[Cliff perkins]

This might be a bit of a willy waver topic but ive been doing window cleaning for just over a year now and im not earning what i was in my last job driving a low loader hgv.i was wanting to ask roughly what you sole traders earn a year after costs to see if its worth my while carrying on.there are lots of costs involved all the time with wfp work and to be honest i aint earning alot really when you do the maths so im just curious i guess.
Please realistic answers only.
Thankyou.

[Lee GLS]

Tell us how much you are earning and we will tell you if that's good or not.

I would say that with window cleaning you have the potentional to earn as much as you want, depending on how much effort you are prepared to put in getting the work.

A lot will come down to how good your round is, a good round can take a little with to build, but once you have a good round you can earn very good money.

[Erithwc]

None of your Business  

But I do put 35% of what ever i earn away for tax, accountant, bad weather pay ect.

[Cliff perkins]

Ok i will put it in simple terms.
How much should a window cleaner earn a week working 9am to 5pm.
Regards

[tony atkinson]

£400 a week once u have took petrol and other exsp out ...

[magic moments]

Cliff how much do you earn?

[Lee GLS]

£400 a week once u have took petrol and other exsp out ...

If that's all I took home after a week, I wouldn't be window cleaning.

[magic moments]

A nice wage tony,how often and what hours you work?

[Helen]

Ok i will put it in simple terms.
How much should a window cleaner earn a week working 9am to 5pm.
Regards

Try telling us what you were taking home as a low loader driver per month and what shifts and hours you had to put in to get that.

There was no need to put "simple terms" as each to his own and your earnings as a one man band should be based on what you want to earn, not what others are

Maybe your expectations were too high for the first year of trading, it can take years to get a good round working well for you

[magic moments]

A nice wage tony,how often and what hours you work?
[/quote

[TomCrowther]

You won't get a straight answer because it's really nobody elses business what anyone earns. A sole trader could just be doing it for beer money, working three hours a day or he could be 07:30 to 18:00 six days a week so even if people told you it wouldn't be much use.
As Lee said, you get out what you put in.

[SunShineCleaning]

How much did you earn as a driver and what have you turned over in your first year window cleaning?

[Cliff perkins]

I earned 35k a year as a low loader driver doing on average 10 hours a day.mon to fri.my 1st year of trading was about 20k and im willing to work very hard in window cleaning but hardly any of my work is compact at the moment.
The exspenses in my 1st year was alot and still are .
I think i see £50 out of £100 after deductions.

[richardlingard]

it takes 3 years to really have a strong business, and it will be imo a lot more than you were earning and for less hours... go out tommorow knock for three hours you should pick up about £50 ish in new work theres a 500 a year pay rise ish, do this a couple of times a week, shouldnt be long, when your halfway there a large round has regular recommendation work comeing in as well

[richardlingard]

the reason you saw all those expenses in your first year is all that wicked kit you are using, nice van nice pole gutter vac etc etc, very nice stuff, you should see a massive improvement over the next few months concentrate on the progress of the round

[Cliff perkins]

I went door knocking today and got 1 . :
I do try very hard to build my company.But there are alot of windies around here.
My mrs keeps telling me im not earning enough and i do see the potential is there but i was just wondering how much potential.
Anyway thanks for replies and have a good weekend windies.

[Erithwc]

I went door knocking today and got 1 . :
I do try very hard to build my company.But there are alot of windies around here.
My mrs keeps telling me im not earning enough and i do see the potential is there but i was just wondering how much potential.
Anyway thanks for replies and have a good weekend windies.

Don't want to be rude but if my partner said that to me she would be given a load of leaflets to deliver 

[H S and Son]

Put a poll up cliff, make it easier to answer.

[Dave Mills]

Cliff,

Youre in the South, so you should be earning more per hour than me.  If youre comparing earnings with your old job of 50 hours a week, lets look at what you could do in 40 hours (8 a day).  After all, you also have to run the business and you didnt start doing it to work harder for less than as an employee.

With not very compact work (guessing on your definition)  I think you should be doing a minimum of 15 houses a day in eight hours.  There is no reason at all why in Newbury you shouldnt be averaging, £18 a house (based on what I read on here), which is £270 a day.  Multiply by 40 weeks (allows 10 days bank hols, 5 weeks holiday a year and another five weeks lost to illness/bad weather so all worst case) and you're looking at turnover of £54,000 a year.

You went doorknocking today and got one.  If thats a 4-weeker at £18, youve just added £234 to your annual income.  In your old job that would have been a 2/3% pay increase.  How often did you get one of those.?  Rejoice! Also, how long were you out to get one customer?  Five minutes?  Eight hours?  How many people did you actually talk to?  Your result could be excellent or awful depending on that.

But - this is the difficult bit - it's not like a job where work comes to you.  You need to go out and win customers.  We can all say there are lots of other windys in our area.  Well, you need to convince yourself and your customers that you are better than them.  They wont come all winter, you will.  They wont come back every time, you will.  they wont guarantee their work, you will.  If you want to earn more the only person who can do it is you.

[Helen]

I earned 35k a year as a low loader driver doing on average 10 hours a day.mon to fri.my 1st year of trading was about 20k and im willing to work very hard in window cleaning but hardly any of my work is compact at the moment.
The exspenses in my 1st year was alot and still are .
I think i see £50 out of £100 after deductions.

20k in your first year is not bad!
If your expenses are all business expenses then remember this will keep your tax bill lower anyway.
Have you started offering the extra services such as insides, gutters, con roofs to your exisiting custies?
If not them get these rolling in. Scheduling in with your normal cleans should then start to pull you in some better money.
To get more compact work.....try doing an odd Saturday morning here and there in areas you want more business, sometimes neighbours will just come out and ask and there you go 2 more custies or so for that area. In 3 to 4 years time you will wonder why you asked this question