Not allowed to detail at home anymore

So after doing roughly 4 cars at home, my dad suddenly decides that my detailing is attracting too much attention to the house and tells me I am to stop detailing any other car beside the family cars immediately.

So now I don't know what to do, should I sell my detailing stuff and call it quits or what?

Really stumped.

There really is nothing I ca think of right now since it's his house and as long as I reside here, I am to obey his rules.

 

ouch, that sucks...why does he say that though? Do you make a lot of noise detailing? Any other reasons?

 

Attention as in strangers driving by and slowing down? or customers coming and knowing where you live?

Anyway, try to talk to your dad about it, maybe do a car once a week or every other week.
Or go mobile.

 

He doesn't like the idea of customers knowing where I live and generally feels that I attract too much attention to the house by operating a business from his garage.

He also feels that detailing is completely nonsense since in his opinion a car is a depreciating asset whether it looks nice or not and that investing such time and effort into this is a complete waste of time.

 

hm ... sorry to hear that ...

You could explain to him that its part of your hobby and can make some money as well ... rather than do nothing ... dun give up easily ...

 

There goes my kids college fund!

 

keep your tools and use them as your hobby, or use your friend's garage and detail their cars for money.
I guess your parents does not like you to wet their garage floor when washing, you should wash cars outside, less messy.

 

I've been strongly thinking about doing it mobile, but I am not sure how that would work out if it's only part time and how to set it up, any advices would be very helpful right now.

 

Go mobile! If any case, if some psycho decides to stalk a detailer, they might just keep going back to your clients house instead of yours:applause:

 

Maybe a cut of the money earned ? What kind of neighborhood do you live in by the way, is it safe ? Not sure what's meant by attracting attention, people are plain nosy anyway. Guess the only option i can think of is where you can rent a garage with electric and try it that way.

 

or maybe your parents want you to concentrate with school first, you same as Brendan right? high school grad?
you have a car?

 

my dad is same way. i do details at my friends garage at his house and his mom doesnt like it couse of noise. good thing she usualy away on business or something. but maybe talk to your friend and see if you can start business with one of them or something and do it at his house. but then maybe his parents will not like it.

mobile is another way but you will need more supplies and everything. dont sell your stuff, keep it and maybe you go to college or something you can find place there to do it.

 

I think you need to lay the smack down on your dad personally!!! haha Just kidding.

Bro the only option you really have is to either go mobile or find another place to work. Honestly if you can work from home there's no reason you can't go mobile. Obviously you need some sort of transportation, totes to carry your stuff and just use the customers water and electricity. It may thin out your customer base, although if you've only got 4 details under your belt then it shouldn't be that bad. Just go from there.

I guess I can kinda see where your dad is coming from, but at the same time he should be helping you come up with a creative solution instead to telling you you're wasting your time. Definitely no details for him! And I'm serious about that, if he can't appreciate what it is you're doing, or anyone for that matter, there's no reason for you to waste your time with them.

 

Trust me, my wife is the same way. She doesn't want me detailing at the house either, unless it's a friends' car or our own (which 99% of the time, it is). She doesn't want random people coming over here either. So I see where he's coming from.

 

Maybe your dad is a drug dealer, and is paranoid about undercover cops lol.

Simple solution. Offer a pickup, dropoff service. Then No one knows where you are located. I do that quite a bit. My auto insurance policy covers any vehicle I'm driving. If I were detailing ferrari's, lambo's, etc. I'd get a bigger blanket policy. But then again, those would probably be mobile jobs anyways.

Mobile ain't tough. The only thing that makes it more difficult, is you have to be extra careful of the customer's garage floor. I don't give a crap what happens to mine, but i really don't want to damage teh customer's floor.

 

Couldnt you sell this to the customer to have it done at there home, at their convienience, no risk of being in a car accident, no use of gas, and they can watch the service being done. All done at the comfort of their own home.

 

Maybe you can find a garage somewhere and pay them a cut of your earnings?

I'm guessing a lot of customers might be a little hesitant to let a 'mobile detailing service' just come and pickup their car. And as pekel mentioned, you need to worry about other people's property if you are detailing on their driveway or in their garage.

 

Yeah, my pickup/dropoff service is actually a nice selling feature. But I work on a 100% referral basis. I don't advertise, I don't even have a business name. I just do it on the weekends, and sporadically at best. Definitely not in the right demographic location to make a living out of it. Hell, I probably spend more on detailing stuff than I bring in. But I don't do it for the money. I do it because I love detailing.

Mobile is the best way to do it, given your situation.

 

over what amount of time have you done 4 cars?

are they all your buddies?

are they complete strangers?


not knowing what type of clients you have or how many it is hard to give any feed back. I have done 4 ish cars at my house, but those are all for fun and are friends. i would hardly call it profitable or a business.
if you have a big book of clients and are now out tens of thousands of dollars cause you dont have a place to detail then i would think it would be time to make your business a real business and rent a bay somewhere or make your self mobile. or get your own place where you can detail (just don't live where eTors lives) .

More facts then you can get less stumped.

 

Go mobile... I started off mobile

Ya, it is a PITA to lug stuff around but you make the loot so you can bring home the bacon!