How To Start A Car Detailing Business And Become Successful!

how to start a car detailing business and become successful so are you tired of being told what to do or perhaps you want to be your own boss you have this entrepreneur side of you or perhaps just school is not your thing regardless of the reasons there's never been a better time to start a car detailing business than right now first of all the car detailing industry is there to stay because manual labor is needed to do the job so people will never get replaced by robots machines or the internet right and you guys are in luck if you've never been on my channel before this is one of the biggest car detailing channels on youtube and at the moment of this recording we surpassed 650 000 subscribers and we're approaching 80 million views so you're at the right spot i have been detailing cars for over 24 years now and i love to share my passion and knowledge with you guys my viewers so today we'll be covering five topics uh see this as a master class of how to start your car detailing business and of course get the tips and tricks to become successful at it so we're gonna be answering topics like first of all um how do you get the skills right where do you learn to get the skill set how do you get those uh then how do you get your name out there that's also very important we're going to be talking about what's your starting budget so what is the amount of money that is needed to get started what kind of tools do you need the products and the equipment then we're going to talk about how do you get new customers and how you generate new leads because of course that's what is going to bring the income to you and last but not least in a fifth place how do you price your services so guys it's a jam-packed video make sure to share this video with any friends or family or people that you think might be interested in starting their own detailing business and if it's the case with you well you're going to learn a lot of stuff today and hopefully get you started a lot of my viewers have been able to start their car detailing business and become quite successful at it and if you work hard you put sweat equity and you're passionate about what you do if so if you're detail-oriented well not only will you have a job that's fulfilling and that will bring you a lot of joy in life but you'll be able to bring food to the table provide for your family and who knows well a lot of success is possible and yes i wish to all my audience or people who start their own detailing business to perhaps make their dreams come true like my own brand new 2021 porsche 911 turbo s so i wish you guys a lot of success so uh enough said today i'm here to share tips tricks and get you guys hopefully started on the right foot so you know the drill without further ado stay tuned let's go ahead and start the show [Music] so hey guys i'm pan welcome to the show i hope you guys are having a great day so let's dig right into the topic i think it's an exciting one today i did a how to start your car detailing business a while ago when i first started my channel uh roughly five years ago now uh but here is an updated tutorial with all the latest tips and tricks and of course i had time to make a lot of friends in the detailing industry through the years lots of contacts and of course many of my viewers and friends are also professional detailers whether they're mobile detailers or work from a shop or even like in my case uh work from their own house so regardless of which setting you guys would prefer today we're here to share a bunch of tips tricks and things to get you started right by the way uh if i talk about any products tools or equipment i'll make it simple for you guys i'll include the links in the description under the video for you guys to check them out so all you have to do is sit back relax and enjoy the show so let's go right into the to the thicker things and talk about the five topics that i promised so first of all we're going to talk about where you get the skills to do the job right then how you get your name out there the starting budget needed so what kind of equipment tools and products you need to do a good job uh how to get customers and generate new leads and last but not least how to price your services so topic number one the skills where do you learn the skills to become a good detailer well you're in luck because we're in 2021 at the moment of this recording and youtube is perhaps the biggest school of learning guys you're in luck there's a bunch of car detailers that have channels on youtube that you can follow and learn all the tips the tricks tutorials product reviews to get you started on the right foot so perhaps if you're watching this video you're already inclined to like detailing because perhaps maybe you wash your own car or your family's vehicles or your friends so on and so forth but if you have that inclination towards loving taking care of your vehicle you're already on the right foot and so uh well there's a bunch of channels like mine included where i test and i review products and i give tutorials on how to do things and we cover everything right so from washing the exterior of the vehicle to doing some interior detailing to more advanced things like paint correction machine polishing how to do engine bay detailing and more advanced stuff like applying a ceramic coating or a graphene coating or the basic stuff even like how to apply a wax or just a paint sealant how to do a clay bar how to use an iron remover basically how to do a rinseless wash or a waterless wash because not everybody can use the two bucket wash method what is a two bucket wash method right so basically you have the chance nowadays to be able to visually see and learn so i think that's the biggest thing or biggest advancement is thanks to the technology now where you guys have access to stuff that we didn't have so when i started to like 24 years ago i was 16. so we're talking now in the 1990s well there wasn't a lot right we had a few bulletin boards on the internet and that was pretty much it so you had to search long and hard to try and figure out how to do things on your own and so today well youtube is this great mass collection of different schools of thought so don't base yourself only on one channel watch a few of them and you can get the the best bits and pieces from each and every one and basically have different ways of doing things because one thing you've got to keep in mind there isn't one single proper way or one single technique that is the best out there there are many different ways of doing things so it all depends on of course your style what you prefer doing what services you'll be offering we'll touch on that a bit later in the video but so yeah youtube is definitely the number one major source even for me today i'll spend some hours at the end of each day uh watching videos on youtube from my different colleagues and other youtube channels because i like to be up to date on what's going on because every month it seems there are new products new brands new techniques and new stuff coming forward so you got to make sure to stay on top of things right so one thing that's super important is going to be hard work so detailing is not a joke you need to put a lot of sweat equity into your business if you want to become successful and sky's the limit by the way so if you work really hard you can make your dreams come true and you can definitely have some crazy income i know some professional detailers out there who have businesses that generate three hundred thousand four hundred thousand half a million dollars a million plus in a year they have dozens of employees they have many cars in their fleet to go around or vehicles right trucks to go around to uh different places if they're a mobile detailing company for example so sky is the limit however we always start with humble beginnings so don't think you're going to go right out of the gate making millions of dollars that's not how it works if that's what people want to make you believe well they're lying and you're going to hit a brick wall pretty quickly and you're going to get discouraged so the start as any professional detailer would tell you is always very slow and you got to build your reputation right so people have to get to know the quality of work that you put out and well word to mouth works uh pretty pretty quickly and that's how usually your reputation spreads around so always make sure you put out the best possible work out there that is the number one thing is hopefully if you're watching these videos you have some attention to detail because that's what you're going to want to perfect the most is well it's a detailing business right so you want to be sure that you have a lot of attention to details so what other ways can you learn stuff well there are a lot of car detailing forums as well so if youtube is not quite your thing uh for me that's the number one source of education today but there are a lot of car detailing forms on which you can learn a lot of stuff so things like auto geek is one pretty much one of the biggest ones but there are other ones out there as well so if you prefer the bulletin board to style or the online forums to read and to comment and to ask questions by all means do that too and know that there are also a lot of in-person workshops so more and more now what i see is car detailing businesses out there um that uh have some special guests come over so detailing brands that come over and give some clinics or some workshops on how to use their products how to do some stuff like skills like pain correction for example machine polishing which polishes or compounds to use if i look at rupez the polisher company they provide a lot of workshops on how to use their their products as well g-technic is another one so they're a company that focuses a lot on ceramic protection so they have workshops on how to use their products or um detailing shops like chicago auto pros in the chicago area they host a lot of events where they have people come over for detailing master classes right so you can learn those kinds of things so go online and search for um any master classes or any detailing workshops that might be around in your area and who knows uh that's a great entry into the uh into the field and there are also some centers more and more now where kind of schools where they teach you how to do uh detailing so that's another thing that you can google so depending on which country you live in of course which city it might not necessarily be available to everyone but google if there are any training centers available for you guys to learn how to do some detailing but of course the easiest one and it's it's a free thing well youtube videos right uh we're there to share our knowledge and passion there are tons and tons of quality detailing channels uh on youtube so go ahead and enjoy those and um yeah that's that's how you're gonna get to learn the skills okay so topic number two is how to get your name out there so of course everybody's scared right when you're starting something new it's totally normal um you've never been used to approaching people or selling yourself or trying to get some new leads or some customers to come and meet you right so usually the first thing that a lot of professional detailers will tell you is that they first started their business by detailing cars for friends and family so offer some detailing packages at a reduced rate so this is kind of a foray right a first try into the detailing world first of all it will allow you to see if you enjoy the process it will allow you to get some feedback from those uh let's say easier customers right because they're friends and family and so it'll allow you to assess first of all hone in on your skills see where you're at um and to see if you live up to the expectations of people so have an interview with them and see what they want done on their vehicles is it only the interior just the exterior or a bit of both are there any trouble spots on the paint for example that needs to be attended to and do some research on how to correct that before you go and start the the detailing job and then you do it and you collect the feedback right another thing that you can do is do a bit of door-to-door in your local area in your neighborhood and i know it seems hard but trust me like muster your courage go out there and do it the first time you do things is always the scariest but once you get used to it it'll be second nature so do some door-to-door knocking and just offer people your services of course when you start off you're not going to have a huge inventory of services that you're going to offer you want to stay nice and simple so usually we do some interior work a bit of exterior work maybe a combination of both but nothing too complex more on that later when we talk about what services you should be offering when you start off but yeah just do some door-to-door maybe pass some flyers around another great way is to attend local car shows or to join car clubs now i remember in 2004 i had one of my cars at the time was a nissan santra ser spec v so kind of a sporty version right with a 2.5 liter engine from the nissan altima and so it was the the years of tuning the fast and the furious movies were out and it was a super fun time and so i joined my local car club which was the nissan performance club here in montreal canada and uh we'd reunite once a month at a restaurant and basically fill the parking lot with all sorts of cars and people were noticing that i always had the cleanest and most awesome looking ride of all of them there and so i started offering my services so it was people like me who were inclined to want to keep their cars looking nice but didn't necessarily have the skill set to do so and so they hired me to take care of their vehicles and it just ballooned and exploded like i remember that summer it was crazy i was doing four to five cars a day uh spending 10 12 15 hours just working on those vehicles and that allowed me to buy a lot of mods so modifications for the vehicle the sound system performance parts so on and so forth and um just to start also building a budget to increase the quality of my products to reinvest in the business as well to get some better equipment some tools that i had always dreamt of because you always start up small right you don't necessarily need everything and to become or to get into debt to start your detailing business that's one thing i want to hammer in this video to get that in your heads is that you don't have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to start your business do not do that you start off with a basic budget we're going to talk about the starting budget later on in the video so stay tuned all the way till the end but you're going to see that you don't need that much to start up and then as you're growing and you're expanding you're going to be offering more services you're obviously going to be becoming more profitable and you're going to reinvest that money to get better products better tools better equipment to be able to expand even further in the types of services that you're offering so yeah the car clubs is usually a a great thing to to go to and to attend because usually there's a lot of people who absolutely love their cars and their rides and you know if you're a car lover like me how important our cars are to us and we want to keep them looking great all the time so that's a great thing and yeah just don't be scared approach people have this heart to heart with them offer your services act professional as well dress the part right you don't want to look like a slob that's another key thing when you're doing detailing don't forget that you're going into usually what's a person's second biggest expense after their house usually in their life and uh you're getting into their intimate areas right figuratively speaking uh but still so their vehicle is their prized possession and you want to look professional and you want to take care of it as if it's your own so always keep that in mind and what will set you apart is the quality of your work so again like i said before you have to be detail-oriented that's one key thing don't you have to not be scared of putting some sweat equity because it's manual labor it's back breaking labor as well but if you're someone that likes to work hard well again you can make your dreams come true a little trick that i had back in the day that i can share with you guys to start off and and just get your name out there is when you're doing a detailed job what i liked to do back in the day is take some pictures right before and after so i would post that on the car forum for example and people were able to see the car in the state when it came to me and how it left after i had taken care of it and had done a full detailing job and so i think a picture is worth a thousand words and that got tons of customers to want to reach out um today it's even easier because you can hook up and i highly recommend that you start off with a facebook account and an instagram account because social media is the king today that's one of the easiest way to spread the word around that you're doing some awesome job and just share that content so take some pictures or take some mini video clips when you're working perhaps even a tick tock account if you want that or even a youtube account hey that's one of the best ways to show the actual work you're doing is you're putting it out there right for people to see with their own eyes and when they see the results when they see how good that car looks in the end they'll be more inclined to want to come and see you so start up your your social media accounts also think about creating a website so not all of that has to be done at the beginning so the free stuff obviously you can do the facebook account and create your instagram account freely at the beginning or even a youtube account if you want and start sharing uh as quickly as you can your results on social media and then as you grow you can invest into having your website more on that in a few seconds because marketing is going to be a big key thing digital marketing today is huge and that's one way that you can rank your business on the google pages right so when people do some research for example let's say you live in san francisco and a person looks for ceramic coding san francisco well you want your website to pop up among the first in the results and to do that you need digital marketing so facebook ads and google ads by the way i dove into those topics so facebook and google ads uh in two in-depth videos for digital marketing on my youtube channel so you can search for those i did those in collaboration with a digital marketing guru who uh basically brought my audience from a to z or a to z on exactly how to do that so basically it's all about seo search engine optimization to help you rank higher in the google pages and the google results so people can find your business very quickly um so yeah as you grow you can start your own website i highly recommend that don't wait too long for that because of course you know everything is digital today we all do research online so you want people to find you uh because if there's no way for people to find your business you can be the best detailer in the world if they don't know where to find you well they're not going to come to you right so there are some easy websites like wix or godaddy if you want a company to host your website or find easy ways to create web pages it doesn't have to be this fancy thing once again all you want is a tool for you guys to be able to rank higher on search results and then the work is going to speak for itself also you might want to get some business cards done right so again um early on in your entrepreneur endeavors well you want to get some business card because when if you go for example at car clubs uh car meets and stuff like that well you can pass your cards around so if you tell somebody hey if you want to hook up for some car detailing well of course reach out to me you give your business card and boom you're good to go and that also makes you look super professional okay so topic number three is probably something uh that i get asked a lot is what is the starting budget so what amount of money do you need to start a car detailing business now there isn't one good answer but one thing i can tell you do not put yourself into debt to start a detailing business any detailing professional will tell you this there is no need to spend tens of thousands of dollars to start off with the best equipment the best pressure washers the best tools the best machine polishers uh to get a fleet of two or three different trucks put the lettering on the trucks uh get some crazy uniforms and t-shirts and all that kind of stuff and the best products out there no guys you have to first start by doing the work with the basics because you're going to be offering the basic packages when you start off so that'll be in our in uh later on in the topics right when we talk about what products and services you should be offering but basically again do not put yourself into debt and as a general rule of thumb a good starting budget is anywhere from 500 to roughly a thousand uh but that's really the max that you should be spending uh closer to 500 bucks that's more than enough you're going to get an entry level pressure washer for example so when we talk about well what tools you need what equipment and what products you need a few basic things so you're going to need things like a pressure washer a few buckets some wash mitts some microfiber towels you're going to get stuff like applicators right for tire dressing stuff like that can be microfiber applicators or foam applicators you're going to want to get a vacuum an extension cord potentially a clay bar a steam cleaner a carpet extractor again it depends on which services you'll be offering when you start off but the basic basic tools and do not go for the high-end stuff you don't need that right away always remember that you're gonna make some profit eventually and when you do then you can reinvest that amount into your business and continue growing so by reinvesting then you can purchase higher end equipment or stuff that you didn't have in other tools you might want to get an entry-level machine polisher if you want to apply some liquid waxes or liquid sealants or do some quick paint correction but you don't need any crazy tools or equipment to start off guys uh 24 years ago when i first started at 16 years old i had a few wash buckets some wash mitts we didn't even have microfiber towels technology didn't exist back then so we had some basic terry cloths and for products you're going to need a ph neutral car shampoo get a wax free shampoo because you don't want to have any protection because sometimes you might have something like a ceramic coating on a vehicle you don't want to apply waxes on that so just get a good basic ph neutral car shampoo you're going to want to get a glass cleaner a tire dressing an all-purpose cleaner to take care of cleaning stuff right inside and out you can dilute that at different ratios a spray sealant or spray wax so that is going to act as your protection so hydrophobic properties give some uv protection some slickness gloss that kind of stuff and protect the paintwork you also want to get something like a tire dressing obviously and an interior detailer to help you quickly clean and protect the interior surfaces and potentially also some leather cleaning stuff leather care such as a leather cleaner and a leather sealant or leather protectant because you want to protect those against dye transfer and the friction damage and that kind of stuff so as you see the list isn't that it isn't that long right so you need some basic tools basic equipment a few brushes and uh you're gonna go a long way with that believe me everyone who starts and is successful to this day uh they all have a common trait we all started with the basic tools and equipment so today i have i'm lucky enough to be able to have like seven or eight different polishers right the most expensive stuff like the flex 3401 i have the rupas lhr 15 mark ii and that kind of stuff uh i have some cordless polishers and i have the best pressure washer in a german-made krenzla 1122 tst that's way over a thousand bucks by the way but you don't need that so i started with a basic karcher k5 back in the day and uh that was more than enough even a garden hose if you detail from your own house that's still good enough as long as you have a water source right what more can you want and so as you expand as you grow you can reinvest and then purchase the stuff like you need perhaps you'll want a car dryer with filtered hot dry air uh later on uh you'll perhaps want a more performing carpet extractor if that's a part of your business that you see also you're gonna re-evaluate according to what really works for you so if people hire you a lot for some interior work well maybe you're going to want to step up to a a more industry or high-grade product such as a better performing carpet extractor or something that's higher performance as far as a steam cleaner goes right so you're going to readjust according to what you see also people hire you for the most or what generates the most income for you if you're an expert in pain correction and you do a lot of machine polishing and you eventually hire a few people to help you out as well and you have some employees and machine polishing is a big part of your business well then perhaps yeah you're going to want to invest in some higher end higher quality machines that can do eight to ten hours of pain correction a day non-stop and can be used and abused and uh still be some crazy workhorses for your business but again do not get into debt keep that in mind when you start your business always start small work with some products that are not necessarily the highest end as well there are a lot of brands now that have some high performance products that are available even at your local hardware store or auto parts store so if i look at companies like meguiars for example or turtle wax they have some very good very affordable products that you can purchase that will still give you professional level results if you use them correctly because a lot of detailing is how you do the work and not necessarily the products that you use right and there's also brands like again meguiars that have a professional line of products that you can get in gallon sizes that you can also dilute so of course dilutable products means that it's going to go a lot a lot longer for you and you're going to stretch your budget a lot more because it'll be more efficient as far as your spending budget goes because when you dilute products you're generating a lot more product for the money that you're spending so the basic products the basic tools and basically that'll get you going but again keep it small i like to tell my audience to always start small and see what works for you and that'll be a minimal risk right so if you see that the business is not working and after a few months give it time though because it takes time to build an audience it takes time to build a customer base and so after six months to a year reevaluate reassess and if you started off with just a budget of 500 bucks or a thousand bucks it's not the end of the world if it doesn't work out for you so you can go back to whatever previous job you had or maybe you launch yourself in another endeavor so you gotta first do start off kick things off get the basics get the job done get cust new customers in by friends and family that kind of stuff and then graduating to perhaps car clubs or some new customers get the word out there you can also tell them to leave reviews on your youtube channel or leave reviews on your instagram page or facebook page or on your website that is very important to get customer feedback and to get more customers as well um we're going to get into that so get the new leads in just a few seconds but yeah get just get started that's what everybody is going to tell you as well is forget about your worries forget about your scares do it go out there start off get the basic tools and equipment start doing the job and you're going to see things are going to start like steamrolling and it's going to be that snowball effect and lo and behold you're going to be uh super successful in a matter of no time if you put in again sweat equity hard work and you're always rethinking things so re-evaluate take a step back every now and then assess where you're at now and is it profitable are you doing things right what can you do to readjust you can even sign up to the ida right the international detailers association so to first pass some tests online to see if you have the skills necessary to be to have the accreditation and also get a lot of support from the detailing community and not only starting your business but what you can do to further grow so the detailing community is absolutely uh amazing and there's a lot of good people out there that want to help transmit basically their knowledge their tips and tricks to you to help you grow because the stronger we are as a community the the better we all work together well everybody's going to be successful and that's what we want we want to educate the population out there uh that detailing is super important to have things done to your vehicle and if it's done by a professional detailer well it's going to help keep their in investment for some people or at least the their babies which are their cars looking uh better and greater and increasing the resale value that kind of stuff and have more enjoyment of driving a freshly cleaned and detailed vehicle so topic number four how do you get new customers and how do you generate new leads well first of all like i said a bit earlier on in the video the very important thing in 2021 and moving forward is going to be social media so again start your instagram accounts start your facebook accounts it can be a ticktock account or a youtube channel those are all free tools get the word out there show the work that you're doing again a video or a picture is worth a thousand words and that's how people are gonna get to know you uh also ask for your customers to leave reviews on your social sites or your website and that also gets people going and that's that gets the communication started and traction going for you as well you can potentially even offer rebates or discounts to clients that refer other customers to you right so imagine one customer refers two or three people to you and then those two or three people refer two or three more so you see that snowball effect and how exponential that effect can be well you can offer an incentive to those customers that help drive new customer leads to you by offering special discounts or rebates or some packages or maybe an extra service on a detailing job that they have in the future so it'll make them happy it'll make you happy because you're generating new leads and yeah everybody's happy at the end of the day also as you grow it's going to be very important that you guys start learning the ropes about digital marketing so ad spending is crucial any successful detailing business out there so not just joe blow at the corner of the street uh that has a car wash business we're talking a truly successful detailing uh business with a true business entrepreneur that's behind it uh like you guys want to become hopefully if you or you're watching this video you're going to have to think about setting a budget aside every month to have digital marketing done on google ads and facebook ads those are two crucial things because they're going to help you key in to the audience that you're looking for so according to where you live you'll be able to have your publicity posted in front of eyes of people in your area first of all because obviously if a person lives in another country they're not going to hire you for their detailing services so by having those companies the the giants so facebook ads and google ads work for you uh with that digital marketing spending that you're doing well basically you're honing in to what your target audience should be so are there more males purchasing detailing services in your area is it more females are there people 18 to 24 years of age or is it people over there in their mid-30s or in their 50s is it a retiree type environment that you live in basically it's going to help you hone in once again and drive the people that are truly looking for detailing services out there you'll be able to find them get eyeballs watching your website and wanting to hire you and once again i have two a majorly important videos on my channel that i did with a digital marketing guru and specialist on how to do those things in very very my new details if you guys want to learn to geek out on that if you want to do that on your own for example so go check out those two tutorials i'll leave the links in the description as well to those two videos they're super important but you guys really have to learn the ropes of digital ad spending because that is how you're going to generate new leads because there's two ways of generating leads right you have the organic way to grow so basically well um word of mouth so person to person hopefully you get the word around or on some websites or posting or going to car meets and talking to people so that's the natural organic way of growing so that's a slower process but it still does work a lot of people have been successful for decades using that older technology if we want or that old-school way of doing things um but now we're in the 2020s and digital marketing is key just look at everything you watch right even the ads on youtube they're always honing in on what audience is watching and which ads to target to the people that are watching so for example if you're inclined to want to purchase some headphones well there is a high chance that you've been searching for that online and you're going to see some ads appear for headphones we sometimes things think it's magic but that's just basically the internet that understands or the programming and the computer stuff that goes behind the scenes kind of understands your search criteria what you've been looking for your search history that kind of stuff and they'll suggest ads to you that are more um highly to be successful because that's what you were looking for so same goes for your business you want to hone into digital marketing and go out there and sell yourself by having a marketing strategy by having a budget to have some ads created for you and once you set that you set it you forget it and it'll be generating leads for you in no time and yeah you're going to grow exponentially quicker so that's the second way of doing things and probably the most efficient way today all right so the fifth topic is how to price your services so that's another super big question that's a question that's a lot harder to answer because i will say that prices vary greatly depending on location and geography so for example a detailing job say an exterior just a quick wash clay and wax so if you have that job done in california versus new york in the united states or if you had that done in montreal canada or perhaps in paris in france or cape town south africa well i can guarantee you that all those places for that same service done by the same person would have different prices so depending on the country you live in the prices are going to vary greatly and you'll even notice sometimes in the same city depending on which neighborhood you're in it can also vary greatly so there's a lot of factors that play into that so what is your clientele what is the average income of the people who live there uh what do the people in that geography or environment look for so if you're in a rainier place versus a more desert environment or a hot and humid uh or a colder area with winters so people won't be necessarily looking for the same types of services right so your best bet that i always give as a tip to people who want to learn how to do their pricing is search for online detail shops that will detail retail shops right that are next to you where you live so some professional detail shops and look at their pricing scheme or go out there and have a talk with the owner and see what services they offer and what prices they offer as well so you can be competitive now don't do the mistake that a lot of rookies do is to under price yourself or undercut yourself you do not want to do that so don't do that ten dollar detail that you're going to spend seven hours on for 10 or 15 bucks uh first of all you're not going to be profitable and at the end of the day don't forget you're a business if you're a business you have to generate income to generate income you have to price your things accordingly right so uh if you have a shop that you're going to be renting you have to account for water the utilities the electricity that kind of stuff the rent of course on the property if you're a mobile detailer it could perhaps be your rental vehicle if it's a truck or a small suv that you have it can be your own car as well it doesn't have to be a truck right when you start off with the basic equipment but basically factor in what your expenses are and what you need to be profitable at the end of the day never forget that you as the owner you have to look at your own interest too now there's one tip that i also want to share is to never over deliver on services so what you want to over deliver on is the quality of the work that you put out so those are two different things right so when you're doing your job of course always over deliver on the quality of the work that you're doing meaning that you're gonna go for the little details you're gonna go that extra mile to make sure that everything is done to perfection that there are no water drip marks if you've washed the car right uh there's no unattended spots or scratches or swirls that you didn't attend to if you were looking for a paint correction for example or if you applied a wax you want a uniform application and the car to look good not any spots that you forgot right be proud of what you do have a way to do a walk around of the vehicle before you present it to the customer and um well do your own troubleshooting so go around have a checklist perhaps and look at what you're doing and look at the end result and make sure you're putting out the best quality work out there now what i don't want people to do is have some have a tendency when they start off that they think they have to over deliver in the amount of services that they provide that first of all gives false expectations for the future for your viewers as for your customers so for example let's say they paid you just to do an exterior wash well a lot of people have the tendency to say you know what i'll throw in for free the interior detail as well well first of all you're going to be working harder for something that the customer did not even pay for which is a big no-no in the detailing business if they paid you for an exterior wash deliver on that exterior wash now what happens if you also give them that interior detail for free well you're setting them up now that for that small exterior price they also got an interior detail so imagine what's going to happen the day that you're going to want to charge for the interior detail as well they're going to be like well hey last time you gave it to me for free now you're charging me so don't set them up for expectations that are unrealistic and don't over deliver by giving more services than what they paid for if you follow a lot of the mobile detailers that are out there especially or professional detailing channels what they'll tell you is exactly that when they first started they really really wanted to get their the name out there and they started offering free stuff and it was super complicated because it was supposed to be a two hour job it ended up being a four to five hour job because they were doing extras right so the person paid just for the interior detail well they also washed the exterior or they like i said they they paid just for the exterior wash and the person or the detailer decided to do the interior as well or perhaps an engine bay detail for free just to make sure that the customer's super happy well that didn't do anyone justice or didn't serve anyone well because you set that customer up for disappointment later on when you're gonna have to charge and you're basically working for free which is not a good thing so again what you want to do is don't undercut yourself price your things appropriately to what the competition is doing you want to stay competitive but don't undersell yourself and certainly don't over deliver in the the the number of services that you're giving give what the customer paid for but over deliver on the quality of work that you're doing so that's an awesome tip and that's going to be a way for you guys to um to basically get more customers in they're going to be happy and satisfied with uh basically what they saw and the work that you did also never forget to uh to start off with some detailing packages that you feel comfortable with don't go offering 12 to 15 different services when you first start off it's going to be overwhelming for you and you're going to quickly feel that well you're setting yourself up for disappointment and for failure usually start off with three packages is my recommendation so an exterior wash an interior detail and perhaps the third is the full detail meaning an inside and out cleaning and as you grow from there and as you learn new skills as well and as you reinvest in your business to get new tools new products and new equipment that's where you can start offering things like paint correction if the person wants to remove scratches and swirls increase gloss and that kind of stuff you can start offering waxing services paint sealant services or the newest trend that is very profitable by the way is ceramic coatings or graphene coatings so those little glass bottles those offer protection that lasts anywhere from two plus years all the way up to seven years from some professional coatings out there so it's just a more durable form see that as a wax or sealant on steroids right typical carnauba waxes will give you two to three months of protection pain sealants will give you four to six months of protection and ceramic and graphene coatings last for years so higher gloss um a uh easier to wash during your maintenance washes hydrophobic properties uv protection slickness gloss a bunch of stuff so they're the ultimate forms of paint protection but to do that it requires a lot more steps especially for preparation i have a bunch of tutorials by the way on my channel on how to do anything that's car detail detailing related so hopefully you'll go and check those videos out so from washing the car inside and out to applying a wax or which products to buy which equipment to purchase how to do apply a ceramic coating or graphene coating i have tutorials on everything so feel free go watch them and yeah so don't start with too many services and as you grow first of all you'll see what you prefer right what you prefer doing some like being interior specialists uh some love doing paint corrections others like me now i only do high-end details so interior and exterior which includes a full ceramic coating or graphene coating application so the new car preps is what i like to do but that's after 24 years of detailing that's not how i started off so you're going to reassess re-evaluate again take that step back as we said before have a general overview of what you've been doing see what has been more successful for you if you see that it's more the interior detail jobs that generate a lot of profit for you we'll hone in on that and maybe target your audience more for that and get the equipment that's necessary to do a better job in that specific thing right so if you can find your niche inside the detailing world good for you and so yeah as you'll grow you'll reassess and see what works for you and then branch off offering more and more services reinvesting in your business spending on digital ads digital marketing uh increasing your quality of products and buying uh heavier duty machinery equipment tools and that kind of stuff so we're tying all that in so the most important is to go out there guys enjoy doing some detailing get your first customers in regardless of how you have to do it um get them in do the job see the results see if you enjoy doing it and keep a smile keep working hard and keep reinvesting in your business and you should become successful by the way to all of the people out there who have started a a detailing business thanks to my videos or thanks to me being kind of an inspiration i want to hear from you once again i know you guys leave some comments in other videos but drop the comments in the comment section under the video to help inspire others that if you guys can do it anybody else can do it as well as long as they want to work hard put sweat equity in and they're passionate about detailing so passion guys and hard work are probably two of the takeaways if you have to learn one thing or two skills that you'll need above anything else if you want to be successful and and basically destroy your competition if you're the hardest worker and if you have the biggest passion for what you're doing well you're you'll contaminate your entire neighborhood and further even more because everybody's going to want to come and see you and your detailing business is going to grow to awesome standards so hopefully i'm able to transmit my passion and knowledge through my videos if you enjoyed this by the way smash the thumbs up button to show me your support if you want if you have any ideas for future videos or if you want me to dig in more into depth about one of these topics for starting your detailing business again leave a comment in the comment section under the video if you're new to my channel please consider clicking the subscribe button that's found under this video and that way you'll subscribe to my channel and never miss my future videos so you continue to learn more about car detailing all the products equipment tips tricks and techniques and by the way in all my videos i always leave links to the tools products and equipment in the description underneath the video for you guys to check them out so like i always say guys well thanks for being there thanks for watching thanks for being faithful to the pen the organizer channel and don't forget to keep it tight keep it clean and i'll see you on the next one you

Channel: Pan The Organizer

Views: 277,759

Keywords: How to start a car detailing business and become successful, how to start a mobile car detailing business, start a car wash business, start a mobile car wash business, pan the organizer, car wash business plan, car detailing, auto detailing, car wash, car wash near me, car cleaning, mobile car wash, mobile detailing, detailing cars, open a car wash, car wash business, mobile car wash business, how to start a detailing business and make money, ammo nyc, the detail geek

Id: WV3FJcWf77I

Length: 43min 38sec (2618 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021