Shopping the competition

Bodezafa

Bodezafa

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Im just starting out. I need to figure out What prices my area will support. Im thinking about shopping the competition to see what they offer and what they charge. I live in a rural area and all the competition is about 20 min away. Is this something you all have done? Should I take my freshly detailed car or one in need of some cleaning, so I dont break my cover:D
 
Check out and see if any have websites or facebooks with prices first
 
coinsider something / if your area has Residential Places / where the Nice & Exotic car's might be

If your work is to be offer to the general public / or you consider your job to be in a higher standar's

from there / if you Use quallity Product's, that count a lot

If your competition is 20 mn away that's good for your business that means you can be there faster. and have more profit's in gas

Try to sell your job / by how you work. not by how others work or charge
little by little they will se the difference. a normal job / or a nice Detail job

I always do something extra at no charge / a chrome emblem polish, or maybe a front grill use some spray chrome detailer. it will be a 5 mn thing and will give you an extra finish

you can do a lot of thing / and leave a coustomer happy with your job
 
You need to figure out your material cost + labor cost + marketing + misc expenses + desired profit X expected volume and base your price on that, if you're higher than the competition you better be able to back it up with quality materials and finish.

If you're lower than the competition you better double check your costs.

Ultimately it's all about what the market will bear.
 
None of them have web sites. Im working on trying to trade detailing for a website now.
 
I went around the other day and looked at a few detail shops close by, Only a few aound me, but are still 35 min or longer away.

The first place wants $150 for wash, wax plus interior. No clay or anything. I asked about buffing. I was told buffing os to remove small scratches and as a last resort because it will swirl the paint and put holagrhams in the paint.

2nd shop was wash, polish and wax for only $65. Polish wa done with a porta cable, white pade that comes with it, and they didnt know anything about the polish other than its sold by a local distrubter as a light polish. said it would take about an hour to complete.
I could upgarde to a two step polish for only another $25.
 
gt08vapor said:
2nd shop was wash, polish and wax for only $65. Polish wa done with a porta cable, white pade that comes with it, and they didnt know anything about the polish other than its sold by a local distrubter as a light polish. said it would take about an hour to complete.
I could upgarde to a two step polish for only another $25.
Click to expand...


This sounds like a car-wash I worked at some 15 years ago. They had a Cyclo polisher and got all there supply's from the local Robo supplier. We would provide the above service for $89.. the two step was $109. No one had any training with the equipment other then a supervisor who knew nothing about polishing a car. He had an old magnetic paint gage he used on every car.. not sure he knew what he was doing. He would turn down work all the time saying the car had been repainted or the paint was to thin. I was just a grease monkey at the time and I often got recruited to help. I knew nothing about polishing paint either. I do know that wax we used had some amazing ability to fill scratches. The car looked good until the customer washed it a few times or took in into our "Automatic Car-wash" just once.

I think other posters are correct, decide who you want to market your services to.. just the wash and interior people or the high end vehicles.
 
I did some research for local competition and their prices to ensure that my prices fall within the "norm" for my area. I also called up a few places to get prices.

It's all part of starting up a business. You have to know roughly what your competition is charging and you want to price yourself right around that. At least that's what I did. I didn't want to sell myself short by only charging $100 when I could be charging $200.
 
SeaJay's said:
I did some research for local competition and their prices to ensure that my prices fall within the "norm" for my area. I also called up a few places to get prices.

It's all part of starting up a business. You have to know roughly what your competition is charging and you want to price yourself right around that. At least that's what I did. I didn't want to sell myself short by only charging $100 when I could be charging $200.
Click to expand...
Thats exactly what I was thinking.
Thanks for the info everyone:props:
 
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