BTW when is the next time you'll be passing through london?

 

Saturday, but I have to be in Knoxville around noon, so I likely wont have time to stop by unless I leave Cincy around 7am, which ain't gonna happen.

Youre taking a good approach by going to a detail shop, however let me recommend you to try and get on at a detail shop instead of a dealer. A lot of non-high-end dealers just have their lot tech's and mechanics do the detailing work. Whereas an actual detail shop would have you work with someone who does DETAILING for a living.


-Matt

 

with matt on just about everything with the exception of some of the start up materials but thats to be expected (i think his prices are very very conservative as i paid probably closer to 1500 on start up)

Matt is far more gunghoe then I am about detailing but i do have some people that I take care of. Word of mouth is definitly the way to go as its very very rare even farragut for someone to be willing to cough up 200 bucks on a care detail.

oh, id recommend looking into atleast a UDM or cyclone if you going to be doing this on a regular basis The PC is nice but it lacks some of the power nessisary for some of the more *cough cough* difficult jobs.

Be careful though because you being taking on a lot of liability if something were to go wrong. Good luck and be sure to let us know how it turns out

 

The prices I listed would really not be even close to everything Id order, just tried to get the point across that it aint cheap at all to start.

-Matt

 

i know but i looked at it like this.......1500 to start up. With a projected gross income of 3000 (generous again imho) off the 1500 dollar investment not including maintenience fees (more product etc). Your probably looking at 1200 over the three summer months putting in quite a bit of hours in both promoting the business and performing services. Say maybe 25 hours a week. An average of 4 weeks a month, by three months your looking at 300 hours worth of work. 1200 dollar profit divided by 300 hours of work is about 4 dollars an hour.....but if its what your going to enjoy do it. This is just my perspective and c/b analysis when i started .

 

Yea, I didnt put that much thought into the reply. But starting out like you said, you cannot do it for the money. And 3000.00 gross income would be best case scenario for someone starting out and is not realistic at all. Woot, we agree on something.

-Matt

 

dont believe it.....im not feeling well. I blame whatever the hell it is lol

 

Ill break down the costs in depth realistically:

Start up costs: 1800.00
Price per detail: 130.00
avg # Details/week: 2
hours per detail: 7
advertising hours/week: 2
website cost: 70.00
# of weeks in summer: 11 (3 months less one week vacation)

Gross profit: 130.00 profit x 2 per week = 260.00/week
260.00/week x 11 weeks =2860.00 gross profit

2860.00-1800.00 = 1060.00 net profit for summer
1060.00/11 = 96.40 net income/week
96.40/16 hours per week = 6.00/hour


-Matt

 

I also spent a stupid amount of money on detailing stuff. I'm guessing a grand. I probably don't want to know really. Even at a grand I still didn't get everything I needed. 95% of that money went to exterior only. I ended up buying the high end stuff on most everything. So I could easily spend that much again to get the other areas of the car. Which knowing me I'll do this summer.

My suggestion would be not offer full out detailing as a possibility. Keep it simple at first. Learn how to do all the basics properly. Most people you find that would be interested having there car "Detailed" wouldn't care or notice what a high end detail is. Many people don't even know what a real detail is so they don't understand the associated cost. Most would be pleased with a good wash and wax, interior detail, etc. Stay way from anything that would be time consuming to you or potentially problem causing like any type of paint correction. This would save you money on supplies and keep you from having to hunt down customers that want high end details. This might bring you many more lower paying jobs and end up making more money with much less invested.

 

Well said Justin, I agree with that 100% for someone just looking to get into this.

-Matt