If you’ve ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you.
Each Monday, the Money blog speaks to someone from a different profession to discover what it’s really like. Today we speak to Kieron Fosher, window cleaner and owner of KF Specialist Exterior Cleaning in Kent…
To get into the industry, most people… either buy an existing round or start from scratch with basic equipment and build up gradually. You can start with ladders and tools for under £1,000 if you really want to, but to run a professional setup with a van and purified water system you’re probably looking at £5,000 to £15,000 to get going properly.
Find latest tips and personal finance news in the Money blog
Chasing payments can be frustrating… The physical work is the easy part. Managing the admin and cash flow is where the real business side comes in.
An employed window cleaner in the UK might earn somewhere between… £22,000 and £30,000 a year depending on experience and location. If you’re self-employed and have a solid round, it’s very realistic to take home £30,000 to £50,000 before tax. Once you start building a team and running multiple vans, it can go a lot higher than that.
My top tip for avoiding streaky windows at home is… don’t clean them in direct sunlight because the water dries too fast. Use a proper squeegee and wipe the blade after each pass. Most streaks happen because people use too much soap or a dirty cloth.
A tiny drop of washing-up liquid in warm water is… more than enough for clean windows. People tend to overdo it with products and that’s what causes smearing.
Pricing depends on quite a few things… Property size matters, but so does access, how often the windows are cleaned, where the house is located and how efficiently it fits into your route. A typical three-bed semi in many parts of the UK would sit somewhere between £18 and £30 a clean.
People often think it’s just a quick wipe… but professional window cleaning involves specialist equipment, purified water systems and running a proper business. You’re paying for reliability and consistency as much as the clean itself.
The smartest financial decision I made early in my career was… investing in a proper water-fed pole system. It made the work safer, quicker and more consistent. It also meant I could take on bigger properties and commercial work. Spending money on the right equipment at the right time makes a huge difference.
People value reliability more than anything… If you turn up when you say you will and do a good job, they stick with you for years. It’s also taught me to be resilient because the weather doesn’t always cooperate and you still have to keep things moving.
People forget we’re outside… more often than you’d expect. You quickly learn to stay professional and look away if needed.
Read more from this series:
Marine biologist on one thing you can do to save planet
‘I can lend someone £100,000 in an hour’: Life of a pawnbroker
‘I’m a nanny – this is what society gets wrong about raising children’
My most awkward encounter on a ladder was… when I knocked on what I thought was a front window to let someone know I was there. It turned out to be a bedroom window and someone was asleep inside. That was a quick apology and finishing the clean professionally, of course.
You definitely see pets behaving very differently… when they think nobody’s watching. Dogs especially seem to think the pole is some sort of game.
The most annoying comment… is someone telling you that you’ve missed a bit before you’ve even finished.
To handle working in the winter… good layers and waterproof clothing are essential. Thermal gloves help a lot. The biggest challenge is frozen equipment or icy mornings, so sometimes you start slightly later and plan around the weather.
For more information about how we use your data and your rights, you can visit our Privacy Centre.
During the cost of living crisis… some customers have stretched their cleaning frequency a bit, but overall demand is still strong. Clean windows make a home feel better and it’s one of the more affordable home services, so many people keep it going.
A technique people might not know about is that… most professional cleaners now use purified water systems. The water is filtered so it dries completely spot-free without needing to wipe. That’s how we can clean upstairs windows from the ground and still get a perfect finish.
My best tip for earning more without working longer hours is… improve efficiency and gradually increase your average price. Tight routes and good pricing matter more than trying to cram in more jobs.
If I could go back and change one decision in my career, I would… have put my prices up sooner. A lot of window cleaners undercharge when they start and spend years trying to catch up. Charging properly from the beginning saves a lot of headaches later.
Most weeks I’m out working around 35 to 45 hours… That’s usually daytime hours because we rely on daylight, so roughly 8am to 4pm. In the summer we can stretch that a bit longer, but winter is tighter. If you run your own business there’s always extra time in the evenings doing quotes, messages, scheduling and paperwork. Hours spent on the business is more like 60 hours a week.
