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Growing an auto detailing side hustle

Anything considered a "hustle" and not necessarily a CENTS-based Fastlane

Danny Dobrota

New Contributor
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May 12, 2023
7
7
17
Romania
Hello everyone, this is my first thread here on the fastlane forum.

A little about me:
Im a 17 year old entrepreneur living in romania. Became obsessed with entrepreneurship after starting "self improvement" (yeah the meditation cold shower horseshit, the working out aspect was good though) and being recommended Unscripted . Absolute eye opener. Didnt do anything entrepreneurial for months due to this insurmountable limiting belief that "customers would never buy my stuff, it has to be perfect, they would never. Its impossible for me" Only started because my friend convinced me to start because "whats the worst that could happen"


A little bit about my entrepreneurial accomplishment, as context to explain how i got to starting auto detailing:
I started towards the end of 2022 a different kind of dropshipping side hustle with a friend, and we didnt really know what we were doing but it was a specific niche that was blowing up in our country, long story short we both made about 1500$ profit over the course of about 7 months, because we thought that selling our stuff as cheap as possible and buying the most expensive stuff made us the best option, and we basically had a lot of volume but no profit. I had quit that hustle since last July to December because i didnt like the amount for work for the little bit we were making, and bcuz i wasnt on such great terms with said friend. I then remained in that niche and had some money saved up so i bought physical stock and it was (and still is) selling slowly for a higher price, so i could save abit up, but the niche is basically 100% dead.

Now about how i started detailing:
I then had around $2k saved up, and i really wanted to start a business alone, that had more scalabilty AND i would learn far more. I overthunk SOOO much as to what to do, read an entire book on the topic (Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan), watched 10+ hours of content of Alex Hormozi just noting as to what to do when starting, re-read The Millionaire Fastlane , and ended up with so many criteria as to how to start that i felt even more lost.

"So i solve a need or problem, provide a lot of value, but the priority is to learn not to earn, but i also have to not overthink it, and you get the best ideas by solving your own problems, but you need to verify them with the market, and it has to follow CENTS, etc." -
- That horrendous state of limbo lasted for about a month, and i kept cycling between these kind of questions, while in the car, and thought "hey, the car's kinda dirty. How would interior car cleaning be?"

Fast forward after diving down the rabbit hole of the how's, if its profitable, asking people for their opinion on it if it would work here in romania (romanians are abit stingy in general), etc.
(shoutout @perchboy for some advice aswell)

Just said f*ck it im done wasting time let me just do SOMETHING, so i put up ads on facebook saying im doing a 50% off promotion, after getting all of them banned for a week and trying a new account, first post blew up. Many people commenting, few actually scheduling, ended up with only one person scheduling.
Dude had the worst mid sized car imaginable on the interior, but was a really nice guy and helped abit aswell because i was under-equipped for that catastrophe of a car.

A weekend later i finished and got my first real sale for 92$, he tipped 16$ too. (gonna put currency in usd, great guy, the work was atrocious though. Learnt alot.

Next week did another detail in the weekend, dude was just normal, didnt care much, liked the work, an SUV for 70$ (50% off remember), 5 and a half hours.

Now i have the facebook profile made, logo done, packages post done aswell, multiple scheduled clients for the coming weeks, and want to scale.


My scaling plans atm are: -knock on 100 doors (in the richer neighbourhoods in town)
-set up google ads and pay weekly atleast 25$
-set up fb ads and pay weekly atleast 25$


I will post on this thread at least weekly. The post will be with my goals, then with my execution of them the following week. Im open, and invite, ALL and ANY feedback. I wont try to hide any details, no matter how embarrasing or whatever, of my business so i can get judged as good as possible.
I wish all you guys good luck in your businesses !
 
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perchboy

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I’m glad to see that you’re taking action good stuff bro.

My scaling plans atm are: -knock on 100 doors (in the richer neighbourhoods in town)
-set up google ads and pay weekly atleast 25$
-set up fb ads and pay weekly atleast 25$

I’d 100% set up a Google Business Profile ASAP. I booked in a $200 job yesterday, and a $250 job today from it. FOR FREE

If you’re seriously going to run google ads I’d check out getting a website from @Dockid so you pay for clicks that actually convert.

Feel free to pm me and I’ll run you through whats working for me right now with FB Ads.
 

Danny Dobrota

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
100%
May 12, 2023
7
7
17
Romania
I’m glad to see that you’re taking action good stuff bro.



I’d 100% set up a Google Business Profile ASAP. I booked in a $200 job yesterday, and a $250 job today from it. FOR FREE

If you’re seriously going to run google ads I’d check out getting a website from @Dockid so you pay for clicks that actually convert.

Feel free to pm me and I’ll run you through whats working for me right now with FB Ads.
Hey bro, just dm'd you
 

Danny Dobrota

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
100%
May 12, 2023
7
7
17
Romania
I didnt end up knocking on 100 doors, doing google ads, or facebook ads. Dissapointing, i know.

This week i did 2 details, both clients from local fb groups. They both took ab 5 hours, first dude was alright, made 50 (bcuz he took up the 50% off offer). All his neighbours saw me doing the detail and complimented my results and work ethic, even got a random dude passing buy to stop to ask me if i offer these services and gave him my contact info, said he would call next week

Now with the second dude, i learned a valuable lesson... Never undervalue my work. I totally underpriced my services when i first got his call, i charge 150 for a basic suv detail, but i said f it let offer 100 so he automatically accepts, but he didnt, so i called him back and asked if he'd be willing at 65. Reluctantly he accepted.
Went to his place, did a fcking outstading job w/my proffesional equipment that i have, he was decently pleased and tipped 10. Asked him to review on google which he did. He then asked me if i want to do his other car for 50, then i realised:

If i undervalue my awesome work this horrendously, even if i get referrals like how i ask my clients, they will see me from the perspective of the teenager that does professional level work for dirt cheap.. Wont ever do discounts again, only bonuses for more clients.

I also keep spending too long do make every nook and cranny perfect, but i keep seeing that they never even look there and notice that to begin with..

Nothing is worse though than after 5-6 hours of work to see some pocket change handed to you, and realise its totally your fault. Ha.

Anyways. My plans for next week are:
-Get 100 business cards printed to give post detail and at door to door interactions
-Knock on 100 doors (rich neighbourhood) either past 5PM during weekdays or Saturday
-Post daily on FB groups with a different pitch (highlighting client's problems/needs first, then my solution and awesome service)
-Post prev detail results on social medias
-Set up appointments with previous "potential" clients, CHARGING GODDAMN MORE.

PS: currency i mention is USD. $.
PPS: im open to any and all feedback, feel free to reply with some of your thoughts on what im doing right or wrong, i love improving
 
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