[Robin Ray]

Ned, I too was trained by John and Derek, have been trading 4 months, but have only had a handful of jobs. Advertised in local church and community magazines, and a local paper, as well as dropping flyers, but still slow on the uptake.
Im lucky that I still have my window cleaning business for income. Like you I don't quote on the phone,  go and survey first and do the burn test.

I started just like you as a window cleaner, its a really good way of transitioning over as there is always something to fall back on. If you keep things consistent and do a good job you will find you will have enough and you will eventually have to go entirely over to carpets.

[RPCCS]

Ned, I too was trained by John and Derek, have been trading 4 months, but have only had a handful of jobs. Advertised in local church and community magazines, and a local paper, as well as dropping flyers, but still slow on the uptake.
Im lucky that I still have my window cleaning business for income. Like you I don't quote on the phone,  go and survey first and do the burn test.

I started just like you as a window cleaner, its a really good way of transitioning over as there is always something to fall back on. If you keep things consistent and do a good job you will find you will have enough and you will eventually have to go entirely over to carpets.

Thats the overall plan, being wrong side of 50; I am finding the windows hard going now, after almost 30 years, problems with most of my joints now.

[RPCCS]

Rome wasn't built in a day Rich!! Like you I panicked the first few months after I started with the lack of sales.It takes time pal and my development as a small business has come in fits's and start's. The one thing I would do if I was you was to approach your local government endorsed small business enterprise group as soon as possible. They will give you fantastic advice and offer free courses on how to develop a small business and in the best marketing ideas and also give you grants to bring your website up to scratch. The WORST thing I done was offer the first room cleaned for £30 or three rooms for £55 or three rooms plus stairs,hall and landing for £65 as a Super Summer Saver and I'm actually embarrassed I did this after all the great advice I had. A busy feckin fool!!!! I once did three lounges in one day and got paid £90. How can you run a business on £90 a day when you have to pay for insurance,equipment repairs,van MOT,service,insurance,chemicals etc.? Impossible!!  I was providing a first-class service but was charging LESS than the "bait and switch" companies or the guys with the Rug Doctors lol. Most customers don't know the difference between the true professionals and the charlatans and I use the first inspection to educate the customer on this and by the time I'm finished the customer most of the time will be prepared to pay more for the job getting done properly. 
ps one of the best things I did with regards to marketing was to get my family car ( a white Kia Sportage) adorned with my company logo and contact details along with NCCA/TACCA stickers. This cost me £130 from Signs Express and has got me at least £1500 of sales in the last three months from customers from the church I attend,sons football and daughters gymnastics classes. Great piece of business.

Thanks for the advice Ned, having run the window cleaning business for almost 30 years, I think I’m  reasonably clued up , marketing wise. If not then I’m doing something wrong.😀.Always good to hear from others though, sharing ideas is  always good for business.

[Ned Kelly]

No bother Rich. As a newbie to business I'm like a sponge just now looking for advice from guys like yourself regarding marketing and what works and what I'm wasting my time on. As a guy who has had a successful window cleaning business for 30 years I was just wondering what type of marketing you use just now to attract new customers to this? Other than customer referrals do you use Google Adwords or Facebook (do you post regular or boost posts or videos of you window cleaning)or Snapchat for business or any other form of social media? Do you use flyers (how many do you put out per week?).Do you do "five a round" a new customers home once you have cleaned the windows or leave flyers at local dentists,doctors newsagents or any other local business. If you do use any of these methods,roughly, what is the most successful and what is the least successful. Also,if any of these marketing tools are successful for your window cleaning business is there a reason why these methods are not successful for carpet cleaning? Thank's in advance for any advice given.
Ned

[RPCCS]

Are you looking for advice re windows or carpets Ned?
If carpets ,I got a load of flyers done for nowt, as my neighbour works for a printing company.  I gave one to all my window cleaning customers, placed ad in local church and community magazines, had an ad in local weekly paper for a month, and went dropping through doors in estates at next village. The church mag generated 1 job, as did the paper,and the leaflet drop got me 2.
I have had about 2 jobs from friends, about 3 from window customers, and about 3 from one of my commercial jobs.
Next step is to drop flyers on a few more estates, and another shot in the paper. I am also considering setting up a fb business page. Loads of folk I know who are self employed, say they have had lots of work from using that method..If you're asking about windows, I don't advertise, I have more than enough work to keep me on my toes. I pick and choose the jobs I want nowadays.When I started I had catds printed and went door knocking and dropping cards

[Jonathan Evans]

The best return I get is from my database. I mail them twice a year and send reminders.
Flyers do work but you need a really compelling offer and it tends to be a numbers game.
I think it depends on your pricing regarding Facebook and other social media.
Some people swear by it, I tend to swear at it.
AdWords works but nowadays it is very expensive and if you don't know what you're doing can be a nightmare.

Local mags are still very cost effective.
Hope this helps

[JandS]

I did the opposite and took on window cleaning as an extra and now probably do more w/c than c/c.....I find w/c easier than c/c but I do it WFP and actually enjoy being outside  for a change.
Think there is more stress in c/c....with the w/c you can more or less start and finish when you want and no set amount of work needs to be done...my minimum charge varies dependant on travel times but £45 up to 2.5 miles, that would cover a single average lounge.

[Robin Ray]

Window cleaning is the ultimate stress free job. It can earn excellent money too. I did it for many years before carpets and for some time along with carpets. The only thing I struggled with was boredom. After the first few thousand windows it got a bit tedious.

[edward coller]

Nice Max thats around £7.42 per sq Metre, love the cut of your jib! I always want to put my prices up and yet so often dont, particularly when its a slower time for me, i GUESS  i need to get mote bottle! and probably sell my biz more. Generally I charge £65. for single stain removal and £ 85 for room up to 20sqm, so most spotters turn into a room!

[RPCCS]

Window cleaning earns good money if you get the right work. I started too cheap and paid the price. Even now I still think I am too cheap , I am 90% wfp and anout 10% trad. I generally start about 9/9.30 and finish at 4., have a coffee about 10/ 10.3p for 15 mins, then 40 mins at lunchtime, but dont stop in the afternoon.  Another cleaner I know has done almost 40 years in the job. He is all trad and his work is bigger properties, generally starting at £20 and going up to 80/90 . Like me he's getting sick of it now and does bit of painting to diversify a bit.