Looking into the business

Or is ir a waste, and should just go buy a squeegee a mop a bucket some rags and solution from home depot?

The kit is ok but you still need a square bucket, and some type of squirt bottle to take in homes. You should avoid taking a bucket in the house.

Youā€™ll need hucks too.

Personally, I always have avoided kits. IF you are determined to have everything thatā€™s in the kit, itā€™s an easy way to buy tools.

Donā€™t spend your money on expensive kits just yet . Go to Home Depot tomorrow morning buy a basic under squeegee 12 inch and a small scrubber . Iā€™m sure you have a bucket and some dish soup at home . Cut up an old bath towel and clean your own windows . Who knows , Maybe you wonā€™t even like cleaning windows , at least you only spend $20 .

yeah, you need to be starting like this week-or the regulars are going to get tired of reading that you are undecided - your humming and hawing cant go on much longer matey . youve no excuse whatsoever,its not like youre skint.

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Lol. Im going to try it. To what level is to be determined. I may be happy just making an extra 3-400 bucks a a month to use for vacations or whatever. If i find that through word of mouth or the little bit of advertising i may do, that i could have all the work i can handle and then some, ill re-address my goals at that time. Thanks everyone for the advice iys greatly appreciated!

I didnā€™t read through all the responses, so i apologize if it is redundantā€¦

I was in a very similar situation when i quit my corperate job. I was 40, daughter in college, daughter in HS, son in military. I was making $86-$90k depending on bonus, working 13 hours a day in a very stressful environment sometimes 6 days a week.

I had contemplated starting my own window business for years but the comfort of having expendable cash was hard to leave. Long story short, i had a stroke at 39 and while in the hospital the dr said get rid of the stress in your lifeā€¦ i already knew my job was stressful so right there i decided i would start taking the steps to leave and start my own business. For a year i researched equipment, techinques, website, payroll, crm, etcā€¦ and one day put in my notice and started the business cold turkey.

It was one of the BEST decisions Iā€™ve ever made. I love my job now and it didnt take me near as long to start making what i was making. Now i have fun. Now i look forward to Mondays. Now i take off whenever i want to. Now im building something that i can pass onto my kidsā€¦ there are so many benefits.

With that said there are some stressors, but i believe if you do your due diligence in building your business, you can avoid most of those.

As far as starting out, i used my 401k and got the best equipment i could afford. I believe if u have a backup plan, then ur already planning to fail.

Ps im in FL so i can do windows year round. If i were up north I would have researched off season possibilities to add to the business.

You only live once. And life is very short. Worst case, u fall downā€¦ but at least u tried. And worst case, with your experience u can go back to Ford.

I wish i had done this 10 years earlier!!

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If this is going to be some side job for you then no ones gonna take you seriously here. Thereā€™s a lot more to it then just a squeegee and a bucket. Most the guys on here do this all day everyday and have the correct certs and insurance, we pay to play. A lot of people want to do this because they think itā€™s easy and just want some extra vacation money like you stated, but they find out real quick and the majority fail. From the sounds of it I donā€™t think this is for you, thatā€™s like me saying being a car salesman is easy and Iā€™m not happy with the awesome job I already have, so Iā€™m going to do something I think is easy, like being a car salesman. I have no idea what itā€™s like to be a car salesman but I wouldnā€™t go in front of a bunch of car salesman and say thatā€™s easy looking and Iā€™m gonna do it for some extra vacation money. Lol I guarantee theyā€™ll laugh at me and tell me to gtf outta there.

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I do apologize if i am coming off as thinking this is or will be easy. I Have never taken the easy way in anything Iā€™ve ever done in life and the car business definitely is not easy, no business worth doing IS easy. Im just at a point in life that i really need to see whatā€™s out there. Im simply trying to gather as much information as possible and while cleaning windows may not be the easiest job in the world, it certainly ranks as ome of the least expensive to het going in. That, along with my perceived minimal competition locally, is what drew my attention more than anything. It may not be for me. But i may start doing it and find out im really good at it. The marketing and salesmanship i am confident in for the most part, but i have to really enjoy it in order for the rest to fall into place. Thanks for your reply!

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So gladto hear the change worked out for you! Im in a similar situation. While i didnt have anything as severe as a stroke, i was just put on blood pressure and cholesterol meds and told i need a serious reduction in stress. Well thats impossible in my career or darn near. Some people close to me are also advanced in age and have had recent health scares and so it makes a guy start thinking there HAS to be a better way. So here i am trying to figure it out. Thankfully there are forums like this where most of the people are very supportive and helpful.

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Iā€™m seeing a lot of negativity with some of these responsesā€¦especially about going for it 100% or plan to fail. I disagree. I worked for State government for about 15 years when I started my business in 2005. There were no threads and websites back then to get ideas from. I found a window cleaning supply place in Jersey and called and asked what I needed to start. I spent $300 on good Ettore products, a 12" and 18" quick release squeegees, extra blades, scrubbers, 6" razor scrapers, a couple bucket-on-a-belts, two different poles and some micro-fiber towels. Slapped a ladder on my yakima rack, bought a yellow pages add, registered my business name with the State, got insurance and went to town. I Cleaned all my relatives homes, neighbors, etc. Probably cleaned my own windows 10 times in a month. The phone started ringing, and it never stopped.

I did it part time for over 8 years until I decided that working for the government was slowing me down and I was making my customers wait too long. For me, having the full time job was a good crutch to hang on to until the demand for window washing was too great and the job with the State was just in the way. My wife finally asked ā€œwhat are you waiting for?ā€ So, I did it.

I too had a very stressful job with lots of demand. I had supervisors who were 10 years younger than me, with zero to no experience. I supposedly had 5 weeks of vacation a year, but could never take more than a week at a timeā€¦2 consecutive weeks was out of the question. I had to practically grovel to go take a pissā€¦

Leaving was the best decision I ever made. Being able to dedicate 100% on my business has caused it to grow 40% every year for the last 3 years.

I was raised on a farm too, so I know you know what hard work is. Yes, window washing can be hard if you have drive, which you will, because it is your own business which you have no intention on failing at. Some days when itā€™s 90 degrees with high humidity 6 hours can seem like 12. Some days I have to make myself take a break or two. Yes, you are busy in the summer, but you have to give yourself a day or two off to enjoy your family and hobbies. Your customers wonā€™t know thatā€™s why you canā€™t clean their windows tomorrow, as far as they know, your are booked up tomorrow. Yes, it is seasonal. Iā€™m in Ohio. My season starts in late March and goes into December. Iā€™m pretty much exclusively residential by choice. I like my residential customers. They are easier to deal with and get paid by, and residential pays WAAAAY better than commercial. When I started I thought commercial was the way to go to keep me going through the winter, but it doesnā€™t pay nearly as much per hour, getting paid is sometimes a pain, and cleaning windows in the winters just plain sucks. The few commercial jobs I have kept are only because I also clean the ownerā€™s homes. I only clean those commercial places in the winter when the weather permits. Yes, in February and March you will worry if anyone is going to call you to clean their windows. Donā€™t worry, they always do, and if you are good, and professional, and meticulous, and go the extra mile, all of those customers will tell all of their friends and neighbors

So, there are success stories from people who left good jobs to start a window washing business. Some of them dove in head first and took a chance. Some just dipped a toe in to test the waters first. Everyone is different and finds success in different ways. Only you know what is best for you and how to start. I can tell you this. Itā€™s the best thing that Iā€™ve ever done for myself. I still have stress, but itā€™s manageable stress that I put on myself just so I have happy customers so my business will keep being successful. Quitting my full time job was stressful too, but while I worked full time and at the same time ran my own business, I discovered that being my own boss was much more fun and rewarding.

Good luck!

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OH! Iā€™m sure I forgot more than this, but definitely get a good web site and put good graphics on your vehicle. 90% of my new customers come from these two things.

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Awesome! Thank you very much for that post. That is exactly what i was hoping to hear-someone with a very similar situation. Can i ask, do you work alone? Have you hired any employees? I have already had quite a few people tell me they would definitely hire me instead of their regular cleaners, friends and families. I was thinking commercial might be easier, not too sure about removing screens and storm windows etc but i suppose it all gets easier the more you do it. Will see what happens!

You will likely find commercial is more competitive, and you will gross less per hour. I wouldnā€™t say itā€™s easier than residential. Some commercial is a land mine with employees crap around your work area to work around. Landscaping and environmental problems (grease, diesel exhaust, etc) and funky windows can be tricky.

Though if you have to deal with a lot of storms on residential, those tend to be tricky too. But then some Pellaā€™s with interior storms are no treat either.

Just get a small selection of tools and give it a try. First on your own home, then maybe a friend or relativeā€™s home. All this chatting about it means nothing, if you end up not liking doing windows anyway. Sometimes you just have to get some experience, before you can decide if itā€™s worth wasting any more of your time with it.

Ok so i am actually going to get some tools this weekend and hopefully clean my and my inlaws windows on Sunday. If i hate it, at least i have tools to do ours again whenever they need done. Just another random question for those who left a good paying career to start their business-did any of you get any type of small business loan to help offset living expenses while you build the business?

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No loan, this is still, for the most part, a start with nothing and bootstrap your way up industry.

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Look before you leap. Do due diligence on insurances, start-up costs, taxes, rain days/low season/weather & demand also which segment of the market you will be aiming at.

Look long enoughā€¦ youā€™ll never leap.

So i bought some basic ettore stuff at lowes. I did my sliding glass door. It looks good but i struggled a little with running into a dry squeegee. I went back and watched a couple videoes and inthink i need more dawn. My water doesnt look nearly as sudsy. So tomorrow i will try again as i am busy the rest if today. It definitely is gonna take some practice to get the fanning technique down. My door frame is beveled at the edge on 3 sides, not a ledge frame ttoe and i found the squeegee running up over the edge easily. I can see the variety of different window types increasing the learning curve.

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Watch videos, videos and videos, easy way see the technique used.

In beginning focus on the pattern to cover the window and repeat over and over. Best to use least amount of movements as possible to be efficient and not over squeegee the window.

If you over squeegee, this will make you resqueegee areas already covered which are wasted steps and covering dry glass wonā€™t glide leading you to believe you need more soap when itā€™s just dry glass.

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Maximize every opportunity. I recommend putting a squeegee in the bathroom and squeegeeing the mirrors every time you shower.

been wondering bout you. you cant stop now.

youv bought the gear

the die is cast

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