Why you shouldn't start a car detailing business

While browsing forums, I often see the question, "How do I start a car detailing business?" But transition from enthusiast to professional isn't easy.

You may be thinking that I would want to discourage people because we don't want the competition, and there is a tiny bit of truth in that, it would be nice if we had a monopoly, but we aren't really in competition with mobile car detailers. We do a lot of specialist work and often refer people who want a vac and a polish on to smaller companies. 

The reason that I cringe slightly, every time somebody asks, "How do I start a mobile detailing business?" is because the question is usually asked by detailing enthusiasts. So, this article is really about the difference between enthusiasts and professionals. 

To put it bluntly, the leap from enthusiast to professional may not be as easy as you might think because it really isn't the same thing.

Do you have the skills?

I am in little doubt, you have many skills. After all, you have probably spent hours and hours detailing cars. Your own car is immaculate, you have been over every inch of it, every crack and gap has been detailed, so there isn't a speck of dust anywhere. You would hardly even know the glass is there, it is that clear.

And the part you really enjoy, is the machine polishing. You get so much satisfaction creating a mirror finish, that you could do it all day, and often have. You are experienced with all the best brands of polishes and compounds, you are confident you can fix any problem. You have practised on all your family's cars, friends' cars, and even had a few people pay you to do it, you produced results which you swear we far better than most of the professionals out there and your customer was absolutely thrilled with the job.

You are ready for this. Right? You just need a bit of capital and get yourself a van.

The E-Myth

For anyone thinking of starting a business, I would recommend reading the E-Myth by Michael Gerber. It is relevant to a point, except it's worse than that. You plan on being a one-man-band, at least in the short term. This means you need to take on all the roles in the business. You need to manage the business aspect, and as a company doesn't work without customers, you need to handle the marketing and get new business. 

So now you have three jobs, car detailer, businessman and marketer.

The problem with being your own boss is, he's the most unforgiving boss in the world. 

Time is money

As an enthusiast, time and money are no consideration. The job is done when it's done. If it takes you a full week to polish a car to perfection, then that's what you will do. Then you will post the photos and video to Tick-Tock and Instagram, and you will gain much adulation from the rest of the detailing community. But that doesn't pay the rent.

Before you start a business, you need to figure out how much your overheads will be, how much you need to earn, how many hours you need to work and what your hourly rate is. You need to know how many customers you can service in a week, what the average spend is, and what you are going to do with yourself when it's raining and the phone isn't ringing.

You may well be able to survive on a couple of jobs per week, if you can bring in some of those e-celebrities or happen to know some Saudi Princes, who are prepared to pay you top dollar to detail their Lamborghinis... if you happen to be a marketing expert with a lot of contacts.

Otherwise, the reality is, your customer base is largely people who don't want to pay more than they have to, to get done a specific job. They are picking mum up from the airport, and they want the stains out of the seats. They are selling the car, and they want it to look nice. They took an old Christmas tree to the dump, and it made a mess in the boot. They took the grandchildren to McDonald's, and they were sick on the carpet. They bought a new car, and it smells of dog, they got a car for their daughter's 18th, and they want it spruced up, etc. etc. etc.

The good news is, these types of customer are far more numerous than foreign royalty.  They do not, however, wish to pay a premium for the levels of perfection you were achieving when you detailed cars as a hobby. 

There are plenty of young men with hot hatchbacks who do appreciate what you can do, and they will talk to you about it for hours and hours. And hours and hours, and then decide to spend the money going to Ibiza instead.

You are probably thinking, "That's okay, I can lower my standards". But your hobby is now a job. There is still much satisfaction to be had, especially on those difficult jobs, but it isn't the same thing.

Boom and Bust

Given the choice, start your business during a boom, not a bust.

I have been in the business a long time, and this will be my third recession.  Every time, there are  people who decide to spend their redundancy money setting up a car detailing business. Why not, after all, the overheads are low. You just need a van, a pressure washer and a vacuum cleaner.

At the time when the economy is taking a downturn, there will be more people starting up in business. That means more competition at a time when people are tightening their belts and spending less. That means less customers to go around, more detailers.

Hard times create strong men, and if you start a business now and survive, then you may be onto something. But between somebody who knows nothing about detailing but is business savvy, and somebody who knows detailing and doesn't know business, my money is on the businessman every time.

Having said that, if you are thinking of spending your redundancy money on starting a detailing business, be aware that this is a young man's game. It is hard physical work and not everyone is cut out for it.

Market value

We try to avoid politics, but the truth is, the industry just hasn't been the same since the 1990s. When you are driving down the road, keep your eyes out for hand car washes. The numbers of them go up and down, but there are still plenty of immigrant workers to staff them.

You may believe that we are not in competition with them, and to a degree that's true. However, the first part of our job it to spend half an hour to forty five minutes washing the car. Ask yourself, how much do you want to be paid per hour?

You need to keep in mind that they can do it in seven minutes and charge £5, and do a reasonably good job. That's the public's experience, and that's the baseline.  The market value of a clean car is £5-£10. 

You and I know that what we do is very different, but try convincing the public that you are worth £300. You can tell them that you pay all your taxes and there's no money laundering or human trafficking involved, but it's an uphill struggle.

What would I do?

Don't worry, I am not going to leave this article on a down note, but before I suggest some alternatives, I would ask you, to ask yourself if you really want to do this for a living. If it is your hobby, and you love it, do you want to risk killing that passion.

You could have a happy ending. I know gardeners who do gardening for a living, and it hasn't killed their passion for gardening. But I also know builders with piles of bricks in their driveway for that conservatory they never got around to building. 

If you think you could do it day-in, day-out and still be the thing you enjoy doing during your free time, then try and get a job working for somebody else. You could apply for a job with a company that does contract valeting. It can be hard work and the pay is low, but nobody ever promised you would get rich in this game.

There are detailers that do it as a part-time job, or just during the summer. It is a toe in the water without putting all your eggs in one basket.

What I would probably do is try to get into bodyshops. They aren't completely recession proof, but a downturn in the economy doesn't stop people crashing cars. You will get plenty of experience flatting and polishing cars, get a taste of the motor industry, and leave with an additional skill of being able to prepare and repaint cars.

Unfortunately, there aren't many bodyshops who are likely to want to employ somebody with no training or experience, which is why you should consider spending your redundancy money on retraining rather than buying a van.

Retraining is sound advice regardless of what you want to do. And don't forget that companies like Autosmart offer training in detailing. Within the industry, this carries far more weight than a training day from one of the retail brands (Yes, I know they all do trade products, but few have more than a toehold in the UK motor trade).

Forget everything you know

And finally, if you do get a job working for somebody else, a detailing company, contract valeter or working in a bodyshop, it is highly likely that you will be asked to forget everything you know.

A business needs to produce reliable and consistent results, so they will have their way of doing things. They will have methods that work, safely, using products that work, from reliable suppliers. They will want everybody to do the same thing, including you.

Bodyshops especially will not want your fancy boutique products anywhere near their workshop in case they aren't bodyshop safe.

Companies can get stuck in their ways, but generally, there is a reason they do things the way they do, learned from long experience. Don't assume you know better until you have done your hundredth car.

Good luck!