tssdetailing
New member
^ Good to know, i was considering moving into a fixed location just outside of the city and offering free valeting for downtown.
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in a bit of a rut...
- Thread starter tssdetailing
- Start date
When I do my Arizona detailing trips, I roll the added expenses into the price. I take into consideration that for the majority of the trip, we are offered places to stay free, so the extra I charge goes to the gas to and from Arizona and the two days I don't work because I am driving.
Driven Auto Detail
New member
If you're that busy, you need to just raise your prices as a whole, as someone else pointed out.
Envious Eric
New member
if you have more work than your business model can handle, you need to raise your prices because, well, its apparently worth it! This WILL have some people drop you, yet the price increase will cover the lost clients (10-20%)
if you continue to grow past that, you need to hire out and get some other hands doing work for you.
I have a job down in Del Mar tomorrow, its 1.5 hours from my house...better believe he is paying for my travel time. There is no way you can operate at 3 hours of "dead time". So what I do for my "out of area" or "too far" clients is either make the trip worth it (minimum Ill go there for), or tell them its going to be an extra $50 bucks. otherwise, it just makes more sense to NOT go there and to book someone else closer for that day instead.
Another thing you can try to do is get help (per day type part timer) and knock out two of those further away jobs in one day. you will no doubt make the trip worth it even after paying the help, plus you get carpool lane!!! LOL
OR, get a more fuel efficient car since the actual issue is the gas money, and not the time. If you are cool with a $200 day, but dont like the $15 bucks in gas spent, get a hybrid or an electric car, or a 4cyl getting 30mpg...that will drop your cost right there if you are driving something in the range of 13-18mpg car right now. I Drive a lot as well, but all my jobs are a minimum almost double your price (but the scope of work is double as well - 10 hours average) so its worth it to NOT charge a mileage fee. However, like when I went to Bakersfield, I made sure there were 3 cars and a total value of xxxx amount to even consider the job...
it has to be worth it in the end to own your own business, otherwise you might as well go work for someone else and work a 9-5 and not deal with the headaches of running a business...plus you would probably get better benefits as well!
if you continue to grow past that, you need to hire out and get some other hands doing work for you.
I have a job down in Del Mar tomorrow, its 1.5 hours from my house...better believe he is paying for my travel time. There is no way you can operate at 3 hours of "dead time". So what I do for my "out of area" or "too far" clients is either make the trip worth it (minimum Ill go there for), or tell them its going to be an extra $50 bucks. otherwise, it just makes more sense to NOT go there and to book someone else closer for that day instead.
Another thing you can try to do is get help (per day type part timer) and knock out two of those further away jobs in one day. you will no doubt make the trip worth it even after paying the help, plus you get carpool lane!!! LOL
OR, get a more fuel efficient car since the actual issue is the gas money, and not the time. If you are cool with a $200 day, but dont like the $15 bucks in gas spent, get a hybrid or an electric car, or a 4cyl getting 30mpg...that will drop your cost right there if you are driving something in the range of 13-18mpg car right now. I Drive a lot as well, but all my jobs are a minimum almost double your price (but the scope of work is double as well - 10 hours average) so its worth it to NOT charge a mileage fee. However, like when I went to Bakersfield, I made sure there were 3 cars and a total value of xxxx amount to even consider the job...
it has to be worth it in the end to own your own business, otherwise you might as well go work for someone else and work a 9-5 and not deal with the headaches of running a business...plus you would probably get better benefits as well!
911fanatic
New member
tssdetailing said:^ Good to know, i was considering moving into a fixed location just outside of the city and offering free valeting for downtown.
Depending on the distance, free valeting isn't bad if you are working on the car for the entire day. I wouldn't do it for wash/vacs or even wash and waxes. Thats where we got into trouble as we were doing a kazillion wash and vacs. Don't forget a fixed location will probably double your overhead in a heartbeat. Its nice having a shop and doing the occasional mobile job, but if our weather was like Cali, I'd go back to doing straight mobile in a heartbeat.
Like the others stated, raise your prices overall a minimum 5% (I'd say 10%). Then up it again another 5% once things even out and you pick up more work. Traveling costs can kill you not only in gas but in time (time equals money) so think about how many hours in a week you are spending driving, stopping at gas stations and going to lunch. All of that down time is costing you money and lots of it! A fixed location is nice but your prices will definitely need to be higher. If your doing high end detailing ($400 and up jobs) then a 10-15 mile trip to pick up a vehicle is no big deal but for a $150 job (give or take some), you need to add that into the price and like the others said, do not add as an extra travel charge, just throw it into your final price and while your there throw in a free service, something small like rain X the windshield, scotch gaurd, etc.