Please Help

[Cmvondran]

Guys, I need your help. I own my detailing business here locally. My friend owns a large Limo company as well. We are both located in the same building.

So here is my question. I normally take care of waxing, buffing of his fleet. He has his own 19 year old kids coming in to wash his fleet nightly.All they do is wash,windows vaccum and dress tires.

He has asked me to take over that now. My question to you is what do I charge to wash, windows, tires and vaccum his fleet?

Here is a list of his cars.

4 Lincoln Towncars
2 Expeditions
3 10 passenger limos
1 H2 limo 19 passenger
1 escalade limo 20 passenger
2 small 16 passenger party bus
1 30 passenger party bus
1 36 passenger bus ( grey hound bus)

Thanks for your feed back!

[Agfan]

I say about $25. It's for a friend.

[rider9195]

Welcome to Autogeek Online!

I would personally charge by the hour. You never know how crazy the party inside can get and that could end up with a big mess.

I would pick up a car shampoo that is cheap and effective. You'll go through a lot of it. Lots of microfiber towels and window cleaner plus tire dressing. All this stuff plus more will add up quickly depending on how often you wash them.

[Cmvondran]

25 each? I was thinking a different price per vehicle price goes up as the vehicle gets larger.

[Mike Phillips]

Guys, I need your help. I own my detailing business here locally. My friend owns a large Limo company as well. We are both located in the same building.

So here is my question. I normally take care of waxing, buffing of his fleet. He has his own 19 year old kids coming in to wash his fleet nightly.All they do is wash,windows vacuum and dress tires.

He has asked me to take over that now. My question to you is what do I charge to wash, windows, tires and vacuum his fleet?

Here is a list of his cars.

4 Lincoln Towncars
2 Expeditions
3 10 passenger limos
1 H2 limo 19 passenger
1 escalade limo 20 passenger
2 small 16 passenger party bus
1 30 passenger party bus
1 36 passenger bus ( grey hound bus)

Thanks for your feed back!

That's a lot of real-estate to wash and dry.





25 each? I was thinking a different price per vehicle price goes up as the vehicle gets larger.


The larger the vehicle the more time it's going to take to wash and dry and do a good job. The fact that you joined our forum and are seeking help tell me you care about the quality of work you do and your reputation.

I worked a Mobil car wash for about a year washing police cars, cars for real-estate reps, even Beer Trucks, if you hustle you can make decent money.

I guess my questions to you would be,


Do you need this account?

Would it be more profitable to grow another area of your business versus invest your time washing all these rigs on a regular basis?

Do you have employees that can do the work and still have the account be profitable?

Is there any kickback available? Something the Limo Owner does for you to grow your business?



Just throwing that out there...

Oh yeah, welcome to Autogeek Online!

:)

[tuscarora dave]

If he's really your friend I'd suggest sitting down with him and discussing what the real costs would be for him to have either a mobile operation come in and take care of these vehicles for him on a regular basis, or how much it would cost him to have the cars dropped off then picked back up from a detail shop somewhere else. Discuss the fact that there is much value added in him not having to deal with all of that by working out a fair price with you.

Mixing friendship and business can often times be a strain on any friendship. I'd also suggest giving no discount on this deal, but rather allow the time and money he saves by dealing with you to be the discount. If you haven't done it yet, figure out what you need to make hourly to be a profitable business and charge that for the hours you work on the vehicles. Keep in mind that the longer you do these vehicles for him the more efficient you'll get at doing them. Also keep in mind that these definitely are not your standard vehicles and he's not going to let just anyone work on them.

The fact that he's asking you to do the work suggests to me that he has already thought all of this through, so it really shouldn't be a hard sell. Just sit down with him and negotiate a price that works for both of you.

[MI Mike]

What does he pay the 19-yr. old. This could be a starting/discussion point.

[Cmvondran]

He pays the kids 9 an hour to wash the fleet.

[Mike Phillips]

If he's really your friend I'd suggest sitting down with him and discussing what the real costs would be for him to have either a mobile operation come in and take care of these vehicles for him on a regular basis, or how much it would cost him to have the cars dropped off then picked back up from a detail shop somewhere else. Discuss the fact that there is much value added in him not having to deal with all of that by working out a fair price with you.


Stellar advice.





Mixing friendship and business can often times be a strain on any friendship. I'd also suggest giving no discount on this deal, but rather allow the time and money he saves by dealing with you to be the discount. If you haven't done it yet, figure out what you need to make hourly to be a profitable business and charge that for the hours you work on the vehicles. Keep in mind that the longer you do these vehicles for him the more efficient you'll get at doing them. Also keep in mind that these definitely are not your standard vehicles and he's not going to let just anyone work on them.


More stellar advice...





The fact that he's asking you to do the work suggests to me that he has already thought all of this through, so it really shouldn't be a hard sell. Just sit down with him and negotiate a price that works for both of you.



That or he hasn't thought it through at all. Hope that he has.


I'll defer back to my original questions...


Do you need this account?

Would it be more profitable to grow another area of your business versus invest your time washing all these rigs on a regular basis?

Do you have employees that can do the work and still have the account be profitable?

Is there any kickback available? Something the Limo Owner does for you to grow your business?


:)

[Cmvondran]

Well the kick back to me is that my rent is pretty much free from him. I do handle all the detailing for buffing waxing of the fleet. He just had kids washing them for him. Doing the fleet for him would bring me some income since im just starting out with this business. Some days are slow, so i gives me something to work on.