Okay…I’ve been telling my wife about the income potential from window cleaning. Frankly, she doesn’t believe me. I want to show her what you guys have to say about this.
So, conservatively, what would a rookie window cleaner with no experience be able to earn in your area in his first year in business learning as he goes?
(I’m assuming a mix of residential and storefront with time spent marketing to both…but I’m open to revising that plan if you say so.)
Thanks, guys.
Get new wife.
We did about $20,000 the first year. That was mostly getting up and running and I knew nothing about marketing and didn’t have WCR as a resource.
Our main business for the past few years has been maid service. This is our first full year in window cleaning. We have been making between 2000 and 3500 a week in window cleaning and gutter cleaning every week since about March 1st. We spend about 1800 a month on marketing though and have 2 window cleaning employees to pay. I’m totally in growth mode right now though so a lot of the income generated is dumped right back into the business. It all depends on how much your pumping into marketing.
I built my business from scratch slowly as I was only at it part time for several years, but if I were to start all over again in earnest with WCR on my side and actually spending something on marketing and also being more aware of what one can really get for window cleaning, I think 20-30,000 the first year wouldn’t be out of the question. Think about it: you can probably get enough commercial work to average $100/wk after awhile- say $2500-3000 total the first year. If you can average $500/wk.(1-3 houses) in residential for 35 week, that’s $17,500 plus what you manage other weeks and you’re at $20,000 + already. If you can get just 50% of your 1st year residentials to have you back and get more new customers next year as compared to this year, it looks better yet.
Believe, Mrs. Carson.
I’ll be showing her this thread…don’t give her any ideas! 
[QUOTE=llaczko;84972]Get new wife.[/QUOte
I like to hear that Kurt!
Been in biz for 6 months, income fluctuates but is usually around $1k a week.
LMAO!! That was good!!
All you need is one decent job per week. $500 +. Should not be hard to get. But you have to keep in mind the most important thing about a new business. You have to advertise. You can have the best busines in the world, but if no one knows about it then it won’t matter. It’s the biggest mistake people make when opening a business. You see it with store front businesses all the time. They spend a boat load of money and can’t figure out why no one is walking into the place. Just about any business will grow if there is enough advertising and the product or service is ok quality. When I first started 4 years ago my business was grossing about $1500.00 per week starting in April. This year we have been fluctuating between $3800 and $4500. Overhead is about 65%.
+1 Except I did it my second year because I was only set up my first year as a part time basis.
You have to market consistently though. It’s the most important thing. I just pounded the pavement alot but went to the right demographics.
Here’s the deal !!! You and your wife go on a couple hr drive !! Look for dirty windows !! Somebodys doing them and it could be u !!! WOW !! Do u get every job ??? NOPE !! End of trip ask is there any work out there ??? Work at it part time !! Yes there is a learning curve !! or u could flip burgers and 10 years from now your a feww cents hr wage and still have dirty window 's at the burger joint !!U allready have two workers !! u and her !! HA ! Good luck !!From a one man, sm town for 27 years. Stan, Pro Window Kleening and proud
This is my first full time year in window cleaning as i started part time last year. Since March I’ve made around 15-16k. All those days aren’t 8 Hours as I had no idea how to schedule jobs yet since I didn’t know how long they would take being new.
I am keeping log of how long each house takes so next year I can be doing 2 maybe 3 houses a day. If i was cleaning efficiently 8 hours a day and had a perfect schedule, I would be well over 20k.
Take today for instance, I made just about $300 in the morning (8am-1230) but now I am back at the office on WCR… Learning of course, but I have a serious problem with time management some days! If i would have know how long this house would of taken I could of schedules a smaller house for the afternoon and made around 400-500 for the day.
But remind you this does include power washing (house washes) which I feel is extremely more profitable than WC.
Also, I spend around 500-1000 a month on direct mail.
It’s like anything else in the world - It’s what you make of it. If you get into it expecting the $ and customers to just come flocking in, you’re wrong. I don’t put you in this category (I don’t even know you) but it takes a lot of work to build any business.
If you know/learn how to clean windows, you put effort into getting customers (advertising, beating the pavement, etc…) and run your business correctly, You’ll do fine and I think 15k to 25k your first year is very possible.
You say rookie window cleaner with no experience so I’m assuming that’s you. I’d suggest if you’re serious about it, get a part time job with another window cleaning company (Preferably a couple) - Spend a year or so learning the correct techniques, then go for it.
GL
25 k your first year is very realistic. That’s 500 bucks a week 50 weeks out of the year. Now I don’t know you but I assume your looking for better income earnings than make in you current job. That’s how WE ALL started out. My wife gave me a little resistance too at first but now she’s 100 % on board.
If there’s still a lot of doubt from your wife, start part time and knock down a few high paying residential gigs. She’ll come around.
She does not believe you? She needs to see some proof…
I know of a guy (we’ll call him Chris). This guy not too long ago was
passing out fliers and trying like hell to create a profitable window
cleaning business…
“Chris” after 5 years managed to build a business that was getting
$1 million+ in sales. I believe it is much more now.
Allegedly he started a product distribution biz with his bro and
created a cool forum known as WCR.
To grow a business this big, this fast takes sacrifice and long
hours. It is very hard to keep a consistent cash-flow, that is where
most bow out and end up in mediocrity (chasing dollars)
If you want to make the real money you need to push yourself
to the max. (hint: the secrets are not window cleaning skills, get
some business books)
I wish you success on your journey Randy
Thanks Chris, Appreciate that.
Randy,
Let me tell you another way you could possibly handle all of this before you quit your full time job. If you quit your full time job and do not have a serious marketing plan, you may fall flat on your butt and wonder why all of this didn’t pan out. I would definitely have a solid business foundation, a business plan and all of your marketing worked out before you quit your full time job. Actually cleaning windows is the last priority when running a window cleaning business. You can pay someone 10 bucks an hour to clean windows. Getting jobs is another story. Anyway, before you quit your day job, I would have a website up and running and google adwords and SEO (google it) pumping out some solid leads for you. If I were you, I would wait until i was getting a decent number of jobs per week before I quit my fulltime job. Hire someone else to clean windows for you while you work your dayjob. Maybe help him on the weekends or something. It’s not rocket science, it’s cleaning windows. Even though there is a lot to know about cleaning windows, you don’t have to have experience before you start. It’s nice to have, but not necessary in my opinion. Using this model, you can hit the ground running when you quit your full time job. Hope this helps.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Or… tell her to support you or you will trade her in after you make it for a newer younger model 
Great reminders Paul.
the money is definetly there, its all in what you put into it…is your wife going to work with you?
