How Nice of a Living Can Be Made in Detailing?

My goal is to chase and catch hot chicks, drink margritas poolside, work once a week - on Fridays when I go in for my paycheck and bark orders and complaints at the young kid in my garage detailing my Ferrari!!:clap:



Andy
jdoria said:
Don't chase a number, chase a goal. The money will come.



$200k as annual personal income equates to about $600k in annual business income in the most efficient model.



After expenses of tax, rent, employees, electric, insurance, supplies.



If you can build a business model that dumps 50k per month in your business account, you are there.



So work backwards from there and see how many cars you need to do. Might not work out...





Or you can just get a job that pays in the 200-250k range a few years after your MBA and detail for fun money

It is possible..
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JSFM35X said:
At 17 i thought my Dad worked too hard, and that i would find a better way to support my family. Guess what i am 43 years old and the best thing you can learn is to bust your but at whatever you do. Try to give 110% percent and keep your head down and work hard through the bumps and set backs and when you look back you will have suceeded. It's not a quick process.
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Well said...there's no free lunch, no easy way out, no retiring at 40 (unless you're like that jerk, jdoria...:p ).
 
camarodriver23 said:
I do some detail work for people i know and i don't charge through the roof but i make a amount on each car i do maybe 2/3 cars a month if i feel like it and of course mine... i am in college this is not the business to be in if you are going to college it is very time consuming if you really want to go and get your M.B.A (Which i think is a good move) you will want to be getting good grades. I would try detailing on a small scale for fun and sooner or later the people you have asking about your car and others that you have done will grow keep it as a side job. I personal do not think there is any way you will be making 200 K a year you would need large multiple sites if you wanted to make that much i know detailers that make 40 K on a good year it is not guaranteed at all one year you can be making bank the next you are losing money hand over fist. If you want to make that kinda of money go in LAW or the Medical field not detailing. Like i said i am a college student and when school starts i barely have time to detail my car let along other peoples car's. Then again i maintain a 3.98 GPA. This is not the field to make bank in and it is nothing is guaranteed





Just my $ 0.2
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Running any kind of business would definitely take away from your studies. I detailed part time will in college and also worked other part time jobs at the same time. Have you studied the income potential of an efficient express detail type operation? My opinion is a shop such as that, properly done, can make lots of money. I currently run a mobile detail operation. Though I am profitable, there is a limit to what you can make. The problem is that, this type of detailing is a niche market. Most simply are not willing to pay a premium to have their car detailed for 4-8 hours at $40-$50 dollars per hour. I have learned a lot in the last nearly four years, about running a business. College never came close to teaching me these things. I also love the freedom and challenge of being an entrepreneur. I pretty much make my own schedule, and never have some under qualified jerk telling me what to do and how do it. This allows me to spend time with my family and have lots of fun. In the near future I plan on opening up a nice store front shop that does a quality express detail much faster and much cheaper than the type of detailing most do here. This will allow me to serve a much larger market share and hopefully make much more money. The one thing you forget about with the whole law school and medical school thing is, unless mom and dad are paying, it will cost you six figures and you will lose 8-10 year or more of your life.
 
I'm going to start selling Medical Marijuana franchises.



Anyone in??



Andy
brwill2005 said:
Running any kind of business would definitely take away from your studies. I detailed part time will in college and also worked other part time jobs at the same time. Have you studied the income potential of an efficient express detail type operation? My opinion is a shop such as that, properly done, can make lots of money. I currently run a mobile detail operation. Though I am profitable, there is a limit to what you can make. The problem is that, this type of detailing is a niche market. Most simply are not willing to pay a premium to have their car detailed for 4-8 hours at $40-$50 dollars per hour. I have learned a lot in the last nearly four years, about running a business. College never came close to teaching me these things. I also love the freedom and challenge of being an entrepreneur. I pretty much make my own schedule, and never have some under qualified jerk telling me what to do and how do it. This allows me to spend time with my family and have lots of fun. In the near future I plan on opening up a nice store front shop that does a quality express detail much faster and much cheaper than the type of detailing most do here. This will allow me to serve a much larger market share and hopefully make much more money. The one thing you forget about with the whole law school and medical school thing is, unless mom and dad are paying, it will cost you six figures and you will lose 8-10 year or more of your life.
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It will be very difficult in Baltimore,since it will be seasonal. Also to make 200k detailing is definitely the high end. If you don't like what you are doing,and have a Passion for it. The money is not going to make you happy.I own and operate a Mobile Detailing business,and I do pretty good in Ohio. ( SEASONAL) I also work a fulltime job in city government,and I have learned to appreciate the positives and negatives of both. We all realize that everyone wants to make a good living for ourselves and families,girl friends,cars toys etc. Your best bet is to go to college,get a degree,learn how to really run a business and make a profit. Do the detailing on the side. Learn the trade first. Study ,read ,use every available option. You are very young and a carreer choice can be decided as you discover what it is you really like and want to do in life.
 
You can certainly make that amount of money, but you're not going to make it working with dealerships. You need to really establish yourself as being the best there is, and have a good constant flow of retail customers coming through your doors. I used to work for dealerships, and they want everything for half price, and they want it done by yesterday. When we first started our shop we targeted dealerships for the steady work flow, but now we concentrate on getting only a few cars done throughout the day, but can really spend a lot of time to make them perfect, and we also get paid for our work.





John
 
I would say that making $200K per year (take home) is probably going to be next to impossible. ALOT of things have to go absolutely perfectly for that to happen. You have to have the detailing skill, the marketing skill, the business skill, and a whole sh*tload of luck. And even IF all those things happen, it will most likely take you years, or possibly decades before you achieve your $200k/year goal.



You need to make a decision. How important is money to you?



Can you be happy on $30K per year? If so, detailing might work for you



Maybe you need $50K? Detailing is still viable, but it will take a little more hard work, education, skill, etc.



75K? You're still in the range of possibility, but again, it's alot harder to get there.



Six figure detailers are out there. It's not impossible, but they are certainly the exception and not the rule.



If having a giant salary is that important to you, I would recommend that you drop professional detailing as a career option.



Or, at least, do it on the side to augment your income. But even then, it's tough to make enough money to make things worth the effort. Let's say you have a job that pays $150K. It's probably a pretty demanding, 50-60 hour per week gig. You'll need to make an extra ~$1,000 per week detailing in order to get to your $200K goal. That's at least four cars on top of your regular job! If you do that, you won't have time to enjoy any of the money you make or the family you provide for.
 
brwill2005 said:
That is not true. Obviously you had success with this model, but there are other ways.
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Yeah, but...the biggest bucks are pretty much going to come from the biggest business. If you're Paul Dalton or Todd Helme, and you make $2500 a car (let's just talk gross here), and you do 2 cars a week, maybe you can get to 2.5 cars a week by hiring a helper to schlep your buckets and your extension cords, but you're not going to let the helper do the car because they are paying for you to do it and if the helper does it you're not going to get $2500 a car.



So maybe you can make $6250 a week, if you don't saturate your market for $2500 details. If you have a huge volume business, as noted you could take in $10,000 a week...maybe your net would be less, etc, but you get the idea...there's no limit to the volume business...maybe you open another location some distance away and bring in another 10 a week.



It's the same concept the MBA CEO's use, buy up other companies...if you buy up nine other companies that are similar size, now you have a company 10 times the size...but with only one CEO...it's a lot easier to get your outlandish salary and bonus from the board of directors when you come to them as the CEO of a $50 billion company as opposed to a $5 billion.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Yeah, but...the biggest bucks are pretty much going to come from the biggest business. If you're Paul Dalton or Todd Helme, and you make $2500 a car (let's just talk gross here), and you do 2 cars a week, maybe you can get to 2.5 cars a week by hiring a helper to schlep your buckets and your extension cords, but you're not going to let the helper do the car because they are paying for you to do it and if the helper does it you're not going to get $2500 a car.



So maybe you can make $6250 a week, if you don't saturate your market for $2500 details. If you have a huge volume business, as noted you could take in $10,000 a week...maybe your net would be less, etc, but you get the idea...there's no limit to the volume business...maybe you open another location some distance away and bring in another 10 a week.



It's the same concept the MBA CEO's use, buy up other companies...if you buy up nine other companies that are similar size, now you have a company 10 times the size...but with only one CEO...it's a lot easier to get your outlandish salary and bonus from the board of directors when you come to them as the CEO of a $50 billion company as opposed to a $5 billion.
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OK, I guess. I am not really sure what your point is. I was just referring to David's Point that the ONLY way to make it in this business is to do dealership work. I think achieving economies of scale is very important here. If your team can do enough cars, at an attractive price and very efficiently, it can make big money. I am not really talking about high end details, but rather an express type service that takes an hour or two at the most.
 
I detail for a guy up in simi valley doing the major detail work. This guy has a car wash "detailer" who will cruise by every saturday and wash cars, well his employees will. He has 8 teams of two who all they do is wash cars 6 days a week! at 15-20-25 bucks a car, they have to turn out a lot of cars! Wash, wax, and interior cleaning is all they offer, no clay, no polishing, no compounding...your basic express type mobile detail company!



long story short, last year after paying all his employees, taxes and fees, expenses, etc, he cleared the 150K mark and all he does is work the phones and emails with occasionally hitting the field when someone calls in sick....
 
most high dollar markets will be the dealership type express type work IMO

the luxury 500 details are far and few between and not bankable on an every day basis. I have been asked 3 times this week already how much for a job like the BMW I just did and it too 16 hours...so when I say it ran a hourly rate of $60/hr, and came out to 960, the jaw dropped "who spends that much on a car" its worth it to some, and not to others...its not the norm!



Needless to say, you have to hit the market right if you want to do 200 cars a year at 1000 each (working your own butt off). Or you can hit the volume market and open up a shop and hit 2000 cars at 150 each with employees (working less technical side, and more business side).
 
Joshua312 said:
As others have said, that's a very open ended question with many variables.



Most detailers work for themselves and are not on salary to where they are guaranteed a certain income each week, they work hard for their money and to retain and gain clients everyday.



You're young...if detailing appeals to you take it up as a side job or hobby. Go to school, get an education and then make a decision later on in life to determine what makes you happy and can support your lifestyle.
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+1



Detailing is hard work and hard on the body. There are several detailers out there making good money but $200,000 a year is a stretch unless you have several employee's/shops. There are also a lot of headaches that come with having employees and working on cars. More and more detailers are popping up and competition can be tough too depending on where you live.



I detailed full time for almost 10 years before going back to school. Now I work full time and detail on the side, best move I ever made. :bigups
 
brwill2005 said:
That is not true. Obviously you had success with this model, but there are other ways.
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brwill2005 said:
I was just referring to David's Point that the ONLY way to make it in this business is to do dealership work. I think achieving economies of scale is very important here. If your team can do enough cars, at an attractive price and very efficiently, it can make big money. I am not really talking about high end details, but rather an express type service that takes an hour or two at the most.
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Less said:
I would say that making $200K per year (take home) is probably going to be next to impossible. ALOT of things have to go absolutely perfectly for that to happen. You have to have the detailing skill, the marketing skill, the business skill, and a whole sh*tload of luck. And even IF all those things happen, it will most likely take you years, or possibly decades before you achieve your $200k/year goal.
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I don't know any fixed detail shops that don't do dealer work (at some capacity) that can net $500,000 or alot more per year. Does anyone?



I do know a few people in S. Florida that have multiple mobile wash crews that do that. It's not really a matter of luck either. I also know several detail shop owners that do that too, but they are dealer centric. It's not too difficult and it *can* be replicated with the right vision and experience. Pay me enough consulting fees and I would be more than happy to show you. The majority of detail shop owners aren't too business savvy and aren't well versed on growing a business. They are happy doing $100-200K and having just enough employees to get them through their day. In my opinion, they are the most vulnerable to loosing market share. The key is volume and being able to do it efficiently and with the lowest overhead. Completely opposite of what Autopia is about.
 
David F. - If you think that business model can be replicated, and you have the know-how and experience to consult people into making it happen. Why don't you do it? Seriously. I'm not trying to dispute what you're saying, and I'm not trying to start an argument. i'm just asking why you don't do that? If it's that easy, you could just travel the country selling detail franchises and make a TON of money.



And luck is a major factor in ANY business success. I doubt you can find one single business owner who didn't have a door opened for him, or find the right customer at the right time, or have his competitor hit by a bus, or some other random occurence that helped him gain momentum and bring the business to the next level.



I'll use an analogy that I'm pretty familiar with. Poker Winning a major tournament takes countless hours of practice, determination, incredible talent, and skill. However, even if you have all of those things, you'll never win without getting lucky. Your kings have to crack aces, and you need to hit your draws at the right time. You just don't plow through 5,000 other players on skill.



The same goes for business. For every aspiring detailer, there are hundreds of other people just like you. You can work harder, have more skill, etc., and that's usually enough to build a decent business. But to really elevate yourself to the next level and put yourself in the top tier of businesses it does take some amount of luck. You have to be at the right place, and the right time, find the right customer, and take advantage of the right opportunities to really break out and be exceptionally successful.
 
Well at least we have good dialogue going on. There is an express type operation near here that probably nets close to $500,000 per year. As far as I can tell they do zero dealer work. Granted, I have not seen their balance sheets though. They are always busy and have a very prime location. I can definitely agree that it would be very hard to net big bucks doing luxury Autopian type details. There is simply not enough of a demand. I can not count how many potential customer's I turned down because they did not want to pay my price or wanted a low level of service that I do not provide on a one time basis.
 
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