What starting in window cleaning involves
Window cleaning is the round trade most people picture: a van, a pole or a ladder, and a list of houses you visit every few weeks. How often a customer comes back: every 4 weeks for many customers and every 8 weeks for others. The aim is to build a list of people you serve again and again.
Customers come back often, so a regular book of a few hundred houses can fill a working week. A tight, well-priced round matters more than any single job.
The order to do things in
- Decide how you'll clean: pole, ladder or both. It decides your kit and your price
- Get public liability insurance that covers work at height before the first customer
- Tell HMRC you're self-employed and set up a way to keep your records
- Price a typical house using the time-and-rate method, then set a minimum
- Win a first street, then the streets around it. A tight round beats a scattered one
- Set up payments so the money arrives without you chasing it
Kit to start with
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Water-fed pole and pure-water system | Lets you clean to the first floor from the ground, but it's the biggest outlay |
| Ladders and a ladder stabiliser | Many rounds still need a ladder for some houses |
| Squeegees, buckets, scrim and a scraper | The traditional kit; cheap and always useful as a back-up |
| A van, or a car with a roof rack to start | Vans keep wet kit away from the inside of your car |
| Workwear and a hi-vis if you do commercial | Some commercial customers expect it |
Running costs to expect: resin for the pure-water system, filters and hoses, squeegee rubbers, a little cleaning solution, fuel.
Rules to check before you start
- The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to ladder work. HSE's ladder guidance covers when a ladder is the right tool and how to use it safely
- Check the HSE guidance on work near overhead power lines
Also read insurance for window cleaners before you take your first customer.
Finding your first customers
- Leaflet a street, then knock on doors the day after you've cleaned a neighbour's windows
- Tell the neighbours of every customer you win: 'I'm doing number 12 on Thursday'
- Put your number on the van and a card through the door when you finish
- Join your local Facebook community groups and answer window-cleaning questions helpfully
- Ask each happy customer for a Google review while you're still on the doorstep
More in how to get your first customers.
How many customers you'll need
Using the example sums in how to price window cleaning, about 204 jobs a month earns £2,000 after costs. That's roughly 245 regular customers. Work it out with your own numbers before you promise yourself anything.
Mistakes new window cleaners make
- Pricing from what the last cleaner charged, not from your time
- Taking on far-flung customers that wreck the round
- Leaving winter unplanned and spending the savings
- Collecting cash by hand and losing track of who owes
Run your window cleaning in WorkWise
A week you can move around: A week board you can drag to move a day, and a Today list on your phone for the stops.