What do you think a part-time window cleaner could make working 1-2 days a week? And is it more lucrative to do residential or commercial? I live in the Houston area and my full time job (paramedic) allow me alot of spare time. I was wanting to start cleaning windows as a way to make money on the side.
Any other advice would also be appreciated.
-Travis
If you need to be trained, probably starting at 10 per hour.
After you get good enough to turn some jobs out and produce…you can make up to 30% on your own, or with a crew of 2, 15 to 12% of the total job cost.
You would be making more doing what you do now probably. Why not just get some overtime? Time and a half is what? 40 an hour for you guys, maybe 50?
First things first. Before you make any beneficial money you have to know what you’re doing. Window cleaning sounds easy, but trust me there’s correct technique. I started with only instruction from the janitorial supply place I bought my equipment. For two years I practiced doing windows the wrong way. Struggled the whole time. Went to work for acouple different company’s and within a year I had changed all my technique. Now it’s a piece of cake.
It’s more than just technique when starting. How are you going to get the jobs? You may spend 1 or 2 days canvassing neighborhoods to set up a day of work.
I grew up cleaning windows. My grandfather had a commercial cleaning company. I’ve cleaned enough windows to make your head spin, as well as carpet, concrete, tile, ect. I did that from the time I was old enough to hold a broom and didn’t quit till I went to college.
I must say growing up I hated it. I did not enjoy cleaning but having gotten older I’ve realized that it wasn’t that bad and that being an owner I would enjoy it alot more. I respect the small business owner and think they don’t get enough credit for that they do for our economy and workforce.
If your going to go at this part time you can make some ok money. I look at it like this. If your not serious and again just want to make part time cash you can make some ok money. I wish I knew about window cleaning when I was in college, I’m pretty sure I would have had more money then anyone I was hanging out with. If you go small and get yourself 50 to 100 clients (residential) you can pull in an addtional $200 to $400 on a saturday. That’s working alone and I’m figuring again part time. The main thing you will have to do is once you get those customers (it will be hard but not that hard cause they will only be able to get the cleaning when you have time off) is keep those customers comming back. Rotate every 6 months or 1 year. You can pay for your insurance cause it’s not that much and you can go at it as a SP and not inc or llc. Again you will do ok. Heck in a couple of years you may decide to leave the medic world and go full time.
Res work is easier to get then comm work. Res work is more profitable per job then com work. But it depends on what you classify as commercial work. Most figure it as store front, which is where my statement is coming from. Now me, I call store front, store front and commercial as commercial mid rise. Commercial mid-rise in my area is more profitable per job then any other type of work. I can profit $2000 on one com job, in one day easy. And that’s my bottom line. I won’t go below that profit point.
Oh, I didn’t know that. We then, You’re ready to go. As I said above, if you canvass neighborhoods 2 days a week and work the jobs you set up one day a week, you should easily be able to make $500 the day you do the jobs = 2k a month - If you advertise or wait around for jobs, could be less.
i ive in the uk though i imagine its the same all over the world… i work as a sub contractor to large companies that have all the health and safety etc which qualifies them to tender for larger commercial contracts… as a sub contractor i supply all my own equipment and fuel (£6.50ish a gallon) and work for £120 per day and £80 for any cleaner i employ…all my contracts are commercial (ialso have three of my own window cleaners and 4 ordinary commercial cleaners working for me as i have my own contracts). all the contracts i bid for are on a lowest bid wins policy…ie you cant bid if you do not qualify with health and safety or various employee policy’s…i work 8 to 10 hours a day not including traveling…my work is on contract and booked in…as such must be cleaned whatever the weather
i also supply water to a number of domestic cleaners they only clean domestic dwellings and earn around £65 per hour, all of their cleans are priced individually depending on size what area they are in and how sorry they feel for the owner…unfortunatly they can only clean when weather permits. after all no one really understands how pole systems work…they also have the benefits of gutter cleans, soffit facia cleans and so on…personnaly if i was really interested in window cleaning as a part time job i would look to find a large company that would take me on, in uk they pay up to £150 a day for an employee window cleaner on a proffessional level. have a look around in uk we are desperate for window cleaners as we are all overwhelmed with the amount of work out there…ambulance (paramedic service) is also stretched to bursting lack of trained staff…it also rains 8 months of the year here…
part time couple days a week you should at least make $1000.00 a week in residential
And thus, another thousand window cleaners were born
Which is why it is usually not true.
Nah, 1,000 will try and a very low percentage (My guestimate 1% to 3%) will make it. Something the above poster forgot to mention - Once you license, insure and start your business, you still have to find these customers. Seems to me, some (Couple Previous employees) think there’s a list - once they are licensed and have a phone number - the phone just starts ringing off the hook with Potential customers. 
Just kick back, put your feet up, and enjoy free enterprise…
Sorry about the rant, i’m done 
Really?? part time, 2 days a week and bank at least $52,000 for the year. I want in.
Chiming in on this old thread as I just now joined the forum. Man, I hope all you folks are for real. Just recently lost my job, starting a window cleaning company and putting ALL my eggs in this basket. Was in the biz 25 years ago, made 120 in an afternoon. Now my area is GLUTTED with all kinds of window washers and Franchises. I am hoping to find my niche as I go forward. Cheers
Gonna be honest with you, have a backup plan…
If your area is flooded with other W/C companies, it will be hard for you to get yours off the ground. You need to offer something of value, the others don’t. Find the audience for that, and market it to them. That means finding something unique and valuable to them, AND finding those people and getting your advertising in front of them.
Plus ∞. You gotta find a niche and stand out. $500/day is honestly not typical of most solo window cleaners. It’s very doable, and is fairly common in a community like this one, that’s full of serious, driven business owners. But it takes time and effort to reach that point.
And even when you can reliably produce $600+ in window cleaning a day, there’s the challenge of actually booking that much work. I get quite a few jobs in the $350-$450 range. They eat up the majority of my day, leaving me with too little time for another job to hit my daily goal.
Also, explore other services to see if there is a gap in your local market. Research power washing, kitchen exhaust cleaning, etc.
Cool you folks are still replying to a thread this old. Yes, plan on finding a niche. I will work the glass. I like perfect. It’s more stunning and cleans easier later. Thanks for great input.
I’ve had a couple of houses that I have made $800-$1000 in one day! So it is possible I usually make $80-$100+ a hour. My problem is I haven’t really gone the extra step and done any marketing. I’ve made about $3k with 5 jobs this year and my first job this year was the middle of March
