Starting a Car Detailing Business is like any other business. There is no right or wrong; it’s just a matter of taking the time to test concepts, ideas, and being proactive. Based on the learnings of Schmicko, a Sydney Car Detailing company, in no particular order, I have collected the main points you should consider when starting a business in this industry.
Branding
Branding is what defines your business’ positioning in the market and is more than just a fancy logo and business name. Essentially branding is all about aligning how you want to be perceived with how your customers currently see you. There are many contributing factors that build up your branding, and this will often depend on what angle you wish to tap into your market/industry and then sticking to it (premium vs affordable, etc.). Everything from, color, language, logo, business name, service quality, marketing message, and so on, will often determine your branding.
A great way to establish your branding is to reverse-engineer. Brainstorm, create mind maps, tree diagrams of methods you could convey your business in the right light. With your business being the central concept, scatter around qualities you’d like to be known for and then branch out specific marketing activities you could implement to reflect these qualities, eg. If you want to be known for convenience – now the action point would be to highlight terms such as ‘on-demand, convenient, easy, simple, seven days/week, we-come-to-you’ in your business descriptions or social media posts consistently. If copywriting isn’t your thing, you can hire a professional copywriter to construct creative posts for you. But if you’re just getting started, you could always get this up and running on your own with the help of the internet.
Packages & Services
Figure out what packages you’d like to offer. We recommend starting small and then slowly introducing new features, extras, and packages as you grow. Open your offerings too broad and you might experience too many problems and therefore stunt your growth. For our business, we understood that car paint protection in Sydney was a reasonable service to introduce when we started to get more and more requests for it from customers. It did take time, only due to the complexity, skill, and experience required to perform the task, so best to make sure you have the capacity to action before advertising.
Like with our company, I took the time to perform the packages myself to determine what is realistic in terms of timing and how much we should offer the service for. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty, and get a front-seat view of your business, test your ideas and concepts.
It’ll take a few attempts before you nail down your essential packages, so be patient and gather feedback data.
Learn Your Products and Industry
Understand the industry to greater detail; you mainly will be the point of contact for customer inquiries and requests. So, this means learning about car detailing products, equipment, supplies, and techniques. Much of the time, customers will be asking you for your recommendation and input, so it is crucial to offer them an expert opinion and ultimately a solution worth paying for. They are warm leads waiting to find the person with the BEST answer to their problem, be that provider.
Your Team
Keep an eye out for potential workers for your business using various channels. Job sites/dashboards, Facebook, Gumtree, friends, family, and so on are some of the areas to find skillful workers. Finding an all-star team is crucial to your success and efficiency, so don’t cut corners in your recruitment process.
Marketing and Advertising
My advice is to start organically. What do I mean by this? Try starting the business marketing and advertising on your own without the input of paid advertising. Putting money too early into all these potential marketing channels could send you an early exit with depleted funds, especially when you don’t know much about these channels. Start with free channels first, such as Gumtree, Facebook, Instagram, friends, and family as it’s quick and easy to do. Offer discounted promotions to build awareness; this is also an excellent way for you to test out your concept and gain customer feedback at the same time. Think of it as getting paid to learn.
Conclusion
Starting a mobile car detailing business is not an easy task; however, by following this guide, it will make it much more manageable.
