Hello everyone, I’m wanting to start a window cleaning business, but I’m seeing how if any are doing only commercial, store fronts, small buildings with minimal ladder work.
How has the business been for you especially during winter time? How is doing only store fronts working for you money wise?
You CAN do it, but the good money is in residential.
Storefronts are like the beef jerky of window cleaning. It’ll keep you alive, but it’s hard to chew day after day after day. If you’re looking to do this solo, then you can grind out maybe $400-600 in a day. Depending on how tight you can make your routes, how you bid, and how quickly you can clean. Starting out a $300 day will be tough.
Commercial is like a full meal. You can make good money and if you invest in a water fed pole, you’ll make really good money. But it’s harder to get and you might have to go through a janitorial company/service. National services like NEST are notorious to deal with. But depending on factors you can do $500-1000 in a day. Hotels are the sweetness.
Residential is like an all you can eat buffet. You can easily do $500-1000 in a day. You just have to have people skills and confidence to provide a professional service.
Results will vary depending on the person, their business model, and their drive.
Some guys on here can easily do $1500+ in a residential day but then take a break in the winter until spring (no income). Some guys on here can bust out huge $$$ commercial days but until you get a commercial route set up you’ll have a lot of lulls in work. Some guys do solid route work every day of the year.
Then again, some will struggle with route work and get burnt out. Others hate residential.
I personally prefer morning route work, then afternoon residential. The route work gives you a floor of income (year round) and the residential gives you the means to grow your business (seasonal). But with route work you’d better be smart about it with gas the way it is. You need tight routes, a minimum price ($20-25), schedule storefronts every 2 or 4 weeks, and then just be prepared to grind grind grind.
Do you have any window cleaning experience?
