Charging Customers

[popcornplayer28]

Hey guys.

Ok so the only cars I have detailed so far have been mine and a few cars belonging to family. Much more of a weekend warrior. However, I have recently had a work colleague ask for me to detail his BMW 3 Series. Full machine polish, the works basically.

He has asked how much to get this done. I have now got to the point where the majority of my product has run out and I need to start replacing my pads. I'm looking at spending another £160 to get my stock back up to where it needs to be to do the right job.

I have never charged my family as I am happy to practice, however I would want to charge to get this job done. My question is how much would you charge normally and should i take into account the fact that i have to spend £160 already to replace my current products?

I am looking to do a wash, clay, compound and polish, seal and wax as well as dress the trim, machine polish the windows and seal as well as the wheels and tyres.

I would appreciate any help you could provide with this.

Thanks in advance
Jay

[BobbyG]

A thread on pricing....

[popcornplayer28]

Thanks for the thread BobbyG. lots of great information.

[zmcgovern45]

It would not be fair to charge according to your $160 upfront charge for supplies as you will not be exhausting all of these supplies on this one job. They should last you for many jobs and will therefore be paid for overtime as they are the required tools for this job.


I would recommend estimating the amount of time you think this job will take you and then multiply the # of hours by an hourly rate that you feel comfortable with. For instance, I would imagine this job would take at least 12 hours to complete the work you described in your post... if you wanted to charge $20/hr, your total would be around $240 (just an example... not necessarily how much you should charge!)

My best advise is to charge based on what you feel your time is worth. Since you already have another job, you do not need to detail to make money, therefore it must be worth it to yourself to give away your weekend time to work. There is no right or wrong answer to "how much should I charge?".

If you think "Man, I am going to do all of that work for only $250" then you're simply not charging enough since it is clearly not worth it to yourself.


As a point of reference, I'd charge ~$750 for the job you described in your OP.

[hammy1983]

Thats a tough one. I dont charge my family labour. I do a guestimate on how much product I used and say here is your price. I just did my dads vehicle and charge him about $75. Considering it took 8 hours and tons of product. He was more than happy as anywhere else thats easy $200.

[jms493]

Are you doing the interior? Whats the condition of the car? Could you fix the paint in one pass?

I would leave the wax part out. Seal it and let it cure. Tell him to bring the car back to you in a month and you will do a quick detail and wax.

Since you are just starting out...IMO I would charge $200 to $300(USD) for this (Quick 30 min interior cleaning).

Its probably more of a $500 detail. Machine polishing the windows and wheels...what a pain.

[dcjredline]

With family I charge them nuthin to maybe $20 and if they want to pay more thats called a tip not a charge.

Closer friends get charged a little more.

Co-workers pay juuuuust about full price. "The works" on that car for me would be ~$400 or more depending on condition