infinitone

Heh. Maybe in the future then. Can you or anyone else recommend any good website builders that have all the features you discribed AND looks decent?

Well, currently I'm signing up for Carwashy's platform (http://carwashy.com)- looks promising and they have a free plan (if you do less than 100 bookings/month).  They give you a lot of tools to get more customers easily.

I run invoicing, inventory, and merchant services all through Quickbooks.  Easy, one entry, and lots of reports to keep track of how you're doing.  I can separate retail sales from services etc. which I find useful.

 

I use my Facebook page more than my website for social media type stuff.  Easier to post photos quickly and interact with your "fans".

 

Lastly, a significant part of my clientele comes from sponsoring various car clubs.  It's great for referrals because when you do one car for a club member, all of the club members see the car at a club event and then the phone starts ringing.  

 

- Darryl

I think what he means is for your customers, if you are looking to get more customers (ie. the ones that search for you online), you want to close them right when they land on your site.  The way to do that is to allow them to schedule on your site and also pay.

I'm in a similar situation, have a look at http://carwashy.com

This would be a great place to store information to people looking to start a detail business but don't know how. 

 

With that said, is there much of a difference between building the website myself (since I can code) Or having a third party website builder?

Well, define 'website' - if you are look for a 5 pager, then sure can be done by you.  If you are looking for something that can get your customers, like one that has scheduling, taking orders online and managing everything in between.  Then you can't really build that yourself (unless you spend a good 6 months on it).

Be very careful with coupon sites, it cuts down on your margins SIGNIFICANTLY. That being said, I ran a promotion with Gilt City (best %'s of all sites I explored) here in Atlanta and build specific high-end packages for the campaign and made sure to keep a keen eye on my margin for each package. Sold a handful and saw a nice jump in website traffic on launch day. 

A valid point.

But what I meant actually do you run your own coupons, like for christmas deals?

Also do you do subscription packages?  Whats the typical rate people subscribe for? Monthly? Bimonthly?

Some free/damn near free products we use here at Atlanta Auto Salon to help manage our business:

 

Scheduling: Google Calendar

Invoicing: Quickbooks

Taking payments: Square

Keeping in touch with customers: Ace of Sales for my email campaigns, Highrise for my CRM

Attracting new ones: Facebook, Google+, Forums, Thesis for on page SEO, Leadpages for landing pages, custom forms for email capture. 

Have you guys looked into services like http://www.carwashy.com ?

They seem to provide an all in one solution specifically for detailers.

Also, what do you use to remind customers/etc. do coupons/deals.?

Aside from car detailing, there's more to running a proper detailing business.  I was wondering what everything uses to manage their business such as scheduling customer bookings, invoicing, taking payments, keeping in touch with customers, attracting new ones.

Are their any specific strategies people use?

Hey guys,

I've been a detailer for 5 years now, on and off.  Currently working at wash.ly and looking to learn more