So, how did 2005 turn out for you?

S

Scottwax

New member
Up 8.6% in sales

Up 8.0% in total vehicles

Beat previous best year by 7.8%



What makes me happiest is the increase in sales without a price increase. I did more vehicles in 2005 than the year before. :)



This year, I am already up 29% over last January. Gotta love dry and warm winters! :woot2:



So how was your 2005?
 
Well, I dont know about detailing, but my family's building buisness had the worst year on record(29 yrs). We built the same amount of houses as before, but the profit margins are way down. All of the building material cost's have risen, but not the house prices.



Oh well, hope 2006 is a good year for everyone!
 
It was definatly better than my first year round. Made 8 grand in less than 2 months. I was definatly happen with that. Anouther 10 grand in the year at my other job, so I'm slowly getting there. I hope the summer of 06 will be very profitable.
 
05 was 34% up from 04. Yeah, that's very good. We're obviously doing something right.



Just had a very nice 'article' in "Indianapolis Monthly", with a full page picture! That's making jan/Feb quite nice...



Staff. I need staff.



Jim
 
This year was better for me, but I haven't sat down to figure out how much better yet.



That's pretty cool, Jim :cool:



Congrats to everyone on the successful year!
 
Jimmy Buffit said:
05 was 34% up from 04. Yeah, that's very good. We're obviously doing something right.



Just had a very nice 'article' in "Indianapolis Monthly", with a full page picture! That's making jan/Feb quite nice...



Staff. I need staff.



Jim
Click to expand...



I hear ya. If I could find some really good help, I could probably be up 50% this year. I've been booked up an average of 8 days in advance so far this year. The customers are out there, it is getting to them. I haven't even advertised beyond a yellow pages listing and my website since the late 90s.
 
I think that goes to show the quality of your work scott... if your not making an effort to advertise, it's all comming from personal referrals :D



2005 was great! I knew nothing about detailing in the first half of the year and by year's end I had made $1500 from detailing (paid for my supplies basically). January was great, I pulled in about $1000 just from maintenance detailing on a few cars that I see every week. For just using detailing as supplemental income, this is great!
 
2005 was a whole lot better than '04. I was up 44% in revenue and added on several regular customer's. New equipment, better marketing, referrals and repeat business, etc. contributed to the growth. 2006 is off to a fantastic start, with the name change, bigger trailer, finally getting insured, more equipment, new marketing strategies and much more! :2thumbs:



Congrats to all of you guys with your success and I hope you have even more this year!



:hifive:
 
Scottwax said:
I hear ya. If I could find some really good help, I could probably be up 50% this year. I've been booked up an average of 8 days in advance so far this year. The customers are out there, it is getting to them. I haven't even advertised beyond a yellow pages listing and my website since the late 90s.
Click to expand...





That's exactly the direction I want to go down. It's starting to get that way though. I haven't advertised for about 7 months, and I still increased business by 44%.
 
I've increased, but haven't the time to figure out a percentage as of yet.



on a side note, my 2005 has been around the world with LSP's, and my 2005 had me going right back to using zaino on customer's car's. This will no doubt continue come 2006.



best of luck guys and let's ALL keep up the sharing of our "good" work
 
Congrats to the full-timers!





Sounds like those have posted thus far are doing excellent.





My sales and total vehicles serviced went up a lot from the previous year but since I'm part time, it's hard to compare without subjectivity.
 
Jimmy Buffit said:
05 was 34% up from 04. Yeah, that's very good. We're obviously doing something right.



Just had a very nice 'article' in "Indianapolis Monthly", with a full page picture! That's making jan/Feb quite nice...



Staff. I need staff.



Jim
Click to expand...



You've got staff Jim-there are 3 of you in the photo.:)
 
ajbarnes said:
That's exactly the direction I want to go down. It's starting to get that way though. I haven't advertised for about 7 months, and I still increased business by 44%.
Click to expand...



That is how it works. My second full year was a full 100% up over the previous year, then the following year was around 33% up, since then the percentages have been a bit smaller as I close in on maxing out what one person can do. I had a few years that were down too, completely weather related which is frustrating to say the least.



Right now, a bit over 90% of my business is repeat or referral, the rest is the internet and the yellow pages. Word of mouth is by far the best advertising you can get in a business like this. Do quality work at a fair price and your customers will do most of the marketing for you!



:)
 
2003 - $345,000 :rolleyes:

2004 - $225,000(sold detail business) :think2 :bolt :sadwavey:

2005 - $255,000



I guess it's up from the the year before, but it isn't close to where it should be with the new owner. Oh-well, not my problem anymore! Dealerships(new & used) in our area took a nose dive over the last few years and I doubt it will ever be like it was. People need to try expanding their audience and offer more services.
 
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