Need some honest business opinions/suggestions

I

itstillruns

New member
Hey everyone, am a young college student who barely has enough time to hold an hourly weekend job. I love detailing, and have been doing it for about 3 years now, switching between various products, trying new products etc. Actually I even recently made a few additions to the collection but haven't had time to even use them myself.



I am pretty thorough with detailing, and its probably why I take so long, as everything has to be 100%. I also have good experience with some wetsanding and paint repair. My car knowledge is also pretty good.



My schedule is pretty much 2 weeks/weekends of hardcore studying and 2 weeks/weekends where I have to study to keep up, but not for an exam or anything.



So I was wondering if you guys think detailing on the 2 weekends I have free would be a good idea, as theres not much else I can think of doing. As far as supplies goes I would have to get a line to remove swirls, (I never bothered with this as my paint only has a few noticeable swirls on the hood and the meguiars swirl x helps).



I also would need an orbital tool (actually this one of the reasons I thought of whether I needed to detail one car many cars) and would probably go with the Griot's



I was also thinking of purchasing one of those tools to help measure clear coat thickness but we shall see.



As far as a place to do it, I could do it in my garage, however I live in a gated community so im not sure how that would work out, I also could be mobile and go to peoples houses to do jobs. If I use my garage I could probably do a job until 8 or 9 at night, at-least if I got a 300w CFL bulb, but I prefer daylight.



And how would I go about starting something like this?



Thanks for looking and all opinions/ideas are welcome
 
I can actually relate to you on a lot of this. I have been doing my detailing business full time for over a year and a half now. I am also full time at college (15 credit hours) working toward transferring into a law program. So yes its very possible to do both. Things you have to remember when you do this as a business. You will need to be insured and as a business you will have to let people now when your schedule is. So if you can find a few customers to rotate around on a monthly basis to get work done then start a very small part time business for yourself. Never hurts to be college and make some extra money on the side.



Now for products, a GG DA(which I have) is a great investment. Its decently cheap to start with and gets great results. Great for those 1-2 step jobs you might have someone want. Product wise I would recommend either M105/205 or SIP/Super Finish. But to each his own on product choice. The paint guage is up to you. With a orbital your chances of burning paint or taking to much off is greatly reduced, but still possible if you do not know what you are doing. But its always a great safetly measure to know what you are working with if you can afford it right from the start.



Now time you work from is all on you, how long you have the customers vehicle for and how much work you are putting into it. I have had plenty of times where a customer dropped a car off at my place for 24-48 hours and have found myself up from 1-4am working. A high intensity LED flashlight would work great for checking over your work with just normal garage lights brightening up the place. But if you want to always see what you are doing then a Twin 500w Light Stand is also a cheap and great buy.



Now for starting thats a tough one. As you are limited on your available scheduling you can not outright advertise as this might get you a more customers than you can handle. Since your in a gated community thats a great starting area, as I would imagine some of your neighborhood neighbors might want to get some work done. Advertise there first then let word of out be your advertisement. That way you do not blow up to more work than you can handle. Might be slow at first but thats how it works for all of us.



Hope some of this helps or at least answers some of your questions.
 
How much insurance would you think one would need for detailing? and how much would it come up to monthly?



I certainly will not be able to do this full-time, at the most I can probably do 3 complete details per off weekend, (one per day), should I distribute flyers in the neighborhood? or go door to door? (I really do not speak to most of my neighbors).



Thanks for your reply by the way.
 
Im terms of neighbors it helps to start with the hellos and small talk in passing and stuff for me they noticed I was always out on weekends working on a car and offer my services (key being to keep it non salemanish) and just keep up the pleasantries. I started as just hobby and now I have 8 cars lined up for the spring just on my block
 
itstillruns- Welcome to Autopia!



I myself think you oughta just concentrate on your studies and spend any downtime decompressing.



But if you want to get serious about paint correction, yeah you'll need a polisher and some good lighting (no fluorescents of any kind).



Eh, when I got serious about my education I sold my cool car and quit spending time on things like detailing. When I was teaching (at the same U) the students who were gonna own the world some day were *not* doing a whole lotta stuff besides getting educated in one way or another.



Not saying it can't/won't work out, but I'd sure ascertain that you have your priorities in order and that the important stuff is covered (if you're not acing every course that's a clue ;) ). There's a whole lotta stuff to learn before you hit the career path and I don't just mean within your major/field of study; don't treat college as a trade school and end up with a limited knowledge base/wordview.



[Accumulator climbs down off his soapbox :o Sheesh, what a windbag....]
 
Thanks for your input, I fully agree that school comes 1st, that is actually why I would only be able to do it every 2 weekends as the rest of the time I will be studying. At the same time it would be nice to have a few extra bucks in my pocket so I could pay bills and relax or do something when I have time (every little activity costs money). Even if its 150 bucks a month in my pocket, its still better than nothing, the bills don't stop coming



On Christmas holidays I would be able to do a lot more cars and then I can at-least save up for the following semester. One other thing was wouldn't the Griot's DA polisher cut down my own personal detailing time significantly? I'm still on the fence whether I should buy it.
 
Thats what I did.

I was working 30 hrs a week part -time around my school schedule, decided that was too much, quit and started my own detailing business.

Ended up being a fantastic decision.



I can work 5-10 days a month and make as much, if not more, money than I made working for someone else.

I ended up with more time to focus on school, and it gave me an chance to put some of the things I'd been learning

(I'm in business school) to work.



So, for me, it was an easy decision.



As far as starting it, just go to your local city hall and get a business license. Then call and shop around for some insurance.

Not that hard really.



If you want to be really serious about it, then it'd be wise to put together a business/marketing plan, and some other odds and ends

stuff. But if you're just wanting to do this to pick up some extra cash, all that isn't really necessary. Just keep up with your revenues and expenses.



Do you have any regular customers?
 
Unfortunately the only car I have really detailed is my own as far as customers I was thinking of making a basic craigslist ad. One of my friends has a car with a neglected clear coat and thought that it would be a good idea to use before/after pictures of it.



And then I know someone who owns a GTR so I was thinking of asking him if I could detail it and then take a few pictures and then there is a family friend with a z06 who wanted me to detail his car so I could use pictures of that as-well to help potential customers feel welcome....but before all this I need to find out how much insurance is going to be running me. How much insurance would you guys suggest for something like this?
 
you should be able to get all the coverage you need for $70-100 a month.



try to get some friends and family that'll let you do work on their car even though

you're not insured yet. cut them a deal and then tell them to tell everyone they know

about you.



definitely hit up the gtr and corvette guys to try to get some work.

i ended up with one of my best customers simply by asking who cleaned his car.

sometimes its as simple as just asking.



try to set them up on a monthly maintenance plan if you can.

don't know if you're going to have much luck finding people who are willing to pay on CL though.

you'd have MUCH better luck putting up a website and investing some time in SEO

even if its something as simple as a blog page with prices and quality before and afters,

it'll work for now.
 
itstillruns said:
Thanks for your input, I fully agree that school comes 1st, that is actually why I would only be able to do it every 2 weekends as the rest of the time I will be studying. At the same time it would be nice to have a few extra bucks in my pocket ...



wouldn't the Griot's DA polisher cut down my own personal detailing time significantly? I'm still on the fence whether I should buy it.
Click to expand...



OK, sounds like you have a sensible viewpoint on this.



Yeah, the Griot's machine would be a good choice and such a polisher is pretty much required to do this stuff. No point doing it if it's gonna take so long that it results in slave-wages! With the lifetime warranty I can't imagine it being a bad purchase, but I'd use smaller pads (with an appropriately sized backing plate) than the 6-6.5" ones that it comes set up for (no biggie, the plate just unbolts and a 5" one for use with 5.5" pads won't cost much, ditto for a 3.5" one for use with 4" pads).
 
Ok guys thanks for the input, I am/was tied up with studies this week/weekend so next week I will go around insurance shopping and we will see how it goes.
 
Another thing that popped up is the kind of products to use, I was reading around and a few people mention that most detailers will not use the most expensive products out there and would rather buy easy on / easy off products in bulk that do the job well



I am wondering what you guys think as I was planning on getting mostly top of the line stuff
 
honestly I would say it depends on your target market--I would think the guys who buy the most cost efficient items in bulk are the guys who may be in areas where it's harder to justify price increases...



Paul (forget his last name) marketed his services specifically for high end clientele exclusively, but that required him buying the fanciest stuff he could get his hands on. (btw he charges more than most people probably spend in annual utilities, and mortgage bills)



So I'd say it depends on how you market your stuff..

I just saw that FMinus has a line if his/their own products...I'm sure that alone tacked on a premium of some kind
 
itstillruns- Watch you don't get the cart before the horse; first off you need to know which products are right for the given task and how to use those products properly.
 
I understand, but even something as simple as microfiber...do I go all out Pakshak or settle for some cheaper alternatives, do I buy pay the premium for some Lake County pads or do I go with cheaper alternatives.
 
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