[L.J.Thorpe]

tosh, i ll agree with you again and say this, over the years i ve heard people in different trades say i earn this and i earn that but i bet they don t go online and tell the whole world.also when i clean one of these so called high earners how come there at home 10 a m mon morning and then they say can i pay
you friday cheers mick

very true
i was going to put tosh's(tosh is, toshes toshiro's ) origiinal quote in but cant,anyway he makes a good point.I live in south lincs(officially poor area)loads of immigrant workers here, i have been asked if i "have any work please" loads of times,and this week i was watched by four blokes from (some where in)eastern europe as i did a house ,they had a good old chinwag as i worked,pointing and talking among themselves.Keep posting about how much you earn and these guys (along with "REDUNDANT JOE" and his 10k pay off ) will be coming your way soon

[tacky]

we ll said tosh .when i read about some of the guys on here earning big money .i think bloody great ,i just hope mr ,taxman is not reading these figures ,n think we all on mega bucks ,n start reviewing ar paper work .

[philboy]

Tosh, you're absolutly right! we all know how well we can do at this game so why tell everyone else, the more people that realise, the worst it will be for all of us.

[L.J.Thorpe]

Tosh, you're absolutly right! we all know how well we can do at this game so why tell everyone else, the more people that realise, the worst it will be for all of us.

ditto time to BOYCOTT earnings threads

[Ian_Giles]

As a mod it can be hard to judge when to draw the line and lock a thread on topics such as income, there are often good counter points being made for all of the nonsense.

If you see a post or reply you have made thats been deleted, it may not have much to do with the thrust of your reply, but if you have used a swearword in it, regardless of asterisks then the entire reply will be deleted, humorous or not.

If replies with cussing in are still there then it is only because I haven't seen them.

With regards overheads, as a general rule of thumb - arguably - you need to allow a good 5k per annum for a sole trader, take that off the figure you are submitting to the tax man and it will give you a fair indication of what your income is.
your business turnover and your personal income are two very different things.

you want to be 'pro' then have a business account and set up a standing order into your personal account for your weekly or monthly wage...you'll soon learn what your real income is.
Some of us will do this, and no, I'm not one of them, but I have done it in the past and caught a cold! (some years ago I might add).

Very few sole trader window cleaners will be submitting more than 20k to the tax man for their business turnover.
Everything is geared towards showing our income to be as small as possible to limit our tax liability (no fun if you are going for a mortgage) but if the average window cleaner is submitting between 15 and 17k, his true personal income is going to be down around the 10/12k mark.

And then we get lots of LOUD posts about the potential to earn £500 a day!!!!!
It just doesn't happen (sorry, very rarely happens).
And it takes many years to build and hone a good round, you ain't gonna do this in a few months.
Yet to read some posts you'd think all you need to do is buy a WFP setup and earn squillions!

Time I got off here and got back to printing invoices, doing the banking, emailing invoices, going into town and spending an hour and a half collecting payments from my shops...a real high earning day today eh?
Not that I care cos I earned over a £1000 yesterday and I was finished by lunchtime : :

Ian

[Tosh]

Time I got off here and got back to printing invoices, doing the banking, emailing invoices, going into town and spending an hour and a half collecting payments from my shops...a real high earning day today eh?

Ian

Ian,  so why was your van parked outside the Fisherman's Pub half-an-hour ago, eh?

You don't clean there, so you weren't collecting! 

[matt]

And then we get lots of LOUD posts about the potential to earn £500 a day!!!!!
It just doesn't happen (sorry, very rarely happens).
And it takes many years to build and hone a good round, you ain't gonna do this in a few months.
Yet to read some posts you'd think all you need to do is buy a WFP setup and earn squillions!



Ian

This is my issue with the posts, it gives WC'ers the wrong message, i had a PM off some1 on the DIY forum last weekend , he knew he could contact me on it , now his story went like this

a WC'er for 7 years, allways using a ladder
he got online and read post on here about the WFP system and it doubling / tripleing earnings after the 3rd clean, people say its twice as fast and sometimes faster
he went out and brought a system of a seller, had it installed in his van
he was disheartended as its been 5 months and he isnt much faster ( average 20 quid a day ), he wanted some advice, i tried to help him with a few things, his pole was some heavy orange thing certain suppliers still use

now all these posts give fellow WC'ers the wrong idea, hey also give people who are thinking of becomming WC'ers the wrong idea, the market is fairly full these days, ive said it a few times before, when the eastern europeans catch on they will be happy to do your 10 quid house for 6 quid

[Helen]

Tosh

My Porsche mechanic charges me £120 an hour

My local Garage charges £42 + vat an hour.

Most builders now want £200 - £300 a day.

Sigh!

How does this compare with window cleaning?

Your porche mechanic; what's his overheads?

Your local garage; what's his overheads?

Builders; What's their overheads?  Does he have repeat buisness? 
Dave, you're comparing apples with elephants!

At last a post which says exactly how it is. I would never never demean window cleaning, but how can we wc'ers compare ourselves with specialist trades? Most of us do not run from units, so have no overheads there so to speak.
I would never post how much I take from the business, but can assure you that it is not a vast amount. But at the end of the day, I am now happier than ever before working for someone else! In my books happiness and health are the best riches you can have.
We have staff.....if the cashflow goes slow then it is I who has to use an overdraft facility as staff have to be paid first for obvious reasons. The same goes for overheads etc etc....it ain't easy all the time. Yes we all can bring in a high amount per day, but not everyday, we all have our good areas and not so good.
I agree no more "boasting" about income and if I ever have then apologies

[macmac]

And then we get lots of LOUD posts about the potential to earn £500 a day!!!!!
It just doesn't happen (sorry, very rarely happens).
And it takes many years to build and hone a good round, you ain't gonna do this in a few months.
Yet to read some posts you'd think all you need to do is buy a WFP setup and earn squillions!
 

Here, here, here.
Absolutely spot on Ian, that's what get's my back up ( & yes, i know it shouldn't )
Just think of all the newbies reading such rubbish, making big carreer & often financial commitments being fed such utter tripe by boasters who always fail to tell the whole story like how long it will REALY take to start even earning a basic living- nevermind 200+ per day.
My point is- if you're gonna boast how well you are doing you should also add the things it's taken you to get there, like, how long you've been going, what you earned for your first few years etc. Not give readers from all over the country the impression they too can instantley demand 50 quid per hour, how they'll be over-run with customers from day one etc.etc. It's nonesense & is IMO doing more damage than good.

Tony

[Moderator David@stives]

A mobile mechanic still charges big bucks.

A Block layer just needs a trowel

A good carpenter only needs a bag full of tools

A plumber ditto

I could set up as a painter and decorator tommorrow for less than £50

Where are all these overheads coming from ?

Get real window cleaners now need just as much specialist equipment as most trades, in fact i have just bought a £1000 pole.

I have already spent over £15'000 on equipment and i still need more stuff

Window cleaners are not unique in being able to earn money.

[macmac]

A mobile mechanic still charges big bucks.

A Block layer just needs a trowel

A good carpenter only needs a bag full of tools

A plumber ditto

I could set up as a painter and decorator tommorrow for less than £50

Where are all these overheads coming from ?

Get real window cleaners now need just as much specialist equipment as most trades, in fact i have just bought a £1000 pole.

I have already spent over £15'000 on equipment and i still need more stuff

Window cleaners are not unique in being able to earn money.

What pole did you get?
And, personaly, i think your circumstances only reflect about 1 to 2% of w/cers nation wide.

[TennetClean]

I wish people would NOT post how much they earn.

Not boasting but my hourly rate is very good even by window cleaning standards, AND I WANT IT TO STAY THAT WAY

Saying "Yeah I earn like £200 a day" etc, sure I dont doubt it but why tell the world?  If people generally knew how much window cleaners get a lot more would do it, which would NOT be good for us.

Window cleaning is a nice well kept secret.  We know its great.  So why do numpty boasters feel the need to tell the world about it and jeopardise our businesses?  dont know if you noticed but type window cleaning in to google and you get...this forum.  Foreigners will do that and see how much they can earn and think "aha"

SO PLEASE STOP WITH THE "HOW MUCH I EARN IN A DAY" STUFF.

[Sir Squeaky]

...in fact i have just bought a £1000 pole.

Rearrange...

Saw Coming They Me.

[Tosh]

A good carpenter only needs a bag full of tools

A plumber ditto

I think a Corgi registered plumber needs to pay about £2000 per year to keep his Corgi membership; and I think there's a lot of insurance costs on top of that!

So it's just more than a bag of tools, Dave.

C'mon!

[Sir Squeaky]

I think a Corgi registered plumber needs to pay about £2000 per year to keep his Corgi membership

Is the Queen a plumber?

[frames to panes]

Dare i say it, your talking about skilled trades there too.  
What really winds me up is the fact that the braggers come out with the old chestnut of "i'm only posting my earnings to help others on this forum" or "i'm not bragging but i earn x amount of money, and i'm great and my customers love me and they all pay MY prices" - brilliant.
 Some of the top earners don't seem to be sole traders but have a larger business employing staff which will give them large turnovers etc but they sometimes forget to mention this, which leaves the newbie somewhat amazed at the potential earnings.

[Moderator David@stives]

I didnt want to get drawn in, it doesnt really bother me.

So i will bow out of this one.

Squeeky

how much did your bag of broken fishing rods cost you ?

Dave

[frames to panes]

Dave, not trying to wind you up, you come across as being one of the succesful ones on here and i have no gripe with you at all.

[Captain Scarlet]

Moderators:

I have not considered this for long enough but have you considered making it the forum rules that people cant post their earnings on here? as it seems to cause alot of friction. I think its fine to discuss the individual price of a job in the "how much for this" type threads but anything else seems to be go out of control, Luke

[Moderator David@stives]

DJW 

   theres no probs at all

Dave

p.s wheres squeeky, gone fishing ?