As some of you know, I’ve been apprenticing with a long-time window cleaner for the last few weeks. We do an average of 30-40 storefronts a day M-F. I asked him what his average annual income is, and he said he had no idea. So I asked him what he bids his weekly and monthly contracts for, and he said it varies, but won’t do a job for less than $50 for a weekly per month. If I take his route, and he takes 30%, I have no idea how much I’ll be making.
Any idea how much this guy makes based on the info I’ve provided?
Based on some salary website, it seems window cleaners make on average $25-30k a year. My mentor seems a bit above average.
Before you buy anything you need solid figures and numbers. I think 25-30k is eh for storefront work especially if you’re putting up 40+ hours m-f
Last year I made 19k part time window cleaning before my full time night job at the time… I put around 20 hours a week into storefront and residential work each week.
Mike Radzik
Pro Window Cleaning
Central Massachusetts
Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource
I have no idea what “$50 for a weekly per month” means. It could mean each job is about $10-15 per clean every week (which is about $50 per month - small store fronts) or it could mean $50 per clean (which is pretty high and would be like a medium sized restaurant).
But just take what you think the job is worth and multiply it by the number of times you’ll clean it.
If he’s doing $15 minimums then each job is worth $15 * 52 = 780 every year.
$15 * 30 or 40 jobs per day: $450-600 per day which seems pretty high but maybe you guys are just killing it. It might be closer to $10 per job * 30 or 40 which is about 300 or 400 per day. For route work, I consider a good day to be $300-500 but it depends on your area and your minimums.
Based on some salary website, it seems window cleaners make on average $25-30k a year. My mentor seems a bit above average.
Window cleaners (the guys I hire) make that. Window cleaning business owners…now that’s the big secret. My goal is $600/hr as an owner.
… Not enough info really. If you’re buying the business you need to see ALL the billing statements.
How many hours a day do you work with him?
“$50 for a weekly per month” sounds like 12.50 per time. So at 50 / account / per month = 50 X 35 =1750 month.
1750 /month = 437.50 / week.
If you want to be making 50 / hr you can’t spend more than an hour and three quarters per day.
Of course if he has no idea how much he’s making, he’ll have no idea what his 30% share should be…
The business is only worth what the paperwork says its worth. Even then it can get sketchy because he may not be doing the paperwork correctly. Have [U][B]your[/B][/U] accountant review everything and he will be able to tell you the companies true value.
If the owner refuses to give up financial info than you need to move on to something else and stop wasting your time with him
I dont want you (walkthruglass) take this the wrong way,but I have read most of what you have posted since you have been on the forum.
What I see going is this guy is just using you as labor for 15 an hour and nothing more. I dont think there is a gold filled pot at the end of this rainbow for you,i could be wrong…but I dont think so.
Take the down time you have after working with this guy “daily” since you say you guys are done early, and build your business. You can easily
build your WC business to well over 25-30k the first year if you put in the time.
Good Luck.
PS. you should finish your signature, so we know who we are talking to.
I’ve seen some of your videos on YouTube, and they’ve helped me sort out my start-up gear. Thanks man. I appreciate it.
I’m living in Boulder at the moment, and hoping that I can get this business up and running. The guy I work for says it will take 6 months to make a living off of window cleaning, but I’m hoping I can hop off of my brown rice and tuna economy diet sometime before the 6mo mark. I’m thinking he may just want someone working for him for the summer, but I can’t tell. The fact that he won’t disclose his income makes me skeptical with regard to him wanting me to take his route.
The whole reason I got into this is to be my own boss. I was getting tired of being micro-managed. I’ve gained some experience working for him, but so far, the only things I’ve really learned is to use only a 1/2" inch of water in the bucket as to not break the handle and to always finish a fan on the side and never the bottom.
Thanks for the feedback Mike. I’ve been finishing where there’s more room to finish my stroke. This has been effective for reducing touch-ups with my hucks. He doesn’t do any residential, and he gives me phone numbers of residential work that others want him to do without taking a cut. I did a 9th story condo with 2 large windows through him and bid $40. The guy I’m working for said the job should have been at least $100 and began calling the owner. I told him not to worry about it.
I like the onsite experience, but less the fact that I’m working for someone.
I wouldn’t recommend doing jobs like that to earn quick $, you don’t want people to label you as dirt cheap then expect the cheapest prices for quality work.
Mike Radzik
Pro Window Cleaning
Central Massachusetts
Sent from my iPhone using Window Cleaning Resource
Keith, again no offense intended to you or trying to read your bosses mind, but the whole arrangement doesn’t sound like a solid set up to me. How could he not know what his yearly earnings are? Unless he just doesn’t care and remits all his paperwork to an accountant. Or as Genaro was getting at, not every bit of it is on the books.
Don’t worry so much about learning his pet ideas about buckets and squeegees. I’d stick with this forum and make sure to refine customer relations and business acumen. Perhaps you could offer him something on more concrete terms.
Keith, Bouldr has some fantastic residential opportunities if you want to go that route. $4-700 homes all day long, assuming you market to them right. When I started, Aspen Window Cleaning mentored me for a day, since I wasn’t going to compete with them. Great fundamentals. I know you want to be your own boss, but a 4-6 month paid apprenticeship from them, aka job, might be well worth the investment.
Trigger happy on the post button. This forum is also a great resource for training too, for everything! Being your own boss is a great thing, if you can get the fundamentals down, i bet you can out market and sell yourself better to the storefront folks than the guy you are working with now.
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I probably wouldn’t sign on to clean his route for him moving forward but I would work for him at $15 an hour until I was so busy with my own stuff I had to quit. You might be happy this winter when the residential work stops. He sends residential work your way, right? I bet that’s nice. Also he’s a faster/better window cleaner than you. Wait until you’re better than him. Just my two cents.
Boulder should be some prime residential. I’d also be skeptical about this guy.
Do a couple of houses every week, bid them at $10-12 for a double hung and you can add steak with your rice.
Spend the day browsing through wcr, get a nice shirt with your logo, get some doorhangers printed and on your off time go hang them. Ring the doorbell, introduce yourself and ask them if they would like a bid.
The whole reason I got into this is to be my own boss. I was getting tired of being micro-managed. I’ve gained some experience working for him, but so far, the only things I’ve really learned is to use only a 1/2" inch of water in the bucket as to not break the handle and to always finish a fan on the side and never the bottom.
I’m with Mike, fill the bucket up to the half way mark and then replace it when you can’t see the bottom.
I know Pulex had some issues in the past with handles breaking, but I’ve had my buckets for over 3 years and never broke a handle. They also had issues with bad lids, but again I haven’t had an issue in 3 years. An employee lost one of my buckets out of the back of a truck out on the rez, but that’s different.
A 1/2" of water isn’t enough water to get the dirt off my mop after one window.
You can close your fan wherever is handy. If you close on the side, you need to twist the squeegee to minimize detailing. If you close on the bottom you naturally don’t have to detail as much.
As far as a 9 story condo, that’s jacked. First, don’t do a house without a minimum. In your market, you could easily do 100-150 minimum (ground floor). For a 9 story condo with 2 windows, I’m thinking a couple hundred. I don’t do rope work and my wfp only goes up to 5 stories so charge what you will.
Here’s a tip: if the owner can’t do it, you can charge for it. That 24’ vaulted living room? Yeah, that’s going to be a little bit more.
Thanks for all the beta folks! This is invaluable to me.
I’ll check out Aspen Windows Josh. Thank you for the tip.
With regard to the condo, I figured $40 was reasonable because one of the windows had removable panes. The big living room window on the other hand was very scary. I had to lean out with a 15’ extension without rope and side-pull it. It was baking in the sun and took a couple hours to get it right. I’ll make sure to bid higher next time.
My main problem right now is my speed. I’m smooth with my fans, but if rushed, leave patches and use a lot of hucks. I’m a perfectionist, so I clean the corners and ledges like I’m detailing a car. My co-worker tells me not to worry about the drips.
[MENTION=36863]walkthruglass[/MENTION]
Everything needs to be on paper how much each stop makes how many times it goes 4x outside 1x inside an price. 2x outside 1x inside an price. 1x out 1x in an price . anything that goes bi-monthly an price anything that goes quarterly an price you get the drift. You need to lawyer up just pay a lawyer to do this for you make sure like I told you that you have some type of gaurntee I would shoot for 90 days. What that does if one of those jobs listed is not a job that it says it is or cancels within 90 days you get what ever that job is said to be worth off your principle. Don’t for get a no compete clause. Your lawyer will know how to handle an what should be in the contract.
One more thing if this guy is serious about selling his route, an you are telling him you want it he needs to present this list of all his accounts an what they are making like I said above an from there you can tell if he is profitable . If he is reluctant to show you then he is not ready to sell period . Whats it matter if he shows you the amount each store makes you already know were his work is don’t make sense.
One more thing if he cant spit out how much this route is making per month then that is another red flag , when ever someone is selling a route the number one question is how much does it make per month wtf Is with this guy.
It could be that Steve. If the op has something better than he should go an do that, but keep this guy close he is giving you resi which is cool an when the guy is ready he needs to know he has to present you with a list an how much it makes per month. Not much more he can do or just keep working for him.
