 "My area doesn't pay much for a proper detail"
"My market is doesn't value proper detail" "My area is too saturated and competitive" Sure. Yeah. Of course it's always the market and not you. It's always easier to point the finger to someone for not getting what you want But I'm here to spill out the truth, to help you succeed and not some feel-good motivational fluff so listen up. It's not about the market, the area or demographic you're in - that's really irrelevant There are detailers doing 6 figures in small towns, no reason why you can't Especially if you're mobile. No excuses There are many ways to get clients if you live in an small town but I'm going to talk about 2 foolproof methods today How does it work? Well, if your work and your craft is so damn good, people are willing to travel across states just to get their cars done. I drove up 11 hours just to get my car tuned by a niched specialized tuner when there are plenty of local tuners around me and I fly across cities just to get a specific car model and drive back down. Detailing is the same thing. Good clients will be willing to travel. 1) Demographical targeting (thanks to the internet) The Internet has truly broken down the walls to market yourself. You can market yourself somewhere in Europe if you really wanted to Most detailers only market themselves in a small area.. Its very limited especially if its only 5,000 - 10,000 population - What's the next biggest city that has a lot more people with nicer cars? Market yourself there - How are the competitors? Are they busy doing the bigger ticket correction and coatings? If there is, there IS money to be made - Shifting in mindset. You NEED to have an abundance mindset. Plenty of cars, plenty of money to be made 2) Defining a unique market (Niching down to target only a specific type of cars) Most detailers look the same man. Similar logo, website, messaging, price points etc You're going to get drown if you market yourself as a detailer. It's overly saturated and competitive. It's an extremely red ocean If your potential client, even in the most subtle way compare you to another detailer - you're in a losing battle Well, how do you stand out and cut off the competition then? Be in a market on your own. So what happens if you define your unique market? You barely get any competition, and you command your prices to charge what you're worth and clients will travel and go above and beyond just to get their cars detailed by you You become a specialist, not a general detailer Instead of becoming a detailer and hope & pray that one day you work on them, by defining your market you get to work on your favourite type of vehicles almost immediately. Not random soccer mum SUV or your average joe's toyota camry that just needs a "clean", the grime interior jobs If you're a generalist and target everyone you get the worst jobs and you get no one But if you niche down and define a unique market, your marketing and sales becomes 10x easier and stronger than the rest of the competition "I detail cars" VS "I specialise in correcting and restoring British vehicles" or "I specialise in ceramic coating European vehicles" or "I specialise in restoring and preserving 60s vintage vehicles" Just that little shift it changes your business entirely - Your target market will ONLY go to you and not anyone else, will not price haggle or go on price shopping on all detailers, will travel across states just to get their vehicles done by you ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hope this helps to rise up the limiting beliefs detailers have about their area or market 👌 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you're a detailer who struggle to get the correction & coating clients and wanting to level up your detailing business to at least $10,000/month. Shoot me a message and let's chat.
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 I'm brainstorming articles to write for next week - What specific questions or topics would you guys like me to cover about running and growing your detailing business?
Shoot them to down in the comments, I'll get as much covered as possible  For one reason: I believe in providing value and giving my best to people
Someone could read my post and articles, implement them and change their lives forever and that’s what makes me wake up each day to do what I do Money is really just a bonus and an afterthought. It’s my principle to put VALUE first But there’s a catch to this. I know 99% people who read my stuff will not take action on it anyway - hence I’m not afraid on giving the best advices and strategies which other coaches would charge a premium for The key difference is YOU and whether or not you want to get what you want: your goals and aspirations. Most people won’t take any advice and teachings seriously if they didn’t pay a price or earn for it (it’s true. I’ve pirated books, programs and online courses but I have never finish them or took them seriously. Books I bought from my own money I read it back to back a few times. Online programs I paid $5k for I made sure I took every single action to get the most out of it) That is why coaches and trainers exist. You can research for years on how to lift and different diet plans. Endless of free advice and how-to online, but the most results would come from a coach pointing you to the right direction with the right diet and exercises. The same thing applies in business - you can read 100+ business, marketing and sales books and go spend 3-10 years figure it out yourself with sleepless nights, or have coach to get it nailed down FAST If you want awesome results and succeed - there’s a price to pay whether is hard work or sacrifice. A good ol chinese idiom: There’s no such thing as free lunch in this world  And no it's not the "audience" on facebook ads
The problem isn't how you do your fb ads targeting.. Doing marketing and ads is the easy part. It's just clicking of a few buttons The real solution to the problem is to know your ideal customer, your market you're serving (your niche) and position yourself in the market to attract your ideal clients There's a reason why Lamborgini doesn't buy ads on TV - they know the people who can afford them don't just sit at home watching tv all day There's a reason why Porsche doesn't market anyone below 40 - how many 25-year-old punks can afford a $250k 911? (seriously, the driveaway price for a brand new base model 911 in Australia is about $250k) Once you nail that down, you'll know exactly where they are, how to talk to them and market yourself directly to your ideal clients By doing it right, you don't really need to touch any marketing or ads platform to make 6 figures If you don't know who your ideal clients are and you don't have a unique market you're serving - you're targeting everyone and a generic detailer And you'll be in never-ending competition with other detailers who are battling on price with random filthy interior grime jobs and soccer mum SUVs A lot of detailers market themselves as detailers and hope that one day they can work on the cars they like (which rarely happens) Why not market yourself differently? To a specific segment of the market as a specialist? Then now you're different, you become the go-to detailer in your market and charging what you're actually worth. All they think about it's you they want to get their car detailed because you stand out 10x from the other general detailer Best part? You get to work on cars you actually enjoy instead of hoping one day you get to work on one you like ➡️ How to nail your ideal customer and market down It starts with identifying your unique market, your niche What is your niche? Could be a specific brand, type of vehicle, country of origin etc What's the market size and demand? The last thing you want is to choose a niche where people don't typically spend money on a 4-figure price tag detail (uber drivers, camry owners etc) Who is my ideal customer? No, not demographic wise like age 30-60 living in city XYZ. What are they like? What's their typical occupation? What problems are they facing? Where do they hang out? Where get their news from? etc etc. Create an avatar of your ideal customer and when you start marketing yourself to your ideal customer, it'll grab his attention and everything else becomes a piece of cake Hope this helps It's not about being pushy or force your pitch down your client's throat with some magical cornering "tactics"
It's about asking the right questions, be quiet and LISTEN to what they want Ask the right questions to discover WHY they want your services and what is motivating them to enquire you - and then position yourself as the guy to help them get *exactly* they want No one wants to get sold something they are not interested in. It's only going to make your life miserable and it's only going to cause you troubles It's like you enquiring for a 911 but you took home a lexus instead because the salesman ramble on how much "better" the lexus is when they actually have a 911 sitting at the back because they get more profit margin out of the lexus Usually when someone rings you to get a detail done, there's a motivation behind it. Pull that out, and use that to close the deal - they will be thankful and grateful that you actually listened to their needs and not ending up buying something they don’t want and don’t need  The real question isn't about learning some next level paint correction skills or the next 5-6-7-8 layer hypey coating
It's all about how to *actually* get those clients, run and grow an actual business How to book 4-figure detail jobs consistently, systematically, on-demand with predictability Detailing and running a business is two separate things, and it's shocking how little it's being talked about in this industry It's been swept under the rug with detailing business owners "keeping their secret" Ask any successful detailing business owners on how they get their high ticket clients, they won't really tell you other than some feel good words which don't really tell you anything like "just do a good job bro. work will come" "just post 6 times daily on social media and people will hit you up bro" "just boost on facebook bro. work wlll come in" What's worst is most of them rely on word of month, referrals or what i call "hope and pray marketing" Where a good month business is doing awesome, clients coming in Next month comes they are desperately begging for work pushing out "competition" for likes and shares or monthly different types of "30% off promo" Then have one knee praying to 9 religious gods for the phone to ring A healthy sustainable growing business doesn't operate like that, only freelancers do Step outside from the detailer's glasses and look at your business as a whole system There are 4 moving parts in a detailing business 1) Generating leads Most detailers already have endless dramas with generating leads it's not even funny. Hence the "competition" and endless monthly promotion Referrals and word-of-month are great, but they're not reliable for business. It's unpredictable and untrackable. You don't know when and where they'll come. You're not in control and relying on referrals and word-of-mouth is like being in a rough sea with unpredictable storms That is why I love ppc ads the best. It's very scientific. You can measure exactly how much it cost for each customer down to the dollar and day and what buttons to push to generate high quality leads on-demand at a low cost 2) Closing leads Then they don't know how to sell and complain about the "area doesn't pay for a quality detail" How much you charge for a job directly reflects on how well you're able to sell your detailing services When someone enquires you about a detail, you can either book it at subpar $200 or $2,000 - It all depends on how well you sell! This is why sales are crucially important, it's the lifeblood of your detailing business Barely anyone is going to call you and book at 4-figure job upfront You can pretty much bomb everything, but if you know how to sell, you will never go hungry and you'll always be good. Sales is a skillset that can be taught, and it all comes down to the right training and practice. No such thing as "introverted", "not good at talking", "not good at selling" or worst "sALeS iS nOt fOr mE" It's a choice whether or not you want to get this down 3) Service delivery This the point where a lot of detailing business owners get stuck Once they nail generating and closing leads, they can’t move forward from this point They can't handle the work themselves, so they start hiring people and training them but they just don't know how to find the right people and manage them (Check out my previous post on when to hire workers) When you first start hiring people, hiring a team should NOT be the first thing you do Start with contractors first. Plenty of amazing skilled detailers who can't find clients and you're doing them a favour by giving them jobs. It's also a lot easier to hire and manage. So start there first until you have a solid experience working with people. From then onwards you then start hiring top talents Hiring and being a team player is a whole ball of another dimension of the game vs a solopreneur Talented A-players are extremely hard to find, and they NEED convincing to work for your company in the long run. It’s not just paying them a salary and expect them to perform. Talented A-players are in this more than just money Ask yourself these questions: - Why would someone want to join my team? - What is my company’s vision, mission statement and core values? - What is my company’s culture? (Culture is HUGE. Culture defines someone’s work ethic when you as a boss are not looking) Do NOT settle for B or C players. B players breed lower quality players and will only give you headaches 4) Economics - Running your business like a well-oiled machine Once you have the first 2 parts honed and refined, you should be making at least make $10k/month. Now it’s time to scale up the business to high 6 figures or even 7 figures: 1) You know how to generate leads predictably 2) You know how to convert leads systematically The final piece of the puzzle is how to optimize your service delivery to run it like a machine Ask yourself: - How long does it take to complete my X service from end to end? - Can the service delivery be delivered without me being there? - How can I optimize the service to turn around faster, more efficient without compromising the quality of the work? - How much volume can I bring in to my service delivery machine, if not, how can I optimize to bring in more volume? - Volume = work = profit Here’s the view of the whole economic system: Input > Process > Output - The Input is cranking up your lead generation system - The process is your lead conversion and service delivery - The output is how satisfied your customer and feedback Once you run your business as a system, and it’s refined to the point it's running like a well-oiled machine - you can start cranking it up and pump volume through the system and scale it to the moon 🚀 Best part? You don't even need to be there to do the grunt work. You can go on a holiday for 2 weeks and still be making money. If you want to level up your detailing business and scale things up to the next level, i have something for you What I talked about in this post is really only scratching the surface. To get it all working you still need to define your unique market without competitors to charge what you're worth, your high-ticket services, branding, sales, ads gameplan just to name a few I help and work with detailers to systemise and nail down the 4 moving parts of their detailing business and transforming them from being a detailer to a business owner and make $10,000/month minimum as a hygiene standard through my Uplevel Detailing program I opened only a couple more slots for my Uplevel Detailing program for October. If you're serious about it, shoot me a message and let's talk P.S No looky-lous, no asking how much, and I don't want to hear you want to think about it. Any signs of lack of commitment you're disqualified immediately. That is not the energy that will serve me, you or other detailers who will go above and beyond to WIN  It's not about fancy logos, website, pictures, videos etc
While those are great, they are just tools It's like having the latest Rupes LHR21 MK3 but not having the skill to actually use it If you take marketing and break it down to the bare bones, it's all about getting across your message and what you do It could be as simple as a few words, there's no need for fancy logos and websites That's also the reason why copywriting is so powerful Ever heard of the elevator pitch? You have about 15-30 seconds to tell someone about what your business and what you do "I'm a automotive business consultant" VS "I help detailers book high-ticket detailing, corrections and coating jobs consistenty and grow their business to 6 figures" See the big difference there? So, yikhai, how does this applies to my detailing business? Well, in this day and age, being a detailer is not enough It's oversaturated, it's too broad and too common Every man and their dog can detail, but what makes you stand out and unique? Tell someone who is interested that you're a detailer and they will start price shopping and go for the affordable option Tell someone who is interested in a different, a specialist way, it makes you stand out from the rest of the detailers and they will think about only you when they want to get their cars detailed eg "I specialise in detailing and restoring air-cooled porsche" "I specialise in applying ceramic coatings and PPFs on brand new german vehicles" Imagine you love porsches and you enjoy detailing them, and you know them really well. And then you saw a guy with a 964 turbo pulling up at the local petrol station and you tell him you're a detailer VS you specialise in detailing and restoring air-cooled porsche Which detailing guy will he chose? The one who works on random civics/soccer mum SUVs or the one who works on Porsches? After you nail down your foundations, your unique market and message, then your marketing can all be built from there, all your logos, website, media, branding is to convey your very specific message with a very specific targeted audience Market yourself as a detailer, you'll drown in endless price battles with other detailers cutting yourself short Market yourself as a specialist, you're the top players in this industry where people will literally go above and beyond just to get their car detailed by you  Whenever someone gives you a "maybe", take that as a no and move on. Having the abundance mindset is key 🤙
There will ALWAYS be another client willing to pull out their wallet and pay for what you're worth  A good rule of thumb is business first, employees second
If you can't nail down on getting high-value clients consistently, you're just waiting for a shit storm coming at your face if you're looking to hire employees You hire ONLY when you can't take anymore workload yourself, you want to grow your business and delegate your workload You can easily get to 6 figures with one man show 1) Start with subcontractors first Seriously, start with subcontrators first. It's easier to manage and a lot easier to deal with, so start here first. Don't go directly with hiring if you don't have any experience working with a team Give your lower-ticket jobs to another detailer if you have too many high-ticket jobs. You can't take all on your own. There are PLENTY of amazingly skilled detailers who is struggling to get clients, you're doing them a favour by doing so Once you start getting a lot of high-ticket jobs, doing low-ticket jobs will be a burden to your business and it will make you lose money (it's so counter-intuitive, but you want to leverage your time:money ratio once you get volume) 2) Breeding competition you say? "Whenever after I trained an employee, he will go out on his own way and start his own business and compete with me. It's frustrating" It's always the same story 😑 Detailing is a skill set that can be easily taught (Ego detailers will say "but the work can only be done by me because i've been detailing for 453 years and clients pay for my magic touch" - Sure bro, i respect your hustle but bro no. We are running a business. In business your clients don't care about how long you've been detailing etc, the only thing they care is whether or not you can deliver the result and do quality work) Business is a whole different beast that is easily 10x challenging than detailing If your business is threatened by your employees that easily, your business is not solid lol There's the foundations, your unique market, your niche, price points, sales, marketing, operations, service delivery etc - If your employee can replicate what you do, you have serious issues with your business Someone can work with me, and they'll think they know about my business, they can try and start another business to try and compete with me but chance are they won't win because I'm easily 20-30 laps ahead of them I know the parameters of different infrastructures and systems, characteristics of my market, my KPIs, my numbers, the nut and bolt of the business so damn well that any competitors who try and compete won't be able to sustain and will probably be another fly-by-night You want it to be the same for your employees too. They will only do their job and observing only the tip of the iceberg when your business is all about what's underneath the iceberg 3) Hiring based on character, not skills "But skilled detailers are expensive to hire, and i don't want to waste my time training someone who will leave in 1 year" 🙄 It's again, always the same ol story Again, detailing is a skill set that can be easily taught. Hire based on character. - Is he motivated? - What does he see himself in the next 3 years in the business? - Is he passionate about cars? - Does working on cars 6 days a week 10 hours a day scares him? - What ambition does he have? Be part of a growing team or eventually do his own thing? - What is motivating him to work for you? Do 1-1 interview for few hours (a lot of people put a fake front during interviews. Interviewing for hours straight will show his true personality), then group interview and see how he interact with people, then a 1-week trial, then 3 months probation then officially hire. Push and test him to the extreme and reveal all his true character. If he can put up with all of that, you get a solid, worthy employee 4) Culture A lot of business owners think money will get the employees moving "I pay good money, but can't find any good worker. No one works hard anymore in this age" Again, same old same old 😵 Why can't you find anyone? Think about apple or google, people would kill and die to work for them, even for a low salary. Ask yourself, WHY would someone work for your company? What's your company's VISION? What's your company's culture? And goals? Not just the cool cars etc, WHY would someone be part of your team? What makes your company and team worthy to work for? Having a vision and culture is SO damn crucial. Probably the #1 reason an employee will stick to the company is the culture - no one wants to work in a company when it's so dead, black and white. It'll only kill the motivation to work there and it won't be a solid team I actually dedicated a week on my Uplevel Detailing program on hiring and delegation, when specifically to hire, how to hire, where to look for them, the process, personality tests, creating a vision, culture etc And that ONLY cames after all your foundations, sales and marketing to generate the high ticket jobs consistently, and on-demand with predictability We want to get that handled FIRST Smart entrepreneurs engineer themselves out of the business, where the business will STILL be making money even going away for a holiday in the bahamas and work whenever they want and not slaying 100 hours grinding away in the business The main goal for the Uplevel Detailing program is to: 1) Define your unique market without having to compete with prices and other detailers and position yourself in the market to charge what you're worth 2) High-Ticket Sales systemise your sales to get a consistent closing rate 3) Implement targeted marketing to laser target your ideal clients and generate them on demand 4) Business operations, hiring contractors and top talent and scale your business by running it like a machine and grow it to at least the 6-figures The actual running and growing the business side of detailing that no one really has talked about or even teach in this industry - especially in this new age of detailing where there's tons of competition and how to market yourself and not drown I'm currently in taking *only* a 1 or 2 more students for October as I'm almost completely booked out If you're serious about getting to the next level, shoot me a message and let's talk |
