Question:
Could I make a living cleaning windows and gutters?
Marion
2013-04-30 09:23:55 UTC
I'm wanting to start my own business, and am thinking about window and gutter cleaning service. Just wondering if I could make a decent living at it? Also, I live in a rural area with a lot of senior citizens, which would primarily be my customers.
Four answers:
?
2013-04-30 10:36:00 UTC
What do you call a decent living? If you mean $15K/year perhaps. You would have to have a heck of a lot of customers to make a living assuming you are charging a fair price Keep in mind gutters are cleaned once a year or twice at the most. Windows are usually cleaned twice a year. I'd recommend this as a part-time job and get a real job. See how it develops.
Corky R
2013-04-30 17:03:53 UTC
If these seniors are what would be considered, "well off, or handicapped", you can definitely make a decent living, most likely just doing windows. I remember back in the early 80's there was a definite slowdown of business in the area of the country where I lived. I had a stable job, which required that I spend time in an office setting a lot, and I remember when I first started at that job, I decided to wash the windows one day. We had several windows in the office, between offices and the aisles, plus a fairly large display window in the front of the store. By the time I got out the water, found some soap, some rags, a squeegee, handle, etc., and got them washed and dried, it had taken approximately an afternoon. (Lucky we weren't very busy that day). I certainly didn't enjoy doing the job and it took much longer than it should have. Time went on to the point where the windows were needing to be washed again and I was dreading going through that whole process when a young man, probably in his mid-thirties, came by the office, walked in and asked if we could use a window washer. I asked him how much and he said for a job this size, probably about $20. That sounded great to us so I decided to have him do the job. I went back to my work, figuring he'd come to me when he was finished, as I had already shown him where the water supply was. He had all his own tools, bucket, squeegee, rags, handles. I was barely back at my regular job in the office, when he came back to say he was done, would I care to inspect the work. I took a quick walk around with him and the windows were **** & span.............. in twenty minutes. I could hardly believe it. I paid him and he went on his way. Now that small office was in a small, one block long mall, where there were maybe 5 or 6 other stores, with large front windows. Within a couple of months he was doing all those other stores as well as ours, every two weeks. He said one time while he was at our office that it took him about 4 hours to do all those stores, but that a couple of them were quite a bit larger than ours. So, even if he charged each one $20, for 20 minute's work, that's $1/min. That's $60/an hour, x 4 hours = $240 for the afternoon. Not bad wages. As for the gutter cleaning end of the operation, there are some special tools that you can purchase that when attached to the end of a garden hose, will clean 98% of all the junk, gunk, dirt and live trees out of the gutters of most homes. Personally, if I were you, I'd limit that part of the business to single story homes. If you should have an accident with a ladder or just fall off the roof of a single story house, you stand a decent chance of not only surviving the fall, but doing so in good enough health to be able to continue on with your work. You would have to price those jobs out depending on the amount of time since the gutters were last cleaned and whatever else there were in the way of extenuating circumstances. It can be done, it just depends on how willing you are to work and work hard, and sometimes, long hours. Good luck.
ET
2013-04-30 17:35:00 UTC
anyone in business for themselves has to be fully insured.$$$..ask an insurance agent. suggest you check with City/Town/Village clerk(s) where you plan to do business.



You have to hussel. Keep a list of your customers, and their phone numbers. Either set up a reular schedule for washing windows, or call them ahead of time to schedule cutter cleaning appointments.



Beware of what th competition charges. If NO ONE else is providing this service, chances are that others have found there is either NO DEMAND or NO PROFIT.



add lawn mowing, lawn raking, and snow plowing/blowing to your list of services.



visit www.score.org read this site thoroughly....take advantage of their FREE service at a local chapter office.
MissWong
2013-04-30 17:05:42 UTC
I think that's a great idea. There's no limit to people who need this sort of work done. But keep your prices reasonable or no one can afford it. If you do a good job people will be repeat customers and you should be able to raise the rates a bit. There's plenty of other little jobs people need and they may ask about it and give you more ideas to make money.


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