[Livnletcarsliv]

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?
What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?
When can I become profitable?

[Rachit.K.Dogra]

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?
What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?
When can I become profitable?

I happened to have some discussions around setting up a 3M franchised store in Gurgaon.

From a 3M store perspective, there was a pretty sizable initial cost that needed to be given to 3M, under which they will setup your shop and will give you a stock of products for the remaining value. I was a bit taken aback knowing that that total cost of those fancy detailing roof lights was close to 15 lakhs.

If lets say you don't go through a franchised model, here is what I think is essential for a good car detailing studio to attract good customers:
1) Good washing area and equipment. (Cost can vary depending upon the if its indoors/ outdoor or if their is a lift installation or not)
2) Good quality products. (Cost will depend upon tie ups and stock procurement)
3) Some fancy roof white lights, which brings out the smallest of the swirl marks in customers cars, so that they get tempted to spend to get those polished.
4) Staff training

A lot depends on what scale you are looking for. I have seen simplest of setups, where you need a water connection, water tank a water pump for washing. A vacuum cleaner to vacuum cars, a couple of guys and you are good to start.

Rachit

[anantpoddar]

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?
What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?
When can I become profitable?

If you're looking at the essentials of starting a detailing business, check out the YouTube channel of Dallas Paint Correction. This guy covers the basics of starting.

Cost will depend entirely on the scale at which you want to start. Some of the basics that you need to answer based on your areas of strengths and weaknesses:

• Whether you want to start small and test the waters or go all out at once
• Access to prime location or otherwise
• What kind of services you want to offer: initially and in the medium term

You need to define the vision for your business which will influence your strategy.

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't think of starting a detailing business if I cannot break-even within the first quarter.

The biggest challenge in the detailing business is retaining talent. Most of these guys get paid anywhere between 8-12k + commission per car. The supervisor level guys get paid around 15k-20k. I hardly see any of them last more than a year at the same place.

[condor]

You can get more information from our earlier discussion here :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...-business.html (Friend lost his job, wants to start a car wash business)

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?
What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?
When can I become profitable?

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?

• You can start your work, with bare-bones investment.
• Acquire the materials, and hire a couple of dedicated & enthusiastic staff.
• Start with "Doorstep" Service model & if you are successful, then only move to a dedicated facility.
• Keep some money aside for marketing (Pamphlets, Internet Marketing etc.).

What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?

Must Have:

• Quality Equipment.
• Experience. You should know what you are doing. Do not perform experiments etc. on customer vehicles.
• Dedication. This is needed to survive in any business.
• Catalogue. You should take High quality photos of the vehicles you detail. And showcase your work as much as possible!

When can I become profitable?

Depends on:

• which service model you go for.
  If you start from grassroots (i.e. Doorstep Service OR tie-up with a large Apartment for In-House Jobs), then profitability is easier.
  

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?
What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?
When can I become profitable?

Cost of setting up a detailing studio depends on the below.

Capital expenditure

1. Rental deposit, if the place is not owned. Cost of the place and rent will be dependent on locality/location, sq ft area, no of bays you want to have etc.
2. Infrastructure related to presentation of the studio. Electricals, lighting, plug points, machinery, etc. For example a good steam washer (automotive purpose one) will cost at least a couple of lakhs. Other machines such as vacuum cleaner, polishing machines etc. All of these are available from a low price to high price. Example, Karcher dry ice machine mrp is around 22 lakhs.
3. Marketing and Human resources cost. Putting in infrastructure, because personnel hiring does cost you now a days even though it is a blue collar job. Digital marketing services can turn out to be expensive too. All depends on how you are approaching it.

Fixed Expenses

Fixed costs
1. Rent
2. Salaries - depends on the skill set. Cheap untrained ones come for 12 to 15k and trained ones for 25k
3. Electricity
4. Water charges and other sundry expenses.

PRODUCT and WORKMANSHIP

1. There are tonnes of products, not every product will suit the market need. So how you build your services around the available products and differentiate your services is what will get you customers. Stick to practical possibilities than marketing your services as fire proof, scrarch proor, 10H (some folks are claiming 12H too ). Do remember you can fool or hide the reality from the customers only for a short term. Long term it will hit you hard.

2. You labour is what gets you customers even if you have the best product. A good product in untrained hands can only do so much. I have seen certified detailers unable to extract 3 months life from a top notch ceramic coating whereas even a basic coating can outlast the durability of such certified coating (when done by a trained hand) from these certified detailers. Do not compromise here.

When can I become profitable?

Tricky question. Investment vs returns. You need to look at pricing your services with complete consideration of your investment and how quickly you want the returns.

Note. Going low prices not necessarily will bring volumes.

Also get into it only if

1. You are passionate about the work you would do.
2. Willingness to get your hands dirty, learn the job and master it.
3. Loads of patience dealing with the blue-collar folks. It is easier said than done. They will leave you high and dry when you least expect it.
4. Do this only if you can sustain for a long term. Short term you will lose money.

PM me if you need to know more as it would be difficult to disclose more specifics regarding this business on a public forum.

[Spinnerr]

One more point to be considered / cost factor is

• Waste water recycling unit

Pollution control boards have started taking note of Car Spa's popping up. Water mixed with oil, detergents and other cleaning solutions are contaminating lakes and other water bodies.

Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has taken some action, similar guidelines/rules/restrictions might come out in other states.

News Link 1

He also said the pollution control board had ordered closure of a few centres in the catchment area of Bellandur lake.

Deepak, the franchisee owner of a car spa chain on HAL Airport Road, said he has switched to waterless wash using a chemical and cloth method for the same price of a regular shampoo wash.

News Link 2

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), which pushed service centres here into offering water washes only if they have treatment plants.

Options very from a simple setup to extensive ones.
Check this diagram below

Source

[AJ56]

As someone who operates a detailing business in Gurgaon, let me try and answer each question to the best of my ability and knowledge.

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?

Taking my own case as a point of reference, for a 1500 sq.ft 4 bay + customer lounge set up in Delhi-NCR you’re looking at around 30-35L. This is all inclusive of interiors (major cost) + equipment + chemicals + insurance and brand and logo copywriting. Salaries and marketing will be extra on a monthly basis obviously.

You can lower this cost significantly by a few lakhs if you decide on a smaller 2 bay set up but I wouldn’t recommend that as you’ll lose business eventually as you’ll always be short of space and will have to turn customers away due to a lack of free space. Demand is very non linear and some days you may get 1 car and other days you might get 8.

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?

Most needed things:

* High quality pressure washer (min. 120 bar) with a healthy flow rate and an attachment for cleaning the vehicles underbody. Make sure you have a smaller back up pressure washer in case the main fails.

* Water softener or water filtration system to ensure water being fed to the pressure washer is free of contaminants that can harm paint due to the pressure. (We use an RO system with indoor tanks at our centre)

* Air Blower for drying, preferably electric as there’s no risk of oil droplets being mixed in with the air like with some oil based air compressors.

* Industrial grade wet + dry vaccum with a healthy tank volume, upholstery extractor for dry cleaning. Ideally have 2 vaccums as you don’t want workflow to be interrupted due to a failure.

* A combination of rotary and orbital paint polishers (actual number will depend on number of workers you have) and at the minimum 2 orbital sanders for removing heavier defects/orange peel.

* Great lighting, will consist of led roof and wall lights, focus and spot lights in your detailing bay and powerful handheld flashlights for checking the paint during and after correction.

* Detailing trolleys/brushes/sprayers/wash mitts/buckets/foam pads/etc.

* High quality chemicals, I won’t go into specifics but depending on your market positioning and pricing you should have a combination of shampoos, compounds, polishes, trim dressings, sandpapers of varying grits, etc. most brands like 3M, Capro, Meguiars, Gyeon will have detailer bulk pricing available. Ceramic coatings + PPF is upto you, can definitely start with coatings as the learning curve for actual application isn’t steep.

* Paint thickness gauge, you can get a cheap one for 9-10k on Amazon which will work well enough and give accurate paint thickness readings, this is critical if you want to check if a panel has been repainted or before attempting any moderate to heavy paint correction, as you want to know how much clearcoat you’re shaving off during a correction.

* PPE and Safety - nitrile gloves, dust masks + respirators for ceramic coating, protective eye glasses, rubber boots (for wash bay), fire extinguishers at every corner of the shop, security cameras with night vision, emergency light in case of power failure, alarm system at the shutters entrance points (since high end cars are left overnight during some jobs)

* Power backup - we have a generator that is used almost every day when the power is cut, unless you’re in a city with zero power cuts, this is absolutely essential. Rent or buy is upto you

For good to have you can include an air compressor and steamer although we hardly find use for them at our centre and they’re strictly optional. Make sure your compressor has a large enough tank otherwise it’ll keep cutting in and out every time you use it. You can also get a roof rail system for the pressure washer hoses but it’s not essential, chemical dilution machines again, optional. Dry ice cleaning machines are expensive and require safety training before use, wouldn’t recommend for a new detailing shop just starting out. Regarding IR lamps for quicker curing of coatings, not needed in my opinion as newer coatings do need need it and you anyway should be leaving the car overnight before delivering it to the customer.

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

When can I become profitable?

Assuming it’s a new brand (not a franchise) and your service is top notch, you’re looking at roughly 1 year, can be a few months before or after depending on your monthly cost of operation. Your rent and salaries will be the main cost heads, chemicals should never exceed 10% of your total monthly cost of operation. It takes time to build a loyal customer base, I took 10 months for my first centre to break even before I opened the second, which took 6 months since I had a base by then, always remember repeat customers are much more profitable than new ones. Avoid spending too much on marketing initially as word of mouth is the most powerful and consistent method of acquiring new customers.

One more thing, know that like with any business it takes a lot of effort and time (and money) to set up and operate, you’ll be working 9-10 hours, 6 days a week for a year but the rewards at the end will be well worth it. Educate yourself first before investing anything on the basics of detailing and then work your way up to higher levels, there’s boatloads of great information on detailing channels on YouTube, follow them. Feel free to message me if you have any further questions, happy to help. Good luck!

[spd_tkt]

The Post made by Spinnerr on waste water recycling is very valid, especially for places like Bangalore or Kerala where they can be very strict. Also pollution control board is still an old school department where you may have to offer bribes to get things done. It is a hassle to deal with these folks. Also need to check on noise levels if there are residential neighborhoods. Any complaints and they can ask you to stop irrespective of all the permissions you have.


Think it might be better to offer a door step service if that helps you reduce the rental expenditure and other initial investments.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by Livnletcarsliv

What do you think is the cost of setting up a detailing business?

There are many ways to go about this, but I would prefer to start with a small amount (5L) and then expand as business grows. If you want to detail the car yourself (or work on the car personally), it is a good idea to start slow and see where the business goes.

My partner and I started a car detailing business in Mumbai 3 years back. We started with an investment of 5L and 1 staff. My partner used to go and personally detail the car. Over time we expanded and today have 5 staff. All are proficient in detailing and ceramic coatings.

We started with a door-step service model due to the high rent costs in Mumbai. Further most land lords ask for 6 months rental money as deposit.

The other model is to go all out and invest 35-50L (depending on place of business) and rent out a 4-5 bay space. This is a high investment model but successful as well. Expect close to 2 years for operational break-even and close to 4-5 years to recover your initial capital at the minimum. Pandemics and Lockdowns will only cause these times to extend.

What are the most needed things and what are the things that are good to have?

If you are starting small, just go with the following -
2X DA polishers (5 inch and 3 inch)
Vacuum cleaner (even a basic one will do)
Steam machine
Extractor (Optional)
Pressure washer (Optional)
Compounds and Polishes
Other consumables (interior cleaner, glass cleaner, degreaser, IPA, wheel cleaners, all-purpose cleaners, etc.)
Microfibre towels, brushers, pads, etc.

When can I become profitable?

This is very subjective. If you work personally, and expect a small operation (max 1-2 cars a day), you can start earning the profits (operational expense and then some more) right from the first month itself. But if you want to expand, open up multiple outlets and so on, it'll take a while. Usually a good self-sustaining business in detailing will take anywhere around 3-5 years to start generating revenue.

It's a very long answer to be honest, so if you have any specific queries, I will try to address them as much as I can.


PS- We use rinse less wash techniques as we can't use pressure washer at clients place. But yes, we keep one to clean the wheels, wheel arches etc.

[Raghu M]

I have a friend who set up shop (full garage with spares) around 2014. It cost him around 1.5 crores. There is no waiting area, it's just a few chairs where the receptionist also sits. The area goes into the workshop which has 4 hydraulic lifts (cost depends on the weight the hydraulics can lift). He had around 2 tonnes capacity set for each one and one with a higher capacity (for the pick up trucks and other big cars).

There was a huge shed set up (around 25 to 30 feet roof). There is a small portion that has a first floor (within the shed) which houses the basic spares (wipers, spark plugs other regular parts). The engine oils are stored in a small compartment within the shed. Then there is a tyre shop right next to the shed which does new tyres, alignments, balancing and nitrogen. Then next to the tyre shop is the wash area. No hydraulics here but just a pit that enables a service man to view the car's underbelly and wash thoroughly.

The area is not a posh area, just on the highway road within Hyd. The land lease was not expensive but the infrastructure like the tools, hardware, stock, staff and working capital cost more.

But if you have to go for a thorough detailing shop, I am sure it will cost a lot more. You need more machinery, material and above all the resources to handle premium cars. I hope this helps.

[GutsyGibbon]

Something to consider, not sure how practical it is for you. I always hear about shortage of reliable talent. Issues with getting a good rental at a desirable location. Mobile car detailing is very popular in other countries. It is done out of a van such as a Tempo traveller, or a pickup truck. You would need a good generator, a water tank, pressure washer, foamer, polishers, vacuum and such. Full list and details here.
https://www.fullgleam.com/car-detail...0equipment.%20

The advantage is that you can go to the location of your customer, and make long term deals for regular washes. As you take your own water, you can wash it in any vacant spot without approvals from apartment owners association and such. If you have enough powered tools, you can do this all yourself without the need for hired labor. (May not be a popular thing for business owners in India). The mobile detailer, mobile servicemen I call in the US are all owner operated. They do not have any hired help. This way I am certain about the quality of workmanship, and the consistency. If you believe in dignity of labor, its the way to go.

BTW, I have a pressure washer, wet dry vac, polishers, and all sorts of shampoos, waxes and lotions. For me to go mobile, I would need a generator and a water tank.

[AJ56]

Originally Posted by Raghu M

I have a friend who set up shop (full garage with spares) around 2014. It cost him around 1.5 crores. There is no waiting area, it's just a few chairs where the receptionist also sits. The area goes into the workshop which has 4 hydraulic lifts (cost depends on the weight the hydraulics can lift). He had around 2 tonnes capacity set for each one and one with a higher capacity (for the pick up trucks and other big cars).

There was a huge shed set up (around 25 to 30 feet roof). There is a small portion that has a first floor (within the shed) which houses the basic spares (wipers, spark plugs other regular parts). The engine oils are stored in a small compartment within the shed. Then there is a tyre shop right next to the shed which does new tyres, alignments, balancing and nitrogen. Then next to the tyre shop is the wash area. No hydraulics here but just a pit that enables a service man to view the car's underbelly and wash thoroughly.

The area is not a posh area, just on the highway road within Hyd. The land lease was not expensive but the infrastructure like the tools, hardware, stock, staff and working capital cost more.

But if you have to go for a thorough detailing shop, I am sure it will cost a lot more. You need more machinery, material and above all the resources to handle premium cars. I hope this helps.

I think you are confusing car repair shops that specialise in mechanical repair and servicing with detailing outfits. Very different lines of work, the former will easily cross a crore in investment with all the equipment, tools and hydraulic lifts required to provide high quality service. The latter is not very expensive to set up (relatively) but is a very niche field that requires specific knowledge to get good results for your customers. Equipment and light machinery for detail oriented shops will be under 10L in nearly 100% of the cases. Cheers.

[Raghu M]

Originally Posted by AJ56

I think you are confusing car repair shops that specialise in mechanical repair and servicing with detailing outfits. Very different lines of work, the former will easily cross a crore in investment with all the equipment, tools and hydraulic lifts required to provide high quality service. The latter is not very expensive to set up (relatively) but is a very niche field that requires specific knowledge to get good results for your customers. Equipment and light machinery for detail oriented shops will be under 10L in nearly 100% of the cases. Cheers.

Ah, I think I misread in that case. Thank you for correcting me. Appreciate your inputs.

[Livnletcarsliv]

Originally Posted by Raghu M

I have a friend who set up shop (full garage with spares) around 2014. It cost him around 1.5 crores.

I think 1.5 crores to set up is significantly higher.
In fact, I am surprised by this number.

As far as I understand, the major share of expenses for this business is
1. Place
2. People

All the others (especially the machinery) will not cost more than 5-10 lakhs. For eg - I don't understand the need for 4 lifts/ramps.