cardaddy
New member
- Nov 20, 2012
- 3,937
- 0
Mike you SERIOUSLY NEED TO RAISE YOUR PRICES!
I mean if your customers are telling you they are getting too much for their money, then they ARE.
Your 'basic exterior' sounds somewhat similar to mine. I'll do a 2BM combo foam cannon or 1BM / foam cannon (rinsing the mitt each time). Then do wheels, gas cap, wheel wells, blow dry & towel with 156 or DG951, quick wipe on the jambs, windows inside/out, hyper dressing in the wheel wells @ 3:1 and on the other plastic, and either 1:1 or DP Tire gel or Opti-Bond on the tires. (Tire dressing depend on the car and the customer.)
That'll run $50~$75. And honestly, if they don't want to pay it, they can go to someone that doesn't give a crap. Everyone I've done always comes back. That is your measure of success btw. If they REALLY don't like your pricing versus the work you did they'll go somewhere else. If the LOVE the work you did they'll come back always.
I've seen you mention this before.
Please tell me that all this is just a big funny you're pulling on us. Please say it is.
You do realize that the guys, (all of them that is) sitting in the sales office are laughing their a$$es off at what they are doing to you, right?
Anyone can lose money, that is easy to do, REALLY easy to do. You can go to the gas station and put gas in other peoples cars and do better than washing cars for $5 bucks.
You need to seriously sit down and look at what you are spending and look at your profit margins. Your time is something all by itself and is another matter. We'll just look at your profit (actually loss as it is with $5 washes) for now.
You need to take your gas receipts for the month. Cell phone bill, insurance bill (even if you don't have any business insurance, only car insurance), all your detailing and washing supplies, credit card payments (maybe only making minimum payments), business cards, forms, printer paper and ink, and everything else you can remotely link to the business. Even your home phone and internet cost if you're using business email, and take any calls from home.
All these items will break down to a cost per month, or cost per day figure.
Now you also need to add in your truck/car payment. Now figure out how long your tires last, brakes last, how often you're doing oil changes. That cost brakes down to a cost per mile figure.
I owned a towing business for 18 years and while I didn't mind doing local garage work, they were NOT my favorite guys to work for. I was very selective about who I'd do work for BECAUSE the small shops are the worst ones when it comes to rates.
Back in the 90's you could get $45 minimum for a rollback tow (all my trucks were rollbacks). Yet the small shops only wanted to pay $35. Some you'd do because they typically didn't have the "get it right now" time constraints that dealerships had so you could work them in during the day. But even those you'd take on sometimes just to keep the other guy from getting them.
So you do a shop for a while and once he finds he really likes your service, you don't damage any vehicles, and you even give him a freebie here and there you start telling him you really need to raise your rate to $45 (like every other small shop in town). So you do, and it seems fine.
Meanwhile... some young gun has gone down to Southern Wrecker Sales (that was the local guys back then, plus there is another one) and he's bought a brand spanking new rollback and has NEW tires, NEW brakes and figures he's set for life. He's hungry come first truck payment so he goes around town telling shops he'll tow for $25~$30. Your shops don't use him because that's only $5 less than you're charging so they send him on his way. Well once you go up to $45 they start looking for the card "that kid left" and you end up losing that account. No big deal because it wasn't a cash cow, but it was a CASH ACCOUNT. (IE you may not have been reporting the income.... like that never happens of course.)
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But lets get back to that cost per mile figure. I had it worked out to 47¢ per mile it took for me to even MOVE a truck. That was from where I was AT to where I was going. So round trip was 92¢. Anything less than $1.25 per mile (plus a higher hook up fee) or $1.50 per mile (slightly less hook up fee), was something I just wasn't going to do. The guys out there in the new trucks that didn't have any maintenance due yet thought $1.00 per mile was making money, not realizing they were not even making 10¢ a loaded mile once it was all said and done.
My wife used to get on to me some days when it was slow, or raining and I didn't want to slog around in it all day fighting traffic with work I could put off till tomorrow, and I'd sit home and do nothing. I'd tell her I'd rather sit home and go in the hole than go ride around town looking for work and go DEEPER in the hole.
Same thing for you brother!
Just don't get so caught up in the fact that you need to stay busy just for the sake of staying busy that you lose money doing it. I mean when you can wash one car and dry it (by hand), hit the outsides of the tires, slap some shine on them and charge $25 then why in the world would you do FIVE cars for that much. :dunno:
Not blasting ya' dude, just saying you should be telling these guys you are not going to let them rip you off anymore. Just don't need to be spending more than you're making, every day you leave home.
Heck, I know a high end detailer that uses them all the time on $100+ car washes! 
(I certainly wouldn't, not in my worst nightmares, but I've seen it done.) 
