Might be partnering with a few country clubs tomorrow. advice?

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ride5150

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A guy left me a message saying hes calling from a country club (franchise i guess?) and that theyre looking for mobile detailers. I would have to hire some guys if this were to take off, especially with multiple country clubs.

Have any of you guys dealt with this? How many cars a day did you do a day? Any advice or things i should ask this guy when i call him back tomorrow? are the people usually kind? i really cant stand d*ckheads, and will gladly skip this if i have to deal with difficult people all day.

I want to do one golf course first and see how the volume is, then figure out how many guys i need to hire if we are to expand to more country clubs.

this is what i want to ask him so far:

How many golf courses?
Daily Volume? (if there was a previous detailer, ballpark figure)
Start Date?
End Date?
Location(s)?
Garage with drainage?
Power and water outlets?
Does the club want a cut of the income?
Transactions? Do they have a credit card processing machine?

if you guys have any advice, please share and i thank you all in advance :dblthumb2:
 
I don't have any experience with country clubs but their is a really big one really close to where I live that I've been thinking about for a while. Just some things that have crossed my mind. I would give it a shot a few time to really figure out volume, when you should start, etc. because only doing it will really tell. I wouldn't think the club would want much if any revenue from the profits because to me, your just making their country club more attractive to prospective customers. If I did it I would be using their water and electricity. I'm sure it would be pretty easy to work something out like $5 per car for water and electricity or something. As far as credit cards, get the Square card reader. Just do a google search for it. Its a free app and they send you a free card reader. I've used it a few times and it works great! One more thing, if your gonna do something like this I would for SURE have insurance. I have read at least one story on here where someone ran into a problem detailing at a country club. The customer already had some damage in one area of the car but tried to blame it on the detailers. Long story short I think the detailer ended up paying for the repairs even though he didn't do it. Maybe its just my perspective but I feel like a lot of people that would be members of a country club would be the kind of people who are very anal about their property, and the slightest thing that happend they would either blame you whether you did it or not. I would just highly recommend insurance to put your mind at ease. Hope some of that helps!
 
thank you for the response, i saw the square card reader online but im not sure if its very professional, unless i buy an iPad and use it with that. then it would look professional, especially since the customer can see the screen.

as far as insurance goes, i already have insurance so thats not a problem. i would however need to add my employees under it, especially since they wont be very experienced unfortunately.

thank you!

also, since i have to pay employees, if anyones has any insight on how much to pay them please share. i was thinking of doing it by car, to avoid overhead costs during downtime. like 80% of the price of the detail is the employees, 20% is mine.
 
Thank you for the response, i saw the square card reader online but im not sure if its very professional, unless i buy an iPad and use it with that. then it would look professional, especially since the customer can see the screen.

Why do you need an iPad for the Square reader? I use my square reader with an iPad and also with my Droid X. It works perfectly on both. the only advantage to using the iPad is that I have my packages and services on shelves. I only have to hit the button that corresponds with what the customer got.
 
Badboyztn said:
Thank you for the response, i saw the square card reader online but im not sure if its very professional, unless i buy an iPad and use it with that. then it would look professional, especially since the customer can see the screen.

Why do you need an iPad for the Square reader? I use my square reader with an iPad and also with my Droid X. It works perfectly on both. the only advantage to using the iPad is that I have my packages and services on shelves. I only have to hit the button that corresponds with what the customer got.
Click to expand...

It just seems more professional to me, since this would be at a fixed location and since u can select packages/products in front of the client. For house calls i could use my phone, but at the country club i would want it to look more presentable
 
I worked at a golf club for five years and I might go back to it this summer. Only reason I left is that they are currently under heavy construction so there was no point in detailing a car when it would get dusty 5 minutes later. There are several pros and cons to a gold club. The good thing is that you have plenty of time to detail a car as most stay at the clubs for more than 4 hours. Make sure people pay you up front and not after the detail, this way you don't have to wait for them to finish if it's a slow day, just leave the keys at the pro shop.

I averaged around 6-7 washes with some waxes a day. The problem occurs when you get 6 washes off the bat at let's say 6:45 AM and everyone wants them four hours later. If you don't have helpers you will be working like a mad man to get things done. If someone wants a full detail I will just go to their house so you will not be rushed unless you have enough staff on hand. I am having second thoughts about working at the club again because I am currently detailing the members cars at their homes without having to race time. And each client gives me about 2-4 cars a day with just one person.

I would for sure give it a try and see how it works out for you. There are many people in one area and they will most likely refer you to outside sources.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online
 
ride5150 said:
A guy left me a message saying hes calling from a country club (franchise i guess?) and that theyre looking for mobile detailers. I would have to hire some guys if this were to take off, especially with multiple country clubs.

Have any of you guys dealt with this? How many cars a day did you do a day? Any advice or things i should ask this guy when i call him back tomorrow? are the people usually kind? i really cant stand d*ckheads, and will gladly skip this if i have to deal with difficult people all day.

I want to do one golf course first and see how the volume is, then figure out how many guys i need to hire if we are to expand to more country clubs.

this is what i want to ask him so far:

How many golf courses?
Daily Volume? (if there was a previous detailer, ballpark figure)
Start Date?
End Date?
Location(s)?
Garage with drainage?
Power and water outlets?
Does the club want a cut of the income?
Transactions? Do they have a credit card processing machine?

if you guys have any advice, please share and i thank you all in advance :dblthumb2:
Click to expand...

Have you actually talked to this guy?

If it's the same type of calls I've been getting lately it's a company that sends out publications to members of local country clubs and they are looking for you to buy ad space.

I got sucked into listening to the guy's sales pitch and if I recall it was about $400 for a small ad, $600 for a half page, and $1000 for a full page.

I've gotten about 4 of these guys calling me. And they always leave a message saying they are calling on behalf of a local country club. Then you call them back and it's full on sales pitch.

Just be warned....
 
Rav777 said:
There are several pros and cons to a golf club. The good thing is that you have plenty of time to detail a car as most stay at the clubs for more than 4 hours. Make sure people pay you up front and not after the detail, this way you don't have to wait for them to finish if it's a slow day, just leave the keys at the pro shop.
Click to expand...

Great experienced advice.

Rav777 said:
I averaged around 6-7 washes with some waxes a day. The problem occurs when you get 6 washes off the bat at let's say 6:45 AM and everyone wants them four hours later. If you don't have helpers you will be working like a mad man to get things done. If someone wants a full detail I will just go to their house so you will not be rushed unless you have enough staff on hand.
I am having second thoughts about working at the club again because I am currently detailing the members cars at their homes without having to race time. And each client gives me about 2-4 cars a day with just one person.

I would for sure give it a try and see how it works out for you. There are many people in one area and they will most likely refer you to outside sources.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AG Online
Click to expand...


Definitely an example of how to turn a casual customer into a dedicated maintenance customer.
Great posting Rav777.
 
SeaJay's said:
Have you actually talked to this guy?

If it's the same type of calls I've been getting lately it's a company that sends out publications to members of local country clubs and they are looking for you to buy ad space.

I got sucked into listening to the guy's sales pitch and if I recall it was about $400 for a small ad, $600 for a half page, and $1000 for a full page.

I've gotten about 4 of these guys calling me. And they always leave a message saying they are calling on behalf of a local country club. Then you call them back and it's full on sales pitch.

Just be warned....
Click to expand...

Definitely a possibiliy, i gave him a call back yesterday but no answer. Ilm try again monday, he did mention something about putting together a "preffered business directory":/
 
I can't speak from direct experience. But, I've had many conversations with country club type places who want to offer detailing.

There's a few things you have to think about...

-water containment issues. You'll have to research your area, and particularly that property. What type of washes can you do, is what you need to know.

-what type of detailing? As you know, many people confuse detailing, with express services. To me, they're different.

-Time frames? Are we talking about getting a car done during a golf game, then back to the customer? That's not a lot of time. Express services may be best.

-Payment, obviously is always a concern. Most these types of deals end up being a spilt profit kind of deal. Don't go for that. There's no reason they should be taking half your money. Maybe a percentage...but not half. If they say half, walk away.

They'll try to make the argument that they are providing you with customers. Which is true. But, you have to remember...you don't want to be stuck at this country club. They are going to consume most of your time. You have to get paid, or there's no room or time for your business to grow.

Basically, you don't want to put yourself into a situation that is great to get started, but then you can't expand cause you are stuck there. Accounts are good, but can also work against you.

In the end, what kind of detailer do you wanna be? Strictly retail, express, production, or high end? Doing all those successfully is near impossible, unless you step away from one or two, and have a crew you trust who can manage, and handle the work load independently. That's really tough to achieve.
 
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