[jay moley]

My brother is thinking of starting a window cleaning business, problem is he currently earns £80,000 a year doing a sales job that he hates and works 12 hours a day.

I've told him I don't think he'd be able to do it as his lifestyle is used to the money he earns and he wouldn't be able to take the initial drop in earnings.

But for arguments sake what kind of investment in marketing etc would be needed and how long would it take to get up to £80,000 a year earning.

[Stoots]

No one can really answer how long it would take too many variables.

If he had enough money to throw at advertising then maybe a matter of months but he would still have to double the amount of customers he requires to account for messers and the amount of first cleans would be ridiculous.

He would be better with a more long term strategy than trying to grow that fast would be a nightmare .

Depends where about he is, with enough advertising budget, great prices and patience in London 80k might be do able whereas in the North east unless he is wanting to work 12 hours days 5 or 6 days a week it might be a tall order.

[Ooooooog]

Turn over 80 or take 80 in wages?

[dazmond]

how many window cleaners do you know who earn £80k a year?if he does he ll be working 12 hour days and end up hating the job........

any job must get tedious working 12 hour days.......

[zesty]

Flipping hard work making 80K on your Jack Jones unless in London.

Would take a while. But is possible. Trouble is, he doesn’t even know if he’s cut out for window cleaning? You can only make 80k if you know what your doing...

[dazmond]

he d have to be turning over £1,800 a week over 45 weeks of the year.........and AVERAGE £360 a day over 5 days EVERY one of them weeks......

[Crystal-clear]

Turn over 80 or take 80 in wages?

Good point world of difference

Jay I'm sure you mean 80k profit as he would want to naturally match his current salary.
To be on the safe side he will need to be turning over £110,000 a year and doing all the work HIMSELF. He'll also need to pay VAT leaves around 91k net then expenses...
He will be working harder and longer hours on the glass probably 45 hours a week working everyday.
240 working days in the year at a high £458.00 day rate. If he has a van rite off he'll need to make more..

In a nutshell there is no way he can establish £110,000 per year of Regular work by himself within a few months  even if he invested in half a million leaflets at a 50k cost or whatever
He will definitely need help won't be able to deal with the enquiries be inantaded be slower because he has got no experience and yeah just no it's not going to happen. Without some serious help and serious investment

Sounds like he's got a very good income over there holiday pay the whole thing I would say it's a humongous sacrifice.
What I've said before to other people who are thinking about it stay in your job keep working get yourself a van and set up a weekend round.
Because it's not all about money end of the day if he truly is sick of it he might quite like the Freedom of what window cleaning can give you.
But it's definitely not for everyone.. so it's best that he doesn't walk out of his highly paid salary to find out it's not for him when his hands get cold
And his waterproof boots decide to fail!.
And before you know it it another low mileage clean and tidy freshly installed system van is on eBay for about a third of the price!

Then again I've never heard of someone earning close to a six-figure salary that wants to nip about in van to shine some glass. It's usually the other way round that's been made redundant or in a low paid job or in a very demanding averagely paid job
I guess he must really be sick of his job to consider it. So perhaps matching his current salary  shouldn't be the prerogative.

What I will say to be a bit more positive is his first year not talking about crazy investments but say if he's coming in with money to get his van and insurance 200k leaflets printed maybe drop 100k canvass with the rest Get some experience takes to it well can deal with the weather and various other issues. Is determined prepared to leaflet and canvass and generally probably put in 12 hours a day work and maybe another 2h at home preparing van and work for next day
So 6 hours canvassing 6 hours window cleaning
And weekends pure canvassing and leafleting
In a decent area I think it would be realistic for me to say provided he works hard 50ish turn over 40k profit is achievable but he would really need to be dedicated for his first year and I still think that will be very good  given all the man-hours involved in canvassing in marketing and everything else that would prevent him from physically Cleaning Windows full time for his first year

[tlwcs]

Window cleaning is the answer to all unhappiness.
Just follow the yellow brick road. Ffs 😁

[Shrek]

He’d end up more miserable on that journey!

[deeege]

Is he even cut out for Window Cleaning? Sounds like he’s been reading too much CiU with regards to pricing. It would take him years to build up the know how and customers to be earning £300+ per day, every day.

(To earn £485 per day every day I’d question whether it’s even possible, I don’t think it is in the NW anyway)

[dazmond]

My brother is thinking of starting a window cleaning business, problem is he currently earns £80,000 a year doing a sales job that he hates and works 12 hours a day.

I've told him I don't think he'd be able to do it as his lifestyle is used to the money he earns and he wouldn't be able to take the initial drop in earnings.

But for arguments sake what kind of investment in marketing etc would be needed and how long would it take to get up to £80,000 a year earning.

surely it must be better for your work/life balance to earn a lot less money for half the hours.......he should set his targets lower to start with.......eg

year 1. £20k
year 2.£30k
year 3.40k

lots of canvassing/leafleting,website,facebook,etc...

you cut your cloth to suit your income.......

[nathankaye]

So, basically we are saying,
A big fat NO chance, unless he wants to take his time and possible end up in an early grave due to the stress and huge loss of income.

Why has he set his eyes on a saturated market?

[Granny]

I jacked in a sales job with expenses and company car to go window cleaning.
Happier - Yes.
More money - No.
Less stress - Yes.
Less money - Definitely.
In my experience you can't have both, a simple life style and the money.

[Shrek]

I jacked in a sales job with expenses and company car to go window cleaning.
Happier - Yes.
More money - No.
Less stress - Yes.
Less money - Definitely.
In my experience you can't have both, a simple life style and the money.

Are you earning 80k - no 

[Shrek]

My brother is thinking of starting a window cleaning business, problem is he currently earns £80,000 a year doing a sales job that he hates and works 12 hours a day.

I've told him I don't think he'd be able to do it as his lifestyle is used to the money he earns and he wouldn't be able to take the initial drop in earnings.

But for arguments sake what kind of investment in marketing etc would be needed and how long would it take to get up to £80,000 a year earning.

surely it must be better for your work/life balance to earn a lot less money for half the hours.......he should set his targets lower to start with.......eg

year 1. £20k
year 2.£30k
year 3.40k

lots of canvassing/leafleting,website,facebook,etc...

you cut your cloth to suit your income.......

Year...26 . 80k? 

[zesty]

Turn over 80 or take 80 in wages?

Good point world of difference

Jay I'm sure you mean 80k profit as he would want to naturally match his current salary.
To be on the safe side he will need to be turning over £110,000 a year and doing all the work HIMSELF. He'll also need to pay VAT leaves around 91k net then expenses...
He will be working harder and longer hours on the glass probably 45 hours a week working everyday.
240 working days in the year at a high £458.00 day rate. If he has a van rite off he'll need to make more..

In a nutshell there is no way he can establish £110,000 per year of Regular work by himself within a few months  even if he invested in half a million leaflets at a 50k cost or whatever
He will definitely need help won't be able to deal with the enquiries be inantaded be slower because he has got no experience and yeah just no it's not going to happen. Without some serious help and serious investment

Sounds like he's got a very good income over there holiday pay the whole thing I would say it's a humongous sacrifice.
What I've said before to other people who are thinking about it stay in your job keep working get yourself a van and set up a weekend round.
Because it's not all about money end of the day if he truly is sick of it he might quite like the Freedom of what window cleaning can give you.
But it's definitely not for everyone.. so it's best that he doesn't walk out of his highly paid salary to find out it's not for him when his hands get cold
And his waterproof boots decide to fail!.
And before you know it it another low mileage clean and tidy freshly installed system van is on eBay for about a third of the price!

Then again I've never heard of someone earning close to a six-figure salary that wants to nip about in van to shine some glass. It's usually the other way round that's been made redundant or in a low paid job or in a very demanding averagely paid job
I guess he must really be sick of his job to consider it. So perhaps matching his current salary  shouldn't be the prerogative.

What I will say to be a bit more positive is his first year not talking about crazy investments but say if he's coming in with money to get his van and insurance 200k leaflets printed maybe drop 100k canvass with the rest Get some experience takes to it well can deal with the weather and various other issues. Is determined prepared to leaflet and canvass and generally probably put in 12 hours a day work and maybe another 2h at home preparing van and work for next day
So 6 hours canvassing 6 hours window cleaning
And weekends pure canvassing and leafleting
In a decent area I think it would be realistic for me to say provided he works hard 50ish turn over 40k profit is achievable but he would really need to be dedicated for his first year and I still think that will be very good  given all the man-hours involved in canvassing in marketing and everything else that would prevent him from physically Cleaning Windows full time for his first year

Don’t think he’s talking about 80k profit in his sales job. That’s probably his wage. After tax it’ll be a lot lower.

People don’t tend to only say there take home pay in the employed world. They just say what they earn salary wise.

So I’m guessing he means turning over 80k a year...

[Slacky]

I know someone on here who does 80K before breakfast.

[Dave Willis]

I’d have to go part time to earn that.

[zesty]

I know someone on here who does 80K before breakfast.

Feel sorry for him, I’ve already done the VAT threshold by the time the clock strikes 12.01am.

[֍Winp®oClean֍]

I know someone on here who does 80K before breakfast.

Only One?  

[deeege]

Turn over 80 or take 80 in wages?

Good point world of difference

Jay I'm sure you mean 80k profit as he would want to naturally match his current salary.
To be on the safe side he will need to be turning over £110,000 a year and doing all the work HIMSELF. He'll also need to pay VAT leaves around 91k net then expenses...
He will be working harder and longer hours on the glass probably 45 hours a week working everyday.
240 working days in the year at a high £458.00 day rate. If he has a van rite off he'll need to make more..

In a nutshell there is no way he can establish £110,000 per year of Regular work by himself within a few months  even if he invested in half a million leaflets at a 50k cost or whatever
He will definitely need help won't be able to deal with the enquiries be inantaded be slower because he has got no experience and yeah just no it's not going to happen. Without some serious help and serious investment

Sounds like he's got a very good income over there holiday pay the whole thing I would say it's a humongous sacrifice.
What I've said before to other people who are thinking about it stay in your job keep working get yourself a van and set up a weekend round.
Because it's not all about money end of the day if he truly is sick of it he might quite like the Freedom of what window cleaning can give you.
But it's definitely not for everyone.. so it's best that he doesn't walk out of his highly paid salary to find out it's not for him when his hands get cold
And his waterproof boots decide to fail!.
And before you know it it another low mileage clean and tidy freshly installed system van is on eBay for about a third of the price!

Then again I've never heard of someone earning close to a six-figure salary that wants to nip about in van to shine some glass. It's usually the other way round that's been made redundant or in a low paid job or in a very demanding averagely paid job
I guess he must really be sick of his job to consider it. So perhaps matching his current salary  shouldn't be the prerogative.

What I will say to be a bit more positive is his first year not talking about crazy investments but say if he's coming in with money to get his van and insurance 200k leaflets printed maybe drop 100k canvass with the rest Get some experience takes to it well can deal with the weather and various other issues. Is determined prepared to leaflet and canvass and generally probably put in 12 hours a day work and maybe another 2h at home preparing van and work for next day
So 6 hours canvassing 6 hours window cleaning
And weekends pure canvassing and leafleting
In a decent area I think it would be realistic for me to say provided he works hard 50ish turn over 40k profit is achievable but he would really need to be dedicated for his first year and I still think that will be very good  given all the man-hours involved in canvassing in marketing and everything else that would prevent him from physically Cleaning Windows full time for his first year

Don’t think he’s talking about 80k profit in his sales job. That’s probably his wage. After tax it’ll be a lot lower.

People don’t tend to only say there take home pay in the employed world. They just say what they earn salary wise.

So I’m guessing he means turning over 80k a year...

He’ll have a lot more expenses to come out of his £80k turnover (window cleaning) than he did his £80k salary.

[zesty]

Yeah your right deeege, I wasn’t being precise, just trying to work out if £80k is his wage, or take home pay, guessing the former... if the latter, then he needs to be turning over £130-140 odd k a year to make around 80k profit.

[Stoots]

If hes on 80k salary he would be better off using his very decent income to build a property portfolio and build an income that way.

[NWH]

Save yourself time in reading through all the other answers 😂,in short you can earn that yeah but hard hard work and the biggest most important thing is it takes years oh did I say years I meant years and years.
You would have had to have had years sorting wheat from Chaff wheat from chaff,2 people with the right work will easily earn that on decent work though.

[Crystal-clear]

Don’t think he’s talking about 80k profit in his sales job. That’s probably his wage. After tax it’ll be a lot lower.

People don’t tend to only say there take home pay in the employed world. They just say what they earn salary wise.

So I’m guessing he means turning over 80k a year...
[/quote]

It's the same concept £80,000 profit as self-employed for example is literally your gross so same as your salary £80,000 salary both figures will now be taxed based on your personal tax circumstances. So £54933 as PAYE £56020 as self employment.(just entered that in calculator)

If hes making 80k net after tax he'll need to be on £135k.And if you make £80k net running about in van alone you'll need 180k+ cos of vat n expenses
you'll prob have your tendons amputated before you tell the tale 

[Simon Trapani]

Waste of time this thread. Either way it aint gonna happen.

[Dry Clean]

Its a waste of time asking a nationwide forum what its possible to do and earn in this business, there are a hundred and one reasons why it varies from area to another and unless you have worked nationwide its not possible to give a sensible answer to this type of question.
There are also  one hundred and one reasons why window cleaning may not be for you and earnings would be way down on that list.

[NWH]

If you are starting from scratch to start off with earnings will be terrible could take months before you get to a grand a month,especially these days.