Mobile business owners

**sudsmobile** · 08-26-2018, 03:42 PM

It's not really an untapped market. It's a market that's really hard to reach because when people are at work they tend to focus on work and in a typical office setting you're not getting past the receptionist if the business didn't invite you. If the business is involved with bringing you in, that frees the employees up a bit to interact with you, but again if the business is involved they're typically looking for a deal to do multiple cars.

I mean here's the question you should be asking yourself. How many people, out of a thousand, get their car detailed? 1? 5? I really don't know, but it's not a lot. Sit at a gas station with a drive thru car wash some day when you can't give away a detail and watch how many cars drive thru that thing. That's what people want, $5 car washes. The untapped market of hitting up people one at a time is really needle in a haystack stuff. You need to advertise directly to those 1 or 5 in 1000 that are actually looking for your services.

**Ebg18t** · 08-26-2018, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by Jon TDS

I think there's an untapped market for office goers. Instead of the cars just parked there, might as well get it detailed. That's where I'm going at with the question.

Sent from my Mi A1 using Tapatalk

It’s possible. The investment firm I used to work at had a detailer there every wed or thurs. We had a flyer in the break room and the 25-30 employees of the firm had him booked pretty solid on his day. My Cayenne was the cheapest car in the parking garage. Most were getting basic details (wash, wax, basic interior cleaning). If you wanted corrections or coatings he did those at his shop only.

**sudsmobile** · 08-26-2018, 08:30 PM

That's probably a good point about what kind of businesses are in your local area. If you have a lot of really upscale businesses where the owners are driving very expensive cars, that probably lends itself to this plan better than other communities. I've got to imagine though that those types of businesses aren't untapped markets.

The reason I'm somewhat down on this idea is that we tried something similar when we first started. Nicely dressed (I actually bought my son a company button down shirt) going to businesses and trying to schedule jobs. If you couldn't get the boss onboard it was basically "thanks but no thanks" or "okay, leave us some information and we'll take a look at it." If you could get somebody up the chain of command onboard, then it started to turn to "what kind of deal can you give us for 5 cars?" The more we talked, the more I could see dollars flying out of my pocket. We pretty quickly abandoned that approach.

**Calendyr** · 08-27-2018, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by sudsmobile

I have also used McKee's outside and I recently switched to another product that is not sold here. No problems noted with either product even in the heat of summer. I've advocated a portable canopy many times on here, over and over and over, but let me tell you this. It gives you shade, it doesn't make it any cooler. If you can't stand the heat and you live somewhere hot, stay out of the mobile detail kitchen because you'll be hating life.

Well... if the sun is shining down on the panel, the panel will get much hotter than ambiant temperature. This is especially true on dark or black vehicles. I have seen panels at 170+ degrees.

**sudsmobile** · 08-27-2018, 05:11 PM

Look at you, all recommending a portable canopy and ####.

Please, tell me more.

**Calendyr** · 08-27-2018, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by sudsmobile

Look at you, all recommending a portable canopy and ####.

Please, tell me more.

Just saying, shade does more than make it cooler for you

I received my canopy today. Took me 30 minutes to set it up and about 10 mins to store it in it's bag. Now that the tarp is installed, it should be faster to setup, but even if it says 3 mins on the bag, I don't see how it can take less than 10 minutes. It is pretty huge being 16 X 16 (smallest I could find). Parked my Dodge Caravan under it and it covers it completelly. The legs are close to the vehicle, maybe a foot of clearance on each side maximum.

Eager to try it out, but all my jobs this week are inside garages ;(

Have you had your company info printed on the canopies you own?

**UncleDavy** · 08-28-2018, 05:39 PM

16 x 16 is a rather large canopy. Are you able to set that up yourself? You can easily fit your Caravan, a detailing cart, a refrigerator and barbecue smoker under that. In three hours, chicken will be done.

**Calendyr** · 08-31-2018, 02:23 AM

LOL!

Yes, it's a little difficult to expand the frame alone. Once that is done, lifting it is easy.

I have not had any opportunity to use it at a client's location yet, but my only concern is that once opened, it's reallly be moved if I am alone. So I will be forced to move the car. Set up the canopy then move the car under it. Which is a waste of time. But if it's gonna be a very hot and sunny day, or if light rain is expected, it is worth the extra effort.