Need some opinions on going pro

iMuf

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Hey everyone, so this question is mainly to those who detail full time. But anyone feel free to answer I could use all the help I can get and any opinions are nice.

So a quick little back story, I'll try to make it short and sweet. I used to work at Best Buy, I ended up doing detailing on the side and one of the guys I did some work for works at a mechanics shop. Well the owner of the shop saw my work and offered to hire me to do detailing for him.

I started off doing work on all of his personal vehicles which are everything from Jeep wranglers and jacked up excursions to his GT500. That was good because I got to work on a variety of vehicles doing a variety of different things. So I have really stepped up my game as far as knowledge and skills go. I feel like I'm 10x better than I was prior to working here.

Well it has gotten to the point where I have built up a huge back log of cars, on my own time, that I just haven't been able to do because I either don't have the time because I work nearly 60 hours a week or because I'm "afraid" my boss will get pissed because I am doing cars behind his back even though it's on my own time. Now the big thing is only about 10-15 of those hours and detailing. The rest of that is either me sitting at a desk answering phones until everyone gets in, in the mornings and even there I'm normally there until 2-3pm. Or I'm helping out with his other company doing basically janitorial work.


Now one thing to note is nearly all my cars that I have backed up are from car clubs around my area, be it mopar clubs, chevy clubs, mustang clubs, etc. So I feel like my name is already out there pretty good. I have nearly 20 cars backed up and I am getting contacted at least 2 times a week so that number just keeps getting bigger. That is one thing with clubs, words travel further and faster I feel like than it does with a "normal" person.

So here is my question and where I need some opinions, do you think with the information I have given you that I could quit and do this professionally on my own? I feel like if I have 20 cars now, that 20 may turn into another 15-20 which would turn into another 15-20 and so on and so on.

The big thing for me that is making me want to do it is, I now know what he is charging customers and I'm getting a very small fraction of that. So he is making a killing off of my skills and my tallents which really urks me. Now the only thing holding me back is it's scary to quite a job that pays ok and losing that job security.

My goal is to be a professional detailer. Right now I'm the guy who sits at a desk and answers phones, who also goes and cleans windows or cleans out a building, who also runs errands every now and again, who also does a little bit of detailing.

So again, what do you guys think? With the back log that I have and the groups/clubs I have gotten in with so far, do you think that could carry me? When do you really know if it's time to go pro?

Thanks for any help guys
 
It sounds like you have the skills if people are coming to you and you have built a good reputation. Anything like this is going to always carry a risk dedicating your life to it. Is it possible to get less hours at your job or maybe pickup a small part time job and open up more time to build your business until you have seen more and you are confident that you can make enough money to make your life comfortable.
 
It sounds like you have the skills if people are coming to you and you have built a good reputation. Anything like this is going to always carry a risk dedicating your life to it. Is it possible to get less hours at your job or maybe pickup a small part time job and open up more time to build your business until you have seen more and you are confident that you can make enough money to make your life comfortable.

I don't think I could get less hours at this job. I think he is keeping me so busy so I don't have time to do anything on the side in all honesty. I could probably get a part time job somewhere but I haven't looked to see if there is anything really open in the area.

One other thing I had in mind was to just go to a dealership and do detailing for one of them. At least then I would be detailing which is what I like rather than sitting behind the desk for the majority of the time. And then I could continue to do my own thing on the side. I think I may have a bit more control of my schedule if I went that route.
 
difficult call. its easy to say go for it, but as someone who has been self employed for the last 15 years, theres a lot to be said for a regular wage and paid holiday. i was an employee of a company for 8 years prior to that, so I've seen both sides of the coin as it were. at the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to finances. if you make the leap and it doesn't pan out are you likely to lose your house? if the answer is no, then id say go for it otherwise you'll always wonder if you should have :xyxthumbs:
 
difficult call. its easy to say go for it, but as someone who has been self employed for the last 15 years, theres a lot to be said for a regular wage and paid holiday. i was an employee of a company for 8 years prior to that, so I've seen both sides of the coin as it were. at the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to finances. if you make the leap and it doesn't pan out are you likely to lose your house? if the answer is no, then id say go for it otherwise you'll always wonder if you should have :xyxthumbs:

To give you an idea I'm only 21, I still live with my parents. So losing a house wouldn't be an issue for now. I basically just have car payment, car insurance, phone bill, and an occasional credit card bill. So I only have about $450ish a month in bills. So I don't think that would really be an issue. I think this is the best time to do it, but it's tough to give up that security you know?
 
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working for someone else is false security... they could go out of business, file BK, lose customers, not make payroll, layoff, etc...

If you want to do it and have 20 cars scheduled, you will make more money than you are now.
 
Be your own boss, learn how to run it, then eventually you can take on employees as you get older. It's easier to replace a low skill job than to obtain higher skill positions like you are seeking. And going in house at a dealer is always an option if things get tight but you make sacrifices on quality to meet cost and speed needs.
 
Now the only thing holding me back is it's scary to quite a job that pays ok and losing that job security.


4 years ago , i was jobless for 2 months before i start my detailing adventure. you already have a job , advantage: you

eliminate the fear , anxiety and guilt that prevents success , easy as that.

start read about detailing, products , business and marketing , or come to tx work for me , i plan open a shop and i may need a right hand in detail department :)
 
4 years ago , i was jobless for 2 months before i start my detailing adventure. you already have a job , advantage: you

eliminate the fear , anxiety and guilt that prevents success , easy as that.

start read about detailing, products , business and marketing , or come to tx work for me , i plan open a shop and i may need a right hand in detail department :)

I might have to take you up on that offer lol.
 
What do you guys think of my work? Here are some pictures of a couple jobs I have done. I'll briefly explain what I did to each one.

This was my first job, this car was not really that dirty at all. They drive the car basically just to car shows so it gets maybe 25 miles a week put on it if that lol. So for this I just did a wash and wax. I cleaned the wheels and dressed them. And then I vacuumed the interior and got it all looking good. It took about 3.5-4 hours to do.

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After

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This was my second car I did which is the one that led to me getting this new job. I washed the car, clayed the car, and gave it another quick rinse. Then we pulled it into the garage of the where the guy works and I did full paint correction where I could. the front bumper and then from basically the rear quarter panels back the car was sprayed with a rattle can and didn't have any clear coat. So I just left that alone. I also did some minor interior cleanup. And then put a good coat of wax on it. In all the car took about 9 hours to do. It would have taken much longer but the paint corrected pretty easy. and I only had like 5 body panels to paint correct lol.

Before


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After



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This was my latest job, this is the same guy that owned the Mustang. This is the job that has really gotten my name out there. This car was swirled bad, he had put zaino on it a bit to thick and had a hard time getting off and ended up really swirling the paint. So he wanted it back to better than new. So I did a wash with a foam gun followed by a hand wash. After Claying the car I pulled it into the garage and started doing paint correction. I got probably 98% of the imperfections out. All the swirls were gone but he had a couple deep scratches that I don't think I could have gotten out completely, but I got them to the point that you really have to look for them in the right light. I don't have any before pictures because for some reason the files got corrupted on that card. So all I have is the after pictures. In all this took about 12 hours.


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Take massive action Live it Breathe It Eat it..As Eric Thomas says "When you want to succeed as much as breathing youll succeed" Go for it at 21 time is on your side..Hope you make it in big way bro...
 
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