Anyone ever have a Window Washing business before?

I've been thinking about starting my own window washing business.
It's low start up cost, easy work, and I think I can make a good amount of $$ just from cleaning all the store fronts around my city.

Anyone ever do this before?

shit, I thought at least someone did this before,,, lol

seems like a perfect business for tokers

yeah but the ones i know have rigging and clean tall buildings most one stories have an employee do it

yeah,
im just looking into doing business with small offices, like real estate, clothing stores, banks, insurance offices,,,

Places where people dont do dirty work, and have a budget. lol

This city is covered in business like that. I see guys doing this in other boroughs, but not mine. So I think I will try to tap into it.

Im just not sure about pricing and estimating jobs.

I'd like to be cheap enough to get repeat business, and also make it worth my while...

Maybe like $15 a cleaning, for 5 minutes of work. (front display windows, front & back of entrance door)

Set an initial goal for 20 monthly customers in the same neighborhood...
20 X 5min = 100minutes.

So including traveling, about 2 hours of work for $300 (If a laborer is hired then subtract $50)

Second goal is to gain similar customers in other busy neighborhoods, and see where it goes from there...

You definitely have a good idea. How do you get the word out re: your services?? Especially at the beginning. Do you just leave flyers at the front door? Email these businesses? Maybe a good idea would be to go in and introduce yourself personally. Give a good handshake, make solid eye contact, and smile. You can use the fact that you're a small startup business to your advantage. They should hire you because you're from the neighborhood. They can trust you.

Again, good luck.

ArrOgNt RocKstAR said:

I've been thinking about starting my own window washing business.
It's low start up cost, easy work, and I think I can make a good amount of $$ just from cleaning all the store fronts around my city.

Anyone ever do this before?

Click to expand...

Good for you for making a go at something. I hope it works out for you.

SilkySmoke said:

You definitely have a good idea. How do you get the word out re: your services?? Especially at the beginning. Do you just leave flyers at the front door? Email these businesses? Maybe a good idea would be to go in and introduce yourself personally. Give a good handshake, make solid eye contact, and smile. You can use the fact that you're a small startup business to your advantage. They should hire you because you're from the neighborhood. They can trust you.

Again, good luck.

Click to expand...

Yes, a few hundred flyers/business cards and some hand shakes/smiles is exactly what I was thinking.

Maybe even an ad in the local paper.

Just need a catchy name...

Thanks for the luck!

Start off taking twice as long at cleaning so the customer is awed at your work. Next he will tell others....word of mouth goes a long way in the window cleaning business. My brother-in-law was self employed doing that and found that it is better than printed advertising.

Airwave said:

Good for you for making a go at something. I hope it works out for you.

Click to expand...

Thanks man,,, a few people in my life think im wacked for wanting to start a business like this.

Probably because im just finishing my degree in the HVAC engineering feild, and they think thats what I should be doing.

But that field comes with soo much over head, and you have to spend years working for someone else to get some confidence to go on your own.

A lot of people dont seem to understand for an unemployed college student, money is hard to come by.

So trying this cant hurt, at worst I lose a few hundred dollars investment.

Its way better then going to work for some asshole that wants to pay slave wages for slave labor.

I always thought to myself,,, Man if I worked as hard as I do for myself instead of for someone else I would be wealthy.
Let see if thats true

patlpp said:

Start off taking twice as long at cleaning so the customer is awed at your work. Next he will tell others....word of mouth goes a long way in the window cleaning business. My brother-in-law was self employed doing that and found that it is better than printed advertising.

Click to expand...

Good idea, i will keep that in mind

patlpp said:

Start off taking twice as long at cleaning so the customer is awed at your work. Next he will tell others....word of mouth goes a long way in the window cleaning business. My brother-in-law was self employed doing that and found that it is better than printed advertising.

Click to expand...

Good advice , word of mouth works both ways though for good word or bad.If ya start out spending say 10 full minutes doing windows initially and a few months down the line its 4 minutes a customer might think hes being gipped somehow , regardless of how the window looks.But you are absolutely spot on correct that word of mouth is the best form of advertising.
Id start out doing the best job i could and keep it that way.Forget how long it takes.Good service is expected,its a customers right,a poor service isnt easily forgotten.Do a straight up job man,youll flourish.

ArrOgNt RocKstAR said:

shit, I thought at least someone did this before,,, lol

Click to expand...

Nope, sorry i don't do windows.....JR

ArrOgNt RocKstAR said:

Thanks man,,, a few people in my life think im wacked for wanting to start a business like this.

Probably because im just finishing my degree in the HVAC engineering feild, and they think thats what I should be doing.

But that field comes with soo much over head, and you have to spend years working for someone else to get some confidence to go on your own.

A lot of people dont seem to understand for an unemployed college student, money is hard to come by.

So trying this cant hurt, at worst I lose a few hundred dollars investment.

Its way better then going to work for some asshole that wants to pay slave wages for slave labor.

I always thought to myself,,, Man if I worked as hard as I do for myself instead of for someone else I would be wealthy.
Let see if thats true

Click to expand...

yeah my whole family in hvac theres good money in it thou my brother makes like 60-80 thousand a year that aint to bad for a guy who drinks vodka why he works lol

I have quite a few years of experience and still do it PT. I can tell u you need to do a lot more research before u can be considered competetive. Its really not easy work, not by any means the worst, but when ur percariously perched 40 ft above a 100,000 dollar stingray trying to stretch across to get that smudge in the corner and u got a spider in ur face and a bird randomly diving u cause ur too close to its nest u may find urself seriously evaluating ur current professional endevour. Not trying to discourage you but ur competitors are using 200gal resevoirs of treated water in a van with 1000's of feet of hose for the pressure guns, extension poles 5-30 ft to reach awkward jobs a little safer, t-bars and a lot of mops, extension poles for them as well 5-30 ft, 40ft 4star ladder minimum, you'll likely need at least one person to help, especially if ur gonna do interior and exterior, what about building wash's, ur competitors will be doing em for sure. If u expect to do any of these in a timely enough manner to make a profit whithout comprimising quality you'll definetly need a helper, can u afford to pay and hourly wage, licenses, insurance, on business and vehicle, until you establish a strong clientel and a dependable residual income? not to mention something that can get u and all this from A-B. Water weighs 8.5lbs/gal, 200 gallon resevoir, gas in the van plus the pressure washer and gas can in the pressure wash, you, all the equipment. Its gotta be able to pull a little weight dependably. What if you or worse ur help takes a 2 story header? Or even just doesn't inspect a window before hitting with the pressure washer and breaks it, can u afford these setbacks as well? It may seem far fetched but I saw most of this shit in my first 3 months lol. Again I don't wanna discourage you, but its harder work than it seems, especially alone, and its gonna cost more than you think if you want to do it properly, sure u could handwash all day but ull be toppin 2 jobs a day, at about 100 dollar avg. Per house ( at least here, inside and out, tracks screens and a 3 star. Hydrophobic coating) that's 200 a day, which by no means is bad, but u may only get 1-3 jobs a month for a while, unless u have a huge ad budget and a lot of well off friends. Whereas where I'm at now he made a huge investment in new equipment we can now do 10-15 jobs a day at the same avg. Price and the treated water+ pressure washer made the results 10X better thans traditional handwashing. So word of mouth took off. Given this company has been around for 30 years so they've had the time to establish a solid clientel and many things they do to keep and encourage customers. I honestly can't tell u as I signed a waiver at hire :/ lol. But if all that is an actual possibility for u, I say go for it and u should do well. I just thought this was neccesarry cause no one is really gonna take you seriously if they say "hey I'd like to get a quote on my windows" u get there and go "oh, sorry I wouldn't feel comfortable working above ground level.hope I didn't sound like a dick there

nah ya didnt come off as a dick,

Those are some valid points, and experiences. Im just looking for a certain clientèle, with a work load that i can handle, and make a little cash to pay some bills till im out of school.

squeegee, ladder, 10 gallons of solution and a van lol

I dont really have any expectations, just have to try and market my self to jobs I can handle.
Most places around NYC are large apartment buildings with many store front businesses on the ground floor. The competition here does have lots of equipment and overhead, but they also charge a minimum of $65 plus tax.
So non of the small store fronts hire them, because $65 is too much for 10'x10' of glass.
I see many pizza places, and places like that just leave their windows dirty.
I will cater to them with fast, inexpensive, clean work. No homes, or Large complex buildings.
I just want to keep it as simple as I can, if I have to refuse a job maybe I will, or maybe I can subcontract it.

So with minimal investment, I cant expect huge results.
But in my mind its like setting up a SCROG grow with CFL lights lol
Small but efficient

cud use washing windows as a front for cleaning your extra income

can you make a buck washing windows,hell yeah,I know this dude that was living out of his car he slept at a local lake that everybody partys at and was down on his luck from a bad divorse so he thought that the answer was in the bottom of a bottle of booze well a couple hundred bottles later and in the hospital damn near dead he had you same idea,most of the buildings around here are not more than 1 story high.basicly a ground floor store front and apartments above that so a bucket and a few other things was all he needed to get started.I loaned him a hundred bucks and told him if I catch him at the lake drinking that I would kick his ass and I would to.anyway about 5 months later now xmas time who knocks on my door but him,still sober had my hundred bucks and gifts for my kids.it was a very heart warming moment.he still does it 5 years later and we are still great friends so yeah you can make a buck washing windows good luck man go for it