[DJC Clean]

£ 200 a day nice one Dai. I`ve been window cleaning now for 1.5 years and if i`m honest i still can`t beleive how much money can be made by polishing glass. And  i sometimes feel like a crook for asking the kinda rates i do.
I live in Yorkshire and have a reasonably small round 100`s of houses and the average price bout £ 7.00. I`m  young and don`t stop in my workin day 10.00 - 3.00 and comfortably make £ 100 a day cleaning 3-4 an hour.
what amazes me is that i can earn much more than friends of mine who are plasters etc and spent years doing an apprenticeship !!!! and still finish to pick my lad up from school and have a couple of hours sat in the garden playin me guitar. 
Window cleaning is a part time gig for me but i`m convinced with sum time and effort sums well over £250 can be made.

but at the end of the day there not many job out there that gives such flexible earning powers. You can earn what u want within reason as long as your prepared to but in the effort!

I just want 2 add that all my work is done traditional but is fairly compact

[mark dew]

Is the longest serious post on ciu?? 
Came into wc on the strength of a factory job on a fiver per hour.
I remember after 6 months of starting window cleaning was pushing a tenner on hour on most hours worked. I was well chuffed.
Then people on here were saying trad should be taking in £20 per hour worked.
I pushed on and looked up tips on detailing etc and got to the point where i was earning £15 for every hour worked. I got wfp on the strength of peoples posts on here and my hourly has almost doubled across the board.
I for one am thankful that people are posting what i considered serious sums of money to be had.
I would have been happy with £15 per hour and would have got there eventually on my own, but the forums sped that process up considerably.
Still, being a typical brit, there is a little part of me that resents other people's good fortune. But hey, if it weren't for them i would have been grafting twice the time for the same money and been happy with it.
Keep these posts coming. I'm inspired. Love the humour too...

ps Well done dai.

[KarlJones]

First off,  Dai, you are an inspiration in many ways dude.

[quote = Tosh]
I could tell you loads of funny stories myself; I worked with the 14 Int for a good while; some of the stuff I heard there was quite unbelieveable.

But the lads in Iraq and Afganistan make all the above look like a daft NAAFI bar punch up in the 'Traff'!

Your not wrong at all mate.  I was in and out of the army after I got cold feet and it was either get out at 3 months or stay in for a min of 3 years.  I loved it, and used to hate the fact the woman I married would not let me back in.  Then two years ago on remembrance day it suddenly hit me that the lads that stayed in had probably been through hell and, the thought of me saying things in my head like "i wish i had stayed in" was no where near the reality.

I got off damn lucky.

[neil100]

I still cant believe w/c have digs on this forum at others who earn a top wage as a w/c.

They then throw remarks in thats their more to life then money.

They think anyone working hard is a slave to the making of money.

If any one is earning £200+ per day, then they are totally obsessed with Money.

If they post that they earn £300+ per day then their lives have no meaning, they are selling their humanity to Consumerism. Plus they use this forum to brag and belittle those who earn less.

WHAT UTTER HOGWASH

I have been a grafter all my life, I have done a varity of jobs, some working 60 hrs a week because thats what the job demmanded and all for peanuts.

I graft at w/c and I earn more in a day then what I used to earn all week when working for someone else. I have posted what I earn to open up other members eyes on this forum as to what they should be earning. I dont tell poryks, and how can I be bragging, nobody on this web site knows what I look like. So what possible benifts could so called bragging do for me?

If you price up your work right, £30 an hour,An 8 hour day will gross you £240. Not hard with wfp.

The beauty of w/c is you can earn £500 in 2 days work and do what you want for the rest of the week, Many of my freinds work part time at w/c earning £500 to £600. They do other things with their time that they see as more important.

I can earn more then 1k a week, But thats nothing compared with what some of my customers earn. If your happy earning what your earning good for you. I never covet what another person earns, its not even on my radar. I dont walk around telling everyone what I earn.

But on a topic of earnings my personal opinion with nearly 30 yrs experince as a high quality w/c is that if your not earning £200 a day then your selling yourself short. If your earning £100 a day then its not enough, talk with someone who is running a w/c round and earning a good whack to show you where you can make improvements. This is not a put down in any way to someone earning alow wage.

Your self employed so do it the right way, and lets have less of the snardy remarks for someone earning a good wage.

Nel

[Clear Vision]

I agree with everything you say exept one thing

 

If you price up your work right, £30 an hour,An 8 hour day will gross you £240. Not hard with wfp.



Nel

Travel between jobs & tea breaks, lunch etc and a quick blether to a customer.

If anyone can work 8 hours a day at £30 per hour then I take my hat off to you.

[TDW]

I have a £700 day. 5 office blocks. I'm not boasting. Its a fact.
£220(2 hours)
£130(1.5 hours)
£120(1.5 hours)
£120(1.5 hours)
£80(45 mins)
and a £30(20 mins) house just to make it up to £700.

I'm not fit and 7 hours for me and I'm finished. But if I were fit in my early twentys and could work a 11 hour day I have the work to hit the £1000 mark for a day.

[Paul Coleman]

I still cant believe w/c have digs on this forum at others who earn a top wage as a w/c.

They then throw remarks in thats their more to life then money.

They think anyone working hard is a slave to the making of money.

If any one is earning £200+ per day, then they are totally obsessed with Money.

If they post that they earn £300+ per day then their lives have no meaning, they are selling their humanity to Consumerism. Plus they use this forum to brag and belittle those who earn less.

WHAT UTTER HOGWASH

I have been a grafter all my life, I have done a varity of jobs, some working 60 hrs a week because thats what the job demmanded and all for peanuts.

I graft at w/c and I earn more in a day then what I used to earn all week when working for someone else. I have posted what I earn to open up other members eyes on this forum as to what they should be earning. I dont tell poryks, and how can I be bragging, nobody on this web site knows what I look like. So what possible benifts could so called bragging do for me?

If you price up your work right, £30 an hour,An 8 hour day will gross you £240. Not hard with wfp.

The beauty of w/c is you can earn £500 in 2 days work and do what you want for the rest of the week, Many of my freinds work part time at w/c earning £500 to £600. They do other things with their time that they see as more important.

I can earn more then 1k a week, But thats nothing compared with what some of my customers earn. If your happy earning what your earning good for you. I never covet what another person earns, its not even on my radar. I dont walk around telling everyone what I earn.

But on a topic of earnings my personal opinion with nearly 30 yrs experince as a high quality w/c is that if your not earning £200 a day then your selling yourself short. If your earning £100 a day then its not enough, talk with someone who is running a w/c round and earning a good whack to show you where you can make improvements. This is not a put down in any way to someone earning alow wage.

Your self employed so do it the right way, and lets have less of the snardy remarks for someone earning a good wage.

Nel

I say that I intend to hit £200+ a day very regularly within a year.  I intend to get £300 sometimes if it's possible.  I also say that there is more to life than money.  I don't see a conflict myself.  For me the only problem would arise if I was damaging myself physically from overwork or become so focussed on work that I lost sight of some of the joys of life.
I agree with you that I have been selling myself short for far too long.
Money only has any meaningful value if things exist on which to spend it.

[NWH]

I agree with Neil on everything he put in his post,what you said about earnings is spot on.The amounts that you say can be acheived are correct in my experience,those amounts should be able to be done over an 6-8 hour period without running all day just going at a reasonable pace.The idea is to have another wc working for you out earning the same amount over the course of the day,correct pricing and volume of work this is not beyond any wc.Some wcs are happy having time off to do other things and some wcs are actually in this business to make a good living believe it or not.

[KarlJones]

I would like to comment on a few phrases that have come up.

If any one is earning £200+ per day, then they are totally obsessed with Money.
If your earning £100 a day then its not enough.
if your not earning £200 a day then your selling yourself short.

I do not believe any of those statements are true.
If you earn £200+ a day then your very good at running a business and highly motivated, that motivation might not be money.
If your happy earning £50 a day thats fine, if it is what you want and you are happy.
You are not selling yourself short if your happy with what your doing.

Lets be honest, if you want to go out and clean a few windows while the kids are at school and to add to the family income thats fine.  If you want to build a big business that you can give to your children then thats fine too.

This business is what YOU make it,  it is part of your life, how big a part? well thats up to you.  No doubt someone earned a lot of money today, I went swimming with my kids, both of us got what we wanted.

[Davew]

More to life than money................. this was a statement I made to Dai considering his circumstances merely pointing out that sometimes money is not everything. I would suggest that looking at the replies and possibly boasts on here that the majority haven't reached that point in their lives to realise this. I've been there and done that. I've worked sixteen hour shifts I've worked thirteen and three quarter hours on a friday night and been back in for six more on Saturday believe me I know how money can drive you. Like I said, when you witness a terminal illness or lose someone it jolts you into perspective. Just looking at the number of threads and their tones it's fairly obvious how driven we are by money. It's a culture we have in this country where x amount is never enough.

[steve k]

you could even do both

[Paul Coleman]

you could even do both

Pretty much my own views.

[Sir Squeaky]

Neil, come on, you are obsessed with this job. 

£200, £300... great, but some of us don't want to work 8 hour days.
I don't know any window cleaners who do.

I start at 9, finish at 3 or 4, and have an hour lunch.
That's plenty long enough, and that's only 5 or 6 hours.

Why the pride in being a "grafter"?
All it means is that in later life you'll be a physical wreck.
Take it easy and get yourself some hobbies or something.

Sorry if this sounds patronising, it isn't meant to be.
I respect what you've acheived, but high earnings don't impress me when it means you're slogging away long hours while I play golf after my 25 hour week.

More to life than work...

[steve k]

well, I`m 40 in August and can assure you Dave, I have experienced and witnessed, hands on and face to face, premature death both strangers and relatives...I have also watched my dad, and still do, getting up at dark o`clock to get to the building site and he is 60 in August...I had a very limited relationship with my dad due to his long hours and working abroad for several years...I have chosen to find a PRICING STRUCTURE where I can achieve what I need in the minimal amount of time...leaving me to enjoy my life as fully as possible...its not greed or I would be out all day, 6 days a week and I would be wealthy...what Dai done is a physically exhausting and long term physically harmful...

Its certainly unfortunate to be in a position such as Dais, where he has to slave from early morn till evening to be able to afford a camping trip at 64 years of age...that is a realistic, non-sentimental viewpoint of course.
I still hope he had a great time camping...

[Davew]

Spot on Steve, Dai knows his pricing is a little low -  he admits that. I just find it incredible that some jump in with all guns blazing bragging about their earnings on an open forum for all to see - why? Dai didn't mean to brag I'm sure, just pleased to have had a good day. I wonder if there are other trades with open forums where the public can view everyones "amazing earnings" :

[neil100]

Squeaks, Why the pride in being a grafter?

Its the way I was brought up. I do anything to the best of my abilty. I also had a very poor upbringing. beans on toast for your main meal of the day does not cut it.

Walking to school,My legs Blue with cold after A four mile walk on a freezing winter morning in my shorts because my mum could not afford to buy me a pair of long pants at the tender age of thirteen.

yes I had a poor upbringing. Because I have been a Grafter my wife has never had to work, Shes had been able to spend a lot of time with the kids. I have allways sat down and eaten my evening meal around a table with my family. My kids have never wanted for anything and I have helped my Brother and sister out when they have struggled Financially.

I dont work Saturdays and I dont work in the rain. So its very rare I work a five day week. But I do be beleive in making the money when its dry, If it rains 4 days out of five days in a week, I dont worry if I can pay the bills because I have the money in the bank when the weather was good. Its called forward planning.

I am 49 yrs old and Have allways been in to sport.I have stopped playing football but  I still run, cycle, swim, Fellwalk, I am an avid movie fan, I have spent many years being a swimming coach, I play video games, read, watch tv, and have a big intrest in motor sport.And DIY.

But one thing I think is true, The less time you have the more things you can do, The more time you have the more time you waste.

I know many lads who start at 9am or 10am and are home at 3pm or shortly after.But they never do anything else.

When my lads were small I had them Bivibagging on the top of mountains like Helvelyn and Scarfell. On adventure hols.

Dont mistake my Grafting for not having any hobbies. I do beleive you should earn the money on windows while your younger as its easier to do. Within 4 years I will be cutting my work down by at least half at what it is at present.

I have saved for my retirement, But when I cut down I have no intention of going back to work 5 days a week. It gets harder as you get older, its nice to think I have the choice because of my grafting in the past and present.

Nel

[Stuart Webster]

I've not posted for some time, I deleted my account on the basis that it was taking up time I could ill afford.

I've read this thread with some interest. Over the past few years I’ve been on this forum this type of thread has resurfaced on a regular basis.

Some use forums as a means of dropping their trousers and showing the world what big assets they have.

Others post on the basis that they really feel they have achieved something, only to get the aforementioned posters dropping them again.

The problem is that we all have differing circumstances. Some on here need to be available to take the kids to school and pick them up again after school, some simply choose to do so.

Some have very ill family members that they need to care for and are unable to do 9 hours a day 6 days a week, some choose not to work those hours.

Others are scarred individuals who see it as an achievement to get up in a morning go to work and manage to put in 5-6 hours before they return home to an empty house thanking their lucky stars that for another day the “black dog” of depression has not returned.
Many i’m sure have no other worries than simply getting up in a morning thanking the wife for their pack-up and arriving home with dinner on the table. Half an hour playing with the kids and the evening’s their’s. Come the end of the week, they drop the wife £200 bank the rest and go to the pub. (These tend to be trouser droppers!)

Sadly for many of us life is not so simple.

[steve k]

there is of course a whole new level...

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=39089.0

thats for sub contract work...£500 a day!!!

Dont even mention jetwashing rates of income...

[Ian_Giles]

Then people on here were saying trad should be taking in £20 per hour worked.

I have often struggled to find a way of equating wages or turnover in a realistic way, the way that Mark has put it, ie, '£20 per hour worked' is a fantastic way of putting it.

I don't think there is a specific figure, we all have differing expectations.

Squeaks is right when he says few window cleaners actually WORK more than 5 or 6 hours a day.
You can take out holidays and working days lost through no fault of your own, so I think that in any 12 months, if we allow that most will take off bank holidays and perhaps another 2 weeks annual leave and a few extra days at Christmas, and another 10 days (at least) will be lost as a result of bad weather and so on.
So 6 weeks or so can be lopped off the 52 weeks in the year.

As by and large, most window cleaners will - as Squeaks points out - only work 5 or 6 hours a day.....how much due you think you need to be turning over per HOUR WORKED to have a 'BUSINESS TURNOVER' of....say £25,000 per year?

Well you need to average (per working week) £550 or so.

Doesn't sound particularly excessive does it?

And neither does doing £22 per hour worked to achieve that figure.

I think that a business turnover of 25k is a reasonable target to at least aim for, that is going to return you an approximate wage of about 18 or 19k.

The problem with a newbie coming in to window cleaning, and going straight to WFP is that as a result of being far quicker than trad, they are not going to average 3 semi's an hour (as an example) they are going to be doing 4 an hour and as a result will be correspondingly cheaper

Learning a pricing structure that can allow you to earn a decent wage is of course the key, but at least having an idea of what you need to be turning over per hour worked to achieve whatever income you wish to earn is a good place to start.

And also of course for those of us who have years of experience it is usual to understand the same thing, as it can be an indicator of where we might be able to improve our business.

Ian

[Clive McDonald]

Strange you should make reference to Churchill Bear. After a very full life he became Prime minister at the age of 65 in May 1940. Two days later Germany invaded France.

You never know what life is going to throw at you or when. Coming back on the forum could be your lucky break. The best cure for depression is exercise.A sence of purpose in life is also a great thing.

This thread,(1st £200day) or one similar may have been done before, and there has been an element of I took £220 at the traffic lights, but there have also been many very brilliant and passionate and funny posts. There have also been many philisopical posts about the value and possible meaning of our lives.

I have been left buzzing by some of the possibilties opened up to me by some of the comments, and some of these only came about through the robust debate which at times has included name calling etc. For me it was well worth it.