What am I doing wrong?
- Thread starter Damonsfcd
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FinishingTouchA
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- May 8, 2013
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Yes, all these comments are good advice.
2 main things I recommend doing:
Family and Friends! Experience will take you a long ways. Offering your services at cut rate to the public actually hurts the detailing industry. If you do an amazing job at a crazy low price people will start to expect that. Detailers in most areas already have troubles charging $50 an hour and in many other industries services are going for 100+ (mechanics, consulting, etc.). Instead, offer these prices to close friends and family and have them create the word-of-mouth advertising you need.
If you're trying to use social media etc. for advertising definitely use 50/50 and before and after shots. You will get a lot more engagement this way. Also, when you "boost" a post on Facebook make sure you target your audience. I usually target people within 10 miles that have a household income of 75k+. And as far as Google ads, Nick@Autowerx had a writeup about this a while back, search the forum and you'll find some info about how to not waste money on Google.
2 main things I recommend doing:
Family and Friends! Experience will take you a long ways. Offering your services at cut rate to the public actually hurts the detailing industry. If you do an amazing job at a crazy low price people will start to expect that. Detailers in most areas already have troubles charging $50 an hour and in many other industries services are going for 100+ (mechanics, consulting, etc.). Instead, offer these prices to close friends and family and have them create the word-of-mouth advertising you need.
If you're trying to use social media etc. for advertising definitely use 50/50 and before and after shots. You will get a lot more engagement this way. Also, when you "boost" a post on Facebook make sure you target your audience. I usually target people within 10 miles that have a household income of 75k+. And as far as Google ads, Nick@Autowerx had a writeup about this a while back, search the forum and you'll find some info about how to not waste money on Google.
Damonsfcd
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- Jul 17, 2015
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- Thread starter
- #25
Yes, all these comments are good advice.
2 main things I recommend doing:
Family and Friends! Experience will take you a long ways. Offering your services at cut rate to the public actually hurts the detailing industry. If you do an amazing job at a crazy low price people will start to expect that. Detailers in most areas already have troubles charging $50 an hour and in many other industries services are going for 100+ (mechanics, consulting, etc.). Instead, offer these prices to close friends and family and have them create the word-of-mouth advertising you need.
If you're trying to use social media etc. for advertising definitely use 50/50 and before and after shots. You will get a lot more engagement this way. Also, when you "boost" a post on Facebook make sure you target your audience. I usually target people within 10 miles that have a household income of 75k+. And as far as Google ads, Nick@Autowerx had a writeup about this a while back, search the forum and you'll find some info about how to not waste money on Google.
First-class advice, A Finishing Touch!
I really don't want to offer premium services at cut-rate costs. I gauged industry standard at $50/hr and developed my prices around that, for my one-size-fits-most packages. Additional labor will be discreetly billed at that rate as well.
Friends will get the discount as I have minimal family in this state since the divorce.
Thank you!
PFinishDetail
New member
- Jul 26, 2015
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Something you can try, and I don't know how well it will work or not but I'm about to do it myself.
Run a promotion where people have to like your page on Facebook, follow you on instagram and DM you a picture of their car and that the chosen winner at the end of the contest wins a free detail.
I came up with that idea today and figure it would be a great way to gain a lot of exposure and get people talking about the business. That one free detail could lead to a lot of customers.
I'll update and let everyone know how it works out.
Run a promotion where people have to like your page on Facebook, follow you on instagram and DM you a picture of their car and that the chosen winner at the end of the contest wins a free detail.
I came up with that idea today and figure it would be a great way to gain a lot of exposure and get people talking about the business. That one free detail could lead to a lot of customers.
I'll update and let everyone know how it works out.
Audios S6
Active member
- Oct 12, 2011
- 1,634
- 0
I am not trying to seem harsh, rude or anything of the sort, but what I'm about to say may be hard dose of reality. The best detailer in the world will not make money if they are not business savvy. The worst detailer in the world will likely succeed if they are business savvy.
What I perceive that you've done is shotgun marketing and it shouldn't come as a big surprise that you got no bites from telling 5000 people about your niche service. Not everyone wants to pay to have their car detailed so it's important to focus on those who do.
You are starting a new business, but I'm not seeing a clear direction in your initial campaign. You need a business plan, target market and 1-2 years of goals, budgets and marketing/advertising strategy.
Start by reading Renny Doyle's book, that will really help you establish a foundation for a detailing business.
Next, find your market and develop a marketing/advertising strategy. Maybe it's car clubs, find a friend in one and offer to detail their car cheap if they post pics and show off your work to the club. Offer to do a demo or seminar for the car club. Maybe your market is soccer moms, talk to your wife/gf's friends who have kids, carpooling moms are as bad a neighbors in terms of keeping up with the Jone's.
You need some direction. You need to set goals. You need to bust your rear-end to meet those goals. It's hard work, but I'm sure you are up to the task.
What I perceive that you've done is shotgun marketing and it shouldn't come as a big surprise that you got no bites from telling 5000 people about your niche service. Not everyone wants to pay to have their car detailed so it's important to focus on those who do.
You are starting a new business, but I'm not seeing a clear direction in your initial campaign. You need a business plan, target market and 1-2 years of goals, budgets and marketing/advertising strategy.
Start by reading Renny Doyle's book, that will really help you establish a foundation for a detailing business.
Next, find your market and develop a marketing/advertising strategy. Maybe it's car clubs, find a friend in one and offer to detail their car cheap if they post pics and show off your work to the club. Offer to do a demo or seminar for the car club. Maybe your market is soccer moms, talk to your wife/gf's friends who have kids, carpooling moms are as bad a neighbors in terms of keeping up with the Jone's.
You need some direction. You need to set goals. You need to bust your rear-end to meet those goals. It's hard work, but I'm sure you are up to the task.
word of mouth is definitely the best advertisement, with that being said:
offering a close friend/family a 50% discount in exchange for telling people about your service, you are MAKING money while advertising. you are also going to have that much more money in your pocket than if you didnt do that job.
i went to my buddy's house to do an exterior detail for 50% off, wound up doing his mom's car same day, and have 2 of his fathers 5 vehicles scheduled to be done at full price. then later in the week my buddy got a new car, called me up and had me come do that one also.
so for 1 job i did at 50% off, i got 2 full price jobs, and 2 more booked.
offering a close friend/family a 50% discount in exchange for telling people about your service, you are MAKING money while advertising. you are also going to have that much more money in your pocket than if you didnt do that job.
i went to my buddy's house to do an exterior detail for 50% off, wound up doing his mom's car same day, and have 2 of his fathers 5 vehicles scheduled to be done at full price. then later in the week my buddy got a new car, called me up and had me come do that one also.
so for 1 job i did at 50% off, i got 2 full price jobs, and 2 more booked.
Damonsfcd
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- Jul 17, 2015
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- #31
I don't know why I didn't follow Mike's advice to begin with. I think it's best to start off with smaller jobs, hone my skills, buy better equipment one step at a time, and slowly expand.
I just busted my tail out in the direct sunlight for 11 hours detailing a van for a friend for $200. I almost had a heat stroke, the water was steaming off the surface and drying and leaving hard water spots before I could even reach for my guzzler. The glass was horrible. Water spots galore. I couldn't machine polish anything. As soon as any product hit the paint it burst into flames.
The inside? Carpet stains. Who drinks coffee out of a 5 gallon bucket, takes one sip and dumps the rest on the floor? Of course I can't afford even the cheapest mytee extractor so I did it all by hand. I used spot remover, a bucket of clean water with a capful of rinse less wash to act as a water softener, the DA carpet brush and a few microfiber towels and my metro vac n blo. I think I've perfected carpet cleaning by hand.
The wheel wells were complex and filthy. Why waste good resources by lining he wheel well with a solid piece? Just put a thin strip in the front then F all in the back! Yay Chevy!
The engine bay was cramped and filthy. Cleaned that up. Had to tape off a few spots where the heater box had chunks missing. Did I mention this is a later-model Astro van?
Also cleaned the door jambs, the door track, the headliner, all the little cubbyholes, a whole lot of cubbyholes, clayed the whole thing which was covered in old bugs, bird poop, water spots, tree sap, tar, and Satan's tears of laughter.
I was cleaning the windows last and the cloth was steaming and burned me.
Oh and my dumb ass used almost all of my DP Krystal vision glass restorer as clay lubricant. Yeah. Both are in the same style bottle. I would have read the label but everything was whitewashed from that giant ball of burning gas in the sky that laughs at my polarized oakleys.
On top of that, I failed miserably at before and after pics. For example, I have a ton of pics of the filthy wheel wells. But overlooked taking pictures of the sparkling clean ones that only took two hours to clean.
I would have compounded the paint because it was swirled all to hell, but I decided against it because I would have had to use a whole bottle on a single panel because of the heat.
I did manage to successfully throw a coat of WGDGS3.0 on.
So yeah. I think I'm gonna "keep it simple Simon" from now on. At least till I get a garage, better equipment and some help.
I just busted my tail out in the direct sunlight for 11 hours detailing a van for a friend for $200. I almost had a heat stroke, the water was steaming off the surface and drying and leaving hard water spots before I could even reach for my guzzler. The glass was horrible. Water spots galore. I couldn't machine polish anything. As soon as any product hit the paint it burst into flames.
The inside? Carpet stains. Who drinks coffee out of a 5 gallon bucket, takes one sip and dumps the rest on the floor? Of course I can't afford even the cheapest mytee extractor so I did it all by hand. I used spot remover, a bucket of clean water with a capful of rinse less wash to act as a water softener, the DA carpet brush and a few microfiber towels and my metro vac n blo. I think I've perfected carpet cleaning by hand.
The wheel wells were complex and filthy. Why waste good resources by lining he wheel well with a solid piece? Just put a thin strip in the front then F all in the back! Yay Chevy!
The engine bay was cramped and filthy. Cleaned that up. Had to tape off a few spots where the heater box had chunks missing. Did I mention this is a later-model Astro van?
Also cleaned the door jambs, the door track, the headliner, all the little cubbyholes, a whole lot of cubbyholes, clayed the whole thing which was covered in old bugs, bird poop, water spots, tree sap, tar, and Satan's tears of laughter.
I was cleaning the windows last and the cloth was steaming and burned me.
Oh and my dumb ass used almost all of my DP Krystal vision glass restorer as clay lubricant. Yeah. Both are in the same style bottle. I would have read the label but everything was whitewashed from that giant ball of burning gas in the sky that laughs at my polarized oakleys.
On top of that, I failed miserably at before and after pics. For example, I have a ton of pics of the filthy wheel wells. But overlooked taking pictures of the sparkling clean ones that only took two hours to clean.
I would have compounded the paint because it was swirled all to hell, but I decided against it because I would have had to use a whole bottle on a single panel because of the heat.
I did manage to successfully throw a coat of WGDGS3.0 on.
So yeah. I think I'm gonna "keep it simple Simon" from now on. At least till I get a garage, better equipment and some help.
Damonsfcd
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- Jul 17, 2015
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- #32
Oh, I forgot a few things that seem important because lessons were learned.
Clay gets REALLY soft when it's heated to 160 degrees. I used the pinnacle clay that's colored green.
Watch out for sharp objects. I found an exacto knife in a cubby hole while blindly reaching in to pull trash out. Twice. And I'll be damned if that blade wasn't fresh.
Clay gets REALLY soft when it's heated to 160 degrees. I used the pinnacle clay that's colored green.
Watch out for sharp objects. I found an exacto knife in a cubby hole while blindly reaching in to pull trash out. Twice. And I'll be damned if that blade wasn't fresh.
Dayonta675
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- Apr 20, 2014
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Going to say word of mouth is HUGE, the first year will be the toughest. Doing a car for just one guy can mean the difference between doing a few dozen cars per year to a few hundred. I started joining Facebook groups and offering one step corrections for $200 and two steps for $300, showed off a lot of my works and lots of 50/50s. Met one guy, he had a truck that was repainted by two difference shops, the last guy destroyed it. It was my toughest job, took me 40+ Hours. Turned out this guy knew everyone in town and hooked me up huge, since then I've done 3 Ferrari's, 4 Mercs, 2 BMW's, 3 Porsche's and slew of 1960-70 car restorations. I'm so booked that it's ridiculous that I have to turn customers down, this week I'm going to be doing 6 Ferrari's at a body shops show room. All from one guy, I've got maybe 40 more cars booked.
tw33k2514
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- May 15, 2011
- 2,298
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3D HD and poorboys products both work in direct sunlight. Seriously buy a ezup canopy though. Will change your life.
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DeepReflections
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- Jul 24, 2012
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:iagree::dblthumb2: This!!!!
Rock Solid advice. Along with slowing down and THINK about what you are doing. The best detail on the planet is one that is thought out before taking action. Based on your one van experience, it is blatantly obvious you arenot thinking through the job in front of you
Slow it down and as stated take on the smaller jobs to develop a reputation. I refused to do car washes in my shop as though took time and yielded no profit. I soon realized after doing a few, it was getting customers in the door and it has worked quite well, especially out here in CA with the drought.
Yelp has been my absolute biggest draw of business. Make sure you are setup and encourage customers to do a review.
Do a Yelp deal, but be very careful with it, and lay out EXACTLY what you will do. Based on what we initially did it was a disaster, as we did a $250 deal for $195, it was a miserable failure as people were expecting a black car buffed to pristine shape for that deal and I had to reset expectations when they came in. Keep in mind I am in a high end area of Silicon Valley, so my average details runs $400, don't get too excited, my expenses are also very, very high.
Groupon, and I hear the groans... BUT it is a way to get your name in front of people. I also refused to deal with them in the beginning... BUT I learned something from someone doing Groupon. You layout exactly what it is you will do and WON"T do. When discussing the customer's car with a Groupon deal I was very clear about what was covered and what was not, and held firm. I went very high on the price much to Groupon's dismay, BUT it kept the coupon clippers away and brought us some decent business. Go cheap with them and that is what you will get... cheap business. I had a ton of upgrades that really helped the bottom line. The major thing it did for us was to get our name in front of people searching for "auto detail's"
I looked at your website - to be a bit brutal is more about you than it is your business or work. As everyone has said get pictures of your work out there.
However your home page, is a bit of a put off
You state you created this business to deal with customers that appreciate a well maintained vehicle, and oh by the way, I might be bothered to do your daily driver. GET RID OF THAT!!! You are driving customers away. They are looking at it from the perspective of this guy only does high end cars, not my Model S daily driver, or my daily driver Porsche. Trust me that is the business you want.
Personally I would pull prices. Every car is unique and quoting a price sight unseen is absolutely ripe for you having to go overboard on a trashed car for $40, that should have been priced at $80 to keep a customer happy.
When I get a call for pricing, my first questions is what are you trying to fix, and I direct my questions and answers to solving their problem, and try and push price out to the last part of the discussion once I have sold them on our services
Damonsfcd
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- Jul 17, 2015
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- #40
Rock solid advice. I have already adjusted fire on a couple things.
The website. Oh, no. I must have been on something when I wrote that ��
I will fix that right away. I really am not put off by daily drivers. In fact, I love them.
However, I am still a little confused on pricing. Everyone I talk to wants prices. I'm getting conflicting information from seasoned detailers and customers.
The good news is: I've done a few cars and the owners were jumping for joy at the results. Boy, I didn't even do any paint correction. I really wasn't expecting that. Once I started doing work in the area, word spread fast.
I really want to do this. I have the standards and the tenacity, but I think I may have let my patience and my ego get the best of me.
No criticism will be frowned upon. I wish to remain humble and thank you for taking the time to show me how I can improve.
Thank you all, sincerely. I love this community.
Edit: Fixed the website, aside from pulling pricing. I would like to dig up a bit more information before doing that, as everyone who has asked me about my services, website, etc have all asked "how much just for a basic detail" So I did a bit of research in the area and found out what people here and in the local demographic consider a "basic detail" and I tailored my initial information around that. I hope I am not scaring off customers by listing pricing, but asking around, people don't seem sticker shocked for the most part and are happy with the result/price ratio and I'm happy with the amount of net profit that yields. I am fully prepared for "nightmare" cars as I have run into a couple. They don't scare me, I actually like the challenge. It's good experience that I really don't mind. Hard work never killed me, never will.
The website. Oh, no. I must have been on something when I wrote that ��
I will fix that right away. I really am not put off by daily drivers. In fact, I love them.
However, I am still a little confused on pricing. Everyone I talk to wants prices. I'm getting conflicting information from seasoned detailers and customers.
The good news is: I've done a few cars and the owners were jumping for joy at the results. Boy, I didn't even do any paint correction. I really wasn't expecting that. Once I started doing work in the area, word spread fast.
I really want to do this. I have the standards and the tenacity, but I think I may have let my patience and my ego get the best of me.
No criticism will be frowned upon. I wish to remain humble and thank you for taking the time to show me how I can improve.
Thank you all, sincerely. I love this community.
Edit: Fixed the website, aside from pulling pricing. I would like to dig up a bit more information before doing that, as everyone who has asked me about my services, website, etc have all asked "how much just for a basic detail" So I did a bit of research in the area and found out what people here and in the local demographic consider a "basic detail" and I tailored my initial information around that. I hope I am not scaring off customers by listing pricing, but asking around, people don't seem sticker shocked for the most part and are happy with the result/price ratio and I'm happy with the amount of net profit that yields. I am fully prepared for "nightmare" cars as I have run into a couple. They don't scare me, I actually like the challenge. It's good experience that I really don't mind. Hard work never killed me, never will.