Step-by-step guide to starting a successful Window Washing business.
It's one of the cheapest trades to enter — squeegees, scrubbers, poles, buckets, and ladders come to a modest kit, with water-fed pole systems as a later upgrade for higher glass. The real startup investment is time spent canvassing storefronts and neighborhoods to build the first routes.
Licensing is usually just standard business registration, though requirements vary by city, but liability insurance is essential — you're working on ladders around glass, landscaping, and parked cars. Commercial clients and property managers will ask for a certificate of insurance before you touch their building.
Most cleaners price per pane or per window by type and accessibility, with minimum job charges to protect against tiny stops, and discounts for recurring schedules that build the route. Count and quote in person or from photos at first — underestimating second-story and divided-light windows is the classic rookie loss.
Storefront commercial builds fast, recession-resistant weekly routes with small per-stop tickets, while residential pays much more per job but recurs only a few times a year. Many operators run both: commercial routes as the dependable base, residential as the high-margin layer that fills the rest of the week.