Anyone who does pro detail on weekends while having a regular 5 day 37.5 hour a week job?

[MrRoo]

I work a 45 hour week at my regular job. Then usually do 1 detail a weekend. Usually full paint correction and interior jobs. I also do detailing for our local airport. I go non stop. Two kids, a 3rd on the way and a wife that works 60 hour weeks. We are crazy, but get it done.


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[minerigger]

Last year I worked 40hrs a week and then Saturdays, this year I'm back in the oilfield so 85hr weeks average leaves me enough time to sleep and see the kids. I clean my wife's ride is about it now. I definitely don't suggest working beyond 60-70 hrs a week. Beyond that it starts taking a toll mentally unless it's something your used to and you love money that much and there are some of us out there like that.

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[sudsmobile]

Close as I can figure, I put in 45 hours detailing this week. We had TWO days off in April. Not that we work all day, every day. I'm neither an elite athlete nor young.

 

[fightnews]

Hey

I'm about to begin a "career" job in IT which I like but I also like cleaning and detailing cars. I was considering doing a business and working weekends, but most likely saturdays only or else I won't have time for myself.

Which brings me to my main concern, is this physically and mentally possible. Anyone else who currently does this? I suppose when you're starting out and you're not very popular you don't have to much clients right and it doesn't get over your head.

I suppose I could also limit myself to X client a day and make them schedule next week.

Just curious if I'm crazy for even thinking about it or not?

This depends on you, I know guys that can work 7 days a week. Other people struggle to get 40.

 

[Dmtammaro]

This depends on you, I know guys that can work 7 days a week. Other people struggle to get 40.

I agree here, it totally depends on you. I work three jobs, firefighter, communications manager and assistant manager at a restaurant on the weekends. I easily pull 90-100 hours a week and still manage my family. Most people can’t handle that but of you are mentally strong you can overcome it. I have been doing this for about 5 years now.

If you decide to do it, good luck and stay dedicated. Once your work starts to get sloppy or you don’t care/enjoy doing it anymore it’s time to make a change.


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[Whitewater25]

Beware! If you commit to doing it as a business,your love for it may wain because you HAVE to do it. That being said, if you think you can handle it then why not. My 2 vehicles and boat keep me busy enough I wouldn't even consider doing side jobs. I detail my friends truck a couple times a year only because I don't want to be seen in a dirty truck when we use his truck to tow the boat. But I'm not so young anymore either. Youth = Ambition.

 

[ScubaCougr]

Yes, this 40 hours plus detailing on days off / weekends is how I've run Great Reflections Detailing since 2010, and I'm well over 40. So it can be done if you want. And the best part of it being a second incone, is I take the jobs that I want. No pressure to get in over my head, because food and rent is covered by the "regular" gig.

If you want to do it, do so. Stop when/if you lose the passion for detailing.

 

[WindyCity]

Beware! If you commit to doing it as a business,your love for it may wain because you HAVE to do it.

This is exactly what happened to me, I used to love detailing my cars and figured that it would be a great way to make extra money. Then I started doing customers cars and I lost a lot of my passion for it. Plus my life priorities changed and a car isn’t such a big expense to me anymore like when I would work all week to afford the car so I am not so paranoid about keeping it “mint”. I look at a car as a expendable object that will end up in a scrap yard someday

Still love a clean well kept car but I am not anal anymore


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[TTQ B4U]

I have a full time job in a professional industry that has no labor intensive component so detailing on weekends for me is fun. That said I have a life and try and limit myself to 1 car per weekend and doing so every single weekend does become a PIA. That said, I'm busier now and have even scheduled some PTO to get some vehicles done. I'm salary and have plenty of vacation time so I am not losing money even though my day job pays far more per hour if it were to be calculated that way.

What I've done to help is just inch up my pricing a bit more every few months. I'm up to about $60hr now with some cases where I can pull down the equiv. of about $75/hr thus making it more close to being "worth my time"

I use the money as play money and the next 5 details I already have on the books are going towards funding the spending money on our upcoming family vacation. I'm pretty well stocked on coatings and products so outside a few investments here and there, it's all profit to me.

 

[parttimer]

I am an IT guy for a Bank. I do system admin, yeah, sometimes I have after hours work, however most of it I schedule tasks to do. I detail on the side during the weekends, I started at the beginning of April this year, booked into June and this is my 5th year doing it. I plan get a way weekend here and there and don't schedule jobs for those weekends. It's possible.

 

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

I have been doing part time job plus detailing for 5 years. This year I might go full time detailing.

My typical week is 2 to 3 days at my regular job, and 2 to 3 days detailing. The days I am detailing as very physical, I am mobile and work alone so on most detail that is a 8 to 14 hours day for me with almost no breaks.

This year I decided to hire someone to give me a hand. If it works out, I may go full time.

What you have to remember is that detailing is very taxing on your body. I don't think you could work 40 hours plus 2 days of detailing for very long unless you are an athlete and are in peak physical condition. When I first started detailing it would take me a day of rest to recover from the detailing. Now I am used to it and I merelly feel tired or sore on the next day but still can fonction normally. I do like to have a day off between details if I can. With help that will likelly be much less taxing.

So my advice, if you can, ease into it. See if you can cut 1 or 2 days from your normal job and add 1 or 2 days detailing at first. As demand grows you can cut an other day at your work to do detailing and so on. Not all jobs allows for this but if you can make it work with yuor employer, that is the best way to do it IMO. Not only do you have more financial security this way, but you don't have the stress of accepting any detailing job that comes your way. It gives you the option of choosing what detailing jobs you want to do.

Unfortunetely I can't really do that for now at all. Just got hired at Canadian Gov and in probation\ for a year.

But I do go the gym and I'm loosing some good weight and getting fit so I'm sure working on a Saturday maybe 2 clients, and Sunday rest day seems really nice.

And nice you're in Montreal I'm in Ottawa/Gatineau.

 

[Calendyr]

I was born in Ottawa and lived in Gatineau (Hull area) half of my life. Moved to Montreal 27 years ago

Working 7 days a week is not something I would want to do. But if you feel up to it, go for it. When you start out, make sure to give yourself more time than you expect to do the details. There are always unknowns when it's not your own vehicles and people always downplay the condition in hopes of getting a better price.

 

[Pats300zx]

I just went full time with my detailing business after retiring as a LEO after 30 years. I did it part time but now I am committed to more advertising etc. The good thing is that this won’t have to pay the bills and I can enjoy it. I don’t plan on doing every single day but a couple of times a week and I will be happy. I am 53 and you soon learn that it can be physically demanding when trying to juggle this and life.

 

[LEDetailing]

I just went full time with my detailing business after retiring as a LEO after 30 years. I did it part time but now I am committed to more advertising etc. The good thing is that this won’t have to pay the bills and I can enjoy it. I don’t plan on doing every single day but a couple of times a week and I will be happy. I am 53 and you soon learn that it can be physically demanding when trying to juggle this and life.

Congratulations on your retirement! Sounds like you have the perfect “retirement” job.

 

[futurepro17]

I work 50+ hours a week and detail on the weekends. As it's been said, you are you're own boss and can always decline a job if you want a weekend or two to yourself. I enjoy the luxury of taking on jobs I want (coatings/paint correction). It can be done, just be smart about the number of hours your working and after a while you will find the right balance.

 

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Thanks for the inpuit guys.

I will definitely do some detialing on the week end.

Just to get some clients, it's proving to be more difficult than I would have thought! Even just one.

 

[WindyCity]

Thanks for the inpuit guys.

I will definitely do some detialing on the week end.

Just to get some clients, it's proving to be more difficult than I would have thought! Even just one.

You have to continually sell yourself, for example anytime I saw someone with a nice car even at a gas station filling up Or something I would compliment how nice/clean/cool their car is and get an idea of how receptive they are. Then start asking if they maintain it themselves or if they have a detailed.....you can see where I am going with that. From there you can start selling yourself and letting them know what you can do for them


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[TheMidnightNarwhal]

You have to continually sell yourself, for example anytime I saw someone with a nice car even at a gas station filling up Or something I would compliment how nice/clean/cool their car is and get an idea of how receptive they are. Then start asking if they maintain it themselves or if they have a detailed.....you can see where I am going with that. From there you can start selling yourself and letting them know what you can do for them


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Thanks for the idea. I really haven't seen myself selling in person due to the internet. And everyone in my entourage, since I'm young 20 years old, own niceish cars but can't afford to have them pro detailed so there isn't any point. Even at 30$ they won't pay.

I'll definitely start talking with people then.

 

[WindyCity]

Thanks for the idea. I really haven't seen myself selling in person due to the internet. And everyone in my entourage, since I'm young 20 years old, own niceish cars but can't afford to have them pro detailed so there isn't any point. Even at 30$ they won't pay.

I'll definitely start talking with people then.

Practice with your friends (face to face) or family. The more you do it and start learning how to talk to people the easier it gets. Even though they might not have intentions of getting the car detailed or can’t afford it at least you can play around and practice with them and get their input on whether you’re being too pushy or if you seem like you’re not confident enough.

The Internet is so impersonal it is hard to sell your abilities because it’s all data. For example if you see a guy with a nice Mercedes Benz and you tell the guy “hey that’s a beautiful Benz” and the guy says thanks I love this car! You just might have a new customer!

The internet is extremely useful obviously but it will never compare to word of mouth recommendations and face to face sales IMO. But I am biased because I have always enjoyed talking to people. Anytime I had a customer that received a strong recommendation from someone they trusted I almost always got the job whereas online produces a lot of tire kickers


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[Calendyr]

Thanks for the inpuit guys.

I will definitely do some detialing on the week end.

Just to get some clients, it's proving to be more difficult than I would have thought! Even just one.

Getting client is very hard when you first start out.

Here are a few tips:

1. Contact everyone you know who has a car. Tell them you need practice and you can offer your service to them at half price. You could go as low as just covering the cost of your products if they are not
willing to pay half price. When you detail their cars, take a lot of before and after pictures. Use these on your website to build a portfolio. A trick here, the dirtier the car before, the better the pictures will look after, so try to do that after it rains or something

2. Get yourself a website and facebook page if you have not done so already. These are almost free advertizing, and if you make it well, it will give people who are visual and idea of what you can do for them.

3. Get yourself business cards from a place that make large orders at low prices. For example, I got 10,000 cards for about 150$. It is probably a lot cheaper in the US. Leave a bunch of cards everywhere you can.
Many grocery stores and other places have billboard or even card holders for their clients to advertise for free. Use it.

4. Post your work on social media and ask your friends to like and share your posts.

Slowly your business will grow, but it's not an instant thing.