How I Made $150,119.50 Detailing In My 2nd Year of Business

[jarred767]

Ryan, your business is impressive and inspiring. It's awesome to hear what you've been able to do since moving from mobile to a fixed location. Sooner or later I need to take that jump, or at least partially make it to help me through the winters over here on the eastern side of the Cascades. Congrats on your continued success.

 

[swanicyouth]

I feel like I spent $150,199.50 at AG.

 

[Mike Calloway]

[FONT=&quot]

This is awesome to hear, however your title says "how" you made that much, but you didn't really say "how" you did it other than now you're in a passive role and you stayed mobile. I'm on a quest to increase my bottom lines too, (last year revenues were roughly $85k with $70k being profit, but that's after almost 10 years), but as a one man show, I feel like I'm bumping up against the wall and not really able to increase revenues too much more without either hiring someone on (I'd rather not) or renting a shop (at least an additional 12k a year).

Curious if you could elaborate any more on the "how" you increased revenues that much in one year.

By leveraging different marketing channels like Google Organic, Google PPC, Yelp, WOMM, a little email marketing, and growth hacking feedback.

Also, by being "premium." You get less volume, but higher quality clients, higher margin clients, and clients that don't expect the world for a dollar. It fascinates me how the more people pay, the less they expect. Having higher profit for less time also give you more time to market and do other things.

I was thinking about doing a webinar that outlines how I did it in detail so others can copy.

congrats!
i am glad to hear that my story inspire others.
there are a lot of money to be done with detailing and other services related, you have to stay focus and don`t give up.
i think the first 2-3 years i reinvest most of the profit back into the business. is no way around.


*funny , that`s my 666post

You are the man. I was literally looking for a job in year one because I was going to quit. You post helped me keep going. Thankfully, nobody hired me then so I was forced to stick with it


[/FONT]

 

[Mike Calloway]

If you are a one man team (just like I am) you are effectivelly converting your time into money. Problem with that is we have limited time. So if you are working full time, there are no way to increase profits being a single guy without increasing the price for your services and this is very hard to do if you are already charging a premium price (which I assume you do since you made quite a chunk of money doing it alone).

I am very interested in what the OP did to make that much gross. I expect to see a team in there dividing the work. That's pretty much the only way to increase profit once you have a good client base and no more free time.

You want to disassociate time with money. Rockfeller said it best:

"I would rather earn 1% off a 10 peoples efforts than 100% of my own efforts."

There really wasn't a team back then (didn't start making passive a priority until a few months ago, but my helpers from last year are now leaders). It was just me and a helper. I worked many 12 hour days.

Well, assuming by his posts, that he's got a team. That being said, his profit numbers in 2 years is obtainable. Now, the guys who are a one man show, you WILL run into constraints because YOU only have so much time in the day. The key here is to "be earning money while you sleep" so to speak.

There comes a point where you will run into walls like jarred stated. Working from your garage, perhaps not enough space, and not wanting to hire another person, which will equal no increased profit. You have to spend money to earn money. It requires a solid business plan, marketing, time, and work. I don't doubt that with all of that, anyone can make 7 figures in this industry. It all depends on how bad you want it.

The FEAR is that when you give the job to someone else they they won't do it as good as you. And that is likely true. But just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.

The truth is the 80/20 Pareto Principle. 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Teach your team the 20 that produces the 80 and they will continue to grow/learn/gain experience themselves. You simply help them along the way.

You are absolutely right. In my case I have trouble getting clients so expanding is out of the question at this point. Once I do have a full schedule I plan on hiring a helper or two to keep growing. Would love to have a fixed place to do detailing too, would help with people who don't want to do the work at their place (get a lot of that here in Montreal, most people don't have a parking space or a garage and simply park on the streets).

Would still love to read how Cosmin and the OP went about it.

I tried to get a location last year and thank the Lord we got denied for not being in business for atleast 2 years. That overhead would have ate much of our margins. Mobile also allows us to cover a larger territory.

One thing I think people need to know that this is a business, it's about profits and margins (making people happy is at the core), not "being cool" and hardly making a dime.

Yeah, I do whatever I can to reduce costs as much as possible, I know that revenues are somewhat capped as a one man operation, so cutting expenses is the a great way to increase my bottom line.

I've also started looking into renting a small shop so I'm not affected by the weather (I'd still be primarily mobile, just another option). Problem us that commercial spaces aren't exactly cheap, which makes it a tough trade off.

You have to find an identity for your company. What will you be known for or what is it that will make you unique? You can then make the rest of your decisions around that.

My advise, don't get a shop till you have the customers to support it. That overhead never sleeps, it goes on 24/7. If you got sick for a few days, your mobile operation doesn't cost you anything except for insurance. If you have a storm for a few day's no one will want to have their cars detailed and yet that overhead goes on. Having a shop, the rent and higher insurance never stops. They are other examples, but you got the idea. Good luck to you.

Agreed 100%

The problem I realized with the one man operation is that when you are sick. No money is made. You can go on vacation because no money is made. If something happens to you, the entire business stops because you are the business.

Looking like you're dedicated, and working hard Mike. That's always great to hear.

I've been trying to get my son (he's 21) to understand that he CAN build a good business and make a good living detailing. Just have to get HIM to understand that.


OTOH... thought I'd pass on that Norton doesn't want to load your site. If it's happening to me.... it's happening to others. This isn't browser dependent as it does it on IE as well as Chrome. Seems to be related to a mail link perhaps.

I'm 24 and turn 25 in October. Maybe he can look at some Tony Robbins videos on Youtube.

Here's a good one: https://youtu.be/FbxJQpPKygU

Thanks for the update I'm going to look into the Norton situation.

Lot of true in that statement.


Location...location...location!

That is very important. I believe it's very important to operate in a place where people have a nice amount of disposable income.

Awesome! Congratulations on your success. Glad to see others with a similar mindset as myself. 2 years ago I started my mobile business. Did 2k revenue year 1 and 8k revenue year 2, I got my shop this April, opened in May, and now have 2 employees and average $600 a day. It's much easier to focus on how to increase revenue and sustain profit margin than to try to save money off the bottom. I still work my butt off but I'm putting systems in place (working ON the business rather than IN the business) so that eventually I will be able to just collect profits rather than trade time for money. Best of luck on the future of your business!

I love measuring business by profit/day. I you're profit/day is great. Your yearly profits will be great.

I learned that from Tim Ferriss and the 4 Hour Work Week. That book is what motivated me to say screw it and start going passive regardless of how scared I was. So grateful I did.

 

[Mike Calloway]

If you are a one man team (just like I am) you are effectivelly converting your time into money. Problem with that is we have limited time. So if you are working full time, there are no way to increase profits being a single guy without increasing the price for your services and this is very hard to do if you are already charging a premium price (which I assume you do since you made quite a chunk of money doing it alone).

I am very interested in what the OP did to make that much gross. I expect to see a team in there dividing the work. That's pretty much the only way to increase profit once you have a good client base and no more free time.

To edit the above, Rockefeller actually said, "I would rather earn 1% off a 100 peoples efforts than 100% of my own efforts." (was getting an error when trying to edit the original reply)

 

[JSou]

Congrats. Much love and support from a fellow "DMVer"

Keep going!

 

[rwright]

What are your prime services that bring the most revenue i.e; basic washes, quick interiors, full on exterior/interior work? You mentioned premium services allow a better customer but lower volume. Was the majority of your business focused around premium services/customers? The real money in detailing is volume work but the way your thread is written it sounds just the opposite.

The one thing going for you the most is your market. I live in a market that expects the world for $99. For $125 I give them a little more than most shops, but not quite to my capabilities. In this price range I stay as busy as I want while not killing myself in the 2 days I have to work.

 

[batcat420]

I benefit from being in a great part of the country DC, MD, VA.

How are you dealing with winter weather?

 

[Jaretr1]

I feel like I spent $150,199.50 at AG.

You arent the only one! And to make matter worse, I am not even a professional!!!

 

[Calendyr]

Yes I know. The overhead of owning a shop is really bad. My issue is that at least 50% of the people who contact me are not interested in Mobile service because they have no place to have the service done. I have changed my website a few times because I was really tired of spending 10 to 20 minutes with someone on the phone talking about the services they needed and have them tell me they want to bring the car to me. Vast majority of those don't Schedule the work when they learn I am mobile.

Now I think my website is clear enough about this, phone doesn't ring as much but I waste a lot less time.

 

[Mike Calloway]

Congrats. Much love and support from a fellow "DMVer"

Keep going!

Thanks brother! Much love to you.

What are your prime services that bring the most revenue i.e; basic washes, quick interiors, full on exterior/interior work? You mentioned premium services allow a better customer but lower volume. Was the majority of your business focused around premium services/customers? The real money in detailing is volume work but the way your thread is written it sounds just the opposite.

The one thing going for you the most is your market. I live in a market that expects the world for $99. For $125 I give them a little more than most shops, but not quite to my capabilities. In this price range I stay as busy as I want while not killing myself in the 2 days I have to work.

The "real money" is in whatever niche you dominate. Starbucks isn't high volume like Dunkin Donuts but their model is the sweet spot for Premium. And they have 33% of the market versus Dunkin Donuts 16%.

How are you dealing with winter weather?

Most clients have garages. The only down months because of weather is Jan., Feb., and partly March.

Yes I know. The overhead of owning a shop is really bad. My issue is that at least 50% of the people who contact me are not interested in Mobile service because they have no place to have the service done. I have changed my website a few times because I was really tired of spending 10 to 20 minutes with someone on the phone talking about the services they needed and have them tell me they want to bring the car to me. Vast majority of those don't Schedule the work when they learn I am mobile.

Now I think my website is clear enough about this, phone doesn't ring as much but I waste a lot less time.

It's all about positioning. We serve a bunch of professionals that have disposable income and are typically busy. So they love the fact that they can have their car detailed while being productive. That's what you do. Market it as a convenience. As a strength.

In any business, you never serve "everybody." There will be people that want this or want that and have things to say and that's fine, but you don't serve everyone. Nor is it possible to.

Hope that helps!

 

[onsite]

[FONT=&quot]

By leveraging different marketing channels like Google Organic, Google PPC, Yelp, WOMM, a little email marketing, and growth hacking feedback.

Also, by being "premium." You get less volume, but higher quality clients, higher margin clients, and clients that don't expect the world for a dollar. It fascinates me how the more people pay, the less they expect. Having higher profit for less time also give you more time to market and do other things.

I was thinking about doing a webinar that outlines how I did it in detail so others can copy.



You are the man. I was literally looking for a job in year one because I was going to quit. You post helped me keep going. Thankfully, nobody hired me then so I was forced to stick with it


[/FONT]

How did you go about the emails and what things did you do as far as your "bad marketing decisions" go?