Just Starting Out: Need Product/Service Advice

[JSPrinceII]

I've been reading the forum for a bit here and there the past few weeks while going over the idea of starting my own Mobile Detailing business. I just had a quick question, so please bare with me. And thank you so much for the ones who give help!



- Instead of taking a mobile power washer, can I just use the NoRense product on the vehicles? Since I don't have tons of startup money, I'd rather just take a couple of buckets of water with the NoRense product mixed in ready to clean. Could this be profitable?

 

[imported_Jakerooni]

depends on the results. remember your asking to be paid for your services. where as your customers want results for their hard earned money. I personally don't think you can achieve the same results without a powerwasher. If you can I'm sure it comes at a cost of time and extra labor.



The easiest way to know for sure is to test it. Get 2 vehicles. Detail one with a powerwasher (go to a coin op if you don't have access to one any other way) and then detail the other one with the no-rinse. take note of time alloted to get the desired results. cost of the products in each scenerio (you may end up using alot more product in the no rinse demo that eats up any profit you might have had) and have unbiased people compare the two to see which one if either look better.

 

[imported_themightytimmah]

No rinse works fine, and you can achieve the same quality of results, but it's slower, more labor intensive and no fun. You'll spend a while scrubbing away at things that you could just blast off if you had a pressure washer - IMHO it's ok for low-volume use, but I'd get a P/W asap.



On the other hand, Scottwax would beg to differ. He does all his work with ONR, and he definetly knocks em out quality/time wise.

 

[PhaRO]

I do all my mobile work with ONR. I washed the traditional way for 16 years and switched to ONR for all cars this year. I absolutely love using it. Here is some more information based on my experience.



Time After an initial learning period I see no major difference in time for me using ONR vs traditional wash.

Cost 40-60 cents per car for me using ONR. Bulk cheap soap was costing me 6-10 cents per car. I save some on water and I use far less wheel and tire cleaner. Still costs me more to use ONR but the amount is not significant to me.

Quality I think cleaning with ONR consistently turns out a better looking car than a traditional wash. Especially when used regularly. If you can see it you can clean. Any area that you need to flush out you can use a 2 gallon sprayer with ONR.

Can you clean any car with ONR? I'm still debating this one. With a 2 gallon sprayer you can rinse off mud and other big problems. In an extreme case you would spend considerable time doing this though. The sprayers pressure isn't so much the problem as the volume of water it sprays. I have a couple of muddy cars that I clean regularly and someday will clean them with just ONR to see how much time it takes. Right now though I use a hose to rinse off the mud first then I use ONR just the same as any other car I clean. They also have 1-4 gallon tank sprayers that are battery powered.

Pressure Washers I've owned 2 pressure washer. 1 was electric that I used for a year or so when I first started. When it died I didn't replace it for many years. Last year I bought a gas pressure washer. I used it some at first but recently have taken it out of my setup at least for now. 2 years with pressure washer, 15 years without one. Obviously I don't feel they are necessary. In certain situations I find them to be very beneficial but still optional.

Cheap solutions If you use ONR you won't have to carry a lot of water. Those 5 or 6 gallon water or gas cans would work. For times when you need more water flow there are 12volt pumps (Shurflo and Flojet are the two I've used) that work great. $50-$110. I run a Flojet hook to a hose reel with 50 feet of air hose. I like using air hose as it takes up less space and it easier to move around with. Again I think a 2 gallon sprayer will get the job done just will add time. For power the cheapest solution is an inverter. I use a generator but I have a 700 watt inverter that I use for my PC. You can run a smaller shop vac off one that size and they are $60-80. A 1200 watt one runs about $40-50 more and would power more equipment.