Window cleaning is one of the easier trades to start. The kit is affordable, you can begin part time, and the work brings in money every week once a round is going. This covers the parts that catch people out so you start on solid ground.
The two ways to clean
There are two main methods, and most new cleaners pick one to start.
Traditional. Bucket, mop and squeegee, with a ladder for upstairs. Cheap to begin and good for getting a feel for the work. The downside is ladders for upstairs windows, which is slower and carries more risk.
Water-fed pole. A brush on a long pole fed with purified water, used from the ground. You reach upstairs windows safely without ladders, and the glass dries clean without drying by hand. It costs more to set up, but most cleaners move to it because it is faster and safer once the round grows.
Plenty of people start traditional to keep costs down, then add a water-fed pole system once the work is paying.
What it costs to start
You can start small. A basic traditional kit runs to a few hundred pounds. A water-fed pole setup with a tank and purification costs more, often well into four figures once you include a way to carry water. Add a van or a vehicle that can take your gear, fuel, and a phone for taking bookings.
You do not need everything on day one. Many cleaners start with the minimum, take on local work, and reinvest as the round fills.
Insurance and the legal bits
A few things to sort before you take money.
Register as self employed. Tell HMRC you are self employed and file a Self Assessment tax return each year. If you set up as a sole trader this is straightforward.
Public liability insurance. This covers you if you damage a property or someone is hurt. Customers, especially commercial ones, often expect it, and it is cheap peace of mind.
Data protection. If you keep customer names, addresses and contact details, you may need to register with the ICO and pay the small annual fee. Most window cleaners hold exactly this kind of information, so check whether it applies to you.
None of this is difficult, but doing it early saves trouble later.
Getting your first customers
Start in one area rather than taking work wherever it comes. Density is everything in window cleaning, because a tight round means you clean more and drive less. Leaflet a few streets several times, knock the doors that look likely, and ask every new customer if a neighbour wants the same. A more detailed walk-through is in our guide on getting window cleaning customers.
Pricing
Price for your time, not for what a customer might accept. A small terrace is a quick job, a large detached with conservatories is not, and the price should reflect that. Charge more for a first clean than for the regular visits that follow, because the first one is far more work. There is a full breakdown in our window cleaning pricing guide.
The important habit is to sell the regular clean, not the one-off. A customer cleaned every four weeks is steady income for years. One-offs pay once.
The admin that catches people out
The cleaning is the easy part. What trips new cleaners up is everything around it. Remembering who is due this week. Turning every clean into an invoice. Chasing the customers who never quite pay. Knowing, when you take on help, who did which jobs.
Early on a notebook works. As the round grows it stops working, and jobs and money start slipping through. At that point window cleaning software earns its keep: it schedules the recurring visits, orders your day into a route, and turns a finished clean into an invoice customers can pay by card. If you move across from another tool, you can import your existing round by CSV rather than typing it all in again.
A realistic first few months
Do not expect a full round straight away. Most cleaners build it street by street over months, cleaning part time while the work grows, then going full time once the income is steady. Keep your area tight, look after the customers you win, and let referrals do the slow work of filling the round.
Start small, get the legal bits in place, and focus on a tight patch. The round builds from there.