I'm doing this for REAL

[Edse30]

So I went to work on Tuesday and as I was working on generating training material for new hires. The boss pulled me into his office and fired me. It all happened so fast I couldnt even react. Man! I sat in my truck for a few minutes trying to process What The HELL Just Happened!?!?
Well I went home and talked to the wife. We put a plan together and I took the rest of the day off.
I sent out a few resume's but the decided I was going to do this detailing thing for real.
I have been doing it for a couple of years on the side on the weekends and after work. I normally work for dealers and i do ok but now that it'll be my primary for of income, it makes me pretty nervous.
Got fired Tuesday,
Wednesday I loaded my truck up and went to dealers and was busy all day.
Thursday I was feeling depressed so I took the day off. Half way in the day I got bored so I decided to make a plan and be proactive about this detailing thing. I came up with a website...Shine-Factory - Home, please review it and give me feedback.
I decided that dealers will keep me busy but I really want to get into the retail market(compared to dealers who I label as wholesale) where the real money could be.
If I do 2 full details a day, 5 days a week, I will be making a little more than I was making...tax free(for now).
Oh well, i just wanted to vent a little and share what i've been going through this week as i have always received and have seen other people receive support and good feedback.

Thanks for taking the time to read this novel.

[RobertJ34]

Sorry to hear about the job loss man...never fun to hear.

Kudos to you for keeping it together and jumping back into work right away, most people would take a month or more off. (from what I have seen)

Website--looks good, easy to use, easy to navigate---not a bunch of crap that isn't needed and pages load fast due to not to much junk all over that page. I like the schedule appt section as well.

Gives good,detailed information without getting into a ridiculous amount of detail (which I assume you explain more in person pending their needs).

I am personally a "simple if most effective" kinda person, and this is just that. Simple, effective, explains exactly what you do and good info.

Additions: Maybe a small customer testimonial section? Although your picture do the talking from what I see.

Good job on the site, best of luck to you brother!

[Romans5.8]

Good luck man! Happened to my wife a while back. Just out of the blue, no notice. They told her they wanted open up a new department and were making cuts. Wow! Amazing how the livelihood of some people is totally unimportant to others.

One thing though; I would strongly suggest not trying to go 'tax free'. You need to be reporting that income. The IRS has a funny way of finding that stuff out and when they do, worst (but not likely) case scenario is actually criminal charges; but the likely, and incredibly common scenario, is that they will file those taxes FOR you. They will over-estimate your income, give you ZERO deductions, and you will owe tremendous amounts of money. You don't want to put yourself through that.

I firmly believe that if you are going to be taken seriously, you need to take yourself seriously. That includes doing things the right way!

Just my $0.02. You need to do what's right for you and your family. I've just seen it happen a few times. Had a woman I used to work with who did a photography gig on the side. One of those suburban moms who bought a low-end DSLR and thought they were suddenly a pro photographer. Well, she did a number of little things here and there for a few years. One day, bam; she owed THOUSANDS of dollars with 21 days to pay or it's going into collections and her tax return was being canceled, and she already had a court date for a hearing in regards to wage garnishments. Would've saved her thousands just to file that income. How they found out? Who knows. But it does happen, more than you think.

Good luck man! It takes a lot of courage to go into business for yourself, but the rewards (even if it's not a lot of money) can be great I'm sure!

[jankerson]

Sorry to hear about the job loss, been there myself more than once, it really sucks....

Out on FMLA & Long Term Disability currently from my regular job.

[RAM12]

Good Luck with the new career. The best part about doing a hobby as a job is that you will love what you do everyday. Which is elusive for a lot of people.

[Coastalf350]

Good luck. I know its frowned apon but try to deal with cash and cash only and only claim enough to pay the bills. Put the rest in a safe

[mwoolfso]

Web site is pretty good. The pics are OK but if you showed "befores" then those "afters" really send a clear message to your visitors. Best of luck.

[TopThatDetail]

Sorry about your job.. Might be a blessing in disguise

[Paul Mitchell]

Good luck with your new career. When one door closes another opens.

[Romans5.8]

Web site is pretty good. The pics are OK but if you showed "befores" then those "afters" really send a clear message to your visitors. Best of luck.

+1. I noticed that too. Sometimes it's not clear which pics are 'before' and which are 'after'. Someone might not look at all the pics, click on one, and say 'gee, that's a swirled up mess! I don't wanna use that guy!'

Also, give it a good check of spelling and punctuation. This is totally up to you, but I think "Wash and Wax" or "Wash 'n Wax" looks a lot better than "wash n wax" as it's listed now. Capitalizing both Wash and Wax and using an accent mark on the 'n, or replacing it with 'and' makes it cleaner and more professional. Even though it's generic, it still is a name of one of your 'products' and should be capitalized like a title. (In my opinion anyway. You may like it just like that and that's fine too!)