cost analysis

E

Envious Eric

New member
anyone ever done a real breakdown of the cost to detail a car?  its easy to ballpark as there are variables, but a very  close breakdown?


 


wash and wax type job


one step


full interior


two step


 


obviously the products used will be a big variable as a 15/gallon compound vs a 80/gallon one
 
After my second quarter in business I broke most of the numbers down into exact ounces and cost per application averages for that quarter. It helps you monitor and watch what you are spending and where you can perform better.


 


The numbers vary dramatically on what products you use. Simple way to do this is watch the next 10 cars you do and mark on the bottles how much you used. It will take 10 minutes extra after each job. Write everything down to the ounce. Then after the 10 cars, you know exactly how much product has been used. Then you just pull up your receipts for each product and calculate the cost per ounce.


 


I recommend doing this every few months and also another fantastic tip is to record yourself. While performing these 10 details, record yourself and watch the video over to see where time is wasted.
 
Because the cost of the chemicals can vary depennding on the quantities you purchase them it is difficult to and tedious to breakin all down to exact.


 


What I find helpful is this:


 


Product cost divided by the number of cars detailed=per car cost.


 


$25/100 cars=$.25/car


 


Is it exact.....no. However it will help if you are looking to control costs.
 
Back when I was doing dealer cars and using Auto Magic products, average was between $3-4 for wholesale work. Not considering utilities. 
 
the way I broke it down came out to about 5-6 bucks per car...for a wash and wax job, about 10 for a polishing, about 15 for two step


not counting utilities and mobile gas expense, business marketing, etc.  Just products...


 


ballpark close?  That's with higher end products...not the $5 per gal stuff, like megs hyper dressing, APC, sonax polish, menzerna powerfinish, etc.


of course, if I broke down and used bulk, lower end products and was in a volume state, I would be less than 10 per car across the board, but Im not, so I wont be
 
Tss, this is the worst! I had to stay keeping full strength in

different colored bottles because my guy couldn't keep it straight.


As for product cost, I take more if Drews technique. Of course

this is just ballpark, but cost will vary much from a scion to an expedition.


Will brings up a good point. Mf do need to be calculated, but how do you calculate their life?

How do you approximate how many will be dropped on ground?

Since i use pro force towels, they cost me about 30 cents each.

I figure on having to buy one new towel per car. After about 30

cars, i figure on purchasing a new set. If course the old aren't gone,

just being used for tires, gaskets and engines now.


Opti seal added is about 40 cents per car.




I then range my cost, and my desired Hourly wage in order to set the price.


Breaking down cost helps when you run into customers who don't want to pay a much.

If my cost is X and he only wants to pay Y, then I can cut out ZW in order to make up

for the less cost. I Also can adjust wash media to their price point. If they want to

be super cheap, i can use a mitt instead of MF. I then explain how they will see

less than superior results because of the change, but that is their choice and their moolah.




One thing that i forgot to mention. When you are calculating cost of products, do not forget

to factor in the body of cleaning your equipment also. You are going to need to launder

the Mf, clean all your pads. These use more product. If you don't factor this in,

you could cut your margins Too close. I always factor the time that it takes me to clean MF.


You also should figure degradation to your pads and polisher plus spray bottle.


My approximate cost for one step wash and wax, is a dollar.

My ONRww costs about 18 cents, plus just some power clean, one mf towel

at 30 cents, plus wear and tear on other supplies. My spay wax is

about 15 cents if i add that in as optional service.
 
cant really factor in polisher use cost...Ive had polishers go out on me in 2 weeks and some in 2 years, some in 1 year.  cant calculate that IMO.  But with the Griots, its buy one and you have one for life!


 


As far as MF, that is calculated at about 30 times used and then tossed


 


product cost will vary depending on size of car and cost of product...I can get some at 40% off retail and some at 10% off retail...then again, I can order cheap stuff for 10 bucks a gallon!


 


talking just the supplies for the detail, not the extra stuff like gas expense getting to the job (variable cost between a F150 and a prius obviously).  APC, soap, wax, polish, clay, etc.
 
If a company wants to truly develop a product cost analysis, they would need to


determine the cost of everything. 


 


Sure, you can say that you can't factor in the cost of your buffer, but you really should. 


You should look at the initial cost of the machine and then determine the approximate


lifetime of the machine under normal use.  Then you should add in regular maintenance


and upkeep on the machine (How often you get it lubricated or purchase new pads). 


 


While there is some variance with equipment, it could have a defect, or you could drop it,


you should not let that stop you from factoring in your equipment into cost analysis. 


 


As for product cost varying, YES this is difficult to calculate.  If you do want an accurate


analysis, you must go the extra steps to determine this also.  If you can get Product A at


40% retail and Product B at 10% off retail, just the fact that you get different prices for


different products should not hinder your analysis.  Just determine how much Product A


that you use for a normal Car.  Then you determine that you use X more product for a truck


rather than a car.  Then you must determine your client load.  If you have 75% trucks, only


10% cars and 15% minivans, then you can determine your average cost for Product A per job.


If you do this for all of your products, then you can get an accurate analysis.


 


If you just wish to determine a few factors, your analysis will not be complete.  This is not a


very big deal, as you should have some margins to work with.  All I am saying, if you want


a good cost analysis, you can not make excuses of why you can't calculate things. 


Do the best that you can, add in a margin of error and then add in a certain percentage just


for things to go wrong.  You should have that pad built in that allows you to account for


bottles to be broken, towels to be dropped and product to be spilled.  Again, this is not a


neccessity.  However, responsible owners will always get as close as possible.  You are the


best person to be able to approximate your business.  For me, I would always want to


approximate my costs to be higher, rather than lower.  This protects me and my business.


 


Everything that goes into the detail is your "supplies".  You should gauge your average distance of travel for a detail and put gas and mileage into there also.  How else would you know if all of the little things of your business are eating away at your profits.  You should


also know how gas prices affect your margins.  How much will you hurt if gas prices go up


25 cents?  While you might not know, you should.  If gas goes up, you should know how


much that you need to raise your rates to offset this, or at least be knowledgeable about the cost so that you can decide if you can just "eat" the loss.


 


There is no variable cost between an f150 and a prius.  It is only the cost of YOUR vehicle,


the age of the vehicle and the cost of upkeep and maintenance.  You would need to factor in both an f150 and a prius if you used both for your business at different times.  If this is the case, then you would determine what percentage of the time you drive the truck, and what percentage of time that you drive the car. 


 


Saying that you can't compute something into the analysis is a bit of a "cop out".


While factoring everything into the analysis is not the easiest thing, this is the only way that


you will get a true view of your business.  If you take the steps to account for everything that goes into your business, then you will gain valuable knowledge about how you operate. 


 


Speaking of operation, most successful businesses also factor in the cost of marketing into their operating cost.  One thing that you should factor is the cost of acquisition.  If you were able to determine that it cost you 3 dollars to gain a customer, then you should also factor that into your cost. 


Sure, having returning customers throws this number off.... but you can determine that also, it is just more analysis.  You would then need to analyze the percentage of your customers that are new versus the ones that are returning customers.  If you have an acquisition cost of 3 dollars per customer, but half of your customers are returning customers, then you should be factoring in a $1.50 acquisition cost into every single one of your details.  This acquisition cost factors in business cards, marketing and your website fees.


 


It is only when you factor in everything, that you can see the true cost of all of your products.


It is similar to purchasing a product, but not factoring in shipping and handling. 
 
I was thinking about my response to this topic......


And I wanted to point out that I have not finished a full cost analysis for my biz.


I do think that it is very important, and I think that this is a crucial topic if someone


wants to evaluate their business.


 


It is also very true, that even if you just analyze your product usage, you will


gain additional insight into your business and your needed pricing structure.


 


I'm very surprised that this marketing forum isn't more active, as it is


one of the most money making topics (other than quality)
 
Regardless if I'm working on a high end exotic or a minivan, I still think many of the basic products don't need to be of the pricey category and many of the bulk ones could work just as well. For example...Glass cleaner, APC (for the prepping functions & general cleaning), Engine dressing, QD's, Spray wax & Solvents. Spending 2, 3 or more times the basic cost of these products isn't required for a adequate end result and going with them will certainly end up costing your quite a bit of money when calculated over a long period of time. 
 
that is true david...I did just bite the bullet and get optimum powerclean vs megs APC+ because apparently (according to the guy at detailing.com) megs is discontinuing it and will come out with something else soon.  They just had the 5Gal left, and I don't use enough APC to buy that much!  LOL  I only buy 5gal in megs last touch QD.


 


But in terms of polishes, that is where it pays to get better quality products IMO.
 
Quite an excellent point brought up. 


I had previously thought about offering different product tiers for different detail levels.


While I ultimately decided that this was too much trouble to explain to a customer,


am I costing myself money?  Is there cheaper product that I can be using ..... very interesting.....


 


As for many of my cleaning needs, ONR provides the cheapest alternative to many of these.


This makes it a cheaper QD and a cheaper glass cleaner than I normally could purchase.


But, do I have a money sink with other products.  One product where I need to check 


is my tire product.  This is sort-of expensive, and it is used at heavy strength 1 to 1 dilution.


 


The place that I need most help with finding a more efficiently priced product, is my MF soap.


Currently, I am using Megs APC as it is decently priced in a gallon.  Any alternatives that would


be cheap per vehicle?
 
bunkeroo26 said:
  Any alternatives that would be cheap per vehicle?
Click to expand...


Meg's APC+ = $18.99 / 5 Gallon = $81.99


 


3D Orange Citrus Cleaner = $14.99 / 5 Gallon = $44.99


 


Pretty big difference to me. 
 
David, it depends on what concentration you can use them at.


I was under the impression that the citrus needed to be stronger.


But 5 gallons for 45 is a good deal, that is the cost of one gallon of OPC =)
 
OPC is 27 bucks (I got a deal)...and actually works better than Megs APC.  I like powerclean for interiors and megs for exterior


 


The HD line up for chemicals...need to look into them.  I was at a dealership the other day (new years day) working on that 328d and the detailer in the next bay was using the HD line (what they use at the dealership) and it smelled so good!!!!  lol
 
Toyota, I use Opc for cleaning and love it,

I just don't want to use that to clean pads and towels lol.


I was thinking about this thread, and how I worked in many restaurants.

Well, a chef isn't going to try to figure in the cost of his blender

into food cost, just the dogs and labor cooking it.
 
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