Mobile detailing business --- CONFIDENCE with your PRICING / PACKAGING........

[josher]

I am here to pick as many brains as possible.... I am currently in the mental bind I'm sure a lot of you guys have been in at one point or another in regards to Pricing and Services offered... I have seen SO MANY different sites with different wording and services offered from price ranges so broad it's lead me to the conclusion of PERCEIVED VALUE + TOOLS + GALLERY + MARKET+ CUSTOMER SERVICE + CUSTOMER = pricing? Ok now you see I'm confused.

I am in the process of getting all of my content together for my website that will be up and running soon... I am posting this thread to ask for any advice from anyone in regards to creating a SERVICES / PRICING page... Please comment or reply here if you have any advice to help someone possibly overthinking the task... Maybe just some key pointers to start with and then move forward. I have seen so much information I can't put up a SERVICE / PRICE page fully complete as I am just starting out.... What 5 services would you offer and what would they include?

For myself personally I have almost all tools available in my mobile business... (steamer, pressure washer, mobile water, generator, flex da, flex rotary, 2 x canopies, etc.. )



Thank you in advance for helping me sort out my SERVICES / PRICING confusion!

[luckydawg]

Well I am no pro- but I def. would have a service to cater to folks in the $150- $250 range , at least until you get your business profitable. Then probably start looking for the higher end complete jobs- then finally after you get WELL established ( if your a one man show) onto just paint correction on higher end vehicles. You can hire a person then to help you on the interior part so you can still offer the complete detail while you focus on the paint correction.
Just a thought

[Calendyr]

Ok... well there are many factors to that, and it's hard to suggest anything specific. It depends on the market you are in and the competition you have.... but.... there are some basic rules you should follow.

1. Determine what if gonna be your service area. How far are you willing to drive for a detail? Once you know, you have to calculate the average drive time that will take you (to go there and back), assign a cost for it (usually about 1$ per mile for car expenses) and give yourself some salary for driving. For exemple, for me, I add 30$ to the cost of every detail for the commute time and expenses.

2. You will need to time yourself on all the services you perform. This is the hardest part when you start out cause you probably don't know how long it takes you to do every aspect of the detail. I suggest for the next few details to setup a video camera and film yourself. Then when you get home make a spreadsheet with every aspect (cleaning wheels, pre-wash, hand wash, drying, applying wax, etc) this will be the basis for calculating the price of your service menu. Once you know how long it takes you, decide what salary you want to pay yourself and you can calculate the labour part of the equation.

3. Then you need to calculate how much product you are using for every aspect of the detail and how much those products cost. Add that info in the spreadsheet as well. The simple way to do this is to fill up every bottle before a detail and note how much you used during the detail.

Once you have all that data, you can start to build your service menu. My suggestion is not to have anything under 100$ unless you are not driving far. Like if with 5 mins of your house you want to offer wash and wax for 40$, that would be ok. But if you have to drive 30 mins both ways to offer the service, you will be making peanuts and working bellow minimum wage on a service like that.

In his book, Mike suggests you make 3 packages for every service : Good, better, best approach. So 3 detailing packages, 3 polishing packages, 3 paint correction packages, etc.

In my experience, most people want combo packages, with both interior and exterior detail. This is the tricky part for me. Since I work alone doing a full interior and full exterior takes A LOT OF TIME! So you have to be careful when you plan you packages not to end up doing 14 hours days on a single detail.

As for what your packages include, that really depends on you. What products you plan on using, what market you want to target and so on. I suggest you have the following:

Detailing:
- Eco-wash and quick wax
-Detailed wash and quick wax
-Detailed wash and long duration sealant (something like Collonite 845 or Menzerna PoweLock)

Polishing:
- Exterior detail + AIO polishing with a cleaner wax like Meguiar's D151 or D166 or even HD Speed
- Exterior detail + Stand alone polishing with a long duration sealant

Paint Correction:
- Exterior detail + Compound + AIO cleaner wax
- Exterior detail + Compound + Stand alone polish + Long duration sealant

Same goes for interior, you should have 2 or 3 packages ranging from very quick wipedown and vacuum to full detail...

Don't forget to have a price fork dependant on vehicle type and size. It take a lot more time and product to detail a Navigator and that takes to detail a Yaris

Hope this is helpful.

[josher]

Well I am no pro- but I def. would have a service to cater to folks in the $150- $250 range , at least until you get your business profitable. Then probably start looking for the higher end complete jobs- then finally after you get WELL established ( if your a one man show) onto just paint correction on higher end vehicles. You can hire a person then to help you on the interior part so you can still offer the complete detail while you focus on the paint correction.
Just a thought

Thanks Luckydawg! Appreciate your opinion and advice!!

Ok... well there are many factors to that, and it's hard to suggest anything specific. It depends on the market you are in and the competition you have.... but.... there are some basic rules you should follow.

1. Determine what if gonna be your service area. How far are you willing to drive for a detail? Once you know, you have to calculate the average drive time that will take you (to go there and back), assign a cost for it (usually about 1$ per mile for car expenses) and give yourself some salary for driving. For exemple, for me, I add 30$ to the cost of every detail for the commute time and expenses.

2. You will need to time yourself on all the services you perform. This is the hardest part when you start out cause you probably don't know how long it takes you to do every aspect of the detail. I suggest for the next few details to setup a video camera and film yourself. Then when you get home make a spreadsheet with every aspect (cleaning wheels, pre-wash, hand wash, drying, applying wax, etc) this will be the basis for calculating the price of your service menu. Once you know how long it takes you, decide what salary you want to pay yourself and you can calculate the labour part of the equation.

3. Then you need to calculate how much product you are using for every aspect of the detail and how much those products cost. Add that info in the spreadsheet as well. The simple way to do this is to fill up every bottle before a detail and note how much you used during the detail.

Once you have all that data, you can start to build your service menu. My suggestion is not to have anything under 100$ unless you are not driving far. Like if with 5 mins of your house you want to offer wash and wax for 40$, that would be ok. But if you have to drive 30 mins both ways to offer the service, you will be making peanuts and working bellow minimum wage on a service like that.

In his book, Mike suggests you make 3 packages for every service : Good, better, best approach. So 3 detailing packages, 3 polishing packages, 3 paint correction packages, etc.

In my experience, most people want combo packages, with both interior and exterior detail. This is the tricky part for me. Since I work alone doing a full interior and full exterior takes A LOT OF TIME! So you have to be careful when you plan you packages not to end up doing 14 hours days on a single detail.

As for what your packages include, that really depends on you. What products you plan on using, what market you want to target and so on. I suggest you have the following:

Detailing:
- Eco-wash and quick wax
-Detailed wash and quick wax
-Detailed wash and long duration sealant (something like Collonite 845 or Menzerna PoweLock)

Polishing:
- Exterior detail + AIO polishing with a cleaner wax like Meguiar's D151 or D166 or even HD Speed
- Exterior detail + Stand alone polishing with a long duration sealant

Paint Correction:
- Exterior detail + Compound + AIO cleaner wax
- Exterior detail + Compound + Stand alone polish + Long duration sealant

Same goes for interior, you should have 2 or 3 packages ranging from very quick wipedown and vacuum to full detail...

Don't forget to have a price fork dependant on vehicle type and size. It take a lot more time and product to detail a Navigator and that takes to detail a Yaris

Hope this is helpful.

Sweet thanks Calendyr!!! I appreciate all that time you took to write up such a great reply in helping my situation... I will definitely be incorporating your thoughts and ideas into my new services / pricing..... I certainly appreciate it and will definitely be back here to ask some more questions as they arise. Thank you again!

[JCDetails]

Really depends on your area and what's accepted as a decent price. In addition to the suggestions above which are great, I'll add the following:


IMO, you need a few tiers:

1.) Wash n Wax. Quick job, wheels/tires, wash the car, spray wax and shine the tires maybe even vac the interior kind of thing. In and out in a half hour or so. This you can normally go around $50-75 depending upon your market. Especially good for maintenance wash after an upper package detail.

2.) AIO detail. Wheels/tires, wash, run over it with an AIO, upsold for the longer protection value. Exterior only on this one, run around $150 or so. This has been my most popular service so far. Add on an interior (vac and wipedown, glass) for another $50.

3.) Anything above the AIO, i.e. single or multistep polish with a separate protectant application, more intensive interior such as stain removal/heavy leather cleaning, etc. price per the job and how long it's gonna take you. I aim for at least $40-50 per hour or better as a minimum.

Most importantly, GO SEE THE VEHICLE! Never put a price on the job until you see it in person.

[josher]

Really depends on your area and what's accepted as a decent price. In addition to the suggestions above which are great, I'll add the following:


IMO, you need a few tiers:

1.) Wash n Wax. Quick job, wheels/tires, wash the car, spray wax and shine the tires maybe even vac the interior kind of thing. In and out in a half hour or so. This you can normally go around $50-75 depending upon your market. Especially good for maintenance wash after an upper package detail.

2.) AIO detail. Wheels/tires, wash, run over it with an AIO, upsold for the longer protection value. Exterior only on this one, run around $150 or so. This has been my most popular service so far. Add on an interior (vac and wipedown, glass) for another $50.

3.) Anything above the AIO, i.e. single or multistep polish with a separate protectant application, more intensive interior such as stain removal/heavy leather cleaning, etc. price per the job and how long it's gonna take you. I aim for at least $40-50 per hour or better as a minimum.

Most importantly, GO SEE THE VEHICLE! Never put a price on the job until you see it in person.

Awesome thanks for the reply JCDetails! Appreciate reading the response you gave.... I love opinions and experience rolling in. Wow what was detailing like 30 years ago WITHOUT the major help of the community forums?? Awesome!


ANYONE ELSE CARE TO CHIME IN PLEASE DO! THANKS AGAIN!

[LEDetailing]

Calendyr,

I especially like that suggestion regarding a spreadsheet with times allocated to each step.