How to start a window cleaning round

Window cleaning is one of the most straightforward service businesses to start: modest equipment, no premises, and customers who need you again every few weeks. The rounds that do well are the ones built carefully: tight geography, fair prices, reliable cycles and getting paid without chasing. This guide covers starting out. Once you're up and running, window cleaning round management covers cycles, rain days and payment.

1. Choose your method: ladders, water-fed poles or both

Most new window cleaners pick between:

• Traditional (squeegee and applicator, ladders for upper floors). Low start-up cost, but more work at height.
• Water-fed pole (purified water through a brush on a pole, from the ground). Higher start-up cost for the pole, water purification and a tank or van system, but much less ladder work and often quicker on houses.

Many end up with both: a pole for most work and traditional kit for inside cleans, conservatories and awkward spots.

2. Working at height safely

Falls from ladders are a real risk in this trade. HSE says ladders "can be a sensible and practical option for low-risk, short-duration tasks, although they should not automatically be your first choice" (HSE: safe use of ladders and stepladders). Read HSE's guidance on choosing and checking ladders, and think about whether a pole lets you do the job from the ground instead.

3. Licences: check if you're in Scotland

In Scotland, gov.uk says most councils require window cleaners to have a licence. You apply to the council for the area where you'll work, pay a fee that varies by council, and may need to show proof of public liability insurance and provide passport photographs. Most councils issue licences lasting 3 years, and you may need to wear an ID badge or carry the licence while working (gov.uk: window cleaner's licence (Scotland)). If you work across council boundaries, check each one.

Elsewhere in the UK, ask your local council whether anything applies to your area.

4. Insurance and registering the business

• Public liability insurance covers you if you damage property or injure someone while working. Scottish councils may ask for proof of it for your licence, and commercial customers usually ask too.
• Employers' liability insurance is required by law as soon as you become an employer, with at least £5 million of cover, subject to some exemptions (gov.uk: employers' liability insurance).
• Self Assessment. As a sole trader, gov.uk says you must register for Self Assessment if you earn more than £1,000 from self-employment in a tax year (gov.uk: set up as a sole trader).

Tell your vehicle insurer you're using the vehicle for business, and check equipment cover for poles and water systems, which are expensive to replace.

5. Decide your patch before your first customer

The single biggest factor in how much you earn per hour is how close your customers are to each other. Ten houses on one street can take less time than five spread across town. Before you canvass:

• Pick a small area with lots of similar houses: estates, terraces, streets of semis.
• Decide on a target, such as "fill these six streets before moving on".
• Say no, or price higher, for one-off jobs far outside your patch.

6. Set your prices

Price by property type and frequency, not by guesswork at the door. A simple price list (for example by number of bedrooms or windows, front and back, with frames and sills as extras) keeps quotes consistent and quick.

Work backwards from what you need to earn per hour. If a street of ten houses takes you two hours including moving between them, the total for those ten houses is your hourly rate for that street. Our round pricing calculator helps you set prices that cover your costs and target income, and how to price rounds explains cost per stop.

Example only: if you want £30 an hour after costs and a typical semi takes 15 minutes plus 5 minutes travelling to the next one, you need roughly £10 per house before allowing for fuel, water, insurance and unpaid time like rain days. Use your own numbers.

7. Find customers

Common approaches for new rounds:

• Leaflets and door knocking in your chosen streets. Clean one house well and ask the neighbours.
• Buying a round from someone leaving the trade. Faster, but check the customer list is real and how many pay reliably.
• Local online groups and a simple website with your area, prices and how to book.
• Commercial work (shops, offices) for weekday daytime work, often on a fixed schedule.

8. Set your cycle and keep records

Most domestic customers are on a four, six or eight-weekly cycle. Keep each customer's address, cycle, price, access notes (gate codes, dogs, side access) and payment record together. A paper book works at the start; it gets hard once you pass a hundred customers or add a second person. The free schedule template is a starting point.

Plan each working day

Once you have more than a few streets, decide which streets you'll do on which day of your cycle, and keep that pattern. Customers get used to seeing you on "the second Tuesday", and you get used to the order you work a street in. Within a day, work one side of a road then the other, park once and walk where you can, and finish the day near home or near where you refill water. When rain stops work, move the whole day rather than cherry-picking; it keeps the cycle intact. The free route planner will put a day's addresses into a sensible driving order if you work across several areas.

Keep a short note against each property of anything that slows you down: a gate code, a dog, a conservatory roof, a window you can't reach from the ground. It speeds up the next visit and means someone else can cover the round if you're ill.

9. Get paid without chasing

Agree how you'll be paid before the first clean. Cash at the door is common but means calling back when people are out. Sending a bill after each clean with an online card link, or accepting bank transfer, means you don't need the customer at home.

RoundSorted can run a window round: customers on four-, six- or eight-weekly cycles, the day's work in driving order on your phone with "Take me there" for each house, notes and photos, and invoices customers pay by card through your own Stripe account or by transfer or cash. See RoundSorted for window cleaners.