Averaging $20K/Month+ With Our Auto Detailing Business [Update]
This is a follow up story for Belk Mobile Detailing. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published over 2 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
I’m Josh Belk and I own Belk Mobile Detailing. You can check out our original starter story here.
Our team details cars directly at our customer’s homes! We do auto detailing, boat detailing, ceramic coatings, and paint corrections. The majority of our business comes from our full auto detail service.
This typically includes interior vacuuming, steam cleaning, wiping all surfaces down, cleaning windows, shampooing carpets and/or seats, exterior washing, deep cleaning wheels, and tires, and a wax.
We are currently generating an average of $20,000 per month over the past 12 months and detailing 120-150 cars per month.
As a business owner, I see my responsibility to ensure that the mistakes that are made aren’t catastrophic. I try not to sweat the small stuff.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to. Has the business been growing?
Since my original starter story, our business has been growing very well. We had just over $200,000 in sales in 2022 and now have 3 full-time employees outside of my brother and me. We are currently generating $25,000-$27,000 per month.
We continue to receive business from our Google My Business page and website, which ranks highly on Google SEO. We also have lots of repeat customers and referrals. I tell my team all the time, the best way to get more business tomorrow is to do a phenomenal job with your customer today. We’ve developed a service that our ideal client loves and they tell all their friends as a result.
Over the past year, we’ve increased spending on Google and Facebook ads. We now spend $16/day on Google and $10/day on Facebook. Google ads have been profitable for us and we are currently averaging a $1.57 CPC (cost per click) this year.
With our average detail package between $200-$300 we only have to convert 1 out of every 100 clicks to break even. Realistically we convert around 1 out of every 10. Unlike Google, Facebook ads are more challenging since your ad is being shown to people who are not actively looking for our service.
While we could discount our prices and create an attractive offer to increase sales on Facebook, we instead take a long-term approach to Facebook ads. We believe that if we are persistent enough and show the immense value our service brings, over time our ideal market will notice our ads and eventually become customers.
We are currently paying a photographer $1,200/month to create professional photos and videos for us. We take these photos and videos and use them for our website and social media. I want our brand, our services, and our team to look extremely professional.
This means having professional photos and videos, wearing matching uniforms, always answering the phone, and speaking professionally and respectfully to clients. We are trying to attract business owners, executives, and high-paying professionals, and we want everything we say and do to embody that we are the perfect fit for them.
What have been your biggest challenges in the last year?
Our biggest challenge continues to be where we spend our excess cash flow. We believe that investing in our team is most important. By having 3 full-time employees we can schedule appointments the same week, sometimes the same day. Our customers love this because they can get their car in for detail quickly without long wait times. This also results in fewer cancellations.
However, when we add on a new employee, we run the risk of taking away jobs for existing employees. And because we pay our employees a commission on every job this eats into their take-home pay, we only have so many jobs. So there are days when an employee may not have any appointments while other days they have three. It is a bit random and sporadic.
When we add an employee, we have to take one step backward before we take two steps forward. If our business only had my brother Austin and me, we would be beyond swamped!
And when you get swamped, your wait time goes up, your team gets burnt out, and your quality goes down. This results in less repeat business, negative reviews, and fewer referrals. So we have to stay ahead of this by adding new employees just before we reach that point of being swamped.
We’re all susceptible to shiny object syndrome but it's in our best interest to commit to being great at one thing for an extended period of time.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
One big lesson we’ve learned this year when growing our team is that more mistakes are made. As a perfectionist, I want everyone on our team to follow a specific routine to reduce cancellations, increase quality, and improve communication.
But when you’re managing multiple people things can’t and won’t be perfect. Mistakes are made. Ultimately, if you hire good employees they will learn from their mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes. As a business owner, I see my responsibility to ensure that the mistakes that are made aren’t catastrophic. I try not to sweat the small stuff.
Another lesson we’ve learned is that it takes time for new services to take off. For about a year now we’ve been trying to increase our ceramic coating and paint correction jobs. We thought we would have more ceramic coating and paint correction business at this point, but it's been slow to catch on.
This reminds me of when we first started our business. When I had the idea to start a mobile detailing business I thought, who wouldn’t want this?! I thought I could put up a website and a social media page and people would just start calling. But other people don’t think like me. They don’t trust me yet, so we had to be consistent and persistent. Over time, the business came.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
In the next month or two we will be opening up shop space. While we will continue to do mobile detailing, this shop space will be primarily used to install ceramic coatings and work on larger projects.
When our customers get new cars naturally they want to protect and maintain them. Our ceramic coatings provide years of highly durable protection, and we always offer new car owners a maintenance program to help keep their freshly ceramic-coated car.
Over the coming years, we will continue growing our detailing team and focusing on ceramic coating new cars. Our goal is to help our ideal clients keep their cars looking new while providing them with a convenient service that saves them time. Any way we can improve on this goal and look as professional as possible we will try.
What’s the best thing you read in the last year?
The best book I’ve read in the past year is The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack. While this book is known throughout the country, Jack Stack’s company is headquartered in my city.
The Great Game of Business is a way of running your company honestly and openly. Many business owners and executives keep secrets from their employees. There’s this belief that an employee should do nothing more than perform his small task in the business, like in an assembly line.
But Jack runs his company differently. He teaches his employees about the business and helps them to understand how all the different parts of the company function. He opens up the books to them so that they understand how well, or how poorly, the company is operating financially.
This form of open-book management inspires your team and creates loyal employees that don’t just perform their job but actively seek out new ways to grow the company.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
There are two pieces of advice that have helped me in the past year. First, have a team. I wouldn’t have built my business without my brother and our employees. Working with family can be tough for some, but it works well for my brother and me because we have complementary skills.
I think it's extremely important to have one person who has the final say in all business decisions. I also think it's important to make it clear from the start that one person will have the final say. This way the expectations are clear.
The second piece of advice is to commit to running your business for at least one year, ideally two years. The first few months of starting your business are too little time to know if it will work or not. It took us about three months to start to see some traction, but it wasn’t until we hired our first employee that we began to see how we could grow our business.
I see too many people hoping from one side hustle or job to the next. We’re all susceptible to shiny object syndrome but it's in our best interest to commit to being great at one thing for an extended period of time. One of my mentors said to me, you will receive most things you’re working towards but it will likely take longer than you expect. I’ve found this to be true.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are always looking to build our team, although we are mostly looking for local people in the Springfield, MO area. However, no matter the location, if you’re a detailer and would like to build a detailing business I’d be happy to help answer any questions or provide further guidance. Feel free to reach out at belkdetailing@yahoo.com.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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