That first year...

[nickgodfrey]

Alright, so this will be my first full year in detailing, first year with an actual shop, and first year attempting to turn this into a full time gig and a career. From some of you guys with busy, successful businesses; what did you do during that first year to build your clientele, get your name out around town, and did you start your rates low for that first year to get people in the door? Any other advice anyone can throw out there about making it stick is more than appreciated!


Feed back please

[Josh@BR]

I'm in no way a successful detailer in my eyes but 2011 was my first true tax year and a HUGE learning experience. Best advice I can give is to:
1. Register your business on Google, advertise on Craigslist and maybe try some other free listing sites.
2. Keep all your sales and expenses neatly organized.
3. I'd recommend offering cheaper prices for first year. It worked for me.
4. Have a form for your clients to write all of their information down.
5. Send email/text/phone call for sales/specials.
6. Have a credit card machine like Square or similar.
7. Always give yourself plenty of time to complete the job especially when there are many unknown variables that may affect completion time(It's better than calling your client to tell them not to come because your not finished when your supposed to).
8. I offered a $10 "store credit" to any of my clients that referred a new client to me.
9. Ask other business's if you can place some of your business cards on a counter or something where their customers can see it(service shops, liquor stores, tint shops, etc.)

There's much much more to running a business(too much to list) but this is all I can remember right now. Good luck with everything!
8.

[mwoolfso]

Biggest thing that is obvious is EXPOSURE. Find events where you can get introductions with as many people as possible. In my area, every weekend there is a flea market. Also, the local auto enthusiasts meet on Friday nights at the railroad station to show off their wheels.

Join your local Chamber of Commerce and see how they can help informally and formally. Others in the Chamber probably have a wealth of experience to help you focus your efforts to develop a client base.

Do you have a formal business plan? If not, I suggest you develop one. It doesn't have to be a high quality published work of art; just something to get down on paper. The more time you spend making it work on paper will probably save you tons of time and $$ in the long run.

[nickgodfrey]

For sure all great ideas! I'm already doing quite a bit of this stuff, so it's good to hear I'm most likely not wasting my time! Thanks guys!

[Bates Detailing]

I just posted this the other day in an AG social group :

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=65

maybe it will help

[Bates Detailing]

To add to the above :

I have a few clients that started their business with nothing. Now I detail their aircraft, hummers, jacked up trucks, luxury rides etc, at their huge homes lol. So I talk to them and not only get inspired, but consider them mentors - you dont have to have mentors in the same business, just as long as they were successful. I have learned ALOT from them. One even said that 6 years ago him and his family were getting their food from churches. He said that all he did was concentrate on the customer and didnt worry about the money, then one day he finally realized how much money he had. Love talking to these guys.

[TRILLIS]

I started detailing 3 years ago (mobile) live close to on industrial estate 400 plus businesses pet shops to mining contractors. I walked into every business introduced myself explained what I did. Anyone that sounded interested I offered an obligation free quote so the customer could see what they would get and what it would cost.Took my diary and booked them in on the spot,even did several jobs immediately and turned them into regular customers. Leave a few business cards because they WILL tell their friends.I also did letterbox drops ( brochure : business card) to over 2500 houses but have only 3 regular residential customers from all those with the occasional phone call for a one off clean. I find business owners don't have much time to themselves and don't like to spend their time off cleaning their car(s) However I find they do want a clean car to represent their business. That's where I come in. I can charge from $26 for a small car to $30 for an suv for what I call a quickwash ( wash/dry,dress tyres,clean exterior windows) as I said a quickwash. This takes 30 mins. $1/minute. Int/ext small $50 suv $70 which is a quickwash plus a vacuum, inside windows and dust of plastics + $20 to dress interior plastics.For a clay and polish ( not paint correction.) I double the price then add $40 ($140 small $180 suv) not including int dressing if required.In 3 years I've only had one customer say I was too expensive but after seeing my attention to detail doing adjoining businesses I now do three of his company vehicles as well.End of story I now have 90 regular business customers and 3 residential mostly monthly some fortnightly.Get out and introduce yourself,it's a bit unnerving the first few times but trust me it does become much easier and have found myself chatting for 20 mins to strangers.From this I now do very little marketing, word of mouth is a powerful thing. Sorry to have raved on but hope this helps.
Cheers again from DOWNUNDER

[nickgodfrey]

Very good stuff for sure. So much good advice in there, I'm gonna be reading this one over a few times and probably taking some notes. My business started when I got laid off last summer. I thought for a while about what was something I could do to make a few extra bucks that I was good at and actually enjoy doing. Detailing was a no brainer. I just put the offer up on Facebook and started out going house to house. Within a month I was doing 4-5 cars a week. When winter started showing up I decided to look for shop space and see if I could keep it going. A great deal showed up and I kept at it. It's been slower than I'd like, but I'm feeling big things coming with spring on its way! The past 3 weeks have been steadily increasing. I'll be taking a ton of pointers from you guys, so hopefully it picks up and things keep rolling.

[nickgodfrey]

I started detailing 3 years ago (mobile) live close to on industrial estate 400 plus businesses pet shops to mining contractors. I walked into every business introduced myself explained what I did. Anyone that sounded interested I offered an obligation free quote so the customer could see what they would get and what it would cost.Took my diary and booked them in on the spot,even did several jobs immediately and turned them into regular customers. Leave a few business cards because they WILL tell their friends.I also did letterbox drops ( brochure : business card) to over 2500 houses but have only 3 regular residential customers from all those with the occasional phone call for a one off clean. I find business owners don't have much time to themselves and don't like to spend their time off cleaning their car(s) However I find they do want a clean car to represent their business. That's where I come in. I can charge from $26 for a small car to $30 for an suv for what I call a quickwash ( wash/dry,dress tyres,clean exterior windows) as I said a quickwash. This takes 30 mins. $1/minute. Int/ext small $50 suv $70 which is a quickwash plus a vacuum, inside windows and dust of plastics + $20 to dress interior plastics.For a clay and polish ( not paint correction.) I double the price then add $40 ($140 small $180 suv) not including int dressing if required.In 3 years I've only had one customer say I was too expensive but after seeing my attention to detail doing adjoining businesses I now do three of his company vehicles as well.End of story I now have 90 regular business customers and 3 residential mostly monthly some fortnightly.Get out and introduce yourself,it's a bit unnerving the first few times but trust me it does become much easier and have found myself chatting for 20 mins to strangers.From this I now do very little marketing, word of mouth is a powerful thing. Sorry to have raved on but hope this helps.
Cheers again from DOWNUNDER


I've got a couple days open this week, and I'm going to exactly this. We're a small town, but we have lots of small business owners. Not gonna lie, I'm getting pumped for spring...

[TRILLIS]

I've got a couple days open this week, and I'm going to exactly this. We're a small town, but we have lots of small business owners. Not gonna lie, I'm getting pumped for spring...

How'd it go?

[nickgodfrey]

Well, I didn't get to as many places as planned, but I did make some good contacts. Just got a new box of business cards with updated information on them, so it's time to spread them around town. Back at it this week!

[Kristopher1129]

No matter what you do...you're going to have to sacrifice A LOT. Tons of time, work, social life, etc.

I've always been a fan of fair prices. I wouldn't go undercutting every shop around you...cause it looks bad, instead of good. Keep the prices similar, and let your potential first customers maybe haggle just a little bit. If you do give someone a better deal...make absolutely sure you say "sure, I would do that for a first time customer". Cause next time, you want to get paid in full.

There's a million ways to get started honestly. It all depends on your current situation. Do you have money to spend on advertisement? What kind of detail shop do you want to be? Can you afford to put the time in that it takes to build word of mouth, or do you need money right now?

The most common way is to hit up dealerships. This plays into whether you can advertise or not. If you can advertise, and get retail customers flowing quickly...then I say take that route. Cause in the end, you'll be much happier with clientele than you will be with dealerships.

What you don't want to do, is accumulate all these discount accounts with dealerships, auction guys, or any company that pays you less in return for volume. At the end of the day...if you perform a high quality service, people will hear about it. Before you know it...you've got regulars, and these discount jobs are a real pain in the neck.

[Dr Oldz]

My best advice is to do vary good job every time even if you have to do that little extra that isn't asked for. Each job is a reflection on you and you want to impress every customer because people talk. If they are happy, they will tell others.

2ndly, be patient. Word of mouth takes some time but once it gets rolling, buckle in and enjoy the ride!

Best of luck to you!

[TRILLIS]

Well, I didn't get to as many places as planned, but I did make some good contacts. Just got a new box of business cards with updated information on them, so it's time to spread them around town. Back at it this week!

Good to hear:As they say it won't happen overnight but keep at it and it will happen.
Good luck & CHEERS

[SON1C]

Update? Good thread btw