Am I worthy Yet?

[coupe]

I do it by the hour. I tell new customers its $35 an hour and on average it takes 8 hours.



Now if i quote your vehicle at 8 hours and it ends up taking me 5 i deduct that from the quote, if it ends up taking me 10 hours those 2 extra hours are free.

 

[derek37]

The pinto is a GEM it has a great story about it. It has 2100 orginal miles and was stored for years and not driven. It is in pristine condition. It is brown and I've joked I can even polish that "turd":grinno:



Maybe I should detail that car first to showcase the skills.



GREG

That'd make a great photo for your portfolio:buffing: :buffing:

 

[01bluecls]

9+ hours for an average detail at $60 an hour??? You charge over $500 bucks a detail?? Hey, I guess if you can get it then go for it. However, if you look at any professional detailer's website in the US I don't think you'll find that people are advertising an hourly rate. I wouldn't ever hire someone for an hourly rate for this kind of work. That kind of thing can scare people off. It's the same reason cars are priced at 29,900 instead of 30,000. For some reason it just seems like a lot less to not see that 3 in front of the price. For example, I used to be a sales trainer for a wireless company. When people didn't like the 500 minute plan, but it was obviously what they needed, I would suggest they pitch it as an 8 1/2 hour plan. You'd be surprised how often that worked. People don't always do the math in their head.



But this isn't a marketing or pricing thread. If you can get $500 bucks a detail by charging $60 bucks an hour for a 9 hour job, then more power to you. Count your lucky stars that it works in your area because I'll bet there aren't many people here who would get that kind of money. 9 hours is a really long time to spend on a detail unless you are talking about concours show detailing, which isn't what the typical customer wants.

Pricing is obviously determined by area, I agree. My area Northern VA is one of the wealthiest and has the a very high household income average. 9 hours for a concourse detail though????? A true Concoursee detail will take more than 30 hours. 9 hours is my average detail time. The longest i have spent on a car is a Ferrari Enzo at 19 hours over two days, although I did not charge the full price for that one. Its all in how you market yourself and if the market will support it. Detail shops in my area charge anywhere from $150 to $300 to HACK your car up, I dont see why I cannot charge double their price for double their quality.

 

[Greg Nichols]

Well my lead on all these cars seems to have dried up???? 4days ago he wanted the work done and he seems to want the swirls to stay on the cars?



I'm bummed that he does not see that taking care of these cars will REALLY increase the value. Secondly, I really wanted to have these kinds of details in my portfolio.



He said he has my business card and will call when somthing comes up........I hope he does call because I'll pull out all the stops and make that first car GLOW.



Wanted to thank everyone for their ideas on pricing, I've taken away some ideas for all my clients.



GREG

 

[S Brake]

That is awful, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you because that would have been killer. I'll be crossing my fingers for you in hopes that he either changes his mind or something better comes along.

 

[SuperBee364]

Greg, I just found this thread. Don't know how it escaped me til now...



Where did all these pictures come from? Was there a car show in Logan I didn't know about??



I still wouldn't give up on the guy. I think I'd call him and offer to do one of his cars for next to nothing (or maybe even nothing) just to show him what you're capable of. I'd bet that once he sees what his cars could really look like, he'll pry open his wallet.

 

[Clean Dean]

I have some customers with some pretty nice car collections, but this one is pretty amazing !!! If these car are a poorly maintained as you said, I really do not think I would even want to detail for this person who lacks the basic appreciation for a well maintained automobile . Hopefully he sells these gorgeous exotics to individuals who will not only appreciate these automobiles as an investment but also as a piece of rare automotive art that should be properly maintained both mechanically (extensive records) and cosmetically.



You are probably better off not detailing for this guy, it most likely will lead to much aggrevation.

 

[Vintage]

not that i know the pricing practices of professional detailers, but what he's saying makes some sense. i just had some construction work done on my house and i think i would give any contractor a swift kick in the butt if they tried to just tell me an hourly rate rather than an estimate for the whole job. visions of guys sitting around on their posteriors collecting hour rates dance through my head.



however, i do actually work in an hourly rate business. so i guess it just depends on what the guy is used to hearing.

It's not uncommon to charge by T&M in construction - Time and Material. You tell them how much cost in material, how much an hour, and about how many hours the job will take. Just a scenario that's happened to me before - A paint correction can take much longer than originally planned if after washing and claying you find that the previous detailer just used some glaze with lots of fillers and now you have tons of swirls and scratches that weren't there an hour ago. It's a little hard to explain to the client that your original $100 estimate wax job is now going to take 8+ hours and a lot more money.



Conversely, I do see the point that you were making.