Can you charge that much if your not licensed or insured?
If your work warrants the price, absolutely. If you don't think that you can deliver then it would be a bad idea. You will make the customer feel cheated and most likely will not return. Also, when working uninsured, be prepared to pay to have a mistake, accident or whatever it may be, out of pocket.
The way I see it is simple, if someone wants a professional level job then they need to pay for it. Since you are not a company and not insured it may cause the customer to go elsewhere but at least you aren't giving the work away. But, to get the prices your work needs to be KNOWN. If not they will most definatley go somewhere else so in the case of not having references you may want to charge less to get your name out there. But again, what is your work and your time worth?
I however did start out charging next to nothing a few years back. I operated off of references and references alone. Back then ALL of my work was daily drivers and they were an absolute mess! They would bring the nasty cars to me because of the cheap price becAuse the local detail shops were charging much more due to the nastiness. After about the 15th turd I decided that the money was not enough. I was spending way too much time because of the interiors and I would average out to about $4- no joke! I started charging the regular prices after that-by that time my name was out and had returning customers. They didn't like the new prices but understood and paid anyway.
Nowadays since I am married with a little girl I hold off for the cars people "love" and they want the real deal through and through and pay to have it done. I don't enjoy doing AIO jobs or daily drivers and I try to stay away from it, but every now and again I will do a family members for them. The reason I have the luxury to wait for the "good ones" is because I have another job that pays the bills and detail/conditioning is not my main source of income. When I go into business legitimately and start advertising heavily it will most likely change in order for me to get my name out quick to the masses.
In the end when you are finished and sitting back and looking at the work you've done, you want to be proud and happy. If you spent 15hrs on a car and only charged $300 most likely you will be mad and wished you would have charged more. We detail because we have a passion for it, don't let the money kill it. At first if you charge less, it may not. But after a few it will.
One last thing, if you were to have someone do your car (a car you absolutely love and never let it see the road except for nice weekends) and had a guy quote $200 doing it out of his garage, and had another shop quote the same job for $600 which would you choose? What will you ask yourself? Is the guy doing it for $200 not as good, or why is t so cheap, are his products junk, does he not have experience etc? This particular case the guy with the garage queen will go with the higher price because he feels that the guy is more experienced and only wants the best for the car. What I am trying to get at is don't showcase yourself as "cheap" because most people with those types of cars will associate the "cheap price" with "cheap work". At least be close to what would be charged in a shop.
The easiest way to put it-charge what you think your time and work is worth. Quote high on one and see how it plays out....
Hope this helps, I can't proof read this because my phone won't allow me to scroll back through it and it may be unorganized and have a few mispelled words. I apologize in advance for that.
Good luck!
