How to Start a Car Detailing Business in 2020

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This guide is for professional detailers hoping to start their own car detailing business. It
will take you through everything you need to know and everything you need to do to start
a car detailing business. This includes both brick-and-mortar shops or a mobile detailing
setup. This includes: doing market research, creating a business plan, doing a SWOT
analysis, mobile detailing setup, promoting your business, and more.

If you’re new to detailing, you can build your business with the #1 business app for
detailers by Mobile Tech RX. You can try the app completely free – signing up takes a few
seconds. Mobile Tech RX will help you schedule appointments, come up with pricing,
create branded invoices, do your accounting, take payment, and more!

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Let’s get you started on starting a detailing business or your mobile detailing setup! This
guide will walk you through the steps you should take to launch your business.

What is Car Detailing?

Car detailing is the interior and exterior cleaning, restoring, and finishing of a vehicle to
like-new condition. Exterior detailing is cleaning and restoring the car’s finish, trim,
windows, wheels, and tires. Interior detailing is a deep cleaning of the vehicle’s interior
cabin including vacuuming, upholstery stain removal, and polishing. Sometimes a detail
will include light cosmetic touch-ups, but the process normally does not include
paintwork or body repair.

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In the United States, the car wash and auto detailing industry, which is served by 66,708
businesses, produced $12 billion in revenue, and employed 224,874 people in 2019. The
annual growth rate over the last five years is 4% (IBISWorld).

Total revenue in 2019

$12 billion

Number of Businesses

66,708

Annual Growth 2014-2019

4.0%

Industry Employment

224,874

Do Market Research on Car Detailing in Your Area

It’s important to know the landscape of the market before you start a business. You want
to be confident that when you start your auto detailing business, you will have enough
customers in your area who want to purchase your services. This will ensure that you can
make money and stay in business. In your research, gather as much information as you
can to understand the supply and demand of the market, your competition, and your
potential customers. Here are some questions you can ask:

Is there a need for car detailing in your area?

Who needs it, and who are your potential customers?
Are there other auto detailing businesses offering similar products and services
now?
What is your future potential competition like?
How will your business fit into the market?

To help you get started, here’s some information we put together on the number of
detailing businesses across the US, per state, and top and bottom cities around the
country.

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Create a Car Detailing Business Plan
A car detailing business plan will help you answer questions you need to ask before you
start your business. It also helps you focus on core areas and write down all of your ideas.

There are different types of business plans you can create, but a business plan normally
includes the following:

A mission statement to describe the main focus of your business

Information including your registered name, address of any physical locations, and
names of key people involved in the business
An objective statement that explains your company’s goals
A business strategy that goes into detail of what your goals are and how you plan to
achieve them
Your business and management structure that outlines key employees, managers or
other owners of the business (including the percent ownership and the extent of
each owner’s involvement in the company)
How you will package your detailing services and how you will set pricing
Outline the potential customers you will target, their pain points, and how your
business can help solve them
Define your unique value and what differentiates you from your competitors
Create a marketing and sales plan, including messaging on why your services are
worth buying and what channels will you use to promote your business
Financial plans including your revenue goals, start up investment required, and
growth opportunities and plans

For a more in-depth step-by-step guide of writing a car detailing business plan for your
detailing business and to download a template, read our article about business plans and
find a template here.

Do a SWOT Analysis Before You Start a Car Detailing Business

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. A SWOT analysis is
a way for you to understand your own strengths and weaknesses within your company
alongside external opportunities and risks. This will help you reduce chances of failure

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and increase your chances of success, compete successfully in your market, and beat your
competition. If you have any questions about how to start a car detailing business, a
SWOT analysis will help you find answers:

Strengths:

What does your company do well?

How do you stand apart from your competitors?

What internal resources do you have? This could be your staff, the technology you use, etc

Weaknesses:

Where does your business struggle?

What do your competitors do better than you?

Where are you limited in resources?

Opportunities:

Do you have little competition in your area?

Have you gotten positive public reviews or media coverage?

Is there a new need for your services?

Threats:

Do you have new competitors in your area popping up?

Have you gotten negative public reviews or media coverage?

Will regulations change in your industry?

Decide on Your Business Type and Location

Choosing the location and type of business is important for your business operations. As
an auto detailer, you have a few common options for your business location. These are
fixed site, temporary location, and mobile detailing businesses. (Learn more about how to
start a mobile detailing business here.) You will need to think about what business type
and location makes sense based on your research, for the customers you will serve, and
what costs you can afford.

Fund Your Detailing Business

It’s important for you to consider the average car detailing business start up cost.
Depending on what type of business you decide on, it could range anywhere from $5,000
to over $100,000 to start a car detailing business. You will need to decide if you can self-

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fund it or if you need to take out a loan. The U.S. Small Business Association has a helpful
guide on funding a small business here.

Apply for Licenses and Permits

To start a car detailing business, you will probably need to apply to a combination of
licenses and permits at the federal and state level. The requirements and cost can vary
from state to state, and even from city to city.

Here are some general tips for you to consider:

Establish your business as an LLC to limit your personal liability for business debt.
The process is different from state to state, but normally you just need to fill out
paperwork with your state. You can choose to not formally establish your company,
but it will come at a higher risk. As an LLC business owner, your home, personal
bank account and other personal assets are protected if your business doesn’t end
up making it. If you do not register as an LLC, you won’t have these protections.

Car detailing businesses generally operate from a physical location, which means
you’ll need a Certificate of Occupancy. This confirms that your business meets
building codes, zoning laws and government regulations in your area.

Get Tax IDs for federal and state taxes. To do this, you will need to apply for an EIN.
It’s free and easy, but if you need help, this checklist from the IRS website is a good
resource.

Meet other Legal Requirements – Environmental Regulations and

Insurance
Legal regulations also vary from state to state, and sometimes even from city to city as
well. Call your local city hall and find out about insurance requirements and how to make
sure you’re complying with environmental regulations.

Some additional tips to consider:

Check on any specific environmental regulations you should know. As a car detailing
company, you might run up against specific water usage and/or wastewater rules
that you need to comply with.

For insurance, you might want to consider “Garage Keeper’s Liability” insurance
which covers you for working on vehicles as they are in your possession. You should
also consider insuring your equipment against theft. If you have employees, you
should get workers compensation insurance to protect your business and your
employees if something happens to them while working. (In some cases for small
businesses, your state might provide you workman’s compensation insurance.)

Hire Your Team

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When you first start out on your business, you might not need to hire employees right
away. There are many successful auto detailers out there who run a 1 or 2 person
business, however that doesn’t mean you don’t need support. Think about a few people
you can go to for advice, motivation, or ideas when you need them. This could be a
mentor, a business coach, or even your family.

If you will be hiring employees or contractors, it’s good to start thinking about who you
need and starting the process early. First, you’ll need to decide if you need employees or
contractors and what makes most sense for your business. While you have more control
and oversight over an employee, contractors give you more financial flexibility and lower
risk.

If you decide you want to hire employees, you can reference our guide on how to write a
job description for detailers. If you decide to outsource your work to contractors, you
should put together an independent contractor agreement first and then start your search.

Click here for more information on salary averages and hiring trends within the auto
detailing industry. Review our research to get a sense of what it will cost you to hire an
employee in your area.

Open a Business Bank Account and Credit Card

Using dedicated banking and credit accounts through the business is a really good idea if
you want to protect yourself and your personal assets.

If you use your personal account to make business transactions, your personal assets (like
your home or your car) are at risk if something negative happens to your business.

Invest in Auto Detailing Tools and Business Software

As a detailing business, your basic costs outside of your physical shop and your employees
will mostly come down to your tools and equipment. Here’s a list of tools and business
software to get you started:

Exterior detailing products

Detergents
Acid free degreasers
Detail clay
Waxes
Shines
Polishes
Applicators
Brushes
Drying towels

Interior detailing products

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 Cleaning products meant for a variety of interior materials (synthetic carpet
upholstery, vinyl, leather, natural fibers, carbon fiber composites, plastics)
Steam cleaner
Liquid and foam chemicals
Polish
Brushes

Software

Quickbooks bookkeeping software

Mobile Tech RX business management app for detailers

Promote Your Car Detailing Business

Once your business is up and running, the last step is to start attracting customers. Your
marketing efforts at the beginning will be trial and error. You can try a few different
tactics and channels and find what works best for you. Here are 3 marketing ideas for
detailing business to get you started.

Start a Car Detailing Business Today

Once you’ve completed everything on this list, congrats! You now know how to start a car
detailing business and have most all of the important to-do items done. Now you can
focus on growing the business from here.

Fast-Track Your Detailing Business to Success

Mobile Tech RX is the world’s number one business management app for detailing
professionals. To make your detailing business more efficient and more profitable, try
Mobile Tech RX today for free.

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