hi, im kevin and i live in belgium. im 30 years old and currently i am a male nurse in a psychiatric ward.
my dad is a window cleaner for 32 years or so… ive done some vacation work with him and always enjoyed it so much…
Now im at a point in my life that im thinking of quiting my job because its mentally so exhausting, drugs and aggresion are taking over the ward and i just dont enjoy it anymore… also my wife just started working in different shifts again and for our childeren it just aint that ideal. she changed jobs a lot for the good case (childeren etc…) and maybe its just my time to do it now…
so short story; i thinking to become a window cleaner… i have a little experience but realize that vacation work isnt the same like being responsible for the work you do and for the company you work.
what can you guys advise me? what would you do?
ps; my dad already said im crazy for giving up a good job
pss; sorry if my english isnt that good… i speak dutch normally…
It’s no fun to be stuck in a job you’re burned out on. I would suggest that you first assess your personal skill level, “do you think you can handle cleaning a big house on your own?” “Can you stick to a route and move along efficiently?” Ask yourself things like that to determine whether you think you could persue the biz venture now, or do you need more training?
Come up with a plan. Think of all that you’ll need and count the expectated expense. Tools, ladders, insurance, forms of advertisement.
Jump in to deep to fast and you could drown with any biz venture, see what you can do to just get your feet wet at first. Best of luck to you!
And welcome to the group!
I started to branch off on my own at first by taking side jobs on Saturdays. I was with a big cleaning and restoration company at the time but they didn’t want anything to do with windows so no conflict of interest.
Later, I was able to get a decent paying job where my boss new I had the goal of working for myself and he would be flexible with giving me time to work on my business. It’s worked out great over the past few years. I still work with him during the winter for now since I focus on residential clients and it’s slow over the winter.
This is just my experience though, I’ve been in the cleaning business for about 9yrs but I’m a lot newer as a business owner. If you wanna try it out, it can be a great field to be in, I really enjoy it. It’s not for everyone though, make sure you like it before investing all your time and effort into it.
Kind of a winded response, hope that’s not to much info.
Oh, and be sure to do some reading on this forum, some of the guys on here seem to be good, seasoned pros, more experienced than myself. They can be great to learn from.
Hey @seels! Welcome to the forum! Glad you’re here
I’d take it slowly, and like it was discussed, try working perhaps on the weekends for awhile with a company. See if this is going to be for you. Also cleaning glass is only a small portion of of the buisness.
Running and growing the company will be the most difficult part. Marketing , accounting, customer relations ect. If you already have a background in these fields you will be ahead of the curve. But either way you will have to master or at least learn a lot of different fields to own and operate and profitable buisness. Or have the capital to hire professionals to do this for you.
Hi,im from belgium too(oostende),and i have been a windowcleaner for 17y.There is some very good advice from others here and y should consider it.I would strongly suggest you start as we say in Dutch as zelfstandig bijberoep and see if this job is something for you.Its not all fun like in lukes movies.The belgian winter is no fun to work in,high taxes( belgium:scream:) and many more problem.
I gladly give you more advice if jou want top,because i believe that every country has its specific problems and benefits.
Take care
im looking for some starter gear. now at approx 200m there is a shop with window cleaner gear. they mostly have unger gear. if i had to choose 1 type op squeechie what would you recommend? the ninja or the regular green ergotec. my dad told me he find the ninja to bulky and to heavy…
A wide body like the Unger Ninja can span a longer distance and still maintain pressure evenly across the squeegee because it has more material to support the channel from tip to tip.
It allows you to use longer squeegees to save you time cleaning larger windows.
