My Journey To Reach A 7-figure Auto Detailing Business

[thebamboo23]

I have committed myself to reach a 7-figure auto detailing business.

Pretty big goal, right? Yup.
A lot of problems? Yup.
60+ hours per week? Yup.
Lots of mistakes going to be made? Yup.

This article is going to be pretty detailed, so set aside a few minutes :-)

So, the way I think and the way I do things compared to the detailing industry is a bit different.

I’m not saying I have a new way of thinking (there is nothing new to what I’m doing), but to the detailing industry that I know is an unfamiliar way of thinking.

What I see in the detailing industry

More often than not, a “successful” detailing business would be a single owner, booked 2 weeks in advance, making around $300 to $500 a day, and occasionally bringing on helpers if they have too much work for the week/day.

I see a very big problem with that. Because the amount of money you make is directly related to how many hours you put in… and that kinda sounds like a job to me.

Most people here go into business because they want to get rid of their 9-5 and be their own boss. Sounds great, right? Being able to work on what you love and making money from it…

The problem is you become your own employee. Too many businesses (in every industry on this planet) focus on working in the business and not on the business.

They are more of the technician and not the entrepreneur (or business owner). Do you see the HUGE difference?

Now I’m going to be honest, I was initially going to get out of the detailing industry and focus on building a software company and a marketing agency (which I will still be doing at the same time).

But I want to show the detailing community how much money is being left on the table by staying small. The local competition in your area (mine included) is VERY low. I don’t care who says what.

I’ll use Houston as an example (where I live). We have a BUNCH of great detailers in our area: Premier, Vive, iWax, Finesse, Clarity, and many more.

The thing is most of them are one man shops. Meaning they only do one or MAYBE 2 cars a day. Even if they did 10 or 20 or 30 cars a day it wouldn’t be a problem.

Our market is huge with SO much money and success being left on the table. And I am more than certain this is the same in your area.

I can go on for hours on this subject since it has more to do of a mental shift and execution than anything else, but we'll move on to the next subject…

Why did I choose 7-figures?

I have big goals in my life and starting multiple companies that hit the 7 and 8-figure revenue numbers are one of them.

An auto detailing business isn’t really the best type of industry to hit 7-figures since it’s difficult to scale (grow quickly). A SaaS (software as a service) company or consulting business is much easier to do. BUT, like I said, I want to be an example to many others that want to start and grow their own auto detailing business.

7-figures is a big goal that will bring many challenges. My brother and I were initially aiming for $100,000 in 12 months, but following the 10X rule, we bumped it up to $1,000,000 in 12 months.

We were probably going to come up short on either goals, but which one would you rather come short on: $100,00 or $1,000,000

Don’t get all caught up now, we know we’re not going to hit a million dollars in revenue in 12 months. That would be insane. But with this mentality it will make my brother and I focus on revenue and growth.

This means we’ll:

Hire a lot faster
Not let anything fall through the cracks
Be super hyper targeted
Double down on what’s working
Have systems in place that are replicable
And so forth…
Marketing channels we’ll target

To plan out a high level overview of our marketing efforts, I listed every possible marketing channels we can go through (no specific order):

1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Content marketing
4. Instagram
5. Search engine optimization (SEO)
6. Referrals
7. Influencers
8. Word-of-mouth
9. Sponsoring
10. Public relations
11. Email marketing
12. Partnership
13. Youtube
14. Direct Mail
15. Retargeting
16. Forums
17. Google Adwords
18. Facebook ads

Doing some thorough research and being well versed in marketing, our main channels will be the following in order of what we’ll focus on (but we’ll always be testing):

1. Facebook ads
2. Google Adwords
3. Retargeting
4. Email marketing
5. Search engine optimization (SEO)
6. Word-of-mouth
7. Referrals
8. Direct mail
9. Instagram
10. Facebook

Channels 1, 2, and 3 fall under PPC (pay-per-click) advertising. We want to spend $600 a month and double the budget every quarter (or gradually increase the spend every month).

Email marketing should be one of the biggest aspects of your business. The money is in the list. The bigger our email list, the more people that we have to market to, the more we can build trust, the more we can sale :-)

We’re going to rank for the most “competitive” key phrases in our area, but I’m not going to put my money on that since Houston is a super large area. This means we can’t really “target” specific zip codes within Houston that will search for our services.

The direct mail is not for consumers. We’re going to be using what’s called “lumpy mail” or “3D mail” to target companies that have fleets of cars/trucks/any fleet that has wheels.

“I wouldn’t want to jeopardize quality”

This is probably one of the biggest excuses on why people stay small. They think if you they hire more and more people, quality will go down.

This couldn’t be any further from the truth. The real thing that you need is well documented systems and processes in place that are dead simple to follow.

If you can’t simplify detailing, you’re doing something wrong. There are MUCH more complicated services out there that make things dead simple for anyone to follow and execute.

Another thing to note is my goal is not to be the best detailer in Houston that removes every swirl and scratch while using the most expensive products on the planet.

I’m keeping things simple and effective.

And much more…

I am literally barely touching the surface on our plans to grow a 7-figure business. I’m going to document our weekly/monthly progress for all of you to.

So hope you’ll like what I post :-)

Let me know your questions and comments down below!

[fly07sti]

Good luck to you man. I'll be following you on this thread. Go Big or go home rite?

[281]

Sub'd

[Vegas Transplant]

+1.

Good luck to you man. I'll be following you on this thread. Go Big or go home rite?

[1fastTbird]

I love this.

I am curious to see how you address the challenge of employee retention: i.e. - A big challenge will be that when your properly trained employees realized that they can take their new found expertise (which was paid for by your training) on their own and make more money running their own detail shop.

[Rez90]

ifl

[FinishingTouchA]

Looks like we have very similar mindsets when it comes to running a detail business. I've been mobile for 2 years now and am going to a fixed location next month. My focus is on waterless washes. Eventually my goal is to open several locations in the SoCal/Nevada area where the droughts are getting worse and worse every year. Can't wait to see where you go with this.

[thebamboo23]

Good luck to you man. I'll be following you on this thread. Go Big or go home rite?

Yup! Got a lot of things that need to be accomplished

Sub'd

+1.

ifl

Hope you guys enjoy the journey

I love this.

I am curious to see how you address the challenge of employee retention: i.e. - A big challenge will be that when your properly trained employees realized that they can take their new found expertise (which was paid for by your training) on their own and make more money running their own detail shop.

So, yeah.. the way we plan on hiring is going to be completely outfield compared to how everyone else hires

When we hire a team member (hate the word employee), we're going for someone that wants more than a job that pays $10/hour.

For the longest I've told myself that anyone who joins with us will be given resources and mentorship to become a better person.

So my main objective is not to pay someone to work. My main objective is to provide for them a place where they can better themselves to have a more fulfilled life in the future.

Instead of asking for people to send in a resume, we're going to ask for a 5 minute video.

We're going to ask big picture questions: what do you aspire to be in life? what are your biggest dreams? etc... we really want to dive into the mindset that they have

I can go on forever, but I'm modeling my hiring and retention from a bunch of other different companies.

Sounds kinda complicated, huh?

[JMP]

Good luck to you man. I'll be following you on this thread. Go Big or go home rite?

Right

[JMP]

"i have committed myself to reach a 7-figure auto detailing business."

you are completely full of ####!

The ago software will not let me type the ####...so i will go with

you are completely full of s h i t !

+100