With so many cars on the road today, it is obvious that car valeting business is a growing one, and won’t fade away anytime soon. While there is a wide variety of businesses out there to grab, car valeting seems to be one of the most promising. And if you know how to plan your business well and satisfy your customers, it could be an easy and regular way of making cool cash.
Most people that have cars today are faced with just two options when their vehicle gets dirty. They either clean it themselves or get someone else to do the job for them. Cleaning one’s car is not only tedious but can also be time-consuming. And that is one thing many people don’t have in this generation. So they will obviously find a professional to clean their vehicle for them. That’s business for you.
If you have been looking for how to start a car valeting business or car cleaning business, this is the right post for you. You can also check our recent posts on successful home-based businesses to start and how much it costs to starts a business. Enjoy!
What Is Car Valeting?
Before moving to easy steps to take to start a car valeting business, let’s first clear the air on what car valeting really is. Car valeting is a high-end cleaning of both the interior and exterior of a car. Though similar to car washing, car valeting is slightly different. The service is more upmarket and provides a more detailed cleaning, and could sometimes involve putting protective coating like wax on the cars you service.
Unlike car washing, it goes far more than just basic cleaning. However, it doesn’t involve any bodywork repairing or alloy wheels refurbishing. If you are a lover of vehicles and also pays strong attention to details, this is an ideal business for you.
How Do You Start a Car Valeting Business?
#1: Acquire the right skills
In addition to your passion for cars, you will also need the right skills to consistently satisfy your customers. Remember that only quality and consistent work can help build your business fast; no marketing can replace that.
So if you don’t have any experience with servicing or washing a car, you might need to first work for a valet business to grab the right skills for your business. It is not something that will take you forever before you get it. With just a few weeks, you can learn all you need to know about great job deliveries.
#2: Decide your business model
This is also another important part you need to get right. You will need to decide whether you are going for a mobile car wash unit or a fixed one. Mobile car valeting business goes to meet their customers at their location while at a fixed unit, your customers will have to bring their cars to you for servicing.
While mobile car valeting seems like a promising model, you need to also know that it is more expensive to run. Operating from a fixed location will also make your business more credible and opens you to a variety of services.
#3: Find a space for your business
Next thing is to find a place to situate your business. Look for a car wash site you can rent or buy. But you need to choose such a site carefully. You can consider a space near affluent suburbs or a place near a large shopping center or shopping center.
Check to be sure there is no other carwash 10 miles away from you. If you can’t buy a space yet because of financial reasons, you can consider renting one. You can also find a car wash you can rent for weekends too.
#4: Determine what car wash equipment you need
There is a wide variety of equipment being used in car valeting business. This could range from squeegees and brushes to polishers, and a host of soaps, cleaning chemicals, and polishes. Even if you are not going to have sophisticated equipment at the early stage, you will definitely need ones to cover basic functions.
However, as someone just coming into the business, it is not advisable you start splashing the cash on expensive equipment. You can buy the ones you need second-hand from online stores. A quick search online will give you a lead to where to get them.
Below is some car valeting equipment you might need for your business:
- Pressure washer
- Petrol electric generator
- Vacuum cleaner
- Baffled water tank
- Cleaning chemicals
- Snow foam lance
- Electric buffing machine
- You might need a van if you are running a mobile car valeting business
#5: Get a business plan
You will need a detailed and well-crafted car valeting business before starting out at all. Without a solid business plan, your business might be heading for doom soon. So prepare yourself for the trials and tribulations that might come in the journey by having a well-planned business plan for a car valeting business.
An ideal car valeting business plan should include your start-up costs, your unique selling point, target market, service costs, and the type of services you will be offering to your customer. When writing your business plan, ensure you are thorough and realistic enough in order to avoid any surprises. If possible, you can overestimate to give room for surprises in your budget.
#6: Know the rules and regulations in the business
Just like any other business, there are rules and regulations guiding car valeting business too. Specifically, there is this one general law called trade effluent. The law states that waters from your car valeting business must not enter into the watercourse. There are certain chemicals you are not allowed to use in the business, depending on where your business is located.
Waters from your valeting jobs must not be discharged without letting your local water company know about it. You will need to first register with them the details of your effluent, the type of chemicals included, and the likely flow rate.
Just get familiar with the rules and regulations guiding this type of business in your area so you won’t be doing anything illegal that can affect your business later in the future.
#7: Hire competent staff
Car valeting business is not one you can run alone. It requires much labor work and lots of time. So think about getting more hands to help in the business.
#8: Marketing is important
The easiest way to help your business grow quickly is to market it. It doesn’t matter how exceptionally great your service is, people may not know about it if you don’t market it. So think about getting a nice brand name, website, logo, and market your business online.
Reach out to your neighbors and let them know you offer such a service. Consider offering vouchers and incentives to your existing customers to encourage them to keep coming. You can also think of giving them special rewards when they refer a friend to your business. All these are great marketing ideas that can help your business stand out.
