Originally Posted by
j.williams@perpetualradiance
In my town the people are cheap, they don't care how much higher quality the products I use are, or how I use a technique that won't mar up the paint. $50 in my area for a wash is unheard of, at my prices I'm above all the others by almost double. All my next door neighbor knows if I told him I'd wash his car for $30, and the person who comes to his house does it for $15. I can preach to him till I'm blue in the face about quality, all he see's is I'm twice as expensive. If all I did was correction and coatings, I could maybe drum up a single customer a month. Where you live and what's available plays a big part in what you can charge. Doesn't matter if I was as good as Larry from AMMO or Renny Doyle, if I charged what they do I might never get a single job. 3 of my neighbors laughed at me when I said $45 to wash their ginormous trucks. A raised F250, Chevy 3500 or whatever and another big chevy. There's no market for a high end detailer in my town. I charge $30 for a wash only, which takes me about 35 minutes. The competition all charge 20 or less for the same thing, and by same thing I mean a wash only. I'm going to move next year, but for now this is where I'm at. lol
Jimbo on his detailing podcast has spoke on how where he started, to make it he had to wash cars for 10 hours a day to make $250. You have to start somewhere right? Why I'd rather not do 8 $30 washes in a day day, it sure beats 1 $400 coating every 2 or 3 weeks. *shrug* So until I move, I'll wash and wash and wash and when a coating or correction job comes along I'll gladly do it. I would love to sit down with someone who started detailing and was already successful enough where they only did big jobs. Then I could pick their brain. I guess I just assume everyone starts in the trenches and had to work their tail off to get to where they won't go a persons house for less than $150. Or, maybe they lived somewhere like Laguna Beach where the people are uber rich and drive nice cars and will shell out the $$$. I'm sure it also has to do with me not being some super salesman too.
I totally agree with what you said, believe me I don't want to do $30 washes, but I also don't want to go back to working in a warehouse, so until I can figure out how to make what you suggested work for me. Unfortunately I have to compete with bottom barrel dudes, and I'm still getting told how expensive I am by 90% of people I approach about being their car detailer guy. So while you're in awe why I'd go to someone's house for a measly $45, the people I deal with are in awe I charge that much. It's weird how different people see things so differently lol.