Are we doing more, or wasting time?

jimmybuffit

jimmybuffit

That'll buff right out!
Mu 'not-so-lovely' assistant and I spent EIGHT hours today on a Honda Accord. White, with tan leather. The paint was quite oxidised, but, otherwise in good shape. Here's what we did:



Degrease engine

Rinse engine

Spray tires and wheels

Spray doorjambs

Pressure wash above

Air (pressure) dry engine

Dress engine

Wash

Clay horizontal surfaces

Wash

Rinse

Dry

Dress tires

Move out of Wash Bay

Pull Mats

Pressurewash mats

Vacuum

Collect items, place in lage baggie.

Spray deoderizer in interior (don't forget headliner and visors)

Prespot carpet

Extract

Clean doorjambs, door panels

Clean leather

Condition leather



Buff exterior as appropriate, then,

Buff exterior again, as appropriate



Apply wax/sealant (2passes?)



Windows and Wheels.



Outside for final inspection.



Remove any remaining residue



Most people will say this is a 5 hour car...Are we 'doing too much'?



Jim
 
Well... as I see it you are doing the job right. Just as long as your are charging accordingly.. :)





Any job worth doing is worth doing right :)
 
Hey Jim,



I feel your pain and I also understand where you are coming from. The love for detailing, or better, for taking the ugly duckling and making it into a beautiful swan is what drives many OCD detailers, like myself, BUT in that zeal for perfection I find I lose money.



So as long as you are getting compensated for spending 8 or 10 hours on a car then by all means have at it.



I now always give my clients an upfront price option. I can make it look good, for say $175 or I can make it look (sometimes) like a concours winner for $300 and up. I tell them what to expect for the low end and what to expect for the high end and to my surprise many times they take the high end when they understand all the labor intensive work that goes into getting their car looking and smelling its best.



Anthony
 
For two people to do that long it would really be an awesome detail. Were you teaching him how to do the work or is this a normal assistant? I noticed the one time I had a friend help me it took longer because I was having to show him a lot of stuff. You really can't judge by that list. It depends a LOT on the vehicle.



Some carpets take more work than others but I'm still just extracting. Same with the paint. Some take more time to get perfect.



I did an extended cab F-150 the other day. Full interior (Carpets, leather, etc.) w/ a compound, polish, wax and it took 6 hours. Big vehicles take so long.
 
Thanks for the replies.



I'm really frustrated, as we go through this everyday! I don't know where to cut corners, but I really can't charge a great deal more...



I need to cut three hours (!) of labor, and I just don't know where the shortcuts are.



I'm faster than my assistant, for sure, but the training part is essentially over.



I'll let you know if we can find some improvement. The cars are clean, that's for sure!



Jim
 
Jimmy ,



How long have you had your assistant working with you? I've found that it takes awhile to get a system down where both of the people working on the car are working and not getting in the others way. I found that working the split method works best for me when I had help. Basicly split the car in half , you take drivers side and he take the passenger. This requires two sets of equipment but I found that it cut my time in half. There are alot of different sytems that will work but I found this way to be very productive. Another big ticket to getting things done faster is organization , I am currently redoing my entire shop because it was chaois. Make sure everything has a place and that it gets put back there at the end of the day. I found that to be a great help because when I walk into the shop in the morning everything is ready to go and I don't haved to search for it before I start to detail. Hope my rambling is of some assitance to you. :D
 
hey how much do you guys usaly charge; i usaly spend about 12 hours on my cars, polish, wax, polish chrome, vacumm and steam cleen carpets, clean and condition leather, clean and condition vynal, ect and only charge 60$. im only 13 but am i really jiping myself?
 
headtplayer said:
hey how much do you guys usually charge; i usually spend about 12 hours on my cars, polish, wax, polish chrome, vacuum and steam clean carpets, clean and condition leather, clean and condition vinyl, ect and only charge 60$. I’m only 13 but am I really jiping myself?
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I think you're doing pretty good for 13!



But for that kind of time and effort, you need to charge more or cut back on your services.



Offer the exterior detail for $60.00 and offer the interior detail as a separate service and a separate charge for another $60.00



Let them decide if they want both. If they do, you double your sale, if they don't, you can move on to another detail. Do you have a business card yet? (Even if your doing this on the side, you should have a business card). Do you have a website?



I can show you where to put up a website with your own domain name for $15.00 a year.



I love hard workers!



Jim



I feel your paint too... don't know what to tell you though... I don't do interiors, too much work and it seems like the people that want that service the most are the people whose car needs it the most and that always tells me I don't want to clean up their mess.



Maybe you could make your detailing business one that focuses on exterior and interiors are a quick vacuum/window wipe, or charge separately. One charge for exterior, one charge for interior?



Mike
 
Jim, Maybe you need to write down a system like buda posted on mobileworks. I'm working on getting them down for myself to make sure I'm working most effeciently. I'd say make sure when you're working each of you is at least doing a job.



When I've done exterior work in the past w/ a partner I would take the rotary and start on the vehicle. To let me get ahead my guy would go dress the tires and wheel wells. I'd try to get a panel ahead or so and then he'd come back with the DeWalt and start polishing and we moved around the vehicle like that. I'd usually get way ahead of him w/ the rotary so then I'd go back and start cleaning up all the windows/trim, etc of the splatter as the RO doesn't do much. I'd then start at the first panel and start waxing. We'd move around the vehicle like that since I don't have two of everything. We'd just move down the list of what needed to be done and worked our way around the vehicle chasing each other. It works out pretty well. I really only do this system though when I'm helping friend's with their vehicles... getting pay and having someone help you works out nicely... lol...



I only worked with a friend once on an interior of a vehicle so I never came up w/ a system. It didn't save much time though.



headtplayer said:
hey how much do you guys usaly charge; i usaly spend about 12 hours on my cars, polish, wax, polish chrome, vacumm and steam cleen carpets, clean and condition leather, clean and condition vynal, ect and only charge 60$. im only 13 but am i really jiping myself?
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That's great for a 13 year old. Who are these customer's you're working for? Neighbors? Family Friends? or are you trying to advertise more? Some customers might not think a 13 year old can do that great of a job so you'll have to prove your quality to them! Maybe sell them on a basic wash package and do a really good job.



Mike Phillips said:
I don't do interiors, too much work and it seems like the people that want that service the most are the people whose car needs it the most and that always tells me I don't want to clean up their mess.
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I've found interior work to be my biggest profit. People are usually willing to pay equal or more money for a good interior cleaning than they are a good exterior cleaning without me having to push any services. Basically the only one I really have to push to sell would be my fabric protector. They also usually take less time than a full exterior. Less Time, More Profit... hrmm, sounds like a Stoner product.
 
Jim...how long you been doing this?

I pretty much do your same routine (but don't rewash after clay)...I've really concentrated on increasing efficiency and am now able to do your routine alone in the same amount of time...maybe you could save costs by working alone, or increase profits by utilizing your assistant in another way?
 
Hey Jim,

I totally understand your situation. I have been detailing for over 10 years now and have had people work for me in the past. Sometimes I feel like I can get more done working by myself because it seems to take longer to detail a car with another person when you have to tell them what to do step-by-step. But, once you & your partner get in a groove and he learns what you expect from him and what order everything is done, it will all come together and you will become faster and more productive.



I just hired a new kid that I am training so I have also been spending much longer on each car than I would like. It's tough when you are only getting lets say $160 for a detail and it takes you both 8 hours to do a car together. I pay my help $10 per hour, so that means that he's getting half the money without even accounting for expences .



I would find out what he works the fastest & best at and have him stick to those specific tasks for now because I find that there are some things that my helper will spend twice as much time on as I would, which results in wasted time, but works fast when it comes to other things.



Another problem I have is that sometimes I am way too anal. Even if someone tells me they want a $125 job instead of a $180 job, I tend to go a little too crazy because I'm afraid that the person won't be happy with it for some reason. Sometimes it's tough to cut corners because every aspect of the car needs to be paid attention to, but there are stupid little things that you can do to save time.



On a regular full detail I would maybe forget about detailing the engine compartment because some people really don't care too much about it which will probably save you a half hour between degreasing, scrubbing, rinsing, air drying and dressing it. Another thing you could skimp on to save time would be to not condition the leather and maybe offer the clay bar treatment as an optional service for a set price. Instead of including all of this in a standard detail, I would offer a regular full detail that includes the most important things and maybe a "Concours Detail" for a little extra money which includes everything in a regular full detail plus a few extra goodies like the engine compartment, conditioning the leather and other little things that people would like such as a Rain-X treatment to the windows, etc.. Thay way, you will be able to save a lot of time on a standard full detail and make some extra money for the concours.



Hope this helped you out?



:xyxthumbs
 
I also know how you feel Jim. My kids help me in the summer and it takes a couple weeks to get them back up to speed. I normally do the outside and they do the inside. With QEW as my primary wash, I can wash while they vacuum and start on the interior. The hardest part is getting them to see what I see.



How are you and your partner splitting the work? If you both are tackling the same job, it probably isn't as product as if one works in the interior while the other one is buffing.
 
thanks for the help (although i feel like i changed the subject). i think i will charge two seperate prices, but as intel486 says people automaticly think im going to do bad job so i have to compinsate. i usaly do my parents (of course), friends of the family, people i know and people in my neighborhood. thanks for the help, greatly apprieciated!
 
Intel486 said:
I've found interior work to be my biggest profit. People are usually willing to pay equal or more money for a good interior cleaning than they are a good exterior cleaning without me having to push any services.
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I'm sure that's true, but I tend to only enjoy polishing paint. Cleaning and detailing interiors never get's me excited.... I just don't have a passion for carpet I guess. :D



I know I have lost many details because people wanted the whole car detailed. That's when I needed an employee. If anyone noticed on the 1999 Corvette before and after detail I did, it was Lynn that did the interior! (not me...)



I guess there's something broken inside of me...



(If SuperiorShine reads this I guess this means I'm off his short list for a new employee)



Mike
 
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