Window Cleaning

[Steve Swinney]

Any money in it doing private work would invest in a pole fed system

 

[Trevor Ives]

Like everything else it depends on how much effort you put into marketing. A few years ago I set someone up and helped with leafleting, both stuffing and calling if we thought someone was at home.
We did it ourselves to select what areas we covered.
In two months of operation we had nearly 200 customers. I think that was exceptional but shows what can be done.
He was making good money but disappeared with the gear- he had paid me back most of it.

 

[Steve Swinney]

Just looking @ add ons Trevor,maybe gutter cleaning also

 

[Katy Radcliffe]

How do you guys deal with territorial competition? Are you allowed to just go hustle up some customers, or do you need to check and make sure there isn't already someone working that area?

Where I used to live in Scotland, we had a really bad window cleaner. A window cleaner in another part of the town told me that there wasn't anything I could do because that was his area and nobody else would go there.

 

[Trevor Ives]

Some windies think they own a district. They only have customers and cannot stop anyone else coming on 'their' patch- unless they are 6ft 10 and built like it as well.

We had some opposition but most of our customers had not got anyone covering their area anyway.
Nearly all new well off estates. Easy pickings.

 

[Steve Swinney]

The Customer says who does what not some thug

 

[Ian Harman]

We operate a window cleaning (and a gutter cleaning) division alongside carpet cleaning. Pros and Cons are: Everybody thinks they can be a window cleaner, Domestic customers can be finicky "I don't want them cleaned this time", If you don't have groups of customers near to each other you waste time packing up and travelling between jobs, You will be subject to stupid pricing from competitiors. On the up side you have a degree of flexibility as to when you do the work (few days either way) its handy to dovetail it with your other work filling gaps in your schedule. If the customer pays cash it may be a benefit to you (not many domestic customers expect a receipt).

Our preference is to target large domestic jobs, blocks of flats, schools and commercials. Decent chunks of work, the commercials are not that fussed about the weather and the larger jobs give us an advantage in as much that we can utilise our equipment (long reach carbon fibre poles - 70ft) that many smaller window cleaners don't have or can't afford.

Good luck

 

[Joe Hatton]

I would be looking at going out of town to the quieter country areas. Bigger houses, probably no one doing them cause they so far out, you need to charge a premium because of that but my friend did it years ago and found a niche market. Gutter cleaning and repair would follow.

 

[Kevin Loomes]

Funnily enough my youngest may well be starting out at window cleaning - looking to branch out in to other services eventually. Nothing to do with me, and I wish him luck (of course I will help him as much as possible). He will soon be looking for used equipment - now there's a minefield!

 

[Ian Harman]

If you want any info Kev we've been at this for a number of years and may be able to suggest what to go for and what to avoid!

 

[Kevin Loomes]

Thanks Ian, it probably wont be for another few weeks but I'll let him know you offered, and he may well give you a buzz.Thanks mate

 

[Daniel Darlow]

Colleague in our network group has added 'Guttervax' to his professional window cleaning operation, and now over the last 3 months has added 50% of his turnover to this. something to do with the time of year, and c..p weather?

 

[Steve Swinney]

If you want any info Kev we've been at this for a number of years and may be able to suggest what to go for and what to avoid!

Is it a secret or can you share this info with a makem

 

[Ian Harman]

Hi Steve, it's no secret but what you go for in terms of how you "purify" the water may be affected by where you live and the choice of poles may be affected by what market you want to aim at. There are various models of gutter vacs out there and again it depends on what you want to do. Probably plenty of used fibreglass and hybrid poles out there but use them all day and you may ache - depending on your build.

 

[Trevor Ives]

We were one of Gardiners first customers- they have developed a lot since then. Service like Solutions - brilliant- must be a Cornish thing. I met him in a carpark before he had started selling stuff, pure chance I saw the tank in his van and him doing windows.

 

[Steve Swinney]

Hi Steve, it's no secret but what you go for in terms of how you "purify" the water may be affected by where you live and the choice of poles may be affected by what market you want to aim at. There are various models of gutter vacs out there and again it depends on what you want to do. Probably plenty of used fibreglass and hybrid poles out there but use them all day and you may ache - depending on your build.

im chunky

 

[Steve Allan]

There's a good forum for a DIY set up. If you google DIY waterfed pole and go to there forum it has full Instructions, it's pretty good, I use the pump box for rinsing when cleaning ovens cost me next to nothing to make.

 

[daniel crouch]

Bulk of our contracts are commercial windows , have had domestic rounds and sold them too ! If I were to chose between adding domestics on to a business or gutter cleaning I'd hit the gutters it's not as seasonal as people think if you target commercial as well as domestic . Domestic rounds can be fantastic but like carpets can take a long time to sort out the crap customers from the good long standing ones you want - gutter cleanings a easy sell to both domestics and commercial as its essential to maintain the buildings for insurance cover .

 

[Pawel Pierzchala]

how much you charge for gutter cleaning?

 

[daniel crouch]

For domestic ? 3 bed semi no less than 60 -70 plus vat and add on extra / upswell upvc gutters cleaning and fascia to at least double that . Commercial - ? Hundreds to thousands depends on size of the site - personally biggest tickets we've had have been large factories , biggest one 6k plus vat , took some cleaning ! Never under charge an essential service .