you needed $1200 a day to survive? lets see here MATH… so you needed
$438,000 a year to survive?
?? Do you work 365 days a year? I’m pretty sure people were talking about work days…
Are you in business?
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post of the day prize goes to Mr Lacey. Congratulations Sir.
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Ok cool guy 
so let’s take out the weekends that’s 52 saturdays and 52 sundays that leaves us with 261 working days so let’s go to good old math ohhhhh look at that so it’s $313,000 a year wow most people are ok with $65,000 this guy needs 313 
To survive
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be a wise guy.
If my choice of employment were strictly about survival, I wouldn’t be in business for myself. There are much less stressful ways to ‘get by’.
If I have to work 52 weeks per year to generate a workable salary, I’m not charging enough to justify self-employment.
To have an “equivalent” employment salary of $65k, it requires around $100k of gross income or more. That’s taking into account all of the perks of being employed by a company:
•Health insurance
•paid time off (sick days, vacation)
•matching 401k
•workman’s compensation insurance
•employment tax, etc, etc.
Plus the overhead of running the business, itself:
•insurance
•vehicles and equipment
•advertising/marketing
•book keeping and tax prep. Whether you try and do it all yourself, or hire out, it’s gonna cost you somehow.
•all the other stuff I’m forgetting at the moment
To illustrate how someone might “need” to make $1,200/day power washing, I’m going to share with you some of my numbers.
I don’t personally make $1,200/day very often. I work solo. 85% of my income last year was from window cleaning, but I’m trying to transition into more power washing.
In most parts of the country, power washing is very seasonal. In New England, I’m doing well if I get 35 good work weeks. And there will be several days where weather is poor during that time. I also don’t have perfect health: I can’t count on taking off sick only during the winter.
So if I average 35 weeks at an average of 4.5 days each (some more, some less), I have 157 work days to make my goal $100k. We’ll round down to 150 work days to make the math easier and to account for the unforseen. That’s a daily average of $667/day. Most days of window cleaning do not generate that much income. I probably average around $425 per day of window cleaning, because I have a lot of houses that take more than half the day and don’t allow enough time to fit in a second job.
If I am able to transition my workload this year to 2/3 window cleaning and 1/3 power washing, that means 100 days at $425 = $42,500. Leaving me with 50 power washing days to make the remaining $57,500 = $1,150/day. In my market, these figures are not unreasonable.
There are a lot of other reasons why someone would “need” to make $1,200/day/man. Maybe they have employees. They’re darn expensive. It costs approximately 1.6 times an employee’s salary just to keep them employed (to break even and not actually make any profit from them).
Or maybe they have a higher standard of living, or live in an area with a much higher cost of living. $65,000 doesn’t go far in parts of NYC or NJ.
The guys that came and washed your house for a crazy low price, are either working on high volume (ton of houses, banging one out after another), or have severely undervalued their work. Or both.
IMHO, They are not the example you want to follow if you’re seriously considering this as a career. If prices are honestly that low in Miami, and the market will not bear more, I would recommend a change of location before opening shop.
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That was one of the best posts I’ve ever seen…Hopefully Prov. 9:8B applies here.
Nice logo, BTW
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Thanks. I hope so 
$65k is great if you are working for someone. I have to turn out $19k a week to make payroll, pay bills, and meet my quota. Hard to do that at $240 for a house and roof. Everyone has different needs and wants I guess.
How in the hell do you guys figure a $65k year okay? I honestly couldn’t imagine surviving on that. I mean if we lived in a shack, drove 30 year old cars, and didn’t have three kids then MAYBE. But in todays world, 65k is poverty…
Well this thread was brought back from the dead lol
Your correct but I want to do this on the weekends as supplemental income will not be my carrer m, but im here because if I’m going to do this I want to do it right now half assed, the going rate in Miami is about $165 for a roof and about $100 for he walls of the house about $75 for a driveway . Now when I hear you guys say you charge $700 for a roof im salivating at the possibilities lol
So your basically saying 99% of the world is in poverty because the average salary in the USA is $41,000
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There is a huge difference in a person making $50k a year with benefits vs a business making $50k a year. Odds are you would profit $25-$30k. Then you have to pay roughly 30% of that in taxes. That leaves you with $21k to pay your bills and live. Oh wait your engine just went in your washer there goes another $2k. And you need new truck tires or a transmission. A lot more goes into this than you think. If it’s not going to be a career don’t go into it. But If you must. Charge accordingly. If you charge double the going rate you will make just as much money doing half the work and less wear and tear on your equipment as well as help the industry for the rest of us.
Well, just a heads up, you’ll probably get some hate from some members here who look down on the ‘weekend warriors’, because they see it as stealing work from “legit” businesses.
I don’t really see it that way. You do what you gotta do to provide for your family and make ends meet.
To get $700 for a roof, or even half that, you’re going to need to have the appearance and professionalism of being legit.
If you get a weekend job, and the customer calls you monday to say you missed a spot, will you be in the position to go out and fix it asap?
Will you be insured, along with any necessary licensing or other costs associated with running a legit biz?
I believe it is possible to run a part time business and keep things on a professional level. It can be done with fairly low overhead and high profit margins. But it requires having your ducks in a row and some out of the box thinking.
If you look like a weekend warrior, you’ll never get the prices that the big guys are getting.
I cannot speak with any authority regarding prices in your area. I know in my part of the country, there are a few competitors that are much cheaper than I am, with higher overhead. But I’m a small fish in a small pond, with plenty of work to go around, and plenty of customers who see a higher value in what I offer. If your area really is highly saturated with low cost options, it will be a difficult market to break into, especially at pricing that will be profitable for a part time outfit.
Edit: I also wanted to reiterate what others have said: the costs of running a business can add up quickly, and in ways you might not be entirely aware of. Keep records of every direct and indirect cost you incur. This includes your personal time, or ‘sweat equity’.
If you’re not careful, you may inadvertently end up subsidizing your new ‘business’ with the income from your day job. Which makes it not a business, but a hobby. Or you may realize that your actual take-home wage, all costs and time accounted for, is less than your day job.
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i don’t mind doing a roof here and there and earn an extra $400 a week I’m not in it for the $20,000 dollar set ups and the $900 water pumps to impress a customer nor I plan to open a company this will be my hobby and a little extra cash, and no im not the one that brings a surface washer up to a shingle roof I will do it the right way just not the business way
Also I’m a firm believer in it’s not the tool it’s the person I’ve been a professional painter for 20 years and I guarantee anyone here that I can give you the best best brush in the world and I’ll take the Walmart one if you have no experience or common sense you will not do a better job no matter what tools you have ( the bandit the fatguy whatever they are called ) I’m sure the same applies to pressure wash. Now please do not take this post offensive or angry I am actually just trying to start a productive conversation to up my knowledge and get good feedback from professionals like you guys
100% true. But you’d much rather be using a good brush than a walmart one, right? Same concept applies to most service industries, really. No need to start out with the top of the line stuff right out of the gate. It will make your success that much sweeter when you’re able to upgrade down the road.
Keep your startup costs to a minimum, and reinvest your earnings aggressively for the first couple years. No need to go into debt over this, especially if it’s not your primary income (yet 
)
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Your the man Alex thanks for the input
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Ehh, I’m just regurgitating what I’ve learned here and on WCR (windowcleaner.com), with a dash of personal experience for flavor 
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He’s okay.
Don’t be too nice to @Infinity or his head will get too big to fit in his tiny car.
BUUUURRRRNNNNN
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