Is detailing a business for the disabled

michael13

michael13

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I am 32 years old and disabled. I am considering auto detailing as possible future business venture to get me back into the workforce faster than finishing 2 years of college and looking for work. I would have the business as a form of income while finishing college. If it matters, my major in college is psychology and I am working on a minor in criminal justice.

I have some business experience.
I ran an Internet based aquatic pet store selling supplies for fresh water aquariums for 5 years.

Before I take all the time necessary to learn the in and out of detailing and the business, I need to know if detailing is a business that is friendly to the disabled.

Possible setbacks as I see them.
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I do not have a DL due to my disability.
I have a partner who is willing and able to do the driving for me and is not tied to other obligations.

I do not have a garage and I am not permitted to work on cars in my front yard due to neighborhood restrictions.

Is there any way to determine how successful a mobile detailing business might be in a particular area?

What are my potential customers?
I live in a community of mostly retired people and I attend college.

What is the expected out of pocket cost to start a mobile detailing business?
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I am not asking for someone to do all of the work for me, I would simply like someone with some experience to give me some advice.
 
michael13 said:
I am disabled and I am considering auto detailing as possible future business venture to get me back into the workforce faster than finishing 2 years of college and looking for work. I would have the business as a form of income while finishing college. If it matters, my major in college is psychology and I am working on a minor in criminal justice.

I have some business experience.
I ran an Internet based aquatic pet store selling supplies for fresh water aquariums for 5 years.

Before I take all the time necessary to learn the in and out of detailing and the business, I need to know if detailing is a business that is friendly to the disabled.

Possible setbacks as I see them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I do not have a DL due to my disability.
I have a partner who is willing and able to do the driving for me and is not tied to other obligations.

I do not have a garage and I am not permitted to work on cars in my front yard due to neighborhood restrictions.

Is there any way to determine how successful a mobile detailing business might be in a particular area?

What are my potential customers?
I live in a community of mostly retired people and I attend college.

What is the expected out of pocket cost to start a mobile detailing business?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not asking for someone to do all of the work for me, I would simply like someone with some experience to give me some advice.
Click to expand...

Up front out of pocket expense is roughly 2,000 to 3,000 IMO for the necessities. To be mobile I feel there are no real boundaries - but I do not rely on another to get me from A to B. I am 10 months young and made 1500 profit this week (with 2 employees though). I have chosen to go out and about and pull my clients though and plan on at least doubling my profit within a year. This again is without relying on someone to drive me around...... this is also a VERY demanding job physically. I am 28 years old and hurting by the end of the day (exhausted physically)...... Im not sure the disability you are talking about, but the strenuousness of this industry is not shy of that as of construction or manual labor IMO.
 
I'm not sure if this thread would be a good one for Mike to talk about or not. I don't know if his disability has affected his detailing career or not.
 
If you tell us what region/state youre located in, somebody here would almost certainly invite you to shadow them if the distance is reasonable. You would learn a lot whether or not you decide to make a venture out of it if you have the time.
 
I live in NE PA about 1hr from Scranton. My wife and I travel.through.Diction City about 3x per week.

I am visually impaired, yet I can detect swirl marks and other paint imperfections reasonably well under good light.

I forgot to mention that I have training in autobody repair from my high-school days. I prefer not to deal with painting, yet I am trained on how to prep, paint, and finish.
 
I live in south central PA (Harrisburg area) and have been putting together a mobile detailing rig and operating as a mobile detailer for the last 3 years. The first 2 years I operated out of the trunk and back seat of my Buick Park Avenue. I started with zero start up capital, just a strong desire to succeed, a hose, bucket, Mega Cyclo polisher starter kit, some towels and some Avery printable business card from WalMart.

I have had the benefit and drawbacks of a full time day job to help support me financially, doing the detailing on evenings and weekends. I first put a $7 sign made with magic marker up in my Mother's front yard, then stayed busy cleaning my own and my families cars in clear view of the sign so that the passing motorists could see what was going on.

94hondacivic005.jpg


Eventually I got a few customers and doing a great job and handing out hundreds of business cards landed me yet more customers.

I put 50% of the profits back into growing my stock of products and equipment and eventually got out of my Buick and into a fixer upper van which I operate out of now. I spent an immense amount of time on these forums studying the work, products and processes of more successful detailers and then spent tons of money buying and trying different products and processes in which to find what worked most efficiently for me.

I have become very skilled with a rotary polisher but have 3 different DA polishers and use them all in addition to my rotary. To say that I have spent somewhere in the ballpark of $10,000 on trial and error products, office supplies, insurances, licensing, van, equipment etc. to date would not be too far off and I have still not nailed down the perfect mobile setup but am completely operational.

This has been a tough road requiring a lot of patience, tolerance, determination, and willingness to do a lot of free or cheap detailing to get my name out there. Mind you this has all been with no disabilities other than not being too business smart so there has been hard knocks in learning some business sense as well.

Starting a detailing business does not have to be as hard as this but I wanted to paint a picture of how hard it can be without start up money. I can tell you that in hindsight, I should have just set myself up to do simple wash and wax detailing because that is where the real money is being that the majority of the worlds car owners just don't see swirls on their cars and just want clean and shiny but i chose to apply my effort to learning the craft of doing paint corrections.

Having said all that, I'd be willing to meet with you and do a few detailing jobs together to allow you to see what all is involved in it or just talk with you on the phone or through PMs/E-mail to help you to decide if this is for you or not. There is probably near 100 miles between us so a meet would have to be planned and scheduled but I'd be willing to do it to help you out.

PM me or answer to this thread if you are interested in taking a trip to the Harrisburg area or if you'd like my phone number to talk about it.

Have a great day.
 
Dave, you're a good man to help him out!!!:xyxthumbs: Thumbs up Bud.
 
My hats off to you tuscarora dave...What a nice guy...
 
tuscarora dave said:
I can tell you that in hindsight, I should have just set myself up to do simple wash and wax detailing because that is where the real money is being that the majority of the worlds car owners just don't see swirls on their cars and just want clean and shiny but i chose to apply my effort to learning the craft of doing paint corrections.
Click to expand...

Good insight...

That part about how most people don't see swirls is 100% correct... that's what led me to write this,

The difference between a swirl and squirrel


DetailFest
When I attended Renny's Roundtable Meeting here at DetailFest that was one of the topics of discussion, that is the stable income from detailing for most detailers comes from doing basic wash, interior and waxes.

In other words, KISS = Keep it Simple Simon

You can carve out a niche for yourself detailing "Special Interest" cars and focusing primarily on creating a show car finish to the paint.

Here's an example of this from my good friend Cosmin

55 Ferraris , 12 Porsches , 2 Bentleys + .. in 8 months!

8mo.jpg




tuscarora dave said:
Having said all that, I'd be willing to meet with you and do a few detailing jobs together to allow you to see what all is involved in it or just talk with you on the phone or through PMs/E-mail to help you to decide if this is for you or not. There is probably near 100 miles between us so a meet would have to be planned and scheduled but I'd be willing to do it to help you out.
Click to expand...

Way to pay it forward Dave...

What's even better about Dave's offer is that I've seen other AutogeekOnline forum members make themselves available to others like this also and that's an indicator of the high caliber people that make up this forum.

:bowdown:
 
Couple more comments and then I have to get back to another project...

First, detailing cars is a physically demanding job. I thought it was before I lost my leg and still do after having lost my leg. The most physically demanding aspect in my humble opinion is complete multiple step buff-outs using a rotary buffer on neglected cars.

It's one thing to buff a little section on the hood, it's another thing to buff out the entire car and in the case of a multiple-step rotary buffer process you're going to go around the usually at least twice. I know some do one-steps with a finishing polish and then go to wax but that's because the paint was in pretty good shape to start with. If you're working on a swirled-out mess then it's at least 2-3 steps and that's a lot of work that requires a strong upper body, strong arms, strong legs and a strong back and at the end of the day you're going to feel it.

If you stick with tools like DA Polishers, that is the Porter Cable, the Griot's the Meguiar's units, or the Cyclo, these tools, again in my opinion, require less strength to operate at a high skill level over time.

See my "Ease of Use" ranking in the Hot to choose the right polisher for your detailing project article on my article page,

New to Machine Polishing?

How to choose the right polisher for your detailing project <--This one

New - Video: How to pick the right polisher




That said... I was completely impressed one of the guys that attended our recent Detailing 101 and 102 classes and it just goes to show,

If there's a will there's a way...

Click the link below and check out even more pictures...

Pictures & Comments from January 30th Detailing 102 Class


Machine Sanding with an air-powered DA Sander
Jan30Class0064_.jpg



Machine Sanding with an Electric DA Sander
Jan30Class0074_.jpg



Removing Sanding Marks using a full-size Rotary Buffer
Jan30Class0101.jpg



Jan30Class0122.jpg



Inspecting the results...
Jan30Class0139.jpg




Machine Waxing...
Jan30Class0187.jpg



:)
 
Here's a suggestion...

If you want to work in the "Detailing World", instead of washing and waxing cars, just carve out a niche doing Rock Chip Repair.

The Dr. Color Chip system is easy to use and easy to make people happy with. My first experience was when I was at Meguiar's, I met a guy that's all he did was rock chip repair to primarily the front clips on cars and most of the time the front portion of the hood on cars.

That means most of the time you're standing, not bending over or sitting on the ground cleaning and dressing wheels or buffing out lower panels.

It's clean. You wipe paint on, wipe excess paint off.

It's not physically taxing.


The guy I met demonstrated how to make $75.00 in about 30 minutes, his business name is Quinn the Eskimo, interesting name, and no, I don't know the story behind the name.

Here's his YouTube page as his website doesn't appear to be operational any longer.

YouTube - AutoPaintRepair's Channel


Here's his blog site,

Auto Paint Repair Job


The key to making a rock chip repair business work, that is make you money, is all about getting REFERRALS

Check it out...


And... Autogeek.net carries Dr. Colorchip products and all of the other items you might need for your new business plus a great discussion forum to help you along the way.


Dr. ColorChip Paint Chip Repair, repair paint chips, touch-up paint, Doctor Color-Chip Paint Chip Repair


:)
 
tuscarora dave said:
I can tell you that in hindsight, I should have just set myself up to do simple wash and wax detailing because that is where the real money is being that the majority of the worlds car owners just don't see swirls on their cars and just want clean and shiny but i chose to apply my effort to learning the craft of doing paint corrections.
Click to expand...

agreed 100% as well. some time ago I started to really focusing on daily driver details and I actually have a decent business with it. The paint gets an AIO and i do a really good job in the interior and my customers are extremely happy with my service. sometimes I try to explain the condition of their paint and tell them about the swirls, scratches, and holograms but they dont see it!! So I started to stop worrying so much about perfect paint (except for my car of coarse.

Thank you Dave for paying it forward! A long time ago I used to goto a mechanic who owned a shop and was blind. I had so much respect for him for running his own business and he would actually work on the cars as well! I went out of my way to go to him and give him my business because i had so much respect over the fact that he wasn't going to let his blindness slow him down.
 
To describe the area where I live, think of a lower-middle class retirement community with a higher summer population. I live off of the main road and I would not be permitted to have a sign in my front yard. A sign in my front yard would not do much good anyway, since i live on a dead-end dirt road (makes detailing my wife's car a royal pain, since by the time she reaches the end of the road the car is covered in dust.)

everyone who replied: Thank you for sharing.

tuscarora dave: YGPM

Mike: Thank you for the great information. I do not really know that much about my potential clients needs; but from what I see around here, a majority of the people that live around here just want a clean car and appear to either have no knowledge of how to fix chips in their paint or they do not care (I hope that is not the case).

WindyCity: Sounds like an inspiring story. I feel the same way about being visually impaired. There are two reasons I started attending college two years ago and became a psychology major. a) I did not want my disability to take my life away from me and b) I wanted to help other people with disabilities.
 
Other than learning how to do the work properly, what is the next step that should be taken in getting something going?

Do you get the business license and insurance on day 1 and hope to have clients someday?

With the residents, I will probably end up doing wash and wax only. With the vacationers (June - August), I hopefully will end up doing more involved jobs.

Mike: That one individual with the prosthetic arm is quite inspiring. Have you heard any details about how he is doing since taking the class?
 
This just proves to me that if you really want to do something there is often a way to do it, no matter if you have a disability or not.

Mike: Thanks for the info on Dr. Color Chip
 
michael13 said:
Other than learning how to do the work properly, what is the next step that should be taken in getting something going?

Do you get the business license and insurance on day 1 and hope to have clients someday?

With the residents, I will probably end up doing wash and wax only. With the vacationers (June - August), I hopefully will end up doing more involved jobs.

Mike: That one individual with the prosthetic arm is quite inspiring. Have you heard any details about how he is doing since taking the class?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the props guys, I do what I feel God wants me to do and I believe that is to live right and help others.

I practiced and practiced and put money into getting the basic equipment, polishers, pads, compounds, hoses, buckets, waxes etc. I did a lot of free details for friends and family to learn how to do the work correctly and as efficiently as possible then when I thought I might be ready I took the leap of faith and got set up as a sole proprietor and got liability insurance the same day.

Getting set up as a sole prop was as simple as sitting down with a banker to open up a business account and he did all the filing and paperwork for me when I opened my account. I got my liability and garage keepers policy through Erie Insurance. $500,000 and $50,000 coverage for about $700 a year. I am a small business and my tax filing only cost $150 through a book keeper/tax prep guy. It's pretty simple. Before I take things to the next level where I hire an employee or two I will get an LLC and additional insurance coverage but for now it's just me.

The worry and fear I put myself through not knowing if I was doing things right was all for nothing. When I finally was willing to pay someone to do my taxes for the year i was surprised that I had everything in order and how easy it all was.

My goal is to have another van set up for mobile wash and wax with a crew to do the work by the end of next year. You can do it Michael if you really want it.:xyxthumbs:
 
I think you can accomplish being successful in detailing regardless of your disability. Yes, you may need a helper. But, if you charge appropriately you can still easily make a profit.

Just pay someone 8-9 bucks an hour to help out, and have them do the things that you maybe can't. If you get a vehicle done in say 5 hours and pay your guy $45...you keep the rest. Say you charged $150 for a car (which is cheap IMO), you still bank the rest.

Point is, there's always a way to ensure you make a profit. I say go for it.

Dave, you are awesome for offering yourself like that. I say learn what you can from Dave, and make your decision! :dblthumb2:
 
It is great to find that the members here are willing to help me.
 
michael13 said:
Mike: That one individual with the prosthetic arm is quite inspiring. Have you heard any details about how he is doing since taking the class?
Click to expand...

I have a phone call to him to get an update.

He had his own detailing business before taking the class, he came to our classes to learn more about machine polishing and also wetsanding as well as try out multiple tools to see which worked best for him as far as the handles and overall design.

I'll update when I find out.


:xyxthumbs:
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
The guy I met demonstrated how to make $75.00 in about 30 minutes, his business name is Quinn the Eskimo, interesting name, and no, I don't know the story behind the name.
Click to expand...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liIQLIx2Onw]YouTube - Manfred Mann Mighty Quinn[/video]


Maybe he really likes the song or can relate to the subject matter? Changing despair into joy and chaos into rest......... you can read into it what you want. (A swirled fill car (chaos) into clear mirror like paint (joy/rest). Imo of coarse. It's a nice, short song.

It was a folk rock song written by Bob Dylan in 1967 released in 1968 as the "Mighty Quinn" by the British band Manfred Man.
 
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