Part-time business idea – washing windows

Do you have a head for heights and like being outdoors in pretty much all weathers? Well if you don’t mind physical work then setting up a window cleaning business could provide you with a good opportunity to earn extra money working from home part time. You need to be committed to this business. Washing windows as a business depends on repeat business and personal reputation. Customers expect you to turn up when you have agreed to, and they will expect you to perform a good and thorough job. You are likely to be operating your window cleaning business within a fairly specific local area and it will succeed or fail because of what your customers say about you to their friends and neighbours. So you need to be disciplined and keep a diary for your bookings. Take pride in your work and clean each window as if it’s the first one you’ve washed – not as if it’s the tenth house on your round that day. If customers can see that you care about delivering a good service they will recommend you to others and you will soon have a profitable business. Marketing yourself is quite easy. You can get flyers printed very cheaply to advertise your service and then identify the area in which you are going to work and deliver your flyers door to door. You might also consider approaching local businesses for contract work, and you may be able to get work through estate agents; many operate a property management service through their lettings departments and are likely to require window cleaning on a regular basis. You’ll probably need to have a car or small van to get around, and ladders are an essential investment, but start-up costs are reasonably low. If this sounds like a good idea for making extra money it would be worth registering as a member on www.cleanitup.co.uk, an online forum where you can keep in touch with other window cleaners and get help and advice.