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Did my first job for a customer today.


ramflava

Question

I've been kicking around the idea of doing some work on the side detailing cars and while many people want me to clean/detail their vehicle, so far only one person took me up on my offer. The rest think I'm overpriced. I'm actually underpriced in my opinion.

 

Anyhow, we had originally agreed on a wash/clay/glaze/seal and a full interior clean, but he later changed his mind to a full interior with just a wash. Took me the better part of 4.5 hours, but the interior came out great!! The exterior was just a wash, but with some Super VRT and Tire shine, he was impressed.

Got my 1st $100. I charged him $70, but he insisted on giving me $100.

 

Sadly, no pics of exterior and only interior pics are on my phone.

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I would have to agree with you, Mike. I did a full complete detail minus paint correction for $100 and in my opinion I felt it was underpriced. That included prep wash, clay, sealant, glaze, wax. Trim, plastic, tires and wheel wells dressed. Glass cleaned inside and out, sealed the glass on the exterior. Then also did a full interior cleaning, removing a few stains here and there on the seats. Then used Adams leather conditioner to finish it off. I was definitely happy with the results and so was the customer but I felt $100 wasn't enough for all the hours it took me. (6.5-7 hours) But just like you it was my first customer and thought well I have to let my results speak for themselves till word spreads around then raise the pricing. So far I've did the same detail for 8 cars and I believe my next car I do I'm going to raise the price.

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I bumped up my rate to $15/hr in 2014 instead of the $12 I was charging, now that I'm doing a lot more vehicles and people realize my quality of work.  I can spend upwards of 15-20 hours on a full exterior paint correction/interior/engine bay/trunk on trucks and suv's.  I still feel like I'm not charging enough, but it keeps customers coming back and getting new referrals.

Edited by psu goat
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^^^SJC, I think you are way underpriced at 6.5 hours of work but again it's all what your market can bear.

 

As a rule of thumb I usually check what the local car wash "detail centers" charge, and usually up my prices from there, since in my opinion I'm giving an extra level of attention to their vehicles that they can't get there, plus I don't run their cars through the swirl o matic first and polish with a bunch of fillers.

 

My motto is "what you see when you pick it up is what you get", none of this 1 month later someone calls and says their finish looks hammered again, etc

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Great stuff here guys. I'm not really aggressively pursuing detail jobs, but it is good to have the first one and they loved the finished results, so if they send some business that would be great.

The people that I deal with to get initial business are co-workers and friends and many of them don't have a money to spend on a detail. I'm not aggressively pursuing business because I barely have time to work on cars anyhow. So slow and steady it is and I'll make the money I need for my detail tools eventually.

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^^^SJC, I think you are way underpriced at 6.5 hours of work but again it's all what your market can bear.

As a rule of thumb I usually check what the local car wash "detail centers" charge, and usually up my prices from there, since in my opinion I'm giving an extra level of attention to their vehicles that they can't get there, plus I don't run their cars through the swirl o matic first and polish with a bunch of fillers.

My motto is "what you see when you pick it up is what you get", none of this 1 month later someone calls and says their finish looks hammered again, etc

Other than Ford, Chevy, Subaru and other car dealerships with detail shops. There aren't too many just straight up detailing centers around where I live. I've had one customer tell me that last time they had the guy work on their car they paid $125 for exterior and it didn't look anywhere near as good as I got her car. I've offcially got her attention and she's spreads the word. I honestly don't know how much higher I should go before I start turning them away. Is there a reasonable price for the work I listed? I've done 2 one-step paint corrections so far which have extended my hours beyond 8-9 hours.

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Other than Ford, Chevy, Subaru and other car dealerships with detail shops. There aren't too many just straight up detailing centers around where I live. I've had one customer tell me that last time they had the guy work on their car they paid $125 for exterior and it didn't look anywhere near as good as I got her car. I've offcially got her attention and she's spreads the word. I honestly don't know how much higher I should go before I start turning them away. Is there a reasonable price for the work I listed? I've done 2 one-step paint corrections so far which have extended my hours beyond 8-9 hours.

 

I'd say you have the market pretty well cornered then if there aren't many dedicated detail shops.  Start posting on FB and showing 50/50 shots of your work, or before/afters in a portfolio for potential customers.  Your work should speak for itself and people will be willing to pay for a proper job.

 

If your customer paid a guy $125 for a half assed job you need to ask what would they be willing to pay for a job done right?  I would bet they would pay the $200 to be fully satisfied with the work.

 

For what you listed:

 

-Prep wash including decon

-Sealant/glaze wax

-Tires/trim cleaned and dressed

-Door jambs cleaned/wiped

-Exterior glass sealed

-Interior vaccuum/wipedown and windows cleaned

-Leather cleaned and conditioned

 

I'd sell that as a full interior/exterior detail for $200, $125 for exterior and $100 for interior but sell it as a combo where when they purchase both they are getting $25 off.  Add in an engine cleaning for $40 more if the customer wants.  That's just my recommendation based on you telling me you're spending 7 hours on a detail (I'm rounding up from 6.5).  That's $28 an hour and I think thats a fair rate for a professional detail.  If you can get your processes and regimen down to work faster and get 4 hours per car for a full detail, you can take on 2 customers in an 8 hour day and double your pay, at $400 for 2 cars you're at $50 an hour in one day, now that is something I would be striving for and right now with my regimen, most vehicles are doable in that time frame.  Obviously SUV's carry an extra and more time, but most customers know that.

 

Just my .02, hope that helps.  You have to test the market with your pricing, but don't sell yourself short on the time spent and products used, as it does cost money to replenish supply.

 

@ ramflava,

 

You're off to a good start, its always slow in the beginning.  The friends/co-workers who "can't pay for a detail" aren't probably the customers that you might not want anyway for long term, because once you establish the low price points they are going to expect it going forward.  Many of your friends/co-workers are looking to get hooked up on a job for cheap.  I had a great friend/co-worker ask me to do a detail recently for them, on their 2010 CRV.  The vehicle is run through auto washes 3 times a year and maybe vaccuumed once a year.  She has a hairy golden retriever, and a 2 year old kid in addition to a kid in high school.  The car is trashed, all the time.  I gave her the option of paying hourly on actual time spent on an interior/exterior detail (no paint correction), or a flat rate of $175 as I was "hooking her up".  She declined, telling me she probably could only spend $100. 

 

I politely turned down the job because I knew it wasn't worth the time I was going to be spending, to get paid that little.  I was probably going to spend an easy 6 hours on the car, if not more.  That same day, I had 2 good paying customers contact me and happily scheduled an interior/exterior job for my going rate. 

 

Sometimes in the beginning you want to do everyone's car just to get the word out there, but you have to be somewhat selective because at the end of the day you are selling a quality job that is above and beyond what you get at the local car wash "detail centers".  I told my friend at work to try them down there if she only wanted a $100 job, and I price checked the local car wash and they were selling interior/exterior for $150, so my pricing is more than fair for my market.

 

 

To both of you, for paint correction its almost always hourly, whether it's 1-step or 2-step and the level of correction desired.  The Adam's Paint Correcting polish finishes down so well that a lot of "2-step" paint corrections sold can actually be done in 1 step, except perhaps on some finicky black paints.  Thats good for you and good for business as you're saving time and still making the same money on the job sold.

 

Hope that helps gents,

Edited by Ricky Bobby
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Great advise Ricky. I don't know yet, how far I want to take this. I work grave yard and when I'm off, I typically work overtime at $35 per hour, so actually having time for other people's cars is rare. I enjoyed it though so its not off the table to do a several cars per month. Right now I'm just working on cars to earn money for a Metro Vac and McCulloch Steam Cleaner.

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