Signed a lease on a shop (Service Shop in the Auto Industry)

[Carlitos]

We are closing in very very close to 190K just need 10K additional to close the year at 200K at least, doing everything I can, even already collecting deposits for big projects for 2024, already have my first job for Jan 3!

 

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[Carlitos]

We have officially hit 200K in gross revenue! Already booking more work for 2024, we are going to close 2024 close to 500K lets go! Lets manifest this together!

 

[dauntless]

Hey Carlitos,

I am coming over from my Side-Hustle thread and I wanted to share some thoughts on your progress.

I know that you are heavily focused on SEO, which works great for leads finding you locally. But I don't see much mention on your social media.

What's your social media presence? I believe that social media is king for driving e-commerce traffic. Especially if you use Instagram or TikTok to showcase your work.

You have more than 100 5-star reviews on Google, I believe you have enough social proof to show-off your work in the socials. Why? because e-commerce relies heavily on trust, and by showing high-value work to prospective leads, it builds trust like wildfire.
For context, I have almost 7k followers on my e-commerce business on IG alone, last August I opened an Etsy shop for it to play around with the organic traffic and trends (even though I don't need it). And, I've made close to $6k in profit and earned 31 new 5-star reviews during those 6 months. I know that's very little, but my conversion rate sits at a solid 2.2%. and visits are doubling month-to-month.

What works for me? high-quality video and photography, and social proof. If you'd like, do you mind sharing with me your socials?

 

[Carlitos]

Quick update, in the past 2022 and 2023 Januarys would always average between $8,000-$12,000 in gross revenue. I am on track to finally break that, and looking forward to closing our January past the $20,000 mark. Just closed a few minutes ago a $7,000 job on a 911 Porsche for the full work.

Lets go baby! On the road to closing this year closer to half a milli!

 

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[Carlitos]

Hey Carlitos,

I am coming over from my Side-Hustle thread and I wanted to share some thoughts on your progress.

I know that you are heavily focused on SEO, which works great for leads finding you locally. But I don't see much mention on your social media.

What's your social media presence? I believe that social media is king for driving e-commerce traffic. Especially if you use Instagram or TikTok to showcase your work.

You have more than 100 5-star reviews on Google, I believe you have enough social proof to show-off your work in the socials. Why? because e-commerce relies heavily on trust, and by showing high-value work to prospective leads, it builds trust like wildfire.
For context, I have almost 7k followers on my e-commerce business on IG alone, last August I opened an Etsy shop for it to play around with the organic traffic and trends (even though I don't need it). And, I've made close to $6k in profit and earned 31 new 5-star reviews during those 6 months. I know that's very little, but my conversion rate sits at a solid 2.2%. and visits are doubling month-to-month.

What works for me? high-quality video and photography, and social proof. If you'd like, do you mind sharing with me your socials?

Social Media is something that takes a ton of time, I don't mention it because I do what I can with it. For now In the past I was always posting on the stories, of what was going on through out the day. I use to post heavily on Tick Tock, I have gotten a lot of leads from it as well. The lead from today was closed from Instagram.

This year I am collaborating with a local photographer. For $200 he provides pictures and videos of the before, during the process and final view of the vehicles we take in as big projects. My idea with it, is getting the client to post it on their social media to show it off. This is something I don't see my competitors doing, and my plan is to hire someone to record our day to day in the shop. They don't have to be a professional, if i can do it, and use cap cut to edit my videos, anyone else can. I can train them with what i know, and they can also learn more and be open minded to learn more. My photographer is good dude, we work together pretty well and I'm thankful for that. Not only is he helping me, but I am also helping him get more work in for his business. As he does it as a side gig while having a full time elsewhere.

Here's what happening currently, and why me focusing heavily on SEO I will come out on top on the long-term. Right now, a lot of competitors are pouring in a ton of money on ads. Ads right now is heavily exhausted from what I see, I also see a lot of shops stopped running ads, due to not getting a good ROI, so they are burning money away with Jan and February being the slowest month in our industry. This is why bringing in 3-4 big projects during these months, each one averaging 3-$5K will keep the cashflow going for me. Because my overhead is extremely low.

Last year i heard a lot of shops struggles to keep their doors opens, a lot of them had to downsize. This is the reason why I got in to a small shop (sharing) to the point where I believe I can finally go out on my own having my own space, and a slight bigger overhead expense. Which I plan on doing at the end of this year.

2025 my plan is to get a bigger shop, with a better view. The landlord is building more shops and the one I want won't be ready till the end of year.

Also I have yet to get my mobile detailing van which i will very soon, having that mobile billboard going all over DFW I am extremely confident it will give us a better ROI. As I plan on increasing the fleet of mobile detailing vans.

So this year we are focusing on:
-SEO
-Cont optimizing GMB
-Hire a helper
-Cont with providing professional Videos and Pictures
-Get the mobile van ready and going! To perhaps getting a second van going soon. (Ton and Ton of room in this market
-Continue to grow my YouTube Channel
-Cont to grow my social media presence.
- Get my E-Commerce going with the validated product I have.

I am going to PM D.

 

[dauntless]

Social Media is something that takes a ton of time, I don't mention it because I do what I can with it. For now In the past I was always posting on the stories, of what was going on through out the day. I use to post heavily on Tick Tock, I have gotten a lot of leads from it as well. The lead from today was closed from Instagram.

This year I am collaborating with a local photographer. For $200 he provides pictures and videos of the before, during the process and final view of the vehicles we take in as big projects. My idea with it, is getting the client to post it on their social media to show it off. This is something I don't see my competitors doing, and my plan is to hire someone to record our day to day in the shop. They don't have to be a professional, if i can do it, and use cap cut to edit my videos, anyone else can. I can train them with what i know, and they can also learn more and be open minded to learn more. My photographer is good dude, we work together pretty well and I'm thankful for that. Not only is he helping me, but I am also helping him get more work in for his business. As he does it as a side gig while having a full time elsewhere.

Here's what happening currently, and why me focusing heavily on SEO I will come out on top on the long-term. Right now, a lot of competitors are pouring in a ton of money on ads. Ads right now is heavily exhausted from what I see, I also see a lot of shops stopped running ads, due to not getting a good ROI, so they are burning money away with Jan and February being the slowest month in our industry. This is why bringing in 3-4 big projects during these months, each one averaging 3-$5K will keep the cashflow going for me. Because my overhead is extremely low.

Last year i heard a lot of shops struggles to keep their doors opens, a lot of them had to downsize. This is the reason why I got in to a small shop (sharing) to the point where I believe I can finally go out on my own having my own space, and a slight bigger overhead expense. Which I plan on doing at the end of this year.

2025 my plan is to get a bigger shop, with a better view. The landlord is building more shops and the one I want won't be ready till the end of year.

Also I have yet to get my mobile detailing van which i will very soon, having that mobile billboard going all over DFW I am extremely confident it will give us a better ROI. As I plan on increasing the fleet of mobile detailing vans.

So this year we are focusing on:
-SEO
-Cont optimizing GMB
-Hire a helper
-Cont with providing professional Videos and Pictures
-Get the mobile van ready and going! To perhaps getting a second van going soon. (Ton and Ton of room in this market
-Continue to grow my YouTube Channel
-Cont to grow my social media presence.
- Get my E-Commerce going with the validated product I have.

I am going to PM D.

Sounds like you have a solid process going.
I just had a random thought of you going over to Gas Monkey Garage to have them customize your mobile detailing vehicle to draw a lot of eyes to it, lol.

 

[Carlitos]

Sounds like you have a solid process going.
I just had a random thought of you going over to Gas Monkey Garage to have them customize your mobile detailing vehicle to draw a lot of eyes to it, lol.

How were you handling the calls before your current girl came along? was all that automated via Sideline?


I copy and pasted your above question here since is an important piece to my business.

I’m still running things solo, but calls I still pick them up, or if Im too busy I will let sideline automatically send an SMS once I miss the call.

Is not ideal but It also helps weed out the tire kickers. The SMS basically states sorry to have miss your call, I’m on a call but will return the call as soon as possible, for a free estimate on window tint please provide your year make and model.

Window Tint is my bread and butter, is my everyday cash flow, so this way the ones that are down for business and ready to book they will provide the info I need. Tire kickers are just calling around shops finding the cheapest price. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I have to say the majority of my serious and big tickets clients come from my website. They fill out the form we collect their info and start selling and get the client booked.

I was mentioning in your thread D that we are implementing AI now to our CRM, the guy who handles my CRM i met him in this forum, flew him out to an event of my film company and he got to learn a lot about my industry.

The AI is going to be like having a virtual assistant I’m very excited for it. Will definitely update as we get that going, I also have a new kid that looks promising to helping me handle the GMB optimization and Google and Facebook ads.

So with all the video shots we are doing we are going to have some awesome creative videos to use to run on Facebook. For Google we are going to use an awesome landing page using videos that will be uploaded to my YouTube channel.

The mobile van actually has a sick wrap, once I get things flowing a little better I will show the videos and pictures here in the thread.


BONUS SURPRISE: It just occur to me an amazing idea that is currently becoming popular that can be implemented with my shop, especially since in 2025 I plan on expanding big. Stay tuned! And follow this thread because this is just the beginning.

 

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