How to Start an Auto Detailing Business and Make $1,000 A DAY!!

today we're going to be diving into a mobile detailing company where the owner initially started it as a passion project and turned it into kind of a full-time side hustle and we're going to be finding out how on average he's able to make anywhere from $800 to $11,200 in a single day out of one trailer we're going to be breaking down all the numbers and diving into everything you need to know so make sure you stay till the end of the [Music] video we're standing here in front of a 67 Mustang right you're going to detail that here in just a minute but I'm curious you know for people watching what is your most common kind of package that you do right and then also um what are the different packages that you offer there's technically four different pre-built packages that I have now with that being said you can call me and we can kind of tailor something specifically to you now in terms of the most popular it's what I call my tier 4 Platinum package which in short what it is is it's a complete overhaul inside and out of your car it's what I call the time for sale detail meaning it is as perfect as it can possibly be with the products and processes that I have um and those are always so it's inclusive on the exterior of we're going to do a wash we're going to do a clay barring and a clay barring gets rid of a lot of like the sandpapery type texture you may feel on your car it's also going to get a little more depth and Clarity to the paint from there we move into what's called a scratch and swirl remover now some people like well I don't have scratches on my cars or I don't have swirls or well sometimes you can only see them in certain lights but there's also more functionality to a scratch and swirl remover than just removing scratches and swirls it provides more depth more clarity more vibrancy to the paint and really gives you that whole mirror effect that you see a lot of times um now if that doesn't take out all scratches and swirls we can move up in severity of product meaning one's a higher grade for more of a deeper scratch or swirl um of course you have those ones where it's paint is completely removed off the car and you're going to have to go touchup paint for that and then in terms of finishing off the exterior you're going to do a nice wax and sealant combo is what I do um I do offer ceramic coating packages as well but a lot of times for most clients they're like hey I want the car to be protected I don't want to spend you know an exorbitant amount of money but I also want to make sure it's taken care of so that tier four Platinum package you're talking about what's that going to run somebody on average for something like this to do a full tier four Platinum package is going to be 550 now that being said that's going to take me somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 and 1 half to 6 hours cuz you know a lot of people like to break it down to you know is it an hourly charge is it charge by the job I charge by the job okay now we always didn't start that way right we had to start out lower when the business began but I had to prove myself in the marketplace to say hey here's what I can do build a reputation so give me a quick overview of what we have inside of the trailer okay now and really quick too give me an overview of the trailer itself right like what are we looking at here how long of a trailer are we standing in roughly if you know off the top of your head and then uh and then what do we have going on in inside here this is a 6x12 uh enclosed trailer 2015 Diamond cargo when I got it well it didn't look the best um but you know I feel like finding a diamond in the rough and putting in some work to make sure it looks a certain way is important so like I did the diamond plated fender flares on the outside obviously I had the whole trailer wrapped um here on the inside I laid the wood floors of course I brought in some of my favorite cars pictures wise now in terms of like products and what I have in here I do um have of course just your typical we have a nice pressure washer here this is Ryobi 2700 PSI um this right here is your spotless Water Systems this is like a deionizer um these two down spouts right here are actually filters so what happens is is when the water comes out of your hose Piet from your home it goes through here through the filters into the pressure washer and then out onto the car to make sure that it's safe and clean water that's actually touching your vehicle from there of course you know we've got our ladder 8ft ladder especially for the larger vehicles um bigger trucks things of that sometimes boats we do boats um that works out well always have to have a hose nearby cuz you know some people don't don't have a hose at the house so you got to make sure you can still be accessible from that standpoint back behind you we've got our two buckets that's called the uh the two bucket method right you have soap and water in one and you got water in another when you go to wipe a car with the soap and water after it's already been soaped up you're not going to take all that dirty water and put it right back into the clean bucket you're going to want to go ahead and put in the dirty one so then go back to the clean one to go back to the paint to make sure that it's always a clean surface that's touching the vehicle um we have different types of towels you know we have these towels here where these are what I call the less expensive towels right these are 30 towels for like 12 bucks but these are onetime use okay they never get used again for me they're just a way that I can you know polish up a rim or clean a door jam or wipe down the dash or whatever it may be and then here we kind of have our higher end towels and these are for um removing waxes and sealants and ceramic coats and stuff like that now those of course those get washed with a special microfiber wash that cleans out any existing wax and sealant that may be in there and then make it safe for the the next uh customer sure yep um in terms of stuff here you know we have our popup tent so during the summertime uh when we do have to wash the vehicle outside of course we try to avoid that direct contact with the Sun so that pop-up tent does amazing things for that yep you know we have our dual action buffer over here the nice thing about a dual action is it spins on two axises so when you're going across the paint the paint doesn't actually get heated up kind of like what You' see from a rotary polisher where it only spins on one so it's easier to potentially get a burnt Mark in the paint um so that's why I went with the dual action polisher um you know we got little little things like we've got our vacuum we've got LED lights to detail into the night if need be I actually have detailed from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. before um whenever the client needs us we're kind of there got to finish the job too that's right absolutely exactly um we got the old cart cuz that saves the back so when I'm Wheeling around the vehicles and I'm doing the different processes versus trying to bend over or squat um that definitely saves the lower back so let's see you watch a car all right let's do it all [Music] right talking about some of the different products you actually use on dat you know where are you getting the product if the product vary depending on what kind of car you're detailing uh talk to me about that first of all the company that I use for the majority of my products is called Chemical Guys okay um you see lots of different companies out there right Maguire's Adams polishes Chemical Guys there's a variation of different companies out there and you know I think they all do a pretty good job of presenting a uh a premium product the reason I went with Chemical Guys was because I had heard about them prior and had use their stuff on my own Vehicles so I knew hey if I can trust it on my own Vehicles then I can trust that to go and use use on a client's vehicle sure um there are different types of soaps um all the Soaps that I use are ph balanced so there's no hardness in the water no water spots things of that nature now this car for example is painted right so we can just use what's what some most people think of is like a a soapy wet regular W or uh wash right it's just a regular soap however there are different properties in it that help upkeep different types of things so for example there's a wax and sealant already on this vehicle so I'm using a soap that has wax properties already built into it to help reinforce the code of wax that's already on there so the client gets longevity out of it right um for example you know what we all I think we saw the H1 Hummer earlier that thing is matte there so there's special type of soap there's a matte soap and then there's matte um touch-up detailer that we'll use on that wrap to keep that wrap upkept sure now in terms of the products that I use like I said I use majority of the time Chemical Guys now you have your oneoff little Products that come from different companies that may be more intense or work better than what an existing company has to offer I hope you're enjoying the business tour so far really quick if you wouldn't mind if you know of a business that you think would be a really cool tour or if you own a business that you would like to get featured all you have to do is text 480 418 5339 the word business okay again 48418 5339 the word business and we'll see if you qualify or if the business qualif I for us to go ahead and tour it now let's just go ahead and get back to the tour is it just like detailing cars until you get better and better like how did you learn when you got in yeah so there are various different ways so there are classes right there are like internationally recognized like you could almost like um when you go and get like a real estate license or you go and get a license for different things you can get a license for detailing but it's not something that's obviously required to get into the space for me I've been doing it since I a very young age um now for the more intricate processes what I did of recent was when I started the business a little over three years ago I actually went on to Chemical Guys specifically their YouTube channel and they demo their own products and different processes on vehicles so you can kind of learn through that way but bottom line it's reps it's like reps in the gym it's like reps you know with whatever your profession is being a doctor doing different surgeries I mean if you're the guy that takes care of the golf clubs at a golf course you know it's it's repetition for I need to I'm confident with my own TR on my own I go somebody else's but then again when you've done over 300 cars you finally get to the point where you're like okay it's just second nature right so you learn I learned from one watching YouTube videos to reinforce the different products that I was utilizing but two I've just been doing it since I was a young kid so for me it's something that's been ingrained to me for a long time all right so everybody wants to know anytime I do a business tour people are watching they want to know the numbers they're like how much money does he make make you know like what can he make in a day what can he make in a week so just generically you know kind of out loud here what do you make on average like per month like and I'm just talking Topline Revenue right I'm not talking about expens anything like that so Topline revenue and then what's the best month you've ever had in my first couple months of doing it it was as low as 2,000 it can go as high as the best month I've had was 106 okay um it usually averages out somewhere around 77500 but again there's a lot of cost associated with that right um and then you have some months too like the summer months are slower right those months are usually a hell of a lot less than 7500 because you have snowbirds they're are back at their homes where it's a lot cooler your day-to-day clients they're up at their place in Flagstaff or in San Diego um so numbers on a monthly basis in terms of Topline Revenue can vary um and it also depends upon you know how many repeat clients I have as well as you know do I also have the time to work um you know cuz it's not the only thing that I do uh this is by far my favorite thing to do but it's not uh not the main do you find that doing kind of the introductory kind of wash like the basic wash that you might get at like a car wash is is going to even be profitable for somebody or do you recommend that they just kind of stick to the upper echelon you know kind of Premier package if you will it's going to depend upon I think from my experience a couple different things how much value do you place in your vehicles right do you plays value in your vehicles to the point where you want them looking good all the time you're a car person or you just you love the car that you have um or are you somebody that is just a means to get from point A to point B so I think value is perceived in multiple different ways so for me I do do washes the answer to that is yes however the caveat is I won't do a wash for you until I've done a full detail and the reason for that is I can't guarantee that a quote regular wash is going to produce the desired end result if I haven't done a full paint correction prior yep um it is a little bit more costly you know it starts out at 150 for something like this for a basic wash and goes up from there but my definition of a basic wash goes a hell of a lot more in depth than just showing up spraying it off and vacuuming it a lot more that goes into it big massive difference right between what you're going to do and what a car wash is going to do on the corner when you're driving down the road and you pull into a car wash and and you got the things you know spinning on your car and all that crap right not good for the paint by the way the last thing that you want for a car is to go through a regular car wash right especially if it's a car that you care about so basically then what I'm hearing is you're primarily going to be more of the Premier kind of luxury car wash if you will right now obviously you'll do the more basic introductory level stuff but you're going to tailor your your business towards maybe the car Enthusiast more than maybe somebody else might right I would say that's absolutely correct um I do do I have plenty of clients who are just your daily drivers right they've got a pickup truck they've got a Toyota Camry they got a BMW they got a Ford Focus I have plenty of those clients now those clients I think also just love to have a clean car I would say if I could put words in their mouth but to answer your question yes I am more of I've placed myself in the marketplace purposely on the higher end of things because of the end result that I'm able to get for my client what does Insurance look like on a detailing company right like if somebody might want to get involved you know like I would imagine you have to have some sort of policy I could be wrong right maybe you don't need anything but like if God forbid you were to damage a vehicle how do you kind of navigate that I mean really that's one of the best parts about America you can start a business um that's why we love one of the reasons why we love this country but with that being said you know detailing specifically like you don't have to have a license to get started you don't have to have an insurance policy I do I recommend you get one and it's really a liability policy and there's different types of coverage right you can go up to a certain dollar amount and you don't have to go super high I mean you do run the risk potentially of burning paint in different spots when you get out of polisher on different vehicles um with that being said you know my policy goes up to $200,000 I mean really you're only at like a Bugatti level for a $200,000 paint job and I don't even know if it's that much sure um so the policy is more than I would ever need but I think it's rather it's better to be safe than sorry as they say so if something were to come up um you can go ahead and have insurance take care of that now most of the time you know if you get a a scratch this long that you know is into the paint so to speak and it needs to be repainted or touched up I think a lot of times it'll be better to maybe if you can out of your own pocket versus those crazy insurance premium yeah way you're not they're not jacking up your insurance after the fact right that's right hey knock on wood uh to date 3 like 26 cars never had one issue yeah which is [Music] incredible in order to make you know the 5 grand 7 Grand 8 Grand 10 grand a month whatever it might be what does it cost you what are the things that you have to pay for obviously gas right like you're driving all around the valley I would imagine um what are some other things that obviously soap like is there anything I'm not thinking of that you have to buy on a continuous basis to kind of keep it going yeah so you're right gas you got gas costs um when gas prices are obviously high it's not good um gas is a big cost we have insurance every month of course but insurance you know stays fixed for at least six months um then you do have your product cost Now product cost has gone up over the last 3 years or so um due to external circumstances we'll say um and with that product costs go up it's hard for me to determine exactly how much I'm going to use because it depends upon how many clients I have so if it's a slower week or a slower month product cost comes down because I'm not going through as much um but other than that you know gas Insurance product I mean you've got wear and tear right like the truck for example oil changes or when brakes come due or things like that but other than that it's really a business that is a low barrier to entry but you also have to be able to make sure that you can do it appropriately and in the right way to be able to build it you know how you would like to build it sure you talk about the low barrier of Entry talk to me about that barrier of Entry right but if you were just to go today buy the trailer and all the equipment that you showed me do you have any idea roughly what that would cost yeah you know I think all in I was right around the $155,000 Mark give or take a little bit more a little bit less but again that's also because I strategically did the wrapped enclosed trailer because I already had a truck now for somebody who may drive a car and wants to start a business like auto detailing they're either going to have to buy a truck and a trailer or that's why you see the Vans a lot of times and of course that's going to be a larger startup cost because now you're paying for another vehicle more Insurance things of that nature so for me I believe it was right around 15,000 okay yeah so pretty low barrier of Entry at the end of the day yeah abely grand scheme of things right when you're comparing it to maybe a different uh industry that one could get into absolutely no it's uh definitely a lower but you know again you got to know what you're doing all right Andrew so I'm curious what can you make on average you know in a day right if you're out there and you're grinding it out all day what could you expect to kind of pull in on a day like that you know um there's two answers to that question the answer in the beginning would be anywhere probably between $250 and $500 a day um now give or take a little over three years later we're looking that anywhere between $800 and $1,200 per day which is truly incredible right and how many cars do you do in a day like that you know usually for the $8 to $1,200 a day it's really only going to be two vehicles um when you have roughly you know all work a 12-h hour workday and within that 12 hours you know you've got anywhere between four and 6 hours per car and then a little bit of travel time in between there because you're really detailing the car right I mean we're not talking about a basic Car Wash which we'll talk about here in a little while right I mean we're talking about a full-blown detail of a high-end car typically absolutely typically I would say 80% of the time what I'm doing is more of a full in-depth detail um you know the profit margin especially goes up as well when you have multiple vehicles at one house because you have less time traveling you have less cost in gas and you're able to just stay in one location and do everything simultaneously yeah imagine your profit margin would be significantly higher if you're able to do that right I mean um ideally if somebody only has one car it's like hey can I clean your wife's car can I clean your friend's car like give me another car to clean if I can right yeah absolutely you know and I think that's part of the power of word of mouth is uh making sure that you are out there saying hey you know I've got time for this vehicle or that vehicle or hey you know I know you booked this appointment for Saturday morning my Saturday afternoon is actually available do you have any other vehicles you'd like me to do while I'm there yeah so being preemptive and asking those questions building your book a business right building the clientele that you've been able to build you know you talk about not really running any ads or any promotions or anything like that mostly Word of Mouth correct me if I'm wrong that is right um that is one thing that I've always prided myself on and one thing I've able I've been able to do very well since a young age is network and relationship build with people of all walks of life people 20 years of age people of 80 years of age anywhere in between different occupations whatever it may be so I kind of leaned into my relationship building aspect and used that to then when I'm at the gym it turns into hey how's your day going oh you know it's great what oh that's awesome or oh it was bad oh I was it bad well you know at work it was just oh what do you do for work then all of a sudden they go what do you do for work and you're like oh I have this detailing business and they're like oh I just bought a brand new Porsche like I and you never know where the conversation's going to go but if you're not willing to get out there and talk with people you're not going to be able to build a business so long story short for this business it's been entirely built off Word of Mouth referrals and of course you got the wrap on the trailer so people see in a different parking lot or driving down the road but I would say about 90% of the time it's been word of mouth and relationships yeah it's truly incredible you got to get out there and you got to talk to more people and at the end of the day they say your network will end up being your net worth one day absolutely I agree [Music] thank you so much for watching the business tour with Andrew with Freedom's Elite detailers obviously Andrew has built a very very cool company so definitely go check him out all of his links will be down in the description below also if you wouldn't mind subscribe to my channel check out all my other amazing content we run multiple companies and make a lot of really cool content on that as well so definitely consider subscribing and smashing the like button I'll see you in a future video

Channel: Austin Zaback

Views: 13,978

Keywords: mobile detailing, car detailing, car detailing business, mobile detailing business, mobile car wash business, mobile car detailing, mobile car wash, auto detailing, auto detailing business, mobile detailing setup, mobile car detailing business, how to start a car detailing business, how to start a detailing business, austin zaback, car detailing company, how to start a mobile detailing business, what to buy for car detailing, mobile detail setup, mobile detailing truck setup

Id: jy5qfQTcxAw

Length: 20min 43sec (1243 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2024