Before I can cut back at my day job I need to make 500 a month from windoe cleaning. Do I go Res or Storefront?

Newbie Corner
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I want to work a day less at my day job that is 40 hrs a week. What is the best way to do this. So far with my two small accounts im not really profiting much after I pay my general liability insurance. I got those accounts pretty quick though. Should I focus more on storefront or residential?

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Depends, do you want to do 2 jobs a month or 16 jobs a month to make $500?

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Good point. All my research has gone into storefront so I need to educate myself on the different things I will run into with res such as screen cleaning and using a razor. Im honestly intimidated at the thought of using a razor from what I have read about scratching glass.

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You won’t need a razor much on residential if you are not doing CCU. Very few jobs will require you to scrape every square inch of the glass. Also the problem is on tempered glass and a lot of residential glass is annealed anyway. Then there is the fact that not every mfg has the fab debris problem so that means even less risk.

Lastly, are you going to let fear stop you? You could get sued doing storefront if someone trips over your bucket. Quit worrying. I had an employee step off a bench at a huddle house and put his foot in the bucket and fell backwards and dumped the bucket. It looked like a three stooges movie with soapy water everywhere and people slip sliding all over. We lost the account, big whoop, it happens, we move on.

The people getting sued out of existence are the guys who scratch 30 or 40 thousand dollars worth of glass because they were stupid and careless. Knowing about the issue puts you ahead of the curve already.

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I’m right there with you Jonathan. Working full time and looking to start a side gig cleaning glass. And terrified of razors / wool scratching the glass. Or of running into coated glass and not realizing it until it is too late.

I have a few old mirrors in the basement I’m going to start experimenting on. From what I know about detailing cars lubrication is key to preventing scratches. I’m going to try using a lot of soap or perhaps a double dose of glide.

Not to derail the thread but how much is your liability policy?

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Thanks Steve! That makes me feel a little better =-)

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This will not stop scratches from “fabricating debris.” you need to educate yourself on it.

http://www.scratched-glass.net/pdfs/StopScratchedGlass.pdf

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You don’t have to scrape every piece of glass. You don’t even have to scrape entire sections of glass. Use a fresh sharp blade and just scrape spots or small sections at a time; check for scratching.

Other options are to use Titan Oil-Flo on glass that has paint splatter. It will start to dissolve enough so that you can scrub it with soapy water and 0000 steel wool or bronze wool, even 3M white pads - no scraping needed.
I have even used WD-40 in a pinch to make it easier to scrape off old paint.

There is a good chance that you may not even run into paint and such that often, but do become familiar with different ways to remove it.

Residential can pop you $200, $300, $500 per job.
Storefront can pop you $15, $25, $30, $70 per job.

Add it up. Which part time gig will serve you better?

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To put a finer point on it:
Do you want to have $500 a month, EVERY month rain or shine with 10-20 jobs already planned in advance
-or-
$500 a month with 1-3 jobs that you have to take time out if your life and go get for yourself, EVERY month or you don’t get paid. At least for the first year or so until your seasonal/annual repeats come back around.

Depending on your locale there may be months when no work is possible so keep that in mind too. You may want to aim for a higher monthly gross than you initially thought necessary.

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Go for it man, we all have those jobs that freak us out with liability but after a while you’ll be walking around like:
image

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Nothing wrong with route work. I personally don’t do it unless your talking about customers like my motorcycle dealerships, banks, churches and such which are $700 plus per visit. Most of those are quarterly though. The money is out there in whatever form you want it. Just decide and go chase it.

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It is 50 bucks a month and is a 1 million dollar policy.

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ty :+1:

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There are plus and minuses to both res and storefront I supposed. Ideally I could do a bit of both. Storefront could give me exposure that could lead to res also.

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It’s winter. Not really the time to make these kinds of decisions. Between now and the spring clean your house twice. Clean two friend’s houses. Do it for free. If you like it then make a facebook page. In the spring make a post offering 15% off and then boost it for $30.You’ll probably get a job or two. Then do another one.

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Start by spelling ‘window’ correctly lol :grin::rofl:

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Residential is very simple, you need the right ladders, and lots of detail, I just finished a 420$ job today in 3.5 hours. If I were you I’d focus on residential. Homeadvisor will boosts your residential almost immediately. Got 45 resi jobs in November all from Homeadvisor. But watch out you’ll be charged 10-15 each lead.

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Thanks. I keep hearing people refer to some windows as “storms.” What are these and how do you deal with them?

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Now I have to throw away my 500 business cards I ordered that say “windoe cleaning”

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You don’t wanna deal with storms as a beginner, or Post Construction Cleaning. Stick with simple 2 story residential and build your route with some work given to you by national service providers, like NEST, METRO Service solutions. There’s a list of them on this forum. Get your self lots of experience as fast as you can. Don’t worry so much about razors. 0000 steel wool is basically all you’ll need for resi and route Work. Very rare I use my razor.

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