Time to talk about pricing...

[Gad]

Looks great! I'm at the same stage in my summer business start-up right now.

My only real suggestion would be to not set a solid price for a car, suv, or truck. Give an estimate. With detailing no vehicle is going to be the same, so you may do one car in 6 hours for the same price you do a car that takes 10 hours. Give yourself the ability to have some leverage with time and the ability to make profit.

What I plan on doing is overestimating a little bit so I can be able to come down on my final price of the detail so the customer is pleasantly surprised the detail cost less than they expected.

You mentioned you were only going to be doing this on the weekend. Do you really need a van to haul everything? I'm thinking I can pack everything I need in my Chevy Malibu. It may be a tight squeeze, but the steamer, vacuum, polisher, foam gun, supplies, and all my MF's, etc. should fit in the back seats and trunk. Sure the van would look professional and all, but it would take awhile to see a return from that.

Anyways, feel free to reply here or shoot me a PM. I'd love to bounce some ideas off each other!

 

[BrianMcLeod]

I would use the business card with the blue lines running across and bottom

 

[hilld]

Took some of your guys' suggestions and have came up with this rough draft of pricing/packaging. What do you think?

Just a couple of quick comments. Basically, you are charging only $100 for compound/polish and wax (for a car), that does sound a little low, unless you plan on only making $10-$15/hour for that step. Also check your spelling on the "Includede in...", even simple mistakes on price sheets don't look too professional.

I wish you all the best in your new adventure, but please remember to make sure you have liability insurance and factor in that once this becomes a business, you might quickly get "burned out", especially if you still have a day job and don't get any rest.

 

[Niko Molina]

Just a couple of quick comments. Basically, you are charging only $100 for compound/polish and wax (for a car), that does sound a little low, unless you plan on only making $10-$15/hour for that step. Also check your spelling on the "Includede in...", even simple mistakes on price sheets don't look too professional.

I wish you all the best in your new adventure, but please remember to make sure you have liability insurance and factor in that once this becomes a business, you might quickly get "burned out", especially if you still have a day job and don't get any rest.

This isn't laid out for customers lol this is just laid out for ease of view for AG to make comments on. It's like the rough-rough-draft.

I do plan on raising the compound/polishing package up quite a bit more.

 

[Levithan9]

Man, at those prices, i'm willing to drive from Houston, Tx to where ever you are, and have you do a full detail on a 2001 Honda Civic that I bought.

It'll save me the time from having to do a FULL correction on the extremly neglected paint ( RIDS out the a$$ ) and the interior. Oh, by the way, i'll throw in another $20 for you to install the headliner.

 

[BrianMcLeod]

Man, at those prices, i'm willing to drive from Houston, Tx to where ever you are, and have you do a full detail on a 2001 Honda Civic that I bought.

It'll save me the time from having to do a FULL correction on the extremly neglected paint ( RIDS out the a$$ ) and the interior. Oh, by the way, i'll throw in another $20 for you to install the headliner.

I'll do it lol I live in Houston

 

[AutowerxDetailing]

My feedback:

Pricing on your middle range service is a bit low IMO.

You're also giving away the farm on your top level service. 2-step correction should be several hundred dollars more as it is going to take you quite a while to deliver the service... with any degree of perfection.

I made a tool a while back to help me put together my own pricing menu. I also use it whenever I put together any "special offers" to make sure I'm not loosing money. I also made an "AGO version" to share will all of you. Take a look, it might change your perspective on how long each aspect of your detail packages actually take to accomplish.

AGO thread:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-make-money-detailing-cars/61498-detailing-time-chart.html

Latest version of spreadsheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vw7qypt62zk1oa/AGO Service Time Chart V2.xlsx

Best of luck with your new business! :xyxthumbs:

 

[808_detail_nut]

My feedback:

Pricing on your middle range service is a bit low IMO.

You're also giving away the farm on your top level service. 2-step correction should be several hundred dollars more as it is going to take you quite a while to deliver the service... with any degree of perfection.

I made a tool a while back to help me put together my own pricing menu. I also use it whenever I put together any "special offers" to make sure I'm not loosing money. I also made an "AGO version" to share will all of you. Take a look, it might change your perspective on how long each aspect of your detail packages actually take to accomplish.

AGO thread:
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-make-money-detailing-cars/61498-detailing-time-chart.html

Latest version of spreadsheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vw7qypt62zk1oa/AGO Service Time Chart V2.xlsx

Best of luck with your new business! :xyxthumbs:

Thanks for sharing this! I might be changing some things on my price setting.


Sent from my SCH-I545 using AG Online

 

[BlackRam]

To further compound the discussion (another poster brought this up), what about if one is low or out of product, but also doesn't have the volume to substantiate buying a whole bunch of product to restock?

can you pass along some of that cost to the customer?

 

[mjv231]

My feedback:



Pricing on your middle range service is a bit low IMO.



You're also giving away the farm on your top level service. 2-step correction should be several hundred dollars more as it is going to take you quite a while to deliver the service... with any degree of perfection.



I made a tool a while back to help me put together my own pricing menu. I also use it whenever I put together any "special offers" to make sure I'm not loosing money. I also made an "AGO version" to share will all of you. Take a look, it might change your perspective on how long each aspect of your detail packages actually take to accomplish.



AGO thread:

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-make-money-detailing-cars/61498-detailing-time-chart.html



Latest version of spreadsheet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4vw7qypt62zk1oa/AGO Service Time Chart V2.xlsx



Best of luck with your new business! :xyxthumbs:

Great program, i just wanted to point out one thing. When you add the bare min of overhead which I would say is insurance with most of those things your then down to about 15 an hour or even less...


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[AutowerxDetailing]

Great program, i just wanted to point out one thing. When you add the bare min of overhead which I would say is insurance with most of those things your then down to about 15 an hour or even less...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's true. There are several fixed costs we all need to consider when thinking of pricing each package. Insurance, car payments, monthly phone/internet costs, etc. That's also why it's not unreasonable to realistically shoot for $50 or 60 per hour on each service if you hope to have any profit left over.

Sent from my N9810 using AG Online

 

[RevitalizeAutoSpa]

To further compound the discussion (another poster brought this up), what about if one is low or out of product, but also doesn't have the volume to substantiate buying a whole bunch of product to restock?

can you pass along some of that cost to the customer?

The cost of product should be passed along to your customers. A two stage correction using Meguiar's should probably be cheaper than a two stage correction using Swissvax or Polish Angel.