Need a buniness plan

[JBs]

for those that have been successful detailing cars for some sort of income, can you give me some advice on a business plan? i need it in order to start this thing up and get money for products.

i'm pretty lost, can anyone show me what they used or what i should be looking at? :confused:

thanks Im the MAN

[koibybrian]

for those that have been successful detailing cars for some sort of income, can you give me some advice on a business plan? i need it in order to start this thing up and get money for products.

i'm pretty lost, can anyone show me what they used or what i should be looking at? :confused:

thanks Im the MAN

I had to do a Business plan for my MBA. If you can guess what I did it on (hint it is in my handle) It took me 40 plus hours. Business plans include statement, mission plan,who are your customers projected growth, who your clients are, advertising, marketing, current income, projected income etc. Basically everything you need to get a loan. I have done 3 business plans. One for my MBA and the others for my friends. I use a software program. Still intensive. Not sure I helped. Let me know if I can help.

[Jimmie]

Sounds like you need money to get started. Someone started a similar thread recently and got a response that I thought was really good. Start small by doing only washes; then grow to wash/waxes; etc; etc. While your growing keep putting the money back into your business for more products and tools.

[JBs]

Sounds like you need money to get started. Someone started a similar thread recently and got a response that I thought was really good. Start small by doing only washes; then grow to wash/waxes; etc; etc. While your growing keep putting the money back into your business for more products and tools.

that's what we're trying to do. it's sooo hard to do this business plan thing in order to get everything started so we've started just doing washes and have made $40 in the last couple days :awesome:

[D]

Is this for a on side thing or full time? I do it over the summer and it was really easy to get customers. It was basically all word of mouth.

[JBs]

we're oonly 16 so i guess it's partially during the week and on weekends, we're planning on trying to use word of mouth, but we hope that's enough

[CalgaryDetail]

Sounds like you need money to get started. Someone started a similar thread recently and got a response that I thought was really good. Start small by doing only washes; then grow to wash/waxes; etc; etc. While your growing keep putting the money back into your business for more products and tools.

I thikn this is the thread you are taking about...i hope

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/off-topic/5922-need-some-help-starting-up-mobile-detailing-business.html

its not exaclty on a buiness plan but it has some great advice

[CalgaryDetail]

not to double post but now its time for my 2 cents.

First, this isnot an indusrt where loans are needed. You said you made 40 bucks so far. Well take all that money and re-invest. So now you have enough supplies to do say 10 cars. you get 200 bucks from that, now tou have enough to add another serive, maybe buy the stuff so you can do interiors. Work your way up
There are plenty of people who will pay for washes and waxes, heck thats what most non detailers really want. Maybe up sell clay....

Also i you want to write a bussiness plan start reading. I dont mean to be a jerk but they are very involved and detailed. They should have every peice of information someone reading would ever want. There are plentey of books that will help. Start the reading now

[Jimmie]

I thikn this is the thread you are taking about...i hope

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/off-topic/5922-need-some-help-starting-up-mobile-detailing-business.html

its not exaclty on a buiness plan but it has some great advice

Yep. That's the one. I agree that there was some great advice.

[JBs]

not to double post but now its time for my 2 cents.

First, this isnot an indusrt where loans are needed. You said you made 40 bucks so far. Well take all that money and re-invest. So now you have enough supplies to do say 10 cars. you get 200 bucks from that, now tou have enough to add another serive, maybe buy the stuff so you can do interiors. Work your way up
There are plenty of people who will pay for washes and waxes, heck thats what most non detailers really want. Maybe up sell clay....

Also i you want to write a bussiness plan start reading. I dont mean to be a jerk but they are very involved and detailed. They should have every peice of information someone reading would ever want. There are plentey of books that will help. Start the reading now

that seems kind of confusing though. i mean how do you offer a bunch of new services all of a sudden?

[CalgaryDetail]

that seems kind of confusing though. i mean how do you offer a bunch of new services all of a sudden?

nothing is all of a sudden... om so you start with just wash and wax. So you do the wash and waxes and make some money.
once you have some money introduce clay, either raise yor price to compansate or offer it as a seconed package or serivice.
i would suggest offering it to new customers as if it where always there, you will get a ew people who question it and just let them know that the benfits are wel worth it.. sell it up.

so say 1 month down the road you have the money buy a polisher and accesories. Get some practice then up sell it. people come in and ask what you can do and what it costs. tell them about the wax packahge and let them know that you get the scratches out of there paint and make it look better then new( make sure to have practice)... now you are also ofering a paint correction package.

Ok so now you want to get into interiors. People will ask if you do interiors.. well lucky for them you do. Tell them what it entales and costs.

This procces continues untill you offer all the serivces you want to offer.

As your company grows still will your clientel base.

Just remeber dont forget the wash and wax, people love it and its a nice way to build clients who can later be up sold..


i hope this clears it up

[D]

Heres how I started out...

I got my car in Feb. 2003. Pretty much my whole neighborhood knew I was obsessed with keeping my car clean. My whole school knew how OCD I was about it. The neighbors would see me out there washing it once a week. Then my mom met a lady who details cars full time. I forget when this was, probably in 04 or 05, but she said she would be willing to teach me some things and hire me to help her out. That didnt work out, but I did learn a lot. So I went from there and used what I learned on my own car. I basically just took care of my car and parents cars. Then I joined AG in 2006, learned even more, and bought some real products. At that time I also started detailing. My first summer starting the real "business" was last summer. I did my neighbors cars, they loved them and got me more business. My mom passed the word on to people she knew. They brought their cars to me and passed the word on. I passed out maybe 20 flyers in the neighborhood. In a little less then 3 months I had done 15 cars and averaged about $166 per car. Taking 2 days per car. Theres no reason for me to rush.

From day one, to my last car, my skills progressed amazingly. I learned new techniques and was introduced to new products that made the job so much easier. I didnt start out doing simple washes and waxes. I started out with the PC and good products.

For this summer Ive ordered probably another $400 worth of products, made a website, and will pass out more then 20 flyers. Im hoping to get twice as many cars in this summer.

My recommendation to you is do whatever you can to get the word around. Even if it means doing some cars for free. SHOW them, dont tell them why they should come to you. Be professional and do the job right, dont cut corners. You have no idea whos watching you while you detail someones car. It could be your next customer, or someone who will bad mouth you because of something they saw you do. Location also has A LOT to do with it. Its also important to keep your own car clean, thats the main reason I got started.

[scottgt]

amen