Working alone doing this on the side, advise please

[N.E.W.car]

Originally posted by Stepinfetch
Thanks for all the great advise. Just to clear some things up, this is just a side buisness, I do not have a licence, no storm dranage supplies, and do not have a buffer, nor insurance. I just dont ahve the time to have something that scale. That being said what should the price range be? I took down the flyer at work and am going to put up another one, what should prices be? "Ball Park"

Car Detailing
By:
Dirty Car/Truck? Get your car fully detailed, cleaned, shined and protected for this summer. Give your car what it deserves! All detailing is done by hand, with high end products.

Whole 9 Yards
-Hand washing
-Clean Rims and Tires
-Tire Shine if wanted
-Hand Wax entire vehicle
-Fully sweep out the inside
-Clean and apply protection to dressing all dash area’s
-Remove dust in areas of vent’s/nooks of the interior.
-Windows cleaned
-Air Freshener spray inside of vehicle
Car: $200
Midsize Car, some SUV/Trucks: $250
SUV/Vans: $300+
Extra Services:
Full Interior: Scrubbing/drying the interior/seats/floor.
+$50
Clay Bar: Process done to the outside of the entire vehicle. This removes any dirt contaminants and gives a
super smooth dirt free look/feel.
$100+

Contact: Phone: ########


How does that seem when it comes to prices?

I made some changes, hope that helps.
Does everybody agree with my ballpark price changes???

You also need to mention that dark colors and especially dirty vehicles will be extra. It's always best to defer to an in-person quote/estimate.

[Tom Weed]

Just my 2 cents, I just do this on the side too, but I don't have any pricing set in stone either, I usually call 2-3 local detail shops to see what they would charge for a similar vehicle and adjust my prices from there. You have to be competitive in your area market.

Tom

[inthedetails]

To some degree, prices will be what the market can bear.

Have you called around to see what others are getting?

[George Wax]

I charge a flat hourly rate of $50 dollar's and hour. Time start's as soon as water fall's on the client's vehicle, and time end's when I hand over the client's key's to him. I also do this on the side only use a PC buffer, and pay my helper $15.00 an hour who is also experienced. Bottomline you have to sell yourself like an account executive selling a product or service. If someone is not willing to pay for your services move on. I know of people in my area that will charge $40 dollar's for a complete vehicle and they will do it by hand. It really comes down to your skill's and business/marketing plan. I get a lot of my business from word of mouth and by going to car meet's, show's, gym,trendy club's,mall's, and car washes..You have to hustle and to look for the right client that would be willing to pay for your service. I see autodetailing as a part time business with the opportunity to make some extra cash. I would never consider autodetailing as a full time career. If that was the case I would simply open up a carwash instead or coin operated car wash. Autodetailing is a lucrative business, and you have to be willing to work hard to find your "niche"...BTW: Your pricing is way to low.......................................................

[Stepinfetch]

Thanks for the advise. I figure this is a good opurtunity to come up with soem good marketing "campaings" or little things to help me get some customers since I am going to college for marketing. The only problems is I dont have any customers setting up something, there only interested. Patience is what I need it is just hard to have it when you did not do a single customer yet. I think on of my problems is where I work. Most of the workers are working there bustin there butts for money and cant afford car detailing. I need to find a good place to put up some flyers, and get some buisness cards going around to the right people in my area!

[sneek]

your charging $100 to clay a car??

[N.E.W.car]

Originally posted by sneek
your charging $100 to clay a car??

That includes the wax after the clay as well.

Basically, the clay treatment would be another $50 on top of a normal wash/wax/interior. If they just want the clay and wax, it's $100+ because I have to wash the car first, obviously...

[rrobello]

Originally posted by N.E.W.car
I absolutely third that statement.

I just started my business, and I will tell you I charge almost three times what you charge - and I have been working non-stop for the last two weeks.

Once you get started, I firmly believe if the work you do is superior you WILL have clients. There might be times of highs and lows, but that is true with 99% of businesses.

I also don't have set-in-stone pricing. I will ballpark a price for clients over the phone, but I tell them I will only give a definite price AFTER I inspect the car in person.

I also charge extra for dark colors, and for exceptionally dirty vehicles.

If you want to make good money, it's out there - but it's also HARD work. Enjoyable, but HARD...

how much do you very your pricing for an exceptionally dirty car? I am just curious. thanks

[benhui86]

i think that getting a G100 w/ a few pads and a bottle of 80 and 83 and NXT wax will be a very exellent investment in your business

If you get it at decide to go to lowes and get it for $110 and add the pads and velcro to around 160 then the 80 and 83 in gallon size would add it up to about 220

so for about 220..... and you raise your price to around 100..... 3 cars and you've got a profit.... if u charge 150 then 2 cars u'll have a profit...

and you can detail your own car or someone's car, something with as horrible finish as possible that you should be able to fix with the PC, and post the before and after pictures onto the fliers.

and the G100 really cuts a lot of time when it comes to exterior detailing... and also pretty fool proof unless u forget to put the pad on the velcro or something.... or accidently throw it onto the car...... .... it takes me around 4hrs to do an average car the size of a 330i.... i guess you can charge on an hourly rate..... in 4hrs you should be able to get around 90% swirlfree at least

[zr123]

About 2 months ago I sold my Black 3 Series BMW ('03 model). Before I put it up for sale, I took it for a 'detail'. The weather was bad, raining, cold, plus I was in school, so I just didn't have the time, nor space to detail it myself. I called around and found a place that charged $100 Canadian (Approx. $90 US) for a 'full detail' - price was cheap, so I went for it. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy, no swirl removal, nothing like that at all.

Here's what they did:

Interior:
COMPLETELY CLEANED the interior, and I mean completely. Shampooed the carpets, mats, trunk. The seats were leather, they basically cleaned the seams with a toothbrush and treated the leather. Cleaned out the dust from the vents, vacuumed the entire car, including under and between the seats and then threw on some Auto Magic protectant on the plastic, rubber, vinyl. Also cleaned the windows and door jams.

Engine:
Engine Shampoo + Glossy dressing

Exterior:
Wash, clean wheels and wells, shine tires and and protectant on the trim, wax with Auto Magic Wax using a rotary.

Total time was 2.5 hours with two people doing everything.

Was I impressed? Would I go for their services again?

YES and NO. Because all they did was wax the exterior, it didn't really make a difference to the condition of the paint, simply created a gloss that made the vehicle look "nice and shiny" around sunset. If it was my own car that I was keeping, I would go for something like what Tim, Joe and Mike offer.

However their work on the engine shampoo and interior cleaning was excellent, alone worth $100... If anything, that is the only service I would repeat. They basically made the car look brand new on the inside and under the hood.

To be honest your prices are pretty fair for what you offer. Sure they're 'low' compared to 'professional detailers', and rightfully so. It's a whole different ball-game once you run a fulltime business doing detailing, or anything for that matter. Naturally your costs increase, the level of your work is up 10 notches, and so on and so forth.

$100 for Cars
$130 for mid sized SUVs (jeeps, pathfinders, etc)
$170 for Vans, Trucks, large SUVs (Caravans, Navigators, F-150s)

is perfect. You have to remember, you're doing everything by hand, you don't own a legitimate business as yet, and you're new at this. You have to be competitive, you have to build up a client base, and in order to do so, you have to start low.

If I were you, after a couple of details, I would invest in a PorterCable/G100, a couple of pads (W-8006, W-9006, W-8006), and Microfiber bonnets... Not only will this all increase the value of what you're offering, it'll make things much easier for you. Then you can also start offering services like scratch and swirl removal, paint restoration, etc, etc.

You should try craigslist.com (select your city), list under the services section, make it look nice. You'll definitely get some business .

GOOD LUCK