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Guide/Info On Starting Up A Mobile Valeting Business

968K views 440 replies 232 participants last post by  Jamesmc21 
#1 ·
Right fellas sorry if this is in the wrong section so mods please move if need be.

Im now in a position of probably being made redundant from work after 8 yrs :( and im considering my options.
Being a mobile valeter has always appealed to me but i could do with advice on whether or not this is a viable business and how big the market is, as i live in lincoln its quite a small city and im worried it wouldnt be able to sustain me?

ive spoken to a couple of car dealers who either use inhouse valeters or get mobiles in but pay them hardly anything, although my market would primarily be aimed at private owners.

If anyones got some advice it would greatly be appreciated as i need to start sooner rather than later (mortgage,woman,car to keep happy and provided for):wave:
 
#412 ·
I target the work I want for a ceramic coating or a remap by going in to small businesses with nice cars . Most will give you the time of day don't just leave a business card and you may get a job right there and then but don't get discouraged if you try 20 times and get no where ,it just means your closer to a yes. don't wait for the work to come to you go find it good luck
 
#418 ·
Really, REALLY good thread, many hours of interesting reading!

Im on my way setting up. I will be using a SWB transit, what size tank would anyone with experience mobile recommend? I don't want something way too big but certainly don't want to run out either! Also would you have the tank located behind the seats/bulkhead. I'd be interested to see how some already in the game have their vans laid out.
 
#421 ·
Just spent the evening reading through this �� Chomping at the bit to get started I plan on going down the steam route eg steam the exterior personal choice but cannot wait to get started thank you all and good luck with everything

Regards
Dean Bell ( the new guy )
 
#422 ·
WOW finally got to the end (page 43) some great information here as its something i have been toying with for a while,
I currently work away for 3 weeks and have 3 weeks home, looking into something i can do when im home to stop me lazing about all day and get out earning a few extra quid.

Where is the best place to look at getting flyers and business cards m8

There is one other person who runs a valeting business from his home in the same area as myself (he never had any thought of starting up till i mentioned over a pint one night ...not that its sour grapes he just got started first)

I will be looking at offering everything from a basic wash and wax to wash, machine polish and wax/ sealant (sealant after i've practised on the wifes car lol) also thinking about headlight restoration as the only place near to me (20miles away) is a proper big detailing business who advertise this.
 
#423 ·
Some very worthwhile advice in this thread.

Starting my own mobile business is something I have been considering for a while now. I love cleaning cars and bringing them back to their best so doing this on a part time basis to make a little extra money makes sense to me.

So far I've put a price plan in place of what I will charge for what services. I class the paint correction as a separate service and will be pricing that based on the vehicle and how much work is actually needed.

My plan is to build the business this year by selling my car and getting a van, something along the lines of a VW Caddy and then kitting out to be able to be fit for purpose. I will also spend the rest of this year in building a portfolio of examples of work, this wont be a problem as I have access to many cars through family and im sure they wont mind a free valet.

I have already carried out some market research and there aren't many mobile valeters operating in the area where I plan to operate in, in fact from what I found there isn't one at the moment. There are how ever many of the £5 car wash specials but my aim is to target the people who understand that there is more to a valet than strong acid and used water.

I plan to do some evenings when the light and weather allow and weekend work so with some hard work and careful preparation I will hopefully have a nice little business on the go to go along side my normal office job.
 
#427 ·
What a great thread I've read here!
Going to be setting up soon hopefully be ready by jan-feb! I will be doing it part time at first then eventually full time and also by then I'd of been through a course and learnt how to detail properly! Just one thing that picks my brain is working out a pricing scheme I've seen alot of different packages/services I am just wondering if it would be okay to sort of copy them but with my own twist?

Thanks so much for all the great info DW! You've helped so much already and I've not long joined this forum! [emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
 
#428 ·
Sound advice, thanks. I wondered if anyone had any strong feelings on the ready made vans that are on the market (fundamental equipment supplied and kitted out) as opposed to buying everything individually, including a van? I'm starting out going full time and have been tossing up where the better value lies. I am keen to not scrimp on equipment/materials though...Looking at 5 to 6k budget.

Any thoughts appreciated :)
 
#429 ·
This thread is a valuable resource for me right now. Just starting out on evenings and weekends.

As i mentioned in my introduction thread, i am at a stage of my life where I feel i am ready to start up a business of my own. My current job is okay but has no real prospects of advancement. I've decided to give it a go as it's something I enjoy doing.

Still need to purchase a water tank and a decent generator.

I live in an affluent area and the only other professional service does not provide a mobile service. I feel can definitely make a success of it. I have the passion for making cars looking as good as they possibly can and I have an eye for detail.

I have a website in place and social media accounts to follow. I will be going around the local car clubs too.
 
#432 ·
I've just read through this thread and thought I'd add my 2 pennies.

I got made redundant from my previous job.
Decided to pursue my valeting & detailing interest, got booked on a course in valeting, detailing and machine polishing with ceramic coating application training.

Got set up with a van as I didn't want a unit, fully equipped the van with tools and cleaning products (most I already had but added to as I went along). Set up social media on f-book and Instagram, set up a website, listed it on many directories, wrote blogs, got business cards printed, flyers distributed by hand and through doors and in local village magazines, displayed flyers in local shops, ran January discounts etc.

After 6 months I barely made £1000 from jobs. After investing in the business, having usual daily home bills and trying to cover stock etc, it's completely disheartening.

The problems I've found is that there is so many cheaper valeters out there offering similar services so cheap it's driving the industry down. Some are just young, part timers who are just doing it on the side for a few quid without proper training and just copying from YouTube videos.

Also every quote you're having to justify your costs to the client and then get referenced to the same cheaper alternative.

I know the guys that are established will say it don't affect them but that comes with being established for many years with the trust of your clients knowing your standard of work.

So my feeling on valeting in general is that it's probably not something you'd want to leave a job for and do full time unless you're prepared to work for little to no money for the first 2-3 years, don't have any extra debt or bills to cope with for that period, you'll have to be prepared to flyer, call and contact people everyday and be prepared for rejection multiple times.

Best advice would be do it part time to see if it's fruitful alongside some other work.
 
#434 · (Edited)
I've just read through this thread and thought I'd add my 2 pennies.

I got made redundant from my previous job.
Decided to pursue my valeting & detailing interest, got booked on a course in valeting, detailing and machine polishing with ceramic coating application training.

Got set up with a van as I didn't want a unit, fully equipped the van with tools and cleaning products (most I already had but added to as I went along). Set up social media on f-book and Instagram, set up a website, listed it on many directories, wrote blogs, got business cards printed, flyers distributed by hand and through doors and in local village magazines, displayed flyers in local shops, ran January discounts etc.

After 6 months I barely made £1000 from jobs. After investing in the business, having usual daily home bills and trying to cover stock etc, it's completely disheartening.

The problems I've found is that there is so many cheaper valeters out there offering similar services so cheap it's driving the industry down. Some are just young, part timers who are just doing it on the side for a few quid without proper training and just copying from YouTube videos.

Also every quote you're having to justify your costs to the client and then get referenced to the same cheaper alternative.

I know the guys that are established will say it don't affect them but that comes with being established for many years with the trust of your clients knowing your standard of work.

So my feeling on valeting in general is that it's probably not something you'd want to leave a job for and do full time unless you're prepared to work for little to no money for the first 2-3 years, don't have any extra debt or bills to cope with for that period, you'll have to be prepared to flyer, call and contact people everyday and be prepared for rejection multiple times.

Best advice would be do it part time to see if it's fruitful alongside some other work.
I started my own mobile valeting and detailing business 4 years ago. I had a full time job at the time so was mainly doing it at weekends. After a year I was focusing mainly on the detailing side as I soon came to realise there was good demand for machine polishing skills. I quit the full time office job.

Some advice I'd give is...

You say you've "set up on social media with a Facebook Page" etc. Have you ever advertised on Facebook? I get 80-90% of my customers by advertising on Facebook. I've found that the best way to reach my audience is to create a post of the work I do and some before and after pictures. I then 'boost' the post (advertise) and for £20 a week, the post will reach approximately 4000 people and it generates business. You can tweak the audience settings to set an age range, gender, radius etc for where you want your ad to go. Facebook is king, it will generate way more business than any other means.

Secondly, you say you can't compete with the dirt cheap valeters. What you need to do is set yourself apart from them. Do you machine polish cars and do you have much experience? These dirt cheap valeters are limited with their skills. Go above and beyond what they do.

My business is totally car detailing orientated now. Paint Correction, New Car Detail and ceramic coatings thrown into the mix. I work from premises now. I've done 500+ cars and pictures of my work on Facebook and boosted posts get me my customers. Then there's word of mouth too which comes with becoming more established.

My advice to you is to focus more on the higher income type jobs which will bring in better money and will set you apart from most of these unskilled, cheap valeters. If you can't machine polish then start practicing. Take before and after pictures and post on facebook then boost the post. There is good demand for this work. Plus, you can do this on a customer's driveway (if they have one) or even garage. This is what I did for the first 12-18 months.

It's definitely a difficult thing to do to jump into this business on a full time basis. Part time is the way to go until you start to become more established and word of mouth spreads. You will know yourself when the time is right to go full time. During your part time period, I'd definitely be focusing on machine polishing services. Much better income, much less customers required than doing basic valeting and needing 5-6 customers a day most days!
 
#436 ·
I'm in the Dundee area in Scotland.

Having a good population to work with is fairly important. I target a radius of 20 miles so that's approximately 220,000 - 250,000 population but I target men when I set up my adverts on Facebook. Most women haven't got a clue about what's involved with machine polishing cars, detailing work, ceramic coatings etc.
 
#437 ·
I'm in the Dundee area in Scotland.

Having a good population to work with is fairly important. I target a radius of 20 miles so that's approximately 220,000 - 250,000 population but I target men when I set up my adverts on Facebook. Most women haven't got a clue about what's involved with machine polishing cars, detailing work, ceramic coatings etc.
Where I am is about 10 minutes away from Silverstone and 20 minutes from Prodrive.

Found it incredibly difficult to target or break into that clique of clientele.
 
#438 · (Edited)
I started up mobile valeting in 2006 and I'm glad that I did as it seems extremely difficult starting up these days. I don't advertise, don't have a Facebook page or have any social media at all. I am busy every single week. My work is all word of mouth. Bookings already up until April. I take 3 foreign holidays a year and my house is bought and paid for now as a result. I'm busy because I'm good at what I do, all established over 14 years and counting.
Good luck if you decide to go it full time. Hard work, but very rewarding :thumb:
 
#439 ·
I’ve recently gone part/full time mobile valeting. Left my job last year to go to college to learn Accountancy. Done taxis for a while but hated working at night so bought a van and kitted it out.
Have to say in the 3 weeks since starting I’ve been very busy and could quite easily be full time. This lockdown idea is going to shut me down just now but hopefully it picks up when back out.
There is work there if you know where to look. I target newer housing estates as most of the people have a bit of money and don’t mind spending it for something that makes their life easier (not having to leave house to get car cleaned)
 
#440 · (Edited)
Starting up I would not do it again. I think the bubble has burst for general splash n dash stuff. Thats where I started 20 years ago and now we only do ceramic, ppf, vinyl, custom interiors, fibre optic headliners and LED upgrades.
Everything is minimum $1000.00, so in reality customers know where we stand and we don't do interiors. Well we do but only new cars with coatings etc.

I kept pricing high to stop calls from cheap arses, I set out my stall and stick to the rules. Thankfully a lot of the Dallas based splash n dash $399 coating cowboys and $499 front clip paint protection guys are going bust.

We work hard on our business, not social media as that docent get the phones ringing, but went I went from technician polishing cars to manager having staff polish the cars I spend hours marketing the **** out of the business.

With our investment of a new 5000 sq ft air conditioned shop we had built we can now get tractor units, boats and agricultural equipment in.

Now that was January, now we are not an essential business so are currently closed till April 3rd. So myself and my guys have been doing some painting, tidying up from the move and generally avoiding each other.

But as I said no way would I try to open up a detailing business again knowing how long it has taken me to get where we are. Unless you are making over 100.00 GDP an hour you are not a business, you are a slave to it.

Anyhow guys stay safe and wash your hands.
 
#441 ·
With the interest I've had in valeting/detailing and reading this thread its making me want to start earning in this area on a part time basis. Thinking of starting with a setup from my car as it has worked for me doing family members cars.

Based in northern ireland. Do you guys bulk buy your chemicals if so then which brand do yous go for because i have only been using 500ml bottles from halfords and they dont last very long.

EZ car care had a sale on so i purchased some 5litre products from them.
 
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