Hello folks,I am planning on moving to Spain and starting a window cleaning business and planning on drumming up the business by knocking doors as I have done in the uk in the past.Can someone please tell me if this is done in Spain? Have any of you ever had a door to door canvasser knock on your door before? Thanks in advance

Is having your window cleaned (professionally) "a thing" in Spain

If you tried that where I live (US) people would wonder what you're talking about, because AFAIK nobody pays to have their windows cleaned.

Cultural barrier as well as a linguistic barrier !

There are, surprisingly, previous post from would-be window-cleaners.

moving to spain

I am sure there are other jobs that exist (or existed) in the UK that are unkhown in the Iberian Peninsula, eg milk deliveries !

There are many British window cleaning firms already active in Spain

I have had charity and trades people knock on my door, but never a window cleaner.

Hello Missile,how long have you lived in Spain if you don’t mind me asking? And that is refreshing to know that people do knock doors in Spain

In our area it would be hard to knock front doors unless you live in the village.I Have only seen a window cleaner once in all the years i have lived here and that was on a shop front in moriair a few years ago.As said it's hard to knock a door and another thing most villas and townhouses windows open inwards, and on the outside it is difficult to get at some windows and the owners would have to be in so you could clean them.Still if there are no window cleaners people might need them worth a try in the villages and towns

I joined this forum February 2009.
Window cleaning in Spain is not so easy as UK.
One of the issues for your new venture will be shutters. Your clients would need to raise these for you. Another is window grills. These make it difficult and time consuming to clean the exterior of ground floor windows. Another is sunshine, you will need to get up early to clean before it gets too hot.

Oh yes forgot the sun.Cor the times i've be caught by it mid wipe.wipe on bend down for clean cloth windows dry,

The only door to door canvassers we get in Spain are scammers pretending to collect for charity......As far as I know it's illegal to to collect for charity this way. We also get the occasional fake gasman and the ever popular electricity switch salesmen. We keep our security gate locked and tell them to move on.

I've never seen anyone pay to have their windows washed in our village, perhaps not a Spanish thing.

Edit....Just had a look at our windows and they are the double glazed sliding ones. They just pop out from the inside and are easily cleaned & polished.

I have seen windows of commercial premises being cleaned by professional cleaning firms, so it may be worth going door to door on the costas where there are many expat businesses (if your Spanish isn't up to scratch).

As per previous comment only window cleaners I have seen are for commercial premises. Due to having window grills certainly ground floor, plus often shutters most village/townhouses have inward opening windows making it easy to clean your own windows inside and out. As for going door to door in the villages certainly you do get the religious groups doing it along with alleged charity people sock sellers etc.

I am not even sure it is legal. Anyway, in 20 years in Spain, I have never seen residential property window cleaners only a few on shop windows. Good luck I think you will need it.

The way our local tradesmen advertised their trades is to put fliers in community post boxes etc.

Here in Benidorm there are several window cleaner firms. Other than cleaning shop or bar Windows they get plenty of work in the high rise buildings. (No jokes about long ladders please, I've heard them all. ;-)) they seem to get plenty of work. They do inside and outside of all the windows for around €20.

As a footnote I understand that it's very expensive to be self-employed here in Spain and another poster will inform you better of the requirements.

Steve

As an autonomo or sole trader you will need to register with the local social security office and pay contributions each month. These contributions tend to be significantly higher than in other northern European countries with a current minimum of approximately €250 per month payment, regardless of income.

There are some reductions for those under 30 years of age or a temporary discount for example where the person has been unemployed and has decided to become self-employed.

In the case of a limited company there is an obligation to make social security contributions on behalf of an employee of 24% of their income. Where there are no employees of the company i.e. a single director company then that director must register as an autonomo and pay those social security contributions.