Detailing Packages Help!!

Nicholas@Autowerx said:
I would recommend not to print out and distribute a "menu" type advertisement. This will limit your ability to raise your prices in the future or change your service offerings.

Your prices are very low. I'm not sure how long you've been doing this but soon you will eventually realize that spending all day on a $125 service is a quick path to business insolvency. By the time you take out cost of supplies, fuel, insurance, city/state business licenses, utilities, etc., etc., you are left with only a small percentage as "profit."

As a sole proprietor if you plan to just pay yourself the entire net total from each job then your business is actually producing ZERO profit. All of your services should be designed as if you are paying an employee to perform the task and have a margin of profit which you can use to expand your business in the future. If you yourself are the only employee then that is absolutely okay; however, all of your services should be able to yield a profit after you've paid all expenses including labor, even if the "labor" cost is only for yourself.

You also have to account for all the time you spend OUTSIDE of physically working on each vehicle. The time you spend building your website, ordering supplies, diluting chemicals, phone calls, emails, etc. As the sole employee of your business you need the "profits" from each service to be able to pay your hourly wages while you are performing ancillary functions. These are all things that contribute to the value you are delivering in each detailing service. Because you've spent the time learning, practicing, organizing, and preparing, you have created a professional service offering that should command a corresponding price point.

Bottom line this is what I see when someone says "I spent all day detailing a car and made $125." It's basically a math problem:

Service Price $125
- Supplies $10
- Automotive / Fuel $10 (cost to get to and from each job, this is an average of all automobile expenses throughout the year)
- Insurance cost per vehicle $4 (this will be lower if you detail a higher volume of vehicles)

That leaves $101 to pay for labor; or, if the job took 7 hours that equals $14.42/hr. Now imagine you wanted to ever grow the business or hire an employee. Let's also say you wanted to pay your employee a decent, living wage of $15/hr. With state, federal, workers comp, payroll processing, etc. your employee would actually be costing you roughly $21/hr. Your business is now insolvent. It would actually cost you $147 to pay someone $15/hr to detail this vehicle. Now add in the cost of supplies and other business expenses and it costs you $171 to detail this vehicle.
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What would you recommend me doing then? I've already posted the website.
 
StealthXJ said:
What would you recommend me doing then? I've already posted the website.
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There are essentially two options to make each service profitable:

1) Raise prices for each service so the math works out in your favor.

A general goal for me is $50-100 per hour (gross). There is a reason body shops charge so much for labor. They are building a profit margin into the cost of their employees. Also they bill out separately for the paint and other costs... You need to make sure your hourly rate covers all expenses including labor.

It takes close to 1-1.5 hours to perform a proper two bucket method wash with wheels, tires, wells, jambs, careful drying, etc. That means that literally just to properly and carefully wash a vehicle with premium chemicals, tools, and methods should bring in around $150-200. This is real market value of high-end detailing and you can absolutely charge this much if you are correctly targeting this market and legitimately offering a superior service experience.

2) Figure out a way to lower costs and become more efficient. Take less time on each vehicle and buy cheaper chemicals to improve profit margins.

A combination of both of these strategies would be recommended. You have to keep in mind that improving efficiency or buying less expensive chemicals does not diminish the value of your services whatsoever. Your clients are paying you for a specific result and should not care about HOW you are delivering that result as long as you are not incorrectly applying any products or damaging any surfaces you work on. If you can deliver a given result faster, while not sacrificing quality, you are providing better value by lessening the time a client has to spend without their vehicle.
 
VP Mark said:
I live in a city of 2400 people, I thought the same thing for years. Learn from my proud and ignorant mistakes. People with real money wanting a premium service will literally crawl out of the woodwork if you give them the slightest reason to think that you are better than the rest of the crowd.
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That makes a lot of sense, actually. However, at the same time I don't want to lose the customers that got me here, you know? It's a struggle...
 
Nicholas@Autowerx said:
There are essentially two options to make each service profitable:

1) Raise prices for each service so the math works out in your favor.

A general goal for me is $50-100 per hour (gross). There is a reason body shops charge so much for labor. They are building a profit margin into the cost of their employees. Also they bill out separately for the paint and other costs... You need to make sure your hourly rate covers all expenses including labor.

It takes close to 1-1.5 hours to perform a proper two bucket method wash with wheels, tires, wells, jambs, careful drying, etc. That means that literally just to properly and carefully wash a vehicle with premium chemicals, tools, and methods should bring in around $150-200. This is real market value of high-end detailing and you can absolutely charge this much if you are correctly targeting this market and legitimately offering a superior service experience.

2) Figure out a way to lower costs and become more efficient. Take less time on each vehicle and buy cheaper chemicals to improve profit margins.

A combination of both of these strategies would be recommended. You have to keep in mind that improving efficiency or buying less expensive chemicals does not diminish the value of your services whatsoever. Your clients are paying you for a specific result and should not care about HOW you are delivering that result as long as you are not incorrectly applying any products or damaging any surfaces you work on. If you can deliver a given result faster, while not sacrificing quality, you are providing better value by lessening the time a client has to spend without their vehicle.
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My gosh... that is a lot per hour! Remember, I am a one man operation. Also, I meant how would you change my layout of the current packages?
 
StealthXJ said:
My gosh... that is a lot per hour! Remember, I am a one man operation. Also, I meant how would you change my layout of the current packages?
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Here is a link to a spreadsheet that I used when I was first putting together a bunch of my services. It helped me to price things out accurately and to realize how much I needed to charge on each service. I still use something similar when I'm creating deals or coupons to make sure that there is enough wiggle room in a particular service to offer any potential discounts.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11627151/AGO Service Time Chart V2.xlsx

I actually have a way better spreadsheet now that calculates in labor for each individual service. I don't have a blank one to share right now but tonight I'll clear it out and post it for you as a generic template. I get excited about this stuff because it took me literally years to figure out how much I was wasting my time trying to offer "cheap" services. Once you realize exactly how much time you are spending on detailing and other business related stuff, and depending on how much you value your time (the price you set for your own labor) you will most likely realize that you are WAY undercharging with your current price points.
 
Nicholas@Autowerx said:
Here is a link to a spreadsheet that I used when I was first putting together a bunch of my services. It helped me to price things out accurately and to realize how much I needed to charge on each service. I still use something similar when I'm creating deals or coupons to make sure that there is enough wiggle room in a particular service to offer any potential discounts.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11627151/AGO Service Time Chart V2.xlsx

I actually have a way better spreadsheet now that calculates in labor for each individual service. I don't have a blank one to share right now but tonight I'll clear it out and post it for you as a generic template. I get excited about this stuff because it took me literally years to figure out how much I was wasting my time trying to offer "cheap" services. Once you realize exactly how much time you are spending on detailing and other business related stuff, and depending on how much you value your time (the price you set for your own labor) you will most likely realize that you are WAY undercharging with your current price points.
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Wow, thank you so very much! That is extremely kind of you! I love the entire car industry so much!
 
Just change the prices on the website. If someone says "Hey I looked last week and it was much cheaper" just explain to them you adjusted the prices but will honor the price they saw last week. This way you don't loose a client and at the same time it prevents you from having to sell services at a lower price point.

A spreadsheet for preparing packages and services is a must!

In mine I calculate the following:
- Price per hour I want to make (40$/hour for now)
- Time it takes to perform the service
- Flat fee for driving, setting up and cleaning up (I use 30$ for now)
- Cost of material and products to perform the service. In this case many services cost pennies. But some are expensive (Coatings, sealants, polishes, wet sanding and the like)

This gives me my basic rate. When someone wants multiple services I deduct the 30$ driving fee for each add. one. Same if they want to combine packages.
 
Calendyr said:
Just change the prices on the website. If someone says "Hey I looked last week and it was much cheaper" just explain to them you adjusted the prices but will honor the price they saw last week. This way you don't loose a client and at the same time it prevents you from having to sell services at a lower price point.

A spreadsheet for preparing packages and services is a must!

In mine I calculate the following:
- Price per hour I want to make (40$/hour for now)
- Time it takes to perform the service
- Flat fee for driving, setting up and cleaning up (I use 30$ for now)
- Cost of material and products to perform the service. In this case many services cost pennies. But some are expensive (Coatings, sealants, polishes, wet sanding and the like)

This gives me my basic rate. When someone wants multiple services I deduct the 30$ driving fee for each add. one. Same if they want to combine packages.
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That's a great idea! I may not raise it anymore right now, but I plan to add carpet and upholstery shampoo service soon, so it will probably raise then, or I'll just add it to the "add-on" list. We'll see.

I most look forward to offering higher-end work, like paint reconditioning, chip repair and trim restoration.
 
I took my site offline to really sort everything out and setup everything properly. The Roanoke area does have wealthy places, but the car culture and caring for your car is definitely nothing like the Tampa, FL area! I'm a bit worried that I won't be able to reach the kind of people that I'm trying to reach.

I am a HUGE car guy, and really want to work on cars that need brought back to life, like classics and such. Restoring something to beauty that once was is just an amazing feeling! How can I best reach that market that has the appreciation, desire and funds?
 
Just mix it up.cater to production and Highend.you can make money at production detailing,include some fleet accts for steady income a month.along the way you will meet different people,there either quality minded clients that will pay or the ones who will only spend x amount of dollars.you need advertisement in your local surroundings that will let your community know that you offer detailing services.websites are a waste of time.websites are good for selling a product to the masses.If your so focused on a website,to me you are scared to hit the pavement and brand yourself face to face with a customer.you only need 20 loyal clients to get your name out there,and before you know it your phone will ring everyday or every other day.you are in va where a lot of dd need work.start offering free home estimates and product demos.people buy your personality and service.once you demo a door or hood and they like you,your good to go.start selling and stop wasting.Dont take this personal in anyway,I've been mobile since 2002 and been in this industry all my life and I know the game pretty well.
 
GSKR said:
Just mix it up.cater to production and Highend.you can make money at production detailing,include some fleet accts for steady income a month.along the way you will meet different people,there either quality minded clients that will pay or the ones who will only spend x amount of dollars.you need advertisement in your local surroundings that will let your community know that you offer detailing services.websites are a waste of time.websites are good for selling a product to the masses.If your so focused on a website,to me you are scared to hit the pavement and brand yourself face to face with a customer.you only need 20 loyal clients to get your name out there,and before you know it your phone will ring everyday or every other day.you are in va where a lot of dd need work.start offering free home estimates and product demos.people buy your personality and service.once you demo a door or hood and they like you,your good to go.start selling and stop wasting.Dont take this personal in anyway,I've been mobile since 2002 and been in this industry all my life and I know the game pretty well.
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I really appreciate that. I simply need to get all of my pricing and information together so that when I talk to people I can be ready.

Catering to both... I guess the regular washing detail jobs would cater more to the daily drivers and the paint recondition side would cater more to the high-end clientele.

I'm an over-thinker. I just want to go about this in the wisest manner possible.
 
You can't over think this .you can survive without retail,just go and get some repair accts or fleet accts.your putting the cart before the horse.Get to know the max price your county can pay for production detailing.Do a good job on every car and then the Highend will come.Go to all the car shows this summer and brand your service.washing cars for 30.00 will get your name out there quickly and you can upsell services.we all did it starting out.Then wean yourself from that service and concentrate on just detailing services.with some moderate networking you will be good a year from now.Detailing is the easiest business to start.Try not to complicate it cause it's not.
 
Thank you for all of your advice. It is much appreciated! I already did the semi cheap, two package $90 or $120 details and built a very good reputation for myself and my work, so I am trying to build up from that. Ready to step away from my other retail job and pursue this fill time. Planning to go out into the community soon.
 
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