Revising my price plans. Need your opinion.

RangerDetails

RangerDetails

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Hi all!

I'm want to revise my price plans and wanted your inputs.
Keep in mind that I'm in Canada so I guess the prices should be a little higher than prices in the US.

The Basic
- Interior vaccum
- Interior cleaning of every nooks and crannies
- Light carpets and seats cleaning(with attempted removal of stains)
- Dashboard dressing
- Interior windows cleaning

- Exterior two buckets hand wash and dry
- Exterior windows cleaning
- Tire dressing
Price 60$ car, 80$ SUV and Trucks.

The Basic Plus
- Interior vaccum
- Interior cleaning of every nooks and crannies
- Light carpets and seats cleaning(with attempted removal of stains)
- Dashboard dressing
- Interior windows cleaning

- Exterior two buckets hand wash and dry
- Exterior windows cleaning
- Tire dressing
- Paint decontamination(Clay bar)
- Sealant and wax
Price: 100$ car, 140$ SUV and Trucks

Headlights Restoration
Price: 40$(Same as usual, no change there)

Engine bay cleaning
Price 30$(Again, no change)

À la carte:
Exterior wash - 20$
Interior cleaning - 40$

Tell me what you guys think.
 
Your prices seems low to me. Really depends how much time you spend doing it but it seems you are not taking into account the time it takes you to go to the client and back.

For exemple, you charge only 40$ for headlight restoration. If I was to do it, I would calculate at least 30 mins to drive to client, 30 mins to drive back, and 1 hour to do the work. So 2 hours total. That means 20$/hour before expenses. Headlight restoration required sand paper, compound, polish and some kind of sealant. So let's say 2-4$ in products, and then there is your gas so let's say 2$ in gas. So you are making 35$ for 2 hours work... to me that is way too low. I don't know what the demographics are in Gatineau now, but when I lived there there wasn't a lot of rich areas. So I am guessing you will have to go to Ottawa a lot and probably places like Limbourg. So that means a lot of commute time.

What area of Gatineau do you live in?

So to resume, what I would do is this:

Calculate how long it takes you to do the detail you list. Add an hour for commute. Add price of products if they are significants (for exemple if you use coatings, or expensive waxes, sealants, polishes) then decide how much you want to make per hour and that will give you your price.

What I do is I give a discount of 30$ for additional service when someone books for something. So let's say I charge 80$ for headlights, if someone books me for a detail and they also want to do the headlight, I deduct 30$ since I don't have to drive there twice.

Finally, if you want to make any money in this business, stay away from cheap packages. Doing washes will kill you and you won't make a dime. Try to have multiple services combined so that when you drive somewhere, you are making some money, not pocket change. As a rule, I don't go anywhere for less than 100$ unless it's a quick service like headlight restoration. I don't do simple washes for 30-40$ for exemple, there is no money in that.
 
Calendyr said:
Your prices seems low to me. Really depends how much time you spend doing it but it seems you are not taking into account the time it takes you to go to the client and back.

For exemple, you charge only 40$ for headlight restoration. If I was to do it, I would calculate at least 30 mins to drive to client, 30 mins to drive back, and 1 hour to do the work. So 2 hours total. That means 20$/hour before expenses. Headlight restoration required sand paper, compound, polish and some kind of sealant. So let's say 2-4$ in products, and then there is your gas so let's say 2$ in gas. So you are making 35$ for 2 hours work... to me that is way too low. I don't know what the demographics are in Gatineau now, but when I lived there there wasn't a lot of rich areas. So I am guessing you will have to go to Ottawa a lot and probably places like Limbourg. So that means a lot of commute time.

What area of Gatineau do you live in?

So to resume, what I would do is this:

Calculate how long it takes you to do the detail you list. Add an hour for commute. Add price of products if they are significants (for exemple if you use coatings, or expensive waxes, sealants, polishes) then decide how much you want to make per hour and that will give you your price.

What I do is I give a discount of 30$ for additional service when someone books for something. So let's say I charge 80$ for headlights, if someone books me for a detail and they also want to do the headlight, I deduct 30$ since I don't have to drive there twice.

Finally, if you want to make any money in this business, stay away from cheap packages. Doing washes will kill you and you won't make a dime. Try to have multiple services combined so that when you drive somewhere, you are making some money, not pocket change. As a rule, I don't go anywhere for less than 100$ unless it's a quick service like headlight restoration. I don't do simple washes for 30-40$ for exemple, there is no money in that.
Click to expand...

Aylmer and Hull would be considered as rich areas. Gatineau itself is half and half so there is money to be made for sure but most people with money are very cheap. I live in Gatineau so I serve most of the region. The problem is if I go too high, I'm not getting any business. Like I said, people are cheap and they don't appreciate a good detail. Until I start doing some polishing, that is all I got.

I will indeed offer a discount if they combine services and I agree with removing cheap services like exterior/interior wash only. Not worth it.

Thanks for your input!
 
Where I am, there's a pretty good market for mobile wash (only) customers, so your basic package would fit right into my area. It's not particularly affluent, but we have several 55+ older developments nearby, and some of these people just want their car clean. If I line up several customers close by, I offer a discount. I also offer referral discounts. It's not uncommon in these developments to have someone watch me work, and then ask me for a price.

Looking at your prices, to me there's not enough price difference between the basic and the basic plus. You're adding a decon step, which can get fairly time consuming.
 
briarpatch said:
Looking at your prices, to me there's not enough price difference between the basic and the basic plus. You're adding a decon step, which can get fairly time consuming.
Click to expand...

I base my rate at about 20$ an hour. the difference in price for the two package are 40$, so 2 extra hours. I don't think it will take me more than two hours claying and sealing a car. Will it?
 
RangerDetails said:
I base my rate at about 20$ an hour. the difference in price for the two package are 40$, so 2 extra hours. I don't think it will take me more than two hours claying and sealing a car. Will it?
Click to expand...

depends on the vehicle
 
RangerDetails said:
Hi all!

I'm want to revise my price plans and wanted your inputs.
Keep in mind that I'm in Canada so I guess the prices should be a little higher than prices in the US.

The Basic
- Interior vaccum
- Interior cleaning of every nooks and crannies
- Light carpets and seats cleaning(with attempted removal of stains)
- Dashboard dressing
- Interior windows cleaning

- Exterior two buckets hand wash and dry
- Exterior windows cleaning
- Tire dressing
Price 60$ car, 80$ SUV and Trucks.

The Basic Plus
- Interior vaccum
- Interior cleaning of every nooks and crannies
- Light carpets and seats cleaning(with attempted removal of stains)
- Dashboard dressing
- Interior windows cleaning

- Exterior two buckets hand wash and dry
- Exterior windows cleaning
- Tire dressing
- Paint decontamination(Clay bar)
- Sealant and wax
Price: 100$ car, 140$ SUV and Trucks

Headlights Restoration
Price: 40$(Same as usual, no change there)

Engine bay cleaning
Price 30$(Again, no change)

À la carte:
Exterior wash - 20$
Interior cleaning - 40$

Tell me what you guys think.
Click to expand...
To much scramble in the packages.leave it clean and simple and easy for the customer to read and compare packages.Engine washes are problematic,I would refrain from that.your pricing is way to low and car wash service is a waste of time.I would aim at 60.00 for a carwash and spiff up once a month.categorize your packages with a hand wax then itemize your exterior only detail by estimate.Then get into the full detailing and interior services.never put the price in stone on a card,aim at a hourly fee that you need to get with seeing the vehicle and offer no prices over the phone.I have a strategic method getting customers,I have on my van free home estimates and product demo.when they call I go and do a sample either on paint or leather done deal.
 
Hull is now a rich area? Wow, things have changed over there. I used to live near the military building in Hull. I know that with Ottawa being over crowded, a lot of people with money moved to this side of the river but I had no idea it had changed that much.

In terms of clients, what you want is people with expensive cars. When you pay 100,000$ or more for your car, you are more concerned about treating it right than saving a few bucks for a wash. Pretty much all of my clients have german cars (BMW, Mercedes, Audis, Volkswagens). If you don't do polishing, it will be very very hard for you to make money. I suggest you invest in a reasonably priced DA polisher like the Griot's Garage 6 inch polisher and some pads. Just add all-in-one polishes to your list of services and you can double or triple what you make on a detail. AIOs are easy to do, they produce great results for daily drivers and they are excellent value for your customers.

As for people being cheap, I find that everyone is cheap but most people are willing to pay for what they believe is good value. Of course it will be very hard to sell a 500$ details to someone with a beat up 2000 Honda civic, but if someone can afford a nice car and they understand that a polish will make their car look like new and also have decent protection, you will be able to get those clients. Also, these are the people that may become regular clients. So that should be your target market.
 
Here are some of the times it takes me to do each step:

Wheels (cleaning only) about 10-15 minutes per wheel depending how bad they are. I start by pressure washing all 4 then one by one: spraying an APC+soap over the wheel well, tire and rim. I then clean the wheel well then the rim and finally the tire. I pressure rinse and look at the result. If a lot of brake dust is still present on the rim, I spray meg wheel brightener and wash again. So just that step can take up to an hour. Now if you only charge peanuts you can't afford to do that, so it depends on your package and how clean you want the wheels to be.

Second step is washing. I pressure wash the whole car to remove most of the dirt. Then I proceed with a 2 bucket wash. Pressure rinse. This doesn't take that long. Probably 30 minutes... never really timed it.

If I have to decontaminate, that is more tricky. I use nano sponges to do it. Depending on how bad the contamination is it can take 30 minutes or it can take 2 hours. I have had a car this year where I could not remove all the contaminants. I worked for 2 hours on it and called it done but there was still some left. So it's a service where you want to charge more just in case. If you use traditional clay, it will take you at least an hour, clay is very slow compared to a nano sponge. Also if you drop you clay, that's 15$ down the drain cause you can't use it again. So for those 2 reasons I don't use that anymore.

Drying the car takes about 15 minutes. I use a metrovac sidekick to blow all the crevices then dry with a microfiber towel. If you do a cheap wash, you can use a spray wax in this step to wax the car while drying it. So this could be a go way to increase profits.

If you decide to go with a traditional sealant like Powerlock, about 30 minutes to apply and 15 minutes to remove. This varies depending on the size of the car. Trucks and SUVs are pretty bad because you have to use a platform to do the roof and that is a lot of wasted time.

While the sealant is drying on the car you can do the exhaust and dress the wheel wells, tires and put some spray wax on the rims. This should take about 20-30 minutes total.

Windows will usually need a cleaning with a window cleaner and a window cloth. I also spray wax them as well. I try to upsell all my clients of Aquapel. This is a great product I charge 25$ to do it and the applicator costs me 6$, so 19$ profit for 15 mins of work.

If you were to do a polishing as I suggested, you can add 3 to 5 hours to that total. So this is why it can make you so much money.

So wash+decon+sealant for me is 4 hours to 5 hours of work. I am very meticulous so everything takes time. You could also do it car wash style and be done in half that time but that is not what I want to offer.

You also need to take into account setup time and packing time. For me that's about 15 mins for each. I have a ton of equipment so if you have minimum gears, it might be faster for you.
 
Lastly, your price is too low at 20$ per hour. When you consider all your expenses and extra time used you will barely break 10$ per hour in actual profit. I suggest you start at least at 30$/hour.

Your website is not listed in your signature, I would love to see it. Can you give me the URL?
 
Calendyr said:
Hull is now a rich area? Wow, things have changed over there. I used to live near the military building in Hull. I know that with Ottawa being over crowded, a lot of people with money moved to this side of the river but I had no idea it had changed that much.

In terms of clients, what you want is people with expensive cars. When you pay 100,000$ or more for your car, you are more concerned about treating it right than saving a few bucks for a wash. Pretty much all of my clients have german cars (BMW, Mercedes, Audis, Volkswagens). If you don't do polishing, it will be very very hard for you to make money. I suggest you invest in a reasonably priced DA polisher like the Griot's Garage 6 inch polisher and some pads. Just add all-in-one polishes to your list of services and you can double or triple what you make on a detail. AIOs are easy to do, they produce great results for daily drivers and they are excellent value for your customers.

As for people being cheap, I find that everyone is cheap but most people are willing to pay for what they believe is good value. Of course it will be very hard to sell a 500$ details to someone with a beat up 2000 Honda civic, but if someone can afford a nice car and they understand that a polish will make their car look like new and also have decent protection, you will be able to get those clients. Also, these are the people that may become regular clients. So that should be your target market.
Click to expand...

Well, old Hull is still pretty messed up but the rest is very neat now.

I do own a PC but don't have much experience with it. I will attend a class at CG Canada in June about polishing. Not the best class around but the cheapest I could find for my budget right now. Will get a AIO polish. Probably HD Speed. That is if I can find it in Canada somewhere.
 
Calendyr said:
Here are some of the times it takes me to do each step:

Wheels (cleaning only) about 10-15 minutes per wheel depending how bad they are. I start by pressure washing all 4 then one by one: spraying an APC+soap over the wheel well, tire and rim. I then clean the wheel well then the rim and finally the tire. I pressure rinse and look at the result. If a lot of brake dust is still present on the rim, I spray meg wheel brightener and wash again. So just that step can take up to an hour. Now if you only charge peanuts you can't afford to do that, so it depends on your package and how clean you want the wheels to be.

Second step is washing. I pressure wash the whole car to remove most of the dirt. Then I proceed with a 2 bucket wash. Pressure rinse. This doesn't take that long. Probably 30 minutes... never really timed it.

If I have to decontaminate, that is more tricky. I use nano sponges to do it. Depending on how bad the contamination is it can take 30 minutes or it can take 2 hours. I have had a car this year where I could not remove all the contaminants. I worked for 2 hours on it and called it done but there was still some left. So it's a service where you want to charge more just in case. If you use traditional clay, it will take you at least an hour, clay is very slow compared to a nano sponge. Also if you drop you clay, that's 15$ down the drain cause you can't use it again. So for those 2 reasons I don't use that anymore.

Drying the car takes about 15 minutes. I use a metrovac sidekick to blow all the crevices then dry with a microfiber towel. If you do a cheap wash, you can use a spray wax in this step to wax the car while drying it. So this could be a go way to increase profits.

If you decide to go with a traditional sealant like Powerlock, about 30 minutes to apply and 15 minutes to remove. This varies depending on the size of the car. Trucks and SUVs are pretty bad because you have to use a platform to do the roof and that is a lot of wasted time.

While the sealant is drying on the car you can do the exhaust and dress the wheel wells, tires and put some spray wax on the rims. This should take about 20-30 minutes total.

Windows will usually need a cleaning with a window cleaner and a window cloth. I also spray wax them as well. I try to upsell all my clients of Aquapel. This is a great product I charge 25$ to do it and the applicator costs me 6$, so 19$ profit for 15 mins of work.

If you were to do a polishing as I suggested, you can add 3 to 5 hours to that total. So this is why it can make you so much money.

So wash+decon+sealant for me is 4 hours to 5 hours of work. I am very meticulous so everything takes time. You could also do it car wash style and be done in half that time but that is not what I want to offer.

You also need to take into account setup time and packing time. For me that's about 15 mins for each. I have a ton of equipment so if you have minimum gears, it might be faster for you.
Click to expand...

That is a very detailed write up. Thanks.
 
Calendyr said:
Lastly, your price is too low at 20$ per hour. When you consider all your expenses and extra time used you will barely break 10$ per hour in actual profit. I suggest you start at least at 30$/hour.

Your website is not listed in your signature, I would love to see it. Can you give me the URL?
Click to expand...

I do not have a website yet. I played around with Squarespace but they are not very friendly with Multilanguage websites. Trying to find a better option, although Squarespace's layouts are amazing.
 
Here is the price list I came up with.
Since I don't have a website yet, I have to promote my prices with a sheet like this. Apologies to most people here, the list is only in French. Working on an english version.View attachment 48860
 
RangerDetails said:
I base my rate at about 20$ an hour. the difference in price for the two package are 40$, so 2 extra hours. I don't think it will take me more than two hours claying and sealing a car. Will it?
Click to expand...

Good luck claying my SRT8 in that time. It was caked with tar and iron up to the roof.

If I work really fast it takes me 2-3 hours to clay when it's really bad (like most cars would be), and wax/sealant takes 30-90mintues to apply depending on the car. I did a friend Acura EL in 30mintues but my mom's Ford Fusion takes me an hour because they're more contours. Maybe I just take more time on my own car but it takes me 90mintues to wax or seal my Jeep SRT8 (I do the door jambs and the bottom of the bumper).

I would add 30-60min padding just in case. If you ever feel guilty because you're done sooner you could always offer a discount on their next detail with you (Win/Win).

Also, if you want to make $20 an hour after expenses you should also make some for your business to reinvest into products, marketing, etc. This is the mistake I made when I started my first business, I kept the profits for myself and didn't reinvest much of anything back into it.
 
RangerDetails said:
Well, old Hull is still pretty messed up but the rest is very neat now.

I do own a PC but don't have much experience with it. I will attend a class at CG Canada in June about polishing. Not the best class around but the cheapest I could find for my budget right now. Will get a AIO polish. Probably HD Speed. That is if I can find it in Canada somewhere.
Click to expand...

Just go to Youtube, there are a lot of videos on how to use a polisher. A PC cannot damage paint accidently. Even if you want to damage paint with it you will have to work hard at it, so there is really no need to be afraid. I suggest you look up the youtube channel of Junkman2000, he has extensive videos on how to use a polisher and it's free.
 
4u2nvinmtl said:
Good luck claying my SRT8 in that time. It was caked with tar and iron up to the roof.

If I work really fast it takes me 2-3 hours to clay when it's really bad (like most cars would be), and wax/sealant takes 30-90mintues to apply depending on the car. I did a friend Acura EL in 30mintues but my mom's Ford Fusion takes me an hour because they're more contours. Maybe I just take more time on my own car but it takes me 90mintues to wax or seal my Jeep SRT8 (I do the door jambs and the bottom of the bumper).

I would add 30-60min padding just in case. If you ever feel guilty because you're done sooner you could always offer a discount on their next detail with you (Win/Win).

Also, if you want to make $20 an hour after expenses you should also make some for your business to reinvest into products, marketing, etc. This is the mistake I made when I started my first business, I kept the profits for myself and didn't reinvest much of anything back into it.
Click to expand...

Wow I guess I underestimated the time it takes to clay a whole car.
I do reinvest the money I make in more products so I can offer more services and charge more. Thanks for the tips.
 
Calendyr said:
Just go to Youtube, there are a lot of videos on how to use a polisher. A PC cannot damage paint accidently. Even if you want to damage paint with it you will have to work hard at it, so there is really no need to be afraid. I suggest you look up the youtube channel of Junkman2000, he has extensive videos on how to use a polisher and it's free.
Click to expand...

Actually I watched about every videos on the internet about polishing. No seriously, every one of them haha. I practiced last fall on some cars in a scrap yard but since they are all very beat up, it did not feel satisfying. But I was still afraid of doing someone's car since I don't have any insurance. Although I stumble on a post from Mike Phillips saying to absolutely not be afraid. So I will still attend the class in June to get a hands on things and then start offering polishing services.
 
Say what you want about the scrap yard work, but you absolutely did the right thing there. work your craft and technique on a hunk of junk first. I learned everything I know on my (at the time) brand new pickup. There was a lot of trial ( and some error ) but the truck always looked darned good.
 
garyg7133 said:
Say what you want about the scrap yard work, but you absolutely did the right thing there. work your craft and technique on a hunk of junk first. I learned everything I know on my (at the time) brand new pickup. There was a lot of trial ( and some error ) but the truck always looked darned good.
Click to expand...

I know I did the right thing, I would never try my first times on someone's car. What I meant by "not satisfying" is that the paint on a scraped car will never look shiny and new even after polishing for hours. I can't wait to have that "mirror shine" as my results. Something I will never get on a scraped vehicle.
 
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