To all you young detailers

[Ryan L.]

Re: To all you young detailers

Take a look at my website, the address is in my profile. Click on my username and you should be able to find it.

As I've said in many other posts, I really just do what ever people want me to do. It is very rare that I actually follow a specific package. A lot of my customers just want a few random things done and I'll do them and estimate a price to do all that they wanted.

The best way to market yourself as a young person is word of mouth. You need adults to tell adults that you do a good job.

Ryan

[Details]

Re: To all you young detailers

well, I have found that when advertising for detailing you usually get about 1% of what you advertised. Meaning for every 100 people you advertise to, you only get one customer out of that... so its gonna take time and just be patient!!! Paint correction will also take ALOT of time to learn... Some of those paint correction jobs get up to $400 and $500, and they are for people who truly love their cars, so when those types of customers pay that type of money it better be 100% perfect... Theres alot of different types of body surfaces, paints, paint hardnesses, products, buffing pads, arm speed, buffer speed, tempuratures, and pressure on the buffer. These are all variables and it takes alot of practice before you are actually GOOD at it..... Patience grass hopper

[240SX]

Re: To all you young detailers

I'm 17 also and looking into getting into the biz. I just don't know if my area is into the kind of thing. Plus I do not want to start with out being able to do a full detail and turn people off. I can do it all other then paint correction and junk. So I can make it shinny but I can not get swirls out and stuff. So I am thinking I might just start the thing after I learn to do it all.

thats exactly what my problem is. i live in a neighborhood where the majority of people dont care about their cars. im thinking of just starting like a wash and wax thing, and when I learn the ropes, then I can do the paint correction stuff.

i figure it will at least get my name out there, and then when I offer paint correction, i will already have a customer base that knows about me.

[Details]

Re: To all you young detailers

Im 20 and started my mobile detail business when I was 18. Now if your not COMPLETELEY mobile then friends, family, neighbors, and surounding neighborhoods is the way to go with flyers, and word of mouth. If you are COMPLETELY mobile then get a box of 5,000 business cards, go to your local shopping center (target, publix, the mall, any and all stores!!!) and put the cards on the drivers window, slipped in the window gasket. This will bring you daily drivers, and very dirty vehicles. But hey $ is $ right? So once you have done everybody in your neighborhood and everyone you know, you move on to that. Once you have gone through about 15,000 business cards. You can step up to direct mailing, this will get you exotic cars!! ; ) Its a form of expensive advertising but well worth it in my eyes. I went through those same steps and I now get calls from the Ferrari dealership to prep cars for customer pickup. ALSO READ THE THREAD TITLED.... this feels good!!! You have alot of potential at the age of 17 and you will be able to do what ever you want, because you dont have bills to pay yet! so take advantage of that RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

[MaksimumAutoDetailing]

Re: To all you young detailers

Just because your 17 doesn't mean anything. I'm 17 too.







I mostly do work by myself but on bigger jobs I call in some employees. I've only been doing this for about 6 months and average about $25-30 an hour. I have a website, busines cards, and T-shirts. 99% of advertising for me is word of mouth. The customer gets my card, looks at my website to see my work, and then gives me a call. If I want, I can do about 4 cars a week and make roughly $700 of close to pure profit. But lately I've been doing about 1 every week and focusing on a Lamborghini that I have to sell as well.

The key to success IMO: "QUALITY CREATES ITS OWN DEMAND" Always give the customer more than they expect. Little touches like polishing the key to the car, cleaning the gas hatch, placing a paper floor mat into the driver side all help. You want the customer to be floored with the result. The more excited they are about their car, the more likely they will be to tell their friends.

A lot of success pertains to pure luck. To be successful, you need to network like there's no damn tomorrow. Find some exotic car mechanics or car dealerships in your area and do ANYTHING to detail one of their cars even if it means doing it for free. You want to make friends with the people with nice cars or friends with nice cars. This is how I get most of my exotics. I detailed a car for a nationally famous mechanic in Baltimore and now I have a Lamborghini and an Alfa Romeo under my belt just because of one guy. Always carry cards on you to hand out to people you might meet. The more cards you handout WISELY the better you will do.

[john m.]

Re: To all you young detailers

You hit it spot on man! I was just about to start a thread asking how everyone is figuring out what to charge people cuz a lot of what im about to get into is garage queens and some old muscle car guys. You answered my question before I asked it

[Bounty]

Re: To all you young detailers

This was done in two days, where I worked on the vehicle for 6 hours each day. And I still wish I had 4 more hours time to do 2 more polishing steps, perhaps with 105 again and #7 to deepen the lustre of the clearcoat since I was only able to achieve about 80% correction in his 1999 Dinan M3 mangled clearcoat...

Just as an example, a 12-hour job for me would run in the $370 range if it was straight time. More than likely I'd charge for an basic exterior wash/cleanse/wax ($105), basic interior detail ($35), basic engine detail ($35) and then hourly/per pass for the paint correction. That has the customer at $175 before I break out any tape, polish, or machine.

When pricing out paint correction I prefer hourly because it affords me the opportunity to get the level of correction I'm satisfied with. I'll do an all-out test spot for a customer and then approximate the job with the caveat that to get the rest of the car to look that way it will take at least "x" amount of hours. Some customers do not like an hourly charge because they feel it's too open ended. In that case I charge $200 per pass. In other words if I had to go over the car with the Flex/CCS Orange/M105 once followed by Flex/CCS Green/M205 that would be two complete passes or $400. If I have to go over it with a PFW pad prior it would be another pass and now $600 in paint correction alone. I've had two four-pass jobs in my life and that would obviously be $800 in addition to the aforementioned $175 for a total of $975.

Of course more complete interior and engine detailing services can bump that up by another $140 or so. You have to factor in a lot of things besides just your man hours. Wear and tear on your machine, pads, polishes, liquids, towels, applicators, and the necessary clean-up and maintenance of those items. Educate the customer as to the very specialized and typically expensive machines and detailing products you are using and the specific expertise you have. When you look at it that way, my $35 an hour rate really is nothing compared to what mechanics charge ($75 to $125 per hour).

Although the numbers may look big to some remember a two or three pass job can stretch to three days and if you're gong to keep me for the greater part of a week I need to be compensated accordingly. As far as the philosophy of underpricing to start out I am totally against it. I understand you want to establish yorself. But try another approach. Why not set your prices at what you'd like to get. Then offer a discount for first-time customers or the month of June or something. Say 20% so that a $200 job is given for $160 then a month or so down the road the actual non-discounted price is established and your hard work is remembered. Word of mouth spreads but at your actual pricing. How do you think the customer feels when you charge him $150 and two or three months later $300 just "because"? If he knows he's getting a one time deal he'll be even more likely to tell others what a good deal he got for an extensive service and recommend you. Just my two cents...

Hope it helps...

[01GPGT]

Re: To all you young detailers

I'm 17 also and looking into getting into the biz. I just don't know if my area is into the kind of thing. Plus I do not want to start with out being able to do a full detail and turn people off. I can do it all other then paint correction and junk. So I can make it shinny but I can not get swirls out and stuff. So I am thinking I might just start the thing after I learn to do it all.

[240SX]

Re: To all you young detailers

The other guy mentioned that "detailing" is a term whose definition varies depending on who you're asking. That is very true. As I've become more involved with the hobby, "detailing" to me almost always includes corrective paintwork with the DA (or Rotary etc, for those experienced enough).

For the $120 and 12 hours for my boss's BMW (my first customer ever, yesterday), I presoaked w/ NXT (he had no wax protection to begin with), washed w/ NXT (2-bucket grit guards), tires w/ Bleche-White, Wheels w/ Wheel Brightener, 2 passes of m105 on yellow SB2 pad, 2 passes of m205 on yellow SB2 pad, 1 coat of NXT SB2 black pad...
Interior vinyl & plastics & carpets cleaned w/ APC 10:1 (4:1 for carpets & mats) & treated w/ M40, leather cleaned w/ BlueMagic leather cleaner, treated w/ Gold Class leather conditioning wipes, all interior followed w/ MF wipedown to promote "matted" sheen, Q-Tips/M40 in all the cracks and vents, tires dressed w/ Hyper Dressing 4:1 twice (rubber compound sucked it up, so followed up w/ 3rd coat of M40), wheels coated w/ NXT, exterior plastic trim treated w/ M40 and much elbow grease, engine bay w/ APC+ 4:1 & dressed w/ Hyper Dressing 4:1, exhaust tips treated with Brasso (! Didn't have a proper auto metal polish yet, but it worked) then finally exterior topped with a coating of DC3 carnauba, then touched up with UQD before delivery.

This was done in two days, where I worked on the vehicle for 6 hours each day. And I still wish I had 4 more hours time to do 2 more polishing steps, perhaps with 105 again and #7 to deepen the lustre of the clearcoat since I was only able to achieve about 80% correction in his 1999 Dinan M3 mangled clearcoat...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Point is, I'd recommend building one's experience first on friends & family's vehicles first before actually charging clients for money. I still have a long way to go and am still learning every day, but as you see from me, I went a long way in researching and spent a lot of money on proper materials and supplies from the Detailer Line, Consumer Line, and Mirror Glaze Lines of Meguiars and practiced for free on family cars...before I set out on my first customer job.

Obviously, everyone's idea of "detailing" is different and indeed you would likely find many customers who would be pleased with the results you currently achieve, but you may also come across other clients who hold a different, more thorough standard and could be unhappy. That's why I suggest bringing your experience level up as far as you can before you enter the market. Best to build that fundamental experience beforehand, rather than do sub-standard work on the market now, and potentially ruin your word-of-mouth reputation. Not saying that's what you do, but I'm trying to illustrate the concept if you know what I mean .

Jeez sounds like you spent ALOT of money on supplies.

I understand perfectly what you mean. Now that I think of it, learning the ropes thoroughly would be a much better than just jumping straight into it with minimal experience. Thanks for the help

[john m.]

Re: To all you young detailers

Well only tips I can give you is for your first few customers really push it. It also helps to know guys in car clubs, I went to a local car show recently and there were a ton of classic T-Birds there, saw a guy I knew and talked to him about his car and got him interested in sending me the car when I recieve my Flex.

As for charging, call around locally and see what other people if anyone is charging. Im 19 and i wasnt sure if people would pay and if they would spend it with a 19 year old even though I can do it. I chose to charge what I need to to make money, if people want it than great but if they say its to much i dont wanna do their car anyway.

So for me its like different packages, I started by paying myself 10 an hour and then thought about how much product I use and the amount needed to pay off the expense through all the cars. For example, for a wash and wax with a quick interior detail I start the price at $125, this would go up for cars that need extra care, suv's, or heavily soiled cars that need more time. Also, for anykind of correction work I wont charge less than $200. But most of the time will charge more than that unless the car is in very good condition. I like to quote them higher than normal so that when I tell them the price they like that it is cheaper

[cardriver]

Re: To all you young detailers

The other guy mentioned that "detailing" is a term whose definition varies depending on who you're asking. That is very true. As I've become more involved with the hobby, "detailing" to me almost always includes corrective paintwork with the DA (or Rotary etc, for those experienced enough).

For the $120 and 12 hours for my boss's BMW (my first customer ever, yesterday), I presoaked w/ NXT (he had no wax protection to begin with), washed w/ NXT (2-bucket grit guards), tires w/ Bleche-White, Wheels w/ Wheel Brightener, 2 passes of m105 on yellow SB2 pad, 2 passes of m205 on yellow SB2 pad, 1 coat of NXT SB2 black pad...
Interior vinyl & plastics & carpets cleaned w/ APC 10:1 (4:1 for carpets & mats) & treated w/ M40, leather cleaned w/ BlueMagic leather cleaner, treated w/ Gold Class leather conditioning wipes, all interior followed w/ MF wipedown to promote "matted" sheen, Q-Tips/M40 in all the cracks and vents, tires dressed w/ Hyper Dressing 4:1 twice (rubber compound sucked it up, so followed up w/ 3rd coat of M40), wheels coated w/ NXT, exterior plastic trim treated w/ M40 and much elbow grease, engine bay w/ APC+ 4:1 & dressed w/ Hyper Dressing 4:1, exhaust tips treated with Brasso (! Didn't have a proper auto metal polish yet, but it worked) then finally exterior topped with a coating of DC3 carnauba, then touched up with UQD before delivery.

This was done in two days, where I worked on the vehicle for 6 hours each day. And I still wish I had 4 more hours time to do 2 more polishing steps, perhaps with 105 again and #7 to deepen the lustre of the clearcoat since I was only able to achieve about 80% correction in his 1999 Dinan M3 mangled clearcoat...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Point is, I'd recommend building one's experience first on friends & family's vehicles first before actually charging clients for money. I still have a long way to go and am still learning every day, but as you see from me, I went a long way in researching and spent a lot of money on proper materials and supplies from the Detailer Line, Consumer Line, and Mirror Glaze Lines of Meguiars and practiced for free on family cars...before I set out on my first customer job.

Obviously, everyone's idea of "detailing" is different and indeed you would likely find many customers who would be pleased with the results you currently achieve, but you may also come across other clients who hold a different, more thorough standard and could be unhappy. That's why I suggest bringing your experience level up as far as you can before you enter the market. Best to build that fundamental experience beforehand, rather than do sub-standard work on the market now, and potentially ruin your word-of-mouth reputation. Not saying that's what you do, but I'm trying to illustrate the concept if you know what I mean .

[240SX]

Re: To all you young detailers

The site says that they only ship within the US, so I'm gonna go with that

[rgcurtis]

Re: To all you young detailers

My bad dude....didn't even see your location. You might want to email him. He is cool and will tell you if he does or doesn't ship there. Sorry. You can look at his site to get a guesstimate of product prices. Again, sorry. GOOD LUCK!!!

[240SX]

Re: To all you young detailers

Oh, check out this site:

ADS

Rick is awesome and I have ordered about $1k worth from him in the last month and half. Again, good luck.

Unfortunately I'm in Canada, so ADS doesnt really work out for me, unless you can recommend a good freight forwarding company.

[rgcurtis]

Re: To all you young detailers

Oh, check out this site:

ADS

Rick is awesome and I have ordered about $1k worth from him in the last month and half. Again, good luck.