[AuRavelling79]

I don't get out of bed if I can't make £1000 per hour.

[Smurf]

I don't get out of bed if I can't make £1000 per hour.

I like my bed so much most days I stay in it until about 10am. Then have a nap or two later on during the day 
Also think it is quite plausible for a larger cleaning firm to turnover a 1000 an hour between their workforce too.

[Perfect Windows]

My city alone has approx 320,000 houses.

I only want 300-400 of them

Think I'll be ok for now unless there's another 800 windys in my area who want 400 each!

+1

I started a poll on here about what proportion of houses had a paid window cleaner.  The result was around 60% - 70%.

So, if the area where you live has 100,000 houses, probably 60,000 need a cleaner.  That's a ludicrous number of rounds.  Southampton and surrounds has 220,000 houses (so 132,000 potential customers) despite being pretty small by city standards.

I think saturation is a long way off.

Vin

[Ian101]

getting saturated .............. don't know as too busy cleaning windows .. working longer hours .. charging more still getting the customers ... well apart from the one who wants to negotiate  with me via email which will be getting posted later 

[Marc Stock]

My city alone has approx 320,000 houses.

I only want 300-400 of them

Think I'll be ok for now unless there's another 800 windys in my area who want 400 each!

+1

I started a poll on here about what proportion of houses had a paid window cleaner.  The result was around 60% - 70%.

So, if the area where you live has 100,000 houses, probably 60,000 need a cleaner.  That's a ludicrous number of rounds.  Southampton and surrounds has 220,000 houses (so 132,000 potential customers) despite being pretty small by city standards.

I think saturation is a long way off.

Vin

Thats an interesting point vin.

[SeanK]

A better question/ point would be, how many people who have been in their properties a while that want a window cleaner don't
have one ?
I certainly could have my pick of shiners if I needed one in the morning, that said it doesn't mean I couldn't build a decent round
it would just take more effort and a little longer.

[Tom-01]

I think there's definitely a lot more people doing it, and that's in just the 5 years I've been going. I was in Wokingham the other day (not working) and I saw 5 different window cleaners within one hour.

As Edward Evans said it depends on your market. I priced 3 jobs yesterday total of over £1k and got them all. If they had shopped around they would have got cheaper, but they don't want cheaper.

What are the 3 jobs you got?

A regular window clean with first clean fascias, soffits, cladding etc
A yearly gutter clean
A regular window clean

They all said yes straight away, the first one showed me some flyers of other guys I know in the area, he didn't even call them, so price wasn't his main concern.  As was stated before there's great work out there, even if there's loads of other companies.

[Perfect Windows]

Also, bear in mind that there are still plenty of idiots cleaning windows.  All of us have heard the tales of cleaners who stopped coming/became unreliable/started doing a bad job/disappeared for six months/kicked the cat.  So, all you need to do is be around (leaflet/knock on door/van in road) on the day someone's thinking one of those things.  At that point they won't care about your price; they'll just be looking for someone who might be reliable.

Vin

[Johnny B]

When I started up over here I was told that I wouldn't make it work because of insufficient demand for residential window cleaning. Less than 5 years later I am snowed under with work.

There are other window cleaners about, but I rarely see any doing residentials. They all seem to want to do shops (I have a few of those too).

John

[Bungle]

I think there's definitely a lot more people doing it, and that's in just the 5 years I've been going. I was in Wokingham the other day (not working) and I saw 5 different window cleaners within one hour.

As Edward Evans said it depends on your market. I priced 3 jobs yesterday total of over £1k and got them all. If they had shopped around they would have got cheaper, but they don't want cheaper.

What are the 3 jobs you got?

A regular window clean with first clean fascias, soffits, cladding etc
A yearly gutter clean
A regular window clean

They all said yes straight away, the first one showed me some flyers of other guys I know in the area, he didn't even call them, so price wasn't his main concern.  As was stated before there's great work out there, even if there's loads of other companies.

So the 1K is over a year?

[Smurf]

A window cleaning round is very fluent as you always will come across messers, people move away, pop their clogs, you get undercut, get rid of bad and/or low paid jobs to name a few reasons.  Therefore in general there is always room to take on more work to replace jobs for one reason or another. 

Having so say loyal customers, being the most realiable window cleaner and offering the best quality service in the world don't mean jack to some especial the dead ones. 

[Perfect Windows]

I think the answer may be in this thread from 2009.

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=72605.msg635997#msg635997

Or this one from 2010.

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=91372.0;all

Or this one from 2012.

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=152992.0;all

Vin

[Smurf]

I think there's definitely a lot more people doing it, and that's in just the 5 years I've been going. I was in Wokingham the other day (not working) and I saw 5 different window cleaners within one hour.

As Edward Evans said it depends on your market. I priced 3 jobs yesterday total of over £1k and got them all. If they had shopped around they would have got cheaper, but they don't want cheaper.

What are the 3 jobs you got?

A regular window clean with first clean fascias, soffits, cladding etc
A yearly gutter clean
A regular window clean

They all said yes straight away, the first one showed me some flyers of other guys I know in the area, he didn't even call them, so price wasn't his main concern.  As was stated before there's great work out there, even if there's loads of other companies.

So the 1K is over a year?

I very much doubt it somehow as offering multiple services some find it quite easy incuding myself to pick up well paid work. Be it one-off, add-hoc, yearly, six monthly or just well paid regular window cleaning work.

[Tom-01]

I think there's definitely a lot more people doing it, and that's in just the 5 years I've been going. I was in Wokingham the other day (not working) and I saw 5 different window cleaners within one hour.

As Edward Evans said it depends on your market. I priced 3 jobs yesterday total of over £1k and got them all. If they had shopped around they would have got cheaper, but they don't want cheaper.

What are the 3 jobs you got?

A regular window clean with first clean fascias, soffits, cladding etc
A yearly gutter clean
A regular window clean

They all said yes straight away, the first one showed me some flyers of other guys I know in the area, he didn't even call them, so price wasn't his main concern.  As was stated before there's great work out there, even if there's loads of other companies.

So the 1K is over a year?

From those 3 jobs yearly it's just under £800. The point was in that morning I looked at 3 jobs and quoted over £1k (total first cleans) and got it.

The week before one afternoon canvassing bought in £936 worth a year.

So although there's loads of companies there's still great work out there.

[Marc Stock]

Hmm I think what it must be is that I'm just so sick and tired of window cleaning I have plenty of work but I can't go out canvassing anymore as I don't have the time.

I need someone to work for me really, I'd feel a lot more positive

[Dave Turley]

I picked up 5 jobs today £1500 each and had them done by lunch time, another customer threatened to dump me if I didn't up my
price by £100, I'm finding it almost impossible now to pick up any £3 semis which suit me better as I have too much money.
I hate the fact that people don't want cheap and am living in fear of somebody finding out how rich I am.

 

[slap bash]

I am not surprised there  are so many window cleaner as there is persistent B/S bragging  about income is so cheap and unprofessional This will attract many who will also want money for nothing. When this does not work out they are forced to drop priced to try to recoup the investment. We are like the guy that discovered a young thing that would happily put out for him, so told all his mates, what great a lover he was. Them wondered why he had to stand in a queue for  some horizontal relaxation with her. There is ass hole born every day in this game.
The truth  has often been said on this page that there is lots of glass out there for all to clean. A marketing  revelation is stated from another dummy again, that`s not true. There is a lot of glass out there, only if the owners want it cleaned. Spec Savers would be a place to visit before investing in an  overstated market.

[dazmond]

Just a question. I started window cleaning back in 2002. Back then professional window cleaners were alot rarer, most chaps used old bangers and ladders i know this because i started with ladders and a banger. It wasn't until a year later that i bought a van and a year again went by and i bought a brodex e compact and started out on wfp.

Id say that between 2004-2008 were the golden years of wfp earnings . I was picking up commercial jobs left right and centre,  as many others were too. Those were the days of another forum when it existed and momentum really picked up. Some people were earning in excess of £500  an hour doing massive blocks of flats  or offices in a morning, when guys on cradles would take 4 or 5 days including all the health and saftey bs and wfp would sweep the work out from under thier feet.

Now it seems the opposite. Eveyone i have seen enter into windowcleaning do so thinking they are going to make a fortune, and in reality prices have fallen and become less lucrative. Plus so many people seem to be jumping into the window cleaning bandwagon thinking its easy money. But in reality its pushing prices down and reducing lucrative work. Im beginning to think that window cleaning is going to see a turndown as it saturates with more and more 'professional' kitted out vans and i have noticed that its getting harder to pick up regular customers as the customer base is getting younger and they just dont have the spare cash.

Whats your thoughts chaps?

£500 an hour?ciu is getting more ridiculous as times passes! .

i didnt go wfp until 2010 after 17 years on the ladders.things have steadily improved for me earnings wise year on year as well as working  a shorter day actually cleaning the windows.

theres always been a lot of window cleaners about as theres lots of windows that need cleaning all over the area(and country)you work in.

yes theres more wfpolers and sign written vans about but at the end of the day if the customers dont like you as a person or your attitude stinks and you  provide a crap service your gonna  lose customers over time.

im happy with my current workload/income/prices etc.yes i do lose the odd customer here and there for whatever reason but theres always a new customer just around the corner.until this stops happening i wont worry about "other" window cleaners and their businesses.i concentrate on my own.

since the downturn/recession of 2008 my business has gone from strength to strength.coupled with getting computer literate in 2009,finding this site and wfp in 2010.its absolutely turned my window cleaning round into a good solid profitable business that i could of only dreamt about beforehand.

in fact when a lot of people had it good in the early 2000s i was struggling big time with money,debt and personal issues.

[nathankaye]

Just had a phone call from an unknown. (Sunday 2pm) must have got my number from van or business page. Iv been in an area called cussworth for 14yrs.  Out the blue this chap phones me saying hes been in same area for 28yrs n wanting to kno if im selling the round!!
Dont kno who the chap is but im guessing I will do, expecting him to come n try nab work now so this will be fun. Said there are idiots out there!!

[Tom-01]

I am not surprised there  are so many window cleaner as there is persistent B/S bragging  about income is so cheap and unprofessional This will attract many who will also want money for nothing. When this does not work out they are forced to drop priced to try to recoup the investment. We are like the guy that discovered a young thing that would happily put out for him, so told all his mates, what great a lover he was. Them wondered why he had to stand in a queue for  some horizontal relaxation with her. There is ass hole born every day in this game.
The truth  has often been said on this page that there is lots of glass out there for all to clean. A marketing  revelation is stated from another dummy again, that`s not true. There is a lot of glass out there, only if the owners want it cleaned. Spec Savers would be a place to visit before investing in an  overstated market.

Exactly and they'll be the ones who give up. Then the ones who realise you have to work for a living will pick up those jobs, and at a good price as the customer will be fed up of the messers, as has already been stated.