Cannot understand why i havent got ANY BUSINESS

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Kensprecision

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Hello autogeek I have spent countless hours reading over all types of threads on this forum. I started a mobile detailing business in Orlando Florida in November 2015. Since then it has been very slow but now its almost dead. I have an ad on craigslist that i update every single morning, i have a facebook with 85 likes that i regularly post to, instagram with 50 followers that i post to, groupon, yelp, etc. I have business cards, flyers, i go out and put cards on cars, i spent 200 on facebook promoting business all with no success. I feel my work is great quality top of the line, i am mobile with my own power and water. i just dont understand what am i doing wrong? i do not have uniforms or a website yet as i have literally ran out of money supporting myself. Any help would be appreciated. I leave my business cards when i go out to eat, gas stations, i have magnets on my vehicles. please any tips will help. 100g water tank, honda pw, foam lance, all cg products. what should i do to get customers, i cannot survive like this.
 
I'll lend a few suggestions here as someone who has started, operated, and sold detail businesses (with some success) twice before entering into the manufacturer/supplier side of the business.

First things to think about is your approach to the market - certainly FB ads, listing on CL, flyers, business cards - thats all fine and dandy, but how about reaching out to local car clubs, offering to do an education day for their members on the importance of detailing, what processes you offer, etc? Approach local businesses and offer your services on a recurring basis - "I'll be in your lot the first Tuesday every month and offering express details for $xx.xx with advanced booking". Visit used car lots and offer up services. Network as much as you can. Think outside of cars - with a pressure washer and a mobile service you can do things like power washing windows on homes/businesses, cleaning decks, etc. FIND ADDITIONAL MARKETS YOU CAN SERVICE.

Another consideration, and something you didnt' specifically call out, is what kind of services are you offering. I personally hate the term "detailing" its become too broad and unregulated of a term. Are you trying to do full correction only jobs for $700 a whack? If so you're not going to get far. That market is small. If you're looking to be busy think about volume. Offer everything from a basic express wash and hand dry up to 1 step corrections. 99.9% of the world doesn't care about a perfect swirl free finish. Clean is good enough, so cater to the masses. Offer them what they want, not what you want to sell. In my first detailing business, fully mobile, I would make a killing on days where I lined up express washes... offering high quality, thorough cleanings. I could easily do 15-20 of those in one day. Get these people comfortable with the idea of regular appointments, once a month, or 2x a month. Create a steady stream of repeat business - if you're not getting repeat business from the customers you handled 5 months ago when you started then you either didn't provide the service they expected or you failed to follow up with them about maintenance.

One last thought - you started a business 5 months ago. I've been in this industry for 17-18 years now and I'm a young pup by most standards. Don't expect overnight success and don't expect detailing to make you wealthy. Its rare to make a full time living off of detailing, especially in a short period of time. If you're doing the job right, making customers happy, then over time your customer base will grow and (they should) become repeat customers. If you added 2 new customers a week, and didn't loose any... at the end of 5 months you'd have 40 customers. If you can get half of those to subscribe to a regular maintenance program you've got 20 cars to detail a month and growing by 1 or 2 clients a week. Success is not found in the 'one and done' customer - its found in the lifetime customer.
 
IMO the first thing I would have done is build a web site. A flyer and business card can only give limited information.

Go visit the customers you serviced since November and ask for referrals.

Park your truck in a mid to upscale neighborhood and go door to door. Ofter a special since your in the area. Even at 50 bucks for a wash and spray wax..three jobs will give you $150 for the day not including tips. Good luck!:props:
 
yea a website should have been my first thing. Trial and error, different equipment breaking and upgrading/fixing has left me with a setup i do love but now no customers. dylan no my most popular service is a wash and wax with interior, $100 for cars-up to $120 for large suv, full size trucks. i want to stay away from used car lots and things of that nature the good ol $5 wash but 60 cars doesnt seem great to me id rather go back to the kitchen. My goal is to have repeat customers monthly and new customers as well. So far i have 2 repeat customers that come monthly besides that i have nothing. thats the thing with Orlando not much money here a lot of people just dont care.
 
ive had some rude replies to bothering people about my services so i have kind of stopped doing the door to door or car to car sales pitch. I would put cards on cars only had people call to complain, "defaced the value of my car" "if i need a detail i know where to find one". at this point i am lost and on the edge of throwing in the towel. I get more business 2 hours north where my parents live than i do here on my own.
 
Do you have a decent portfolio of before/after pictures in your advertising? What is your facebook page? Are you price competitive within the Orlando market?
 
i would like to think my portfolio is coming along well. yes i have before and after pictures. my facebook is kensprecisiondetailing. i would also like to think i am price competitive, i went through about 20 detailing websites wrote all the prices for what down and came up with my prices based off what others are charging for similar work. im not the most expensive and not the cheapest. i do not include clay i upsell it. most common package is hand wax, wash, interior wiped dressed, leather treated and conditioned, windows in and out, tires dressed rims cleaned for $100 on cars $120 for large suvs
 
@DylanRUPES. That's great advice. Thank you for taking the time to post.👍🏽
 
Couple things....

I checked your Facebook page and there are only a handful of before and after pictures in there. The more people can see what you can do with their dirty car the better. They need to be able to visualize their car in the photos. There are no prices on your Facebook page either. If you are a legit business according to the public eye then you should have that information available on there just like you would on your website.

This brings me to the biggest advertising key, a website. I host mine on SiteBuilder and it costs me less than $7 per month with tons of options for SEO help and optimization for mobile viewing with a free email address so they can give you another way to have people contact you. This is a important because most people who can afford your services don't spend much time surfing the net on their home computer, they are mobile and are looking you up on their smartphone.

Lastly, I would revisit how and when you are talking to people about your business and the passionate way you talk to them about helping them with what they want, a clean vehicle.
 
You cant really go backwards so my advice may not be helpful to you but may help others. I am not talking bad about your work cause I havent seen it... this is a classic example of just having all the "cool" equipment doesnt make you money. You (IMO) blew all your money on stuff, went too fast out of the gate. Something like detailing / car washing would probably be best built over time slowly and with CASH no debt. Its not usually the best idea to "build it and they will come" While working full time somewhere start cleaning cars, when you get so busy you cant keep up or are making more cleaning than at your 9-5 then consider changing 9-5s to cleaning.

Hopefully things will get better for you man! If you are here then you are family and we all want to see you do well.
 
You're letting rejection get to your head, and because of it you have stopped the most effective way to get business, door to door, face to face. When someone tells you no, think of it as: I am 1 no closer to a yes. Starting a business you need to make contacts, warm ones. Social media and cards on windows is as cold as can be and is something for many business owners to pretend like they are marketing. You are lying to yourself if you think cards on windows will work. Get your face in front of another face and KEEP DOING IT! Work on being personable/likable. Your customer MUST like you, to buy from you. When I first started, it was 10 people a day minimum that I was talking to. Letting them know that my business exists. Working only weekdays, I made around 200 contacts my first month. Don't let the rejection get to you. Keep your head up and smile. Your customers can sense your energy. When I worked in sales, we would get in the lows sometime, the ability to reset yourself and pump yourself back up will make a huge difference. Tell yourself out loud to snap out of your funk. Tell yourself "Snap out of it. I am better than this. Every one wants their car detailed by me, because I am the best damn detailer in town! The next person I talk to, is going to get their car detailed by me." Then go out and talk to some people. Psych yourself out bro. Talk yourself into things rather than out of things. There are only 2 things you can control, 1) your activity and your 2) attitude. Get in front of people as much as possible. And keep a positive and right attitude. I love watching an inspirational video clip to get me pumped up. (Wolf of Wall Street inspirational speech/Boiler Room/Glengarry Glen Ross)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQleT6BtCbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lofNPLZvTOs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PE2hSqVnk

Hope this helps. Go gettem Tiger!
 
You''re doing the most common mistakes everyone else does when they start their business. We're in 2016, the whole going door-to-door, car-to-car is not the way to go about things.

This is all you need to focus on for the next 6-months: sales and marketing

More importantly, online marketing.

My number one focus in my business is to get ranked on the first page of Google. I am not worried about ANYTHING else besides that. I don't care about new products, how to detail better, updating my Facebook page, etc..

I have a full time job, so I must prioritize my energy and time.

Get this, I'm not even focused on actually booking customers right now for any services, yet, I get a several calls a day of people acquiring about my services. How awesome is that?

Because I have a strategy in place that's going to deliver amazing results for my business, even though I'm not actually booking any customers at the moment.

And in a few months, the calls are just going to keep on increasing and increasing. So when I finally decide to hire someone or do the details myself, I'm gong to have immediate traction and money coming in
 
Not to be pessimistic but you're trying to start a detailing company in an area that is already over saturated with other detailing companies. I live 1500 + miles away and I know a handful of top detailers that are in the Orlando area that are very well known, established and produce high quality work. Trying collaborating with a local shop of some sort, rent a bay somewhere. You need to get your foot in the door where someone is going to get you steady work and allow you to build. Going door to door is a waste of time, people are annoyed by it. Online advertising is good but it's hard when you're the new guy and other well established detailing shops are going to have more reviews, pictures, blogs, vids, etc. it's all about word of mouth and networking. Luckily I've been in a busy shop for a few years and a lot of our business comes from referrals. Just trying to be realistic, find someone to work with, a body shop, repair shop, after market performance shops dealership... Just somewhere you can get work and get more experience as well. Good luck man it's not an easy game


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When I was detailing in Germany all of my business came from word of mouth. I am a member of the largest car club in Germany so that helped a ton. When people wanted a detail they knew where to find me. There were two other great detailers in the club and we networked to share the work. It would be really helpful to get in with some of the car clubs around you. Cars and Coffee is a great outlet. Set up a tent and do a free detail for the first person that asks you about your services and take your time and answer questions when people come by and ask them. It's all about getting your name and personality out there.
 
Imo, this is terrible advice. Just because there is a "saturation" of competition (which trust me, there isn't), doesn't mean you can't/won't be successful. How many new chain restaurants, social media saas startups, and solopreuners and infoproducts are striving every year?


Even if there's 100 detailers in a 10 mile radius, only about 5 detailers are going to be worth anything. The other 95 are going to be those who don't take it serious, have minimal success, and are doing such a low volume, it's laughable.

Everyone is going to start somewhere. Just because someone has 15+ years more in business than you means absolutely nothing

Anyone can be successful with the right strategies in place. No matter where they are, how "saturated" the market is, or there level of experience.
 
I live in 4th largest city in the US and I only know of 2 reputable detailing shops, and thats after some googling.

I know of 2 mobiles (1 is apart of above shops) the other has a few clients on my street. How is it that in the 4th largest city I can only come up with 4 detailers, yet when you look at their websites, or try and call for appointments, they've got a TON of volume! One of them doesn't even advertise except for their Facebook page and Instagram account.

Advertising, word of mouth, and your services better be a bang for their value. From what I see, Florida is a very saturated market. I applaud you for jumping off the cliff, but theres the old addage of you have to crawl before you can walk. I might have started off part time, and gone full time only as a necessity.
 
I can understand your predicament but I have been there,

I started my own business in the late 70's and my main focus became the rental and leasing fleets.

There is a lot of work there if your willing to do things for a price and remember it is about the total amount called "Volume" at a low price that you will get doing work for them. Also they don't like to spend a lot of time because they don't have it so if your well equipped then you should have a price list and kind of a grocery list as to what to offer them. I did and also because I worked them and saw other things that I could do like offering them interior cleaning which became one of the best profit margins due to the time and chemical you had in them I could do several and thus keeping their fleets looking like new.

In all I ended up going to work for one which was a great opportunity as the company grew so did the work volume but now because we did it all in house the quality was there and we did 100 cleaned and detailed hand waxed vehicles a week just for their sales operation . . . . In all you should be looking at dealers whom do not have much of a clean-up department and rental/leasing fleets. Also have you ever considered doing airplanes? and boats? We did them as the company grew into a multifaceted organization and used boats can take a lot of time but when done correctly can make you good money and there are not too many that did them. The airplanes? well also time consuming but good profit as again there are not many who do them. . . .

Just take a look into these and include them in your cleaning or detailing offerings. . . .

Good luck to you . . . . .
 
We a have a true rag tag crappy mobile setup that hits my workplace once a week. Pressure washed, dirty rags, dry with dirty towels, tires slopped with god awful tire dressing. I bet he does 15 cars each time he is here for $25 a piece. He has two helpers with him not sure what he is making but he is busy and the cars are clean but a swirled out mess, I just laugh inside at his customers.

I gave him hell one day because the wind was blowing his pressure wash stream all over my perfect black paint.

Sad to see you struggle trying to offer quality work, you have to get lined up on these type of gigs.
 
Internet are great resources to learn the things you are interested in, to market your products, and to connect with the same minded people..I personally use Earn Honey . Here you can also earn money by playing games or taking surveys or watching videos ...
 
It takes time to build a business. I spent about 3 years detailing part time before I quit my day job. Those 3 years I basically spent learning to be a better detailer and I put all of my detailing profit into building my arsenal of tools, slowly starting to buy chemicals in bulk, and buying a van with all the equipment needed for mobile work. I made it a full time gig when I picked up my first dealer account. They called me out of the blue with a promise of 15-20 cars a month, even through the winter, all Audi/BMW/Benz. I made 100k my first year officially full-time in business. Sometimes I worked 7 days a week, 14 hour days but it didn't matter... it didn't even feel like work because I love it so much. If you have the passion, do quality work every time, and have systems in place to pull customers to you (website, google maps listing, FB page, etc.) eventually things will work out as planned.
 
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