I've thought about starting a vehicle detailing a few times but I freely admit Im not an expert at it. I do like restoring cars and making dirty ones look better. I was just curious if anyone works at a detailing shop or has ever done it before. I've heard you can make fair money doing it. I knew someone from school and her parents did it. They owned a mansion so they did alright for themselves. I kinda got rooted out of my job and Im looking at starting my own business because Ohio is sucktown and there are literally zero jobs in this state. My family is here and I dont want to move so I thought maybe this could be a good direction to go into. Anyway if anyone has any bright ideas or opinions Im open to suggestions!

Dan

 

I can't even begin to imagine trying to make a living detailing...

While I do have my own side business and have a steady base of clientele, the competition to really make a living at this is such that it is nearly impossible.

The key to trying to make it successful is volume. But, to do volume, you have to team up with multiple dealerships and work at THEIR rates (because they will tell you what they'll pay rather than you telling them what you'd charge).

Winter = little to no income. Weather is a HUGE factor in making or breaking. I've had oodles of weekends where someone would cancel their appointment because it was going to rain on Monday or because it was raining that Saturday when they wanted to have their vehicle done.

In a nutshell, do it on the side and have a *real* source of income.

 

well i detail all day at a collision shop here in Indianapolis while im in college... Its good money, i do about 20 a week. get to know how to pinstripe, do that too, decals, graphics, window tinting, it all helps bring in money, then you can move up to more things. Its a good way to start out.

 

No easy answer here .. starting up from scratch, as a business which is your sole form of income, is probably not a recipe for success. I am not saying it can't be done, but there are several factors working against you. In order to make enough money, you will need a combination of volume, and high dollar work, supply sales, etc.

One of the main reasons I no longer do it full time is that I am too much of a perfectionist. There is a very fine line between high volume and high quality. If you have a store front, and are counting on walk up type business, then you end up doing a lot of work for vehicle owners that know nothing about caring for their cars. That creates two issues... a lot of work on a filthy vehicle, and a client that has no appreciation for the work involved, or the value you provide.


I do it on the side now, so I can pick and choose my clients. That way I get paid what the job is worth, and I get the satisfaction of my work being appreciated by the owner of the vehicle.

that, and I no longer have to clean up baby puke ..


If you are serious about it, I would recommend a path something like this.

1. Get a job at a good detail shop in your area. Work with them for a while .. learn the trade, find out if you even like doing it full time.

2. If you do like it, then start trying to pick up some side business, but don't poach customers from the shop you are working for. (friends, neighbors, other car/truck guys, etc. are a good place to to start.)

3. Think things out, and devolop a good business plan. You will need things you probably haven't thought of, like liability insurance, possibly bonding. You will need to be aware of local laws and ordinances that might affect you, like controlling water run off if you are providing mobile service, or other things like that.

4. Decide what market you are going to target. Are you going to lean towards the high volume side, or moretowards the upscale side?

5. Commit 100% to making it work.

It can be a very successful business, but it is a lot of work...

 

I work at my friend's detail shop on a part time basis.I help out a few days a week after 2 pm,when I get out of work at my real job and sometimes on Saturdays.I can be lazy sometimes and besides I have a fleet of my own to take care of so I don't work there every day.No health ins. and other benefits keeps me from working there fulltime.
I agree with a lot of what has been said already.It's not an easy way to make a living,especially when you have winter to deal with like we do up north here.A few things that make it work for him :
1.His business is run out of his garage at home so no big overhead costs from renting a shop.On the downside,He is still recovering from the initial cost of getting heat and water and a drain in his garage plus the 28x30 extension he added on to it.Also his driveway is usually a cluster%*#@ and parking is usually a pain for customers and visitors.
2.There are about 4 or 5 small used car dealers in the area that give him work.On the downside, quite a few are low end jobs and a couple of those dealers try to lowball him on prices.
3.He saves $$ on daycare by working at home.On the downside,not having $$ enough to pay a secretary is a pain.The phone rings all day long and he runs around like a chicken w/his head cut off most of the day.Luckily he has good help.

His shop has been open about 1.5 years but he's worked at other detail shops for about 15 years.I have done it on the side for about 15 years as well.We also used to show cars/trucks for many years so most people in the area were aware of our abilities.Not to brag but it helped to bring in clients.We do get some highend jobs too.Some of the oldtimers we used to go car shows with bring their show cars to us.
Below is the shop.It is bigger than it looks,it's 54' long.As you can see when we finished the customers cars today we were too lazy to clean our own vehicles.

 

Nice looking truck there^

 

Thanks

 

I somewhat have my own, my vehicles, & my friends rides

I wouldn't make a living of it though, because all I am doing is SPENDING lmao

 

NASSTY brings up two good points here ..
1. having a prior reputation and client base is huge benefit.

2. driving a dirty car/truck around is not a good thing. when I was doing this full time, I had 40 minutes a day set aside for my own vehicle upkeep. 20 minutes in the morning, and 20 in the evening, so my shop car or truck was always spotless. you can't have the side of your vehicle say "Dan's Detailing" and look like crap. your vehicle needs to be a rolling, head turning advertisement for your shop.



.

 

Thats definitely true! Ive seen other people's vehicles in the past that were from detailing shops and they had escalades or nice big pickups, they usually look incredibly clean. I never thought of this until now but I could see why thats important.


Thanks for all the input guys, you've brought a lot of great points to my attention to do some chewing on.

 

I am in the business of property managment and over the years I have rented to several detail shops(more then 5) and not one has made it more the 6 months before going under.
The reason I have seen and been told are
1. The car lots have found somone else who is cheaper or they do it in house.
2. The dead beat crack head kids they hire to detail the cars spend all day on the cell phone rather then doing a good job.
3. Not much walk up business, most people don't seem to give a crap about the car they drive and don't see spending $$$ for a clean car.
4. After you pay your bills and you have little to show for yourself. Our buildings rent from around $450-700 per month you have to makethat much in a detail just to pay the rent.

I am not saying you won't make it happen but as others have stated its like the local car wash on rainy snowy days you close. I wouldn't put my lively hood on a detail shop.

 

Yes. my family has owned a car wash and detail center for the past 40 years. we also have 3 coin operated car washes too. my grandpa used to own them and he retired and gave them to my dad. All i can say is the comisson on detailing is sweet when you do a good amount of cars in a day. My dad make a living off of it and i would say that it is a pretty good living too. he ownes a huge house and a couple of sweet cars too. So if you do it right, i think you could make a living off of it.

 

...ask them if this was the way it was when they STARTED the business. 40 years is, indeed, a nice stint but, like anything else, starting off will be hellishly bad.

I'd dare say that 7 out of 10 individual detailers that put their stock in a onesy and twosy type of detailing sceanario won't make it on their own.

The key is volume... the key to volume is relationships with people who have volumes of autos.

 

A local shop around here also has a janitorial service. They are the best in town for detailing etc... but they are also the best in contract janitorial services. I go to church with the guy and he said that in the winter, when it does slow down, it seems that the janitorial service really picks up.

Depending on the area you live in, that might just be a good market. This guy does a ton of local businesses and even has a contract with the local schools.

Just my two pennies worth

 

It also depends on the community that you are marketing it to. I live in Norfolk, VA and we have a pretty good size metropolitan area but it would be extremely hard to operate a detailing buisness around here. That's due to the area being a military town where you aren't going to run into a lot of people who can afford or are willing to spend more then $10 - 20 to get their car detailed (well what they consider detailed).

It's just like having a lawn service as your full time employment. There are so many people trying to get into the market that it's a serious fight to make a name for yourself. I have a friend that does lawn service, he has his own buisness and is a professional fully licensed landscaper and horticulturist. He has a hard time because every tom **** and harry with a lawn mower will do it for cheaper without the proper licenses.

This melts into detailing because you know about what it takes to give a good detail and what products to use to not only make the car shine but to also protect the paint on your customers vehicles. At the same time though, you've got bubba down the street charging $20 to wash, wax and vaccum a customers vehicle out. He's not going to put on a good coat of wax, he's going to say that those beads in the rain-x is a proper form of wax that works much better then carnuba or a synthetic wax.

Personally I think the real key to being successful at starting your own buisness is educating your customers on why to purchase your product. This is one of the things that has made Meguiars so successful over other companies on the store shelves and in the body shops. Meguiars is going to sit down and not only tell you but show you how their products work and why they work better then the competition. Is Blue Coral (Black Magic) or Turtle Wax going to sit down and show you how and why their product works better? No they may run an infomercial at 3AM but it's just going to be some guy saying how he's been a Mothers user for 30 years and this new Turtle Wax has beat hands down anything he's ever tried.

If you really want to get into the buisness, I would recommend starting out on the side and see how things go. Basically, test the water before you jump in.

- Chris