Getting Experience (when you already work full-time)

mAdnarG99

mAdnarG99

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Good day. I will skip the typical "car guy thinking of getting into detailing" preamble and get right to the issue.

Did any of you with your own detailing businesses decide to get formal experience or training before actually starting your business? I don't mean experience with your own car and your friends/relatives cars. I already have some of that experience. But I am referring to actual detailing classes (i.e. Mr. Phillips' Boot Camp) or simply a part time job at a detailing shop? I'm not yet sure I will be able to make the trek to FL for the next class and I'm still in the process of attempting to find closer to home options. So let's discount that option for the moment.

I would like to get a part-time job at a detailing shop, but I already have a full-time job and the shops near me have hours like M-F 8-5 or 8-6. Strike two.

So do you have any advice for gaining formal detailing experience? I can read books and watch YouTube videos the same as anyone else. My greatest fear when starting this "Some Knucklehead with a Bucket of Soap Auto Detailing" business is hiding the fact that I am, in fact, just some knucklehead with a bucket of soap. Thank you for your feedback.
 
This may or may not be helpful, but as a business owner of a carpet cleaning business. I can tell you that before I opened up shop I worked for a local carpet cleaning place as an employee for 2 years. Learned a lot of good things and also picked up a lot of bad habits. But I will say that I would not trade that experience for anything. Over those 2 years I cleaned over 2000 houses. And I ran into just about every situation that one could.

I assume your experience would be much the same as mine was. Meaning you will gain priceless experience and also pick up some bad and good habits. Your situation is a little tuff though, given your full time job. I know lots of people on here have learned the trade by just jumping in head first. And for some it works and others not so much.

I do wish you the best of luck though. I think you should continue on friends cars, and start handing out business cards and take on some side gigs to start.

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Keep in mind too...I took my own car to a dealership for an interior detail, and it was terrible. No doubt they had some industrial level extractor and and a crew of part timers to go nuts and git er' done fast.

Great. They had tools and manpower. Left it soaking wet and didn't even lift the damn parking brake to wipe off a particularly noteworthy soil. People have, do, and will continue paying for that. THAT! It was the day I told myself I could do better than THAT very, very easily as someone who never knew what "detailing" was until I needed it done. It was a Honda Fit too, for God's sake.

The first "nice" car I did, I was nervous of course. But then I realized that...uh..."This corvette interior is basically just like my mom's Impala. Just clean until it's not dirty."

Exteriors; chemical/tool manufacturers describe a process very accurately to get good results which benefit you both.

I started doing what Mike Phillips showed in a video with the products featured. I got very, very good results just by doing that. Safely too. I did not take it upon myself to reinvent anything.
 
tw33k2514 - side gigs are pretty much how I figured I'd have to start. I'm not the type to jump in head first as you mentioned. Some business cards would be a good start.

eich - very good point. While all detail services are not that bad, poor service does happen and people continue to pay for it. Perhaps I'm worrying too much about it.

Thank you both for your input.
 
I can honestly say I started from rock bottom. I had a car wash job when I was 17. Then my dad was nice enough to buy me the truck I wanted, (2000 Chevy Xtreme) which I did everything I learned from the car wash job on my truck, which was still very little. When I turned 27 I got a detailing job working for a mobile detailing company that paid me 10 dollars a car. I did that for about 9 months, and that's where I really learned how to be meticulous. After that, I hate to say it, but a lot of what I know now has come from the forums and youtube. I never graduated high school, I never got my G.E.D. I am just thankful that there are so many helpful people out there that take the time to share what they know. Big thanks for Mike Phillips
 
Buff-N-Glo said:
I can honestly say I started from rock bottom. I had a car wash job when I was 17. Then my dad was nice enough to buy me the truck I wanted, (2000 Chevy Xtreme) which I did everything I learned from the car wash job on my truck, which was still very little. When I turned 27 I got a detailing job working for a mobile detailing company that paid me 10 dollars a car. I did that for about 9 months, and that's where I really learned how to be meticulous. After that, I hate to say it, but a lot of what I know now has come from the forums and youtube. I never graduated high school, I never got my G.E.D. I am just thankful that there are so many helpful people out there that take the time to share what they know. Big thanks for Mike Phillips
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That's fantastic! More people need to have the drive to turn a less than stellar past into something. Nice to see someone hustling to make it happen.

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Buff-N-Glo said:
After that, I hate to say it, but a lot of what I know now has come from the forums and youtube.
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I definitely agree with this. A lot of the hustle and speed detail work is learned from dealerships, car washes and some detail shops. I learned all of my "real" detail skills online
 
This is my fourth year doing this full time, and I have seen almost everything the detail world has to offer.

That being said, I am still learning every single day. There is always ways to improve and I leave every single detail, no matter how thrilled the client is, thinking 'what could I have done better?'

You are never going to be 'ready'. However, you are always ready to get started! Have no fear and jump in. You will make mistakes along the way, but the way you learn from those mistakes will light your way forward.
 
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