Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: davep on August 26, 2008, 06:41:39 pm
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Been carpet cleaning for a while and was looking into long reach window cleaning, can any of you advise me on what kind of costs are involved to start and what the current climate is like.
Is it mostly commercial or is there a lot of domestic done too?
Ta
Dave
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I do 80% residential and 20% commercial so a mixture of both
As for suppliers their are many
www.gardinerpolesystems.co.uk
www.cleantech.co.uk
www.brodexbms.co.uk
...and many more
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I do 80% residential and 20% commercial so a mixture of both
As for suppliers their are many
www.gardinerpolesystems.co.uk
www.cleantech.co.uk
www.brodexbms.co.uk
...and many more
purefreedom.co.uk is another
excelsystems.co.uk is another.
what you need would depend on quite a bit on where you want to take your window cleaning side of the business.
Ian
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Carpet cleaning is great but to expand and have more regular work then maybe windows are the eay to go :P
What kind of repeats do you tend to get? With carpets you may see someone 3 times a year, am I thinking its all weekly / monthly work with you lad's?
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Carpet cleaning is great but to expand and have more regular work then maybe windows are the eay to go :P
What kind of repeats do you tend to get? With carpets you may see someone 3 times a year, am I thinking its all weekly / monthly work with you lad's?
most are done monthly or 6 weekly, you need to build a regular customer base
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How are you doing ewan?
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Not make any money as it is expensive to get setup?
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How old are you dave and how fit are you, this is hard graft.
you probably need another van, plus 3k for kit. (kit means everything- george/leaflets/signwrite/logo workwear....)
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How old are you dave and how fit are you, this is hard graft.
you probably need another van, plus 3k for kit. (kit means everything- george/leaflets/signwrite/logo workwear....)
you forgot website ::)
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36 fit as a fiddle ::)
Was looking at getting another van, and a budjet of 7 k for gear?
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Ignore the advice of anyone on here who claims that window cleaning is a science , and who quotes ridiculous earning figures !
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How many to customers? The other van would be out full time so how many can it do?
What are the running costs, how much can a van make ::)
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Hi Dave.
I have looked at your website and have no doubt that you are pretty switched on.
As with anything in life you get out what you put in. Cards on the table I am a supplier of systems but also built up my own window cleaning business from scratch some years ago.
I would target domestic work initially because you will fill your time far faster and also you will not have the cash flow problems that can come from commercial work
Do you have the time to canvass for 2 to 3 hours each evening? If so you should build a viable customer base in 2 to 3 months. You can then build and refine it with time. E.G. more compact work etc.
With correct pricing of work you should be able to average £30 ish per working hour per man. As time goes on you can increase this but realistically not by too much. To capitalise on working hours take on conservatory roof/cladding/soffit and fascia cleaning to be done on the really rainy days when you can't do windows.
Another option to gain new customers quickly is to use a canvassing company such as www.roundbuilders.com I have never heard a bad report about them.
Get the equipment choice right at the beginning and running costs are really quite low. Buy the newest toy out as and when they come out and it can get expensive. If you are employing get good rugged poles.
Hope this helps
Andrew
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Hi Dave.
I have looked at your website and have no doubt that you are pretty switched on.
As with anything in life you get out what you put in. Cards on the table I am a supplier of systems but also built up my own window cleaning business from scratch some years ago.
I would target domestic work initially because you will fill your time far faster and also you will not have the cash flow problems that can come from commercial work
Do you have the time to canvass for 2 to 3 hours each evening? If so you should build a viable customer base in 2 to 3 months. You can then build and refine it with time. E.G. more compact work etc.
With correct pricing of work you should be able to average £30 ish per working hour per man. As time goes on you can increase this but realistically not by too much. To capitalise on working hours take on conservatory roof/cladding/soffit and fascia cleaning to be done on the really rainy days when you can't do windows.
Another option to gain new customers quickly is to use a canvassing company such as www.roundbuilders.com I have never heard a bad report about them.
Get the equipment choice right at the beginning and running costs are really quite low. Buy the newest toy out as and when they come out and it can get expensive. If you are employing get good rugged poles.
Hope this helps
Andrew
If you need a system talk to Andrew , he is fantastic .
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You sound like you tick all the boxes, at fifty three the job half kills me. Andrew's advice was and is very good, and as a business decision I would just go with what he or someone like him recommends. You can waste three months on here learning about tanks and poles, but you can also save yourself a lot of time if you just go with what he says (i'm talking system) which is what you'd arrive at any way.
I disagree with the other posts saying don't listen to the people who've been in the game five minutes.
You will have to travel (say 10m radius), and it will be very hard. Knockbacks in the early stages are very painfull, but it can be done.
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You sound like you tick all the boxes, at fifty three the job half kills me. Andrew's advice was and is very good, and as a business decision I would just go with what he or someone like him recommends. You can waste three months on here learning about tanks and poles, but you can also save yourself a lot of time if you just go with what he says (i'm talking system) which is what you'd arrive at any way.
I disagree with the other posts saying don't listen to the people who've been in the game five minutes.
You will have to travel (say 10m radius), and it will be very hard. Knockbacks in the early stages are very painfull, but it can be done.
Discount I dont want to sound dissrespectfull but could you tell us how you started in this business , and how many operatives you are employing at the moment ? I like your advice but I like to know how well you are doing now in the business before I can make a comment about you !
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Discount has already run a business before and from what I have read still does, he brings a lot to the table and is always trying to come up with things that make the job easier and also time saving and after prompting shares this info on here.
being quite new to wfp I can say hand on heart that you need to get the right system from the start, Andrew M also purefreedom.co.uk I would use without a doubt as they was once one and both give the answers I look for,
Always get a bigger tank size than you need to start out, go from a small tank and you will kick yourself when you start to get more custom. I personally would say one man 500L min 2 man 650l min I say that from sending guys out with tanks each day only twice have the 650L tank for 2 men ran dry in near on a year 5 days a week, on the RO side you can get a merlin or 300 gpd, again I personally went for a 4040 because I hate waiting for things and the others are dog slow if you compare booster pump saves a whole lot of time, getting your pre filters from wintecs saves you an arm and leg from what others charge for them.
if you have a tds from tap of over 20 then 2 di vessals inline will save you on resin, mine is 470+ ppm. (Andrew I hope you have this inbuilt now on your systems for hard water clients unlike every other supplier out there)
Another tip would go and see someone else cleaning wfp something I didnt do and had to learn by defult I watched 2 windows being cleaned then went straight out with one of my guys wfp, I recon it took at least three times as long first cleans.
defo learn trad.
If I can think of anything else I will add to it
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Thanks for all replies, i will be back soon!
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This time next year youll be a millionaire ;D