[dai]

I class myself as your average plodding on shiner. Some of the earnings I read on here, Well I wish.
I do have compact work but not the best prices, that's my fault.
This is what I find, new builds tend to be younger customers. The estates are virtual ghost towns during the day, 70% of the houses being empty when I clean them.
Many of these have a car parked outside, I never know if they are in or not.
If I knock for the money I have to wait a reasonable amount of time to let the customers answer the door. Knocking when you start as opposed to when you finish would save time. I do think this is a bit cheeky though. It also gives them a chance to say "not this time". Even if you do this, you still have to stop in mid rinse to take the money off them, put your pole down, give change. All this takes up precious seconds.
If they are out, you have to call back, many younger customers don't do cheques any more.
I believe that Ian has got it about right where average earnings are concerned. Most  sole trading window cleaners will be making between £500 and £600 a week on average working five days.
When I was young and fit, I could work 6 hours flat out. This was doing hard, heavy work where the more I did the more I was paid. A job where I lost two stone in weight in spite of stuffing all the food I could eat.
Window cleaning is not the same, It's not that hard. The secret is remaining totally focused on a mundane job. Once you switch to auto pilot your losing speed. I can only remain that focused if I am timing each job with the watch.
Hats off to those of you that can. I'm happy to carry on plodding. Dai

[Ian_Giles]

Neil,
I'm not disputing earnings, I know of another local window cleaner on the forum who earns similar to yourself and is usually home and dry not long after lunch, and he does almost all domestic work too.
His work is all very well priced though.
Matty says his average semi is priced at £6.00 and that two guys whack out 60 of them day in, day out in just 6 hours, and that's the bit I struggle with.

They may well be doing that, and if they are I truly take my hat off to them, but if they are then they are exceptional, very, very few will ever be that fast.

I've had days where I've topped almost £600...whoopy-woo!, and I've had days where I've topped £200 on commercial and then gone on to top £200 on domestic...wish I could do that every day, but I can't.
Today for instance I'll be lucky to top much more than a ton (would help if I was out at work now and not  replying to a post on here! :)

Also, two people working together are not as efficient as two people working separately.

Time I got back to attempting to earn a living methinks

Ian

[matt]

i was the first to question the times

6 mins a house really eqates to about 4 mins per house in working time, that just does add up

i can "squirt and run" on my house, give them a quick brush with WFP up and down and it still takes longer than 4 mins

i dont doublt he earns that much, its just the times per house i have a issue with

we have seen people come on here and day they earn 5 K a week aswell

[Tosh]

With reference to the five-hundred-quid-a-day posts:

I honestly don't think we should talk about earnings on this forum.  I've not read all of the back posts, but I can understand why some members do a really good day; hit a new 'top day' and post about it, because I've done the same.

It's not the money; not really; it's the achievement of having hit that new mile-stone.

Personally, I'm happy to make enough in the first two weeks of each new month to cover all my living/working expenses; and I then cruise the next two weeks.  If I/We want a day-or-two-or-even-three off; we do and enjoy it.

We aren't rich in monetary terms, but we are given our quality of life and lack of stress that stems from work; and I can tell a few stories about stressful working conditions!

A guy local to me can make on his best day, what Wor Lass and I do on a 'slack week'.  But hey, he's been going 17 years longer than me; and I wouldn't have done some of those accounts 'pre-WFP'; but he did; so he deserves what he's earning; but I'm still happy what we turn-over.

I recently saw in a shop a sign advertising for workers "5.35 pounds per hour, rising to 5.50 per hour after three months" (does 15p an hour make a difference to some people's lives in the UK?).  One of my customers works there and I charge her 8.50 per month to clean her windows and it must take me 15 minutes!

I'm happy with what we charge and the amount of work we do.

[Ian_Giles]

Actually I feel almost humbled sometimes, I do the Spar shop where my missus works, I do their shop and a couple either side on tuesday mornings, I go in with my missus when she opens up the shop at 6.45am, by 7.15am I'm done and sipping a cup of tea made by one of the girls in Spar...I've done £30.50 and my wife hasn't even earned £3.00...and I find that humbling....

Like Tosh I'm mostly content to make £xxxx per week, I have certain targets I like to hit, but I'm not as ambitious as I once was...I'm pretty content actually!

Like Dai I'm quite happy to plod along...but I'm doing ok by and large, don't get me wrong mind, slow I'm not and my prices are not cheap, I like to be efficient at what I do (hence so many time and motion studies over the years).

I'm not so much burnt out as smouldering  fitfully 

Ian

[Paul Coleman]

On a normal day I never earn below £250 and thats going at a nice steady pace all day. All my work this week if the rain lets me get a full day in will net me over £300 a day.

I am a sole trader who earns over the £50,000.00 a year mark. I dont try to shoot people down just because they write down how fast they are or how much they earn. I dont view them or me as bragging, I take the view if they are as fast as they say they are then I can be as well, If that person is earning that much then I know I can earn that much as well. It should inspire us all to be more efficent or to run our w/c Buisness in a more Proficient way to maximise potentiol earnings. It should not bring out our negative side were we start to cast dispersions on a persons character due to our own shortcomings.

If a w/c posts on here that he earns 100k a year, I would give him a silent toast and say good for you, well done. It would not upset me in the slightest that someone earns more then me.

I was hoping to cut back my work next year to give me more free time but less earnings, But due to how expensive houseing as become I am going to work hard for a few more years to help my lads get on the houseing market.

Lets just be willing to give credit to someone who works hard and a little trust hey boys.

Nel. 

Good attitude Neil IMO.  I would rather see someone get on - even if they do better than me.  I feel that I'm a long way from attaining your type of income but mine has increased quite a bit this year and I can see that close to a grand a week average will be possible for me one day.  It's a matter of plugging away, pricingf well, ditch the dross.  Keep doing that enough times and one day I will be earning a lot more than I do currently.
I'm not going to reach the target I set myself for this accounting year but my attempt to reach it has meant that my turnover has gone up a lot.  There was a time that I would have seen myselfas a failure for not hitting my target but in reality, I'm reasonably pleased with my performance.  When I consider how much I'm turning over and that I take a fair bit of time off, I think I've done OK really.

[Paul Coleman]

i was the first to question the times

6 mins a house really eqates to about 4 mins per house in working time, that just does add up

i can "squirt and run" on my house, give them a quick brush with WFP up and down and it still takes longer than 4 mins

i dont doublt he earns that much, its just the times per house i have a issue with

we have seen people come on here and day they earn 5 K a week aswell

I can do some standard 3 bed semis (10 frames) in 6 minutes if the access is great and I just count the cleaning time (excluding preparation, putting stuff away and collecting).  I wouldn't fancy doing it hour after hour though.

[www.mrgutters.co.uk]

hi all

its good to see everyone is earning better money than a year or so ago, i too have increased my earnings i work 3 days a week and average days work is 250-300 one man all flats and houses on the days i do offices a bit more.

my best day to date was 566.00 last week tuesday on my own started at 10:00 and finished at 3:30

but i was shattered.


shawn

keep up those good prices boys.

[Ian_Giles]

I can do some standard 3 bed semis (10 frames) in 6 minutes if the access is great and I just count the cleaning time (excluding preparation, putting stuff away and collecting).  I wouldn't fancy doing it hour after hour though.

Same here shiner, but that is also WFP and not trad!
But houses vary too much, I have one bunch of houses in particular...8 of them, more or less next door to one another, 3 on one side of the road, 4 on the other and I can park the van in one spot and do the lot without having to move van.
The 3 on the one side are fairly identical houses, but the windows themselves vary as does access.
the other 4 are similar but different!...if you see what I mean, one is a little larger than it's neighbour, another has a large conservatory and georgian windows and the other also has an awkward conservatory but UPVC windows.
Worth £87 in total and done usually in about 2 maybe 2 & 1/2 hours.
so that is a potential earning rate of over £250 in 6 hours, which shows that I fully believe such things are possible.
The reality is that for the most part it doesn't work out to that at the end of the days work, other factors already mentioned creep into the equation.
But the work has to be well priced, to work trad and for one man to relentlessly bang out 5 semi's an hour for £6.00 a pop, day in and day out is I think mostly unachievable....but there was that guy sometime back on the forum that was working at that rate.
But then you stick a second guy into the mix and now you are doing 10 houses and hour, well, you might do that if you are working separately, but I don't think it is possible if you are working together, efficiency falls away.

Enough musing, I've a cricket match to cancel So a spit load of phone calls to make...sigh

Ian

[Londoner]

Exactly Ian !!

I can run 100 metres in 10 seconds but that doesn't mean I could keep that pace up over a marathon of 26 miles. The same applies to windows. We all saw that video of Peter F cleaning a whole house in about 12seconds a while back. It was very entertaining but what does it prove?  don't want to work that way

If there are valid ways of cutting out wasted time, like the tip about collecting money on the run, lets hear them. Its good info but in general, we all work out our own way of working and thats fine. Trying to rubbish another WC for taking his time and doing a good job is not on.

Cut the talk about earnings please guys. What you earn should be between you and your accountant. Putting numbers like that up on this forum creates the wrong impression to the gullable.

[shaunjames]

£494 for a days work up a cradle, 100 of that for fellow worker. Builders clean last week, 7.00am to 10:30am, £162, block of flats 11.00am to 12:30 £75, home for 1.00pm, that's why I work p/t.

[Paul Coleman]

I can do some standard 3 bed semis (10 frames) in 6 minutes if the access is great and I just count the cleaning time (excluding preparation, putting stuff away and collecting).  I wouldn't fancy doing it hour after hour though.

Same here shiner, but that is also WFP and not trad!
But houses vary too much, I have one bunch of houses in particular...8 of them, more or less next door to one another, 3 on one side of the road, 4 on the other and I can park the van in one spot and do the lot without having to move van.
The 3 on the one side are fairly identical houses, but the windows themselves vary as does access.
the other 4 are similar but different!...if you see what I mean, one is a little larger than it's neighbour, another has a large conservatory and georgian windows and the other also has an awkward conservatory but UPVC windows.
Worth £87 in total and done usually in about 2 maybe 2 & 1/2 hours.
so that is a potential earning rate of over £250 in 6 hours, which shows that I fully believe such things are possible.
The reality is that for the most part it doesn't work out to that at the end of the days work, other factors already mentioned creep into the equation.
But the work has to be well priced, to work trad and for one man to relentlessly bang out 5 semi's an hour for £6.00 a pop, day in and day out is I think mostly unachievable....but there was that guy sometime back on the forum that was working at that rate.
But then you stick a second guy into the mix and now you are doing 10 houses and hour, well, you might do that if you are working separately, but I don't think it is possible if you are working together, efficiency falls away.

Enough musing, I've a cricket match to cancel So a spit load of phone calls to make...sigh

Ian

I doubt I would have achieved those speeds trad.  Maytbe over one or two houses if I had really gone for it but not hour after hour.  Apart from that, working at that speed trad can make it easier to make a mistake on a ladder - especially as you tire.  So even if I could sustain such a speed, I would probably choose not to - at least for upper windows.
There was a guy on the forum who was achieving such a speed some while back.  I went up to visit him in the Summer of '05 and learned some tips about faster trad cleaning - then went for WFP several months later.  Wish I had bumped into him years ago.  He certainly was a flier and the work was of a reasonable standard too.  I didn't adopt everything he showed me as I would have felt unsafe with some of it but I certainly saw enough to speed me up a lot.

[* mike RH]

Matty Wig,

I believe you mate,

10 of those new biuld houses for two cleaners is only 5 houses each and there is nothing to those poky new builds. On a compact round you could easily clean 5 houses each an hour.

That's 10 mins a house each allowing for moving between houses.

2 climbs at the front, 2 at the back.......what's so difficult to believe?

Credit to you matty! Especially being in North East where we are led to believe you have no choice but to charge £3 a house...(Rubbish!)

I agree with what Neil100 said.

[neil100]

I have read some other topics today and I read one from Mattywig.

He says on a separate topic that hes 18stone in weight.

Now I have posted on this topic that I give him the benefit of the doubt. BUT I have to admit I do not know if hes making statements for goading fellow memmbers into a reaction.

I belive some w/c can work at a blindingly fast speed. You have to be Relatively Fit and not overweight to be that good. I am 6' tall, very stocky and weigh 14 stone. But at my lightning best I was 12 stone 5lb and 20 years younger.

I find it hard to belive if your 18 stone that you are going to keep a fast speed up for 6 hours. But Miracles happen.

Nel.

[mattywig]

Sorry I havent commented for a couple of days my wife is pregnant and overdue and its been hard to get a chance to get online!!!  Id be glad for Ian to come for a cheeky day on the glass if he can find the time but I might just settle for finding other members who know me to vouch for me.  Im brand new on this site but think its a big asset to be able to compare notes with everyone and havent been put off!  Ive told complete truth but think its worth mentioning that whatever we all earn it has to be agreed that window cleaning beats the hell out of working 50 hours a week for a company for your 25 grand a year!!! Im a qualified acountant and I know I'l never go back to it we have got the best job in the world!!!! 

[groundhog]

25 grand for a qualified accountant? my sister is an accountant and she tops 60grand! and gets a company car! Potentially I could earn that as a wc, but it is hard to be motivated to keep going day in day out.

[Highrise]

How come its taken you all these years to do a £200 + day, I not being funny but you should off been doing that years ago...

[dai]

Highrise, your location is hidden, and location is very important in this game.
Believe me, there are many guys on here struggling to make £100 a day.
I am far too soft with pricing, and I am a better window cleaner than I am a business man. Does that answer your question. Dai

[matt]

aye, come on dai, join the 5 K a week gang, you know you want to 

[matt]

Highrise, your location is hidden, and location is very important in this game.
Believe me, there are many guys on here struggling to make £100 a day.
I am far too soft with pricing, and I am a better window cleaner than I am a business man. Does that answer your question. Dai

looking at his other post, its Bristol,