Local detail shop's prices and an overall rant/future outlook

[snowracer21]

Quick note on my background first:

I've been a detailing enthusiast since I bought my first car, 15 years later and I'm just beginning to detail for-profit. I'm not advertising, just getting business by word of mouth, which is all I can handle currently, as work 50-55 hrs/wk at my day job. All of my business has been co-workers/friends. Because I'm new to the detailing-for-profit world, and all of my customers have been friends/co-workers (so far), my pricing has been very low—in my opinion, and I base that off what I’ve read throughout these forums, and the cost of my time.

I'll admit that I'm pretty damn slow, mostly due to my OCD/perfectionist mentality, and partly due to not having a fluid "system" down. For example, my last detail, a lifted F150 crew cab w/ King Ranch soft leather seats, took me roughly 18 hours (labor hours, ignoring any setup/breaks). I fully detailed the interior including spot removal on headliner, applied conditioner to the seats, shampoo'd/extracted carpets etc., and the exterior: full detail/dressed + decon + 1 step (AIO). While I only removed roughly 80% of the scratches/swirls, the finished product looked great, and the customer was extremely happy. Because he was my friend/co-worker, I charged him $300—he has a 2nd vehicle which he also plans to bring to me in the near future. If this job was just a random person/customer, I’d likely have charged closer to $500, and after a few years of experience in the business I’d likely price a little higher than that.

$300 / 18 hours = $16.75/hr. Factor in product expenses, overhead, and taxes, and I'm around single digits hourly rate.

Assuming I became more efficient and cut my labor time down 30%, I'm still at roughly 12 hours, netting me $25/hr on this job.

I'm very fortunate that I'm compensated well at my day job. I understand that I'm just starting out for-profit detailing, however, my goal is to earn roughly rates similar to my day job—ignoring taxes. I'd be content with earning roughly $50/hr after direct job cost expenses...is this a realistic goal?

This gets me to my next point, and the reason for this post. Also want to note, the median single-family home price for my location is roughly $425,000. I did a quick google search of nearby detailing businesses. I looked at a popular shop’s website, and noticed their pricing, and was quite disappointed.

The screen shot below is for their highest-level FULL (I&E) detail, including a 2 step paint correction, on a large SUV/minivan. Their price is listed at $360! The website shows the time to complete the job (569 mins), which comes out to roughly $38/hr. After shop overhead/direct expenses/labor costs, etc., how can a shop operate at this cheap of pricing? Ignoring the initial wash/decon of say, a Chevy Tahoe, a 2-step correction would likely take me 6-8 hours. Add in the wash/prep work, applying sealant, dressing, and then a full interior detail, IDK how the shop could earn any profit!?

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To sum up my long-winded rant, is $360 for an I/E detail +2-step correction extremely cheap? I think what bothered me with this pricing is, there’s no way I could or would want to continue detailing for-profit if that’s what the local market rates are. I find detailing, especially paint correcting, quite therapeutic, however if i take on for-profit work, it at least needs to be worth my time.


edit: I live in Bellingham, WA. 90 miles north of Seattle, and 30 miles south of Vancouver, BC

[Setec Astronomy]

The screen shot below is for their highest-level FULL (I&E) detail, including a 2 step paint correction, on a large SUV/minivan. Their price is listed at $360! The website shows the time to complete the job (569 mins), which comes out to roughly $38/hr. After shop overhead/direct expenses/labor costs, etc., how can a shop operate at this cheap of pricing? Ignoring the initial wash/decon of say, a Chevy Tahoe, a 2-step correction would likely take me 6-8 hours. Add in the wash/prep work, applying sealant, dressing, and then a full interior detail, IDK how the shop could earn any profit!?

To sum up my long-winded rant, is $360 for an I/E detail +2-step correction extremely cheap? I think what bothered me with this pricing is, there’s no way I could or would want to continue detailing for-profit if that’s what the local market rates are. I find detailing, especially paint correcting, quite therapeutic, however if i take on for-profit work, it at least needs to be worth my time.

Other members will address the hourly rate specifics, which have geographic components, also. But the thing to keep in mind about this local shop, is, they are not doing the quality of work you are (presumably) doing. Look at this recent thread for example: https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101-a/121449-feel-like-i-duped-here-detailing-ceramic.html

You need to cultivate a customer base of enthusiasts, collectors, "special interest vehicles", etc. It sounds like you live in a fairly affluent area, there will be people who have nice cars and who will pay more to receive the kind of care you will (presumably) provide, and your reputation will spread by word of mouth as it already has. That is the story of many "weekend warriors" on this forum.

[itsgn]

You didn't tell where you're living and whether you can get mobile or only work off your own back yard, which are primary factors in determining what you can charge. Also, I'd suggest you do not approach pricing on a per-hour basis, because then your prices on basics will be too high, but you will not make as much money on extras and high-end stuff as you could. In essence your earnings will be limited by the hours you can work, with no distinction in what you're doing, and not determined what the market would be ready to pay for your services.

A good approach is to keep base prices down, but always try to upsell some extras with a larger margin. You need to create packages, and treat them as one unit, instead of counting the hours and the material costs separately for each phase. Of course you'll have to set your prices higher than the sum of the latter, but you will never be able to sell a wash+wax in the same hourly rate as paint correction - and you shouldn't try to either. Same thing with premium waxes, a lightweight ceramic or even a full-blown coating, which you will be able to sell for a lot more than what it costs you in material and what your hourly base rate would be for simple waxing.

That said I think you need to decide whether you want to do this as a hobby, which generates some extra for you, or as a profession. If the latter, you will have to provide different levels of service and your prices will need to be competitive; you'll have to learn to do only what you were paid for (which includes not cleaning and correcting everything you just can or could); and ultimately you'll have to give up on your day job, provided you've built a clientele and reputation that can generate enough work and money for you to make a living off.

If you just want to do this is just as a kind of a hobby that both satisfies your OCD _and_ even pays, then you can pick and chose what you want to do (like only full detailing, with no compromise), but you'll most likely never have a steady revenue stream from it.


Oh, and one more thing: regardless whether you want to make this your primary job or just a hobby that pays, be prepared that sooner or later you'll mess up or break something, which you will have to obviously pay for. So, make sure you're also including that in your calculations and have money to cover those expenses, and if possible, have appropriate insurance in place for such cases.

[Justin at Final Inspection]

The point about insurance is spot on. You'll definitely want to add a garage keepers/liability policy. They can be had for under 100$ a month. I use progressive.

Also like mentioned above is if you want to charge then your going to have to get clients who are enthusiasts and have nicer cars. It sounds like your competition is the typical volume shop which is what you want to separate yourself from and explain this to clients to differentiate yourself.

I run a pretty successful home based business doing correction work and professional grade coatings and there's a cheep volume shop the next town over. And more often than not I have fixed there work. You can't be afraid to turn down jobs. I do it all the time. Either because they want the cheep full detail or it's just a vehicle I don't want to do. Thankfully your day job covers your financial situation so this affords you to be picky and get the clients you want. I did this starting off and its been the best thing I could have done.

I have plenty of clients who drop big money that I never would have thought would but because of the services and quality they do. I have found honest one on one customer service goes a long way.

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

The best advice I got when I started doing this for money was actually to RAISE my prices. People who you are going to want as clients can smell the difference from an $89.99 “buff and wax” special and a truly professional grade paint correction from a mile away. Like Justin said, it’s better to be in a position where you can pick and choose work based on having a primary income source from another job than to be scrambling to find any kind of work you can just to put food on the table.

That guy who does a full detail you linked to for 369 bucks is not your competition. That’s the guy you refer people to when they don’t want to pay your prices.


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[pickles]

The other shop may be using:

Cheaper products bought in bulk
Cheaper labor
Two or three people to clean the car, cuts down on time
Spending only a fixed amount of time on each section no matter what VS doing it until perfect
More than one revenue source?
Higher volume of work at lower margins?

[PSYS]

This is interesting information...

I'm guessing there are shops like this everywhere.
I'm in Arizona outside of Phoenix and e-mailed a couple of local detailing shops.
At the MOST, they're only taking 3 to 5 hours for a full detail inside and out... and one of the shops said that includes correction!
The max. price was $329 + tax and actually went as low $289 + tax. I wouldn't think the auto detailing industry should be a 'turn 'n burn' operation. If their overhead is obscene, perhaps that's how they've chosen to operate.

[itsgn]

I'm guessing there are shops like this everywhere.
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQS7YKvusro)

[PSYS]

Compact Toyota Yaris or full size Ford F-350. Doesn't matter. 3 to 5 hours. LOL. That is nuts!

[WristyManchego]

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQS7YKvusro)

Classic body shop buffing there.

[UncleDavy]

I also have a full time job that I occupies most of my time but I do some detailing on the side for family, neighbors and friends. I actually enjoy the activity of detailing and at times I feel that I don't need to be paid for it. Everybody likes my work and I reluctantly accept money. If you intend to keep it as a side hustle to make some fun money then keep your prices reasonable. However, if you intend to work detailing jobs as a serious business, then go into it properly by doing the following: talk to an accountant and form an S corporation, get proper insurance, talk to your local town about operating out of your garage, keep accurate records of your expenses, attend one of Mike Phillips detailing classes, keep talking to guys like Justin, Scott and Eric.

[UncleDavy]

The other shop may be using:

Cheaper products bought in bulk
Cheaper labor
Two or three people to clean the car, cuts down on time
Spending only a fixed amount of time on each section no matter what VS doing it until perfect
More than one revenue source?
Higher volume of work at lower margins?

These are great points. There is a local detail shop here in town that advertises a "full detail" for $99.99. Whenever I drive by I see three guys working on one car at the same time. They also sell used cars.

[Cruzscarwash]

So I'm.jist gonna give you my story about why I'm where I'm at today.

I was much like you and spent so much time on the small details but charged so little I wasn't making anything worth living off of. Honestly starting off low and pricing up was my first mistake and very hard to come up from..very hard and lost most of all the clients I had because of that.

Over the years in order to stay busy I started chasing the dollar and said yes to anything. Let people dictate price "well this guy will do it for X" ok I'll match that, Again bad idea. So as more and more detailers started to show up and prices where going down at a rapid rate from all the competition it wasn't worth the gas in some cases and getting the price I felt my time was worth was getting me no calls, I went months sometimes with zero calls, not even an inquiry.

This lead me into car flipping, and I looked for cars in good mechanical shape that I'd just do a basic tune up on but need visual help, so that's kinda how I got into polishing. I was polishing flip cars left and right so got lots of time behind a polisher and I got good.

This lead me to see what was missing from my area and that was a polisher, so I geared my packages towards polishing and boom things took off, 50/50 shots were helping me basically print my own money and I was back in the game and then... Everyone was polishing then AIOs got big and companies like CG turned everyone into a "pro detailer" and the cycle repeated.

So how did I get out and separate from this last cycle?... Coatings and to add to that mobile coatings. So I'm back in the bucket of very few who coat and alone with the offering that coats at your home. I now require deposits to book, I no longer wash, 99.9 % of the time get no less then $65 an HR and on a good day hit $100 an HR.

So it's been a long hard road and I guess the point is to know your worth, know the power of saying NO and if you want to hook up friends and family cool, but give them a easy and quick upsell, not hrs and hrs of your time. A top coat of PNS is a great bonis and takes mins for example. Lastly see what's missing in your area and take advantage of it. Ok rant over, hope it helps in some way

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