auto detail profession

05spectraSX

05spectraSX

Love my 2005 Spectra SX!
how much money does professional auto detailing make? anyone know how much a person is charged to take their car in to be detailed?

I was thinking of going in the auto detailing business myself.
 
First of all you have to be good at what you do
second it depends on where you live and what your area is willing to pay
third compotition in your area,is there any?
the list goes on but as to how much to charge and how busy you can stay really depends on your area and how good you are along with good marketing skills
 
05spectraSX said:
how much money does professional auto detailing make? anyone know how much a person is charged to take their car in to be detailed?

I was thinking of going in the auto detailing business myself.
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I would recommend calling some detailing places in your area to see what they charge, just so u get an idea of what ppl are willing to pay. In my area noone will pay more than 150 to get their car detailed. Just for example I charge 100$(cars) 135$ (SUV, trucks, Vans) for wash, clay, aio wax, vacuum, shampoo carpets, windows, etc. It usually takes me anywhere for 3-4 hrs. I would try to shoot for 30-40 $ an hour, so if it takes u 3 hrs, u should charge b/tween 90-120$

good luck

ps.. talk to me at the end of the year and i tell what an auto detailer makes
 
There are no easy answers to your questions, since multiple factors play into the equation.

In reference to your first question, the amount of money you make is a direct correlation to the effort you put into yourself and your business. If you were to poll professional detailers you will hear pay scales for ~$15000 - to over six figures. Part of your business plan should be goal setting and your target income. That income needs to be realistic and the object is to make it so the business is profitable/rewarding. For some that may be $25000 for others it could be $50000. Money is not the sole motivator for some running their own business and are willing to sacrifice income for flexibility in schedule, family or rewards in self employment. You can make what you want as long as you are willing to work for it. This is not an easy business!

Regarding your second question, the amount charged for detailing. Once again there is no single answer. Price reflects what the market will bare, quality and services offered. Definitions of detailing are vague and not used
with consistensy which only confuses the general public. There are establishments that offer a "detail" that consists of :car wash, vac, windows and a coat of wax while you wait, to be completed in less than an hour for ~$50. On the other hand, a client comes to my store for a detail which requires 4-8hrs of work, appointment and over a hundred steps from a price range of $200 - 600. It is amazing how many people don't realize there are levels of detailing and that this is not a cookie cutter profession. When determining your price levels you need to look at the competition and see what they are offering in terms of service, price and quality. Then a consideration has to be made on the cost of business- i.e. rent, utilities,supplies,equipment,advertising,insurance etc.. Knowing the costs upfront allows you to come up with a budget. Then you can figure out how many cars will it take to cover the expenses, save a little and pay yourself.

I know the answers provided were not concrete, but there are no simple answers. Each owner is unique in his/her contraints,goals and ambitions. One thing I would suggest is use the resources available to you in developing a business. There are typically local organizations, SBA for one, that offer counseling(usually free) in business development. Go to the Chamber,they might be able to assist you. Research is key, don't jump in blind. There is very helpful information here at Detail City.

If you decide to take the plunge, my suggestion to you is : DO NOT try to be lowest priced detailer!! I can't tell you how many guys each year, come to me saying they are going to 'take me down' just based on their cut rate pricing. It won't work no matter how many cars you get if the price can not carry the expenses.

Good luck
Doug
 
If your looking at opening a shop or a mobile rig I would hold off for atleast 6 months, some will say more, but i think thats enough time if you dedicate yourself to trying things out, for example i started detailing 6 months ago almost to the day, in those 6 months i have learned a ton, ive tried new things been on this forum more then a should an can now contrubte a little not much but ya. I think becasue i was doin my familys cars, my freinds, my famil freinds ive learned what i need, i end u doing about 10 cars a month for free just to hone my skills. If you want to open a shop i would say start by trying things out fro free, find a freind with a beat up car and say youll detail it for a beer, or dinner (the beer one is more popular lol) and just ahve fun, learn the skills and check here all the time, read read read and then read somemore there are alot of things that can be debated try both side and make your own descion, be willing to to spend the money to buy usless products just to try them
and above all have fun with it
 
you need a permit to work with the general public, right? like business wise.

what happens when you get old and frail. And you can't work anymore, what are you suppose to do. your not going to be making any money.
 
There is a lot that you have to think about. Being in Mass you won't have any income for 4-6 months of the year because of the winter possibly. There is a lot to learn about the business before you should begin considering detailing. As others have said you have to practice practice practice. You need to know the ins and outs of detailing and that will come by working on cars. But search here and learn as much as you can. It's easy to make a new car look new, but how are you doing to deal with junker cars. Do you have any idea what the customers are going to pay? Or what are you thinking of offereing. Doug is spot on- there is no simple answers to a business.
 
it'a hard especially in the summer (in FL anyway) but the money can actually be decent, i used to work for a place located downtown with about 10 other guys, we got a ton of business, actually most of it was upper class nice cars, i got to drive benzes, bmws, jags on a daily basis, not to mention the the bentleys, masseraties and aston martins. it really depends on location if you're in a rich town like i was the cars can be new and fairly easy to detail plus the tips are good. (not to mention you get to drive some pretty cool cars)

i made about $10 per wash (outer wash, bugs, carpets, vaccuum, windows, rims, tire shine) and about $45 per detail (includes all washing plus compounding when needed, waxing, and conditioning) plus tips. once you've been doing it for a while you can get fast and knock out 2-3 washes per hour which could be up to $30 hr plus tips, the details were even better if you got a newer car and could do them in under an hour. anyway the real money is when you own the place, we had to pay commisions to the owner for each car, we charged $15 per wash(gave owner 5) and $55 per detail (gave owner 10) at the end of the day he could collect somewhere around $400-$500 and he wasn't even there, he just came to pick up commissions.

one thing i do have to say is if you're the owner make sure you can trust your guys, there was some shady doings around that place as scamming commissions, i wasn't involved but lets just say the manager couldn't be trusted.

anyway it's not a bad business especially if you're in the right location, you just need to work hard to get it started and get your customer base built, that's why we kept so busy, we had a ton of regulars.
 
yes you do need a buinsess licene to run a detail shop. I know in canada you need a gst number on revenue over 30G/yr. im not sure what the tax laws are in the states check it our.

what happens when you get old and frail. And you can't work anymore, what are you suppose to do. your not going to be making any money.
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As to the when you get frail tough beans, the choices are to have your kids support you, live on wellfare, (both of witch i hate) or save for retierment,. If you want a plan for that read the richest man in babylon.
this book states to save 10% of all you income and pay yourself before your bills. Good luck with gettiing old
 
do it part time , and go mobile . Especially if you're in a state that has all 4 seasons ! well you know what I mean . snow was something I never had to worry about .

You can use your own vehicle , get some business cards and t -shirts , the right products and can make 20 k a year not really trying.
 
I am just starting out with a simple Wash and Wax type deal, at least until I get some experience and feel more comfortable with actual detailing. The thing I worry about most is trying to separate myself from the 10 other yahoo shops that leave swirls all over your car and the ones that do a $150 "detail" on your car that is really just a wash and wax and have no idea what claying a car is.
 
detailing is a super tough business to get started in, for one if you try to attract customers and advertise most people shop by price only, no matter what services you offer.... the only way you can really efficiently grow is word to mouth, if a customer asks if i can get a deal or discount, i always say absolutely, give me 5 full detail customers and i will give you a free wash and wax(one hour of work) customer gives me 5, $150 or more customers, then they tell 5 people, then they tell 5 people...... when i started i would give a discount to customers that ask and never see them again, discounts dont attract long term costumers, long term customers attract discounts :D
 
In response to the original post, all I can say is that I took a week off from my day job to detail full time last week. I earned just over $2300 in 5 days of detailing. That is just the total intake of money though. That isn't considering the overhead involved. Still, if I were making $8000 per month then I could easily afford the overhead involved in running the business as a mobile operation. In fact, if it weren't for my physical health and the miserable climate 6 months out of the year, I would seriously consider doing this full time. Once you take out the cost for insurance, health care, supplies, and everything else involved with running a business, I'd still be brining in at least $60,000 per year if I did nothing more than maintain the level of business I did last week. That is my max as far as work that I'm able to do. To do more cars than I did would probably require bringing on another detailer which would only increase my revenue.

So the answer is that a successful detailing business can make you really good money. If you have the talent and knowledge to make it successful, and if you live in an area where the service is needed and valued, then you can make a very comfortable living at it. I live in those conditions six months out of the year, so I only do this part time. You have to consider how long you will be able to run the business as part of the things that need to be thought about before you jump in with both feet. My recomendation would be to gain a very good understanding of the processes involved in properly detailing a car and then get lots of practice before you commit your resources to launching a business like this.

I've been detailing for ten years professionally (as professionally as a part time detailer can be) and to be totally honest I can probably do it faster and better than someone just starting out. So don't expect to make $2000 your first week on the job. There are a lot of skills that have to be learned before you can be at that level. That isn't meant to brag or anything, it is just some honest advice about an industry that all of us are still learning new things about every single time we work on a vehicle.
 
Jngrbrdman

Thats in impressive number for a single week...you must have had these ducks all lined up...The best that I have ever done in a week is 1400 at 200 a car....how many cars did you detail to reach that number?
 
I did 14 total. I started calling some of my regulars the week before and had everything set up in advance. I only had one car that sort of showed up out of nowhere. Those 14 cars have already generated 5 more cars before the end of the month in new referal business, so I can't imagine how busy I would get if I maintained that level of business.

I did learn that three cars a day is my maximum. Only two days did I do three. The rest of the days I did two and that was much easier to manage. Three vehicles is a waaaaaaaay long day even with as efficient as I try to be with the time. It is still an average of 3 to 4 hours per vehicle even with my fairly refined process. When I realized that 3 hours to fully detail a car wasn't the industry average, I started looking at what my process was and began documenting it. That documentation has turned into a whole other project all its own. lol I'm probably going to take the rest of my vacation this year completing that project and getting it organized into an ebook.
 
I would love to be able to do this as a profession, I just don't think in my area there is enough of a market to where I could do it contuously...plus the state I live in really reduces the season for detailing, unless I could get an indoor heated facility, large enough to wash cars.

The problem is like Jngrbrdman said, my process takes between 3 - 5 hours...with that kind of time I could only do two a day on my own. The problem is around here you get some of those larger car wash places where they detail and they can put a team of people on your car, who all probably don't have a green card...one does the inside, one the outside, one tires and rims...etc. They can push those out in an hour, although they don't always usually do the same amount of steps we all do here.

Also this thread is old and I have never seen anyone with a red square...:D
 
In Southern California, if you spend time finding good clients, you can charge anywhere from $75 to $100 per hour for your detailing services. Car wash details are about $150 here for the bare basics (wash, cheap wax, vac, uv protect).
 
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