2020_ADN_V5_No3_web
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Commercial<br />
Commercial detailers<br />
are those that focus on regular<br />
business-2business work,<br />
or large corporate contracts<br />
to support their business. The<br />
number of businesses out there<br />
with a fleet of company vehicles is<br />
staggering. They exist everywhere and<br />
could have hundreds of vehicles that need<br />
to be cleaned on a regular basis. Companies<br />
with large fleets have a hard time persuading<br />
employees to clean or take care<br />
of a vehicle that is not theirs, and possibly<br />
shared with others. Large accounts like<br />
Amazon, or FedEx are constantly looking<br />
for detailers to do basic washes on the exterior<br />
of their delivery vehicles. Once you<br />
have gotten a contract, it is fairly easy to<br />
keep it as long as you are doing what is<br />
asked of you. Long term contracts and<br />
solid word-of-mouth advertising is all that<br />
is needed to generate work, so marketing<br />
and advertising budgets can be significantly<br />
lower than residential<br />
detailing. The downside<br />
to commercial detailing<br />
is it often requires<br />
“off hour” working.<br />
Company vehicles<br />
are normally in use<br />
during regular business<br />
hours so cleaning them requires<br />
either long weekends or<br />
overnight hours.<br />
Production<br />
Production detailers,<br />
those that work at dealerships<br />
or auctions, have<br />
always been considered<br />
the bottom of the detailing<br />
world. They get the<br />
reputation of not being good<br />
detailers or being hacks. The problem<br />
with this train of thought is that they are<br />
not offering the same service as a highend<br />
detailer. I have an auction that can<br />
do 300+ cars a day. The service is more<br />
like an express than a detail, but the coordination,<br />
training, and teamwork that<br />
is required to produce that many auction<br />
quality vehicles every day, six days a week<br />
is quite an undertaking. Also, production<br />
detailers have steady work, year-round.<br />
Dealerships are constantly selling cars and<br />
need someone to be there to clean them.<br />
The revenue that can be generated is also<br />
nothing to be ignored. A small dealership<br />
will generate $100k+ a<br />
year in revenue, and a high<br />
functioning dealership or<br />
auction can be upwards<br />
of 5 million. Since a lot<br />
of production detailers<br />
are embedded in the locations,<br />
there is very little<br />
overhead outside of supplies<br />
and labor. The downside to the<br />
production world is that you get much less<br />
per vehicle and that you are a contractor<br />
for someone who probably does not think<br />
that highly of the detailing department.<br />
To make large amounts of money in production<br />
detailing, volume is the key.<br />
I have laid out the four most common<br />
types of detailing businesses. There<br />
is nothing to say you have to fit exactly<br />
into one of these categories, or even stick<br />
to just one. My business operates in all<br />
four. It is important to know as a detailer<br />
that there are other options out there,<br />
and there are successful people in all<br />
categories. Do not limit yourself or your<br />
company’s growth by thinking that there<br />
is only one path to detailing success.<br />
Rob Schruefer is the owner of On<br />
The Spot Detailing out of Columbia,<br />
Maryland. He proudly serves on the<br />
board of the International Detailing<br />
Association and works tirelessly to<br />
ensure that detailing business owners<br />
receive business development support<br />
to help them achieve their goals.<br />
VOL. 5, NO.3 • FALL <strong>2020</strong> | AUTO DETAILING NEWS | 25
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