Starting your own window cleaning business.

Creating your own work hours, becoming your own boss and being in charge of your profits are a few of the benefits to beginning your window cleaning business journey. Coupled with the modernised equipment in the industry; growing market; naturally increasing residential housing and expansion of commercial properties with glass incorporations, starting your window cleaning business is easier and more profitable than ever.

The margin for profitability in the industry is capped by only the business owner's ambition. Whether you plan on building a “small” scale local business or one that spans across the entire country, the following is a guide to help you on your way.

Tools you will need.

There are some essential tools you will need to begin your window cleaning business journey. However there are multiple routes to take with this step as other businesses will have different budgets compared to others.

Growing with the traditional Squeegee, mop and bucket trio can definitely work, but larger investments into pure water window cleaning equipment and van mounted systems will allow you to access a larger client pool, especially with van systems. Speaking of van systems, a van is another essential tool; being able to hold your equipment, get you to your clients and advertise yourself while you work and sleep is a great asset to the business and strongly recommended. With these pure water van systems, commercial contracts are much easier to attain. If you're planning to go for larger commercial properties, it is advised to fund some specialist training and equipment as you may need to go much higher than your water fed pole can reach. Some may even require abseil equipment.

Traditional or Water-Fed Cleaning.

Traditional cleaning consists of the standard Mop, Bucket and Squeegee team. This approach is still viable and can be profitable, but it has a small range, takes a significant amount of time and can limit the growth of your business. Todays modern equipment; water-fed poles use pure water to clean windows from the safety of the ground, with water that has been though a purification system to filter it. There is no need for ladders or access equipment.

The water-fed equipment is more expensive but the benefits far outweigh this. Water-fed is much more efficient and safe, being able to wash a full face of the house in a few minutes, all from the ground is perfect for someone who wants as many clients as possible. Many professionals in the industry agree that, whilst it is a larger investment in the beginning, water-fed equipment helps to massively grow your business in the future and allows for a higher earning potential.

Start your window cleaning round.

The first thing you should sort out is your pricing structure. Look for similar services around you and think about how long it would take you to finish the average house in your area, base your pricing on this information. This could take you a week, maybe two. The next few months are potentially the hardest that you will have. Growing your client base is hard to start. However, it is possible with a little guidance and effort.

Gaining Customers.

Canvassing is likely the most efficient way to start your round and gain new customers fast. With some hard work, preparation and a bit of luck, there are chances to make over 30 new customers a week. Canvassing involves knocking on people's door and asking them: "do you have a window cleaner?". If they say they don't; sell your work, tell them you're a window cleaner in the area and offer them your services. If they say "no" outright, 9 times out of 10, you are just going to waste your time trying to persuade them. Instead you should ask them if they know anyone who needs or wants a window cleaner. If they mention that someone else does the window cleaning for them, you could ask what other places the cleaner takes. In the event that the occupant says the cleaner takes most of the houses in the street, it would be best to go to another street as your time would be used more wisely with a larger amount of "free" houses. This is an excellent way to grow customers fast. It also works as you can decide what areas you want to do and choose what properties would be worth more of your time than others.

Software.

Managing your administrative and day to day business tasks can easily go over schedule and become backed up if you aren't managing it properly, leading to time lost that could be spent cleaning windows or gaining clients. If you were feeling like this, then you would hire an administrative assistant to help your business become more efficient. However, there are better solutions. Software and apps such as Squeegee can automate almost your entire work day and admin. removing the need to pay for an admin employee and cutting hours of work down to minutes. If you employ staff, with Squeegee you can manage workloads for each member of staff, create a calendar and add jobs to specific staff, including the route and amount due for the work done. All with live notifications.

With Squeegee's scheduling software it allows you to be completely mobile, your entire office can be your mobile phone. The app keeps all of your client details, schedule and with the portal feature, allow you to communicate with clients. Squeegee also allows for fully customised invoice templates and with an array of payment methods, fast and easy payment.

As your business grows, it becomes almost necessary to implement some type of software as the business can't survive solely on the owner's back. Squeegee becomes an inseparable tool and integrates itself within your business, becoming an excellent partner that amplifies profits and removes the need for admin staff, all while making your business as streamlined, easy to run and efficient as possible.

Marketing.

Once your business is set up, you will want to focus on your local and online presence. Marketing yourself towards potential customers through things like: online advertising, printed flyers, a built website, social media presence and marking your vehicle with a logo and your contact information really helps to get yourself on the map and into people's eyes. When your business is small; this may be a hard task, however, if you have an amount of capital set aside, it is strongly advised to get your van or vehicle covered with your details. If you don't have any capital set aside, try to do mark your vehicle as soon as possible, when it is safe to do so considering your monthly costs and profits. Building a website is relatively easy