How to Setup a Detailing/Valeting Business
Firstly, before we get started, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve actually written a book all about starting and growing a valeting/detailing business which is now available to purchase from the JP Details Online Store. The book is far more extensive than this Blog and it covers absolutely everything. This Blog is more your bare essentials for setting up on your own.
Before you begin setting up the business, you need to make sure that this isn’t all going to be a waste of time, so by this point, I would like to think that you’ve already been detailing/valeting your own car, friends’ cars, or even work colleagues or neighbours’ cars, just to give you some initial experience and to make sure that you enjoy it.
Getting some hands-on training before setting the business up would be advantageous and would give you the confidence in performing various different types of services on your customers cars. With practice comes experience, a bit of training before hand might give you a competitive edge early on.
Having the right products and tools before getting started is vital and you’ll need some hands-on practice with your tools and equipment before cleaning any £300K + Ferrari’s, to make sure that you don’t look like a fool. Take a look at the Detailing Equipment Blog post to see which bits of kit that I’d recommend.
Now that you’ve gathered your supplies, products and tools, ideally gained a bit of experience, it’s time to begin with setting up the business. Let’s get started.
A business name. Choose something that suits you and spells out what it exactly is that your business does, without leaving any prospect customers guessing. You’ll want something relatively short and easy to remember.
A Logo. Get your logo professionally designed by someone in your local area. They aren’t expensive and it will serve as the key foundation of your business going forwards. Try and get it to stand out and to clearly indicate what it is that your business does.
Social media is massive in this day and age and over half of the population are on it, so can you really afford not to be? Get setup on Facebook, X, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, to name but a few and make sure to upload to these accounts regularly, to keep your followers keen.
A website is going to be pretty vital in attracting new customers and your options are simple. Do it yourself like what I’ve done through Wix, or have one professionally made by a website developer. The latter is going to cost you at least a couple of grand in today’s money, for a well-built site, whereas Wix is around £350 per year.
Chose to market yourself as an upmarket mobile or unit-based detailing/valeting service, attracting the more prestigious clientele, or a lower budget option. The choice really is yours. Chances are, no matter who you market your services towards, you’ll get a mix of enquiries and bookings coming through.
Now that you’ve either built a website yourself, or had one built for you, it’s time to advertise your business. You can either advertise your website as a whole on Google, or advertise your social media pages online. Both have worked successfully for me in the past.
The big question is, what services should you offer? In my opinion, you’ll want a good selection of pre thought about packages to tempt your buyers into making a purchase. These are packages that people are going to want to buy into. This is trial and error. Just be sure that you’re confident in delivering your full set of services on a full paying customers car.
Either charge by the hour (which is what I do), charge by the job (which is what I used to do), or charge a day rate, in terms of pricing your services. You will want to be competitively priced compared to your competition in your local area, in order to attract new custom.
Starting off as a mobile business is ideal for when you begin and then perhaps move into a unit as and when business picks up to a point that would support the move. Having a unit will give you increased over-heads, therefore to make the same money after all expenses, you’ll have to bring in more cash.
The right time to get a unit is when your mobile jobs pick up to a point of being able to support the move and by having lots of interest from potential customers who want their cars detailed or ceramic coated etc. would be a good sign.
Dealing with bad weather is difficult at the best of times being a mobile business, however there are measures that you can take to help. A gazebo is going to offer a decent level of shelter from the elements, to ensure that your vehicles are always being professionally treated.
Dealing with the tax man and the VAT man, is all part of being in business. Either hire an accountant who can do it for you, or keep hold of all your invoices for payments in and payments out, and then do your accounts yourself via the self-assessment tax form which can be found online.
Being an entrepreneur is an exciting life. It gives you a lot more freedom than your average 9 – 5 job and it will increase your skill set in a variety of skills. From book keeping, marketing, website and design, to actually detailing and valeting cars. There’s a lot involved.
Taking on an outside investor maybe a good idea if you want to setup that industrial premises early on in the business, but you don’t have the funds to do it just yet. Just bare in mind that the investor would want a stake in your business, so the profits won’t be all yours in the long run.
Different types of funding and investment include government grants, funds from family or friends, credit cards, bank loans, investment angels or venture capitalists. Ideally, to keep things nice and simple, perhaps a loan off mum and dad would be the ideal. My business was helped along by a small gift from my beloved grandparents back in 2018.
Measuring success in business is different for each of us as individuals. I like to have a filled diary week after week, a growing social media base, a positive cash flow and plans to keep growing the company running into the future.
Growing the company again is going to be different for us all. Perhaps growing your detailing clientele to knock the valeting work off, or to grow both clienteles. Making YouTube videos to selling products online, in business, there’s always options.
Having a business plan is pretty vital to check on growth, whether you’re heading in the right direction, or to prove your worth to an investor. Perhaps creating a business plan should’ve been number one in this blog.
Selling products online carries extra responsibilities from labelling the items with health and safety information, to dispatching your orders. Even finding the products in the first place that you’re legally allowed to sell isn’t a quick process. Within this blog, I can only advise so much.
Health and safety whilst at work is there to keep you safe, your customers safe and the public safe. Common sense is a big part of health and safety, so make sure you use it. Your common sense that is.
Managing stress is done by making sure that you have enough time away from the cars, the computer and the social media. Take regular time off work to rebuild, re-energize and to rewind, so you can then hit the ground running again with a fresh head of creativeness.
Looking after your mental health is incredibly important, not just in business but in life in general. Any issues then always seek professional advice straight away through your GP. Mental health should never be under looked.
Network with like-minded business owners through X, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube and see how you could help each other out. I’ve met so many good guys over the years through training days and social media and some I still call my friends.
Do you have an exit strategy for your business yet? If you don’t, then don’t worry, neither do I. An exit strategy is a plan to either offload the company to someone, or to sell the company. I don’t plan on doing either so I won’t be much use here.
Although this has proved to be a useful tool for setting up a detailing/valeting business to numerous people, it is only the basics of setting up a business. The book I wrote titled ‘How to Start and Grow a Detailing/Valeting Business’ is a far more comprehensive guide, which basically teaches you everything that I know. Pick up a copy today from the JP Details – Staffordshire Online Store.