[lyndy]

You haven't got a hope in hell in what you are trying to do,we have one man one van,we may push it and have two men one van

[Scrimble]

stick to your 30k a year job it will never happen, anyone smart enough to clean windows will take all your customers and just do it themselves i mean lets face it what could you do about it if they did? turn round to them and so NO i'm your window cleaner?

La_Lucha your dreaming

[Tom White]

Hmmmm.  I know a local guy who purchased a business; asking price was £30K, but he got the business much cheaper.  This guy has a good job and was employing four lads that already worked the business.

I don't think it's impossible; not easy; but nothing is impossible.

[richard jagger]

Yes and pigs can fly.......if you put them is a jumbo jet.      IT SOUNDS LIKE A PIPE DREAM.
There is so much you seem to miss out on.IMO. :

[Ian Rochester]

A couple of pointers:

1.  If staff are working for you for the majority of their income then they have to be classed as employed not self employed and you'll need to pay NI and holiday pay for them. Unless you're going to be a cowboy and try and fiddle the taxman!!!  

2.  To employ someone full time, trusting them with the money and hoping that they are going to be honest with declaring all the work to you, you'll need to be paying them a decent wage.

3.  In order to pay a decent wage then you'll need to have a decent round, minimum £2K/4 weeks/person which will not fall on your lap from day one.

4.  After paying a wage, the money that's left isn't your profit, you'll have insurance, equipment, fuel, van, accounts, tax, etc, etc to pay out of all of that.

5.  Due to the current economic climate, EVERYONE who has been made redundant in the past 5 years now thinks they can be a window cleaner, many are investing £,000s in vans and WFP equipment.  I spoke to a guy just the other week in Darlington who'd spent £22,000 of his redundancy money on a new Thermopure van and he hardly has any work for it, because of the hype the manufacturers put on selling he expected to be flat out from day one................eh, no, get real!

Tosh is right, it can be done, but more likely only if you buy a business that is already established.

You can have mine if you want..............£300,000

[Rich A]

Thanks for all the positive responses Gentlemen. Really encouraging. I have stated that I don't expect to build this up overnight. I have owned a bouncy castle hire business and did quite well with it. I sold it for a good profit the year before last as I had a lot going on last year.

All I can say to you lot is thank god Henry Ford didn't have you lot around to discourage him.

Where's your ambition?

[lyndy]

We cleaned on sats and in the evenings,put flyers out on Sundays,bloody hard work with a full time job,took
Someone partime,good staff is the key I've had to
 sack 4 guys in 2 years,it is hassle and wonder if it's
Worth sometimes but then look at the money that it's
Making

[Helen]

Thanks for all the positive responses Gentlemen. Really encouraging. I have stated that I don't expect to build this up overnight. I have owned a bouncy castle hire business and did quite well with it. I sold it for a good profit the year before last as I had a lot going on last year.

All I can say to you lot is thank god Henry Ford didn't have you lot around to discourage him.

Where's your ambition?

Don't take this wrong, but a lot of these guys who have answered ( and a lot that haven't) didn't have the luxury of getting "cheap" knowledge from a forum and built up their businesses from scratch, with trial and error learning along the way, so don't knock people about their supposedly lack of ambition

If you didn't have forums and the good old internet on hand what would you do to start up a window cleaning business?
You did it for bouncy castles, so you obviously are not new to start up situations.

[Rich A]

We cleaned on sats and in the evenings,put flyers out on Sundays,bloody hard work with a full time job,took
Someone partime,good staff is the key I've had to
 sack 4 guys in 2 years,it is hassle and wonder if it's
Worth sometimes but then look at the money that it's
Making

This is the way that I look at it. I will start off just me, myself and I. I think now may be a good time to start because come Spring when people like to clean, I can be in the right place at the right time. If I build this up this year and next then maybe 2014 I may be in a position to take someone on? At the end of the day I just want to provide for my newborn daughter and thinking that just working for myself at weekends I may be able to take £150-£180 per weeend from W/C and I plan on going back into Bouncy Castles so thats £40-£80 min per week.
At worst in the middle of Winter I would be expecting £190 per week additional income. In two years time like I say I hire someone on a self employed basis ala Builders and Carpenters and they can do both the castles and WC.

I've done the math and I'm sure it can work. I know a guy whose an electrician, he started up as a 1 man band 20 years ago. He now has a team of 20 or so guys and is earning a decent living. At the end of the day for me, I think once you have some collateral you can expand into many businesses.

[andyM]

I think you would be better off at least giving window cleaning a go first to:
1: See if you like doing the work
2: Can offer a good standard of work to paying customers
3: Can be consistently reliable and fit the window cleaning around your current work/life situation

Before planning world domination 

[Rich A]

I think you would be better off at least giving window cleaning a go first to:
1: See if you like doing the work
2: Can offer a good standard of work to paying customers
3: Can be consistently reliable and fit the window cleaning around your current work/life situation

Before planning world domination 

This is my plan tbh. That's why I want to give it a go and build it myself instead of buying an established business and then finding I don't like it. If I like it then I think you need to have a proper plan for the future. No point sailing along working for uncle Sam when I could become my own boss with no deficit.

[dazmond]

its more a case of being realistic rather than defeatist!

the problems that you will encounter are that you just simply wont be able to keep an eye on your employees.newly canvassed work can be "shaky"at best.standard of cleans needs to be high if your charging a good price.

a guy who bought a part of my round a few years ago.full of ambition.working it as a "sideline" at weekends with dreams of employing and taking over the north west.

he just couldnt work every weekend due to bad weather

some customers didnt like him coming round to clean their windows at 8am on sunday morning so sacked him there and then.

he had no experience of window cleaning and made a poor job of them and was very slow so hardly made any money.

he was scared of heights and had a dodgy knee so missed out a lot of upper windows!

needless to say he lost the whole round and had thrown in the towel after 2 months £1200 out of pocket.

employing can be a nightmare for full time window cleaners.there is usually a high turnover of staff until you find the right guy.

regards


dazmond

[Rich A]

its more a case of being realistic rather than defeatist!

the problems that you will encounter are that you just simply wont be able to keep an eye on your employees.newly canvassed work can be "shaky"at best.standard of cleans needs to be high if your charging a good price.

a guy who bought a part of my round a few years ago.full of ambition.working it as a "sideline" at weekends with dreams of employing and taking over the north west.

he just couldnt work every weekend due to bad weather

some customers didnt like him coming round to clean their windows at 8am on sunday morning so sacked him there and then.

he had no experience of window cleaning and made a poor job of them and was very slow so hardly made any money.

he was scared of heights and had a dodgy knee so missed out a lot of upper windows!

needless to say he lost the whole round and had thrown in the towel after 2 months £1200 out of pocket.

employing can be a nightmare for full time window cleaners.there is usually a high turnover of staff until you find the right guy.

regards


dazmond

Cheers Dazmond I will take heed. At the end of the day. I plan on starting small and seeing how I get on.

[SunShineCleaning]

Come on guys, this is a wind up thread by someone who has recently 'left' the forum.

We have had many 'world domination' posters before. Dont bite.

[Window Washers]

is it only me that thinks it was the window cleaning coach, I could well be wrong and if the guy is on here then I am sorry for thinking it, just seemed a little odd that they posted that link then didn't speak about it.

[andyM]

Come on guys, this is a wind up thread by someone who has recently 'left' the forum.

We have had many 'world domination' posters before. Dont bite.

Yeah could have a point.
Wasn't there someone who used to post on here before who had a bouncy castle business?
He used to go by the name Window Gynaecologist or Doc Windows or something?
The plot thickens........

[Nameless Drudge]

Yes, that would be the one that you don`t go on and describe the posters as "you lot".

[Rich A]

Yes, that would be the one that you don`t go on and describe the posters as "you lot".

I didn't think I had?  Thanks for your help anyway. You did give me some good advice.

How many guys would reccomend George for the small scale startup stuff or would you just do it on paper?

[TomCrowther]

now he does sound like a wum 

[Rich A]

now he does sound like a wum 

I have never been a WC before and I need to know everything. Like I've stated earlier I don't want to go into the venture uneducated on the subject.