Detailing business questions

[cowboysfan1945a]

Hi all,

My family is thinking about starting a detailing business, and I'm going to manage one of the locations. I must admit, I know very little about the business, so I'm here to learn!

I'm starting to learn about products and such, since this will be a big part of our investment. Now I need to allocate funds to buy products, so do to that I'm hoping to understand what kind of mix I should be aiming for. Could you guys let me know what percentage of all of your chemical purchases are spent on the following?


-Soaps
-Cleaners (Interior, Exterior, All Purpose)
-Compounds
-Polishes
-Waxes
-Dressings
-Aerosols
-Clay

THANKS!

 

[Greg Pack]

Hi I don't think we have a lot of detailers on here. Most of us are in the mechanized car wash business. Detailing is too hard of work for us lazy guys. IIRC Waxman details and Soapy's wife ran some detailing.

Have you looked at autogeekonline or the meguiars detailing forum? There are a lot of home gamers there and some are way too OCD for production detailing, but still some very good info. Just avoid the rush to buy the latest and greatest.

You would be surprised how little you can get by with for the basics jobs. Having said that, a couple of years ago I explored getting into detailing and eventually decided not to. I'm about to list a lot of detailing products on ebay but would be willing to sell the lot for a good price. PM if interested

 

[soonermajic]

There is a section on here for detailing. It is rarely visited though. My 2 sons have detailed A LOT, but it was just wash, wax, wheels, tires, seats carpets, mirrors etc. Not a professional detailing. They also were in a small town, so about $55 ish was the norm. What city you in? I'm 2 hrs E of dallas...

 

[soapy]

I would talk to Keith at detail plus. They have training and you will need it.

 

[robert roman]

Carwash is capital intensive because the business uses a significant amount of automated equipment whereas detailing requires a significant amount of skill and knowledge, equipment not so much.

Most carwash problems can be fixed with equipment and parts, maintenance service contracts, service calls, etc whereas the detailer is the go to person.

In other words, someone should be an excellent detailer before opening a detailing business because there is no one else to rely on.

Anyone can learn how to hand-wax, shampoo carpets and seats, or perform express detail services like at a carwash in a week or so with professional training.

However, other types of detail work especially the higher margin work can take a year or two to become proficient.

So, my advice is to look for work as a detailer and learn how to become a compulsive perfectionist.

If you aren’t willing to do this, you will never succeed in the detail business.

If you want to play napkin analysis, here is detail survey with some information you wanted.

http://www.carwashmag.com/fileadmin/pdfs/2016_aln_detail_survey.pdf

 

[Jeff_L]

Many variables come into play with detailing. If you’re going to go at it without any professional training, then I would recommend just the basics for awhile. Vacuum, wipe down interior, clean the glass, wash and dry the outside you’ll be able to turn cars fast and probably get a fair amount of business and return clients. If you jump right into wet sanding, polishing carpet cleaning, etc, you’ll get in over your head and possibly damage a vehicle.

Therefore, start with the basics, get into the grind, hire some employees to help once you start having to have a backlog so you can turn more cars. Then start adding skills and offerings.

One tool you should definitely get is the Tornador with a high capacity air compressor as your air source. That thing gets the smallest crevices clean and blows everything out from under the seats. It’s fantastic.