Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Ian Lancaster on June 09, 2009, 03:02:20 pm
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......as a career/job??
In my case, it sort of chose me. I was a youngster in the late 60's and had a succession of jobs in offices, doing buying, production control, stock control etc etc and getting bored/sacked/re-employed in a soul destroying cycle. A friend was a window cleaner in London, doing schools for one of the many firms operating at that time - just turn up, do the job, get the docket signed and get paid. I was in one of my "just been sacked and not found anything else yet" periods and he took me with him for a day to see what it was like. I liked it :) For the first few months the sheer delight of no boss and the physical exertion coupled with the exhibitionism (no ladders - we climbed out of the windows and stood on the sills :o) outweighed the drop in income.
After a year of so the penny dropped that I didn't have to give part of my hard earned to some desk jockey just for pointing me at the work, so I started my first round.
That would have been about 1969 I think.
I've tried several other things in the meantime, but always come back to window cleaning.
I retire in December so I reckon I've done my share!!
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Thats a great story Ian :)
I was in IT for 10 years and just got bored of working in an office day in day out - So for me I chose window cleaning for the freedom and flexibility.
When you retire what are you going to do with your rounds? Do you have a buyer? Are you passing it all on to someone?
Andy
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When l moved to Scotland my pal was a window cleaner and just for something to do i went with him ended up buying his round off him for £100 ;D left it for a while to manage a record shop but the old boy that owned it was a pervert so decided to leave and start up again that was only 14 years ago it took me til a couple of years ago to realise i was a busy fool so im slowly changing things around i have to or i wont be a window cleaner in 14 days time never mind another 14 years
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Hi,
I was ducking & diving & moved to a new address. The old boy across the road was a window cleaner, I used to watch him load up in the mornings & be back at home for lunch having finished.
I thought I,ll have some of that. That was 25 years back. He retired at the age of 80 something & passed his shop round to me. I pop around to see him twice a year & put him up to speed with his past customers.
Kevin WINDOLENE.
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life style choice ;) ;)
people have heard my story and ive often discussed it ;)
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When you retire what are you going to do with your rounds? Do you have a buyer? Are you passing it all on to someone?
Andy
Sorry Andy :D
As many on here will know, I've developed my business over the last three years or so and turned it into a franchised organisation so that when I retire I will still have franchisees working and paying royalties
Otherwise I would have had to work till I dropped.
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The Glamour ;)
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I haven't got as good a story as Ian, Left the army in 85 and stayed in Germany. Went driving trucks around Germany till I found 1 going from Tunisia /Germany, fantastic pay and long waiting times in Tunisia. So could doss on the beach all day for a few days every trip.
Did that for a couple of years, then my mate had started doing milkround/window cleaning round for the squaddies. Went out with him a day to have a look, didn't believe the stories of what he earned. What a shock I got.
Next day, typed out some leaflets with his help, went calling a couple of days later, bang, a round set up. Got all big headed when it took off and got "Mr Holliwood" about my turnover. Then branched out into comercial. That's when I started to see what work was. 2 and 3 thousand square meter schools etc.
Started to get bored and let my domestics fall away. Lost interest after 12 years and went back to driving trucks all over europe. Then realised what I had before and started again from scratch a few years ago. Best decision i ever made when you look at the economy now.
Love being my own boss and beating the dozy competition over here. They still think the future is in big com' jobs. The Germans aren't geared up to build domestic rounds like you lot, so makes it easier for me to get them.
All together, I have been in this game about 16 years full time and always had kept some custies even when I was driving, did them at weekends etc. I am now unemployable, and it's great.
I used to have a big chip on my shoulder about being a window cleaner for the first years,but now I don't give a toss about all these IT bods I meet on the job as I go through their offices cleaning windows. I think some still think, "Oh W/C, must be too stupid to do anything else". Yep, too stupid, but home usually by 3 and bank manageress (1 Of my custies by the way) thinks my business is healthy. 8)
It would have helped me a great deal if the internet was up and running when I started. Things like this forum help me realise that you lot are out there the same as me. We all go through the same crap as all the others, some more some less, but it helps alot to read what you bods put on here.
Even though there are 1 or 2 plonkers now and then ;D
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My mate was a window-cleaner, one day I went round his house and he'd bought a new telly, because he said in his words 'when I woke up this morning I fancied a new telly'
I liked the thought of being able to buy something when you wanted to, I'd never been able to do that in any job I'd had before.
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Even though there are 1 or 2 plonkers now and then ;D
So did you know I was about to post on here then :D
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My dad did it...my grandad did it...simple ;)
I was doing it in summer holidays at school since i was about 15, 24 now and still love it, i must admit i do have my momments but i just forget how lucky i am sometimes. No one to answer to means alot to me.
Started off on ladders about 18 properly, fell off twice in 2 years lol, too keen. So got WFP and never looked back and am nice and safe now.
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Left army after 9 years doing welding jobs up and down this country but wanted to settle down properly, get a mortgage and start a family.
Temporarily worked for someone else window cleaning for 3 months as a stop gap job until a better welding job come along and realised the potential working self employed so decided to work for myself instead when I had the opportunity to buy a very small round that was barely established and built it up though perserverance and time.
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Came back after a few years abroad and drifted around like a leaf in the wind. Worked in a factory as an agency worker (having a week off every few weeks to avoid making me permanent), but my head wasn't into it.
Girlfriend suggested window cleaning in 2004 and it sounded good to me.
Knocked some leaflets up and put an add in a parish magazine. Started getting work come in and away we went.
Like matt it is a life style job. Within a year or so after finding this and pros forum, realised i wanted quality over quantity.
This suits me and this stage of my life.
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Even though there are 1 or 2 plonkers now and then ;D
So did you know I was about to post on here then :D
No mate, you know em ;D
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whilst been a postman way back in 2006, my mrs asked,nagged,bullied >:( me into cleaning our windows. I got an old car windscreen ice scraper (the ones with a bit of foam on) borrowed an old pair of wooden ladders and then set about doing my windows. as i was up top a women walked past "ooooh a window cleaner can you come and do mine?" so when i done mine off i set to do hers.............
about 2 weeks later i had a knock on the front door "you did my friends windows a couple of weeks ago could you do mine if possible?". I still do there windows to this day and at the same price
years later i have a customer base of about 400ish and employ 2 young lads.
thank the lord my mrs cussed me, thank the lord that women walked past at that precise time, thank the lord for window cleaning ;D
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Stumbled accross this forum and saw lots of "how much do you earn" etc posts so I joined the club ;)
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my dad cleaned ,my uncle cleaned must be in the genes ;D ;D
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Brain surgery seemed to be in decline, and since I was already fully trained in rocket science it seemed the most natural thing to do.
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I have always had a problem with people telling me what to do, and have always made my own money, 9/5 was never going to be my bag I found that out when I was a chef when I was 15, had to top up my wage with car washing at weekends. few business deal I got tucked up on for large amounts of money, so went with window cleaning as I liked the challenge of something new.
Ian Lancaster when you retire you should write a book, would be fasinating to read..
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hmmm, some are born wc, some become wc's, and some have wc thrust upon them. I figured it out that if i charged so much and did so many i could make X, then if i did that five days a week and so on.
So it's a bit annoying to me that so many of you just fell into it. The early days for me were very hard- physicaly because i was past my best- and mentaly because it's a humbling experience starting a round from scratch when you are actually quite successful at something else.
I do seem to quite like it now- but i don't wear any of that own boss or lifestyle bunkum, lot's of trades have that and the money's better.What i like is that mostly it's a real stretch for me. I could have done without this credit crunch though.
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What credit crunch is that then? I've had so much work coming in the last couple of months that i'm struggling to keep up at the moment. So many gutter cleans, conservatory cleans etc that i'm looking forward to the winter for a rest.
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......as a career/job??
In my case, it sort of chose me. I was a youngster in the late 60's and had a succession of jobs in offices, doing buying, production control, stock control etc etc and getting bored/sacked/re-employed in a soul destroying cycle. A friend was a window cleaner in London, doing schools for one of the many firms operating at that time - just turn up, do the job, get the docket signed and get paid. I was in one of my "just been sacked and not found anything else yet" periods and he took me with him for a day to see what it was like. I liked it :) For the first few months the sheer delight of no boss and the physical exertion coupled with the exhibitionism (no ladders - we climbed out of the windows and stood on the sills :o) outweighed the drop in income.
After a year of so the penny dropped that I didn't have to give part of my hard earned to some desk jockey just for pointing me at the work, so I started my first round.
That would have been about 1969 I think.
I've tried several other things in the meantime, but always come back to window cleaning.
I retire in December so I reckon I've done my share!!
I think it chose me too Ian.
In 1991 I was unemployed (3rd redundancy in 2 years) without the sniff of a job. I had an old banger hatchback car and about £200 left in the bank. I sought a bit of advice from an experienced window cleaner friend, borrowed a ladder from an out of trade plumber, and boughht a few scrims etc from the janitorial shop. Then I went door knocking. My outgoings were very low then and I just took the view that it would keep me going till I could get a job. It was very hard going at first. Interest rates were very high so most of my initial work came from older people who were well into their mortgages (or paid off) or council/housing association tenants who had no mortgage. The the UK pulled out of the ERM, interest rates plumetted overnight, and work started trickling in and that accelerated.
I still couldn't get a job though. I did have self-employed driving work where I went away one week per month. This paid well and helped to keep me going while I built up the window cleaning. By the time they stopped that job, I had what I then regarded as half a window cleaning round. So I stopped applying for jobs and worked at it more. After a while I was offered a job that I had applied for months before. I TURNED IT DOWN ;D . I think that was the day when I really became a window cleaner and actually chose it. That was about 7 or 8 months in.
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3 and a half years ago I met my now lovely wife. She was what she called unemployable and did work self employed here and there. I worked in a secure psychiatric hospital at the time... So might know a few of you :)
Anyway I had enough of the days, noons, nights, weekend and bank holidays I had to work (including christmas day. I quit with no job to go to and eventually ended up in a factory - long hours, low pay.
My wife was pregnant at the time and had a rough time going in and out of hospital, up and down the country. My son was born premature in march 2008 and died shortly after being born. I took a month off work to be with my wife and step kids. I wasn't ready to go back to work, but I did because money was so tight.
For the next few weeks I had days off here and there because my wife needed me or I couldn't face the world. I turned in one day and got told to go home, they don't need me any more. So I rang round and found a job fitting office furniture (something I had done in the past ) on a self employed basis. The work lasted a year with about a 6 week break about two thirds of the way through which I filled. The ressecion kicked in for new office furniture and they had to let me go.
I applyed for jobs and even got turned down for a job at mcdonalds. Things were looking bad and we had to borrow money off family to pay the bills and the bare nessecitys.
My wife said one day why don't you start your own business. So I started an office furniture company - didn't work. Started gardening business - couldn't canvass for work. Then window cleaning came up. I was happy to knock on a door and just say 'do you need a window cleaner'. I researched on this forum. Found out what I needed and watched YouTube videos on how to do the job. I borrowed £900 off my mum, bought a basic WFP kit and got some leaflets and started knocking.
3 months later I have 135 regular customers so far and growing daily. I wouldn't swop this job for the world and I wouldn't go back to being employed.
Business has picked up again for the office furniture company and they have asked me back - what did I tell them.....NOT A CHANCE !!!
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Great storey JP....nice to hear of other peoples success.
Dave.
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When I was a school kid I used to do gardening/car cleaning etc for pocket money. Used to do well, £15-£20 a week and this was back in the mid 80s. After I left school I did lots of different jobs from warehouse work to working at a solicitors with a caseload of about 600 litigation cases. Ended up in Sales
When I thought of leaving my last employer I look at other sales jobs and they all wanted BLOOD.
But I always liked the idea of working for myself. Always remembered that feeling from when I was a kid of doing something for myself.
When the co I worked for messed me about, I messed them about and started WCing at weekends and on company time. I used to squeeze 20 customer calls into two days then window clean or canvas the other two. The company car had roof-bars. Then they gave me the heave ho after about 3 months with a generous pay-off, they were completely unaware. ;D
It was a little scary at first (I had 2 kids then got 3 now) but I made it work.
And I have never looked back since. I would never wish to work for anyone else ever again. And will discourage my children from doing so too.