Thinking about taking the plunge...

[buffdoubt]

So, a little background. I have been a auto tech for the last 15 years. Toyota, Lexus, Kia. Have ALWAYS been around cars and enthusiasts, so it was only natural to make a progression into a "weekend warrior" detailer. Now, having said that, since I stumbled upon this site last year, my detailing products have increased ten fold, and I'm itching to branch out and finally start working on my own. I'm 30 years old now and I feel like if I don't make a move soon, I never will. Looking at options to get bonded and insured. Making several different menus for broad packaging/pricing options. Looking at buying a dedicated work vehicle as my Camry is not going to cut it for too much longer lugging all my stuff around in its trunk.

With that out of the way, is there any "easy" way to make the jump from full time employment at my dealership, to detailing cars full time? I know if it was easy, everyone would do it. I'm not in it for easy. I'm in it for immense personal pride I get when someone's trashed vehicle comes to me and I restore it back to its former glory. Just keep having all these thoughts of doubt creeping up, as if I would be making a large mistake going from constant income, to somewhat sporadic income (at first).

Sorry if this is hard to follow, I feel like I'm jumping around here and there between topics, and having to do this in a hurry on my work computer station. Thanks in advance for any input, you guys are great!

 

[jarred767]

Congrats on wanting to join into the detailing industry. It's a great option for you to gain extra income on the side and hopefully grow into a full on legit business - this is the route I took ten years ago when I started. I would suggest that you need to go a little slower and don't just jump from your current job. Theres some things that you can do to make it work and feel a little less stressful.

First off, are you working on weekends (or whatever your days off are) doing paid details. If not, that's your first step. It'll mean some long weeks, but you need to have done at least a few dozen cars for money (preferably more) before you put your current job at risk. Since you're working your full-time job still at this point, you shouldn't really need the income from the detailing so you could pour it all back into the business and get all the tools and stuff that you need that you don't already have. After getting a decent set of tools and supplies, I would bank all of this money in an extra savings account in case things don't go exactly how you plan through the transition - it essentially gives you a little bit of a buffer (or a lot of a buffer depending on how long you stay full-time at the current job).

Once you've been detailing on your days off for a while, if you're demand is growing and you don't have enough days off to accommodate the people who want you for details, then see if you can cut back to part time at your work so that you're still bringing in some steady income, but now you have more time to detail cars (and maybe even have a day off hear and there).

Once you get to the point again where you're fully booked up and can't get people in while only working part-time at the current job, then you're starting to get some steady business. At this point I'd probably raise my prices once to keep low-ballers away and dampen the demand a bit at the same time so that you can keep up (and make more money:xyxthumbs.

If you can get the demand back up, or keep it where it was even with the raised prices, then at that point I'd probably quit the job and go into detailing full-time. Hopefully you'd still have some of that buffer mentioned earlier, so if you have slower times, you can lean on that a bit. If you stay busy enough, then you could use that money to upgrade some stuff, put a little into more marketing, or even give yourself a little bit of a bonus!!

This may take a few months in total or it may take a couple years, depends on how good you are at detailing, how good you are at attracting customers, how dedicated you are to building clientele, and how much competition there is in your market.

Hopefully that helps a bit. Keep us posted on how it's coming along. Good luck:dblthumb2:

 

[tw33k2514]

Truth bomb...


You can be gods gift to cars, but if no one knows... it doesn't matter. Build up a healthy advertising budget before you do anything. I know people on here will tell you free advertising is all you need.... but truthfully if you want to be full time and be able to make enough money to live, free advertising will not be enough. At least not in the beginning.

Plan on shelling out at least 1500 on a website and business materials such as business cards and logo attire. After all that is takin care of you may want to look into an eddm campaign.

-note 4 powered by T-Mobile

 

[jarred767]

Truth bomb...


You can be gods gift to cars, but if no one knows... it doesn't matter. Build up a healthy advertising budget before you do anything. I know people on here will tell you free advertising is all you need.... but truthfully if you want to be full time and be able to make enough money to live, free advertising will not be enough. At least not in the beginning.

Plan on shelling out at least 1500 on a website and business materials such as business cards and logo attire. After all that is takin care of you may want to look into an eddm campaign.

-note 4 powered by T-Mobile

An advertising budget all depends on how quickly you want to make the jump and how much of the "work" you want to do yourself. Of course you're going to need some money for business cards and for your website to be hosted, but you don't need to shell out huge dollars to do so. Professional level business cards can be had pretty cheap at places like VistaPrint and you can make your own site through something like Squarespace for as little as $8 a month (I still currently do both of these). And you can market online through social media sites like Facebook and Instagram for relatively small amounts (even nothing if you really get after it yourself and network efficiently.

You can spend an unending amount of money on marketing and advertising, and while some is definitely necessary and good, be careful - especially when starting out. There are cost effective ways to get the word out to potential clients, and since you've already been working in the automotive industry for the past 15 years, you should already have some pretty decent connections in your area to get started on.

 

[buffdoubt]

Detailing on my off days, ever since I got my Flex 3401, more people have been stopping by while I'm buffing inquiring about my services. It has just gotten to the point where I am scheduling out 2 weeks in advance. I would like to be booked out a month in advance before I consider dropping down to part time at my current job.

And yeah, being the industry for 15 years, I have networked and made some good contacts. I have done quite a few cars this season and have pictures I would like to post up, however, I am not the most capable person with all this technology. I am still trying to work on posting some pics of previous work.

My picture taking could use some work too. Not getting enough before pics but plenty of after pics, lol. Sorry about taking so long to respond back. I have been very busy the last few days. Thanks for your responses. Some very good suggestions here. Rest assured, the advice given here is not falling on deaf ears! Have a great day. :xyxthumbs:

 

[rustytruck]

Earning a good living from a trade like auto detailing is very difficult. It's great as a part time gig or something on the side but that's about it. I don't know of a single mobile detailer in New England who runs a solid profitable business. Keep your job.