Please stress this is just to gauge interest at the moment. Im in the process of setting up my own car cleaning company. I use top notch products i.e. meguiars, p21s etc. At the moment i will only do exterior treatment but this will last around 4 hours. The process will include washing,clay bar, paint cleaner, sealer and glaze, wax, reflections top coat, window polish, tail pipe polish, alloy wheel clean and tyre shine. Sorry if this is against the fourms rules please remove if it is. Pm me if you would be interested. Thanks for looking

 

what part of the country will you cover?

 

that would be helpful sorry. im looking at doing it in the south east area. anyone

 

have you done this before?

do you have equipment?>

do you have premises or will it be mobile?

its quite hard to start up these days, with all the bloody immigrants doing things for 20p a panel IMO

loads of kosovans around newcastle working cash in hand, i would think quite hard and long as the majority of the general public are thick as **** and will simply go where ever is cheapest

 

Water shortage doesn't help either!

 

There's always a market for good detailers, despite what's happening in the valeting market. Set your prices high and you'll get work no problem - it will seperate you out from the folk who want their car cleaned from those who want it detailed to perfection.

 

what is the approx price of a full detail Rich??

 

Hard to give an exact figure, as every job is different... and for this reason I now charge by the hour and always try to inspect each car in advance. For example, I did an X5 a couple of weeks ago, and the owner said he wanted the full works including a machine polish, but that he expected it all done in a day. After inspecting the car (which initially looked neglected) I estimated 10 hours work tops (erring on the side of caution)... it eventually took me 9 hours (would have been 7-8 hours but my PC died on me half way though!), so I only charged him 9 hours. Fairer for the customer this way. From the start of July my hourly rate will be £20, as I have found £15 an hour isn't enough to cover the materials used on each job and still give me a decent amount to put in the bank (for example, on the X5, I charged £135 for nine hours work but used ~£25 of materials in the process!).

 

is that £25 RRP or what it costs you?

 

cheers Rich

what happened to the p/c by the way, is it repairable??

 

What it cost me at trade prices. Still not sure what's up with my original PC, going to send it back soon while I go on holiday - I'll try to remember to post the reason when I find out!

 

Sorry i have not replied to your messages been very busy trying to get things started. Basically i am going to do this mobile. I do not do machining as i have not had enough experience of this yet to be doing it on other peoples cars. Everything i do is done by hand using top quality microfibres and applicators. I am trying to get to the level that polished bliss is at some other detailers but im not there yet thats why i cannot justify charging the the higher prices which they deserve to get if u see there work. I will though work very hard to get the best out of your paintwork and car for a relatively well in my eyes cheap price. So anyone up for giving it a go?
Just to state i am based round Sevenoaks way but i will travel within reason. Thanks again

 

honestly i REALLY feel for anybody who trys from scratch in making a living this way @ the moment


i don't know rich, but i would hazard a guess he has been doing what he does for a long time, maybe on the side of another full time job, i don't know, but it is hard work if you want to earn a decent wage, i put in a 12 hour day today, i will be doing the same tomorrow, i did clear £340 for myself today so its not all doom and gloom, but i have basically done 72 hour weeks for the past 2 years to get where i am with my business now, and i have been cleaning cars for 10 years admittedly, i was working for other people most of the time.

i predict another 2 years before we have grown enough for me to cut my hours down to something a touch more leisurely
i did try and cut my hours down to a 50 or so per week, this summer, but all my staff left and now i have to train new ones up which has put me back near square one


good luck!!!

 

Thanks mate any advice u can throw my way? I am doing this as a side job but i would like to progress to having this as my proffession. Believe it or not i do really enjoy putting the time in and working on peoples cars making them look nice and clean. I just need a kick start to get me going.

 

advertisements that work for me........

"get the biggest yellow pages advert you can afford"
this really is a massive source of business for me, i share a big advert with my mate who is based 10 miles away (same franchise for the carwash so we halve the cost basically it gives the customer a choice of who is nearest and gives better exposure for us both)
"leaflet drops"
find out how much it is to put an advert through peoples letter boxes, do it yourselves if you have the time, costs are not that high to have a company do it for you
"word of mouth"
this is harder, and can only really deliver with time and effort put in, this can be one of the best advertisements possible, but it takes a long time to build up, i now have a local mitsubishi dealer/ saab dealer and 2 different used car dealers as regular customers of mine, this works extremely well, they can recommend us to the general public, somebody comes in for a service and enquires about cleaning, dealers don't really offer this service and pass them on to us.
another tip
"mates rates"
be carefull IMO if you spread the "mates rates" around to much you can have them come back to haunt you. before you know it, mates of long lost aunties are trying to get cash knocked off because somebody down the pub said so, if you know you are doing a good job then stand by your prices and don't back down!

i have backstreet car dealers trying to get "deals" done all the time now, word spreads around, they come and enquire and want things done for nothing, i turn them away, either pay the required price or go elsewhere, once you start doing things cheaper its very, very hard to break the cycle.

take a nice long holiday before you start up, because it will be a long time before you get a chance to have another

 

another one, if you have little experience, would be to try and "shadow" somebody who's knows what they are doing, offer somebody some of your time for free, watch them and help them sort a few cars out to get a idea of what is involved?

there are hundreds of little tips/tricks that you can pick up over time to make the job faster and easier, only last year i learnt an awesome way to remove polish from unpainted plastics with a simple rubber eraser

my current lads still cringe when i used a razor blade to remove dog hairs
i have not damaged a seat yet

 

A lot of sense in what Mick says - it does take time. If you want to work towards high end detailing then I would recommend spending a fair bit of time on the better detailing forums. Check out...

www.detailingworld.co.uk/
www.autopia.org/ (this is where I learnt a lot of what I know)
www.detailcity.org/

I spent months reading up, noting what products/techniques folk were using before going out, spending a fortune on gear and then learning for myself. It does take time, but another worthy investment would be a Porter Cable. The whole kit can be had for around £150 delivered with the current exchange rate, and it will take your work to another level, even if using simple one step products. Final point - whether working by hand or machine, don't undervalue your work. I did a Range Rover Sport for a member on here a few months back, and did the whole job by hand as the machine was not needed. I still put the hours in, so I still charged the full price. Just because you work by hand does not necessarily mean you should charge little - just make sure you only take on jobs where the customer isn't expecting a high degree of defect correction. £15 an hour minimum!

 

Right things have been progressing slowly but i still need a good stream of quality cars such as scoobies. This is why i am offering a discount to all you guys on here. I am going to charge 45 quid all in, depending on travel. I have pics of a 350z i done just last Saturday and also an FTO. If anyone else is interested then PM and i can send u pics. Thanks for looking

 

UPDATE: Got a few weeks available after this weekend. I really want to do some scoobies just so i can get the pics on my web site when its done. Got a few 350Z's will have an Aston and Bently after this weekend but i would like some scoobies to. So anyone willing to give it a go? Still 45 quid all in? Thanks for your time peeps!

 

Steve

I may be interested, but its a bit far - I live in weston-s-mare, and work in Chard, Somerset. However I will be in Brighton/Tunbridge wells 29th/30th July albeit I will be moving around somewhat in that time and it would depend on how long you would wnat the car for.

I have a black type R with crap bodywork. Basically it was silver but has been resprayed, badly in some places. In truth it needs a full proper respray but thats not going to happen this year.

Like you I have considered detailing as a profession and I think if I was ever made redundant, thats what i would go for.

Anyway the car does polish up quite well, but the big issue are the swirl marks that are all over the car. I have bought a PC but time hasn't allowed me to get to get to grips yet.

I seen some of the work that PB does and it amazing - to the extent I would consider a trip up there just to get the car done, and considering what a proper respary would cost, would be money well spent and a nice weekend in the process.

If WSM not too far, get in contact.

Nick