WindowBossPro Blog — Running a Window Cleaning Business

How to Start a Window Cleaning Business: The First Ninety Days

Window cleaning is one of the simpler service businesses to start. The tools are not expensive, the skill can be learned, and almost every home and storefront in town has glass that gets dirty. That low barrier is also why so many new window cleaning businesses fade out in their first year. The owners can clean windows. They just never set up the business around the cleaning.

Start With the Big Picture

If you have not read it yet, Running a Window Cleaning Business: The Complete Guide From First Ladder to Second Van lays out the whole path from one van to a company. This article zooms in on the first three months, when the habits you build decide how hard the next three years will be.

Think of the first ninety days in three blocks of about a month each: set up, first customers, and first recurring work.

Days 1 to 30: Set Up the Basics

Before the first job, handle the paperwork that every service business needs. Register the business the way your state or province requires, open a separate business bank account, and talk to an insurance agent about general liability coverage for work on other people's property. Ask the agent what they expect from you around ladders and heights, because that conversation will shape your safety procedures.

Then buy the gear you actually need. A reliable vehicle that can carry ladders, a good extension ladder and a step ladder, squeegees, scrubbers, towels, scrapers, a bucket and belt, and drop cloths for inside work. Many owners add a water-fed pole early for second-story exterior glass. Buy for the work you will do this season, not the work you hope to do in three years.

Finally, set up your records. Decide where every customer, address and job will live before you have any. That decision is covered in Getting a Window Cleaning Business Off Paper From Day One, and it is the one most new owners regret putting off.

Days 31 to 60: The First Customers

The first customers usually come from people who already know you: friends, family, neighbors, former coworkers. Tell them plainly that you have started a window cleaning business and ask if they or anyone they know needs windows done. Then widen the circle.

• Door hangers near jobs. Every time you clean a house, leave flyers on the five homes on either side. Neighbors see the result and the van.
• Walk the storefronts. Visit small retail strips on foot. Ask the manager how often the front glass gets cleaned and offer a price for every two weeks.
• A simple website with a request form. Even one page with your service area, what you do and a quote request form gives people a way to reach you after hours.
• A business profile with reviews. Ask every happy customer for a review in the first month. Early reviews matter more than later ones.

When a request comes in, go look at the property, count the windows, note the stories and access, and send a written quote. Do not guess prices over the phone if you can avoid it.

Pricing the First Jobs

New owners almost always price too low. They want the work and they are scared of losing it. The trouble is that low prices set by your first customers become the prices your first customers expect forever.

Build prices from a service list instead of from fear. Pick a price per window for outside work, an add-on for inside, add-ons for second and third stories, and set prices for screens, tracks and hard-water removal. Then check the result against the time each job will take and what you need to earn per day. The full approach is in Pricing a Window Cleaning Business for Profit, Not Just Volume.

In WindowBossPro, estimates are built from your service list, so the same house gets the same price no matter who quotes it. The customer approves online, and the approved estimate becomes scheduled services.

Days 61 to 90: Turn Jobs Into Recurring Work

The single biggest step in the first ninety days is converting one-time customers into recurring ones. Every time you finish a job, ask: “Would you like us to come back every three months or twice a year?” Most homeowners have never been asked. Storefronts expect it.

Once a customer agrees, set them on a plan with a minimum number of days between visits: 14 or 30 for storefronts, 90 or 180 for homes. In WindowBossPro the plan comes due on its own and shows on the Waiting List when it is time. That means your recurring customers do not depend on you remembering them during the spring rush.

By the end of ninety days, aim to have a short list of recurring storefronts, a growing list of quarterly or twice-a-year homes, and a record for every address with its windows, stories, sides, extras and access notes.

What to Skip in the First Ninety Days

New owners waste time on the wrong things. You do not need a fancy logo package, branded uniforms or a big advertising spend in the first month. You do need clean work, fast responses to quote requests, written prices and complete records. Get those right and the rest can wait.

The Foundation for Everything After

The first ninety days are short, but they set the pattern. An owner who records every job, prices from a list and asks for recurring work at every visit has a real business by month four. For the tools that support each step of running and growing the company, see the window cleaning business software page.