At Home Car Cleaning Business

Almost all people like their cars to be clean and shiny. However not many have the time or inclination to clean and detail their car. This is the reason why car wash shops and mobile car cleaning services exist. Of the two however starting a mobile car cleaning service is the cheaper and easier one to start and manage.

With a fixed place car wash shop business you have a lot of overheads. You have to pay regular rent for example which takes a lot of your earnings. You also have to contend to the fact that your business is at the mercy of people having time and inclination to bring their car to your car wash. You also have to contend with business killing conditions like rain and snow.

You can practice honing your skills by cleaning your own car and experimenting with different car cleaning products. You have to learn to clean as fast as you can to get as much business daily. When I worked before for a car wash shop I was taught to clean a car using a cleaning system which led me to clean a car within just minutes with little stress on my part.

The Advantages of the Business

With a mobile car cleaning service business all you need is a reliable vehicle preferably a van or pickup but even a small car will do as long as it can fit all your car cleaning equipments and supplies. You also have the ability to choose the territory you work on. This means that you can reach even those clients who do not have the inclination or time to clean their cars.

Another advantage is that should your existing territory’s client dry up you can just change to more lucrative territories. For example if your current territory is experiencing bad weather such as rain or snow you can just travel to sunny territories where there are better prospects for car cleaning services.

Do not blindly enter a new territory though but study it first. Check if there are any other competitors in the territory and assess if you can compete with them either in volume or in price. Assess also if the territory you are planning to do your business with is still within tolerable driving distance from your residence. This includes the traffic situation in the area.

You also have the advantage of possibly having more business than you anticipated when you go to the residence of your client. Your client may have additional cars, motorcycles and even a boat just sitting around in their house. When you contact your client check if they have any other additional vehicles that you can clean. You can negotiate a wholesale package with them for double or much more earnings.

Go Beyond Cleaning

It would greatly increase your income if you can also offer auto tune up, diagnostics and minor repair services if need be. There are many people who just like driving cars and not mechanically maintaining them. You would be surprised at the number of people who do not know or do basic car maintenance such as topping their radiator water and oil level.

If you know mechanics then you can refer these people to them and you can get a commission from these mechanics in return. In many countries you have to take your car every year to a mechanic who will assess the roadworthiness of your car. It is a government requirement. This is a short job taking just minutes for good pay and you can take a commission from this service in partnership with your mechanic.

This could be lucrative as many people only have time on weekends to take their car to vehicle maintenance shops. What happens is during weekends people wait long periods to have their car serviced for even basic problems. You can diagnose and perform initial checks on the car and then phone a mechanic you know for assistance.

Build a Client List

Do not forget to politely ask your clients for referral to their family, friends and neighbours. You can show your gratitude by giving them discounts or small gifts. If you see a car which may need your services and the owner is available for a chat try to get them to avail of your services with polite talk. Sometimes people just need additional information before deciding to buy.

You can also target clients who belong to groups such as people who work in the same company. Once you know one you can ask them to recommend you. This is a big chance for you to get a regular group of clients on the same location and save on time and cost while greatly increasing your income. You should contact companies to possibly achieve this.

One group of people you need to be familiar with are people who are car lovers. They may be car collectors, own one car but spends a lot on it or just a person without a car but loves cars. You can share your car cleaning knowledge with them and maybe in time you can be seen as an expert in car cleaning by them. You can use this to promote products and services and earn money.

You can for example advertise in social media using the pictures of the top cars you have cleaned. It is even better if you can get testimonials from your clients. This is especially true if you have cleaned status symbol cars for famous people. You do not need to have famous clients or expensive cars though as many people will make do with almost any clean and shiny car even old ones.

Go Big

There are people who get to clean sports cars and other status cars with price ranges in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and they get paid top dollar for their expertise. There is an old story from 2016 about a financial trader who left a lucrative job in financial trading to pursue his love of cars and succeeded. His full story is titled Why one trader left his Wall Street job to wash cars.

Conclusion

As can be seen cleaning cars is not a dead end job with limited growth and earning prospects. It could be an ideal career for a person who loves cars so much that he wants them to be in their best look by cleaning and detailing them. Just like anything anyone can turn their passion into a business and then scale this business to become successful.