Anyone who does pro detail on weekends while having a regular 5 day 37.5 hour a week job?

Hey

I'm about to begin a "career" job in IT which I like but I also like cleaning and detailing cars. I was considering doing a business and working weekends, but most likely saturdays only or else I won't have time for myself.

Which brings me to my main concern, is this physically and mentally possible. Anyone else who currently does this? I suppose when you're starting out and you're not very popular you don't have to much clients right and it doesn't get over your head.

I suppose I could also limit myself to X client a day and make them schedule next week.

Just curious if I'm crazy for even thinking about it or not?

If you are mentally and physically able to, then ultimately, you decide.

I personally don't want to put in a 40hr work week, and follow that up with detailing on the weekend. I've done it, don't care to do it too much. Haven't done a "job" in a good, long time. But I didn't really do "detail" jobs, mostly did paint correction.

Just keep in mind, YOU can always decide how much time you want to put into detailing. :) You're the boss!

If your detailing interest is going to give you more $$ than your IT job I think you should be a detailer. If its the other way around which i believe it would be then IT is your career and should be your focus. Working in IT for 15+ it can be a grueling thankless job that requires a lot of focus and attention. But i have learned a ton, worked my way up that chain and have had a great time doing it while being paid fairly. Its always changing and won't ever get stale. Its probably best to schedule and do x amount of details on a given weekend and be an IT guy. Thats what i am shooting for. What discipline of IT are you in?

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Originally Posted by JustJesus

Just keep in mind, YOU can always decide how much time you want to put into detailing. :) You're the boss!

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Yeah well that's the thing you are so right! I can definitely see myself doing 2 clients on a Saturday and maybe even only do that every 2 weekends! Just as a fun thing and making a little bit of side money it's always welcomed.

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Originally Posted by ledger64

If your detailing interest is going to give you more $$ than your IT job I think you should be a detailer. If its the other way around which i believe it would be then IT is your career and should be your focus. Working in IT for 15+ it can be a grueling thankless job that requires a lot of focus and attention. But i have learned a ton, worked my way up that chain and have had a great time doing it while being paid fairly. Its always changing and won't ever get stale. Its probably best to schedule and do x amount of details on a given weekend and be an IT guy. Thats what i am shooting for. What discipline of IT are you in?

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Yeah well as JustJesus mentionned I'm the boss right. I can easily see myself doing 2 clients on a Saturday and just do that at my rate for fun and well the money comes with it.

I'm in the tech support side of things. I started as a desktop now I'm going to a new department call center but I really prefer desktop support tech. Hopefully next year I can find another position in the gov.

I've been a software engineer since 1995 and have been detailing my own cars since I got my license. I've been doing other people's cars for about 9 months now. It started off slow by advertising on Nextdoor and Facebook, but my work quickly ramped up to where I could spend all day every Saturday and Sunday. I did that for about 4 months straight and made some great $$$ but I feel like all I did was work and it's all a blur at this point. 45 hrs Monday thru Friday and then around 12 hours on the weekend is just too much.

I think it really depends on how old you are and what kind of shape you're in. I wish I'd starting doing side work when I was in my 20s, but now that I'm in my 40s, I try do devote one day of the weekend on detailing work. It's a real struggle trying to budget time for the detailing work because it's fun and the extra money is great.

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Originally Posted by DMW

I've been a software engineer since 1995 and have been detailing my own cars since I got my license. I've been doing other people's cars for about 9 months now. It started off slow by advertising on Nextdoor and Facebook, but my work quickly ramped up to where I could spend all day every Saturday and Sunday. I did that for about 4 months straight and made some great $$$ but I feel like all I did was work and it's all a blur at this point. 45 hrs Monday thru Friday and then around 12 hours on the weekend is just too much.

I think it really depends on how old you are and what kind of shape you're in. I wish I'd starting doing side work when I was in my 20s, but now that I'm in my 40s, I try do devote one day of the weekend on detailing work. It's a real struggle trying to budget time for the detailing work because it's fun and the extra money is great.

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Thanks for the input. Yeah I'm young, I'm 20. And yeah, I just plan on putting out an ad on Kijiji and have my website and people shoot an email if they want to. I'll see how it goes. Right now I just want to offer cleaning and wax/sealant and we'll see how that goes I suppose!

Bought a domain and got email hosting for my domain just for total 2$ 1st year! I'm surprised how cheap it is, I guess I wasn't looking properly for domains before haha. The fact it's a .ca domain to reduces the cost.

Here is the thing, if you're going to be in IT, I can tell you, most information systems are worked on during low-peak times, which means nights and weekends. IT is not usually a M-F 9 to 5 job... If you've found one, bravo! However, if you find something you love to do (outside of work such as detailing) you'll find a way to make it work. Take it from someone who is "plugged-in" 24x7 365 and travels (by air) 35% of the time. I still maintain a detail business with great clients.

Owning your own business will teach you the in's and out's of business and give you a deeper respect for your full-time job. You'll see how it translates to customer service, vendors, overhead, costs, etc..

Good luck!!!

I stopped detailing for money years ago but I work full time for the railroad working 230-1030 pm with th/fr off and I work construction in the morning 7am til noon during the week. Usually work around 65 hours a week but it allows my wife to be a stay at home mom.

I can tell you it depends on your life situation, for me I work and do nothing at home. That is my wife’s domain since she can stay at home but she knows that I need her help.

I keep doing it til I can’t do it anymore and enjoy making good money while I am able, lord only knows what tomorrow will bring.

My advice is to go for it, but you need to make the best of your free time. You won’t have a lot of time to “be lazy” since you start losing free time to the extra work


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Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Hey

I'm about to begin a "career" job in IT which I like but I also like cleaning and detailing cars. I was considering doing a business and working weekends, but most likely saturdays only or else I won't have time for myself.

Which brings me to my main concern, is this physically and mentally possible. Anyone else who currently does this? I suppose when you're starting out and you're not very popular you don't have to much clients right and it doesn't get over your head.

I suppose I could also limit myself to X client a day and make them schedule next week.

Just curious if I'm crazy for even thinking about it or not?

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First question that popped in my mind was "How old are you?"

Are you in your 20's, or an old broken down man like me? Lol