Oh,BTW, you can wash a car with Dawn dish soap, every once in a while. It will strip off wax, but I do that if I want to change the wax I applied before switching to another one!!

 

Yep, I was going to mention this, but I got a little lazy. Key is making sure there's no residue... a thorough rinse will do the trick after using dawn. =)

Absolutely. It's the year 'round clientele or just summer clients that are large enough to sustain you through the winter months clientele that's needed. At that rate, you'll probably need to be charging somewhere in the ballpark of the place that Frank posted up.

I've thought about this for a little bit, hence the reason I got the illuminated.ws domain, but haven't quite acted on it quite yet. As far as a decent shop goes, the initial expenditures would be a lot of money. Probably the reason why Paul Dalton charges somewhere like 5 to 10k a detail.

I think an official mobile detailing business could definitely be feasible with enough savings. Biggest initial costs off the top of my head is:

Van
Mobile Filtered water
Generator
Compressor
Insurance

I'd say polishes, waxes, polishers, microfiber cloths are all relatively inexpensive and can be capitalized with short term debt while the above items are capitalized with long term debt.

However, the key to success with a detailing business won't be as much your quality of work (though important and in many cases "very good enough" will do), but much more marketing than anything else. A budget of anywhere between 1000 to 2000+ a month on marketing and name-recognition would be key to get the detailing business jump started, with clientele.

I'd say your Most Valuable Resource once you get one, that you can go for broke is a well networked gregarious fellow that's well established and trusted in the high-end world. "Oh my man Roger just worked on my Enzo last week and did a fantastic job. You should have him do your Shelby."

 

[QUOTE=kndonlee,Feb 4 2009, 04:51 PM] I'd say your Most Valuable Resource once you get one, that you can go for broke is a well networked gregarious fellow that's well established and trusted in the high-end world.

 

Well then, make sure your gregarious fellow says, "My man Roger worked on my z8 and 7 series. You should have Roger detail your R8." ;-)

*chuckles*

 

^^^ I need to get those kind of cars to detail 1st. then I can take it from there.

 

I'm an idiot, I let up on a potential opportunity on a Caddy XLR and Z06 like last year and haven't found the will to go beyond my car yet. Some ideas I've thought about to break into that market has been to promote myself at some of the higher end dealerships....

I asked my friend's parents who run a chip repair business, and they say in the beginning it was all about just doing as much work for free or super cheap before they got established to do the Benz's.... It can happen my friend... Now who do I know with a high end car that I can refer you to....