Got knocked off the horse

I

ItsKYRO

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A little background I used to be in the detailing department at a car dealership 7 years ago. It got me interested in detailing but to me at the time it was just giving a car a nice wash and making it look shiny. I ended up starting a power washing business where I would spray down super dirty semi trucks and trailers and then run a big brush with some abrasive soap and spray it down again and be done with them. Made decent money out of it for a bit but couldn't keep up with the work alone as a side gig and stopped doing it once my equipment was stolen.

About a year or two ago I thought it would be nice to learn some actual detailing and rebuild my business into personal car detailing. I did research and purchased a lot of basic products, mostly all the products you can purchase at a local grocery store (meguiars ultimate, etc.) and was attempting to do everything by free hand.

I did some practicing on damaged parts from a body shop and decided lets try this out seriously, and took my first real customer that wasnt my car or my wifes car.

I knew the lady well I was doing the detailing for but still, she had a 6 month old white dodge challenger RT that she worked hard for and I wanted to provide the absolute best quality I could.

My intentions were to: claybar/polish/wax/wash/bug removal/all the basics for her cars first detail, along with an interior clean.

The interior alone took me 2.5-3hrs, supplies I used was detailing brushes, microfiber towels, shop vac, and again basic meguiars line interior products. This took me way longer than expected. I've detailed my cars interior plenty of times, why is it taking me so long? For one, I wasn't expecting all the pet hair, I didn't ask first. I had no brush specifically made for pet hair, but I do have a somewhat coarse brush I use for the carpet, that I was using to clump the pet hair, and then attempt to remove with my very very wet sweaty hands so the process was taking awhile. Coupled with i'm not used to being in such a tight space being a tall guy and trying to work my way thru the little places of a muscle coupe to wipe everything down was taking awhile.

So I got really behind on that.

I start with the wheels for the exterior. 1-1.5hrs. Wow. Wheels werent especially dirty, but the time it took to wash the wheel, spray it with cleaner, wait a few minutes to soak, scrub cleaner in with wheel brush, wash again, keep grabbing needed supplies, off my car which I parked next to me in the driveway to use as a table, took some time. Keep in mind thru all of this, im scrubbing and working as fast as I can while still attempting to make everything look good, to the point im almost throwing up and my head is spinning im trying so hard to make it faster. I'm also freaking out about how long its taking because she's waiting inside with my wife talking for all these hours at night time expecting a full detail and i'm realizing i'm not going to be able to get everything done in time.

I'm onto the body, I wash, and do my best to remove bugs and tar. This is taking awhile. Maybe the product i'm using isn't strong enough, maybe the sponge isn't good enough, but this took some time to get most of it off.

Then it's on to washing the car by hand with a hose and hand mitt. By the time this is all done, i've spent like 7 hours on the car, its late at night now, and my body is just giving up i've been pushing it so hard for 7 hours immediately after work, and i'm in the hottest part of the summer.

I ended up not getting to claybar, polish, or wax the car. I had to finish with a spray quick wax after the wash and apologize to the owner of the car. She was grateful for the work and very kind, but I was so let down at how much time it took, the amount of energy and effort I put in, and didn't even get to the meat of the detail.

I haven't touched detailing since, I was so let down. I even had business cards made and a bunch of people that were offering money for a detail, and I just fell so hard off the horse, it was a huge blow to my confidence and morale in detailing.

(Also I was planning to apply the polish and wax completely by hand, no DA, so who knows how many more hours I would of been, as i've only practiced on parts and never done it by hand on an entire car.)

I think part of the issue too is that the water for the hose is at the back of the house on the far other corner as the driveway, so I have to run the hose around the house and thru a seasonal room and into the garage and then to the driveway, and the hose just barely reaches to get 1/4-1/2 of the car in the driveway, so i'm constantly having to move supplies and the car to make it work.




I guess i'm saying this because i'm hoping for some encouragement or similar stories, I want to take this seriously and make money off of it and do something I enjoy, but that was such a hard pill to swallow to not be able to come thru with a full detail like I had promised to do, and to take so much time with so much effort given. Thanks
 
Detailing takes time... And the better the job you are trying to do the longer it takes.

Sure there are some things you can do for efficiency but those only result in modest time savings. You're not going to cut the time in half unless you're just grossly unorganized, devoid of the required tools, and insanely poor at time management.

You do need to get at least one polisher... Doing polish jobs by hand just isn't going to cut it time-wise.

When I read about guys doing "full-details" in 2, 3, 4 hours I just roll my eyes. You simply cannot do the job in that kind of time and be turning out consistent high-quality work. Heck, I probably spend that much time inspecting my work. Maybe not literally, but I'm just making a point.

To put this into perspective for you, I just finished polishing and waxing my truck. Nothing else, just polish and wax. Two days (about 16 hours) is what I spent.

I'll admit that I do not work as fast as I did when I was younger, and I might pay too much attention to what some would consider insignificant details, but regardless, I don't see anyone doing as thorough a job as I just did in anything less than 10-12 hours.
 
If you are serious about detailing professionally, get some education. There are great sources right here. Mike Phillips offers many options to learn from one of the all time greatest in the business. And I have personally been in a class with him teaching all levels of skill at one time. I thought it was a crazy fun class. Jason Rose at Rupes offers classes in Denver, and Renny Doyle offers classes in California. They are in my opinion 3 that belong on the Mt Rushmore of detailing.
 
As has already been said, just get back up and go at it and learn. You will need a polisher and IMO get a good one. Time wise, keep a spreadsheet. I documented vehicles for a LONG time on a spreadsheet to determine time involved and still to this day keep track of time per vehicle and stages of the work. If I'm running ahead or behind, I simply use them as a gauge. I spend about 1-2hrs depending on the condition of teh vheicle just getting it fully cleaned, decontaminated and ready for the polisher. Time behind a polisher will vary as well. I base my rates on how much time I will need / use doing the vehicle and since this is a side gig for me I started way back in the day at $35hr to 50, then hit 70 and now I average about $80-100 per hour. Build your packages from there.

Overall time, I average between 5-7hrs per vehicle. More intense details or on larger SUV's I may end up in the 8-10hr range but that's rare as I do mostly one step coating jobs. Quick basic polishes I can knock out in 4-5hrs. I like those best as I'm done by lunch and can make great money per hour.

Keep building and refining. That's key, be efficient and wise with your time and materials.
 
ItsKYRO said:
I knew the lady well I was doing the detailing for but still, she had a 6 month old white dodge challenger RT that she worked hard for and I wanted to provide the absolute best quality I could.
Click to expand...


That mindset is noble but noble often times means working for free.

One of the most common paths people go down when starting out with their idea of a detailing business is do the best they can. Actually, lets use the word ALL they can instead of the word best.

You can do your best work but not do all you can. See the difference? In order to be successful you need to have different PACKAGES - not one package that is doing everything and doing the best you can.

Then you need to size up your customer and their car and match the right package to the customer. This takes learning and we all had and have to go through it.


I teach all of this in my car detailing classes. For example - the first thing I ask a potential customer is,

How do you wash your car?

The answer to this question tells me everything I need to know about what's inside this person's head when it comes to taking FUTURE care of the car I detail. It also tells me what I want to do and what I know to NOT do. Huge difference.

When it comes to removing pet hair on the inside of a car - that's a stand-along, separate service. I'm glad to see you on the forum because in my opinion, this will be your most powerful tool in your business arsenal.



:)
 
ItsKYRO said:
A little background I used to be in the detailing department at a car dealership 7 years ago. It got me interested in detailing but to me at the time it was just giving a car a nice wash and making it look shiny. I ended up starting a power washing business where I would spray down super dirty semi trucks and trailers and then run a big brush with some abrasive soap and spray it down again and be done with them. Made decent money out of it for a bit but couldn't keep up with the work alone as a side gig and stopped doing it once my equipment was stolen.

About a year or two ago I thought it would be nice to learn some actual detailing and rebuild my business into personal car detailing. I did research and purchased a lot of basic products, mostly all the products you can purchase at a local grocery store (meguiars ultimate, etc.) and was attempting to do everything by free hand.

I did some practicing on damaged parts from a body shop and decided lets try this out seriously, and took my first real customer that wasnt my car or my wifes car.

I knew the lady well I was doing the detailing for but still, she had a 6 month old white dodge challenger RT that she worked hard for and I wanted to provide the absolute best quality I could.

My intentions were to: claybar/polish/wax/wash/bug removal/all the basics for her cars first detail, along with an interior clean.

The interior alone took me 2.5-3hrs, supplies I used was detailing brushes, microfiber towels, shop vac, and again basic meguiars line interior products. This took me way longer than expected. I've detailed my cars interior plenty of times, why is it taking me so long? For one, I wasn't expecting all the pet hair, I didn't ask first. I had no brush specifically made for pet hair, but I do have a somewhat coarse brush I use for the carpet, that I was using to clump the pet hair, and then attempt to remove with my very very wet sweaty hands so the process was taking awhile. Coupled with i'm not used to being in such a tight space being a tall guy and trying to work my way thru the little places of a muscle coupe to wipe everything down was taking awhile.

So I got really behind on that.

I start with the wheels for the exterior. 1-1.5hrs. Wow. Wheels werent especially dirty, but the time it took to wash the wheel, spray it with cleaner, wait a few minutes to soak, scrub cleaner in with wheel brush, wash again, keep grabbing needed supplies, off my car which I parked next to me in the driveway to use as a table, took some time. Keep in mind thru all of this, im scrubbing and working as fast as I can while still attempting to make everything look good, to the point im almost throwing up and my head is spinning im trying so hard to make it faster. I'm also freaking out about how long its taking because she's waiting inside with my wife talking for all these hours at night time expecting a full detail and i'm realizing i'm not going to be able to get everything done in time.

I'm onto the body, I wash, and do my best to remove bugs and tar. This is taking awhile. Maybe the product i'm using isn't strong enough, maybe the sponge isn't good enough, but this took some time to get most of it off.

Then it's on to washing the car by hand with a hose and hand mitt. By the time this is all done, i've spent like 7 hours on the car, its late at night now, and my body is just giving up i've been pushing it so hard for 7 hours immediately after work, and i'm in the hottest part of the summer.

I ended up not getting to claybar, polish, or wax the car. I had to finish with a spray quick wax after the wash and apologize to the owner of the car. She was grateful for the work and very kind, but I was so let down at how much time it took, the amount of energy and effort I put in, and didn't even get to the meat of the detail.

I haven't touched detailing since, I was so let down. I even had business cards made and a bunch of people that were offering money for a detail, and I just fell so hard off the horse, it was a huge blow to my confidence and morale in detailing.

(Also I was planning to apply the polish and wax completely by hand, no DA, so who knows how many more hours I would of been, as i've only practiced on parts and never done it by hand on an entire car.)

I think part of the issue too is that the water for the hose is at the back of the house on the far other corner as the driveway, so I have to run the hose around the house and thru a seasonal room and into the garage and then to the driveway, and the hose just barely reaches to get 1/4-1/2 of the car in the driveway, so i'm constantly having to move supplies and the car to make it work.




I guess i'm saying this because i'm hoping for some encouragement or similar stories, I want to take this seriously and make money off of it and do something I enjoy, but that was such a hard pill to swallow to not be able to come thru with a full detail like I had promised to do, and to take so much time with so much effort given. Thanks
Click to expand...

you know there is a youtube channel you should watch, it kind of explains the business model of auto detailing, its call the detailers business academy

Detailers Business Academy Introduction - YouTube

I do not do detailing for money, I refused to do it since it is a purely a hobby right now but I would definitely consider doing it if times are tough. In the meantime I practice on my cars and family cars , its enough to keep me busy

One thing I have found interesting on that channel and it is very true on so many levels is that most customers are not willing to pay the big $$$ for a perfect job , most people just want a " quick job" that its not going to break the bank. Most of these detailing companies are offering paint correction , ceramic coatings, etc ,etc for crazy amount of money and it is fine , there are customers that are willing to pay that kind of money, but for a mobile detailing , I would focus on the quick jobs first. A car wash/ wax , interior vacuum / interior dressing , these is what the majority of clients will want anyways . If you have customers that want something more involved, I would do wash , decont , clay, light polish and sealant combo.

I think you are trying too hard to offer perfection and you are coming short.

Think about this, what is the point of doing a full paint correction if most average customer are going to take their car to the car wash tunnel the week after and get all the swirl back anyways. All these people doing full paint correction with heavy compounds , 2-3 stage polish , spending countless hours and then they have the same car back after a year for another paint correction. There is only so much clearcoat on the car , that you are probably doing more damage by removing clearcoat for a customer that just wants his car to look good from far. You are not really helping this customer, you are actually doing the opposite .

There are customers that want perfection and they usually are pretty upfront telling you that they want that , no matter the price, the want a show car. These customers are the ones with garage kept cars, weekend cars, these are the customers doing the 2 bucket car wash and trying their best to maintain their car free from scratches But the vast majority just wants a shiny car , a 10 feet car ( looks good from 10 feet) and they also do not want to pay the big bucks.

I would try to ask myself what kind of customer I have and what he really wants. A customer that wants full exterior with paint correction and full interior done to his car is a customer that is willing to leave the car for a few days for you to work on it. Its also a customer willing to pay a high price to get it done , its a customer that may want some type of ceramic coating apply to his car or some type of expensive sealant/wax once you are done

If you want to make this a business you need to know your customer . You will be surprise that the majority just wants good car wash , decont , clay and wax. I would even through a quick light polish after the claybar for extra $$
 
It also depends on your business model too.

If you shooting for absolute perfection:
High Line - then your rates will be high, (per hourly rate, not package pricing) and the jobs will take a long time with the attention to detail (on everything!). You'll have to get good at estimating, setting expectations, selling on the value (or cost...) and then delivering.

If you are production detailing:
Low Line to Mid - Every car gets the same treatment, package based business (good / better / best) with an average leaning towards better, then set price will be package based, and time will be allocated per package) - Meaning when it's done, it is was it is, not shooting for perfection.

I think Eldo2k (I could be wrong) wrote an article a while back, but I recall it was about using an AIO and literally just going over the vehicle quickly, and a vacuum& tornador on the interior with wipedown. I tried his method and did a neighbors car (which was TRASHED) and got it done in like 4 hours. It came out 85% better than the way it came in... The neighbor was thrilled.

That's basically it at a 64K foot view. When I was in business, we shot for highline. But my business was part-time/my-time when not at the day job.

I knew a guy down the road that had a shop. The sign on the building said: "Cars $300 / Trucks $400 All Day". He had 4 or 5 guys (form high-school) working for him and they could crank out cars all day long. He even had a contact with livery service and funeral homes. He kept things simple and just got cars in and out all day long. I knew some of his customers and they were thrilled, so repeat service as HIGH.

You have to define your business and target that market. Member DanTran wrote a great article on this:
Presenting High-Ticket Offers to Affluent Clients by Dan Tran

Get back on the horse, sounds like you've been successful at it in various forms in the past... You just have to focus on what your business is going to be.
 
I've got a similar story to when I started since you asked.

My first full detail (and client) when I started my business took me 11.5 hours. And looking back I'd say it was only a slightly neglected vehicle (Chevy Traverse) not terrible compared to some.

Why it took so long? Because when I set up my packages I looked at what the other detailers in the area offered, and made sure to copy everything along with undercutting the price by $20.

They said they compounded / polished the paint so I did too. Two passes with the DA and on top of that a hand wax.

They said they shampooed the carpets / seats so I did every inch of the car even if it didn't need it.

They did under the hood so I did too.

On and on and on.

That was some of the hardest work I've ever had to do. Everyday I ended up going home exhausted like you were. Worst of all I didn't realize my mistakes as fast as you did until about a few months in. Eventually it kinda wears down on you using m105, m205 and collinite 845 in the direct sunlight. Talk about an arm workout.

I started lurking a ton here and smartened up in the following months. Eventually I stopped compounding (not that the results were great given I unknowingly had knock off lc pads) and went down to just m205. And even later on I learned of the holyness of HD speed. It saved so much time I felt like I was cheating.

Business has improved a ton since then but before getting there I was basically at my quitting point. Had I not spoke with another detailer who taught me to charge more I would have gave up.

Don't give up man. You're already a step above most if your hanging out on here and everybody has to start somewhere. There's a ton of good info in this forum but you have to figure out what the questions are before you can find the answers.
 
Every detail, I hit a mid-point and time pressure really kicks in.

“Why am I not done with this yet?”

Because I see nearly every defect, or, the paint can be cleared up a touch more. Well, a touch more and I’ve just spent another 20 minutes on one panel.
But this is also why I need my clients’ vehicles for a couple days. I’m gearing towards high-end and still have much to learn. Like, as stated above, “This is enough. This is a mid-grade package. It looks good enough.”

“Good enough” is what I’m fighting against! Seriously though, 9/10 customers aren’t going to notice the extra time I’m putting in. It must be the fear factor that they will notice. Hence, a pre-detail conversation with clients and what they’re expecting. And remind myself along the way to not go overboard.

I like Dan Tran’s business model. The best, or nothing.


*edit*

Detailing my own vehicle should be relaxing. I don’t care how long it takes. Two hours until sunset...nah...not enough time to wash it.
 
To OP...

I am sorry to say that many of us here has gone through what you went through.

Detailing for money is a side gig for me. I am not the fastest nor the slowest but what I am .... is passionate for the task at hand. Many of my clients had asked me why I dont do this full time and my answer has always been "Why ?? I enjoy doing this and the last thing I want is to turn this into a JOB. Once this becomes a job, my mentality will change and it will cease to be fun."

Currently, many of us (hobbyist and side gig people) has a tendency to romanticize all aspect of detailing and this is our biggest downfall in speed and efficiency. To be profitable in all service oriented business and detailing is no different, one has to take the approach of a technician. You have to develop an approach and method for all services you provide in a time/cost manner. That is not to say quality is not a factor. It is but one has to realize there are different levels of quality and each level will be performed in a time/cost manner.

Doing everything by hand is back breaking work. There is no way I can do that currently... maybe 30 years ago. Not much brain but plenty of brawn back then....LOL
 
My day job is as a project management consultant. One of the greatest challenges of my job is handling scope creep while ensuring quality and not spending too much time and money. This is known as the triple constraint or iron triangle.

View attachment 71985
Project Management Triangle - Tutorialspoint

Your job is to work with a customer and establish the scope, quality, and cost. Preferably it would be a win-win outcome where the customer is happy with the results and you are happy with the money you make. So then you have to work on your time and as Craig alluded to, your ability to stick to the agreed upon quality level. Perfection is not an option unless you’re working HIGH dollar details. So you will need to work on your offering to get the triangle balanced or even in your favor.

Also realize that as with anything new, you will put more hours into it initially with less return but as you grow your capabilities and business, you should be focused on becoming profitable. And you really need to focus on the business and include all costs including time: cost of products, time spent going to or waiting on clients, electricity, gas, cell phone, water, filters, etc. if you’re not including everything in your rate calculations then you’re not running a business (well).

And as TTQ B4U suggested, treat your work as production work and focus on continuous process improvement. Every system has a bottleneck, your job is to remove enough bottlenecks to the point that they aren’t a bother or limitation. So look at where you’re spending the most time and focus on improving that area. And then identify the next area of improvement and attack it.

And as someone else mentioned, sometimes you have to focus on yourself and change how you think. If your natural inclination is to undercut the price of others then you aren’t valuing your work. Some customers won’t even consider you if you’re too inexpensive so you need to figure out where you want to fit in the ecosystem. If you’re young and want to do a bunch of cars then focus on the lowest hanging fruit to make a detail nice but quick. If you’re a little older, you’ll need to focus on selling quality over quantity. You control who your competitors are as well as your customers.

Last thing I’ll say is this is your business and you need to figure out what you want to do and then do it. If you approach it with a good business plan and passion, you will succeed. I expect you’ll achieve your goal but like anything worthwhile, it will take hard work and dedication; the true American dream.
 
If I may share my experience...

A couple of years back, faith in my business was shaken. I was in the position where I was happy with how business was going. Especially since moving my business into a new town. I finally was settled with my arsenal of tools at the time. I was playing with the tools I wanted to.

Then the unthinkable happened. All my stuff got stolen. I didn’t want to get back up. I didn’t know where to go from here. Maybe I was best to return to the grocery store position I once had to turn this from a part-time gig to a full time job.

I was discouraged, I was rebuilding my arsenal from a fraction of what my tools are worth. Insurance claim paid back the depreciated value. It stunk!

However, good came out of it. It forced me to reevaluate and learn how to operate with less. I learned the meaning of operating “lean and mean”. And it actually taught me how to be more efficient with my process.

I went from having a plethora of brushes down to 3. From three different brands of similar polishes down to one (M205). I learned to become great at using only M205 for my one-steps. Mastery with my tools and products as well as dialing in a process made me a better detailer.

It took a lot of work to rebuild because in order to replace the stuff I once had, I had to pay my dues again. This meant that I had to take on work I didn’t enjoy.

How I went from that to where I am now is I made sure to have a long time goal in mind and focus on it with laser precision.

And when obstacles came up. I had two choices. Quit or battle through. But I choose to battle through. I had to refocus. I had to recompose. To succeed, I had to learn from my mistakes.

I will never forget the time I thought I had interior skills in the bag. I was humbled when I had a Mini Cooper owner call and I gave a quote and agreed to a date. I was like how bad could a “mini” cooper be. It was bad... 6 hours bad.

Two things came from this. I learned to be better at quoting a vehicle in person or at least to have pictures. Second, if a person is expecting “near perfect” results and I know that a similar situation is going to be 6 hours—they will need to pay for it. Sure I’ll detail any interior for 6 hours. But it has to be worth my time.

If they are willing to pay my price and the service matches what they are looking for, then I will be happy to spend 2 hours just on wheels. But if not, then they are just getting the faces of the wheels done.

It has been brought out, but yes. Understand your business model. If you are offering high-quality production detailing and producing perfect results all the time...then we need to talk.

I have been legitimately diagnosed with OCD. It came work for me in detailing, but it can also work against me. The challenge is staying in my lane. It’s easy to find it, but deviating from it can be tempting.

My definition of 45% clean is 95% to most of my customers.

I will stop here. But I hope this is encouraging in the least bit.

Ps:

Here is that Mini Cooper I speak of:

https://www.autogeekonline.net/for...eling-defeat-yes-accomplished-absolutely.html
 
Dan Tran said:
If I may share my experience...

A couple of years back, faith in my business was shaken. I was in the position where I was happy with how business was going. Especially since moving my business into a new town. I finally was settled with my arsenal of tools at the time. I was playing with the tools I wanted to.

Then the unthinkable happened. All my stuff got stolen. I didn’t want to get back up. I didn’t know where to go from here. Maybe I was best to return to the grocery store position I once had to turn this from a part-time gig to a full time job.

I was discouraged, I was rebuilding my arsenal from a fraction of what my tools are worth. Insurance claim paid back the depreciated value. It stunk!

However, good came out of it. It forced me to reevaluate and learn how to operate with less. I learned the meaning of operating “lean and mean”. And it actually taught me how to be more efficient with my process.

I went from having a plethora of brushes down to 3. From three different brands of similar polishes down to one (M205). I learned to become great at using only M205 for my one-steps. Mastery with my tools and products as well as dialing in a process made me a better detailer.

It took a lot of work to rebuild because in order to replace the stuff I once had, I had to pay my dues again. This meant that I had to take on work I didn’t enjoy.

How I went from that to where I am now is I made sure to have a long time goal in mind and focus on it with laser precision.

And when obstacles came up. I had two choices. Quit or battle through. But I choose to battle through. I had to refocus. I had to recompose. To succeed, I had to learn from my mistakes.

I will never forget the time I thought I had interior skills in the bag. I was humbled when I had a Mini Cooper owner call and I gave a quote and agreed to a date. I was like how bad could a “mini” cooper be. It was bad... 6 hours bad.

Two things came from this. I learned to be better at quoting a vehicle in person or at least to have pictures. Second, if a person is expecting “near perfect” results and I know that a similar situation is going to be 6 hours—they will need to pay for it. Sure I’ll detail any interior for 6 hours. But it has to be worth my time.

If they are willing to pay my price and the service matches what they are looking for, then I will be happy to spend 2 hours just on wheels. But if not, then they are just getting the faces of the wheels done.

It has been brought out, but yes. Understand your business model. If you are offering high-quality production detailing and producing perfect results all the time...then we need to talk.

I have been legitimately diagnosed with OCD. It came work for me in detailing, but it can also work against me. The challenge is staying in my lane. It’s easy to find it, but deviating from it can be tempting.

My definition of 45% clean is 95% to most of my customers.

I will stop here. But I hope this is encouraging in the least bit.

Ps:

Here is that Mini Cooper I speak of:

https://www.autogeekonline.net/for...eling-defeat-yes-accomplished-absolutely.html
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. Very motivational and great turnaround !

Sent from my SM-N950U using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
Hey all, I just want to say thank you for not only taking the time to read my post, but to share your own experiences and to give both business tips and motivation. I really appreciate all of your time and I enjoyed reading others experiences. Thanks! :)
 
2black1s said:
Detailing takes time... And the better the job you are trying to do the longer it takes.

Sure there are some things you can do for efficiency but those only result in modest time savings. You're not going to cut the time in half unless you're just grossly unorganized, devoid of the required tools, and insanely poor at time management.

You do need to get at least one polisher... Doing polish jobs by hand just isn't going to cut it time-wise.

When I read about guys doing "full-details" in 2, 3, 4 hours I just roll my eyes. You simply cannot do the job in that kind of time and be turning out consistent high-quality work. Heck, I probably spend that much time inspecting my work. Maybe not literally, but I'm just making a point.

To put this into perspective for you, I just finished polishing and waxing my truck. Nothing else, just polish and wax. Two days (about 16 hours) is what I spent.

I'll admit that I do not work as fast as I did when I was younger, and I might pay too much attention to what some would consider insignificant details, but regardless, I don't see anyone doing as thorough a job as I just did in anything less than 10-12 hours.
Click to expand...
You took the words right out of my mouth! This is good stuff in this thread right here!

I spend at least a day and a half on my cheapest detailing package.

An hour to and hour and a half for the wheels is about right to respond to the OP.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Autogeekonline mobile app
 
Eric7810 said:
Unless you charge 600 bucks for your cheapest package, can you please explain how this is profitable for you?


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I get what I can get and the rest is passion. It has always taken me a long time to get my details done. I follow the process that I know and have studied and it just takes a long time, but the results are great!

My cheapest package does not include any polishing but does include a clay of the vehicle and the 303 Graphine Nano Spray coating. It takes me about 3 1/2 days to get my one step polishing package done and this includes interior detailing as well.

I truly don't know how or why everyone else is getting their details done so fast. I literally work as hard as I can and as efficient as I can as well. Maybe the vehicles I detail require a little more attention.

I just care about the customers happiness in the end. I want to reignite the passion they once had for their vehicle or show them just how good their new gem can look. I don't care how long that takes.
 
I think that this board is filled with a wide variety of enthusiasts, professionals, semi professionals, prosumers, and just plain over the top
perfectionists(Where I started). Earlier this year I started full time in my home based shop. Until this point, I would chase every swirl, smudge
and hairline scratch on my personal vehicle. I also thought, that was the industry standard. Since I left my last job, i have attended a Mike
Phillips class, a Renny Doyle class, and gotten my IDA SV from Jason Rose at Rupes home in Denver. I was scheduled to attend Renny's 5 day
April of this year, but have rescheduled to April of 21. What I have learned in the less than 1 year I have been opened, Mike is not kidding
about a people not knowing a Squirrel from a Swirl.

When customers call for an estimate, my goals are simple, get them in for a test spot, and manage their expectations based on how they take
care of their vehicle. My bread and butter detail is a 1 Step correction, and either 1 year or 5 year ceramic coating. With the exception of true
black, red and the newer flat greys, amazing results are easily achieved in 1 step. Dodge metallic black is my favorite. I can hammer down
with a Flex/Orange LC force pad and Menzerna 400 or The last cut plus. My goal is a test spot for each customer. If it is a daily driven
truck(85% of my customers) a multi step correction makes no sense. I have done 2 steps on 2 black Ford F450s. Ford black just wouldn't
finish out in 1 step on those, and both customers understood that. When 99% of customers see what results I can get them in 1 step test
spot, they are all blown away. Is this how I want my personal vehicle to look? Kind of, remember, Im a crazy swirl chaser when it comes to my
own vehicles. But most normal people are not.

I have also noticed that Mike has started showcasing more "paint enhancements" lately. Where he gets around a car very quickly. Is the car
100%? probably not, but as mentioned before, what is 45-50% for those of us on the board, is better than showroom new to an average
customer. For those taking 1-2-3 days on details, are operating on a different level. At one time I took 3 days to do a black Cadillac CTs 2 door.
Now I can do that in 5-8 hours depending on paint condition. And in both instances, I believe the customer reaction would be the same.
Eric asked a question about how taking a day and a half on the lowest priced detail is profitable? That is a great question. But also, every
situation is different. If this is a side gig/hobby, and $$$ is not your motivating factor, That time frame seems perfect to me. In closing, my
point for this, is that every level/skillset of detailing is not the same. If Jacob takes a day and a half to do a car, and Eric does the same car in
7 hours, chances are if you grab 5 random people off the street, they won't know the difference. Which is why when I saw a video about 6
months ago from a YouTuber doing a green Supra, he didn't outright trash the other detailer, but mentioned he was going to properly correct
all of the flaws before coating, unlike the last detailer. That rubbed me the wrong way. He was not there during that conversation between the
customer and detailer. Maybe the budget was a 1 step, maybe the customer has no clue how to wash a car, people lie, or omit information all
the time. If I get a vehicle that was done by another detailer, unless the customer has definitive proof of shoddy work, I assume it was done
right, and I was not present to see how expectations were managed.
 
^
I will have to defend the detailer you’re referring to.
I would agree that putting a coating over major uncorrected paint flaws is a waste of time. Not for the detailer coating over them, but for the next detailer who has to polish off the coating and correct the paint properly.

If that green Supra was sold, the new owner has to now pay to have all that fixed. And or, may have negotiated some money off the car before purchasing.

Obviously, this is just my opinion.
I believe in being thorough.
And we don’t know the entire vehicle, history.


On topic of this thread, I am one of the slower guys as it is a side gig. I go quicker in some areas, and slower in others. For me, saying that I can do a car in x-amount of time makes me cringe. But I am getting used to it. I inform the client an estimated time and offer to contact them if I notice something that was missed when they dropped the car off. Most times, we do an inspection. And occasionally a car is dropped off and they toss me the keys because they’re under time pressure.

The last black car I did looked fine under gray skies, even after washing. Under the garage lights...what a nightmare. Turns out the 2020 BMW with 4,500 miles on it was a dealer loaner car. Totally swirled all
Over. Yep, another lesson learned...don’t quote prices up front.
At my experience level (rookie), if I did a one step on that car, the owner would’ve brought it back for more correction. Again, nothing was discussed up front. My mistake.

I had a professional-detailer friend do one of my cars years ago. Because of time pressure, I wasn’t thrilled with the results. And it was my fault for not asking what all was to be done. It took me several years to finally research, study and learn proper paint care (which again is debatable what constitutes proper).
 
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