What should my detail price range be?

Personally my time is worth $30 per hour, I have a regular job so I do detailing on the side. I have been at it for a while and have invested a grand in polishers and a few more in supplies. The word of mouth is traveling and I work as much or as little as I want for the most part.

I turn away(actually reffer) the Ford Escorts and wash and wax jobs to a very quality oriented local wash&wax detailer but not before telling those people that I do not want to be known as a wash and wax guy and that is just not what I do. I show them my binder of before and after correction photos, and of course I try to sell them on a correction job before pointing them to the other guy.

So the word of mouth is pretty much don't go to him if you just want a wash job, BUT if you want a real high quality job he's your guy. This way the word of mouth works for me in that I don't get too many price shoppers. I get folks calling me saying "look I am looking to have my paint look show quality and Detailer X did this to my paint, can you fix it?"

I don't do Production work and I deffinately don't compete with those who do. I tell my clients "yes my hourly rate is less than half of that of the local detail shop, but I do not rush my jobs.I take the least aggressive method as possible." and then I explain that high quality work takes time and explain what the difference is between production and high quality. I then put together a time estimate which takes experience to do and tell them "ok it will take me roughly 15 hours so it will cost roughly $450. If they don't like it or can't afford it, it's not a bad thing. They are just not the target customer for me.

I had to do a LOT of free and under priced details to get the experience that I have to be able to accurately estimate how long it takes to do these cars. Yes sometimes I still cut myself a bit short but I never cut the client short, if I estimate 15 hours and then find that it only takes 10 hours, then the client only pays $300. So the word of mouth is also "he's very good and he is honest too."

So I say to you...figure out what your time is worth, put something together that you can show to your perspective clients about your quality and charge what you are worth.
 
Well, what I'm dealing with is even more confusing. Yesterday morning, my rehab doctor wanted me to have an MRI done. After the x-ray, I went to her office and had a meeting with her. Bing. It defiantly shows that I have brain damage on the left side. The left side of my head is what was against the B Pillar in that V8 Ford Taurus SHO I had. This will enhance my abilities to get disability from Social Security since I will provide that information to my lawyer in early January. Until I get things dealt with SS, I have to keep my work low. Also, do you really think people would pay for higher rates from a person with brain damage? Odds are, probably not. My $.02

To make things short, in the beginning, I wanted to charge higher rates. BUT, the Rio Grande Valley is a totally different world from San Antonio, TX and Houston, TX where people/companies are able to charge more that what can be done down here. One of my good friends is buying a body shop that refers a few of the clients’ vehicles I’ve done. I also send him several vehicles to do body work as well. In fact, I think I’ve sent quite a bit more. LOL He has two of my clients’ vehicles there right now. A ’92 BMW 850I and a ‘02 Lexus SC 420. Not to mention the ’89 Jaguar XJS will be going back there to have a few, non body work, looked at. Those three vehicles will be put up for sale on the internet soon.

Anyways, from this, it seems like I’m a person who does not have brain damage. If it deals with automobiles, that is my strong point where I always score high on evaluation. Work related questions is something else I score well on too. I just can’t start working for a new company unless it’s something I’m secure with since I have short term memory lose. Ugh……… Oh yeah, I have not been able to smell or taste anything since June of 2001.
 
SRHTX said:
Well, what I'm dealing with is even more confusing. Yesterday morning, my rehab doctor wanted me to have an MRI done. After the x-ray, I went to her office and had a meeting with her. Bing. It defiantly shows that I have brain damage on the left side. The left side of my head is what was against the B Pillar in that V8 Ford Taurus SHO I had. This will enhance my abilities to get disability from Social Security since I will provide that information to my lawyer in early January. Until I get things dealt with SS, I have to keep my work low. Also, do you really think people would pay for higher rates from a person with brain damage? Odds are, probably not. My $.02

To make things short, in the beginning, I wanted to charge higher rates. BUT, the Rio Grande Valley is a totally different world from San Antonio, TX and Houston, TX where people/companies are able to charge more that what can be done down here. One of my good friends is buying a body shop that refers a few of the clients’ vehicles I’ve done. I also send him several vehicles to do body work as well. In fact, I think I’ve sent quite a bit more. LOL He has two of my clients’ vehicles there right now. A ’92 BMW 850I and a ‘02 Lexus SC 420. Not to mention the ’89 Jaguar XJS will be going back there to have a few, non body work, looked at. Those three vehicles will be put up for sale on the internet soon.

Anyways, from this, it seems like I’m a person who does not have brain damage. If it deals with automobiles, that is my strong point where I always score high on evaluation. Work related questions is something else I score well on too. I just can’t start working for a new company unless it’s something I’m secure with since I have short term memory lose. Ugh……… Oh yeah, I have not been able to smell or taste anything since June of 2001.
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Don't sell yourself short if you do a good job you can charge them anything(with in a certain price range that is) check out what sully put on his answer to this thread.
 
My prices go from $180 to $250 depending on the
size of the vehicle. I charged $450 to do a boat a
couple of weeks back. If I don't have to use the Flex,
the price goes down. But I have only done 3 cars that
didn't need it.
 
One thing I've just recently learned, don't let a customer, once they know your price scaling, drive your prices down to THEIR level. The dealer I do work for wouldn't let us detail his trucks/SUVs because I was charging $200 for small SUVs and $220 for large SUVs and full-size pickups. So what I did was lowered the price to $175 to entice him to let us do them. They have a beautiful Lincoln MKX on the lot that needs some lovin', and it's black. He won't pay me $175 to polish it out and wants us to do it for $150. He's known for almost a year that SUVs and large trucks are more expensive and that I've lowered my price so he'd let us do them, but he's still trying to get the price down to what we charge for a 4-door car...It's the first car I've actually passed on. The way I see it, my prices are BEYOND fair for the work we do for him. He said that it doesn't need that much work...we charge for the size of the vehicle and sometimes, he's getting a TON more work from us than the money he's paying us.

Long story short, I won't go down a single penny for large vehicles for him. No matter what condition they're in, and don't let a customer tell you how much work a car needs. You give them the options and let them choose to either let you do it, or you can walk away.
 
I charge just $20 an hour. The area around here isn't exactly wealthy, even though some spots are, so I feel that my prices are fair enough to suit most people for what they want accomplished.

I feel also that if you charge by the hour, the detailer won't get the short end of the stick on it. Don't let that be an excuse to sit there and slack and just be an overall lazy worker. I work my ass off when I detail. Yeah, I take the occasional food/water break, but other than that I'm as steady as can be. It just seems that whenever a customer peeps in I'm always at a slow point, like priming pads or cleaning polish sling lol.
 
do your best job you can and get the best products you can get for the best price. get the good deals when you can.
 
I charge what I am worth and believe me many times people go with someone else, good because I don't want the cheap customer that expects you to go above and beyond what the package is. Always do exactly what the customer is paying for and nothing extra because you will be forced to always do free things after that and that will result in your losing profits/family time and more.
 
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