Need Help Getting Started - Customer Base

[HLxDrummer]

Hey guys,



Haven't been on in a while (been busy with school, my car, my girlfriend, photography, etc.) but I am getting back into detailing. All my detailing stuff has been sitting mostly except for the occasional wash/wax. I am now helping out a business down the road doing a few cars here and there but want to either do detailing or photography over the summer.



Just a little background if your interest, if not, skip this paragraph. I am graduating from my undergraduate school at the start of May and will be starting medical school at the start of August. I have worked ****** manual labor jobs every summer and had absolutely no life (on top of having no life throughout the school year). This year I would like to do freelance photography or detailing so I can have a little extra time AND enjoy my job. I think detailing is a bit more realistic, however.



My Dad has a large garage I can probably detail out of most of the time, but no real room to store/organize my stuff which I find eats into my time very drastically. I am considering finding a small 1.5-2 car garage to rent if I go the detailing route. I have the Meguiars DA-like buffer (forget the terminology), a few polishes (UC/105/205/etc), rags, buckets, etc. I would consider investing in more brushes, lights, and an LGM, but again, I want to assess if this is realistic first.



My Dad does automotive work and can get me a few jobs, but how else can I establish a customer base? I need to have a fairly sure-fire way of getting consistent work before I invest more money into this side job. I feel like buying a few more things will make my jobs come out better and faster, but it's not worth it if I can make money. Even if I can get a few jobs a week I would be happy (~$250/week). Is it hard to establish a working relationship with small dealerships?



The guy I work for now seems to go off word of mouth, but that will be fairly hard for me at the beginning... He also gets lots of cars going to auctions somehow...



Any tips/ideas/advice?

 

[Richard Grasa]

This can be a tough business to get started in and build that customer base. Do you have a marketing budget or do you need to go the free/cheap route? Nothing wrong with free/cheap, especially if it's just a temporary thing. Craigslist, listing yourself on all the online directories, lettering on your car if it's nice enough, maybe look into sending out some press releases if you are doing this legit.



I wouldn't get into correction work, it doesn't really sound like you are experienced enough but I may be wrong. I'd start doing hand wash/wax and maybe something a little more involved like Express Details, or simple One-Steps.



Just do a good job and don't be a hack. And don't seriously undercharge for your work either, it hurts the industry as a whole.



Small dealerships may be a good way to go. Get some business cards and go to the dealerships and introduce yourself. If you get a few accounts you wouldn't need a garage, set yourself up mobile and do the work in theirs.

 

[Nth Degree]

I agree with Rich. Don't go looking to start out doing high end work. Do a good job on express details, etc. since that is what accounts for the bulk of the work anyway. When you get customers inquiring about higher level details, then spend the money on the necessary equipment.



As an individual detailer I have found that spending money on advertising rarely gets me the return I want. >90% of my business comes from referrals. Most from happy customers, some simply who stumble across me while I am on location. The market is often such a small % of the population that 95% of marketing dollars are wasted on those who have no intention of buying any detail service at all. Then it is a matter of capturing your portion of that 5%. Ultimately I have found it is better to make a few customers very happy and ask them for referrals. Blow someone's mind on their garage queen and they will tell all their friends, especially those who also have garage queens. (Remember where these people hang out.) That is how you get name recognition in the appropriate circles.



It takes a lot of time to build a customer base, especially when starting small and on a budget. Just make sure you get paid fairly for your time and materials and don't rely on it for income right away. For the first two years I probably operated in the red. Most of what I made went into buying new tools and materials. Keep at it doing quality work and be patient. Don't overextend yourself financially or physically. The rest should take care of itself.

 

[HLxDrummer]

This can be a tough business to get started in and build that customer base. Do you have a marketing budget or do you need to go the free/cheap route? Nothing wrong with free/cheap, especially if it's just a temporary thing. Craigslist, listing yourself on all the online directories, lettering on your car if it's nice enough, maybe look into sending out some press releases if you are doing this legit.



I wouldn't get into correction work, it doesn't really sound like you are experienced enough but I may be wrong. I'd start doing hand wash/wax and maybe something a little more involved like Express Details, or simple One-Steps.



Just do a good job and don't be a hack. And don't seriously undercharge for your work either, it hurts the industry as a whole.



Small dealerships may be a good way to go. Get some business cards and go to the dealerships and introduce yourself. If you get a few accounts you wouldn't need a garage, set yourself up mobile and do the work in theirs.

My marketing budget is pretty low, but flexible. If there is something almost guaranteed to get me clients, I would be willing to spend more, you know? I am looking into door hangers...



Honestly, I don't have a ton of correction experience but I have done a decent number of cars and read a ton and enjoy this work the most. I would only feel comfortable doing relatively light corrections on relatively new (factory painted) cars, however.



If anything, I think my problem is I am too OCD. I'm working for this guy and he pounds out things without them being perfect and it bugs me, but the customers seem happy for ~$160 so I guess I need to calm down lol!



Working on location at a dealership would be very cool! I'm just thinking if they have the facilities to do detailing, they would probably keep it in house?

I agree with Rich. Don't go looking to start out doing high end work. Do a good job on express details, etc. since that is what accounts for the bulk of the work anyway. When you get customers inquiring about higher level details, then spend the money on the necessary equipment.



As an individual detailer I have found that spending money on advertising rarely gets me the return I want. >90% of my business comes from referrals. Most from happy customers, some simply who stumble across me while I am on location. The market is often such a small % of the population that 95% of marketing dollars are wasted on those who have no intention of buying any detail service at all. Then it is a matter of capturing your portion of that 5%. Ultimately I have found it is better to make a few customers very happy and ask them for referrals. Blow someone's mind on their garage queen and they will tell all their friends, especially those who also have garage queens. (Remember where these people hang out.) That is how you get name recognition in the appropriate circles.



It takes a lot of time to build a customer base, especially when starting small and on a budget. Just make sure you get paid fairly for your time and materials and don't rely on it for income right away. For the first two years I probably operated in the red. Most of what I made went into buying new tools and materials. Keep at it doing quality work and be patient. Don't overextend yourself financially or physically. The rest should take care of itself.

As far as equipment, I just need stuff to help me organize so I am more efficient. I find that I waste a ton of time finding the right rag, a working sprayer, etc. since I just keep my stuff in random boxes. So I would just need some shelving, possibly a garden/pump sprayer, and an LGM (a lot of people want their carpets shampooed it seems).



I can imagine most work is from referrals/word of mouth and that is where I think I will struggle. Not that my work isn't good and that people won't recommend me, but I need a decent amount of customers to begin with for that to work.



I usually save the majority of what I make (I work multiple jobs through the school year), so I can go without making a killing for a little while but in the end if I'm not making money it's not worth my time...



Also, I would love to do garage queens but get paranoid that I will get blamed for a scratch/etc. and wonder how to get high end cars when I'm just starting out.



Anyway, thanks for the help guys I appreciate it alot!

 

[Richard Grasa]

If anything, I think my problem is I am too OCD. I'm working for this guy and he pounds out things without them being perfect and it bugs me, but the customers seem happy for ~$160 so I guess I need to calm down lol!



Working on location at a dealership would be very cool! I'm just thinking if they have the facilities to do detailing, they would probably keep it in house?

As a detailer trying to make money, controlling our OCD is one of the toughest things IMO. It's so hard to turn out vehicles that are not 100% perfect, but since the customer is not paying for perfection you have to draw that line of where to stop. I could easily spend many more hours than I do on my Basic Details but can't because I can't work all day for $100. Make the customer aware of what you will be doing for that much $, do a good job and that's all you can really do. If they want to spend more $ then you can spend more time on it.



As far as the small dealerships, most of them have shop space but alot do not employ their own detailers because they cannot afford to pay someone to work there detailing when they only sell x amount of cars per week/month. Also it's so hard for them to find someone who does decent work who would want to work for $10/hour so they sub the work out to people like us. If you are mechanically inclined it's also easy to pick up some other side work like brake jobs and oil changes. I've done some of that when I first started out to help fill my schedule and make a little more $.

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

If you are mechanically inclined it's also easy to pick up some other side work like brake jobs and oil changes. I've done some of that when I first started out to help fill my schedule and make a little more $.

Just keep in mind if you do look at going in that direction, your state may have additional licensing requirements to perform mechanical work, especially on things that affect vehicle safety/reliability. You would also be wise to carry appropriate liability insurance covering that sort of work.

 

[MeticulousTX]

I would say that if you are wanting to reel in the benifits of having a decent customer base, it will take a lot of work to achieve it; nothing great will come easy! As a tip, one thing I have done that is effective In my area, is to place business cards on the driver side door weatherstrip sticking up against the window. I have gained many clients who had never heard of me by doing this.



Good luck!

 

[HLxDrummer]

As a detailer trying to make money, controlling our OCD is one of the toughest things IMO. It's so hard to turn out vehicles that are not 100% perfect, but since the customer is not paying for perfection you have to draw that line of where to stop. I could easily spend many more hours than I do on my Basic Details but can't because I can't work all day for $100. Make the customer aware of what you will be doing for that much $, do a good job and that's all you can really do. If they want to spend more $ then you can spend more time on it.



As far as the small dealerships, most of them have shop space but alot do not employ their own detailers because they cannot afford to pay someone to work there detailing when they only sell x amount of cars per week/month. Also it's so hard for them to find someone who does decent work who would want to work for $10/hour so they sub the work out to people like us. If you are mechanically inclined it's also easy to pick up some other side work like brake jobs and oil changes. I've done some of that when I first started out to help fill my schedule and make a little more $.

Ya it seems like the key is good communication between myself and the customer on what is expected for the price. I am into mechanical work so doing a combination would be really cool! I am considering working out of my Dad's garage (not ideal) and he said he could probably give me $100 worth in mechanical work/week which would help.

Just keep in mind if you do look at going in that direction, your state may have additional licensing requirements to perform mechanical work, especially on things that affect vehicle safety/reliability. You would also be wise to carry appropriate liability insurance covering that sort of work.

Obviously if there were laws the employers would probably require me to have proof of certification/etc. which I don't have so that would be out... I would feel comfortable doing basic stuff under the table, however.

I would say that if you are wanting to reel in the benifits of having a decent customer base, it will take a lot of work to achieve it; nothing great will come easy! As a tip, one thing I have done that is effective In my area, is to place business cards on the driver side door weatherstrip sticking up against the window. I have gained many clients who had never heard of me by doing this.



Good luck!

I'm definitely willing to work hard for it, I just don't have an extended period of time to gradually build my reputation/client base as I will be out of work again in August. I've considered the business card trick before, but I wasn't sure if people would be annoyed or interested by me placing cards on their car.

 

[Concours.John]

There is one thing I can suggest. Refine your skills and know your process.



Take a chance and go to the closest Concours event in you area. Talk to the judges or just follow them judging(you mentioned wanting to do higher end work). Many times if you tell the judges that you just want to learn they will let you follow, this will let you know and see what criteria a prepared vehicle is critiqued. This is the start of high end to sell to people.



It relates to detailing because many who are In the high end market also show vehicles which are judged by people who know the field.

 

[polishd]

It certainly takes times, make sure you have a good website up and running, facebook page etc. and maybe promote them with google adwords. I personally have found both these options really cost effective..



car detailing adelaide

 

[HLxDrummer]

There is one thing I can suggest. Refine your skills and know your process.



Take a chance and go to the closest Concours event in you area. Talk to the judges or just follow them judging(you mentioned wanting to do higher end work). Many times if you tell the judges that you just want to learn they will let you follow, this will let you know and see what criteria a prepared vehicle is critiqued. This is the start of high end to sell to people.



It relates to detailing because many who are In the high end market also show vehicles which are judged by people who know the field.

Thanks for the tips man!

It certainly takes times, make sure you have a good website up and running, facebook page etc. and maybe promote them with google adwords. I personally have found both these options really cost effective..



car detailing adelaide

Any pointers how to get a site started? Preferably one that is easy/free? I used to use Frontpage/FTP/Geocities back in the day but would prefer something much easier if possible. I just looked at Adwords and it seems like a great option! Just need a site to link it too I think this combined with door hangers will be a good start.



Thanks!

 

[Concours.John]

Webeasy Professional 8 is a cheap program with a ton of features and links to get you up and running. I am not affiliated but was impressed with the ease of use and customized templates.

 

[HLxDrummer]

I'll have to look into that one! I actually just threw together a website last night that I will use on my flyers/etc. Nothing too fancy but looks presentable IMO. Thanks again!