Thinking Of Starting a Detailing Business this Summer . . . Opinions?

[HomeRunPark]

I keep my car pretty clean. It gets washed 2-3 times a week and people take notice. (A lot of old 124's are in pretty bad shape around MA/NH cosmetically so they see mine and throw out a compliment or two.)

Anyways, I've been asked by a few people if I would clean their car for them, Inside and out. And they told me I should do it over the summer, get some "clients," because I do a really good job.

So my question is: Should I do this?

I figure, I don't mind doing it. I enjoy cleaning my car, parent's car's, friends car's.

I'd advertise for 2-3 weeks. Leaving flyers on cars in parking lots, at convience stores/gas stations etc., have a website, and a lot by word of mouth. I live in a middle class town bordered by an upper class town, BMW's and Benz's galore. So I figured i could probably get 5-10 cars per week?

Do you think I'm going to get that type of business? It's going to pass the time, and with another well paying job I don't need to bring in loads of money, just enough to cover materials used and a little bit for myself.

A buddy of mine, who also keeps his in top shape and would be well suited, said that if we sat down and discussed a plan we could probably do it.

Obviously this would be cheaper than a professional detail. We would charge something like...$40-$50 a car. But would you pay that? $50 for a
Wash/Wax
Interior Complete Vacuum and Carpet Shampoo
Wheels Thouroughly Cleaned and Tires Dressed
Interior Dust
Interior Clean/
And i know that the finished car would not bring any complaints. It's just bringing in clients...

Should I attempt this or not?

Your $0.02 is what I'm looking for. Thanks.

[rdanz]

$40 o$50 is too cheep for the work you describe theres a guy in my area that charges $125 for the same thing and he has more work than he can handle but one thing you must have is Insurance in case theres a problem better be safe than sorry.

[manny]

Originally posted by rdanz
$40 o$50 is too cheep for the work you describe theres a guy in my area that charges $125 for the same thing and he has more work than he can handle but one thing you must have is Insurance in case theres a problem better be safe than sorry.

I agree 100 %.

[mcdill]

Where are you located? I'm in boston and might be interested if you start up something like this.

Matt
94 e320

[HomeRunPark]

Thanks for the response . . .

I'm in Salem NH, the first town over the NH border. 30 Mins up 93 from Beantown.

I have decided not to go public with this operation.
Business in a nieghborhood is not legal, and I already have 2 other projects I am going to be doing this summer. Also, there is likely to be a water ban in effect this summer, which would kill me immediately.
I will however work on an appt. basis by people who know me, I've decided this won't take up too much time, but I will be able to do what I enjoy. However, I don't think i'll get many old Mercedes' to work on, all the kids these days have Jeeps and Japs, no class in the youth of America.

If anyone is in the MA/NH area though and wants me to clean up thier Benz, I would be honored.

Originally posted by mcdill
Where are you located? I'm in boston and might be interested if you start up something like this.

Matt
94 e320

Matt, I would be more than happy to clean that car for you. I have a '93 300D, same 124 chassis. I have the cleaning of this car down to a science, so If you're ever interested don't hesitate to PM me. You must know where Salem is, it's a straight shot up 93.

Thanks guys

[CougarMark67XR7]

40-50 bones is wayyy too cheap. I charge $150 for an average car and its worth every penny. I cant believe the way peop-le let their cars go!!!

[Gary Ganaway]

I agree $50 is too cheap! I did a car for a friend..washed, paint cleaner, polish and wax...charged $100 and wish I would have charged more as it was about 90 degrees out that day and even in the garage it was horrible.

In future I would do claying after washing then wax as I think claying is one of the quickest and easiest processes and gives great results.

I paid this guy $70 just to do just my exterior once every 2 months. He use to do it regularly but now the car is gone and I lost his number.

[benzboy87]

I did this one summer - advertised in the paper. BIG MISTAKE!!!! I got every nut case in the tri-state that felt like my cleaning out 3 garbage bags worth of filth and old food, hand washing and hand waxing their car was not worth the money I was charging at the time.
If I were to do it again I would use word of mouth and I would not hesitate to tell anyone complimenting my car that I detailed cars. Evaluate the car before telling someone what you will charge.
I had a man that had a '79 Ford Country Squire that had never seen wax in it's life, loaded down with old food containers and junk expect his car to shine like it was new with one wax application - and then he tried to argue that he only wanted to pay me $20 because it didn't shine like new!!!

[Zackb911]

check out www.autopia.org if your serious about learning to detail

Zack

[davestlouis]

The big detail shop locally gets $225 for cars, and they shoot the moon on SUV's and other big stuff. I sent a customer's Escalade over, and they got me for $575 for a complete detail. It went there because we had done a huge hail repair on the truck and just couldn't get it clean enough for the owner. Keep in mind the truck was only 3 weeks old when it got hailed on, so any dirt in it came from my shop.

[ken_xman]

Charge more, not less. Take on fewer clients, and do a better job than the other guy.

[sLoweredK300e]

Don't advertise a price. People that want a "detail" don't care what it costs, people that want their car cleaned will go to a drive through, which my car will never ever go through.

Do you have experience with a buffer? Many times people that want a "detail" will want you to buff out scratches, or they may know a little and want you to do it right.

I detail cars for a small sales and service shop. Usually I do it wholesale for $100 each car, they provide the water and power.

Here is what I normally do for $100 (wholesale, they usually sell them for like $175 or $200):

In order:
Clean wheels and tires (surprisingly one of the most important things)
Tire dressing (I hate this stuff but people love shiney tires)
Clean door jams
Under the hood, clean very carefully
Clean trim
Clean the floormats, and hang them to dry
Wash the car
Start vacuuming
dry the car
vacuum the rest of the interior
clean the interior, dash, seats (Lexol if they want it), consol, etc.
Glaze, seal, and pure carnuba wax
crack the windows to clean


I may have forgetten something, but this takes several hours. If the car is dark and you have to buff it, you are taking on a new issue. Swirls will kill any good looking car.

Also, if you do an SUV you will want more money.

Also, get a decent pressure washer. I used an electric one for a while, now I have a industrial one. Your water consumption will be far lower, but you will have to pay for gas or power.

Good luck. Stand outside a Publix or something and hand out flyers, that is a really good way to get same day customers. If you set it up, you can do two or three cars at teh same time.

-Kyle

[snowflake]

I did exactly what you intend on doing two summers ago. I had people ask me if I could clean their cars as nicely as I did mine. So I started up this little business over the summer while on college break. I, too, live in a pretty well off town, so I charged 50 for wash and clean inside and out, and 100 for complete detail. I did pretty good with people usually tipping me another ten or twenty when they saw the end result. However, I forgot one big thing. Make sure you charge two prices, one for sedans and one for SUVs and pick up trucks. I ended up completely detailing a Ford Explorer and came to regret spending 6 hours on it for a hundred bucks. In general though, I had a great time detailing the cars, getting to drive just about any car out there, and spending my summer out in the sun. I think you will enjoy this job. Also, it is quite amazing to see the customers' faces when you take their sometimes disgustingly dirty car and turn it around to look almost new.

[danwatt]

Try to work your prices around what you want to make an hour. I try to make between $30 and $40 an hour, my prices are set accordingly.

Take a look at my site:

http://danosdetailing.com