Quick Detailing Idea, need some help

zesty-man

zesty-man

how do ya like it?
i had this quick detaling idea, where i would come over every week between polishing and waxing, and quick detail a car, to maintain that nice look. ill probably polish every month (if not every two months), and possibly a full detail every 2-3 months. heres an outline of my plan. some stuff mite be a little exagerrated

1. Quick Detailer
Maintains just polished look
Doesn’t cut into polish
No water spots

2. Paint, Windows, Rims

3. Car Washing
After about 2 washes, polish is gone
Creates water spots
Fades paint, because of no polish

4. Do it weekly, free whenever it rains

5. $5.00 per week
Product
Detergent

6. Save money in long run
$20.00 a month
As a pose to $40.00+ a month for a full detail

thoughts? i think i may have to adjust my price accordingly to how much a gallon of the quick detailer costs. so far, i think im gonna be netting pretty good money. and whats goood about this is, i think i may have a constant cash flow, and i can do it in half an our, making time for more.
 
Tyler...

I'm don't quite understand your proposal... Charge $5 bucks for a QD? I don't QD unless it's after a wash :)

I would just work on a good weekly washing plan for your customers
 
5 bucks of a QD every week, and free in case of emergencies (when it rains). hey, i gotta make a profit here!!!, for the money that i make goes towards the car im gonna drive my senior year.


oh i forgot, i find washing to be a real hassle. maybe my techniquie is wrong or something, but it takes me about an hour to just wash and dry a car. maybe im doing something wrong? what i like to do is start with the rims and tires first, then the roof, and work my way down. for some odd reason, it takes me forever, and i always end up wetting myself somehow.
 
it takes me forever, and i always end up wetting myself somehow
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You might want to see a doctor about that problem:lmfao :lmfao

You might want to consider using Poorboy's Spray and wipe instead of a QD. It will clean and leave a just waxed finish without scratching the paint. Also, I think you need to charge more than $5.00
Just my .02
 
kimwallace said:
You might want to see a doctor about that problem:lmfao :lmfao

Click to expand...
YOu have NO idea how badly I wanted to be the first to jump on that line!! :lmfao :D
 
Way too cheap! YOu say you gotta make a profit but $5 is hardly a profit where I come from. Hell Zesty the gas would cost you half that. I like your idea but you need to get at least $10 or leave it alone and get the full wash price after 2 weeks. Make'm a deal you do a wash and wax every month for $50 a month, every month.....or something.
 
sh*t...... is that all, just five bucks???

For five bucks, you can come do my '89 Black Suburban twice a week !!

Thats half of what any car wash would charge me... way below a minimum wage job at McDeath or Burger Hitler, and I would be glad to let you spend the two hours it might take me. Come to think of it... my kids grandma pays them more than that just to wash her mini-van!!

:drunk
 
my bad, i think i said this one wrong. im using the spray and wipe, not the QD+. i figure, if i charge a lot, its gonna scare my customers away, hwoever jim does make a good point about gas, because gas is expensive here in the islands. its about 47 bucks for a gallon of the spray and wipe. i figure, if i do about 3 cars for 3 weeks, that gets me to even. however, lets just see how that works out. im not too sure how much product im gonna end up using in the long run, and i hope it doesnt come back to haunt me. maybe i should charge 8 bucks instead of 10 (8 is my lucky number).


and about wetting myself, yes thats a BIG problem of mine :nono. hmmm, the idea of washing every 2 weeks sounds good, but im thinking i may just do it every week, beceause of the fact that i dont have much time on the weekends due to school, tennis, and other stuff :).


i think the major goal im trying to accomplish here is to show that i can give a nice cleaning of a car for about the same price as going to the car wash, without damaging your car (like my mom did to her SUV...) just think of the possibility, i can get customers coming in and out, but at what price? im not too sure how much i can net, considering i have to buy the product, the detergent (for mf towels), and the gas. the more i think about it, the better and better your ideas are starting to sound...
 
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zesty, I've been doin' this a long time now.... and if you were within range, I'd just slap ya!!

This is a service based industry... and doing it mobile is where the true service kicks in. We save someone the time of either doing it themselves, or going to the car-wash. Figure into your pricing structure all the costs involved before setting your price and trying to figure your estimated profit. Think about not only the big things like equipment, but also the small stuff -- how much is it gonna cost you just to clean a weeks worth of towels at the laundromat... or are you gonna run them through mommy's washer and dryer? Yeah, 8 bucks is better than nothing when ya got nothing, but you might want to re-think it. Maybe do yourself a part-time favor and work at that lousy carwash for a month or two... you might just learn a thing or two in experience, and at the prices you are proposing, you might just make a little bit more.

And please, keep up posts like this cause I always like to have a good laugh and think about my favorite line....

"I got a bucket and some towels, some wax and window cleaner... I'm a detailer"

:lmfao
 
hmmmm........ thats a really good idea. does a "mobile dealer" count if your customers live 10-15 minutes away from you? i wash my own microfibers, and my mommy can pay for the water by herself :). the idea of this is repetition. my main focus is maintaining that really nice, slick look that a car gets after i spend 5 hours of labor on it. i think.... the fact that im 16 sorta gives me less credentials vs a man thats 33. i mean, i have probably the same products and same microfibers etc (if not better), yet the average person would probably be more willing to pay the man more, than the boy. being young has its disadvantages, and the last thing i wanna do is piss off somenoe by making them think im "overcharging". what ill do tomorrow is maybe go around the neighboorhood, and sorta see what the prices of a car wash are. you know those car washes that the soccer teams have (the one with all the girls in you know what), how much do they charge? i mean, do have 10 people mob your car with sponges and a hose with no nossel, and dirty sudds and water, it just makes me think how much i realyl show charge...


but, this wouldnt sound too good either. hi mrs anderson, after detailng your car, i want to manitain your car's finish by cleaning it with a special formulated cleaner to maintain that wax look and feel. i paln to come over twice a week, for a charge of 10-15 dollars weekly. my question to you is, if i do charge 10 bucks, over a month its gonna come out ot about 40 bucks. if i go with perhaps 15, its gonna come out to 60 bucks a month. now, whats stopping someone from just neglecting their car for the next 3 weeks, and getting it detailed again?


waittt........ i just thought of an answer to that. beceause someone's shine is so brillant, i think they would be flattered to hear that i can maintain that shine over the next 4 weeks or so. maybe they will be addicited to my detailing like a crack addict is addicited to his drug... just a thought
 
Cheapest car wash around here, without a coupon, is $9.99 -- that's a wash only. Add tire/exterior dressing, vacuuming, clean windows, a light dressing on the dash, and if needed an air freshener you're now up to $19.95 a week. Multiply that times three, and add a wash and wax for lets say $29.95, and for good measure, throw in a shampoo of the floor-mats for another 20 bucks... oh don't forget that SUV's & Mini-Vans are an extra $2-4 per week...

Would it be a good deal for you to come to them to do-it for $99.95 a month and not fear of underselling your services??

Most carwashes also give you the 10th wash free, so how about offering up those loyal monthly customers 10% off all the other detailing services available??

Would that be a valuable service???

Part of what comes with age is wisdom and wisdom can only gained through experience -- I also tell ya that it is much easier for a 16yr old to sling wax and push towels around a car for 6-10 hours a day than it is for someone 35 -- that's a fact of the aging process. Seriously though, if ya show up at my door twice a week I'll pay you $8.00 each time to do my Suburban as well as give ya some personal training allowing you to experience some of my detailing wisdom free of charge ;)
 
hmmm, the thing thati i had in mind was... my clientele consists of mostly ladies that are 45+ years old (my mom's and aunty's friends). and the thing is, a majority of them are teachers, meanning they dont earn a lot. i think they would tend to be more frugal with their money, vs someone that drives a 735i. it is my belief that they could "care less" about what dressings i applied (maybe with an acception to tire dressing). also, i know that the cost for doin an interior would also increase the price by a lot, which they would probably want to avoid. so in essence, i am doing the job of "only a car wash", by only washing the car itself, and the glass, and rims. however, im doing more of a quality job, and my techinque wont damage your paint (to an extent...).

as for doing larger vechicles, i had something in mind. i was thinking for minivans and SUVS, i would charge almost double than that of a sedan. the reasons being, more surface area, so more usage of product, and since its bigger, its harder to reach in certain places, so i have to use a step stool etc.

the more and more i start to learn and hear, the more im feelin that $10.00 is more apprioate for this job (20 for bigger vechicles). i dont really have a set price for a full detail of vechicles, though i like to hit around the $50.00 range (again, that age discrimination comes in), but i like the idea of where youre going. maybe one week in every two months, and on holidays, ill throw in an occasional free wash, just to be nice, after all, the customers ARE my mom's friends...


edit: i guess you could call it a weekly washing plan. well its getting late, i gotta get some sleep and start my hw...
 
Just thought of something else to add to this thread.
You will basically be giving the customer the results of a wash and quick detail by using the method you propose.
Sometimes in business you need to charge based on the results that you achieve not necessarily the time you have invested.
There are many times I would charge a customer the going rate for a product, knowing that I had a better idea than my competetors for producing it.
The idea behind this is that you can make money by working smarter as well as by working harder.
I say if you are going to give the customer the results of a 15.00 wash then you should charge accordingly
 
well, the results i get from applying the spray and wipe onto the car will really show up nicely, because of the fact that im maintaining that nice polished look that i worked out a few weeks back. as for charging accordingly, im not too sure yet. ive heard that when detailing some people's cars, you end up detailing it once every 6 months or something. do you have customers like that? i think i may have to find richer customers or something.
 
zesty-man said:
5 bucks of a QD every week, and free in case of emergencies (when it rains). hey, i gotta make a profit here!!!, for the money that i make goes towards the car im gonna drive my senior year.


oh i forgot, i find washing to be a real hassle. maybe my techniquie is wrong or something, but it takes me about an hour to just wash and dry a car. maybe im doing something wrong? what i like to do is start with the rims and tires first, then the roof, and work my way down. for some odd reason, it takes me forever, and i always end up wetting myself somehow.
Click to expand...

Seems like your doing OK. It takes me and hour also do wash a car. You need to charge $30 each and do 2 an hour with a helper to make money at it.

.
 
the thing is, i dont really have a helper, or at least a good one that is. if anything, it would seem like i would be helping someone, because im the young one
 
ah, thanks for the help. at first it was really confusing, but then i started to get it. now the question remains, is the majority of your clientele men or women (percentage wise). also, have you ever ran into a customer that wasnt willing to spend over 40 dollars for something? i feel i get this every weekend...
 
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