I'm going to be starting a detailing side business here soon. I've been doing a lot of research, looking into, and checking out other places for the past few months. I really feel comfortable and knowledgeable about this topic to expand and make some money at it.

Here's what I was thinking of offering, let me know what you think if prices are low or high or perfect. Remember, as of now, I'd just be doing this on the side until I can get a steady customer stream and some good word/advertising out.

Bundle One Exterior:
Wash with Meguiars Profossional Series and towle dry
Wheel clean (Not sure what product yet)
Tire shine (Pinnacle Black Onyx Tire Gel)
Windows (DP Krystal Glass Cleaner followed by Rain-X on front)
Plastic Trim (Mother's Protectant)
Chrome (Mother's chrome polish)
TOTAL: $35

Interior:
Leather or Cloth seat clean/condition (pinnacle)
Carpet (Wolfgang spot removal)
Vinyl (Armor all wipes clean, Mother's Protectant)
Windows (DP Krystal Glass)
Total: $35

Wax Bundle:
Added to interior and exterior packages
Meguiar's Clay Bar
Choice of Pinnacle Series II carnauba wax (+$10 more than synthetic)
Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax or Mother's Reflection
Total: $125 with carnauba wax, $115 with synthetic

Polish:
Added to interior and exterior packages:
Meguiar's Clay Bar
Pinnacle MXT stage #3 or #2 compound depending on condition
Pinnacle MXT stage #1 if needed after #3/#2
Pinnacle MXT Finishing glaze
followed by choice of carnauba (+$10) or synthetic wax
Total: $200

Engine:
Degrease, Clean, Shine (Not sure of what products, if I do at all)
Total: $35-$50


Please let me know what you think. I figure with an interior, wash, and wax package it would take me about 3-4 hours to do. And polishing before would take about 5-6 hours to do, due to "curing" times of the waxes.

 

dont do ur pricing like that people will try to get around some of the option u ahve make on standard price iunterior and exterior wash and wax 125$

interior exterior and engine 160$

id they ask for clay bar throw in another 30$

 

What kind of time would you have to put in it? Your prices look good to me,but if your not making $20/hr is it worth it?

 

I would say you could stand to go up on your prices a little bit more, but i guess that all depends on how good you are

 

i detailed for 4 years during highschool. I did $35 for cars for just regualr wash and interior cleanning and $50-$60 for waxing and engine cleanning along wiht the regular wash. Trucks/SUV's were $70-150 washed and waxed depending on size and just a wash was $40 regardless of size. I did very well and used to pull $150-$400 per weekend depending on the weather and demand. It was a good 2nd job i did during highschool.

 

So maybe keep what is but for like interior and exterior but no wax would be like $50 or something.

I want to keep clay bar in, because that is a must do step if you're waxing, especially for a DD car and one that is not necessarily washed regularly. It smooths out the paint for a proper coat of wax.

The thing with me is I'm very very picky about detail and I don't miss anything. People I know understand this, but once I can transfer this understanding with customers, I feel I can charge 100-125 with full clean and a coat of wax.

I got to be able to get word out and such that I would be doing this.

 

What about this until I started proving myself:
Exterior wash/detail: $25
Interior: $25
Wax and Clay: $25
Polishing followed by wax: $50

so everything would be $125

 

Few thoughts for you:

1 - You may not want to allow your customers to "un-bundle" your oferring too much. This will ensure that all yoru cars will look premium. Set a standard and don't allow the client to dumb it down too much by trying to be all things to all people.

2 - I would not make a clay-bar a standard. Why? Too many people fear them becaus ethey don't understand it.

3 -Look into getting insurance. Nice selling point if you can tell a car owner that you are insured and can cover their vehicle if you screw up the paint for some reason.

4 - You might want to offer people a referral discount, but their are downsides of doing this too.

 

I'll think about the clay bar. At least look into it a good amount. Any ideas one where to look for insurance and what something like this would run? What would this be under, like car, business insurance, etc.? And I wouldn't let them unbundle either. I think the last prices i listed is a good starting set price until I get more experienced, etc. Thanks for the input. I remember you saying before you have someone do yours. Mind me asking what you pay or what they charge and for what?


By the way. All waxing polishing would be done with a Porter Cable 7424 and Lake County pads.

 

125 however is with 2 coats of polshing, final glaze and a good wax. Takes time, 4 hours. What I would be doing would be charged $300 in my area.

 

Then i'd be.....
WTF, dead hooker in the back!

And you'd be.....
How much you want to keep this a secret and dump the body?

And i'd be...

Your first born

 

Lol @ the last two posts.

Theres things you have to think about..

Like how much money its going to cost you for all your products..

Figure out how much your products are going to cost

And then figure out how much profit you'll be making.

Something like $125 would be good.

I mean..places that are having machines do it..and they suck at it are like.. $40 around here..

And thats for like..a quick spray, some soap rubbed around, another spray, some crappy wax, spray again, rain x, and a tire shine..

Whereas you are using good products, and yu are doing it by hand..

$125 would be good, starting. Then you know people start coming to you because their buddy or their uncle or someone went to you and talked about how great of a job you did. Once you have enough customers, you start charging more for a bigger profit.

 

Yea, exactly. Which is why I want to do around $100 for a wax, and 125 for wax and polish.

All the products I'm using are between $15-20 for tire shine, wheel gel, cleaners, conditioners, etc. etc. And the carnauba was is 40. Granted I should be able to about 20 vehicles with each product.

I figure I can start at $30 for a basic wash including: wash by hand and towel dry, tire gel, wheel clean, window's cleaned followed by rain-x, trim/chrome polish clean, followed by a spray wax/dedtail.

 

Sounds pretty good. And once word gets around about it, raise the prices up a little more due to uh.. <insert random good reason here>

 

<Higher quality products like Zymol.>



I too am thinking about doing this during the summer.
I wouldnt do tons of cars prob. only for nieghbors and friends. BUt just some side cash.

 

I'm starting with pinnacle series II. Depending how well that takes off and the demand for a carnauba wax, I'll get 2 jars of Zymol. One being Creame and the other Carbon.

BTW, the one of the jars for zymol is just under $1200 for 8 oz. CRAZY!

 

I was thinking more of along the lines of like the Complete Kit that Zymol sells. But that stuff thats $1200 isnt even the most expensive, they have stuff thats almost $1900 and comes with unlimited refills.

 

BUT it's 22 oz, the $1200 is 8 oz. Do the math.

 

may I recommend pro producst such as pro gold car wax or satin creme shown in these links. This is what we used detailing at a shop in san diego. REALLY great products. The progold is so thick it is recomended to be applied with a damp applicator otherwise you will be there a while buffing it off

http://www.prowax.com/waxes.shtml

 

Ok, guys and gals... here's a link to my product's I think I'll use, total cost of them and the applicators (Porter cable, pads, etc.) and the prices/packages I think I might charge. Let me know what you think please.

Thanks R3dn3ck for the hosting!

http://www.squarerootofone.com/image...itethunder.xls

EDIT: Notice there are 2 sheets (one for supplies, and the other for prices)