$ opinion needed

Cosmin

Cosmin

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got this email , is for an 2 weeks event

- 50guests and vehicle handling (30 vehicles) per day

- Basic cleaning of all cars after arrival of the fleet

- Line up of the car fleet at the event locations before guest arrival on a daily base

- Guest Handling (hand over keys, open doors, explain basic car settings) on a daily base

- Daily refueling, detailing and damage check ups of the whole vehicle fleet as well as key handling


* i have no idea what and how to quote this.
options: contact a local valet company to handle the cars and a quick training of light clean-up , or hire 5-10 guys for this event.

* my problem is that i have regular clients that i see them every week or biweekly , and are important

* for quote i can go with a daily rate that should cover let`s say 6 people plus materials.
let`s say i charge 30$/hour per person , materials around 500 , so for 14 working days with 8 hours a day for 6 people total charge $20160 plus materials.
if i pay the help with 12$/hour , for 14 days is $8064 , profit for 2 weeks $12096


this are the facts, let me know what you think and how realistic this plan is.
* plus i have to pay the help from my pocket i guess till i get paid, with events the payment is after ...so that`s another thing not sure what`s the story with :"Daily refueling," when comes to....30 cars
smile.gif
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Not that I have anything to contribute

But good luck with your plan!

Sounds like a neat gig :)
 
First I would have an iron clad contract, especially if you are fronting the work and products (and labor).

Second I would definitely check with your insurance carrier to see about your max coverage, especially for the moving of the vehicles by non-employee contractors.

Third if you hire personel you will have to either cut Medicare, FICA, etc... Or if you hire them as independent contractor, get them to fill out a W9 and make sure your insurance covers non-hired employee

As for your $$ quote, you seem to have it figured out.
 
Don't short change yourself and charge accordingly. If they don't like your price you can cut a little but don't go really cheap. Also think about your ins. if something happens.
Make sure you watch everyone and have a couple of right hand people to do the same.
It's alot of work. I helped out on 16 cars for a Ford commercial and it wasn't bad with 3-5 Detailers and a few helpers over a few days.
Don't be afraid to fire and hire daily, this will weed out the flakes and you'll get the better ones. Oh and pay at the end of the week and as you fire them. I like firing people!
As far as your regulars go tell them the opportunity you have and you'll be back in a few weeks. For the ones that cry you might want to get some competitors you can trust to handle them.
PM me for a number to someone who will tell you all you need to know but you'll probably need to pay him as he is awesome and very busy.
 
Wow that's a unique setup. My only advice to you is to either charge accordingly or walk away. This will simply not be worth the hassle if you are not paid enough to do it correctly. Sometimes if a job is not right the best possible answer is simply no.
 
Cosmin said:
got this email , is for an 2 weeks event

- 50guests and vehicle handling (30 vehicles) per day

- Basic cleaning of all cars after arrival of the fleet

- Line up of the car fleet at the event locations before guest arrival on a daily base

- Guest Handling (hand over keys, open doors, explain basic car settings) on a daily base

- Daily refueling, detailing and damage check ups of the whole vehicle fleet as well as key handling


* i have no idea what and how to quote this.
options: contact a local valet company to handle the cars and a quick training of light clean-up , or hire 5-10 guys for this event.

* my problem is that i have regular clients that i see them every week or biweekly , and are important

* for quote i can go with a daily rate that should cover let`s say 6 people plus materials.
let`s say i charge 30$/hour per person , materials around 500 , so for 14 working days with 8 hours a day for 6 people total charge $20160 plus materials.
if i pay the help with 12$/hour , for 14 days is $8064 , profit for 2 weeks $12096


this are the facts, let me know what you think and how realistic this plan is.
* plus i have to pay the help from my pocket i guess till i get paid, with events the payment is after ...so that`s another thing not sure what`s the story with :"Daily refueling," when comes to....30 cars
smile.gif
)
Click to expand...


HMMM - slight predicament! Sounds like a great deal - but could actually upset regulars when they cannot be taken care of. If your actual profit with your regular clients is $6,048 week - then I would suggest charging more - only because you have to reschedule important clients to cater to this SPECIAL event. With that said, hiring 6 new guys that 'may' know what they are doing is going to be tough - I get 1 out of 6 that are actually worth keeping - unless you hire someone just for rims and tires, someone just for jambs and windows, etc.... it will be tough to find quality workers - especially on short notice. If you accurately produced your fixed costs and variable costs for the days needed, I would compare them to fixed and daily costs of your regular clients then charge 25% more. If they say yes - great, your best clients will understand and you gain. If they say no, your clients will still be taken care of and your reputation of being faithful will only multiply. Either way, you seem like you are doing good and I applaud you for that in a tough profession :dblthumb2: !
 
so far from my understanding....

- have a contract sign
- w9 the helpers
- check with insurance about driving/moving vehicles by non-employees
- be ready for a lot of work
- charged accordingly
- "fix" the regulars , find a solution to get some of them taken care of.
- train each helper under a certain "specialty" ( wheels , windows, interior , paint)
- with regulars i do less than with the event in a week , but on long term regulars are gold , steady income. can`t mess with that.


i may have to add 1 more day to the total , for "instruction"/ training , plus i have to ask if weekends are included, my math was for 14 days , but it may be 1 or 2 more days.so... ask for details.

thank`s guys ,
if anyone has some ideas or anything to add would be great !
 
This is a good problem to have. I will reiterate a few items. Get a contract and price it high (not to high). If you are planning on quoating $30 an hour, bump it up 10%. This will give you some wiggle room for negotiation.

I had an event for Chevrolet for 18 days earlier this year. I quoted it high but they also liked what I said I can and will do. After a few emails, they came back and said my quote was higher than a competitor but were willing to pay for the quality. We were able to reduce our price and still make a good profit. We were VERY clear what the expectations are, what I would provide, and what they would provide. I insisted on half down and half upon completion. They were very happy and even hired us on for an extra day to help tear down (non-detailing related work but labor hours are labor hours). We have even been contacted by the individuals we worked with later for more work. So, they became repeat customers.

Our first day was getting the vehicles to perfect. This was essential and makes it easier to keep them that way. I needed extra help and called another detailer I know in the area. I trained this person and trusted him. If you know of another shop in your area that you trust, subcontract some work to them. Chances are they will have people who are trained and insured. Go heavy on labor the first few days. You may find that you do not need an army of people once you get in the swing of things.

For a job this big, have one or two people you trust to act as leads. Take a day or two to train them before the event. This will save your sanity.

That's all I got.

Good Luck.
 
Had to do this, put your pinky to the side of your mouth and say to them 1 millioooon dollars hahahahah
 
Cosmin said:
so far from my understanding....

- have a contract sign
- w9 the helpers
- check with insurance about driving/moving vehicles by non-employees
- be ready for a lot of work
- charged accordingly
- "fix" the regulars , find a solution to get some of them taken care of.
- train each helper under a certain "specialty" ( wheels , windows, interior , paint)
- with regulars i do less than with the event in a week , but on long term regulars are gold , steady income. can`t mess with that.


i may have to add 1 more day to the total , for "instruction"/ training , plus i have to ask if weekends are included, my math was for 14 days , but it may be 1 or 2 more days.so... ask for details.

thank`s guys ,
if anyone has some ideas or anything to add would be great !
Click to expand...

You have it down bro. When hiring, take your time to find the right people. You don't want to have to fire people because you will then have to hire people during all the work. So maybe hire people and have a few standbys just in case. For the standbys, if you do need them, the people that have been trained by you can then train them.

Hope that helps!
 
Are you paying for the gas and then getting reimbursed? If so, you will be very surprised how much the gas bill will be for a 2 week event.

How will tips be handled? I was at an event a few years ago where the handlers would not accept a tip. It was nice because it seperated them from just being an average valet service.

Make sure every person who works for you has a name tag. If there is an issue you don't want to be guessing who the complaint is against.

Will you be responsible for umbrella service or do they provide that?

Is it expected that you will take care of excessive detailing like paint transfer or a coffee spill on the carpet/seats caused by event attendees?

You put down 8 hours a day, my guess is that the days will be much longer than 8 hours. The event that I was at the days started around 8:00 and ended when we brought the keys back. If the car came back after 10:00 we gave the keys to the front desk.
 
Wow. Lots of great advice above. I'll just toss in some of my thoughts, for whatever value they might have.

Subcontract. See if there's a way you can perhaps broker the whole thing and take a small cut, or if you are going all-in... Contract with your helpers. 1099's are a heck of a lot easier than hiring direct hourly employees for a short-term project.

Ask for a retainer up-front. This is obviously a big shindig, with an associated big budget. You should not be asked to bear any costs in advance, beyond perhaps some of your direct services...which would essentially be a performance guarantee for the customer.

Are you bidding against other vendors for this? If so, do you know who they are? This might be an opportunity where you could share the burden and both reap the rewards.

Honestly, and not to be a downer, but while this certainly has potential for a nice profit and a healthy spot on the resume, it could also spell disaster, or at the least, significant inconvenience (and loss of a few existing customers). Along with opportunity cost, factor in your risk as you consider if and how to pursue this. There is nothing wrong with bowing out if this is well out of your comfort zone and the scope of your business model. This sounds like something best performed by either a valet company, or a parking garage company, perhaps with you acting as one of the subcontractors for detail services.

Good luck...
 
If you hire the employeees as contractors, you might need them to require a GE license or self employment papers of som sort. This costs money, and will also require them to carry their own insurance (more than likely). I'm sure this is all state based, so you'll need to do some research. Personally, I'd hire a few guys (background checks of course) and pay by the hour.

As someone else stated, i'd also check on your insurance. If you have a lower priced plan, i'd bump it up.. when you're doing a valet type of thing, the insurance coverage needed might be much higher than you're already paying.

If this all seems more than you can handle it probably is, and I'd opt to walk away.

good luck!
 
First thing ,


Ask how many Detailers are bidding on this

If more than 3 ,you might decide to sit it out anyway,rather than mess up your good customers,unless you want to do it on the cheap.

Try to get as many details as possible before you submit your bid,give them a list of questions on anything you have doubts about,better to find out any bad news before the bid than after.

I bid on 5 to 10 jobs a day.

Good Luck
 
I agree with VroomVroom in regards to the valet.

Every year our company has a summer picnic. We have one company that comes in and does the set-up and grilling and another company that comes an hour or two later for ice cream. Just because a guy is a grillmaster doesn't mean he can make great ice cream. Does it cost more? Slightly. Do we get a better product? Definitely.

You can explain to the organizers that you can offer both but what you would prefer to do is have another company take care of the valet end of it and for you to take care of the detailing.

How hard did you have to work to get the customers you are afraid to let down? How hard would you have to work to get them back or replace them if you let them down? As you know, people with money talk to people with money, both good and bad.
 
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