How to grow your window cleaning business

This article will help you achieve your growth goal, from getting more work/leads to growing your team.

Before you start trying to grow your window cleaning business, you’ll need to set your expectations for what you want to achieve and what business growth means to you.

What are you looking to grow in your business?

Business growth can happen in many different ways. It doesn’t necessarily always mean having more customers.

You might have plans to grow your window revenue through a number of methods. For example:

• By getting more work
• Expanding the type of services you offer
• Covering more locations

Growth is also about staying efficient and minimising costs while expanding naturally to become more profitable.

Take some time to think about what ‘growth’ means for your business:

• What does ‘growth’ look like?
• How will you achieve that growth?
• How will you gauge success?

Knowing how to grow your window cleaning business successfully means understanding who you are, where you currently are, and where you want to be.

How to grow a window cleaning business

It is very common to start small when building your own business. Trying not to overstretch yourself, you can build from the ground up.

Growing a window cleaning business means getting familiar with the process of identifying, setting, and achieving realistic targets.

What growth targets should you set for your business?

Growth can be achieved in various ways, so it’s important to consider what growth targets would be appropriate for your business.

Some examples of growth targets include:

1. Getting more work
2. Increased revenue
3. Developing a bigger team
4. Expanding your services

How will you achieve your growth targets?

The next stage is to plan how you’ll achieve the growth targets you’ve set for your business.

We have a FREE business development strategy template to help you do this, and a really useful article to explain what information to include:

Setting your growth targets

Once your company has found its feet and has a regular workflow, consider the ways you could look to expand.

Below, we’ve listed a few of the ways to grow your window cleaning business.

1. Growth target: want more work?

To get more work, you need to attract more customers.

Within your original business plan, you would’ve written up a marketing strategy. Now you’re in a position to grow, take a look over your marketing plan and check whether you’ve put all your plans in motion. What worked? Or didn’t? What could you do differently? Do you need to think of some new ways to promote your business?

Some marketing tactics you may want to consider include:

Traditional marketing

• Sponsorship (e.g. a local sports team or community event)
• Networking (e.g. building relationships with other trades)
• Incentives. Offer incentives to new customers when they sign up for regular window cleaning over a set period of time. This means more repeat work, allowing you to build your client base.

Digital marketing

• Build a company website
• Add new content to your company social media profiles
• Join an online trade directory
• Set up a Google Business profile
• Ask for customer reviews

Check out our FREE marketing planning guide and checklist to help create a clear list of marketing tactics and responsibilities.

2. Growth target: want increased revenue?

To get more money coming in, as well as leads, you need to secure more sales. But how?

You need to make sure that if you visit a property to provide a quote, that you leave the customer with no doubt that you’re the right person for the job.

Want to know how to sharpen your sales toolkit? Check out these articles to help you do this:

• How to increase your close rate
• How to win new business
• How to upsell/cross-sell to existing customers
• Tips to increase profits

Something to consider is that in 2024 alone, there were over 194,000 searches for window cleaning jobs via the Checkatrade website.*

With that kind of interest already out there, ask yourself about the best way to tap into those potential customers and win more work.

3. Growth target: want to develop a bigger team?

If you have a pipeline of steady work, and perhaps you’re unable to fulfil the demand for your services, it might be time to consider how to hire employees. An extra pair of hands means you can spread the load.

You’ll need to understand your legal responsibilities, though when you start employing people. For example, it’s a legal requirement to have employers’ liability insurance.

You’ll also need to understand company payroll and learn about holiday pay.

4. Growth target: want to expand your service offering?

If you work mainly on domestic properties, it might be time to branch into commercial contracts for small offices and high-street shops.

Taking on commercial window cleaning could mean:

• Using cranes
• Making use of cherry pickers
• Finding out how to use abseiling equipment
• Specialist equipment and training for larger properties

Perhaps there are more services you can offer your domestic clients, for example, gutter clearance or solar panel cleaning?

Whatever route you choose, investing in new equipment is a great way of offering more and better-quality services. This means you can work more efficiently and charge more for your work.

Whatever growth targets you set, they must be S.M.A.R.T

• Specific – what does the task involve?
• Measurable – how will you quantify success?
• Achievable – is this attainable given the resources, knowledge, and time available?
• Realistic – is the target realistic to the confines of your job and your existing responsibilities?
• Time-bound – when should the target be achieved by?

Running a window cleaning business

When you’re running a window cleaning business, there are lots of things to consider. Below, we’ve set out some of the most important considerations for any window cleaning business owner trying to achieve growth.

Considerations for business growth

There are some other important considerations to make when planning your business growth.

• Funding – Will you need to source additional funding to facilitate your growth plans?
• Business structure – Is it still suitable to operate as a sole trader as your business expands?
• Company finances – Do you need an accountant to help you stay tax efficient and compliant?
• Workforce – Do you need to bring on more people or extra staff in other areas?
• Business processes – Are your processes and programmes scalable? Are there apps that could help?

There are many ways that you could grow. If you’ve set your goals in your business plan, make sure that your new plans are also achievable.

How to tell if you’ve reached your targets?

The simplest way to know if you’ve achieved your targets is to measure them.

Draw up a chart that includes your target, your current figure, the figure you’re aiming for, and the % increase. Populate the chart at regular frequencies so you can monitor your progress.

Growing your window cleaning business with Checkatrade

If all of this seems overwhelming, there is a simple solution. Checkatrade is the UK’s leading trade directory, which can help to launch and grow your window cleaning business.

Here are just a few reasons to join a network of trusted tradespeople with a Checkatrade membership:

• Custom member profile – to show reviews and photos
• Help with lead generation
• Exclusive offers and discounts on business essentials like tools and workwear
• Savings on public liability insurance
• Use of the Checkatrade trades app
• Guaranteed work up to £1,000 when booked through us (T&Cs apply)

Why not speak to one of our team today about the different membership options we have? We can help you pick a membership that is perfect to help grow your window cleaning business with more leads in your chosen area.

Our fixed term membership plans give you an easier way to help manage marketing spend for a set volume of leads.

* Data sourced internally from job searches on the Checkatrade.com website in 2024