Got knocked off the horse

[ItsKYRO]

A little background I used to be in the detailing department at a car dealership 7 years ago. It got me interested in detailing but to me at the time it was just giving a car a nice wash and making it look shiny. I ended up starting a power washing business where I would spray down super dirty semi trucks and trailers and then run a big brush with some abrasive soap and spray it down again and be done with them. Made decent money out of it for a bit but couldn't keep up with the work alone as a side gig and stopped doing it once my equipment was stolen.

About a year or two ago I thought it would be nice to learn some actual detailing and rebuild my business into personal car detailing. I did research and purchased a lot of basic products, mostly all the products you can purchase at a local grocery store (meguiars ultimate, etc.) and was attempting to do everything by free hand.

I did some practicing on damaged parts from a body shop and decided lets try this out seriously, and took my first real customer that wasnt my car or my wifes car.

I knew the lady well I was doing the detailing for but still, she had a 6 month old white dodge challenger RT that she worked hard for and I wanted to provide the absolute best quality I could.

My intentions were to: claybar/polish/wax/wash/bug removal/all the basics for her cars first detail, along with an interior clean.

The interior alone took me 2.5-3hrs, supplies I used was detailing brushes, microfiber towels, shop vac, and again basic meguiars line interior products. This took me way longer than expected. I've detailed my cars interior plenty of times, why is it taking me so long? For one, I wasn't expecting all the pet hair, I didn't ask first. I had no brush specifically made for pet hair, but I do have a somewhat coarse brush I use for the carpet, that I was using to clump the pet hair, and then attempt to remove with my very very wet sweaty hands so the process was taking awhile. Coupled with i'm not used to being in such a tight space being a tall guy and trying to work my way thru the little places of a muscle coupe to wipe everything down was taking awhile.

So I got really behind on that.

I start with the wheels for the exterior. 1-1.5hrs. Wow. Wheels werent especially dirty, but the time it took to wash the wheel, spray it with cleaner, wait a few minutes to soak, scrub cleaner in with wheel brush, wash again, keep grabbing needed supplies, off my car which I parked next to me in the driveway to use as a table, took some time. Keep in mind thru all of this, im scrubbing and working as fast as I can while still attempting to make everything look good, to the point im almost throwing up and my head is spinning im trying so hard to make it faster. I'm also freaking out about how long its taking because she's waiting inside with my wife talking for all these hours at night time expecting a full detail and i'm realizing i'm not going to be able to get everything done in time.

I'm onto the body, I wash, and do my best to remove bugs and tar. This is taking awhile. Maybe the product i'm using isn't strong enough, maybe the sponge isn't good enough, but this took some time to get most of it off.

Then it's on to washing the car by hand with a hose and hand mitt. By the time this is all done, i've spent like 7 hours on the car, its late at night now, and my body is just giving up i've been pushing it so hard for 7 hours immediately after work, and i'm in the hottest part of the summer.

I ended up not getting to claybar, polish, or wax the car. I had to finish with a spray quick wax after the wash and apologize to the owner of the car. She was grateful for the work and very kind, but I was so let down at how much time it took, the amount of energy and effort I put in, and didn't even get to the meat of the detail.

I haven't touched detailing since, I was so let down. I even had business cards made and a bunch of people that were offering money for a detail, and I just fell so hard off the horse, it was a huge blow to my confidence and morale in detailing.

(Also I was planning to apply the polish and wax completely by hand, no DA, so who knows how many more hours I would of been, as i've only practiced on parts and never done it by hand on an entire car.)

I think part of the issue too is that the water for the hose is at the back of the house on the far other corner as the driveway, so I have to run the hose around the house and thru a seasonal room and into the garage and then to the driveway, and the hose just barely reaches to get 1/4-1/2 of the car in the driveway, so i'm constantly having to move supplies and the car to make it work.




I guess i'm saying this because i'm hoping for some encouragement or similar stories, I want to take this seriously and make money off of it and do something I enjoy, but that was such a hard pill to swallow to not be able to come thru with a full detail like I had promised to do, and to take so much time with so much effort given. Thanks

[2black1s]

Detailing takes time... And the better the job you are trying to do the longer it takes.

Sure there are some things you can do for efficiency but those only result in modest time savings. You're not going to cut the time in half unless you're just grossly unorganized, devoid of the required tools, and insanely poor at time management.

You do need to get at least one polisher... Doing polish jobs by hand just isn't going to cut it time-wise.

When I read about guys doing "full-details" in 2, 3, 4 hours I just roll my eyes. You simply cannot do the job in that kind of time and be turning out consistent high-quality work. Heck, I probably spend that much time inspecting my work. Maybe not literally, but I'm just making a point.

To put this into perspective for you, I just finished polishing and waxing my truck. Nothing else, just polish and wax. Two days (about 16 hours) is what I spent.

I'll admit that I do not work as fast as I did when I was younger, and I might pay too much attention to what some would consider insignificant details, but regardless, I don't see anyone doing as thorough a job as I just did in anything less than 10-12 hours.

[Billy Baldone]

If you are serious about detailing professionally, get some education. There are great sources right here. Mike Phillips offers many options to learn from one of the all time greatest in the business. And I have personally been in a class with him teaching all levels of skill at one time. I thought it was a crazy fun class. Jason Rose at Rupes offers classes in Denver, and Renny Doyle offers classes in California. They are in my opinion 3 that belong on the Mt Rushmore of detailing.

[TTQ B4U]

As has already been said, just get back up and go at it and learn. You will need a polisher and IMO get a good one. Time wise, keep a spreadsheet. I documented vehicles for a LONG time on a spreadsheet to determine time involved and still to this day keep track of time per vehicle and stages of the work. If I'm running ahead or behind, I simply use them as a gauge. I spend about 1-2hrs depending on the condition of teh vheicle just getting it fully cleaned, decontaminated and ready for the polisher. Time behind a polisher will vary as well. I base my rates on how much time I will need / use doing the vehicle and since this is a side gig for me I started way back in the day at $35hr to 50, then hit 70 and now I average about $80-100 per hour. Build your packages from there.

Overall time, I average between 5-7hrs per vehicle. More intense details or on larger SUV's I may end up in the 8-10hr range but that's rare as I do mostly one step coating jobs. Quick basic polishes I can knock out in 4-5hrs. I like those best as I'm done by lunch and can make great money per hour.

Keep building and refining. That's key, be efficient and wise with your time and materials.

[Mike Phillips]

I knew the lady well I was doing the detailing for but still, she had a 6 month old white dodge challenger RT that she worked hard for and I wanted to provide the absolute best quality I could.

That mindset is noble but noble often times means working for free.

One of the most common paths people go down when starting out with their idea of a detailing business is do the best they can. Actually, lets use the word ALL they can instead of the word best.

You can do your best work but not do all you can. See the difference? In order to be successful you need to have different PACKAGES - not one package that is doing everything and doing the best you can.

Then you need to size up your customer and their car and match the right package to the customer. This takes learning and we all had and have to go through it.


I teach all of this in my car detailing classes. For example - the first thing I ask a potential customer is,

How do you wash your car?

The answer to this question tells me everything I need to know about what's inside this person's head when it comes to taking FUTURE care of the car I detail. It also tells me what I want to do and what I know to NOT do. Huge difference.

When it comes to removing pet hair on the inside of a car - that's a stand-along, separate service. I'm glad to see you on the forum because in my opinion, this will be your most powerful tool in your business arsenal.

[rick100]

A little background I used to be in the detailing department at a car dealership 7 years ago. It got me interested in detailing but to me at the time it was just giving a car a nice wash and making it look shiny. I ended up starting a power washing business where I would spray down super dirty semi trucks and trailers and then run a big brush with some abrasive soap and spray it down again and be done with them. Made decent money out of it for a bit but couldn't keep up with the work alone as a side gig and stopped doing it once my equipment was stolen.

About a year or two ago I thought it would be nice to learn some actual detailing and rebuild my business into personal car detailing. I did research and purchased a lot of basic products, mostly all the products you can purchase at a local grocery store (meguiars ultimate, etc.) and was attempting to do everything by free hand.

I did some practicing on damaged parts from a body shop and decided lets try this out seriously, and took my first real customer that wasnt my car or my wifes car.

I knew the lady well I was doing the detailing for but still, she had a 6 month old white dodge challenger RT that she worked hard for and I wanted to provide the absolute best quality I could.

My intentions were to: claybar/polish/wax/wash/bug removal/all the basics for her cars first detail, along with an interior clean.

The interior alone took me 2.5-3hrs, supplies I used was detailing brushes, microfiber towels, shop vac, and again basic meguiars line interior products. This took me way longer than expected. I've detailed my cars interior plenty of times, why is it taking me so long? For one, I wasn't expecting all the pet hair, I didn't ask first. I had no brush specifically made for pet hair, but I do have a somewhat coarse brush I use for the carpet, that I was using to clump the pet hair, and then attempt to remove with my very very wet sweaty hands so the process was taking awhile. Coupled with i'm not used to being in such a tight space being a tall guy and trying to work my way thru the little places of a muscle coupe to wipe everything down was taking awhile.

So I got really behind on that.

I start with the wheels for the exterior. 1-1.5hrs. Wow. Wheels werent especially dirty, but the time it took to wash the wheel, spray it with cleaner, wait a few minutes to soak, scrub cleaner in with wheel brush, wash again, keep grabbing needed supplies, off my car which I parked next to me in the driveway to use as a table, took some time. Keep in mind thru all of this, im scrubbing and working as fast as I can while still attempting to make everything look good, to the point im almost throwing up and my head is spinning im trying so hard to make it faster. I'm also freaking out about how long its taking because she's waiting inside with my wife talking for all these hours at night time expecting a full detail and i'm realizing i'm not going to be able to get everything done in time.

I'm onto the body, I wash, and do my best to remove bugs and tar. This is taking awhile. Maybe the product i'm using isn't strong enough, maybe the sponge isn't good enough, but this took some time to get most of it off.

Then it's on to washing the car by hand with a hose and hand mitt. By the time this is all done, i've spent like 7 hours on the car, its late at night now, and my body is just giving up i've been pushing it so hard for 7 hours immediately after work, and i'm in the hottest part of the summer.

I ended up not getting to claybar, polish, or wax the car. I had to finish with a spray quick wax after the wash and apologize to the owner of the car. She was grateful for the work and very kind, but I was so let down at how much time it took, the amount of energy and effort I put in, and didn't even get to the meat of the detail.

I haven't touched detailing since, I was so let down. I even had business cards made and a bunch of people that were offering money for a detail, and I just fell so hard off the horse, it was a huge blow to my confidence and morale in detailing.

(Also I was planning to apply the polish and wax completely by hand, no DA, so who knows how many more hours I would of been, as i've only practiced on parts and never done it by hand on an entire car.)

I think part of the issue too is that the water for the hose is at the back of the house on the far other corner as the driveway, so I have to run the hose around the house and thru a seasonal room and into the garage and then to the driveway, and the hose just barely reaches to get 1/4-1/2 of the car in the driveway, so i'm constantly having to move supplies and the car to make it work.




I guess i'm saying this because i'm hoping for some encouragement or similar stories, I want to take this seriously and make money off of it and do something I enjoy, but that was such a hard pill to swallow to not be able to come thru with a full detail like I had promised to do, and to take so much time with so much effort given. Thanks

you know there is a youtube channel you should watch, it kind of explains the business model of auto detailing, its call the detailers business academy

Detailers Business Academy Introduction - YouTube

I do not do detailing for money, I refused to do it since it is a purely a hobby right now but I would definitely consider doing it if times are tough. In the meantime I practice on my cars and family cars , its enough to keep me busy

One thing I have found interesting on that channel and it is very true on so many levels is that most customers are not willing to pay the big $$$ for a perfect job , most people just want a " quick job" that its not going to break the bank. Most of these detailing companies are offering paint correction , ceramic coatings, etc ,etc for crazy amount of money and it is fine , there are customers that are willing to pay that kind of money, but for a mobile detailing , I would focus on the quick jobs first. A car wash/ wax , interior vacuum / interior dressing , these is what the majority of clients will want anyways . If you have customers that want something more involved, I would do wash , decont , clay, light polish and sealant combo.

I think you are trying too hard to offer perfection and you are coming short.

Think about this, what is the point of doing a full paint correction if most average customer are going to take their car to the car wash tunnel the week after and get all the swirl back anyways. All these people doing full paint correction with heavy compounds , 2-3 stage polish , spending countless hours and then they have the same car back after a year for another paint correction. There is only so much clearcoat on the car , that you are probably doing more damage by removing clearcoat for a customer that just wants his car to look good from far. You are not really helping this customer, you are actually doing the opposite .

There are customers that want perfection and they usually are pretty upfront telling you that they want that , no matter the price, the want a show car. These customers are the ones with garage kept cars, weekend cars, these are the customers doing the 2 bucket car wash and trying their best to maintain their car free from scratches But the vast majority just wants a shiny car , a 10 feet car ( looks good from 10 feet) and they also do not want to pay the big bucks.

I would try to ask myself what kind of customer I have and what he really wants. A customer that wants full exterior with paint correction and full interior done to his car is a customer that is willing to leave the car for a few days for you to work on it. Its also a customer willing to pay a high price to get it done , its a customer that may want some type of ceramic coating apply to his car or some type of expensive sealant/wax once you are done

If you want to make this a business you need to know your customer . You will be surprise that the majority just wants good car wash , decont , clay and wax. I would even through a quick light polish after the claybar for extra $$

[LSNAutoDetailing]

It also depends on your business model too.

If you shooting for absolute perfection:
High Line - then your rates will be high, (per hourly rate, not package pricing) and the jobs will take a long time with the attention to detail (on everything!). You'll have to get good at estimating, setting expectations, selling on the value (or cost...) and then delivering.

If you are production detailing:
Low Line to Mid - Every car gets the same treatment, package based business (good / better / best) with an average leaning towards better, then set price will be package based, and time will be allocated per package) - Meaning when it's done, it is was it is, not shooting for perfection.

I think Eldo2k (I could be wrong) wrote an article a while back, but I recall it was about using an AIO and literally just going over the vehicle quickly, and a vacuum& tornador on the interior with wipedown. I tried his method and did a neighbors car (which was TRASHED) and got it done in like 4 hours. It came out 85% better than the way it came in... The neighbor was thrilled.

That's basically it at a 64K foot view. When I was in business, we shot for highline. But my business was part-time/my-time when not at the day job.

I knew a guy down the road that had a shop. The sign on the building said: "Cars $300 / Trucks $400 All Day". He had 4 or 5 guys (form high-school) working for him and they could crank out cars all day long. He even had a contact with livery service and funeral homes. He kept things simple and just got cars in and out all day long. I knew some of his customers and they were thrilled, so repeat service as HIGH.

You have to define your business and target that market. Member DanTran wrote a great article on this:
Presenting High-Ticket Offers to Affluent Clients by Dan Tran

Get back on the horse, sounds like you've been successful at it in various forms in the past... You just have to focus on what your business is going to be.

[Ed Abbondanzio]

I've got a similar story to when I started since you asked.

My first full detail (and client) when I started my business took me 11.5 hours. And looking back I'd say it was only a slightly neglected vehicle (Chevy Traverse) not terrible compared to some.

Why it took so long? Because when I set up my packages I looked at what the other detailers in the area offered, and made sure to copy everything along with undercutting the price by $20.

They said they compounded / polished the paint so I did too. Two passes with the DA and on top of that a hand wax.

They said they shampooed the carpets / seats so I did every inch of the car even if it didn't need it.

They did under the hood so I did too.

On and on and on.

That was some of the hardest work I've ever had to do. Everyday I ended up going home exhausted like you were. Worst of all I didn't realize my mistakes as fast as you did until about a few months in. Eventually it kinda wears down on you using m105, m205 and collinite 845 in the direct sunlight. Talk about an arm workout.

I started lurking a ton here and smartened up in the following months. Eventually I stopped compounding (not that the results were great given I unknowingly had knock off lc pads) and went down to just m205. And even later on I learned of the holyness of HD speed. It saved so much time I felt like I was cheating.

Business has improved a ton since then but before getting there I was basically at my quitting point. Had I not spoke with another detailer who taught me to charge more I would have gave up.

Don't give up man. You're already a step above most if your hanging out on here and everybody has to start somewhere. There's a ton of good info in this forum but you have to figure out what the questions are before you can find the answers.

[Craig Encinitas]

Every detail, I hit a mid-point and time pressure really kicks in.

“Why am I not done with this yet?”

Because I see nearly every defect, or, the paint can be cleared up a touch more. Well, a touch more and I’ve just spent another 20 minutes on one panel.
But this is also why I need my clients’ vehicles for a couple days. I’m gearing towards high-end and still have much to learn. Like, as stated above, “This is enough. This is a mid-grade package. It looks good enough.”

“Good enough” is what I’m fighting against! Seriously though, 9/10 customers aren’t going to notice the extra time I’m putting in. It must be the fear factor that they will notice. Hence, a pre-detail conversation with clients and what they’re expecting. And remind myself along the way to not go overboard.

I like Dan Tran’s business model. The best, or nothing.


*edit*

Detailing my own vehicle should be relaxing. I don’t care how long it takes. Two hours until sunset...nah...not enough time to wash it.

[psnt1ol]

To OP...

I am sorry to say that many of us here has gone through what you went through.

Detailing for money is a side gig for me. I am not the fastest nor the slowest but what I am .... is passionate for the task at hand. Many of my clients had asked me why I dont do this full time and my answer has always been "Why ?? I enjoy doing this and the last thing I want is to turn this into a JOB. Once this becomes a job, my mentality will change and it will cease to be fun."

Currently, many of us (hobbyist and side gig people) has a tendency to romanticize all aspect of detailing and this is our biggest downfall in speed and efficiency. To be profitable in all service oriented business and detailing is no different, one has to take the approach of a technician. You have to develop an approach and method for all services you provide in a time/cost manner. That is not to say quality is not a factor. It is but one has to realize there are different levels of quality and each level will be performed in a time/cost manner.

Doing everything by hand is back breaking work. There is no way I can do that currently... maybe 30 years ago. Not much brain but plenty of brawn back then....LOL