Welcome to Autopia
1. are there any books or info on starting up a commercial auto detailing business?
Since you have no experience, my advice would be to go work for a shop, detail or body. You will learn more in a detail shop than any course, book, or school. The problem is most shops will start you as a grunt, so you will be doing the work and they will be getting the money. There are high priced detailing schools, do some research to find them, they will teach you everything you need to know but are very expensive 10k+, but you usually get mad skills that seperate you from most shops. Those places teach you windshield repair, dent repair, and other high profit things.
2.is there a list of gear somewhere on here that would be the "toolset" of a detailer.
It totaly depends on what you are going to do. Detailing can be anything from washing, dent removal, scratch removal, polishing, window tiniting, spraying bedliners, doing mods, going mobile, etc. Once you have defined what you are going to be doing then there are distributers that cater to pro's.
3. what is the wage scale for detailers? would you work on commission ? or salary?
You would have to work on a very low salary if you open a shop, because more than likely most of your money will be going back into your business. We would need a lot more info about your personal finances before answering this. Your age, savings account level, are you raising kids, etc. How much money are you starting with. You need a lawyer who will incorporate your business, and then you need to follow the general accepted principles (GAAP) in accounting for tax purposes.
4. do high end detailers do more than one car a day? or spread the work across 2 cars?
I have slowed to one per day because I'm semi retired, soon to be totally retired. I think you should try to get three high end details per day, but it would depend on the individual detail and your skill level. Discover one step products, products that clean and protect.
The bottom line is for the most part states like California are making it very hard to get started in this type of business, NY is probably the same. They make you reclaim your water which is really a b**ch. They also are limiting the products you can use and they are even trying to prevent mobile detailing all together. The "big car wash" lobby has much more clout than a few mobile detailers. You might want to become a weekend warrior for while a detail out of someones garage for cash. Another idea is to work with a shop for commision 50/50 is fair for both parties if you do it this way, but you will have to bring in some of your own customers.
Grease car salesmen, especially new car salesmen. Either give them a kickback or detail their car for free, it's worth it. Everybody who buys a car wants a good coat of sealant on it, and new cars are much easier to work on than old cars, and if you know how to sell a job they pay the same! Car salesmen have been responsible for most of my business, and they always are happy to refer clients for a free detail. If you get the right car salesman, he/she can make your whole business take off. 4 or 5 good connections will make you so busy, you will wish you picked something else to do because you will work your butt off. You can do marketing or pay $$$ for a yellow page add, but I find that networking will get you regular customers and is a lot cheaper. Good luck, were there is a will there is a way.
