[tom2009]

i have no area manager breathing down my neck,

I still have targets to meet, but i dont get worried or threatened with the sack if i dont meet them.

Know that feeling! I've only just started but am enjoying it all, canvasing, cleaning, putting my ladder on the car! It's about being your own boss and not having to talk pooe with corporate ass kissers. Roll on the day, very soon, when I can be fully independent and a proud wc. Stigma? who gives a monkeys!

Tom

[Tosh]

Stigma? who gives a monkeys!

Yep!  If you feel ashamed of being a window cleaner, get over yourself!    Our jobs are what we do for a living, not who we are!

By the way, my best job was working in a police station in Northern Ireland as a squaddie.  I had a civilian 'company car', free fuel, wore civvy clothes and didn't really have much to do at all.  It was a bit like just being given a car and a wage to 'swan' around for two years.

So all I did was work out in the police gym, chase women, and drink beer!  Not all at the same time though.

My worst job was humping mail bags for Royal Mail for two days.  I couldn't hack that one.

[matt]

its not for me

i loved being a carpenter then builder and standing back and admiring a good job, job satisfaction was very high for me, its a cliché that no-one gets left behind in the battlefield, well i honestly lived by my saying " no job get left without is being as good as i could get " i built up a reputation with customers and fellow work mates of doing a top notch job, yes i would go missing often, i loved to skive and  know i was getting paid for having a breakfast / coffee or even a ice cream, but the job got done in the end

i like being my own boss ( so in that aspect WC'ing is good for me ) BUT i allways treated being employed the same, if i wanted a few hours off, i had a few hours off, it allways smacked of arrogance but i knew and any of my boss's knew i could walk into jobs with any of the local companies, so a job wasnt that important to me

dont get me wrong, its a nice job, but i struggle with the lack of satisfaction , a clean window is a clean window is a clean window

[Mike 108]

Matt

Why aren't you a self-employed carpenter, or builder, then? Why a widow cleaner? I am curious.

Mike

[Tosh]

Matt

Why aren't you a self-employed carpenter, or builder, then? Why a widow cleaner? I am curious.

Mike

Matt had both ears bitten off in a fight.  He had to change trades from carpenter to window cleaner because he had nowhere to put the pencil.

[ftp]

Hated the stigma but got over it, not that keen on the job any more due to the crappy weather and barmy customers. Love the easy money and enjoy the physical side of it.
Ask me again in the spring when the clocks have changed and the first rays of sunshine are back and I'll tell you it's the best job in the world!
But for now my motivation is at rock bottom and the thought of no money at all for the Christmas break doesn't exactly excite me.

[matt]

Matt

Why aren't you a self-employed carpenter, or builder, then? Why a widow cleaner? I am curious.

Mike

i was for years

when my eldest daughter was born, i packed in working for the MOD and was going to work for myself again, i had a number of jobs lined up, kitchens, 2 house full of new doors, a community hall refurb

a few weeks after i had started, my mother in law's partner ( who was / is a window cleaner ) was drunk and tried to skateboard down a path whilst we were at a BBQ , he broke his arm and leg, i was asked to help out ( and save his round ), so me being a nice guy put some of the work on hold and the few who couldnt wait i passed onto a old workmate,  he sat in the car whilst i cleaned his round, when i stopped for my break at 10.30 i thought this isnt bad, its stress free etc etc. a few weeks pass and we bump into a old WC'er cleaning on the same round, he comes up and says he is ( semi ) retiring and would i like to buy some of his round, at 1 X the clean i thought that will do for when i dont have any building work on, so i buy a little, a few weeks pass again and my mother in laws partner is back working a little, i have a date to start a kitchen and a house full of new doors ( see note below ) i bump into a lad from oz, he is moving back to oz and would i like to buy his work ( some very nice commercial and not bad domestics ) didnt really want it, but the guy had sold his house and needed some money to live on, so i said " aye ok, i will buy it " so from starting out to a over full round inside a few months, as it happens i then took on all the old guys work a little later   i never did get time to take on any more building work

note below

i was asked to price a house full of doors, i gave them a price and they said i was slightly too expensive, could i do it for less, i told them no, they got the cheaper guy to do it and he did a crap job ( 3 doors would even shut and 2 doors had massive gaps under them ), i was asked to make a oak kitchen cupboard door to cover a new boiler, they said asked me to fix the doors that the guy had messed up, i gave them the same price to hand them from new ( it was the same work ) they said i could do the oak kitchen job if i did the doors for free, it really pee'ed me off and i told them no, this was the final straw

i also found myself pricing up jobs in the evenings and not spending a evening with my daughter, these people would then try and haggle / change details of the work and i would have to go back out and see them, thus even less time with my daughter, i had enough of it

also, as i work 3 days a week and look after my oldest daughter first ( she is in school ) and not my youngest , i couldnt hardly stop a kitchen job on the wednesday and say " see you next monday ", so i thought that window cleaning worked well for me

[matt]

Matt

Why aren't you a self-employed carpenter, or builder, then? Why a widow cleaner? I am curious.

Mike

Matt had both ears bitten off in a fight.  He had to change trades from carpenter to window cleaner because he had nowhere to put the pencil.

 

[Sean Dyer]

For me it is. Being 21 I obviously havent really had any other job that I have been in long enough, So I dont have a lot to compair it too.

From a very young age I couldnt handle school. I was very intelligant and had a high IQ etc, But could not cope with being told and having to do as others wanted. I also found this to be the same when I tried collage and a few jobs.

I like the independence, the self motivation, the choice to do things how I wish and not as someone else does. The thing I really dislike is the way in which alot of people look down at you. Think that window cleaners are one level up from the dole, No matter how proffeaioal I try to make my business look.

But all in all in my little experiance it is for me. As things stand I dont see me doing anything else. I am trying to expand, Got a sign written van and a new Wfp set up. I see my mates on jobs they dont enjoy and see this is comfortable and works very well for me.

you sound like me pal

i did really well at school without really trying, not to be showing off ... i went to college and started a diploma in electronic engineering, a year in with all a's i left and started contract cleaning, i hated the stress of still being in that environment and felt trapped only to find work was the same

i started window cleaning and never looked back, i left briefly to work in sales, then did both at the same time till one had to give

thankfully the sales really hepled me in window cleaning

to be honest at present i cant think of anything id rather do (realistically) obviously beer testing or something would be good

but i love building my own business, earning more than most people i know on an hourly basis, and having no limits to what i can achieve when i put in the work

ive got a job to do tommorow - one hour £125!!

i found a wage slip earlier for 105 hours over a month a little over £400 ! did that in less than 2 days this week!!!

its a great job if you keep your focus right!!

[mci services]

i started when i was a teenager and hated it my dad was a window cleaner and handed me a set of wooden ladders as soon as i started asking for money, anyway i did it and when i was about 15/16 he offered me a job and i turned it down to take an apprenticeship for half the money. i then packed that in to go to london to be a cable jointers mate and made loads of money at the age of 17 but even then i used to clean windows for the local boozer in return for free drink. still hated window cleaning though. then i went back to scotland and did various jobs for next to no money and always spent holidays time on the brew doing the windows and still hated it, then i joined the army and for a short spell i did three months doing the royal guard at balmoral and i loved it, i did nothing but shoot deer, fish and get drunk but 15 years later i left the army and decided to retrain as a tiler, i had my first job doing a kitchen floor and it took 3 days to do what should have taken 1 day, and i phoned my brother borrowed a 3m ramsay double, and never looked back. it was so much easier to clean windows than anything else, i never really left window cleaning as i always did it when home on leave etc for my dad. but now i work for myself i love it

[Sean Dyer]

very true

i remember a mate of mine, he was alot older than me and was a friend of family, but he always said learn to window clean as you will always have work, he did it in germany as a kid and through the years fell back on it many times, i think thats part of the reason i gave it a shot but then i got married and had kid and found myself having to keep up a busy routine and having no room to start anything else, so till ive made my money with this, i am stuck and have to like it

[Ian Rochester]

My elder brother used to work for me for a time when he got made redundant, he's now moved to Shetland and is working as a carer, but he's also doing window cleaning in his spare time.

He's just been down here for a few days and nicked a load of gear off me to take back with him!!!!

I really enjoyed the job when I was working for myself, however now that we employ staff the enjoyment has gone out of it and I'm much more back to being a "manager" rather than "hand's on".  Went across to Holy Island yesterday with a couple of the lads and did a big clean for a customer, thoroughly enjoyed it!

 

[Londoner]

I started doing window cleaning when I was 18 with my mate Steve on a Saturday for the readies. Never thought I would end up all these years later doing it full time.

The truest words said on this thread so far, learn to clean windows and you will never be out of a job.

[geefree]

Hated the stigma but got over it, not that keen on the job any more due to the crappy weather and barmy customers. Love the easy money and enjoy the physical side of it.
Ask me again in the spring when the clocks have changed and the first rays of sunshine are back and I'll tell you it's the best job in the world!
But for now my motivation is at rock bottom and the thought of no money at all for the Christmas break doesn't exactly excite me.

dont you pay yourself holiday pay,

i have a seperate bank account , which i put a  little aside  per week... then i use it to cover sickness or holidays.

[Niall McAllister]

I used to be the assistant manager on a space station, man in the black suit, giving "use the force" all day , I was getting sick of it, anyway, nicked out for a coffee, manager son shows up (nobody even knew he had a son!!!) and launches a torpido down the main exhaust shoot. Blew the place and headed home.

The moral, you try getting a similar job with that on your C.V.  NOT GOING TO HAPPEN

so thought, give window cleaning a try.
Better hours, none of those Jedi mind ticks, much better experience

[wizard]

I have been very spoilt and luck I guess always been self employed in South Africa till 6 years back .We had a large home, 4 businesses many cars and holiday home. But the stress of all the crime and a sluggish economy got to me always in court for robberies to my businesses and just got fed up so came home to auk. I do have a good education and lots of business experience in South Africa. But our move to the U K was difficult as I we should have come back sooner. Could not find a good job in the U K as I had no history here and not been proud I down anything to earn money. Mates, people in these jobs were treated harshly and put under much stress to produce results. IMO the management of so many companies slave drive there staff so they can earn there bonuses. I was shocked. At the lack of skill of the lucky pears who called themselves managers. Demand was the name of the game. After 6 years I would do anything to work for myself and started w/c as I had no cash left in the kitty. My wife complained of not enough income and begged to find a job. But I will not work for a boss every again. I am still growing in my business, but my past is my past and all the crap jobs have brought me down to size. I will persevere and I will get back up to the top again. I am enjoying the challenge at this point. My years in business have helped me with many problems. I think the U K is a great place. Lots of opportunities still even in these times, if you can grow in these time, we can only do well when the economy improves.