Newbie

Hello folks, I am not new to the window washing business, have been doing it for 8 years. Now i want to do this on my own. I feel like i know all the ins and outs as far as the job itself goes but not when starting a business. I would like to do mostly residential as i feel more happy with. Commercial seems too boring for me. Any tips or whatever you have for me would be great.

Welcome. Nothing wrong with wanting to do just resi. You can make alot of dough there. I would much rather stay at one house all day and make the same money as doing 40-50 storefronts.

As far as tips go, there is a ton of them on this site. Use the search feature to explore all the info. available. If you dont find the answer create a a thread
with a moer specific question and you will be helped.

How tall is tall?

Welcome! I do almost exclusively resi and it’s a great way to go for a small company. I have been developing over the last year or two a monthly house route. It gives a good income source in the slower months and you’ll be amazed how many cusomers will jump at the opportunity to have it done. It’s as simple as asking if they would like a bid for it. I chargea about half of my per pane price for this service, but get what you can.

Yeah around here the starting price is about 4 bucks a pane in/out. Then extra if they want sills or screens done. Tall? Ha…im 6’7’’ thats tall enough for me! The business i worked at was 90% resi and 10% com. I liked resi because of the money to be made and people make the job enjoyable.

I know it’s been mentioned before, but a great website that helps with starting a business is http://www.entrepreneur.com/ . A ton of info over there.

HEY!!! I take offense to that…just kidding:p

Welcome!!!

cookie monster

Another site that I just found today is http://www.inc.com/ . It seems pretty good for business startups.

Welcome to the group. Tips? Well brush up on your detail work. Commercial and res are two differant animals. Quality is very important for res work. But IMO the most important is to answer your phone first. A lot of people start a business on their own and for some stupid reason, never answer the phone and then they can’t figure out why their business is doing so crappy. Also make sure you show up on time. in service oriented businesses I feel those two things are the most important.

I don’t want to discourage you, but you will find that cleaning the windows will be the easiest part. Insurance, taxes, equipment purchases, marketing, bookkeeping, invoicing, and I’m probably forgeting a few. Go to the library and get a book on how to start a business. There is too much fit in a thread.

I hate it when i call a business only to get a machine…not happening under my business. I know cleaning windows is the easy part. Im fully aware of expenses involved. But its nice to see people out there helping others in the same profession.

If I see someone from this forum in my area their knee and my baseball bat will meet :smiley: jk

Juggernaut is right about answering the phone. Last spring I got so tied up I did not get to the phone 5 times and lost out on 4 jobs… ohhh, that just burned my azz. That could be 5 customers worth a total of $5000-$8000 over the next few years…

Worse yet, my competitors got them. I just handed them over.

I’ve been using a Blue tooth headset for just those reasons. I can answer my phone even when I’m up a ladder or poling a big job. In this economy it’s even more important to answer every call.