houses drop because of price rise

26 x £5.00 = £130

Do It in new Tax year of April let em get over Christmas at least.

[Jago]

Andy I Live on the Hollands

You know they say you can take a Bracknell girl out of Bracknell but never the Bracknell out of the Girl !!!!!!!

Treat er like a Princess but if she is of this estate then she probably already was ;-)
Regards J

[windows_chepstow]

they are all 3 bed semis, one without a conservatory is £4, i usually do around 32 of those in a day,

I've done 12 accounts today, one largish one at 50 quid, one at 15 quid and another at 10 quid; the rest were seven to nine pounds terraced houses.

I worked seven hours and had a good day.

How can you do 32 properties in one day?

[Jago]

that would be 4 an hour all day long ouch now thats is hard work

£7 - £10 here for 3 bed semi Conservatory ad more

Tosh Tell me you can Dance as your Dress ethics are to be desired ;-)
lol
Regards J

[scrimit2]

they are all 3 bed semis, one without a conservatory is £4, i usually do around 32 of those in a day,

I've done 12 accounts today, one largish one at 50 quid, one at 15 quid and another at 10 quid; the rest were seven to nine pounds terraced houses.

I worked seven hours and had a good day.

How can you do 32 properties in one day?

Hi Tosh, i dont do 32 every day, i just used it as an example of one of my days work, Im not one of those who exagerate (if i could even spell it) I wouldnt want it to seem that way,

usually, i do that estate one day and the estate next to it, on the next day equalling around 60 houses over the two days and yes its hard on the ankles, as it averages 5 upstairs window per house, so 300 times up the ladder in 2 days, i set out to do 4 a hour and they are door to door,but i slow through the day and i keep going for as long as i can.

for the rest of the month i vary from 12 or so to 25 ish on good days, depending on house sizes and effort,

Scrimit
 If you put up the price of each house by a £1 because of taxes blah blah blah and rising fairy liquid prices your customers would they moan?

Even 50 pence
but you times that by 32 £16 pounds extra or £32 extra for the £1rise on your day.

32 x £4.00 = £128
32 x £4.50 = £144
32 x £5.00 = £160

If 6 houses drop because of price rise

26 x £5.00 = £130

Do It in new Tax year of April let em get over Christmas at least.

Hi I like those sums, and it makes perfect sense, im planning a price in april, im a bit nervous of doing it but it has got to be done, I think £5 would be fair price, if not still a bit on the cheap side but a move in the right direction


Scrimit

[neil100]

I just wanted to say well done Jeff.

To get your best ever earnings on your first day of wfp bears very well for your earnings in the future.

I Have just completed my first full year of wfp w/cleaning after 26 yrs trad. I,m a touch younger then you at 48yrs old, only a touch mind.

For my first 6 weeks of wfp last year I was earning less each day then trad, Lots of hassle, problems, wrecked arms and body. I thought I had made a BIG Mistake going wfp. I regretted paying all that money out and wish I had not bothered.

But I said I would give it a chance and I was going to clean wfp for 6 months before I passed an opinion on it, 26 yrs cleaning trad gets your mind set in a rut so I new I had to give wfp a chance, Even though I hated it.

After 6 weeks I could start the second cleans, It took me 6 weeks to do a 4 week round, Thats how much slower I was. But I made absoultley sure that those frames where left spotless on the first cleans.

Second time round I changed small things that made me more efficent as well.But I was so much faster it was untrue.I kept getting faster and more effecient right through the summer and extra work was just piling in. The speed came without trying. I dont try to go fast I just like to work efficiently.

One year on wfp is the best move I ever made in w/cleaning,My biggest regret is that i never did it 5 years ago. But I have done it and I love it. I prefer wfp in every way to trad cleaning. I do the odd houses trad still that are not suited to wfp. But I will not take any new work on that you have to use trad cleaning. Its wfp only for new stuff.

I am not as tired and I am pretty fit for my age. So my quality of life is better and the money is so much better. I used to earn £150 a day trad, that was for an 8 hour day, grafting hard as well. Now I earn a min £250 a day with wfp.

At the end of last year, thats one full year of wfp my wage was up by 50% over the year of my best ever trad year of w/cleaning.

WFP can and does change significantly how much you can earn if you run your buisness in the right way.

This is not bragging. I am a normall bloke who justs work hard and if there are any other w/cleaners out there with a simaler dispostion you cannot go wrong switching to wfp if you have a bit of common sense.

Nel.

[jeff1]

I just wanted to say well done Jeff.

To get your best ever earnings on your first day of wfp bears very well for your earnings in the future.

I Have just completed my first full year of wfp w/cleaning after 26 yrs trad. I,m a touch younger then you at 48yrs old, only a touch mind.

For my first 6 weeks of wfp last year I was earning less each day then trad, Lots of hassle, problems, wrecked arms and body. I thought I had made a BIG Mistake going wfp. I regretted paying all that money out and wish I had not bothered.

But I said I would give it a chance and I was going to clean wfp for 6 months before I passed an opinion on it, 26 yrs cleaning trad gets your mind set in a rut so I new I had to give wfp a chance, Even though I hated it.

After 6 weeks I could start the second cleans, It took me 6 weeks to do a 4 week round, Thats how much slower I was. But I made absoultley sure that those frames where left spotless on the first cleans.

Second time round I changed small things that made me more efficent as well.But I was so much faster it was untrue.I kept getting faster and more effecient right through the summer and extra work was just piling in. The speed came without trying. I dont try to go fast I just like to work efficiently.

One year on wfp is the best move I ever made in w/cleaning,My biggest regret is that i never did it 5 years ago. But I have done it and I love it. I prefer wfp in every way to trad cleaning. I do the odd houses trad still that are not suited to wfp. But I will not take any new work on that you have to use trad cleaning. Its wfp only for new stuff.

I am not as tired and I am pretty fit for my age. So my quality of life is better and the money is so much better. I used to earn £150 a day trad, that was for an 8 hour day, grafting hard as well. Now I earn a min £250 a day with wfp.

At the end of last year, thats one full year of wfp my wage was up by 50% over the year of my best ever trad year of w/cleaning.

WFP can and does change significantly how much you can earn if you run your buisness in the right way.

This is not bragging. I am a normall bloke who justs work hard and if there are any other w/cleaners out there with a simaler dispostion you cannot go wrong switching to wfp if you have a bit of common sense.

Nel.

Thanks Nel

I thought after nine years I would be stuck in a rutt, But to be quite honest, I spent months and months reading topic's and threads on wfp, and a couple of the best bits of advice I read, was to clean all the frames while your still trad, but pay paticular attention to the tops of the frames, Well I always cleaned the frames, but used to just wipe the tops, after reading the threads, I payed more attention to the tops, I even used a small brush to brush the c**p out, I used squeegie off so I didn't have to many worries on that score. (I used to use fairy)

This is were I feel it has helped, I don't have to spend ages rinsing all the c**p off that would have been there if I hadn't of taken the time to clean them while I was still Trad.
and all that was thanks to the guy's on the forum.

So a little tip for anyone thinking of changing to wfp, study the forum and take in any thing, you feel will help make your conversion easier.
I hope to earn more in the future and to have a little more time for the Boss (wife)
So thank you Guy's for all the advice I followed. I love being on the ground