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Cost of setting up a car care business in India

13th August 2021, 16:03 by Rahul Nagaraj

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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.

BHPian Livnletcarsliv recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

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?

Here's what BHPian Rachit.K.Dogra had to say on the matter:

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 let's 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:
Good washing area and equipment. (Cost can vary depending upon the if it's indoor / outdoor or if there is a lift installation or not)
Good quality products. (Cost will depend upon tie ups and stock procurement)
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.
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.

Here's what BHPian anantpoddar had to say on the matter:

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.

Here's what BHPian nkrishnap had to say on the matter:

Cost of setting up a detailing studio depends on the below.
Capital expenditure
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.
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.
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
Rent
Salaries - depends on the skill set. Cheap untrained ones come for 12 to 15k and trained ones for 25k
Electricity
Water charges and other sundry expenses.
Product & Workmanship
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.
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.
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:
You are passionate about the work you would do.
Willingness to get your hands dirty, learn the job and master it.
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.
Do this only if you can sustain for a long term. Short term you will lose money.

Here's what BHPian AJ56 had to say on the matter:

As someone who operates a detailing business in Gurgaon, let me try and answer each question to the best of my ability and knowledge.
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.
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 vacuums with a healthy tank volume, upholstery extractor for dry cleaning. Ideally have 2 vacuums 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 it and you anyway should be leaving the car overnight before delivering it to the customer.
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!