What would you guys charge for this detail

JoshVette said:
I understand what you are saying, but I tell my clients all the time for paint correction it is by the hour and then I give them a general idea of what it "might" cost based on past experience but I make it clear if it takes longer or shorter it will still be per hour.



The faster and better you become the more you raise you're prices. Like what Todd is saying.:2thumbs:
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Gotcha....I do your method for vehicles that I cannot quote on, for vehicles I inspect prior to work I use the method in my previous post... In effect I have been rasing my "hourly price in regards to how much profit I make against my hourly rate without changing my price to the customer...



How do you justify raising you price to a customer... what do you say when you have been charging the "X" for a year ans because you low balled yourself to start off with now you must raise your prices???



In my understanding of Todd's post I didn't get that he suggested raising prices... maybe I am wrong..



I think the cleintel you have and your "sales skills" dictates what method is best for all...
 
MotorCity said:
Gotcha....I do your method for vehicles that I cannot quote on, for vehicles I inspect prior to work I use the method in my previous post... In effect I have been rasing my "hourly price in regards to how much profit I make against my hourly rate without changing my price to the customer...



How do you justify raising you price to a customer... what do you say when you have been charging the "X" for a year ans because you low balled yourself to start off with now you must raise your prices???



In my understanding of Todd's post I didn't get that he suggested raising prices... maybe I am wrong..



I think the cleintel you have and your "sales skills" dictates what method is best for all...
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Why do you have to justify anything??



If you've low balled jobs in the past, you just tell them the truth that you've been under estimating quotes and jobs and such and now that you offer much better quality and have much more experience you are more accurate at quoting and such. When you do it per hour, then you get paid for how long you work and don't have to worry about low balling quotes and such.



I'm not talking about raising prices on some simple wash, clay wax job that doesn't take long to do, I'm talking about paint correction......when it used to take 10 hours to do a correction at $50 per hour = $500 and now that I'm more experienced, better quality and faster correction, it only takes 7 hours and you now charge $75 per hour = $525......for example.



You are making the same money for the same correction but taking less time to do it and maybe can squeeze in an extra car at the end of the day and make more per day, per week, per month......etc.....etc......



Josh
 
I'm a NooB....



But not to the Detailing Industry!



detailing isn't for everyone, from my experiences, I have noticed some of my competitors offer detailing, and what the customers are really getting, is a good Car Wash!



You need to base your prices on several different things....



Competitors prices



What is your time worth



Cost of products that you will be using for the job



and other things.....



I think you did an excellent job on that car, don't allow one experience spoil it for you!



I know I'm not the only detailer out there that has experienced difficult jobs that I may have thought would only take a few hours, but ended up taking a couple more than expected.



From my experiences, if I used the same products you used, and did the same job, I would have charged $250 to $325.



Keep up the good work.....



Don't give up on detailing, it can be a rewarding field!



Take Care,



Jay

ATX.MD
 
ive been in the automotive detailing industry for about 2 years now and im considered pretty high... i charge $20/hr for most of my work. i currently have an escalade in my garage (a client's). when all is said and done ill walk with $295. Im doing: wash and dry, interior clean and conditioning on three rows of leather seats, dash, doors etc, chrome treatment (four rims), claybar, a clearcoat sealant, and TOPAZ wax. im in destin, fl. being in florida everybody knows this simple phrase: location. location. location. some people can do 10 bucks an hour- i couldn feed my dog for that... lol- anyway- nice work-
 
This thread has become very comical at best. Just because I only could get $80 for this shouldn't be what everyone focuses on. I opened up on June 1st 2007 here (so only about 6 months) and I've still made over $54,000 (edit* just rechecked my year end and from june1 to dec 31 I made just over $71,000... So it's actually not going bad at all) so far just charging my wee little bit of scrap cash. Where the avarage means around here is about $22,000-$28,000/yr for income I'm think I'm doing quite well considering I still have another 6 months to go.



I said call your local compitition to see what they would charge as a starting base. Apparently people tossed that out the window. I'm not saying match your prices to that. But at least then you get a feel for what your local can tolorate for your service. And whoever told you not to charge professional prices when your not operating as a professional detail shoud be dragged out and shot.... You did a professional job there. That car looked amazing in the after. Who cares if this is you main source of bread winning or not. After doing a job like that Outside of the time it took you I would have absoultly zero issues charging professional rates. Like another guy sain on here a friggin clean car is a friggin clean car. Don't let all these nay-sayers on here ever get you down about not being a "professional" when your putting out quality like that.
 
Products and services are only worth what people will pay. You need to research and find out what price ranges are locally. There is no exact formula of setting prices. Ever seen the stock market? Why does the Nintendo Wii go for more than retail price before christmas? If nobody buys at these prices, the price will drop. Believe it or not, the consumer sets the cost.

Use research to find out your target, then adjust it accordingly. There's more to running a detailing business than picking out polishes. Make sure you know the difference between revenue and profit. If it costs you 35,000 to make 45, 000. You're probably not gonna lst very long.



Good work, nonetheless. Professional.
 
Jakerooni said:
This thread has become very comical at best. Just because I only could get $80 for this shouldn't be what everyone focuses on. I opened up on June 1st 2007 here (so only about 6 months) and I've still made over $54,000 (edit* just rechecked my year end and from june1 to dec 31 I made just over $71,000... So it's actually not going bad at all) so far just charging my wee little bit of scrap cash. Where the avarage means around here is about $22,000-$28,000/yr for income I'm think I'm doing quite well considering I still have another 6 months to go.



I said call your local compitition to see what they would charge as a starting base. Apparently people tossed that out the window. I'm not saying match your prices to that. But at least then you get a feel for what your local can tolorate for your service. And whoever told you not to charge professional prices when your not operating as a professional detail shoud be dragged out and shot.... You did a professional job there. That car looked amazing in the after. Who cares if this is you main source of bread winning or not. After doing a job like that Outside of the time it took you I would have absoultly zero issues charging professional rates. Like another guy sain on here a friggin clean car is a friggin clean car. Don't let all these nay-sayers on here ever get you down about not being a "professional" when your putting out quality like that.
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How many detailers to you have on staff, and how many of them are even capable of delivering results like the original poster? I don't see how charging five dollars an hour will net you 140k a year. That job was 16 hours long, say you cut it down a few hours, and then a few more by having "two guys who KNOW what they're doing" and get it down to a 7 hour job. For $80 you now have to pay two pro's (unless of course you don't have any on staff) even then you would be paying I would assume a minimum of 7 dollars an hour so $14.00 an hour says you would pay to do the detail. Did you mean you pay 54k a year to operate?
 
VaSuperShine said:
How many detailers to you have on staff, and how many of them are even capable of delivering results like the original poster? I don't see how charging five dollars an hour will net you 140k a year. That job was 16 hours long, say you cut it down a few hours, and then a few more by having "two guys who KNOW what they're doing" and get it down to a 7 hour job. For $80 you now have to pay two pro's (unless of course you don't have any on staff) even then you would be paying I would assume a minimum of 7 dollars an hour so $14.00 an hour says you would pay to do the detail. Did you mean you pay 54k a year to operate?
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Your taking this waaaay off topic. This thread isn't about me. Not sure why everytime I post people get all freaked out about my prices. I do good and I don't complain about only being able to net so much per job. Remember it's only $80 for exteriors. I charge up to $200 for fulls and $15/lf for boats and RV's and I get a ton of them. Wheeling out a car is easy for me. I've done it the right way for a long time. It's easy for me to train someone to do it. I offer a great deal of different services that net in a ton of different prices. I have 2 guys on staff. they get $10/hr flat rate. (meaning I set a time on how long something should take and they get paid per that set time per job) Apparently my way seems to be working out. So instead of knocking it so bad just let it be what it is.
 
The reason I talked to you is because "YOU" posted something worth talking about, if you don't want anyone to respond to your posts,well you know what to do.



This job sure looked like an exterior "detail" to me.





Only you really know what it is, but putting a time limit on a detail sounds pretty hackish. Not to mention setting someones pay by suggesting a job should only take five hours, what's that going to breed? corner cutting that's what, who in their right minds would work for six hours if you told them it should take four? Is that even legal?lmao
 
"Not to mention setting someones pay by suggesting a job should only take five hours, what's that going to breed? corner cutting that's what, who in their right minds would work for six hours if you told them it should take four? Is that even legal?lmao"



Actually, this is the way most repair shops work. For example, the repair shop I frequent uses a manual that says that a timing belt change should take 3 hours. If the technician can do it in 2, good for him. If it takes 4, he loses out. However, the key is that if the mechanic consistantly does it in 2 instead of 3, but cars are repeatedly being brought back, the shop manager is going to reprimand or fire him.



This system works well in the repair world. It keeps technicians from lolli-gagging, and dragging a 3 hour repair into an 8 hour repair for no reason.
 
It's like the late great Sam Kinison once said in a stand up routine:



"There are thousands of people dying in the deserts of Africa every day, they cant grow the food and dont have the water they need to survive".

"Its sand, nothing grows in F-ing sand. If you cant get food here, move out of the desert! Ahh, ahhh, ahh you F-ing loser, ahh, ahh".



A little rough, but it gets the point across. Regional disparity in trades and cost of living. Someone can do work for $80 because their cost of living is low while another guy needs to charge $700 to match his cost of living.
 
jsatek said:
It's like the late great Sam Kinison once said in a stand up routine:



"There are thousands of people dying in the deserts of Africa every day, they cant grow the food and dont have the water they need to survive".

"Its sand, nothing grows in F-ing sand. If you cant get food here, move out of the desert! Ahh, ahhh, ahh you F-ing loser, ahh, ahh".



A little rough, but it gets the point across. Regional disparity in trades and cost of living. Someone can do work for $80 because their cost of living is low while another guy needs to charge $700 to match his cost of living.
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exactly... My cost of living here is really next to nothing. Hell I only pay $1000/month for 7 bays and I rent out 4 of them to my mechanic. So I really have very low overhead.



The flat rate thing works very well in many industries. I use because it's what I was used to when I was working as an employee. I've yet to have a single detailer walk through my door that hasn't used the system before. It's just how it's done. Go back to my post a few months ago about everything being automated for the most part in my shop. Every single car gets prepped exactly the same and 80% of your detailing is in the prep work. Any kind of "special attention" details will fall into that final 20% and that's easy enough to compesate for. When I say a full detail on the softet black SUV with light tan interior shouldn't take more than 4-6 hours it's because I know full well it shouldn't by many years of experience. you do every car the same way you get a very solid routine down and things become second nature. Once in a blue moon things will toss you for a loop but those are not the norm. Mobil detailers are different because they have the enviorment to work with. I've never had that issue so I've never faltered from my automation. The more you do it the same way the quicker you get. Hopefully your doing it the right way when you start and you develop good detailing habits and don't have to go back to re-learn proper techniques.
 
Jakerooni said:
exactly... My cost of living here is really next to nothing. Hell I only pay $1000/month for 7 bays and I rent out 4 of them to my mechanic. So I really have very low overhead.
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Jake, to be fair, you said you made like $71,000+ last year, but that's wasnt' in detailing, that was in total revenue from detailing combined with mechanical work you do on cars to the extra you make by renting out your other bays.....am I right? or are you suggesting that you made $71,000 off of $80-$200 dollar details? Not likely.



I think one reason why people jump on you on threads like this is that they're asking about pricing and you are soooo far below they avarage that when you give out your advise about pricing it's just all wrong compared to what the norm is.:wall
 
Jakerooni said:
exactly... My cost of living here is really next to nothing. Hell I only pay $1000/month for 7 bays and I rent out 4 of them to my mechanic. So I really have very low overhead.



The flat rate thing works very well in many industries. I use because it's what I was used to when I was working as an employee. I've yet to have a single detailer walk through my door that hasn't used the system before. It's just how it's done.
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Maybe in certain style detailing genres but never have I heard of such a pay system in detailing, Is this how conveyor belt detailing is done?
 
If you are considering a buffer,and are not as good as you would like to be,and or inexperienced with a rotory. Consider a Flex. It's a bit pricey, but it can and will do the job. Faster than a pc ,a step under a rotory with less of a learning curve. Just mo.
 
JoshVette said:
Jake, to be fair, you said you made like $71,000+ last year, but that's wasnt' in detailing, that was in total revenue from detailing combined with mechanical work you do on cars to the extra you make by renting out your other bays.....am I right? or are you suggesting that you made $71,000 off of $80-$200 dollar details? Not likely.



I think one reason why people jump on you on threads like this is that they're asking about pricing and you are soooo far below they avarage that when you give out your advise about pricing it's just all wrong compared to what the norm is.:wall
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Um no.. He owns his own business and has his own bank accounts. We do not mix money up here at all. He just rents out some bays from me. But he has his own computers his own cash box etc etc. that $71,000 is purely my own detailing money. I've invested some of it and it's paid off. (got a $15,000 payoff right at x-mas time) I really have zero issues proving it. I can show anyone the bank statements (without account numbers obviously) I just do alot of business. And what's good is my long term advertising just came out so the bulk of that was purely word of mouth customers. So hopefully I see a jump in revenues this summer.



And I wouldn't answer if it wasn't asked. But I'm not going to lie about it and make up some number just so I can look like I'm charging "the norm" I've showed all my detailers this site since I've found it and even my suppliers and stuff and none of them can even phanthom charging the prices you guys seem to get day in and day out. But you obviously can. But whereas you guys see me way under the norm me and every single person I'm around in the detailing world thinks most of the people on here are completly off their rockers for asking so much. Like the guy that said he wouldn't even wash and wax for under $80. I mean com'mon... what's the total cost involved there. maybe $3.00 in product and 30 minutes of your time. Why charge through the nose for that?? Just dosen't make sense to me..
 
Jake, I'm not calling you a liar, I just didn't know if that # you were throwing out was just detailing or with mechanical work included. (I knew you had mechanics so that's why I asked, not questioning your integrity at all) I didn't realize they were completely seperate from you. Thanks for clearing that up.:xyxthumbs



To be honest here in Dallas, $80 for a quality wash and interior cleaning is not a bad deal. You can go to the local "car spa" where they do the full inside outside detail for like $40-$60 bucks but they drive the car threw some wash bay and then towel it off and leave it nice and swirled up. I've known people to pay over $250 just to get their car's washed, waxed and inside cleaned up a little.



BTW, it takes me about a 45-60 minutes to fully detail the outside, that's two bucket washing that's including, rims, inside the rims, wheel wells, tires, door jams, windows, exhaust tips, and an Z8 wipe down. Basically when I'm done washing the car it looks like it's been freshly polished.:xyxthumbs

But I've never actually been asked to just wash a car, my most popular package is a full, wash, clay, seal, and full interior job which starts at $175.
 
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