Car Detailing Company

If you have a passion for cars or if you enjoy cleaning in general, starting a car detailing company can be a great way to make a living on your own or scale to a lucrative business. In this section we will go over how you can start with almost no money and grow a detailing company into a cash cow.

 The first thing you will want to do like with most businesses, is to start your LLC and open a business bank account. You can learn about how to do this in our How to Start a Business section. The reason that this is so important Is that it allows you to track your income and expenses from one place for tax purposes. You can also get a business credit card that auto pays from this business bank account so that you can benefit from free points and cashback on your purchases.

Once you have your LLC and account set up, you will want to get business insurance for your company to protect you from any damage or injuries that may happen. You can simply search for auto detailing insurance and find places like Progressive that offer very affordable rates.

Now that you have your legal needs met to operate your business, you need to get all the tools you need to clean your customers’ cars. You can go to Home Depot or Lowes to get most of the things you will need. To start, you will need a 100 ft HEAVY DUTY garden hose for $50, a garden hose nozzle for $5 that will allow you to spray cars if you do not have the money to start with a pressure washer, a 1600 psi electric pressure washer for around $140, a pump sprayer for $9 that you can put any liquid in for cleaning wheels etc., a couple Zep professional spray bottles for $7, a whole pack of microfiber towels for $10 for door jams and wheels, a home depot bucket for $5, a 4 gallon ridged vacuum for $100, you can also buy a ridged detailing kit if you have the extra $50 but if you do not have the extra money you don’t need it, and a 100 foot extension cord for $22. Next you will want to go to Walmart and get a 3 outlet adapter for $3 that allows you to plug multiple things into your extension cord, Super Clean cleaner and degreaser for $10 this stuff is great for shampooing carpets, mats, seats, engines, or even washing wheels. You will also want to get a couple Sprayway glass cleaner bottles which should last about 8 cars each for all the windows and cost only $3 each. Just make sure you get the spray version instead of the foam version of the Sprayway cleaner because it is easy to work with. Next you will want to get Armorall ultra shine wash and wax which will be your soap. You should start by getting two bottles which will be 1 gallon, for $5 each. You will also want to pick up a bottle of tire shine from there for around $7. From Sam’s Club or online, you will want to get scratch and lint free microfiber towels for washing the vehicles themselves. You should get 3 colors, one for windows, one for interior, and one for exterior so you don’t get them mixed up. Each bulk pack will be $16, so this will come out to around $48. Then you will want to go to Amazon and get a scratch free car wash mitt for around $8, a wheel brush kit for $10, a foam cannon for your pressure washer which you will use the 15-degree nozzle it comes with for $20, and last but not least an ultrasoft detailing brush set for $28. If you buy everything we have listed at the pieces we mentioned, you will be all ready to start cleaning with quality products that will last for under $500.

Now that you have everything you need to run a professional detailing company, it is time to start finding customers for your business. The beat way to find customers in this industry is to surround yourself with car people! Get some business cards printed from Vistaprint or Staples and start handing them out at car events. You should be going to every car show that you can in your area and making friends with people. Join every car group you can on Facebook and focus on creating reputation in the groups focused on your service area and make posts on your social media profiles frequently about the service you offer and pictures of the cars you clean.

You can also post your services on places like Groupon with discounts for first time cleanings. You can pay for ads on yelp and craigslist. You can post your services frequently on Facebook marketplace. And most importantly when you do get a customer you should be locking them down for recurring detailing visits and asking them for referrals. You should try signing up your new customers for recurring mobile detailing once a week and then letting them know that you offer a free cleaning or a half off cleaning for every new customer, they get you. You can use this tactic alone to grow your business to an unmanageable number of customers that you will need to hire new employees to service. However you do it, make sure you are taking advantage of referrals. They can be the sole marketing for your business if used correctly.

Once you do get enough customers and you need more people to help service them you can start hiring in detailing groups by looking for people that seem desperate for work. You can also use a free trial on Indeed to get plenty of candidates and simply cancel before the trial ends. You can check out even more tips for hiring in our hiring and recruiting section. Just be sure to do background checks when hiring for a job that requires someone to work with others’ possessions because it is your reputation at stake.

Once you have grown your business and started to hire you will simply want to buy another set of the items we listed at the beginning of this section and make sure that you are keeping inventory of all the items for each employee so you can refill what you need each day. At this point you can start contacting the manufacturers of the products you use to inquire about buying them in bulk so you don’t have to worry about running out and you can save more money. You can start looking for trucks that you can get a loan for through your business bank for your company but there is also another clever way you can get around spending all of this money. If you manage to find new employees that have reliable transportation that can carry all your supplies, you can pay them for the mileage and maintenance and allow them to use their own vehicle. You can use this model to grow to multiple employees much faster without having to spend a fortune up front for a truck. I recommend making sure a vehicle is presentable if you wish to use this model though, and you should purchase some car magnets with logos to make it appear more professional. Of course it looks nice having company trucks for your detailing business but at the end of the day your customers will mostly be concerned with the service, price and reliability.