Do you want the life style a window cleaning business owner has?

Often overlooked, a great question to ask yourself is do you actually want the life window cleaning business owner has.

At the start your will be working outside in the cold and rain and blistering heat of the summer.

Answering calls and emails, dealing with customer service from your clients.

This is what is required at the start of your business.

Many business owner stay as a one man band which will require you to do every aspect of the business.

From doing the actual cleaning to all the internal cogs a business needs to be turning to operate and turn a profit.

There is another side when embarking on the learning curve of business ownership. You will need to grow personally and become a person that owns their own business.

Working outside rather than inside for some is brilliant.

It for sure beats a dead end office or warehouse  job.

Owning your own window cleaning business can generate great money and the freedom is fantastic!

As you and your business grows. There is the prospect of employing or franchising your business system you create

There are millionaire window cleaning business owners and your could be next.

Here are the 7 steps for a successful window cleaning business.

Market research 

Due diligence most often overlooked.

You are responsible to look into your current market and check out the competition which will identify what you can offer to the market place. 

By doing your research on the different online platforms like google and facebook for the competition. 

You will identify what services they offer, and which services don't they offer. 

After identifying your competition and their services, you need to address the size of your market? Small markets have less competition. Large markets generally have more competition but this is not always true. 

If you find your self in a large market with low competition, you've got a big tick on the list.

For example if you live in a town of 5000 people there this may not be many potential clients for your new business especially if there is already and existing window cleaners operating in the area.

A good market size to enter is around 50,000 population size, this is because if you use the modern marketing methods like google SEO, facebook ads and print material you have a large enough sample size to present to marketing too.

Also what I have found is generally the competition is low in this size of market... But there are exceptions to this rule.

Its a great exercise to do this due diligance in other markets so you can weigh up the competition in surrounding areas and benchmark it against your own area.

My recommendation is to do this in 5 other locals markets for your niche, window cleaning.

Training    

You have analyzed 5 different local markets and compared them to where you want to set up your business.

Hopefully you will be able to see the difference between a competitive v less competitive market.

Do you need training to become a window cleaner? No. But you can shorten your learning curve getting training from a professional.

My personal opinion before you start an online course, find what you can for free on YouTube or and Google is the best place to start.

Much of the core content you require is free for the actual skill of cleaning windows..

Personally I am a supporter of paid courses because often times creators will put together a structure for you to learn from. 

Online courses condense all the real world knowledge into a program just for you.

The challenge is personal awareness and understanding your position in life... This is what I found the hardest at the start. Having a true and honest look at your skill set and knowledge is really important before you undertake a training programe. 

Just because you do a course, doesn't mean you will succeed in that venture immediately.

Believe it or not there is a lot to learn.

I would happily say that the task of cleaning windows is the easiest part of the learning process. Running the business is where it gets tricky.

Some of best lessons are gained from experience.

Trying things and getting them wrong is a great way to learn but it can be costly.

When it comes to learning the skills of window cleaning practicing your skills on forgiving friends and family is perfect place to hone your skills.

Working for free or with family and friends doubles up as a great place to get your first sets of marketing materials and testimonials. So don't forget to take pictures!

Budget 

How much do you want to spend to get your business started?

Your current circumstances will dictate your budget to start your business.

The good news is a window cleaning business has low startup costs. £150 for a traditional set up then £250 for a good set of ladders which is within almost everyone's budget.

Everyone had a different view but my personal philosophy is to bootstrap from the start and get your business started for a little a possible. This does not mean cheap.

The reality is most business fail so sinking all of your money into starting a brand new business is not a wise move in my opinion.

Being committed to mastery will be worth a lot more than money alone. Having not much money to start will make your more creative too which will carry over as your income grows. Think of the expression "a fool and his money are easily parted" - Don't be a fool.

For established business owners looking to start a new department within side their existing business operations, this is another story for a seasoned business owner.

Marketing   

Great salesmen will make hundreds of thousands but great marketers will make millions window cleaning,

Marketing to your new and existing customer base will reap huge rewards for your business.

My personal opinion for marketing is to master one method first then over time add other method.

There by stacking the marketing methods on top of each other.

The biggest return we had in our window cleaning business has been having a website, using SEO to rank high in the organic search (search engine optomization).

Once your website is established is allows customers who are actively looking for a service to see your full breakdown of your work. A good website allows you to educate your services to prospective new and existing customers.

A website is a 24 hour sales man working for you morning and night when you sleep..

But a second fantastic way to gain new clients is through facebook and google ads paid advertising.

Thirdly keeping upto speed with the traditional methods that are tried and proven.

Print marketing still works so design your flyers using a software called canva for free and remember to keep the designs simple and to the point. We found that simple flyers worked a lot better than the super polished fancier ones.

Finally, the money is in the follow up.

Not every customer will buy there an then so having a method to follow up with your leads is super important. This is past and new customers that have engaged with you.

Using a combination of all these modern methods and timeless principles might just make you a millionaire.

Equipment    

Basic window cleaning kits for the traditional way will set you back around £150. The most budget set up and will allow you to clean shop fronts and bungalows super fast often faster than water fed pole.

The introduction of water fed pole window cleaning in the 90's has allowed us window cleaners to speed up our cleaning significantly while delivering a fantastic finish.

Delivery only water fed pole systems WITH a pole and brush start from just £2000+ Vat which is very competitive with many different manufacturers on the market.

This means all you need for your window cleaning van is a delivery only system water fed pole system.

You can use the buy pure water find location  function on this site to find you closest supplier.

Finding your closest supplier of pure water is easy now days.

When I personally started window cleaning in 2018 I didn't purify my owner water.

I only started the expensive and space consuming task of purification when I was driving a 1 hour round trip just to fill up every day. So then it became economic to purify my own water from home to save all the driving around.

The cost of water was not the main concern, it was the time it would save by processing water at my address was the main consideration.

Your business will grow and change, equipment is only one element. With the basic equipment you can make money and thanks to the internet we can connect people with other pure water suppliers near you.