The learned skill of turning detailing work down by Mike Phillips


A few years ago my good friend, pro detailer and like me, one of the few established people that teach real car detailing classes in the world, Renny Doyle, asked me and a few other guys to write a few sections of information for his book,


How to start a home-based Car Detailing Business






I ended up writing two sections,


Page 101 - What I wish I had known before I started my business

Page 124 & 125 - To do it all over again




The section that comes up the most in discussion is the section on To do it all over again, and it's the topic of this article here on the AutogeekOnline.net car detailing discussion forum that you're reading right now.


Here's the section on pages 124 and 125




And here's the key point,




And for Google...



The learned skill of turning down work

One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started out was not charging enough for my work. I was eager for more customers to the point where I would end up charging less than what I knew I wanted for the job. In hindsight, I should have stated my price for the job and if a potential client balked at the price, I should have graciously told them that if my services were out of the range of their budget, I understood and moved on to my next job. The problem with undercutting yourself is that you are establishing your price range in the market. Once you do that, it's hard to raise your prices. So my advice to anyone starting out in this business is to determine what you're worth, set our prices and stick to them.


If you're just starting a detailing business and then do your research first and then determine what you're going to charge for your services. I'm going to write more on this topic in the near future. Until then, I've already created a very valuable resource to help you when selling yourself and your services to you customer. It's called the VIF and it's available in paper form and now as an App.


Mike Phillips VIF or Vehicle Inspection Form - Paper version


The form has a section for you to include your packages.

Packages?

Yes packages. You should have more than one package for potential customers because a one-size fits all approach doesn't work for you or your customers. Some people have a daily driver and all they want is to have it washed and waxed. Some people have something they care a little more about and want it to look good as they drive it around. Some people have a "toy", that is it's their idea of the perfect car and they want it to look GREAT!.

So you need a package for everyone. This is called,

Matching your services to your customer


This is something I teach in my car detailing classes along with about a million other things to ensure you'll be successful when you detail cars for money. I also have an article on this topic here,


A few tips on starting a part-time detailing business
Match your services to your customer


If you're reading this and you're going to start a car detailing business or if you're reading this and you already have a car detailing business, it's important to price your services fairly so that your customer gets great value for their dollar and you are rewarded fairly for your hard work, time and resources.


Stay tuned for the follow-up to this article...