For those that do detailing part time or from their house, with their main market being around their immediate area, how many cars can you contract per week? The dealership is getting really old after I found out how much my boss makes per worker (200%+ more than each of them is paid, which is bullshit since we are putting in all of the manpower and he pays no shop rent or utilities). I work part time there anyway so I'd probably only need $300-400 in business per week, but more would be nice. I figured I'd stay at a flat rate of $30 an hour. What are the most effective ways to market the surrounding area?
what is your target market? I only do referrals, but I do leave cards with friends who are in the automotive industry. Im not a big fan of craigslist, but if you need to make money its a decent place to start, also develop a flyer and walk your area, leave it on cars etc, grass roots is the most effective way, word of mouth follows.
I'm sure I could do more if I tried but my wife gets mad because I work full time 60hrs + a week. This month I have 2 details on the 2 saturdays I am off from my reg job. I am lucky though my boss allows me to use the shop to detail as long as I do not interupt the reg work. This works for me because when I meet someone that wants a detail it is usually at work. The other guys I work with including salesmen and the GM tell people about my details. A few summers ago I used Craigslist to advertise and I was veery busy just using 1 professional looking add a month, at that time I was offering mobile as well. Good luck with your venture
Reflect, Did you have any luck with developing any of your own product that you mentioned? Good luck. I am in the same boat right now.
i did mobile for a reason, i get 100% of the $, then I realized that mobile was a bit more stressful than I wanted...so I tried doing it from home instead. I try to encourage my customers, especially the ones doing paint correction, that its best to have it done at my home as all the tools/materials are there, let alone I have a controlled environment with all the lighting. I think it takes a bit of exposure and trust in your network for people to come to you. In my case its even more efficient than going mobile, since loading and unloading is always a task in itself. When I explain the whole procedure etc etc they realize its an intensive process and that my best way of providing perfection is on my own home. They realize this and I try to be ultra flexible with them by asking if they want to drop it off the night before, need a ride home after dropping it off with them picking it up later in the day, have someone drop it off, or even me picking up the car, i feel much more comfortable working in my own environment, but thats just me. Not to mention that the capital gains is even higher than me lugging everything around burning gas. For the customers that do request me to come to them, they are usually in nice homes anyways where they have their own lighting set up that works for me, but those are the elite of my customers, they dont come around often, but when they do, I try to accomodate their needs as they are paying a premium as well. For those who havent read my other post, this is really just a side gig, a hobby, something that I love doing that I feel like I am good at. For true business as your main source of income, I still feel that home business can be the best option if you've developed and built a fan base that respects you enough to go to you, rather than you go to them. I found it interesting how a few of my former classmates in HS figured I wasnt as successful as the guy they know that details at the dealership. Sure my flow of cars is less, but I don't know how much they make at the end of the day. At the same time they asked why I dont own a shop? I replied with, why pay overhead twice when I have a garage at my house that works just as good. Perhaps the credibility of not working in a dealership or owning my own shop makes them think im a cut-below the other detailers out there. At the end of the day car + doing what you love = $$$ + having fun versus.. Car + overhead + utilities = $ + worrying if you have enough to cover this month. Goodluck
Didn't go for it. I don't know what I'm going to do. It sucks planning for law school for 3-4 years and having it go to shit. Basically like a shell shock.
sorry to hear it. best is to find a carrer that make lots of money and then doing this on weekends. this way its a hobby not a job. im going for HVAC union apprenticeship so hope that works out and ill do detailing part time.
start going to car shows and meets. and bring some well made business cards with you. if you get one or two of them(customers), more will follow. thats how i started a lot of my client base. i met one guy who is anal about his cars/bikes, and he has lot of friends with nice cars and bikes. i get 90% of my business solely through this one person. every time i do one of his cars, all his buddies see it and want theirs done too. i get a lot of his co-workers too. the main guy works for morgan stanley, and its the same deal. a lot of his co workers have nice cars, and when this guy rolls into work after i detail his car, its almost guaranteed ill get two or more jobs out of it. another thing i do is when i see a nice car parked somewhere, ill stop and stick a business card or two between the drivers window and the rubber seal so they cant miss it. works every now and then. in my area there is a lot of wealth and nice cars, but most of them are "the car wash for my 911 is good enough" types. if i worked on every high end car i see around and dropped a business card to, id be doing more high ends/exotics than dave does, but no such luck lol. its all word of mouth and referrals. i was over at my "main" customers house today giving his SUV a spruce up, and his hair dresser stopped over. 15 minutes later ive got her and her father booked. its hit or miss though.
You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but what exactly was the issue with law school? The reason I ask, is I was thinking about later down the road.
outside of my core group of regulars from before I decided to go public, I started in May of last year building my business its been slow going partially because IM not hitting the pavement drumming up a bunch of business, but I'm busy enough to keep me happy. Start slow or fast on the marketing, but it takes a while to build up new business, and referrals that can branch out of that. Network, and talk it up to everyone and anyone you meet, keep cards on you, and maybe even develop a website if you don.t have one, or even a 5x7 with some basic information to hand out as well...... you don't have to spend a lot of money, that is for sure, but it will take initial investment.
I have been working out of my 2-car garage for a few years and it is good, but it comes with its own set of challenges: --You will get interrupted a lot from the family and if you have high school/college kids, there will be more stopping to do stuff that has to get done right then,etc. --A zillion people stop by, that are selling stuff in the neighborhood and ask you if you live there... --Now that I have been doing it for awhile, more and more of my very rich neighbors stop by, wanting to know what I do, charge, do I do boats, airplanes, etc.. --My neighborhood has a Yacht Club, and a monthly Newsletter that is mailed and is online, so I run a free ad in the Classified section from time to time. --I have a website, and a logo on the side of my Grand Cherokee, and when I park it in the front circle of the driveway, everyone passing by sees it.. --I have developed a great relationship with a super good Independent BMW Repair Shop and they gave me a shot at their account, which of course i won, so now they send me almost endless Bimmers to Detail for their Clients. --Have just developed the same thing with a good, local body shop close to the BMW guys, and now they are sending me vehicles that need detailing, and have a Jet Black X5 in the garage today from them to do.. --Recently tied my Facebook/.Linkdin accounts to my Website so that should also have people finding their way to me. -- I work alone, so I try to limit it to 2, sometimes 3 vehicles per week, and sometimes, I dont book any in a given week, so I can take a break and get other stuff done around the house, yards, etc.. -- The logo on my Jeep has attracted more people than probably any of the other things I have done; it has my company name, phone number, and website URL and a beautiful picture of a 1962 Ford GT40 Mk.II. My business card has the same logo on it.. --You will/may need to have a 1million dollar Liability Insurance Policy, and a Business License, have to report your State Income Taxes quarterly and pay quarterly. --You will have to pay attention, possibly, to where your water goes, and what you use that goes in that waste water, if your drains end up in a river, creek, etc., --Your electrical/water/gas heating, etc., bills may go up, depending on how much more you use.. -- I like my set up, the only thing I wish I could remove is the 4x4 post in the center of the 2 garage doors.. They are both over 8ft wide, but some vehicles especially SUV's are pushing that limit even with the mirrors folded.. --It will really help to insulate, run more electrical boxes minimum 20amps, and drywall your garage if you havent already done it. Makes for cooler/warmer at appropriate seasons, way quieter, and painted all white, helps reflect more light around the garage. Do the ceiling too if possible, run your electrical up there for a lot of lights, I think I have like 15 4' twin tubes, and wish i could put some in the walls about 3-4' high to help see those areas better and not have to set up halogens, etc.. Good luck with your business !! Dan F
Just stick it out (if its even bothering you), the best window tinter in the city i live in operates out of his garage....yet he has put all the commercial window tinters out of business because of his quality and pricing. He only does X amount of cars a week, when he hits the limit he books them for next week or next month. He sets the pace, he sets the price, and he has been doing it well for over a decade now.
Hey sorry I didn't see this earlier. The market is extremely saturated right now with people who got fired or laid off from their jobs and decided to go back to school. There's a huge glut of people who went into the market while the regular job market was awful, making it even worse. Many people are saying if you don't go to a Top 14 law school or get a full ride it's not remotely worth it. Too many people with a lot of debt making $35k a year when they thought it was going to be the ticket to financial freedom. A lot of stuff is getting automated too, so my prediction is that it is going to be worse than it is now in the future. I did decent on my LSATs (161 one try) but didn't score near my PT average of 168-172 which was a let down. The December 2010 was very hard and had one of the biggest curves (which didn't do much). So basically it is a number of things that make me think that its not the best option right now. Canada is the exact opposite.
