Starting up my own mobile detailing company

[speedislife11]

Hey guys, so I've been doing a lot of research on here and other websites on how to start up a mobile detailing company. I'm 22 and in college and tired of not making a lot of money for hard work I do at my job but I live in a pretty well off community and I can usually wash a car/suv in about an hour w/o waxing and I am very meticulous when I detail. My question is should i charge by the hour or wash? and how much?

 

[LuxuryMobile]

My best advice to you is to read read read everything you can on here and every detail or small business related website.

Most small business owners are good at what they do (i.e. cleaning cars) however they are not good at running a business. As you can imagine there is a huge difference. Cleaning the cars, correcting to paint, dressing the tires, etc., is the easy part. Finding clients, and enough to keep you busy, is the hard part.

Dont get discouraged but also realize it isnt an easy job either.

Now to answer your last question you posted:

I always have smaller jobs priced at a near set price or at least a small range. Figure out what you want to make per hour and price our your smaller jobs based off of that.

For paint correction jobs, I would always give clients an hourly rate and estimated your time you think you may spend.

I would be glad to help you out as detailing is paying for my education right now. PM with any questions.

 

[speedislife11]

Thank you for your reply. Yeah I've always been in love with cars and have detailed mine and a couple in the past but I'm not that experienced but want to learn to do a lot. I have scene on here that some people say do a set price such as $50 for a car and $65 for a truck/suv. But then others say just do an hourly price. Also I'm making business cards on vista print and should I put the price (or if I decide to do hourly price) on the card or just list what I can do and then say call for price?

 

[rustytruck]

Charge by the service. Starting out only offer a few services. Let your services expand as your customer base expands. Detailing cars is relaxing to me. The business end can be a pain in the butt. If your 22 and you want to detail cars for a living your going to work hard for a long time. I'm 38 and have a small side business doing it. only do 2 or 3 cars a week 4 max. My day job is much easier.