Started my own cleaning business!

[Pep]

Was bored at work the other day so put a little advert up on the intranet for cleaning peoples cars for them.
Got a reply back straight away and cleaned a nice womans Audi A3 yesterday, washed polished and waxed, then full interior stuff aswell.

It was absolutely ditched yesterday when it came round but left looking absolutely mint!

Nice bit of extra cash for the pub last night aswell!

 

[Ads_172]

Nice one, how much you charging and how long did it take?

 

[xxxic3xxx]

yea wot he said

 

[Pep]

hmm, took me about 3.5 hours in total but I wasn't rushing through it.
Charged her £30 which is a fair price I think, car was so nice!

I washed it, 2 bucket thing.
Then the interior, hoovered, steamed the seats, windows, washed everything down etc.
Then went around the outside with some kitchen roll just to dry out the window seals etc so i didn;t get any drips while polishing it.
Then went around with Meguiars polish, brought the paint up a treat.
Then left it for 20 minutes or so while I did the wheels.
Then Meguiars wax to finish it all off.

Looked the dogs if i'm honest, needs to be pc'd badly but looked miles better than when it arrived!!!

A few pics of the aftermath...(pics taken on my phone so not very good but you get the picture!)

 

[Ads_172]

Looks good mate, no idea on pricing but if you get enough interest you could do 3/4 cars over a weekend and it'll be a nice earner for the month - albeit you'll be knackered!

£30 a car, 3/4 cars a week = £400ish a month.

 

[Pep]

yeah, just trying to get people interested in it really.
im doing it all at home aswell so really it depends on people dropping off and picking up, 1 a weekend would be good at the minute just for the extra bit of money though!

was quite surprised how motivated I was, normally cant be bothered to polish/wax my car but loved doing the audi!

 

[Final Maxim]

tbh i dont mind cleaning and polishing other peoples cars, i have high expectations.. but when it comes to doing something of my own, im just lazy, its like ah f**k it i cant be arsed lol

 

[-spook-]

Anybody wanna wash my car? lol! i really cant be arsed

 

[pinky]

Nice one looks good

 

[AlexS]

If you need any help mate give us a shout, im free most weekends term time, only down side is all my cleaning stuff is at home!

 

[Pep]

If you need any help mate give us a shout, im free most weekends term time, only down side is all my cleaning stuff is at home!

I'll see how it picks up mate, i think this woman wants me to do her mates car, and my aunt wants hers doing aswell so just need to the word to spread really!

mines stuff is nothing too spectacular but it does the job quite well.

 

[AlexS]

No probs mate I'll detail your Auntie anytime! If you get snowed under give us a shout.
You can't really afford to used the top stuff on a £30 detail.

 

[Pep]

how you mean the top stuff?
it's only meguiars stuff, doesnt cost the earth.

haha, trust me you wouldn't, she's crazy!

 

[AlexS]

how you mean the top stuff?
it's only meguiars stuff, doesnt cost the earth.

haha, trust me you wouldn't, she's crazy!

Meguiars stuff is good value, I just wouldn't go to town for £30, I cleaned a mates car for £15 for him was quite happy with £15 in my pocket then it occured to me I had probably used £15 worth of products!

 

[Pep]

depends how you use them I suppose, still i reckon I could clean 10 cars with a bottle of polish and wax for £18, and at £30 a pop I'd be making £300 so still be miles up.

 

[AlexS]

Your probably right, A3 looks smart.

 

[Rich]

If your serious - 5 litres of Autogylm Liquid Hardwax (aka Extra Gloss Protection) and 5 litres of Autoglym Radiant Wax (Super Resin Polish) from your local AG Rep will be much more cost effective in the long run (50-60 quid outlay) that will last years. Your customers will thank you when the finish outlasts the Megs IMO

You could just use the SRP as a stand alone product ( I would if I was doing a 30 quid wash/polish job) too cheap to use multi step processes, one step it only just using the SRP only tbh.

 

[Pep]

I see what your saying Rich, when I run out I'll look into it.

Also I'm only doing it on the side so I can't charge top dollar, I thought £30 would be something that people would pay, any more then it's asking a bit much for someone who you have never met, leaving your car with them for a few hours.

 

[RichRSi]

Just a thought but you might want to look into insurance, it probably won't cost much if you stipulate that you wont be moving / driving the cars.

The only reason I mention this is because I valeted some old geezers skanky old Jag years ago, with more deep scratches and patches of rust in it than you could count and yet after the valet he turned up (with it looking 100000000% better than it did, I might add) and still pointed out one scratch that was there to begin with and blamed it on me!!!

He argued with me untill he realised I wouldn't cave in but in his mind I'd be forking out for a respray and that would have been a lot of cash. Just something to consider...

 

[Rich]

I see what your saying Rich, when I run out I'll look into it.

Also I'm only doing it on the side so I can't charge top dollar, I thought £30 would be something that people would pay, any more then it's asking a bit much for someone who you have never met, leaving your car with them for a few hours.

30 quid for a wash and hand polish/wax and interor detail is a fair price tbh. For that sort of work you are up against valetors which would probably charge the same or maybe less - use something like SRP and you will get it done in less time cutting out the polish and wax steps in one hit.

If you can get it down to 2 hours to do the job £15 quid an hour beer money is not bad.

 

[Pep]

could be an idea.
with this one I did go round the car first with her checking for any damage to make sure we both knew what was there to start with.

 

[Alan]

Good work tho you should be charging about £15-20 an hour for that much work matey..

 

[Pep]

I see what your saying Rich, when I run out I'll look into it.

Also I'm only doing it on the side so I can't charge top dollar, I thought £30 would be something that people would pay, any more then it's asking a bit much for someone who you have never met, leaving your car with them for a few hours.

30 quid for a wash and hand polish/wax and interor detail is a fair price tbh. For that sort of work you are up against valetors which would probably charge the same or maybe less - use something like SRP and you will get it done in less time cutting out the polish and wax steps in one hit.

If you can get it down to 2 hours to do the job £15 quid an hour beer money is not bad.

Good work tho you should be charging about £15-20 an hour for that much work matey..

You really think it's worth that much?!

I thought start low and try and get the interest and get reffered etc, then I can think about charging a bit more?

I'm happy with £30 at the start, fills the days when im doing s**t all and make a bit of extra cash aswell. At first I thought £30 was too much!

 

[Brand86]

I think £15-20 an hour is pretty steep really, lets be honest, detailing is not rocket science. Yes you are paying for materials but they don't cost that much even working on a small scale, I have found if you are doing it as a oart time sort of thing and without a decent reputation (well, except outside my dad's friends and my own friends and their friends!) you might price yourself out the market asking for that much.

If I can make £80-90 for a days work (cash *cough* ) I am happy.

But if you can make £15-20 an hour then fair play, I guess I ask for about £10-12 on average which I think is farily reasonable for a bit of pocket money.

 

[Ads_172]

Don't know what the average professional detailer charges but agree with Brand. If you're not a professional and are doing it on the odd day for a bit of cash-in-hand then the whole selling point is value for money. The majority of people who will pay you will be people who don't really care for their cars, so won't pick up on swirl marks, etc, so expect to pay less as a result.

But because of this, you could get the job done in a couple hours by just sticking to a polish. If people are then happy to pay you £30, then great, or you can charge £10-12 p/h and give them an approximate time for the job.

 

[Rich]

As said 30 quid for what Pepsi did is about right - the key is to do it faster than he did to get the effective hourly rate up. As said I would not want to pay more than 30 odd quid for wash and wax and a quick interior detail, on the other hand I would not want to spend more than a couple of hours doing that for 30 quid.

 

[DrR]

Could have used some tyre black.

 

[Steve]

How much to PC my roof & bonnet, just can't do it by hand.

Rest of car seems fine.

 

[Pep]

Could have used some tyre black.

I did, pictures don't show it up aswell as it was, only from my phone!

How much to PC my roof & bonnet, just can't do it by hand.

Rest of car seems fine.

I havn't got a PC at the minute mate so can't do it.
If your local S.Garbett on here has one in Derby and he might be into doing it so drop him a PM and he might be able to sort you out with something.

 

[Ali]

Lol...When i started detailed i charged 60£ and that was for a full correction.

Now...double it and your getting close!
but jobs vary so much! I rarely touch the inside.

 

[Brand86]

I hate doing insides but it has a nice exterior makes a dirty interior look even worse. Some people only care what other people see though I guess...which suits me fine!

 

[Ali]

I hate doing insides but it has a nice exterior makes a dirty interior look even worse. Some people only care what other people see though I guess...which suits me fine!

Me too! Me and hoovers don't get well together at the best of times!

 

[Rich]

Brazo_Butter breaks into a sweat at the thought of doing an interior !

 

[Phoenix]

if i knew derby i'd probably drop my car off at the weekend n get u to do mine lol...

 

[Pep]

lol, Phoenix where abouts are you in relation to derby?!
I'm easy to find and can drop you off to shop in Derby for the day?!

 

[BREMBO]

Hope the pictures of the A3 was before you cleaned it. Need tyre dressing aswell... probaly best product lol

 

[Pep]

Hope the pictures of the A3 was before you cleaned it. Need tyre dressing aswell... probaly best product lol

no after, only on my phone so not the best quality.
i used tyre shine, but pictures dont show it up too well, said that previously.

so drunk!

 

[Pep]

Well, I emailed the woman who's car it was today to ask if everything was still OK with it, bad news!

The handbrake failed on saturday night which left the car rolling down the hill she lives on into a lamp post. talk about gutting, eh?

 

[Phoenix]

lol, Phoenix where abouts are you in relation to derby?!
I'm easy to find and can drop you off to shop in Derby for the day?!

im visit more near mansfield but do visit derby every now n again....
so might just drop it over one day

 

[Pep]

lol, Phoenix where abouts are you in relation to derby?!
I'm easy to find and can drop you off to shop in Derby for the day?!

im visit more near mansfield but do visit derby every now n again....
so might just drop it over one day

OK mate, if you fancy it then drop me a pm, I'm free most weekends so anytime it's dry!

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