Motivated owner, with intent to expand

[Rafil]

Hello all!

Just joined the forum and figured instead of making two threads, one intro and then this one, why not put it all into one. My name is Rafil located where its sunny year round but filled with shady people South Florida! (a joke used by everyone here, no one really takes it offensively) I am 22 and I recently started a mobile car wash service. I will try to give as much info as I can to better knowledge everyone instead of having to read several posts explaining different parts.

I started the business because I got a nice deal on a van with all the needed materials to run the business (pressure washer, generator, water tank, etc.) and I jumped on the opportunity. I figured this would be perfect since it wasn't a high risk being invested and if worst comes to worst I can sell it fairly quickly to someone willing to start their own with not really seeing a big loss. Moving along, I started with the social media page and have business cards and as of now I am really only washing vehicles of people within my network of friends which is doing fine as in loads of work I still do my regular job overnight and do this during the day and I am seeing good results. As this is going well, my honest goal is to not only wash the regular college kid owned sedan or coupe. My target audience is more upscaled cars like Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi that the well paid office job or successful entrepreneurs drive. Where I live is a middle class suburb but to get to the areas where the wealthy reside and work is less than 15 minutes away driving. My concern is as how to get these type of people to confide in me to trust them to work on their cars. I do know for the most part they get these type of exotics because they generally do share a passion for cars and want the best for it. My network of mutual friends do not have a connection with these people and I don't believe putting a business card with my info on the wiper or window would attract them enough to give me a call and try it out. I would assume to try to walk into the offices and speak to them and inform them of my services but would they take a kid seriously in regular clothes? Or if I go well dressed would I have to try to pitch it to them like a business idea? The products I use are from a well known detailer they are great products well worth the extra money spent but this type of business is more word-of-mouth to get known and that is the hard part to get to my target audience.

I do apologize for the long post I just wanted to have as much information as I could in the main post so I didn't have to keep answering certain questions throughout this lol. Any insight on maybe a similar situation you've been in that can relate to this or how you think would be the best way to approach this is well appreciated! I would like to get this done right once because I don't think an trial and error process can work with this. I am happy to join this forum and hope to learn a lot from here and share knowledge anyway I can! :)

[Bobjob]

I believe your best way to higher end clientele is hard work and word of mouth. A doctor hires you to detail his nurses car. You do a great job and she lets the doctor know it. He has you detail his car - you do a great job. He tells his friends and you move your way up that way. If there is a popular local periodical higher end clientele would read you might try saving up to place an ad in it.

The guy I know down here with a car collection keeps them in a climate controlled warehouse. He will only take a vehicle out on a beautiful day. He has his own mechanic and crew, so I would guess they would do the car detail.

[SumpinSpecial]

For the reason cited in Bobjob's second paragraph, I would think you'd be more successful targeting mid-upper middle class demographics. Also because that's where I happen to be and I think your business is a brilliant idea and I would hire you (not in your geographical area though, sadly). This demographic is full of people who work 40 - 80 hour workweeks with families and probably just don't have time to either hand-wash their cars or take them to be washed. You may not command the same high prices this way, but you'd definitely have volume sales!

[Rafil]

Thanks for the replies. I do know that my best target audience would be the middle class but in thinking, if people see that I washed a high end car, that washing that alone would spark interest in the middle class people and attract them like that. Not that it would bother me doing the old fashioned advertising, but killing two birds with one stone is also great.

[Kg3000]

Thanks for the replies. I do know that my best target audience would be the middle class but in thinking, if people see that I washed a high end car, that washing that alone would spark interest in the middle class people and attract them like that. Not that it would bother me doing the old fashioned advertising, but killing two birds with one stone is also great.


This for sure is a premium service. So you are right to target the higher end cars, I would say an luxury brands and old classics would be a good start.

What I would do is go to the dealerships, see if you can talk to some service managers, maybe cut them in on a little bit of the profits to let you advertise to their clients. Most people who have a premium car only go to the dealership to get any type of service done so if they recommend a company it holds a lot of weight. This will probably be pretty hard, but if you do get in with a few of them it should get you a decent amount of referrals.

The next place I would go is to high end body shops that only specialize in imports or on classic cars, both crowds have money. Old Ferrari's cost an arm and a leg to service and usually run about 12k a year in service costs.

The last place I can think of is car meets. i used to go to one for my old 3000GT,, we had a local and national car club and used to have weekly meets at local restaurant. I know Jaguar owners have a couple a year and there are usually local classic car meets. Join a few car forums, usually they are split up by brand (Jag owners have one, Porsche have their own..etc...).

[Rafil]

This for sure is a premium service. So you are right to target the higher end cars, I would say an luxury brands and old classics would be a good start.

What I would do is go to the dealerships, see if you can talk to some service managers, maybe cut them in on a little bit of the profits to let you advertise to their clients. Most people who have a premium car only go to the dealership to get any type of service done so if they recommend a company it holds a lot of weight. This will probably be pretty hard, but if you do get in with a few of them it should get you a decent amount of referrals.

The next place I would go is to high end body shops that only specialize in imports or on classic cars, both crowds have money. Old Ferrari's cost an arm and a leg to service and usually run about 12k a year in service costs.

The last place I can think of is car meets. i used to go to one for my old 3000GT,, we had a local and national car club and used to have weekly meets at local restaurant. I know Jaguar owners have a couple a year and there are usually local classic car meets. Join a few car forums, usually they are split up by brand (Jag owners have one, Porsche have their own..etc...).

I appreciate the info. I figured the hardest one be the dealership unless you know someone who actually works there but I will definitely try. I'm going with some free time to pass by local offices and give some business cards to the receptionist in front and see if I can score some business like that.

[Donald C]

Hey Rafil,
I'm an internet marketer (no, I'm not trying to sell you anything) and own my own carpet cleaning business. I think the way to really find these people is online. When I say online, I guess I really mean social media. Facebook advertising is relatively untapped and you can target these people with laser accuracy. I would definitely see what you could do online.

Anyway, I just joined the forum too. Good luck!

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[Rafil]

Hey Rafil,
I'm an internet marketer (no, I'm not trying to sell you anything) and own my own carpet cleaning business. I think the way to really find these people is online. When I say online, I guess I really mean social media. Facebook advertising is relatively untapped and you can target these people with laser accuracy. I would definitely see what you could do online.

Anyway, I just joined the forum too. Good luck!

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Welcome to the forum! Yes I was also thinking of that approach but for now I am trying to build a portfolio you can say, of vehicles that I've worked on so when someone views my page, you would see already a set of clientele that I've worked on instead of looking like a brand new business.

[Rafil]

Another question I'd like to ask:

I still currently do work a full time job and such but I do know with time I will not be able to work both when I acquire more business. I do plan to fully commit to it but later down the road when I have a higher amount of money saved just in case I have to fall back on. My question is, would it be best to get myself an employee now and have them doing the work while I focus on other things? For example focusing on the advertising and getting more clientele, giving myself time to work on getting the job done more efficiently etc. I do know I will see more money doing the work myself but its been thrown around to find out how to work smarter instead of harder. Any recommendations or insight on what they think of this would be greatly appreciated!

[extramile]

I could see a lot of benefits in hiring an employee. Shared workload, another person to bump ideas around with, and just someone who can contribute will be so helpful.

[Business Attorney]

Since most people work Monday through Friday and you can only do so many cars on a weekend, you need to consider how you can was cars during the week. You said that you don't think that putting a business card on a windshield would work, but I think you should consider going to a several suburban office complexes within the same general area and putting a specially designed flyer with a one time offer on every single car in the parking lot. Sell them on the benefits of having the car washed while they work. If each lot holds 60 cars and you cover 5 complexes, that is 300 cars. Even if only 2% set up appointments, that is 6 cars and gets your foot in the door. Hopefully, word of mouth spreads from there. It is not guaranteed to work but there is very little cost to try it.

[Rafil]

Since most people work Monday through Friday and you can only do so many cars on a weekend, you need to consider how you can was cars during the week. You said that you don't think that putting a business card on a windshield would work, but I think you should consider going to a several suburban office complexes within the same general area and putting a specially designed flyer with a one time offer on every single car in the parking lot. Sell them on the benefits of having the car washed while they work. If each lot holds 60 cars and you cover 5 complexes, that is 300 cars. Even if only 2% set up appointments, that is 6 cars and gets your foot in the door. Hopefully, word of mouth spreads from there. It is not guaranteed to work but there is very little cost to try it.

That is true. I have found a well off shopping plaza that a lot of the target audience I would like to hit does frequently stop by so I will dedicate a day to pass all the flyers I currently have on the way and see if it can grow from there!