Training for Car Detailers

Be sure you do two things before you even touch a customer’s car:

Learn a set of professional skills, including: the best way to bring engines to like-new, best way to remove carpet and upholstery spots, how to destroy smells, how best to polish as well as wax paint to the point of a better-than-new look, how to get rid of water spots, how to detail “nooks and crannies” (dials, vents, toggles, under seats, etc).

Buy professional gear. Don’t spend too much! There are just a handful of completely necessary items: wet/dry shop-vac, Cyclo polisher and waxer, electric power washing unit, and the all-important air compressor.

Understand professional marketing tactics. Today’s detail business must have good, working relationships with local vehicle businesses (dealers, mechanics, reconditioning shops, and body shops). It must also have a professional, visible website.

There are 3 resources you can find for training as a detailer:

Apprenticeships.
Car Detailing Schools.
Learn from the house.
Let’s take a moment to look closer at your options.

Option 1: Apprenticeship

If you asked me, I’d say that this is the most thorough means of getting the business knowledge. Simultaneously, it is also the toughest to arrange.

It will require that you labor for 6 weeks at an reconditioning shop more than 1 hour from where you live. Contact auto reconditioning shops outside of your area and explain that you want to start your own shop. Be clear that you will NOT be a competitor even if you do happen to be starting a mobile car detailing business. Offer to work at minimum wage or even less in exchange for total immersion in the technical and business workings of their shop.

For the first weeks, you’ll ideally be performing actual detailing: interior, out, and under hoods. You will encounter all the common cases (beverage spills, dog hair, food spots) that drive into a pro shop. You will get much faster at making them clean again as the owner shares his top car detailing tips.

3 weeks into your apprenticeship, you should start to learn the business aspect of the shop: what things to buy, where to get them, how much you should pay for them, how to get your name out there, keys to running a website, how to advertise to dealerships, how to treat customers, how and at what point to run specials, how to handle complaints…all of the plethora of issues that show up at a detail business daily. This portion of your training is far more critical than the first weeks in which you learned the fundamentals of how to detail a car.

At the end of 6 weeks, you should have adequate knowledge to do it on your own. But expect plenty of new issues to come up in the first half year that you will have to confront and succeed at fixing on your own.

On the job training only works – but only if you are ready to drive to a distant shop for 6 long, barely or not paid weeks, and only if you have a shop owner on board. I repeat: you may have to work for nothing (ie, an internship) to get a detail shop owner to agree to this.

Pros: Completely all-encompassing, hands-on learning in a real detail business.

Cons: Very hard to locate a shop owner receptive to training you.

Option 2: Reconditioning Schools

There are lots of detailing schools around the country which specialize in training prospective business owners with formal detailing lectures and seminars:

Detail King – located in PA.
RightLook – based in San Diego, CA.
The Total Pros – based out of L.A., CA.
Detailing Success – located in Big Bear City, CA.

Enroll for 16 hours in training classes, if not more. Be ready to pay at least $1200, including travel costs, and be gone for at least three days. Make sure that you pay for and get adequate marketing training – since it’s marketing-not your ability to do good detail work-which will make or break your business.

I have heard good things about these 4 companies, but at the top seems to be Detailing Success in Big Bear-run by Renny Doyle.

Pros: Doing based learning. Schools offer technical and marketing training from teachers who have done and seen everything there is to see.

Cons: A lot of money. Not a truly real-world experience in which you can learn how to deal with real-world customers and real-world issues (broken tools, irremovable odors, customer troubles, etc.)

Option 3: Learn at Home

There are books and DVDs you can find on Amazon.

Theses books and DVDs offer excellent technical training. They do show you ways in which to detail cars fast and thoroughly. However, they are mostly lacking in marketing training. They’ll cover marketing and sales, in general, however they offer not enough specific advice. For example, they recommend shelling out for phone book advertising. Phone book advertising is all but history in the car detailing business today.

Pros: Price and availability. A truly practical way to use your time and funding.
Cons: Doesn’t have a hands-on component.

Conclusion

How one chooses to train ultimately depends on budget and ti

Start Car Detailing Business For a Lucrative Business Opportunity

You can start car detailing business in three different ways: the Mobile way, the express way, and the site-based. Out of all these three, the mobile business is the quickest and the easiest to start Car Detailing (CD) business and there are many customers, who prefer to have their car detailed in front of their eyes. It is also the business where you require the least investment of not more than $2,000. But it requires lot of stamina and patience on your part plus the drive to the clients’ place to fulfill your obligations even under strenuous conditions.

You have to do the exterior detailing like washing, waxing, and polishing the automobiles. You also have to do the interior detailing like removing the stains from the upholstery, cleaning the carpets and other types of foot mats. You have to polish and shine the wheels and the tyres also. The most important thing, you should know to be successful is the products that are used for CD. You should know for which type of paint, finish, and upholstery, which product gives good results and is safe to use.

Nowadays, the Express Auto Detailing is also becoming a lucrative business, so you can think to start CD business at any of the car wash, or auto dealer. You can also tie up with hotels having concierge services, car shows, Limousine companies, RV dealerships, gas stations etc. All these places are very customer potentials and can give you steady business.

The Express Car Detailing services are becoming very popular amongst those customers who cannot afford the full auto detailing service or cannot leave their car for many hours. These customers love to have cosmetically well maintained and have some sort of external protection for their vehicle. Many automatic car wash businesses offer this type of service, where they wash the car, dry it and then machine wax the car, to give it protection for around three months. They also offer express interior detailing and express carpet detailing services to their customers.

The idea behind the offering the customers the “Express Auto Detailing” is to offer a quick fix solution in a quick fix time. The site based CD business is the full-fledged CD business. You have to start CD business with lot of investment. It is an independent service and also the most rewarding of all. You can do multiple servicing at a time and hence earn more. In this business the customer leaves his automobile in your hands and then comes back at the stipulated time to pick it up. You can offer you your customers multiple choices in detailing. Hence if you have the investment capacity and a centrally located place to start your full-fledged CD business, you can start car detailing business on your own.

Car Detailing Business – How to Make More Money Servicing Cars

Car detailers do not only clean cars: they specialize in maintaining the pristine condition of the parts of cars left uncovered by mechanics and auto repair shops. Put another way, car detailing covers the car’s details. It takes proper care of a car’s rugs, upholstery, tires, windows, chrome and paint. From inexpensive cars to luxury vehicles, car detailing has recently blossomed into a potentially lucrative industry, one that a strategic entrepreneur certainly will not ignore.

TIP 1: Start Part-Time.A strong incentive for starting a car detailing business is that it will not require a full time commitment. You can establish yourself by detailing cars during evening and weekend hours. Furthermore, car detailing requires little implementation and few supplies.

TIP 2: Start with your friends and family. Begin this business by providing detailing service to friends and family. Do so from your own driveway or travel to a customer’s home for on-site, customized service.

TIP 3: Get referrals through word of mouth. Have your friends act as a preliminary platform or “sounding board” to find out what customers want or do not want. Put client satisfaction to use by asking your customers to recommend you to friends and colleagues.

TIP 4: Get a Website made, add pictures of your work and market online. While car detailing start-up costs are limited, you will want to invest time and effort in an effective marketing strategy in order to differentiate yourself from your competition. The key is to use the Internet. Establish a simple website outlining your services, and post links to it on Craigslist, online community boards, chat rooms and even blogs. Maintaining your website and increasing its traffic will help search engines such a Google, Yahoo and Bing “find” you. The greater your online presence, the higher your “rank” in search engines, and the easier it is for potential customers to notice you.

A streamlined yet effective marketing strategy, coupled with a commitment to detail-oriented, customized service, will help foster a burgeoning car detailing business into a lucrative and worthwhile endeavour.

You are invited you to continue your research at [http://BusinessOpportunit

Mobile Car Detailing: Is It a Good Option for a Car Wash Franchise Owner?

Car wash businesses all over the world have been multiplying at a fast clip ever since car owners realized that conventional garage washing is not effective enough to get rid of all the oil, dust, and dirt that have accumulated on their vehicles. That’s why more and more car owners are turning towards the newer methods for car care, such as mobile car detailing, to bring their cars back to their original pristine look.

Auto specialists have begun to expand their businesses to accommodate the influx of vehicles being scheduled for detailing work at their shops. Some of the really big names in the car detailing industry have even opted for franchising in order to expand their customer base and to establish branches across different cities.

Big bucks

A franchise is a contract one party is granted the exclusive rights to market a product or service in exchange for a fixed sum and a percentage of the profits paid to another party. If you seriously wish to participate in a booming market but are not confident that your entrepreneurial skills are enough to start your business from scratch, you might want to opt for a franchise instead.

All you have to do is to fork over the required franchise payment and accomplish the paperwork, and you’re done. Even if you’re buying into a fairly innovative business like a mobile car detailing shop, you can expect to have relative ease breaking into the market.

You don’t even have to have your own physical shop in order to start a mobile car detailing business. All you need is the mobile servicing unit to help you go from location to location and do your job.

Make it your own

Participating in the automobile care industry means acquiring a thorough understanding of how it works, what it takes to grow the business, and what customers (namely, car care owners) need. At the very least, you need some level of entrepreneurial techniques to help you cope with the job of running a full-blown business on your own.

Even though you’re already partaking of a stable business brand, you still have to put in hard work in order to ensure that it will remain successful in the long run. A tried and tested business model can only go so far if you don’t do your share, especially if you’re expanding into the newer technologies like mobile car detailing.

Before you buy into a business, you should have a fair idea of its performance and profits for at least the past five years. Some of the questions you might want to ask are: What is their unique selling point? What is their edge over their competitors? How good is their reputation with customers? What equipment do you need in order to service your customers? These are only just a few of the basic things you need to know before you sign up to become a franchisee, especially of a mobile car detailing franchise.

What’s the deal?

Auto detailing franchisees can expect to avail of exclusive benefits when they open their own franchise. First of all, they will be ensured of an exclusive customer location to ensure non-competition with other franchisees. That means that you will be able to maximize all the profit opportunities in your area instead of sharing them with another franchisee.

Second, your franchiser will provide you with basic car care training before you open shop as well as throughout the life of the franchise. You will also be given a comprehensive operations manual that can help serve you, should you encounter trouble with the business. This is especially important when you’re offering the newer innovations in the business, such as mobile car detailing or waterless car wash.

Finally, you will have extensive business support from a network of fellow franchisees who can help you out if you ever get into trouble in business, as well as share their expertise and knowledge with you.

Opting in a car care franchise means that you will need to help build the brand and grow the business. The market is on a slow but steady rise and the prospects are looking good. The newer trends like mobile car detailing are also quickly gaining popularity among car owners, so you can expect great profit-making opportunities along the way.

Older posts »