A mobile car washing business?

[Amazin]

Anyone here or know anyone who's got experience in it? I'm based in London so I think parking can be a problem. What sort of money can you make from it? Any ideas?

 

[RMConeyCarpentry]

I don't really know a lot about car washing but I suppose the money would be in detailing high performance sport cars like Lamborghinis Aston martins ect and show cars.

Maybe join a few car forums and offer an unbeatable price to get you name about and show what you can do with a load of before and after shots and make sure you come across profeshinal

Google "detailing world" and take a look round the site some people on the site have got an old red corsa with faded paint as they all go and with a few long hours and a lot of elbow grease they turn them out like they've just come out of the factory

 

[Amazin]

Thanx for the response, I just want to get an idea the sort of money I make out of it and if its worth doing. I know some on business for sale adverts they often estimate £40,000-£50,000 for car washing garages. I wonder if a mobile car washing business would be any better.

 

[faradaykeynes]

one of my clients started mobile car wash, did not work out well for him BUT that does not mean it is not good idea, if you target right audience you would build a good customer base e.g elderly people, washing cars at homes and driveway etc

 

[internetspaceships]

Anyone here or know anyone who's got experience in it? I'm based in London so I think parking can be a problem. What sort of money can you make from it? Any ideas?

There go you. Think of another idea mate.

 

[RMConeyCarpentry]

There go you. Think of another idea mate.

I wouldn't say that, that's a bit rubbish advice.

you can always near enough find a pay meter in London you can use if convienent for the job or the customer may have space for your van aswell, I suppose all you would need is a transit connect size van, I have worked many times in central London and it hasn't been a problem to park, a pain yes but never had a big problem.

I think it's agood idea for a business, people with cars worth 100,000£ would not like to take their car to an old petrol station style car wash for someone to wash the car with a sponge!
They would have there cars looked after by someone who knows what they are doing and would take care of most probably their pride and joy.

You need to look into the cost of tools for the job, a van, the materials you will have to have in stock, shampoo, wax, clay bars ect I know some of the top stuff isn't cheap then obviously some sort of advertising to get the work

 

[internetspaceships]

Sorry but it's not rubbish advice. We're talking mobile car washing here. If we were talking full valeting it would be even more of a problem because those can take hours, and require your van full of gear to be close because most use their own fitted equipment.

So, you pitch up to wash the vehicle and the nearest parking place is 200 yds away. Have fun with that one, not to mention the cost of parking in the first place.

We haven't even covered the water required to wash a car and we're onto major issues already so please help me out here and shed some light as to why my advice was rubbish.

 

[RMConeyCarpentry]

The reason I said it was rubbish is that you basically posted forget the idea.

I'm sure there are a few mobile car washing and valeting services that work in central London you just need to get the right jobs in where you CAN park right next to the car
Although he is based in London he doesn't need to go in central London he can go around all outer London where the restrictions aren't that bad at all

To say its a bad idea and he should forget it is IMO rubbish!

 

[RMConeyCarpentry]

He she just needs to look into what's needed to buy to get started, then they can pick and choose the jobs to suit them.

And there are many properties with space for an extra car/van trust me I've worked in and around London for a few years now and have came across many homes where I can park easily.

Of course you will have to have a van fitted with a water tank you can't turn up and expect to attach to their taps.

 

[internetspaceships]

Ok then let me take the sugar coated approach if that makes you feel better.

OP, sit down and work out the time costing. The upsides and downsides of what you're looking at doing. The location issues, the logistics issues as well.

Then work out your total initial outlay and running costs, bearing in mind the specific location you're working in, and the uplift that's going to create to your overhead, and the restriction to your marketplace.

Then work out what you want to earn an hour. See if it all fits together practically and profitably.

 

[RMConeyCarpentry]

That's more like it, the advice you should have said all along is "look into it more"

Doing full valets will take up best part of the day so I suppose would be a set price for different packages for example just the exterior, exterior and interior and exterior, interior and engine bay clean up. There is money in it I was quoted around £400 for a full paint restoration valet, although I didn't ask how long it would take.

Looks like he is based in east London so maybe stick for local jobs where it's easy to park.

 

[internetspaceships]

I don't agree. Sometimes there's a glaring flaw in a plan and if you don't have the gumption to say so, then it's a pointless excercise.

There is absolutely no harm in doing so.

 

[Gaskell]

It sounds like a mobile 'car wash' wouldn't be worth the aggro. Who pays more than a tenner for a car wash?

You need to get into mobile valeting, full valets are worth getting to the customer, unloading all your gear and spending a few hours working. A simple car wash may be done in a quarter of the time but say you have customers dotted all over London, you'll waste any money earnt on fuel alone.

 

[Amazin]

First of all, I just want to say thank you for all your feedbacks. It certainly got me thinking about different aspects of it. Yes, I am based in East London and right now I have no plan to travel to central london to work because I know it can be pain!!

Let me show you all what my area look like:

As you can see there are some parking spaces so I can alway park my van nearby but I probably need a trolley or something.

Besides, I probably stay away from close to central customers.

Who pays more than a tenner for a car wash?

lol, good point. One thing that worries me is that is it a regular thing? How often would a car owner wants that? I dont want to start a business where is lot up and down.

 

[Alan]

If my Window Cleaner offered a service to wash my car for £6 once a month when he does the windows I'd probably take him up on the offer. (£6 is the price of wash in the local supermarket car park)

 

[kelvin1950]

OP, you'll find lots of info here: http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/

 

[kelvin1950]

Sorry but it's not rubbish advice. We're talking mobile car washing here. If we were talking full valeting it would be even more of a problem because those can take hours, and require your van full of gear to be close because most use their own fitted equipment.

So, you pitch up to wash the vehicle and the nearest parking place is 200 yds away. Have fun with that one, not to mention the cost of parking in the first place.

We haven't even covered the water required to wash a car and we're onto major issues already so please help me out here and shed some light as to why my advice was rubbish.

Parking aside, the rest is by no means insurmountable. Professional valeters will have a water tank in their van, genny for 240v thus allowing them to use a decent pressure washer, vacuum cleaner etc..

 

[CW90]

I looked into doing it and there is not really money in it, around where I stay there is a lot of static car washes that charge from £2 for a wash to £10 for a 'valet'

A wash and mini valet, will probably be where most of your work will come from in my opinion, and will take you at least 2 hours to do a good job. So say you can charge £20 for that (what it costs where I live)

So say you can do 5 a day 5 days a week, that's £2000 a month or £24,000-£30,000 a year. Before you have took off all your over heads, fuel getting to the jobs, tax, insurances, if it costs you to park. And that's not allowing for bad/rainy weather and over the winter months.

And to get set up with a good van, water tank, petrol pressure washer, generator, products etc. I worked out to be a good £5000 anyway.

All these figures are just a rough guide, from what I researched of what people where doing round my area. So the price for the service might be higher or lower in your area.

Your not going to get rich from it, but you can make a decent living from it.

Hope any of this helps you out.

 

[internetspaceships]

Parking aside, the rest is by no means insurmountable. Professional valeters will have a water tank in their van, genny for 240v thus allowing them to use a decent pressure washer, vacuum cleaner etc..

Parking aside. But this was the very first point the OP made.

 

[Amazin]

around where I stay there is a lot of static car washes that charge from £2 for a wash to £10 for a 'valet'

A wash and mini valet, will probably be where most of your work will come from in my opinion, and will take you at least 2 hours to do a good job. So say you can charge £20 for that (what it costs where I live)

£2 a wash?? How can businesses survive on that? 2 hours just make £20? That doesn't sound very appealing at all! I hope you made a mistake in your research because I know there are car valeting franchises out there so if you include the fee on top of all other costs then you don't much left. Might as well just get a job. lol

I also asked the same question on a different forum and I was told that there's a difference between car cleaning, valeting and detailing and it all depend on what I offer, I can make £200-£300 per day.

I wasn't planning on car Valeting to be honest, I was thinking just do a good car wash and dry for £7 to save some hassle for going down the car wash. If you look at the photos I posted above, there are at least 30-50 cars per street. If I have enough regular customers and get each job done with 15mins then thats good money isn't it?

 

[kerching]

Just to make your car cleaning service appeal to a wider audience and perhaps more niche.
Have you considered offering a “headlight” restoration service.
The plastic headlight covers fade with time causing the brightness levels to decrease.(Dangerous and MOT failure)
You will need to make sure that you are fully conversant with the procedure and will need to purchase the relevant cleaning accessories.
Replacing headlights is a costly experience, however cleaning them is a cheaper alternative as you can imagine.

 

[Gaskell]

You might be able to clean head lamps on older cars but most are sealed units I think.

 

[Gaskell]

I've just google'd it and here's how to clean the outside of headlamps using toothpaste!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQx_6mt0pHI



I think if the inside of the headlamp has condensation then its hard to get inside to clean.

 

[datahound]

I would go for window cleaning before cars.

Some nice wealthy houses down those roads I'll bet.

Charge prices that it make it worth your while. £15-£20?

When washing one house card/leaflet all the neighbours before you leave.

Do a good job.

Build up a round.

Cash business.

 

[datahound]

Haha. See this thread. A good window cleaner is hard to find. Very true indeed.

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=281915

 

[HGSecurity]

Only just seen this thread, but this is something I was doing about 25 years ago - I just went around the factories in the town where I was living (Redditch at the time) where they had company cars and asked them if they were interested.

I had a good uptake and used to do between 25-30 cars a day (just a good hand wash and leather off) at £2 a car, using their water supply (most had outside taps). That might not sound a lot now, but up to £60 a day in 1985 was good money for me, and I did painting and decorating work on days when I wasn't washing cars. It kept me going for about 4-5 years before I took a full-time job in a nice warm office, but I missed being outside some days.

 

[RMConeyCarpentry]

Only just seen this thread, but this is something I was doing about 25 years ago - I just went around the factories in the town where I was living (Redditch at the time) where they had company cars and asked them if they were interested.

I had a good uptake and used to do between 25-30 cars a day (just a good hand wash and leather off) at £2 a car, using their water supply (most had outside taps). That might not sound a lot now, but up to £60 a day in 1985 was good money for me, and I did painting and decorating work on days when I wasn't washing cars. It kept me going for about 4-5 years before I took a full-time job in a nice warm office, but I missed being outside some days.

Exactly my point if you can target the right place you can earn decent money,
A car wash now days people would happily pay £5-8 for a wash if you can do 20 cars a day = £100-160 and lovely work in the summer

 

[Alan]

Hmmmm ^^^ what like a car park? Good idea.