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.
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 myprice 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.
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?