First off, a warning…I tend to be long-winded with everything I write and I’m having trouble summarizing my thoughts so this is long. I’m 17, nearly 18. I’ve been detailing for a little over a year now, and it has been my primary source of income. However, I feel like I really need help in the business management section…below is my slightly rambling thoughts on the subject, I would be thrilled if some of you would lend me a hand in revamping my business for the coming year. I’m trying to offer more of a variety of services to my customers and improve the quality of my work, but I’m running into an issue. The people who have come to me to detail their cars…well…don’t have very nice cars, and don’t maintain them. Not many people do in this area, to be honest, so it’s detail beat-up and dirty cars or don’t detail anything at all. I live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in the area (please don’t take this as bragging, I’m not), and even there not many people have nice cars. For example, here is the list of everything I have detailed since I started last spring; most of these were just a basic interior/exterior clean-up (no wax or anything like that) and most of these cars belonged to people who live in my neighborhood: Honda Pilot (x2), Ford Edge, Mazda MPV, Toyota Sienna, Buick Century, Dodge Ram 1500, Ford F-150, Honda Odyssey (x5), Dodge Grand Caravan, Acura 3.2 TL, Ford Ranger, Honda Accord, Ford Expedition, Volkswagen Jetta, Chevy Camaro (1998, and gross beyond belief). Even though some of these were nice cars at one time, they had been severely neglected by the owners. Frankly, I feel like I should be making more money. Grand total from every vehicle listed there, I made $1,225. Not bad, but I don’t feel like I was charging nearly enough for what I was doing. Example, I made the mistake of charging $55 per van, for just a wash and interior cleaning. Big mistake, all the vans I did were pretty bad. So naturally, I want to raise my prices. But then I run into an issue—if I raise my prices, people won’t bother to have me detail their cars at all. By the state of their cars when I go them, they had never bothered to have them done before. The only reason they came to me was that I was affordable. And it’s not just me making more money, I want to buy nicer products. I want to be able to condition leather seats, instead of just clean them. I want to be able to order nicer brushes, not just use the ones that we had laying around the house (don’t worry I cleaned them first!). Stuff like that. In short, I feel like I’m not so much detailing as I am just doing a basic clean with some sub-par materials. But in order to afford the materials to do all of this…I need to raise my prices. Another issue was time—I was expected to get everything done on these nasty cars in 5 hours or less on 98 degree summer days. That was really hard on me as I felt like I was rushing all the time and wasn’t doing my best work. And the heat was brutal, I was sweating through shirts and cars were waterspotting in the 30 seconds it took for me to pull them into the garage to dry them. I will try to solve this issue by working more at night…start on the car at like 7 or 8 PM and work till I finish it. Then I have as much time as I need, as I’m always up late during the summer anyway. Mornings never worked as people were always busy and it got hot too fast. My thoughts were to do everything in packages, and have three packages with increasing levels of services. Have the base package like what I’ve been doing, but offer others to give more variety and options to people who might care just a bit more about their cars. The only issue is that without a steamer/extractor or paint correction capabilities I am having difficulty creating three different levels of options to choose from. Here’s a draft of what I might be doing with the packages, it needs work and isn’t finished yet so any input is appreciated! Basic packages: Exterior: -Wash of vehicle -Wheels, tires, and wheel wells cleaned -Tires dressed -Door jambs cleaned Interior: -Vacuum of entire vehicle -All surfaces cleaned with all purpose cleaner -Minor stains spot-treated -Windows cleaned -Add ?? for leather cleaning -Rubber floormats cleaned Midrange packages: (Need a better word than “midrange”)…still trying to figure out exactly what to include here… Interior: -Vacuum of entire vehicle -All surfaces cleaned with all purpose cleaner -Minor stains spot-treated -Windows cleaned -Add ?? for leather cleaning and conditioning -Rubber floormats cleaned Exterior: -Wash of vehicle -Wheels, tires, and wheel wells cleaned -Tires dressed -Door jambs cleaned -Clay and wax Premium packages: Exterior: -Wash of vehicle -Wheels, tires, and wheel wells cleaned -Tires dressed -Door jambs cleaned -Clay & wax -Trim dressed -Engine cleaned Interior: -Vacuum of entire vehicle -All surfaces cleaned with all-purpose cleaner -Minor stains spot-treated -Windows cleaned -Leather cleaned and conditioned -All interior plastics dressed -Rubber or carpet floormats cleaned So…first off, thanks for reading all that Second…here’s my questions, all that being said. I’m really not sure how to go about pricing everything. I want to keep people coming to me because I’m affordable, but at the same time I do actually want to make a decent profit off of it. How should I advertise? Last summer I just sent out an email to all the people in the neighborhood that my parents knew. I was thinking about putting some stuff out on the local car forums come springtime, the only issue would be generating competition with the few other detailers in the area. Any other ideas? As you can see, I am still having issues coming up with my packages…I’ve got a good idea of what the basic level should look like but am having issues in figuring out the other two, especially the mid-range one. Are there any things I could add without buying something really expensive? (i.e. steamer/extractor or paint correction equipment, as much as I want them I don’t have the money for them at this time.) I also need some tips on explaining to people that if they want anything more than the “basic” package that it will take me more than 5 hours, as no one seems to take the word of a 17-year old very seriously. I know you guys offer much nicer packages and services than me but this is what I have to work with at the moment, and honestly people around here don’t care much. Detailing isn’t a big business around here, and people aren’t too particular about their cars. Thank you so much for reading through all of that, Clark
Are these people in a hurry? I would be up front, say "hey, im going to need your car all day" and figure out a day that works. I hear you on wanting to do more other then the basic clean ups....... You do good work, it shows. I would tell people and try to educate them on what you are doing and that it takes time. I like your package presentation, its comprehensive. I checked out alot of other peoples sites, looked at what I was offering, looked at what they were offering, sometimes I was offering too much, and sometimes too little. As pricing goes. I would not have a set price, you could have a base price..... say Basic package starting at 99.00 * some cars may require additional work and products to get proper results (and then have a base hourly rate) say like 15.00 per hour. so in therory a van comes in, they pick the basic package but during the consultation you spot a huge amount of stains, or something outside the ordinary, suggest that you can do the basic package, but it will be additonal time etc. etc. etc. Its all about the presentation, people want to be edcuated on features and benifits of what you are doing, and how long it will take to do it properly and then cost. Every car is different, especially with mid range market...... Surcharges, and covering your butt with time and products, disclaimers etc. Check out detailers domain, and how phil has his packages set up, dont copy them obviously but there is good information.
my business model is to make the customer very happy, build a strong customer relationship, and educate them about what I know. I charge what I like, if its not it for them, I keep looking. I also buy bulk products and sell them. if it doesn't sell, I use them anyway!
I would name your packages Something along the lines of Bronze, Silver, & Gold. Good , Better, Best etc. I would pull the spot treating out of your basic package, that can be time consuming if there are a lot of stains. It looks like your interior packages are all pretty similar. Minor differences but if you are trying to upsell someone they are not going to see a big cost benefit for going with a more expensive ppackage...at least as far as interior detailing goes. You may want to look at offering exterior packages with an interior detailing as an add on/optional service so you can charge accordingly. Or maybe have interior and exterior packages. As far as expanding your customer base look into advertising on Craigslist or different car club forums. Not sure how successful you will be on the forums though, seems like most of the guys on the G8 forum like to clean their own cars but you may get lucky and find a few that don't.
Thanks for the tips so far! Some stuff I think I'm doing, based off your suggestions and some more thinking on my part: Remove stain treatment from basic package, it is enough work to just get a decent vacuum on some of these cars. I like the Bronze, Silver, and Gold idea, I just wanna think of something myself so I don't feel like I'm stealing it from somewhere else. As far as interior packages goes, I'm trying to keep three levels of interior detailing, just so that people have a bit more of a choice as to what they want done. I don't want to include too much in the basic package but I also don't want a huge jump from basic to premium. I'm also thinking of advertising the dressing as a UV protectant as well, since I use 303 Aerospace. It's not lying or exaggerating and hopefully it'll appeal to all the people who park their cars outside. I never thought of Craigslist...there's an idea. I'd just be worried that due to the...ah...diversity of this area that I'd be given something just awful to clean, worse than anything I've had to do before. But I will do car forums, there is already a detailer on one of them but he seems to do fairly well. The problem is most people don't know me very well on those forums but it's still worth a go I suppose.
Carpet clean and spot treating carpets for me is add ons. Simply for the fact every car is different, you don't want to pigeon hole yourself on a package price and it end up taking all day. Interior wipe downs versus actual cleaning and treating plastics is also something to separate your packages. Basic: basic interior wipe down, dust dash vacuum accessible areas. Better: clean plastics of stains etc.treat with anti uv dressing etc. I actually only offer two packages, everything else is add on and hourly, if you pm me your email I'll send you my pricing sheet. I don't care if you copy it, manipulate etc. You have my permission. It works for me and people like being able to have a list of ala carte services. Biggest thing for me is to make sure people understand time, money and products dictate results. As for using high end product, a lot of people could care less if its 303 or armour all. Ii know its more glamourous to buy the high end stuff and results and performance is far better then OTC stuff, but look at your market and buy accordingly. Biggest mistake is to have a lot of overhead of high end stuff and nobody who cares what it is, or it just sits there. But again it's up to you to sell the benefits and features of the products. Coming from 10 years in sales, it's tough when talking to common folk about a product. Again, lmk if you want my information, it could help you set up your business. Better and more profitable.
PM sent, thanks :thumb: I think I will do the stain removal stuff as add-ons, as I've had some really nasty stains on some vehicles that could take hours to completely treat and don't want to get stuck doing that at a set price. (The dried yogurt in that Camaro comes to mind) As far as products go, what I've been trying to do is buy the best of what I can purchase in bulk. For example, I'm sure there's some nicer APC's out there, but I'm sticking with my Megs due to how cost-effective it is...the same goes for Wheel Brightener and many of my other products. That way I still get results that I am proud of but don't have to spend a ton of money on the really high-end stuff. The only reason I buy higher-end stuff is for use on my own car or any nice cars that happen to come my way. I do agree though, talking to a soccer mom about the benefits of claying and waxing her Honda Odyssey doesn't usually get very far.
Clark, Thanks for sharing your thoughts, plans, challenges, etc.., this is good for you to "verbalize" these, and then as you think about them more, get feedback from other people in the business, you can start putting them in order. I am proud of you for taking all this on, I presume, by yourself, and working hard at it, and not giving up. It is definitely one of the harder jobs out there in terms of sheer labor expended to get just one vehicle up the standard you and the customer set. I believe you have received some great feedback already, and I dont think I can offer much more, except, to start with a goal in mind, and grade your progress, weekly, monthly, bi-annualy, etc., to insure you are moving forward, making adjustments along the way, to keep your ship going forward, at whatever pace you are comfortable with. Very few of us were able to start our Detailing Business off fully stocked, with all the best tools, steamers, extractors, chemicals, brushes, etc., so you are not alone there. I personally had to work about a year really hard before I got my first carpet/upholstery extractor, and then another year went by before I had my first Steamer. Once you get your "Menu" of pricing set up, then you will have to Market your business and yourself in a way that attracts the higher-end vehicle owners, and you will start building up a Client base that will see you 1-2 times a year every year. I dont use Craigslist; I had business cards made, I pass them out wherever I can, I have a Wehsite, which gets hits all the time, and then try to keep all the balls in the air. If you can find a good higher end repair shop, not necessarily the Dealer, but an Independent shop that does great work, it might be worth it to go meet them, introduce what you do, and be prepared to tell them why you are better than all the other Detailers who have left their cards there, and they might be interested enough to give you a shot. I did this, and detailed their "Shop" BMW540iT so well, they started referring me to their own customers, and now I have an endless supply of BMW's to do for them and I havent even had time yet to detail all their personal cars. Once you "prove yourself", the rest is history, and hopefully you keep getting referrals all year as I have, and this is from just one Client source. It might be good to find a good Detailer Supplier, who will work with you, when you can afford to spend more $$$ and start giving you better pricing and not necessarily in bulk. I looked around a long time and finally found a great company who has really helped me out with pricing, and they are mot too far from you. You will also need to get good at taking pictures for your website, etc., if you have not already started this.. I never have a vehicle over for just a few hours to do any kind of "Detail" except perhaps to wash, dry, and vacuum out, clean the glass, dust the interior, not open the hood, and dress the tires. Since I work alone, I set the Client's expectations early on by advising that any Detail Package I sell will take perhaps minimum 2 days, perhaps 3 days, all depending on what they want done, the severity of "damage/wear/scratches,etc.," and the time of the year. For instance, now, it takes everything inside a vehicle longer to dry without running fans in there all night, etc., so you have to allow for that and they need to know it. Sometimes, I have also broken up the Detail into 2 visits, because of their time constraints; 1 for the Interior, the 2nd for the Exterior.. I always ask them if they have any 3-day weekends, vacations, coming up when they will be gone, so I can have the car and not interrupt their schedule, etc., and found this works great too. I have even picked up and delivered their vehicles back to their homes, etc.. I have also put a really nice Logo on my work vehicle that is the same design that is on my business card, and this also has gotten me alot of calls, and hits to my website, because these numbers are in the Logo on the sides of my Jeep. I will be glad to take a picture of it once I can get my Jeep washed, and send it to you so you can get an idea for that too. Lastly, once you get going and you WILL get going if you really want to, and stick to it, a year will go by and you will wonder how that happened ! In 2010, I only worked about 10.5 months full time, the rest of the year went to injuries, and family alarms, and still managed to Detail 60 vehicles and 1 medium sized Cessna airplane. I didnt make a ton on money, but I managed to pay for all my supplies, taxes, and still had a small profit. This year, Im going to do way better, wont need to spend as much for supplies, raise my prices slightly higher, keep myself visible among the hundreds of detail businesses here alone, and keep it all moving forward. You can do this just fine, Clark !!! We are all pulling for you !!! PM me if you want.. Dan F
Clark, give me a heads up if you need a site setup, i can quickly throw one together with you via templates for free =p hosting wise, I can also do that for u for free as long as you always keep a back up copy of the site and buy your own domain name (10bucks/year) as I dont know when i'll suddenly have hiccups on my server lol I will probably start something for DB Members for website hosting for free or smfin. I've got way too much capacity on my server thats not being used.
Alright well I'm back with a couple more questions! I just recently started a website, and it's still a work in progress but I went ahead and got enough stuff up there where I could direct people to it if they are interested. Anyone wanna look at it and perhaps give a few suggestions? Just send me a PM. Like I said it's not finished but I've got the basic stuff up right now... And another question, as far as pricing goes. I'm gonna buy a Bissel LGM Pro-Heat soon, as I cannot afford a proper extractor at this time...but I've had clients interested in carpets/seats cleaned. I want to add to my services a few options...like: Carpet floormats cleaned Carpet cleaned Cloth seats cleaned But I have no clue where to begin on pricing. Obviously it will ultimately depend on the condition of the vehicle, but does anyone have a decent base price were I could reasonably start at? And I'm thinking about adding them as extras, instead of part of one of my packages. The only issue I would have with that is people tend to only look at my regular packages because they think they don't need extras. So perhaps add on my "interior" page that carpet/seat cleaning is also available, starting from (insert price here)? I'm just thinking out loud...
Very good info here. Don't give up Clark. As mentioned before some people were fortunate to start up with everything but things have also been a struggle for me too. Only thing i can say is don't lose hope and do everything in your power to press forward. Being in the Detail business appearance is everything. Some business cards and a few silk screen shirts with your business name on it can go a very long way for some people. Be professional, stand by your prices and your work and press forward. If it's one thing i learned it's to not let other people dictate your pricing because they will continue to do so not once but as much as they can. If you feel that what you are charging is to little for the amount of work being done then you should raise your prices. Figure out about how much your time is worth to you be it $15, $20, $25 per hr and estimate about how long it takes to do certain jobs, factor in roughly about how much supplies you use and that can be a great start to figuring out what you should charge. I wish the best to not only you but to everyone out there who is trying to start or even stay in business. Some places are just a lot more detail friendly then others. Main thing is to get people's minds away from thinking it's just a car wash and a vacuum. Detailing is just that . . . . . it's a meticulous process that involves time and time is money.
kyoshiro, kilo6, overtime, everyone ...so cool! Rustybumper, I admire your drive. I wish you nothing but the best. The guys on here know more than I do about detailing for $, but I wanted to add that I like your style. :shrug: I hope you fill your pockets with hard earned $ and everyone else who helped him too!
you charge what you want, what you think your time is worth and what your market will tollerate. Im from a town of about 600,000 people who the majority of think a detail is the 99.00 special at the car wash, and honestly if it works for them good, but if you offer them something more, like personal attention and a good value on top of what they are willing to pay then you will always have a following. Remember you don't have to be doing 5 step correction to make money. Just give them what they ask for and charge them for it.
Thank you everyone for the encouragement and support One thing is for sure, I could not have made it this far without you guys! I am finally getting my pricing to where I want it, which works out to a bit less than $20/hour for me, give or take. I figure I'll just charge $20/hour for carpet/seat extraction as well, and just make it easy on myself instead of doing an estimate on every vehicle individually. I have already found that just setting a price works best, I already had a client want her Explorer done, and paid me more than any other detail that I did last year did so I'm off to a good start! And hopefully I'll be doing a Porsche soon...
Smart man Kilo. It works out to be the same here. Though we all admire the people who can do heavy correction work on all these exotic cars a very high percentage of people don't want that at least in my area. From time to time i'll get a correction job but most people just want a good clean vehicle and some aren't willing to pay. I had someone a couple weeks back in which wanted their car done. I did work for her father in law before who drives a BMW 750Li and when i told his daughter in law the price he told me "C'mon guys this isn't a BMW" her car was a toyota highlander. What people fail to realize is BMW, Toyota, Ford, Kia. It doesn't matter. What matters is the condition of the vehicle and what type of service they are looking for. Bulk detailing is where the $$ is at but i have a hard time dealing with people who just want you to half ass their vehicles and pay you close to nothing. You are correct in some cases but honestly i don't know how i managed to just give me set prices when i first started. When i first started off i use to tell people flat prices over the phone and then up sell additional services such as scotch guard, carpet shampoo, etc . . . . and now i make it a point to drive out to see almost every car prior to setting up a appointment. It's always good to know what you are getting yourself into so you can be sure to charge accordingly and not sell yourself overly short. You are of to a good start though. Keep pushing forward and things will slowly fall into place.
