Should You Quit Your Job to Start a Window Cleaning Business? (In 2026)

In this episode, we break down what it actually takes to make that jump without screwing yourself financially. We talk risk tolerance, how much of a cushion you really need, and the difference between a calculated move and a reckless one.

I’ll walk through when it does make sense to go all in, when you should stay employed a little longer, and how to bridge the gap so your business isn’t starting from zero pressure.

If you’ve been stuck in that “should I quit or not?” phase, this will help you make a clear decision and move forward with confidence.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm starting a window cleaning business. I've just decided. I've been on forums. I've done my research. Um should I quit my job? Oh.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Yeah, so I mean I have a no, my opinion is not different. I did something that was uh probably I wouldn't what I did, I wouldn't recommend and encourage other people to do. Do as I say, not as I do, kind of. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I took a bit too big of a risk. Um especially with a a family and and kids. Right. Um you know, I think um I think it really comes down to if if you're not married and you don't have kids, I think you should be s incredibly bold and take big risks. Um always. I think if you are married maybe a kid or two, if you have a couple kids, whatever it might be, you know, risk uh I think you should still take risks, but it should probably be a bit more calculated and planned. Um and I think the r the the amount of risk you are willing to take needs to align with what your spouse is in agreement with as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Um and uh for me, well, I don't need to get into my story necessarily right now, but yeah, no matter what, I think risk is something you we need to take. It's uh almost always worth it, but we need to be somewhat calculated in it and um and be in alignment with our spouse when it comes to things like that, especially when it pertains to to career choices, building a business. Um if you don't have a supportive spouse, things can get messy real quick. So take less.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah, that's definitely the case. Um it's weird because there's there's kind of risk on both ends of this question, I think. Of like quitting too early versus quitting too late. You run the risk of like we mentioned, uh starting before you're ready financially, yeah. Uh like you have no cushion at all um versus waiting so long that you could have started, you know, six, nine, twelve, eighteen months prior and you just hesitated, yeah. And because of that you're you're farther behind than you otherwise would have been. So I think it's a balance, and ultimately I think it comes down to risk tolerance for the individual. Um, I think the lower your stakes are um in the real world, um, the bolder you can be, for sure. Um but yeah, I mean there's um yeah, I guess it's just there's there's risks on both sides. What uh what caused you to go against your own advice when starting your business?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Yeah, I think um uh uh religious worldviews are probably are probably gonna be like the thing that probably differentiates that for other people. Like I am a man of faith, and I believed that well, my story, very quick version is I had a dream in April of 2024 that I had this massive window cleaning company. I'd never cleaned a window in my entire life. So that dream in and of itself was uh kind of strange. Uh in the dream, uh there was a there's a warehouse that was full of trucks that were wrapped. Uh my son was a bit older and he was there running it with me and managing people. Um and in that season of my life, I was really, really unhappy and burnt out in the uh marketing agency field. Um and I also am not a big dreamer. Like I don't have a lot of dreams. I'm not really that good at it's I don't sleep deep enough to have them. Um, but you know, long story short, I told my wife about that dream. And um we both just felt like that was something that was from the Lord, and we were both in the complete agreement of what the plan with it forward was going to be. And she was a bit more nervous. I was the one that presented, well, should I should I just quit my job and go for this? And we were having that conversation the morning of the dream. So I woke up from that dream, we had that conversation, and um, she was a bit more, she's she's uh not as risk tolerant as I am. She's she's a very much plant-safe person. And um, but she gave me her blessing and I was like, I'm gonna just shut down my agency and quit. I'm gonna get rid of all the clients. Um, and that is very high risk. Right. I mean, I have a family, I've never cleaned a window in my life. Um, and I stopped all forms of income that same day, which is very dangerous. So I wouldn't just tell someone like you should do this, I did it, it worked. Right. Um, I believe that it worked because I believe that God's hand was pushing me in that direction. Right. Um, and that's why that works. So um if you're a person of faith, I think you should be praying about those decisions um and really being sure that that's if you think it's from God, then I think you should take those risks. Yeah. And let Him show Himself in your life in that way. Uh, if it's just this idea, uh, I'd probably urge you to take a little bit more caution and learn the field first.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Yeah. Well, and that certainly worked out for you. And like you had a lot more you were working at Taco Bell um when you decided to start a window cleaning business. You had a lot of context, you had uh experience in sales. Yeah. Um whether or not you were selling home service businesses is almost or uh services is almost irrelevant. Um, and you had a pretty extensive marketing background as well. So it's not like you it's not like you were doing something brand new altogether.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

You had a lot of the tool set already uh that you were already familiar with a lot of the tool set to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Yeah, but that that you need to build a business.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Correct, yeah. Correct. Yeah. And it was just a matter of learning the technical side of which is the easiest part. Which is the easiest part. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure you've learned a ton about running a business in general, um, as opposed to just being a technician through doing this. Um, but nevertheless, you've worked in organizations that are incredibly successful, um, and you've run your own agency as well. Were you just a solo guy with the agency, or did you have um?

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, so um, I was a solo guy with my own agency at the time. I was balancing that and working for an agency, which was actually a great, great company. Um, they specialized in the orthodontic, orthodontist space. Okay. Um, and it was an amazing company. They're out of uh Pensacola, I think. And um, yeah, great company. But I mean, I literally I went to my boss that day and was like, hey man, I'm I'm all done. I'm all done. I I don't want to do this. And when I say uh like I dude, I I was so unhappy in my in my just day-to-day life. I dreaded, I would live, I was so excited for the work to the end to be over. And then once it was over, I immediately started dreading the next morning. Right. There was just no peace in my life with that. Um, I wasn't happy and I wasn't fulfilled. I made great money. I mean, just at the agency without mine, they I was they were paying me 90k a year. So I had a great income, but man, I was so unfulfilled in what I was doing. And um I think that was also probably one of them things that made it easy to taking on all of that risk and just leaving was easy from an emotional standpoint.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Because I was like, anything to not go back to this.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Yeah, totally. Yeah, I've been in that situation a few times. I don't know. Uh uh, I guess when something like that happened for me, it's like a control thing. Um, like especially working in my own home service business before, you have extreme control over outputs, inputs, what's going on in your business, quality, et cetera. And uh I uh don't tell anyone else I said this, but I'm a terrible employee. Like I'm very loyal, I'm very hardworking, I can catch on to stuff pretty quickly. Uh in terms of like I'm loyal to people.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

I'm not loyal to businesses that aren't owned by me. We're similar on that.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

We had this conversation yesterday.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yeah, I get incredibly frustrated when there's um when there are improvements that could be made that are out of my control to make or even dictate like what might change. Um that gets frustrating pretty, pretty quickly for me. Um so yeah, I definitely get that, get that emotion for sure. And like when that when you're in that situation, yeah, moving on becomes really easy. Yeah. Um, even if it is risky. Um, so yeah, I think at the end of the day, something like this comes down to, like you said, your your worldview um and your risk tolerance. I think the most important thing for people to hear that are considering starting their own business is that um, you know, if it hasn't occurred to you yet, it is a risk. And it's worth spending some time acknowledging that and determining what your risk tolerance is, um, and adjusting your approach accordingly. When if you have a few hundred or a few thousand dollars to your name, um the ramp up of building any business is going to be slower than if you have the you know more sufficient capital to kind of front load some of the things that are necessary in terms of getting the the right equipment, yeah, doing the right marketing strategies uh to actually set yourself up for long-term success. And um like having some more time and capital up front to be able to put into that, even if it means you're waiting longer, yeah, uh, will make six or twelve months from now look way different than it would if you start today, right now, and just jump in with both feet with really inexpensive equipment uh or with more pressure because you have less margin in your life. Um like there, there is there are truly benefits to really just giving it even a month or two longer than you were expecting. But on the other hand, there's there is the potential risk of just having massive opportunity costs uh lost on your end. I mean, you know, you've been doing this for like two years now, basically. Um, and you know, last year you did you break 300?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Just under it was like uh it really ended up being actually I only got the final numbers, is because my my books got so wrecked. Yeah, anyways, that's a different, different topic. But yeah, it ended up being like uh 297 and some change.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, cool. Just barely so close. Um, you know, if you had waited another year, that's a massive opportunity cost. Yes. Where you would have been working at an agency. Um still unhappy. Yeah, still unhappy. Um, yeah, man. So there's definitely there's risk on both sides. I don't think we're here to say anything controversial or concrete in terms of when you should quit your job, but I just think it's really, really important to think these things through. Um, as opposed to just going the route of um, you know, I I've got my $50 in equipment um and I'm gonna go knock doors and it's just gonna work out, period. Yeah. Um, because it doesn't always work out, and you want to have margin if there is uh any latency between when you start and when you start seeing that initial momentum. Because in the real world, like maybe on YouTube, um, and you know, in the real world to some extent, there's outliers that go out day one, such as yourself, knock doors, make a thousand bucks on the first day. Yeah, like that does happen. Yeah, um, those are all anomalies. Yeah, they're exceptions to the rule, yeah, not the rule. And if you're on social media and you're seeing content right now about starting a window cleaning business, that's gonna seem like that's the rule.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

They make anomalies the norm.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Exactly. Yeah, it's gonna seem like any suburban neighborhood you go into, the homeowners are just really like bow at your feet and be like, yes, please clean my windows. They don't know about Google, they really need their windows cleaner, they're just waiting for their, you know, knight in shining armor to come and knock on their door in a t-shirt and sneakers and uh clean their windows. And uh that's not that that's not the reality. Yeah. Um, especially if I mean if if you think it is go knock 200 doors this week. Yeah. And um, and you'll find that that's not the case. Um, not to say that that yeah you shouldn't do that. You should. Yeah. Um, especially if that's your only option. Um, or I mean, maybe just as a you know, there are people that have built seven-figure businesses just off of knocking doors and and running teams doing that. It's a totally legitimate way to make money, to get the heck after it. Yeah. Yeah. But um, yeah, there is this disconnect, obviously. Who like this is such a cliche to say between what you see on your screen and what reality actually is. Um, and if you enter this business or any business thinking that that gap is zero or close to it, yeah, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. Yeah. So yeah, we're just gonna keep this one short. Uh, this is a a warning. Hopefully, hopefully it's a a something that's encouraging to you. Basically, I mean, at the end of the day, what Dave and I want for you is to enter a business in a way that is stable, sustainable long term. Um, this business has extremely high turnover. You know, it's very, very, very common. Um, for I don't know about you, but I've talked to dozens of people in my life that are like, oh yeah, I cleaned Windows for a season in high in high school or college um and with my brother or whatever. And um then they stopped. And that's super common. Um, the reality is you can build six and seven and you know, in some cases, you can you can sell an eight-figure home service business doing cleaning windows. Yeah. Um and that's different than just going out for one season and knocking doors. Um, but uh yeah, because of that, like if you're getting into this with the idea of doing it long term, the best thing you can do for yourself is start at a time when it's still risky, there's still pressure, but you have some margin, and that margin is gonna make the risk sustainable long term. Yeah. So good. Yeah. This has been Cleaf for Profit. Thanks for listening, guys, and we'll catch you in the next one.