So, whilst delivering a customer some pizza, I noticed he had a Harley sitting in his living room. Naturally I inquired about it, and it turns out he does body work and paints in his shop and doesn't want to get over spray on his baby. One thing led to another, and I mentioned I'm trying to start a mobil detailing business. Then he showed me this classic he had fixed up and painted, and I quoted him on a detail. None of that is all that relevant, but on my way back to the store, I had an amazing idea... if it worked. He paints, I detail, he might need a detailer for his projects, and I need a paint job... See where I'm going with this? I think it would work out great for the both of us, so we'll see if he'll go for it. I'm just curious if any of you have bartered your detailing skillz for other things/services?? Personally, I think bartering is great! No money to argue about, what's fair pricing etc... I wanna see some bartering stories! :applause2:
Sort of... In a way, I have 2 "employees". My younger brother is pretty much my "bitch" or "gofer." When needed, he helps out with washing drying and the relatively easy stuff, he also runs errands if need be, while on a job. I also have someone else who works with me: Phil, a good buddy of mine, who sometimes helps on exteriors, but I have him my interiors when I have some(I just hate doing interiors) I "barter" work with him. I'll work on his cars' exterior for free while he will do my interior on my cars for free.
I haven't done it with my detailing business but I have with my wifes business. She does children's entertainment, she sets up birthday parties, characters, bouncers, pony rides, petting zoos, face painters. We have done it a couple of times as a matter of fact with other small business owners who are hit financially recently and still want to have a nice birthday party for their kids. We have traded tree removal, dry wall hanging and I believe some skin treatments for the wife at a dermatologists office. It seems easier to trade services when you can offer big bill tickets at no money out of pocket. The tree we had taken out would have cost us $800, that was the lowest quote. Instead it cost us $50 out of pocket to pay some one to do pony rides for a few hours at a kids birthday party. We handled the other stuff so it was just labor no real money spent. Worked out great! As far as detailing, I haven't had much luck as I haven't offered it up to any one. Except friends for stupid shit like beer! Maybe I'll have to advertise I'll do a full detail for an ipad? I really want one but would never buy it just because it's stupid! I have 2 laptops, 2 desktops and am iPhone, I just want the ipad so I can lay in bed and be on the forums! LOL
one thing that kinda bothered me is how you determine cost of trade. for example tint job costs about $200 or so. they spend 1 -2 hours at most to do it. if we spend about 7-8 hours on package one detail in exchange, how fair is this? if we charge about 250 for package one for example
Trading is solely based on value. Not time. When you trade something or services with someone, it's because you both want something the other has to offer, of which both have the same value. When you pay for something/buy something(valued at $50 let's say), that is also trading, you want a product, while the seller wants your money. That's a fair trade, even if he makes the equivalent of $500 000 a year and you only make $50 000. You need to work longer to get that $50, but you are still willing to give it up for the item you want. I'm only saying this because from your post, I'm under the impression that you think the mentioned trade is unfair because of the time it takes to detail as opposed to the time it takes to tint windows. I could be wrong though, and if I am, disregard this post.
^^^ I agree. The beauty of bartering is that the market "dollar value" of the items/services doesn't have to be the same. It's how much you want what the other person is offering, and visa versa. Most of my friends find it hard to justify spending much money at all on their cars appearance, but if they can give me something else I want.... win win
I do this, a tech at work knows how to work on cars and has thousands in tools. He does not like to clean his cars so I detail his truck and his wifes car and in return he maintains my cars
I detail a co-worker's car n he did a timing belt on my sister's Jetta. It would take me the whole day to do that for my sister. I use my time wisely, time is money, So i did a quick 3 hr detail on his car n He did the timing belt in 3 hrs n not the whole day. its a Win WIN, plus my sister paid for his detail vs me doing her timing belt for free (lol)
I've bartered for pretty much anything you can think of. Everyone WANTS their car detailed, they just don't want to pay for it. I've bartered dentistry work, landscaping, interior decorating, electrical work, work on my car, my car stereo, home theatre equipment and even having our land cleared when we moved onto our acreage. Easiest way to do it is retail to retail. That way each person gets paid for their regularly charged labour rate. When we had the land cleared, I gave him $1200 and ran a tab for $1000 worth of detailing which I did at his convenience over a couple of years.
I traded a detail for a set of wheels for my 1990 Mustang. Guy had a perfect set of Pony Wheels that I really wanted and he wanted his Mustang detailed so we traded.
i bartered for my website, didn't cost me a dime. i also barted for tools, mattresses, and computer work.
