Time to talk about pricing...

ekennett said:
Not trying to sound rude here, but have you ever done this before? I just don't see how you expect to wash and dry a car twice, decon, clay bar, AIO, full interior and do an engine bay in 1.5-2.5 hours. That would take me at least 6-8 hours to do properly. I think you are WAYYYYYYY undercharging, hobby or not.


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Fair enough bud. Will look into raising them accordingly & re-arranging my packages/add-ons.

Yes I've detailed my car and about 4 of my family's cars. Not to this extent though so yes I can see how I've misjudged the time-frames. I'll get a better graph throughout my practice cars.

Calendyr said:
I read a few of your posts and you seems to be very very new to detailing. You don't seems to understand the basic concepts and your time evaluation is WAAAYYY off. Before you decide to start a business, you should do the following:

1. Read as much as you can about all aspects of detailing. Besides this forum I suggest you spend a lot of time on youtube. There are 2 book that are a must for detaillers: Renny Doyle's How to Start a Home-Based Car Detailing Business How to make money detailing cars and Mike Phillip's The Art of detailing.

2. Do a lot of freebees for friends and familiy to tune your process. This will allow you to learn how to work both your products and Equipment and it will give you a fee of the time needed to do everything.

Once you are completelly comfortable with every aspect of detailing, sit down and decide how much you want to make per hour. once you know that design your packages and apply the appropriate amount to them.

I like your enthousiams but you need to take a more diciplined approach to this if you don't want to crash and burn doing a 14 hours detail for 100$.
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Yes I am new. My time frames are off because I haven't done it to this extent. I did a full 3-step process on my 240 and it took 6 hours. Didn't do engine bay, decon, foam, the rims/tires correctly and half-assed my interior because I wanted to focus on just the paint.

1. I have been reading. Been reading Mike Phillip's 'How-To' Articles in the sticky in the 'Ask Mike Phillips' sub-forum. Also have his booked being shipped to my house as of Saturday.

2. I have cars lined up to 'practice'
--'93 240SX Convertible
--'94 240SX Convertible
--'10 CR-V
--'10 Accord
--'02 Cavalier
--'12 Fusion

I'm not 'opening up' for business until the first week of July anyways. I'm essentially in my planning stages right now.


Thanks for your input though it is appreciated.
 
Good stuff. Mike's book are excellent for the technical aspect. I strongly recommand Renny Doyle's book for the business aspect of it though.

6 hours to do a 3 step is really fast. I don't know how you work but this should take a lot more time than this if done correctly.
 
a 6 hour 3-step? Damn I have some things to learn then on speed detailing then!

I'm not quite sure how you could compound/polish that fast though. I completed a paint correction on my e39 540i yesterday and may have spent 3 hours on compounding alone (about 6 section passes with my GG6 and megz UC). Total job took 12-14 hours which was a full 3 step (clay, compound, polish, and the regular wheel cleaning, glass, trim, etc.). Are the products even breaking down?
 
$150 for your showroom pkg?? No offense bro but you won't be in business long.
 
If you read his 3-step he didn't do a good job on the wheels, decon, or interior. So basically 6 hours of just paint work. Which still seems short to me.
 
parttimer said:
If you read his 3-step he didn't do a good job on the wheels, decon, or interior. So basically 6 hours of just paint work. Which still seems short to me.
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I'd agree with that, but my 3 step only worked on paint besides the windows, trim, and wheels (didn't touch interior) which may have only bitten off 2 hours out of the 13ish total. Not trying to sound arrogant or anything, I just think quality work takes quality time
 
It seems to me once u get into paint correcting you need to move to an hourly rate with a cap. You must educate the customer on the process so they understand the length and cost.

Unless you have paint corrected 1000s of cars and u know how long it will take its seems impossible to put a fixed price on such a procedure.

The only fixed prices I would have is a basic wash and interior clean (no extracting rug) and probably the wash, clay, and AIO paint.

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BobbyG said:
A basic detail which includes :

Interior

Vacuum
Clean all vinyl surfaces
Clean fabric seats and spot remove (steam)
Clean carpets and spot remove (steam)
Apply surface treatment
Wash mats
Apply trim treatment
Wash door jambs
Clean glass
Lubricate hinges and door latch


Tires & Wheels

Pressure wash wheel wells
Wash tires and rims (includes barrels)
Apply tire treatment
Apply wheels wax


Exterior

Wash
Dry
Clean and dry trunk and hood gutters
Apply spray wax
Apply trim treatment
Clean exterior glass


Time - 5 - 6 hours

Price - $150 - $200 (vehicle dependent)

Hourly Rate - $40.00

Problem areas are identified and priced accordingly.
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This is a great deal for $150-$200. I like how you specified cleaning the trunk/hood gutters and lubricating door hinges/latches.
 
I'm guessing that your arm speed during polishing is WAAAYY to fast and your sections must be huge. There is no way any of this gets done in that time frame, unless there is multiple people doing it.
 
The more interesting aspect to me is the costs. Say u are working at a ~40 per hour rate and u worked 50 weeks @40 hours per week. Thats 80,000 in revenue.

What will your costs be to maintain that business assuming your mobile and doing some from your home garage?

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Niko Molina said:
I'm thinking about having two packages.

-One would be a maintenance/production/basic package for essentially a daily driver. Would be for customers just looking for that 'shine' that simply clay barring can offer (lol). The clean interior, nice looking engine bay and the wheels/rims all shined up, windows looking good and the paint done with an AIO.

-Second would be the premium/showroom package for guys willing to spend the $$$ to get their BMW, Audi, Mercdes, etc. looking the best it possibly can. Also show cars and Garage Queens should be done. It's where I would hit the car with everything I have to offer to make it look it's best.


Maintenance/Production/Basic Package
Car - 90$
Truck - 100$
SUV - 110$


1. Engine Bay - clean & dress
2. Rims - decontaminate w/Iron X, then clean & wax (specified wax for what the rims are made of)
3. Tires - clean & dress
4. Decontaminate paint w/ Iron-X
5. Foam Gun
6. Rinse & Dry
7. Clay bar
8. 2-Bucket-Method wash & dry (I prefer to wash again after clay bar)
9. AIO
10. Windows - clean & add Aquapel & wipe wiper blades
11. Interior & Trunk - LGM, leather conditioners, plastic cleaners, dressings, etc.
12. Add custom scent to interior


NOTE:
The steps in MediumTurquoise are what have been 'ADDED' to the 'Maintenance/Production/Basic Package' to construct the 'Premium/Showroom Package.'

Premium/Showroom Package
Car - $150
Truck - $175
SUV - $200
*Window Polishing Service +$$$????

1. Engine Bay - clean & dress
2. Underbody - rinse down
3. Wheel-wells
4. Rims - decontaminate w/Iron-X, clean & wax (specified wax for what the rims are made of)
5. Tires - clean & dress
6. Decontaminate paint w/Iron-X
7. Foam Gun
8. Rinse & dry
9. Clay Bar
10. 2-Bucket-Method wash & dry
11. Compound - Rupe's Bigfoot Polisher + M105
12. Polish - Rupe's Bigfoot Polisher + M205
13. Seal - UNDECIDED ON SEALANT
14. Wax - either Carnuaba or NXT2.0 (customers choice)
15. Windows - clean & add Aquapel & wipe wiper blades
15.5 - Customer ADD ON - can polish the windows for extra $$ (yet to be determined... suggestions? btw have you guys seen this done? theres a few videos on Youtube of it.)
16. Interior & Trunk - LGM, leather conditioners, plastic cleaners, dressings, etc.
17. Add custom scent to interior


Any suggestions?
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Your taking too many steps for less money.. instead of having such a broad menu of options.. start basics, basic cleanup on everything including JUST A wax for 100$ basic vacuum, wipe down windows, engine bay, etc.. next go to 150, throw in some minor paint correction and shampoo with perfect windows 150.. then 200 for an actual full detail, compound and polish, dress trim etc.. then go with 250$ plus for better details the whole point is to work less but make more $. Get em in, get. Em out.

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Don't start doing paint correction until you've got 100 or more cars under your belt. BobbyG's suggestion seemed pretty legit.
Stick to basic detailing like basic interior and wash and wax. Maybe offer an AIO after you feel more confident with that.

Coming on here and saying you are going to start a side business and do paint correction. . .for peanuts. . .is like going on a body shop forum and telling them you are going to start a body shop out of your garage and offer full repaints for $300. It just looks dumb and nobody will take you serious. That's not to offend you, but to put some perspective on it.

I'm not saying you can't do good work, but you need to prove yourself first, and when the time is right you need to charge for it. Real paint correction cost an arm and a leg and it's not for everybody, but when it's done right and the money is there, it can be extremely rewarding.
 
jms493 said:
The more interesting aspect to me is the costs. Say u are working at a ~40 per hour rate and u worked 50 weeks @40 hours per week. Thats 80,000 in revenue.

What will your costs be to maintain that business assuming your mobile and doing some from your home garage?

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Only be running it 8 days out of the month man. Saturday/Sundays.

PaYnTwZRd said:
Your taking too many steps for less money.. instead of having such a broad menu of options.. start basics, basic cleanup on everything including JUST A wax for 100$ basic vacuum, wipe down windows, engine bay, etc.. next go to 150, throw in some minor paint correction and shampoo with perfect windows 150.. then 200 for an actual full detail, compound and polish, dress trim etc.. then go with 250$ plus for better details the whole point is to work less but make more $. Get em in, get. Em out.

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Fair enough man I understand what you're saying.

statusdetailing said:
Don't start doing paint correction until you've got 100 or more cars under your belt. BobbyG's suggestion seemed pretty legit.
Stick to basic detailing like basic interior and wash and wax. Maybe offer an AIO after you feel more confident with that.

Coming on here and saying you are going to start a side business and do paint correction. . .for peanuts. . .is like going on a body shop forum and telling them you are going to start a body shop out of your garage and offer full repaints for $300. It just looks dumb and nobody will take you serious. That's not to offend you, but to put some perspective on it.

I'm not saying you can't do good work, but you need to prove yourself first, and when the time is right you need to charge for it. Real paint correction cost an arm and a leg and it's not for everybody, but when it's done right and the money is there, it can be extremely rewarding.
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I understand bud. Good thing I'm not opening up until July and I've got 10 'practice' cars lined up ahead of me I'll be doing for free. Doing as much research as I possible can right now. Ordered Mike P's book and the other guy's book about starting a business. Doing research on here and watching Youtube videos as well.
 
Took some of your guys' suggestions and have came up with this rough draft of pricing/packaging. What do you think?

ScreenShot2014-05-05at12509AM_zps4013d5ea.png
 
Can anyone else see the picture? It's blurred, try reposting it.

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I really like the layout of that. Makes it very easy to see how each level builds off the others. :dblthumb2:
 
nevermind, I was on my phone. now I can see it clear, looks good but only imput I can give is where is the time frame? maybe you should at least list a estimated time that it will take to complete the job. I like to send pictures (if the customer allows it) throughout the process so they can see exactly what is happening and to alert them to any issues you are having that was not seen on your initial assessment/estimate.
 
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