Car Detailing Business

[jensen.satake]

Aloha,

I'm starting an Auto Detailing business with my friend; I'm looking for Mentors within the industry & or industry advice you would give to a newcomer.

I appreciate your support.

 

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[Kevinn]

I'm gonna assume you're a teen/young adult. I've just started myself and the best advice I can give you is to advertise on Facebook/Nextdoor. You'll get tons of leads from just one post introducing yourself and asking people if they need detailing. I would recommend starting door to door but I have yet to do so myself. Read up on @perchboy and @trulyandres threads. Lots of good info there. Also what detailing tools do you have?

Also one tip I learned from my car salesman brother. Always assume the sale.

 

[jensen.satake]

I'm gonna assume you're a teen/young adult. I've just started myself and the best advice I can give you is to advertise on Facebook/Nextdoor. You'll get tons of leads from just one post introducing yourself and asking people if they need detailing. I would recommend starting door to door but I have yet to do so myself. Read up on @perchboy and @trulyandres threads. Lots of good info there. Also what detailing tools do you have?

Also one tip I learned from my car salesman brother. Always assume the sale.

Thanks for the response, brother,

When I make the first post introduction, should I charge a price?

Could you also elaborate on "Always Assume the sale?"

 

[Kevinn]

Thanks for the response, brother,

When I make the first post introduction, should I charge a price?

Could you also elaborate on "Always Assume the sale?"

When I made my first post, it was basically along the lines of My name is Kevin. I go to ____ high school. I do car detailing on the side. Please reach out for estimates. I personally didn't put any price in the post.

Putting price in might weed out all the low ballers and attract more serious ones but I liked taking a little hit on profit to get more customers since I'm starting off. Usually I'd tell them $150 starting and they say that it was too high then I would go whats your price and they would say like $100 and I would say deal.

Assuming the sale is basically what it says. Assume the sale. Assume they already bought it. It felt weird for me at first but you're kind of making it harder for them to back out of the sale. Make saying no as awkward as possible.

For me since I don't do door-to-door yet and do it over the phone/text it goes basically like this:
"$150 is a bit too high sorry"
"It's alright, what's your budget?"
"$90"
"I can go to $120 because of tools, chemicals, blah, blah, blah. When are you available for your booking? This Sunday or Saturday?" (Not are you still interested or whatever. It's a lot more awkward to just say no so people end up making an excuse. Then you ask questions about their excuses or whatever it is)

Sorry if its not the best example. I'm about to head to sleep. Good luck with your detailing!

 

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[jensen.satake]

When I made my first post, it was basically along the lines of My name is Kevin. I go to ____ high school. I do car detailing on the side. Please reach out for estimates. I personally didn't put any price in the post.

Putting price in might weed out all the low ballers and attract more serious ones but I liked taking a little hit on profit to get more customers since I'm starting off. Usually I'd tell them $150 starting and they say that it was too high then I would go whats your price and they would say like $100 and I would say deal.

Assuming the sale is basically what it says. Assume the sale. Assume they already bought it. It felt weird for me at first but you're kind of making it harder for them to back out of the sale. Make saying no as awkward as possible.

For me since I don't do door-to-door yet and do it over the phone/text it goes basically like this:
"$150 is a bit too high sorry"
"It's alright, what's your budget?"
"$90"
"I can go to $120 because of tools, chemicals, blah, blah, blah. When are you available for your booking? This Sunday or Saturday?" (Not are you still interested or whatever. It's a lot more awkward to just say no so people end up making an excuse. Then you ask questions about their excuses or whatever it is)

Sorry if its not the best example. I'm about to head to sleep. Good luck with your detailing!

No thank you so much you’re a big help,

Do you still run your detailing business?

Let me know when you’re free to chat, I’d love to ask more questions 1 on 1.

Thanks!

 

[Kevinn]

Wouldn't call it a business yet. Mostly a side hustle as it's just me, my daily driver, and my tools. Gonna start d2d soon as school just ended. Gonna go to the rich neighborhoods and see if they need their Bimmers or Benzes cleaned haha.

 

[trulyandres]

Aloha,

I'm starting an Auto Detailing business with my friend; I'm looking for Mentors within the industry & or industry advice you would give to a newcomer.

I appreciate your support.

Haha I'm the guy Kevinn mentioned. Like he said, start by using Nextdoor. Set up a GMB. Do your friends and family for free and get them to leave reviews on your GMB. Start going door to door in your neighborhood. You'll suck at first, but each week you'll get better, to the point where you'd make more if you hired employees, which is the route I took. Consider paid ads on Nextdoor. Lmk if you have any questions

 

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[lamplinkwhite]

Car Detailing involves detailed touch-ups to repair the Car's paintwork and its overall look. The aim of this is to restore the paintwork by eliminating scratches or swirl marks to make the car look almost brand new like it did when you first drove it out of the showroom.

 

[jensen.satake]

Haha I'm the guy Kevinn mentioned. Like he said, start by using Nextdoor. Set up a GMB. Do your friends and family for free and get them to leave reviews on your GMB. Start going door to door in your neighborhood. You'll suck at first, but each week you'll get better, to the point where you'd make more if you hired employees, which is the route I took. Consider paid ads on Nextdoor. Lmk if you have any questions

Hey man thanks for the advice,

How would I go about create a GMB? Also how would I create a website for a good price with a limited budget.

Thanks man

 

[jensen.satake]

I'm gonna assume you're a teen/young adult. I've just started myself and the best advice I can give you is to advertise on Facebook/Nextdoor. You'll get tons of leads from just one post introducing yourself and asking people if they need detailing. I would recommend starting door to door but I have yet to do so myself. Read up on @perchboy and @trulyandres threads. Lots of good info there. Also what detailing tools do you have?

Also one tip I learned from my car salesman brother. Always assume the sale.

Oh yeah forgot to answer,

I currently have all the chemicals needed, Vaccum, Pressure Washer, Hose, Extension Cord, Drill Brush, all those kinds of stuff that just cover the basics for now, planning on expanding once I can get customers

 

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[trulyandres]

Hey man thanks for the advice,

How would I go about create a GMB? Also how would I create a website for a good price with a limited budget.

Thanks man

Forget about the website until you have so much demand that you can't handle it all through yourself. If you really want to though, Wix is a good option for service based businesses like this, for about 30 a month. Making a GMB isn't too hard, just get lots of photos of jobs you do to upload them, look up "google my business", and it walks you through the process.

 

[jensen.satake]

Forget about the website until you have so much demand that you can't handle it all through yourself. If you really want to though, Wix is a good option for service based businesses like this, for about 30 a month. Making a GMB isn't too hard, just get lots of photos of jobs you do to upload them, look up "google my business", and it walks you through the process.

thanks man, any advice to optomize GMB? like if I am a mobile business would I add a address, and what if I don't have a location to work from?

If possible could you include your GMB just for reference?