Scaling my car detailing business

[Raoul Duke]

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[perchboy]

Started charging way more for the service for the past week but every person that called I couldn't close.
Im going to have all calls that I dont pick up forwarded to my mom while shes at her office job so I can sound more professional which will increase perceived value.

For the past few weeks, I've gotten lazy. I've had my unreliable friend go to do the cars and we would split the cash 50/50. I hate doing the car detailing. I hate bringing my 3 bags on the bus or asking my grandma to drive me and I hate having to explain that yes I (a kid) am capable of doing the job.

For now, Im going to have to suck it up and just do the F*cking work.

What this taught me:
- dont hire family or friends because you will never have a boss and employee dynamic. They will only ever see you as a friend so they wont take orders from you. I want an employee who does whatever the F*ck I want. On top of that, they wont be satisfied if you pay them $25/hour CASH because they dont want you making profit off them so they will demand a 50/50 split.
- people will only show up consistently and punctually if you have them on a payroll. paying anyone cash means they do whatever the F*ck they want. these guys will constantly cancel on you leaving your business to go to shit. - unless you hire a desperate teen looking for money

Let me rant real quick:
MY FRIEND IS ALWAYS F*ckING LATE FOR THE JOS. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. HOW TF CAN YOU BE 2.5 HOURS LATE TO A JOB IN THE EVENING!!?? IM NOT F*ckING JOKING WE HAD A JOB FOR 6:00 AND IT WAS 2 HOURS AWAY SO HE CALLED THE GUY AT 7:00 AND SAID HES TAKING THE GO TRAIN AND HELL BE THERE AT 8:30. THAT SHITS F*ckING HILARIOUS TO ME I COULDNT STOP LAUGHING. I SET IT UP SO THE CUSTOMER THINKS WERE COMING IN A TRUCK LIKE A PRO AND THEN HE TAKES MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS AND CALLS HIM TO SAY HES TAKING GO TRAIN!!!!! - go train is just our train system here. AFTER MY FRIEND TOLD THE CLIENT THAT, THE CCLIENT CALLED ME TO INSTANTLY CANCEL AND WE LOST OUT ON $200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I take full responsibility for this though since Im the one who decided to have him do the jobs. I must learn from this mistake for the future.

Two things I can do:
Charge $200 per car and probably make 6k/month but Ill be tired asf doing the work with no scaling.
Charge $150 and dominate everyone else on pricing and I can hire a full-timer with a truck and make 6k/monyh with scaling and no labor
Or maybe I can do both?? Will be hard as F*ck to do.

It really takes a certain type of guy to run business. Shit is not easy. It messes with your head. At least for me. One day Im panicking and stressing about how Im gonna grow it and make sales for this week and then the next day everythings going nice and i feel like im on top of the world. maybe its just this business and its different once you establish proper systems and reccuring revenues but the mood swings are crazy. this business is like having another girlfriend to deal with

I love all of it though. I love how theres something to push me and wake me up in the morning. I love the challenges. What I would hate is to do the same thing everyday like a F*cking robot not having any goals or next level to work towards.

I'm kind of lost on what to do right now. Do I want to play long term or just stack up cash? How can I remove myself from the equation and stop trading time for money?

Do I keep the end goal in mind or take it one step at a time?

This may sound crazy but I feel like im pushed for time. "WTF! you are only 15 years old and have your whole life ahead of you!". I know but I feel pressured to have a 4 hour workweek 20k/month profit business by when im 18. that way i can gtfo of this city and move to the other side of the world with ABSOLUTE FREEDOM.

Again, I love the pressure. Im full of ambition. I dont understand how some people can just sit there wasting time. Killing time until time kills them. How tf are you gonna play imessage game digital 8 ball for 6 hours a day? nothing compells you to conquer the world?

Anyways, shit has been lonely. Cant wait until im out of school and can meet people like me. Just gotta put my head down and grind.

Ok. that was a long post. i just dumped everything i thought since my mind was full and i needed an outlet. i feel motivated asf to make things happen now. i will setup a proper google ads campaign and my call forwarding now. thanks

 

[biophase]

Charge $200 per car and probably make 6k/month but Ill be tired asf doing the work with no scaling.

Why would you be tired? This is one car a day. You want to make $200/day but don't think you can wash one car a day? Many people work a full day and wash their cars when they get home.

I had my cousin who was 18 come into my warehouse to work for a day. I gave him a task to open a box and separate the things inside. He did it and I said, now do the rest of these boxes, which was like 100 boxes. He said, whoa so many. I said it should take you 2 hours, you're here for 8. LOL

I feel like kids don't understand how LOOOOONG a normal work day is. I'll tell you the exact date I realized how long a work day is.

Many years ago I was in Denver staying with a friend. Me and my friend planned to go mountain biking that day at a trail that is 3 hours drive away! We woke up at 8am and left, which was the same time my friend left for work. We got to the trail at 11am, rode bikes until 3pm, then drove back to Denver. We got home right when she was getting home from work!

This may sound crazy but I feel like im pushed for time. "WTF! you are only 15 years old and have your whole life ahead of you!". I know but I feel pressured to have a 4 hour workweek 20k/month profit business by when im 18. that way i can gtfo of this city and move to the other side of the world with ABSOLUTE FREEDOM.

If you want a 4HWW at 18, you need to put in the 40 hour WW right now.

Your first goal should be to make enough to get a car or van so you can drive to all your appointments. So wash all the cars you need to until you've saved up enough money to get yourself a car.

 

[savefox]

Charge $150 and dominate everyone else on pricing and I can hire a full-timer with a truck and make 6k/monyh with scaling and no labor

You can't compete on price. That's a race to the bottom. There's always going to be someone cheaper. And you don't want customers who hired you because of the price. They don't care about you and the quality of your service. And they won't hire you again next time because they'll choose Jose who can do it for $99. Your goal should be charging as much as possible while providing the best quality of work and customer service in your area. Do you think someone who owns a Lambo will pay $150 for car detailing? That would be TOO cheap for him

 

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[2legit2quit]

just got into a 1 hour argument with my mom


i have a late start for school tmw morning so i booked someone for tmw morning and planned to make it on time for school after the job.

she was offended that i scheduled them in and turned automatically furious.

she told me i cant go tmw morning and that i have to focus on school.

i told her i have As in my classes (thanks ChatGPT)

she started screaming "why do you even want money!" "what are you gonna do with it?"

i said "everyone wants money. that is why you play the lottery"

she started lecturing how i must focus on school because my deceased father always wanted me to go

i said i dont want to live the same life that he lived

end of convo

my mom will always find something to shame me for. - not just my mom, but everyone will.

i charged a guy $200 and she called me a scammer because its too expensive
i charged a guy $100 and she called me retarted because its too cheap

when i was failing in web design she said i should get a real job and im lazy
now im booked every day with this business and she tells me im overworking and should only work on weekends


but i dont let it phase me anymore.
i dont take advice from people who i wouldnt want to trade lives with

making money is all about your mindset. dont adopt the same beliefs as failures. the failures im talking about account for 99% of people

i still love you though mom. ill retire you in the future

damn, if only i had this mindset when my mom used to destroy my soul lol

 

[2legit2quit]

Started charging way more for the service for the past week but every person that called I couldn't close.
Im going to have all calls that I dont pick up forwarded to my mom while shes at her office job so I can sound more professional which will increase perceived value.

For the past few weeks, I've gotten lazy. I've had my unreliable friend go to do the cars and we would split the cash 50/50. I hate doing the car detailing. I hate bringing my 3 bags on the bus or asking my grandma to drive me and I hate having to explain that yes I (a kid) am capable of doing the job.

For now, Im going to have to suck it up and just do the F*cking work.

What this taught me:
- dont hire family or friends because you will never have a boss and employee dynamic. They will only ever see you as a friend so they wont take orders from you. I want an employee who does whatever the F*ck I want. On top of that, they wont be satisfied if you pay them $25/hour CASH because they dont want you making profit off them so they will demand a 50/50 split.
- people will only show up consistently and punctually if you have them on a payroll. paying anyone cash means they do whatever the F*ck they want. these guys will constantly cancel on you leaving your business to go to shit. - unless you hire a desperate teen looking for money

Let me rant real quick:
MY FRIEND IS ALWAYS F*ckING LATE FOR THE JOS. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. HOW TF CAN YOU BE 2.5 HOURS LATE TO A JOB IN THE EVENING!!?? IM NOT F*ckING JOKING WE HAD A JOB FOR 6:00 AND IT WAS 2 HOURS AWAY SO HE CALLED THE GUY AT 7:00 AND SAID HES TAKING THE GO TRAIN AND HELL BE THERE AT 8:30. THAT SHITS F*ckING HILARIOUS TO ME I COULDNT STOP LAUGHING. I SET IT UP SO THE CUSTOMER THINKS WERE COMING IN A TRUCK LIKE A PRO AND THEN HE TAKES MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS AND CALLS HIM TO SAY HES TAKING GO TRAIN!!!!! - go train is just our train system here. AFTER MY FRIEND TOLD THE CLIENT THAT, THE CCLIENT CALLED ME TO INSTANTLY CANCEL AND WE LOST OUT ON $200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I take full responsibility for this though since Im the one who decided to have him do the jobs. I must learn from this mistake for the future.

Two things I can do:
Charge $200 per car and probably make 6k/month but Ill be tired asf doing the work with no scaling.
Charge $150 and dominate everyone else on pricing and I can hire a full-timer with a truck and make 6k/monyh with scaling and no labor
Or maybe I can do both?? Will be hard as F*ck to do.

It really takes a certain type of guy to run business. Shit is not easy. It messes with your head. At least for me. One day Im panicking and stressing about how Im gonna grow it and make sales for this week and then the next day everythings going nice and i feel like im on top of the world. maybe its just this business and its different once you establish proper systems and reccuring revenues but the mood swings are crazy. this business is like having another girlfriend to deal with

I love all of it though. I love how theres something to push me and wake me up in the morning. I love the challenges. What I would hate is to do the same thing everyday like a F*cking robot not having any goals or next level to work towards.

I'm kind of lost on what to do right now. Do I want to play long term or just stack up cash? How can I remove myself from the equation and stop trading time for money?

Do I keep the end goal in mind or take it one step at a time?

This may sound crazy but I feel like im pushed for time. "WTF! you are only 15 years old and have your whole life ahead of you!". I know but I feel pressured to have a 4 hour workweek 20k/month profit business by when im 18. that way i can gtfo of this city and move to the other side of the world with ABSOLUTE FREEDOM.

Again, I love the pressure. Im full of ambition. I dont understand how some people can just sit there wasting time. Killing time until time kills them. How tf are you gonna play imessage game digital 8 ball for 6 hours a day? nothing compells you to conquer the world?

Anyways, shit has been lonely. Cant wait until im out of school and can meet people like me. Just gotta put my head down and grind.

Ok. that was a long post. i just dumped everything i thought since my mind was full and i needed an outlet. i feel motivated asf to make things happen now. i will setup a proper google ads campaign and my call forwarding now. thanks

hey man. im twice your age, so take what i say with a grain of salt.

you are 15 - if i read this post correctly. you are already smashing it. your other friends are on tik-tok checking out girls and probably bating a little too much.

and you're destroying these kids with running a detail business. just remember to be humble, this does not make you better than them or vice versa. it just makes you wired a little differently than them. if you let your ego get in the way it will cause problems later down the line. i would guess most of your friends don't have single moms, and perhaps, have less pressure from their parents.

your situation is a little different; single moms tend to be tough on sons, that's just how it is. they overcompensate for lack of a father around.

so i just wanted to say - you are 15 - pace yourself. also, try to stay off social media as much as you can outside of your work. that shit is not healthy for you. you may see ppl flexing on social media and not feel good enough.

dont do that. focus on yourself and focus on improving a little bit each day. its a cliche but so true the tortoise wins the race. if you try to be a little bit better than yesterday, you can go VERY FAR. focus on getting better at whatever you do.

scaling will come with time. take your time, pace yourself. build your detail business to where you have a couple vans, hire a few people. LEARN THE BUSINESS INSIDE OUT. the opportunity to scale will present itself.

you already have the type of personality to sell and run a business. i guarantee, you are outperforming most ppl signing up on this forum. you're probably in the actual 5% of ppl on this forum that actually take action.

so, again, pace yourself, and keep going. don't focus so much on how much money you can make yet - that is an aspect. instead, focus on the value you are providing and how you can help someone.

 

[perchboy]

DONT LISTEN TO GOOGLE'S GOOGLE AD CONSULTANT EMPLOYEES! IT IS FREE FOR A REASON: THEY WANT TO DRAIN YOUR MONEY! THEY DONT GIVE A F*ck!

I had to learn the hard way and spend $250 on it. Now when I think about it it is clear as day that they just want your money.

I thought it would be better for them to run it since I know absolutely nothing but they proved me wrong. My clueless google ad skills is way better than their "expert" skills.

Im so stressed now to get a steady flow of clients. I need to get a steady flow so I can hire.

I've also been doing window cleaning on days off after school. Yesterday evening i went with a friend and we made $385. Split in half though so we made $190 each. I can have a worker bringing passive income from car detailing everyday while I make active income from cleaning windows! I JUST NEED A F*ckING STEADY FLOW! THATS ALL I WANT.

 

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[Andy Black]

DONT LISTEN TO GOOGLE'S GOOGLE AD CONSULTANT EMPLOYEES! IT IS FREE FOR A REASON: THEY WANT TO DRAIN YOUR MONEY! THEY DONT GIVE A F*ck!

I had to learn the hard way and spend $250 on it. Now when I think about it it is clear as day that they just want your money.

I thought it would be better for them to run it since I know absolutely nothing but they proved me wrong. My clueless google ad skills is way better than their "expert" skills.

Im so stressed now to get a steady flow of clients. I need to get a steady flow so I can hire.

I've also been doing window cleaning on days off after school. Yesterday evening i went with a friend and we made $385. Split in half though so we made $190 each. I can have a worker bringing passive income from car detailing everyday while I make active income from cleaning windows! I JUST NEED A F*ckING STEADY FLOW! THATS ALL I WANT.

I'm happy to hop on a quick call and take a look at your account. Yeah, the Google Reps are appalling. Don't go there except to find out what new features are coming down the line, and to find out what they recommend to everyone - so you can do the opposite.

 

[savefox]

You should get Andy's course on google ads! That'll help you get started and be profitable

 

[Vasudev Soni]

I'm 15 years old going to highschool in Canada right now and have a car detailing side hustle going on.

I started detailing cars a couple weeks ago and last week I made $800 profit.

I've been finding my clients by spamming posts on the Nextdoor app but there are only so many people on there who need their car detailed so its starting to die down.

Right now my plans are:
- getting my website built by @AlexYega so i can run google ads
- test out facebook ads again (not profitable last time i tried running them
- send out ringless voicemails to everyone in my city and hire a receptionist to answer the calls back and schedule bookings while im in class
- get some business cards printed so i can get referrals after i do jobs
- test out doorhangers

Eventually i want to be so booked up that I have to hire other people to do the jobs. I will get there by putting all my profits back into the business

At just 15 years old, I think you have a great mindset and pretty good business experience. Keep it up dude.

 

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[perchboy]

Things are now going good and have a good projection for the future.

Changes I've Made:​

- Started Charging More
I dont charge significantly more but I now have concrete prices for different types of cars. It's nice to slave away detailing a van for $250 instead of $150.

At first I wasn't able to charge more because I was operating unprofessionally. When calling my business for a quote, you would get sent to voicemail and then receive a phone call an hour later from a kid who sounds like he's clueless. Now I have my customer service rep answer the call right away in a professional matter. I am closing these new pricing sales now as much as my cheap old pricing despite the price difference. Thanks @savefox.

- Hired a Customer Service Rep and Weekend Helper:
This new hire is my mom. I wrote about how she disapproves of the biz but now she is okay with it and always offers to help me. It's because now she sees that I'm really getting results and I'm legit.

I set up call forwarding from my phone to hers so that all day (especially when I'm in school) the calls go to her instead of me. She's at her office job anyways so it isn't a problem for her.

She has also been coming to help me with the details on the weekends which is great - not because of the detailing aspect but because of referrals. Shit, she doesn't even detail she just chats away with the client the whole time! Anyways, most of the clients are moms so they relate with my mom a lot and give me referrals. I need to become more personable myself so I can develop a connection with the clients and get referrals.

Improved the Quality of my Work:
I've started to really care about doing a good job and I have invested into new products that allow me to do a better job. I used to feel like a big bossman because I thought "they pay me no matter how shit of a job i do!" but the best form of marketing really is word of mouth. It's free!


- Followed @Andy Black 's Google AdWords Course:
Bought Andy's Google AdWords course and have set up the campaigns. I dont really understand it that much but I think I have the basic idea. The campaigns have been running for a couple days but no conversions yet. I can see Google Ads being where I scale and get all my leads from in the future.

 

[Andy Black]

I dont really understand it that much but I think I have the basic idea.

Hmm. Sounds like I didn't do a good job explaining it. I'm happy to have a quick look at how you've set it up and see if it's how I explained how to do it.

Way to go getting you mom onboard. Love that she chats to the clients who are also moms.

 

[Tiago]

What this taught me:
- dont hire family or friends because you will never have a boss and employee dynamic. They will only ever see you as a friend so they wont take orders from you. I want an employee who does whatever the F*ck I want. On top of that, they wont be satisfied if you pay them $25/hour CASH because they dont want you making profit off them so they will demand a 50/50 split.

- Hired a Customer Service Rep and Weekend Helper:
This new hire is my mom. I wrote about how she disapproves of the biz but now she is okay with it and always offers to help me. It's because now she sees that I'm really getting results and I'm legit.

 

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[perchboy]

My mom works for free so this doesn’t apply.

She doesn’t take orders from me though which does make me lose out on some revenue. She does follow a script for the phone which is good. It’s still better than not answering the clients calls at all.

 

[perchboy]

Hmm. Sounds like I didn't do a good job explaining it. I'm happy to have a quick look at how you've set it up and see if it's how I explained how to do it.

Way to go getting you mom onboard. Love that she chats to the clients who are also moms.

Here’s what I did from the top of my head:

- created a search campaign focusing on clicks
- did keyword research
-added negative keywords
- made 2 campaigns. One targeting Scarborough and “mobile car detailing near me”. One targeting my whole country and “mobile car detailing Scarborough”

Is that right? That’s what I got from it.

 

[Andy Black]

Here’s what I did from the top of my head:

- created a search campaign focusing on clicks
- did keyword research
-added negative keywords
- made 2 campaigns. One targeting Scarborough and “mobile car detailing near me”. One targeting my whole country and “mobile car detailing Scarborough”

Is that right? That’s what I got from it.

Sounds good.

There might be other locations you can bid on, such as areas within Scarborough. They won't bring much volume but it could help.

 

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[perchboy]

Google Ads
Got my Google Ads running properly now thanks to Andy.

I'm at the top of the space and seeing a 5x ROI on my ad spend.

Things are going great and I wish I could just increase ad spend and keep getting a 5x ROI but I can't. I'm capped out at about 3 leads per week as there isn't that much search volume.

Change of businesses
I can't do mobile car detailing in the winter which lasts from December-March. I'm not trying to build a huge corporation right now I'm just trying to get experience making a lot of money.

Summer is right around the corner and I'm gonna die of boredom if I don't have at least 5 jobs scheduled per week.

I'm already dominating Google Ads so I thought why don't I just run multiple service side-hustles like car detailing? So I crafted a "home service" website in a few hours and now I'm going to be running Google Ads for pressure washing and driveway sealing.

I'll still be doing the exact same thing running the car detailing but since I have more time now in the summer I need something to do with that time.

 

[savefox]

Focus on one thing and get good at it. Do you know how to seal a driveway or pressure wash properly? Do you have 10k laying around to get the equipment and another 10 for a truck?
You just need to get more people to see your ad. You're only running google ads. Get on google local service ads, google maps, Facebook ads, nextdoor, thumbtack, yelp, go door to door, send something to your previous customers and get referrals, make youtube videos, shorts. Maximize your opportunities to get leads for the service you're already offering.

 

[perchboy]

Focus on one thing and get good at it.

You're in a different position than me. How about when winter comes? I'm going to have to switch businesses anyways unless I rent out a whole garage shop and do it in there. Maybe I should be working towards that.

Do you know how to seal a driveway or pressure wash properly?

Yes

Do you have 10k laying around to get the equipment and another 10 for a truck?

I can't even drive and the equipment is $500

You just need to get more people to see your ad. You're only running google ads. Get on google local service ads, google maps, Facebook ads, nextdoor, thumbtack, yelp, go door to door, send something to your previous customers and get referrals, make youtube videos, shorts. Maximize your opportunities to get leads for the service you're already offering.

Ill check these all out. Thanks

 

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[savefox]

How about when winter comes? I'm going to have to switch businesses anyways unless I rent out a whole garage shop and do it in there. Maybe I should be working towards that.


Yes

I can't even drive and the equipment is $500

Ill check these all out. Thanks

Almost every service business is slow in the winter months. But it's only a couple of months. Just focus on your marketing, improve your website, create new offers, automate your processes, learn how to drive and so on and you'll be ready for the next busy season. You'll have one successful business instead of 3 failed businesses

 

[Fasted]

You shouldn’t be paying your friend 50/50 when you’re doing all the leg work to book jobs only for him to turn up late. Sack him. Basically just stop telling him about the jobs your booking and go yourself until you find someone that will work for an hourly rate.

 

[perchboy]

Stopped trying to scale as I have a new business venture but I still want some money coming in right now for the sake of it.

I had 3 ways of getting clients:
- GMB - generating tons of leads FOR FREE
- Facebook - was barely breaking even on ads but easily scalable
- Google Ads - decent ROI with poor volume

I was ignoring GMB which was the Lebron James of my team and was instead trying to feed money into the Facebook ads bench warmer. As a result, my sales plummeted in June and July.

Note: searches for mobile detailing went from 210 in may to 70 in June as well.

Here's what I did now that saved the failing business:
I PUT ALL MY FOCUS ONTO GMB - the 1 source that is getting me 90% of the leads
I optimized it until I got ranked not only for "mobile car detailing" but for "car detailing" as well.

Now I'm getting 5x the traffic since car detailing is a much more common search than mobile car detailing.

People call me and I tell them '$200 for us to come out, $100 for you to come" here and they always prefer to come get it done in my driveway.

I finish off their car in 1 hour and I'm done for the day. No advertising costs. No Ubers. No travel time. No mental breakdowns over feeding money into Ads that are not converting. Just a $100/hour side hustle.

 

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[Spenny]

@EthanH take some notes, this sounds similar to a problem you're facing ^^^

Cheers perchboy, it's dope to see your progress

 

[Hugh Thyer]

Hey, I hope you're still reading this.

I've got some advice, in fact a real paradigm shift you need to act on.

Everything I've read so far is great, and your journey is amazing. In fact I'd love to invest in a car detailing business because of what I'm about to tell you.

However, everything you've posted so far is about bringing in the clients on the front end. The real money though is in the back end.

You've hinted at it couple of times but it's way more important.

The big $ is in LTV - lifetime value.

Work out how often your customers need their cars done and contact them at that time. So if it's every 3 months, call them in 3 months time. Put it in your diary or CRM or whatever you use to track them. Google sheet, excel, whatever. I've got a google sheet in my business for all the different markets we go after, and every single contact has a follow-up with a date, and a view of all actions by date and when something is due, it appears in red.

Fact is, they won't call you when their car needs doing again, or if they do it'll be well after it needed doing. So you call them and they'll get you back.

Now, the smartest thing to do is to put this on steroids with continuity.

This is where you create an offer for 12 months. It might be cleaning every month, detailing every 3 months, another service every 6 months. Whatever you can come up with, some kind of calendar of different things you'll do.

Work out the price, given them a discount and then divide the amount by 12 and charge their credit card (assuming you can get credit processing facilities) every month. Put all the services into your calendar and now you're getting booked up 12 as far as a year ahead with guaranteed work.

Now you've got guaranteed income and certainty, and you can pay a lot more for your lead generation because you know how much each customer is worth.

This raises another problem you'll have to solve which is operations, and putting staff on to help you get through the work plus admin. That's a good problem to have though, and one which is solvable.

 

[Manasseh Pawlos]

For anyone interested in this - Nextdoor is a great place to search for customers.

Last autumn I made ~5 short posts there offering to clean the interior of people's cars at their own home, whenever they were available.

The posts would reach anywhere from 200 to 600 views over the span of two weeks. I had 4 people inquire about the price. (I intentionally didn't mention the price so I could experiment with it).

I offered to do it for anywhere from $150-$80 CAD. I didn't close any of the prospects.

In retrospect, I would have a much easier time finding clients and charging more if I marketed to a nearby, much wealthier neighborhood by the beach. I currently live in a lower-end part of the city.

Some great suggestions I've seen are doorknob flyers, cards placed on the windshields / doors of cars, and yard signs. Off the top of my head, a thousand flyers costs you $200 CAD. Two thousand is nearly the same price.

I think there's a lot of potential for interior car cleaning - I still 100% intend on executing this over the rest of the year.

In the meantime, thanks again @perchboy - you're an absolute inspiration.

 

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[perchboy]

UPDATE

July - August
Since last June where I was making around 2-3k/month from detailing, I switched from business to business gaining a bit of traction but then getting bored and switching to the next.

I ran:
- a pressure washing company that I got a couple jobs for on the side but never committed to growing it (1 week)
- a driveway sealing company where I got tons of bookings but couldn't fulfill them so I quit (1 week)
- a marketing agency where I was able to acquire lots of clients on a free trial but then I couldn't deliver them results because I was still pretty new to the game so I quit (1 month)

September - November
In September I decided I wanted to start a home service business. I started with carpet cleaning as my first service and got to 6k revenue 10% margins while paying my employee 2.5k/month. We provided 0 value and it was basically a disorganized scam company. We were running purely off of break-even Facebook ads that I didn't even understand. I ended up losing a bunch of money from a new hire and it was downfall from there.

December
In December when my carpet cleaning employee quit and I couldn't find a replacement, I started doing jobs myself and things were going good, I was providing good service, but it sucked since I needed my mom to drive me everywhere. At that point I weighed out my options and decided to just go with car detailing since I had more progress in that business. I could do jobs in my driveway, I had my GMB page that was still getting me free leads, and I had a couple loyal clients.

January - February
These are the slowest months of the year thanks to all the snow in Canada and I was desperately waiting for March to come with better weather and me finally getting my drivers license. I am completely impatient so I was still hustling and doing cheap price shopper jobs in freezing cold and snow. In January I got like 20 calls from my GMB page and in February I got 49 calls (insane since my best month before that was 30 calls in August).

March
On March 15th I finally got my license. My biggest obstacle was finally gone. For the past few weeks I've been crazy booked and things have been going absolutely great. Today I had my biggest day of $675 and the weather is still freezing here which means we're not even in season yet.

Things seem 100x more clear now. I used to have no clue what I was doing and had 0 common sense compared to now. I've learned so much from all of these failed business experiences. Although I made some bad decisions, I was always taking 100% action and for that I am proud. I was always trying out new things and taking risks which granted me with wisdom and foresight now to succeed.

 

[perchboy]

I've been getting 50 calls per month from cheap a$$ price shoppers who are so rude and have the dirtiest cars. I've been sending my friend out to do them and splitting the pay 50/50.

I've also been running Google Ads (properly now) which I landed a few high ticket jobs and a commercial job so now I'm at 10x ROIs with it and not counting the commercial job about a 3x ROI.

With Facebook Ads I'm at a 3.5x ROI and its still freezing now so I expect them to do better once it gets warmer. This targets premium neighborhoods with premium pricing ($199 inside only detail) and I do my best to provide them premium service. The difference of price shopping cheap clients and premium clients is night and day. When I do a $100 job they yell at me and expect a showroom detail but when I do a $199 job the client is so nice and is understanding and I even got a $100 tip today lol.

The plan is to target premium clients only and shoot for referrals. I didn't understand when @Andy Black told me referrals + recurring customers = profit but now I fully understand it. Its all about increasing LTV and then outspending your competitors in customer acquisition.

Referrals have been crazy for me. So damn powerful. I did a referral job yesterday and the client was so nice, tipped well, and promised me she'd get me more referrals too. I want to get to the point where I run purely off referrals.

Now I must:
1. Run ads to acquire premium clients
2. Provide awesome service
3. Get referrals

 

[Andy Black]

I've been getting 50 calls per month from cheap a$$ price shoppers who are so rude and have the dirtiest cars. I've been sending my friend out to do them and splitting the pay 50/50.

I've also been running Google Ads (properly now) which I landed a few high ticket jobs and a commercial job so now I'm at 10x ROIs with it and not counting the commercial job about a 3x ROI.

With Facebook Ads I'm at a 3.5x ROI and its still freezing now so I expect them to do better once it gets warmer. This targets premium neighborhoods with premium pricing ($199 inside only detail) and I do my best to provide them premium service. The difference of price shopping cheap clients and premium clients is night and day. When I do a $100 job they yell at me and expect a showroom detail but when I do a $199 job the client is so nice and is understanding and I even got a $100 tip today lol.

The plan is to target premium clients only and shoot for referrals. I didn't understand when @Andy Black told me referrals + recurring customers = profit but now I fully understand it. Its all about increasing LTV and then outspending your competitors in customer acquisition.

Referrals have been crazy for me. So damn powerful. I did a referral job yesterday and the client was so nice, tipped well, and promised me she'd get me more referrals too. I want to get to the point where I run purely off referrals.

Now I must:
1. Run ads to acquire premium clients
2. Provide awesome service
3. Get referrals

When you leave a happy client ask for a Google review and send them a link to where they can leave one. A friend does this and has hundreds more reviews than his competitors.

 

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[Andy Black]

1. Run ads to acquire premium clients
2. Provide awesome service
3. Get referrals

See if you can turn this into a flywheel:

CHAT - Figuring Out Flywheels

Thought I'd create a thread where we can discuss flywheels and how we're applying them to our businesses. I'll keep this opening post updated with a summary and insights. A simple flywheel to get more clients: One of my friends has a simple flywheel to grow the small carpet cleaning business...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

 

[perchboy]

See if you can turn this into a flywheel:

CHAT - Figuring Out Flywheels

Thought I'd create a thread where we can discuss flywheels and how we're applying them to our businesses. I'll keep this opening post updated with a summary and insights. A simple flywheel to get more clients: One of my friends has a simple flywheel to grow the small carpet cleaning business...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

Right now I’m leaving the customer with an air freshener, hand sanitizer, and a $25 off first-time booking coupon so they have incentive to share me with their friends and family.

For repeat bookings, I have a CRM and I’ll call with special offers for holidays and call asking if they want to book every 3 months. Car detailing is awesome for repeat business since cars get dirty again quickly and people have a personal attachment to their cars.



I’ll implement the QR code for reviews too as right now I only have a few real ones and like 60 fake ones from my friends