How to start a window cleaning business (worked costs)
How to start a window cleaning business, with our worked kit budgets, the jobs that pay each one back, and the 150 regular customers that make it a full time job.
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- On our planning figures a storefront kit costs about $250, a ladder kit for two story homes about $750, and a water fed pole setup about $2,250.
- At $113 of contribution per job those kits pay back in 3, 7 and 20 jobs. The kit is rarely what stops anyone.
- Three jobs a day across a 40 week season is 600 visits, which takes about 150 customers who book every quarter.
- Every regular who lapses has to be replaced, so the share of customers who come back decides how hard the first year feels.
To start a window cleaning business you need a registered business, public liability cover, a kit that matches the glass you intend to clean, a price per house, and somewhere for bookings to land. On our planning figures the kit costs between $250 and $2,250 and pays itself back inside 20 jobs. The harder number is the customer count. A full time diary takes about 150 homes that book you every quarter, and that is what the first season is really spent building.
We build the software that small local trades run their bookings and rebooking on, so treat this as our view rather than neutral advice. This post covers the kit and what it costs, how fast it comes back, storefronts against homes, the license question, your first price, and where the first customers come from. What a full year earns is in its own post, how much window cleaners make, and we do not repeat it here.
All figures are in US dollars as a reference point. The arithmetic works the same in any currency, so put your own numbers in and re-run it.
How much does it cost to start a window cleaning business?
You can buy a bucket and a squeegee for under $100, and plenty of people start that way. We budget a little more, in three tiers, because the tier decides which jobs you can say yes to. These are our planning figures, not quotes. Check prices where you buy.
| Setup | What is in it | Kit budget | Cash for the first month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storefront route | Bucket, applicator, handle with two channels, scraper, towels, tool belt | $250 | $700 |
| Homes up to two stories | The above plus an extension ladder and a standoff | $750 | $1,200 |
| Homes with a water fed pole | The above plus a pole and a purifying filter | $2,250 | $2,700 |
The last column adds one month of running costs, which we put at $450 a month for insurance, the vehicle, ladders wearing out and software. That is the same figure our earnings model uses, and over a year it is $5,400. It is more than twenty times the price of the storefront kit, and it does not stop in a quiet month. Plan around it rather than around the squeegee.
How many jobs does it take to pay the kit back?
Our earnings model prices a standard house at $120 and leaves $113 per job after card fees and supplies. Divide each kit by that.
| Kit | Budget | Jobs to pay it back | At three jobs a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storefront route | $250 | 3 | One day |
| Homes up to two stories | $750 | 7 | Under three days |
| Water fed pole | $2,250 | 20 | Under seven days |
Even the most expensive tier comes back inside two working weeks of a full diary. So the real question on day one is not whether you can afford the pole. It is whether you have twenty jobs to put it to work on. If you do not yet, start with the ladder kit, and buy the pole when a waiting list of upstairs windows pays for it.
Should you start with storefronts or homes?
Start with both, for different reasons. Storefronts fill a diary fast, and homes pay for the year.
Shops have ground floor glass, want it done often, and sit next to each other. As an illustration, ten shops on one street at $30 a visit is $300 for about two and a half hours, every month, and you can sign them on foot in a single morning. Check what shops near you actually pay before you quote. That kind of route gives a new business cash and a reason to be out working before a single homeowner has heard of you.
Homes book less often but pay more per visit, and they are where the full time number lives. The table below is that number, worked from three jobs a day across 200 working days, which is 600 visits.
| How often each home books | Visits per home per year | Homes for 600 visits |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterly | 4 | 150 |
| Twice a year | 2 | 300 |
At three new regular homes a week, 150 takes 50 weeks to build, longer than one season. At five a week it takes 30. That is why the storefront route matters so much in year one. It keeps the days paid while the home list grows.
Do you need a license to start a window cleaning business?
It depends where you work, and we will not publish a table of places because published versions contradict each other. Ask your local licensing authority what a residential cleaning business needs. Most places expect a registered business, as a sole trader, limited company or LLC, and public liability cover. Work from a ladder at height, or from ropes on a tall building, usually carries safety rules of its own, and those are the ones to confirm before the first booking. We answered the same question for another trade in do you need a license to groom dogs.
What should you charge for your first window cleaning jobs?
Counting panes is a sensible way to work a price out. Publishing it that way is a mistake, because a customer cannot book "38 panes". Turn your pane count into two or three house sizes with a fixed price and a real duration each, so a homeowner can pick one and book it.
The duration matters as much as the price. It decides how many jobs fit in your day, and how many fit in your day decides your year. Our earnings post shows why a $120 job cannot get a solo owner to $100,000 and a $150 job can, in how much window cleaners make. Price your first jobs with that in mind, even if you start lower to win the street.
How do you get your first window cleaning customers?
In this order, cheapest first.
- Walk one street of storefronts. Go in, ask for whoever runs the shop, and offer a monthly visit at a fixed price. Ten on one street is a morning's route.
- Do your own neighborhood. Clean one house, then put a card through the neighbors' doors with your price and a link to book. A link beats a phone number, because nobody wants to call a stranger at 9pm. We made the full case in why online booking beats phone tag.
- Book the next visit before you leave. The cheapest new customer is the one you already have. A home that books quarterly for five years is worth twenty visits, not one.
- Ask for a review after every finished job. A new street trusts a name its neighbors have already rated.
- Give regulars something to share. A referral reward for both sides turns a happy customer into a door you did not have to knock.
Step three is the one that decides the year. If one in four of 150 regulars lapses each year, you need 38 new homes just to stand still. If one in ten lapses, you need 15. Those 23 homes are about five weeks of door knocking, at five a week, that you never have to do. The longer argument is in how to get repeat customers, and the landscaping version of the same first year is in how to start a landscaping business.
What we do for a new window cleaning business
The steps above need a price list with durations, a booking link, a reminder when a home is due, a review request and a referral link. That is what we build.
Your services, priced by house size with a duration each, live in managing your services, and the hours you take bookings in are set in setting your availability. You set a rebooking interval, quarterly for most homes, and a reminder goes out when each one is due with a one tap link to book the next visit, as recurring visits and rebooking explains. Reminders and review requests go out by email. Reviews come to you first and show on your site once you approve them, per reviews, and referrals gives every customer a shareable link. A deposit at booking holds a slot against a forgotten appointment, set in how you charge.
That is one of the live storefronts we run, seen on a phone, which is where a door card's link lands. It is a mobile car detailer, not a window cleaner. We have no window cleaning storefront yet and would rather say so than show you a mockup. It is the closest thing we run to a window route, a van that goes to the customer with a priced service list, a booking button and a deposit.
Two things stay with you. We do not plan your route, and we do not quote per pane. You can put a test booking through the live demos to see the whole loop before deciding anything.
The short version
The kit costs $250 to $2,250 on our figures and pays back inside 20 jobs. The running cost of about $450 a month is the number to plan around. A full time diary is about 150 homes booking quarterly, which takes most of a season to build, so a storefront route carries the first months. Whether those homes book again decides how much door knocking year two needs.
More on this trade sits in the window cleaning hub, and other trades' first customers are in get more customers.