Is the real money in lower end detailing??

[art72]

All of that behind the scenes stuff like business names,websites, insurance,uniforms,talking with accounts, ordering equipment, setting up accounts withh suppliers, yea you know all those steps a lot of guys that do it on the side skip over are very time consuming. I was hoping to be fully operational by now but for me It's important to really have a professional and legit ament business right out of the gate. This has been a great thread for showing me that I have a good plan and am targeting the right market segment. As soon as I have all the business end stuff out of the way I can finally start using all the toys ( I mean professional equipment) that have been filling my garage over the past few months.

Know that feeling all to well... I can't wait to put to use everything I learned, bought, and intend to buy... but won't start until it's an official business!

I've already met a few locals running around here doing $10 car 'quickie' car washes out of 'un-marked' vans & trucks, and it's obvious they are NOT licensed, insured, or legal...and they probably don't care to be.

*It doesn't bother me, as I imagine they are doing this part-time for some extra cash, but it's not how I want to run my business. To me, skipping those few steps... just doesn't seem appropriate, as inexpensive as it is to become a legal business entity.

Perhaps, by spending the extra costs and committing to these simple legalities is exactly what sets apart the $10 quickie 'guy/gal' from the 6-figure plus business owners and those invested for the long haul? ... I dunno.

My biggest problem is being too meticulous as a die hard "do-it-yourself'er", - So, trying to be patient and waiting for all the pieces (*tools especially) to come together is very challenging! -I can foresee this mentality carrying into every job I do, and having to 'throttle-back' on the production type jobs or risk spending more time on a project than the customer is paying for.

I once had a Pastor say to me; "At the end of the day we are all prostitutes, it's simply a matter of determining "How much you consider yourself worth?" - Naturally, he meant metaphorically, but it really sunk in hearing it put that way.

 

[bigdriver4u]

Bryan, I agree with 100% of this above post, you've ID'd your customer base and have nailed it, I bet your business is very sucessful based off of this post, you GET IT:dblthumb2: Not only do I not have the money to get into the business myself but I know I care more about other people's car more than they do and I would get caught up thinking everyone picking up their car would be looking at the paint with a magnifiying glass, that's my problem but then again, I do this on the side and know what I can and can't do to a given car based on my current skill set and equiptment.

Good luck to you and everyone else here who GETS IT!

Thanks for the feedback.. Again, great people on the forum to learn from and share with.

 

[Mobile detail]

Everyone is pretty much spot on with everything they are saying. Its about supply and demand. Granted there are some people who love their car and want it perfect and know about what goes into a detail. The flip side to that is, there are WAY more people who just want a clean interior, and MAYBE care/know the difference between the spray wax the tunnel washes use and an actually paste/liquid wax. I can't tell you the amount of people who's vehicles I detail that tell me they get it waxed all the time at the car wash. I do a lot of high end cars that the owners trash. I personally don't understand it, but hey its business and job security.

With my business, I'd say the backbone/easy money is the interior detail with a wash and tires dressing. Maybe some will want it waxed (with interior only detail I use spray wax) but for the most part they want the interior clean. It usually takes me 3-4 hours and I charge $125-$150.Ya, I do some great looking cars that the customer wants the paint corrected and cares how much protection is in the paint, but the STEADY money is the wash/interior.

Its all about what the customer wants, and sometimes they want less then what we know the car should have. I had a hard time with this when I first started. I would charge way too little and end up doing a full on detail because I wanted the car to look amazing but I wasn't getting paid for it and the customer wouldn't even notice if I dressed his door jam trim lol. Ask what the customer wants and provide it. Plain and simple.

 

[Vegas Transplant]

:bump:

 

[Love's Auto]

At our shop we offer production as well as high end details. Don't sell yourself short money is money. When a customer walks in our shop I greet them and walk around their car with them. I "nit pick" all the defects on their car and go over the options to have everything fixed. At that point I give them the price for each individual concern followed by a grand total. If a customer wants their car to look it's best they will drop $1200 easy and our paint corrections never take three days. We do 2 maybe three in a 12 hour period while working on other cars as well. Our shop easily pulls in $2-$3k on Friday and saturday. Just my partner and I working. Some of you will probably think there is no way possible for this to happen but we do it and it does. We do interiors all day everyday. Vans, trucks, SUVs you name it and that's where the money is. We do 4-5 $300-$600 details everyday. Interiors are money makers and they don't take long. Intact check out our website and price list. Www.eadhawaii.com.

 

[jankerson]

At least during the winter I'm doing a LOT of interiors in a LOT of minivans. Learned to hate the words "minivan, kids, dog" when used in the same sentence.

That's what nightmares are made out of......

 

[jankerson]

This might lead to an annoying customer coming back and back for the same service at the same price and you will be loosing profits from giving up other jobs.

Lowballing generally attracts nit-picky, annoying customers (my experience) and are generally not worth the time and energy to please.

Same for any type of business, they are the ones that nobody needs or wants and should be avoided no matter what, they just aren't worth the effort.

You can run them off with pricing as they are usually cheap too.... So set the price above that level.

Red Flags are generally balking at the price and or looking for a discount or a deal, bang for the buck types.... Pretty much across the board in any business.

That's if one wants to be successful and enjoy what they are doing.

 

[Pureshine]

I could never do production work but that's just me. You can make good money doing it for sure. You need to decide what kind of shop you want to be and stick with it. I do feel you can't really do both as a one man shop you will kill your self. That said I also feel you can't do both at a big shop ether in my opinion.

 

[statusdetailing]

This is something I've put a lot of thought in to. I've looked at a lot of detailing sites, especially "high end" detailing sights and have found a lot of guys just don't make the kind of money that they appear to be making. I'm guilty of some of these same things so I'm not bashing anyone in any way.

The guys that are really not making money are the ones that think they are charging a lot for paint correction (usually in the 300-600 range) but it takes them 2 or even 3 days to do the work. That's only 150 to 200 a day at best, which sucks!

I've been working really hard this year to make over $200 a day. . .If I can't I'd almost rather not open my shop. That time would be better spent marketing and going out and making better contacts. I think a $1000 week should be a standard in detailing and it's sometimes harder to reach than one would think. If you aren't making $200 a day, forget it.

I never charge less that $40 an hour anymore. So I try my absolute best to push packages that are in the 6 to 9 hour range. Right now, these are the most profitable for me. That doesn't always happen, but I do my absolute best to make sure it does. 4 of those jobs a week plus my maintenance day on Friday, can make for a pretty nice week.

Paint correction is tricky. IMO it's impossible to do "high end" paint correction in one day. I'm talking about claying every single square inch, iron x...the works. This includes taping all trim and doing multiple step paint correction (preferably 3 steps which IMO is optimal, especially on black cars).

I've found that in detailing, there is a $500 wall, at least in my area. So, if I only charge $500 for a correction and it takes me 2 days, I just lost money. I really could have made more money doing a 1 day job.

This is a HUGE problem in detailing. When it comes to correction, a detailer CAN NOT back off the price in the form of discounts. I firmly believe that 2 day jobs should never be done for less than $600 and 3 day for $900. . .bare minimum!!!!

Anything less than that is a waste of time, because easier jobs would be more profitable. My goal for this coming season (starting in spring) is to not charge less than $640 for 2 days of work. That is 16 hours of work at $40 per hour.

Perhaps I won't work quite 16 hours on the vehicle, but it's the income potential I would have had if I took on 2 separate vehicles.

I'd like to be at $50 per hour within 2 years. My long term goal is the $60-$75 per hour range (probably the ceiling for my market).

Don't forget, guys like Larry Kosilla, charge around $100 per hour. They are good business men. They know how to market and do extremely good work as well.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[statusdetailing]

I'd also like to ad that some of the best detailers make a ton of money on upselling things like coatings, fabric protection, etc. It could literally be 10, 20 or even 30k per year if done right.

 

[statusdetailing]

I'll be doing my own detailing business this summer as well, I'm worried that most customers won't understand claying, I also plan to do the wash clay wax and interior for 100, is this too steep? Should I go with 90?

Way too low... Start part time, but don't start with low prices. I can see you going in a similar route as Larry Kosilla. You have your own product...expand that into your own line and work at being a specialty detailer, charging premium prices.

You have respect here on the forums, build that same respect with your clients. Charge a premium price and give them a premium product.

That just my opinion. Take it or leave it.

ps. customers might not understand clay, but they understand how clay makes their car look.

 

[statusdetailing]

At our shop we offer production as well as high end details. Don't sell yourself short money is money. When a customer walks in our shop I greet them and walk around their car with them. I "nit pick" all the defects on their car and go over the options to have everything fixed. At that point I give them the price for each individual concern followed by a grand total. If a customer wants their car to look it's best they will drop $1200 easy and our paint corrections never take three days. We do 2 maybe three in a 12 hour period while working on other cars as well. Our shop easily pulls in $2-$3k on Friday and saturday. Just my partner and I working. Some of you will probably think there is no way possible for this to happen but we do it and it does. We do interiors all day everyday. Vans, trucks, SUVs you name it and that's where the money is. We do 4-5 $300-$600 details everyday. Interiors are money makers and they don't take long. Intact check out our website and price list. Www.eadhawaii.com.

That's awesome man! I'd just like to ad that you are in Hawaii. The cost of living there is way higher than somewhere like Missouri, where I live, for example.

 

[motoo344]

This is something I've put a lot of thought in to. I've looked at a lot of detailing sites, especially "high end" detailing sights and have found a lot of guys just don't make the kind of money that they appear to be making. I'm guilty of some of these same things so I'm not bashing anyone in any way.

The guys that are really not making money are the ones that think they are charging a lot for paint correction (usually in the 300-600 range) but it takes them 2 or even 3 days to do the work. That's only 150 to 200 a day at best, which sucks!

I've been working really hard this year to make over $200 a day. . .If I can't I'd almost rather not open my shop. That time would be better spent marketing and going out and making better contacts. I think a $1000 week should be a standard in detailing and it's sometimes harder to reach than one would think. If you aren't making $200 a day, forget it.

I never charge less that $40 an hour anymore. So I try my absolute best to push packages that are in the 6 to 9 hour range. Right now, these are the most profitable for me. That doesn't always happen, but I do my absolute best to make sure it does. 4 of those jobs a week plus my maintenance day on Friday, can make for a pretty nice week.

Paint correction is tricky. IMO it's impossible to do "high end" paint correction in one day. I'm talking about claying every single square inch, iron x...the works. This includes taping all trim and doing multiple step paint correction (preferably 3 steps which IMO is optimal, especially on black cars).

I've found that in detailing, there is a $500 wall, at least in my area. So, if I only charge $500 for a correction and it takes me 2 days, I just lost money. I really could have made more money doing a 1 day job.

This is a HUGE problem in detailing. When it comes to correction, a detailer CAN NOT back off the price in the form of discounts. I firmly believe that 2 day jobs should never be done for less than $600 and 3 day for $900. . .bare minimum!!!!

Anything less than that is a waste of time, because easier jobs would be more profitable. My goal for this coming season (starting in spring) is to not charge less than $640 for 2 days of work. That is 16 hours of work at $40 per hour.

Perhaps I won't work quite 16 hours on the vehicle, but it's the income potential I would have had if I took on 2 separate vehicles.

I'd like to be at $50 per hour within 2 years. My long term goal is the $60-$75 per hour range (probably the ceiling for my market).

Don't forget, guys like Larry Kosilla, charge around $100 per hour. They are good business men. They know how to market and do extremely good work as well.

I hope that makes sense.

This is a good post, I agree with you. I've been trying to price out my work and this is what I've been finding. Its a delicate balance. I don't want to start to low because then people will think I am cheap but I don't want to start to high because I want to attract clients. People are happy with my prices, I think I could raise them a bit and people would still be happy. I might offer a few a la cart services and I am trying to get into coatings to help things grow. Just need to get the clients.

 

[kantonburg]

Not that I'd every start detailing on the side. There is a guy in our town that advertises on our facebook yardsale site. Wash, wax, interior, windows, and tire shine.

$25

He does use a spray wax which is fine. But he does 3 vehicles every afternoon. This is after his full time job. My parents had him do both of their cars and he does an excellent job. He could easily charge $100, but our area wouldn't pay that. Small rural town.

 

[jankerson]

This is a good post, I agree with you. I've been trying to price out my work and this is what I've been finding. Its a delicate balance. I don't want to start to low because then people will think I am cheap but I don't want to start to high because I want to attract clients. People are happy with my prices, I think I could raise them a bit and people would still be happy. I might offer a few a la cart services and I am trying to get into coatings to help things grow. Just need to get the clients.

Don't be in a rush, take your time and word will get around in a good way along with the type of customers you want.....

All it takes is time...... And that's with any business.

Baby steps......

You have to crawl before you can walk...

And

You have to walk before you can run...

Build it slow and get the right clients that will support you in the long haul.

Think down the road, NOT right now......

 

[jankerson]

Not that I'd every start detailing on the side. There is a guy in our town that advertises on our facebook yardsale site. Wash, wax, interior, windows, and tire shine.

$25

He does use a spray wax which is fine. But he does 3 vehicles every afternoon. This is after his full time job. My parents had him do both of their cars and he does an excellent job. He could easily charge $100, but our area wouldn't pay that. Small rural town.

He is losing money so I am not sure why he is even doing it at all.

Unless he is just bored or enjoys doing it....

 

[kantonburg]

He is losing money so I am not sure why he is even doing it at all.

Unless he is just bored or enjoys doing it....

I have no idea. He's done it for a long time. "Technically" there is no way he's using $25 worth of material for each vehicle so he's making something. He's just losing his time. He is booked 7 days a week. For obvious reasons.

 

[motoo344]

Don't be in a rush, take your time and word will get around in a good way along with the type of customers you want.....

All it takes is time...... And that's with any business.

Baby steps......

You have to crawl before you can walk...

And

You have to walk before you can run...

Build it slow and get the right clients that will support you in the long haul.

Think down the road, NOT right now......

I know, I am trying to be smart and patient but its hard. I've been trying to read up on small business books from the library plus stuff my dad has about business. The last few years of my life has been a whirlwind. Graduated from college, got a job working for the local government part time. I was promised full time within three months but after two years it was no where to be found. My dad hard a rare brain disease and ultimately it was too much for my mom so I left my job to take care of him until he passed away last year. So I took some time for myself and went on a road trip, applied for a million jobs and still nothing. So I've said enough, enough of the pity party and life is hard and really am trying to make it work. Its just hard to sit back and see all of my friends and people my age buying homes, getting new cars, going all over on vacations and I am just trying to start making 1000 a month.

 

[jankerson]

I know, I am trying to be smart and patient but its hard. I've been trying to read up on small business books from the library plus stuff my dad has about business. The last few years of my life has been a whirlwind. Graduated from college, got a job working for the local government part time. I was promised full time within three months but after two years it was no where to be found. My dad hard a rare brain disease and ultimately it was too much for my mom so I left my job to take care of him until he passed away last year. So I took some time for myself and went on a road trip, applied for a million jobs and still nothing. So I've said enough, enough of the pity party and life is hard and really am trying to make it work. Its just hard to sit back and see all of my friends and people my age buying homes, getting new cars, going all over on vacations and I am just trying to start making 1000 a month.

The job market sucks and it will suck for a long time.....

Just don't rush things and you will be fine and making a really good living in the long run...

Rush it and get the wrong type of clients and you will be done inside of 5 years....

Don't worry about what other people are doing...... BIG MISTAKE....

It's your future that you are building that matters.....

Take your time and with the right clients you will be making more steady income that you would expect and possibly be able to expand and hire people to work for you in the future.

Or you can rush it and be like most of the small business that fail inside of 5 years.....

 

[tuscarora dave]

He is losing money so I am not sure why he is even doing it at all.

Unless he is just bored or enjoys doing it....

I have no idea. He's done it for a long time. "Technically" there is no way he's using $25 worth of material for each vehicle so he's making something. He's just losing his time. He is booked 7 days a week. For obvious reasons.

If he buys concentrated products in bulk and dilutes accordingly he could easily get by with $5 per car in products. If he only does this Monday through Friday at the end of the month that's $1,400 in his pocket. For just a few hours a day I'd say he's not losing money at all. I'd say he's doing OK for a low overhead side gig.