AI transcript
0:00:05 Here’s an oldie but a goodie from the archives from the Side Hustle Show Greatest Hits Collection.
0:00:11 How a couple college students built a $6,000 a month business out of a Honda Accord.
0:00:17 What’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here. Welcome to the Side Hustle Show because yes,
0:00:22 you can cut your own paycheck. I got a note from a listener the other day and he explained
0:00:28 he was a full-time college student working full-time in web design and in his spare time
0:00:34 had started a $6,000 a month side hustle with his younger brother cleaning and detailing cars.
0:00:40 Josh Belk from BelkMobileDetailing.com said the inspiration came from two things.
0:00:42 Thing number one was his brother’s obsession.
0:00:48 He drove his car about 12,000 miles in the first three months of owning it.
0:00:53 It was a Honda Accord and was driving it just all the time. It’s just what he liked to do for fun,
0:00:56 was drive it around. And while he was driving it all the time,
0:01:00 he had to make sure to keep it clean. So I’d always see him out in the driveway,
0:01:04 detailing it, vacuuming out his car.
0:01:08 And thing number two was an email from Ty Lopez.
0:01:13 I was just kind of browsing through this email that he had sent out. And one of the ideas was to
0:01:18 start a mobile car washing business. And I just kind of put the two and two together
0:01:25 and told my brother one day, hey, why don’t we try to monetize this thing and make some money on it.
0:01:30 And make some money is what they did. Stick around in this one to hear how Josh and his brother
0:01:35 landed their first customers, how they price their service, and how they stand out from the
0:01:40 competition. Notes and links for this episode, plus the full text summary of our call are at
0:01:46 sidehustlenation.com slash detailing. And one important thing to note here is to use this as a
0:01:51 lens for any number of local service-based businesses, which broadly speaking is one of
0:01:57 the side hustle models I’m most excited about right now. It’s about mobile detailing, but it’s
0:02:02 not just about mobile detailing, if that makes sense. I’ll be back with my top takeaways from this chat with
0:02:07 Josh after the interview. We start this one off with where those crucial first customers came from.
0:02:09 Ready? Let’s do it.
0:02:17 Friends and family is key. I think that that was the most important starting point for us.
0:02:21 Just being our mom was very helpful with everything that we’ve ever done.
0:02:27 She’s always supportive. So one of the first things that she did was send out a text message and post on
0:02:33 Facebook just to like a few of her friends and other family members around town, just letting them know
0:02:38 like, hey, my sons have started up a mobile detailing business. And 99% of the people that she sent
0:02:46 that too didn’t reply and didn’t call us, but that’s expected. And the 1% that did, we had a few
0:02:52 people. Those are your starting customers. And you really use those people for getting great marketing
0:02:57 material through before and after pictures, helping to establish some good first reviews and reviews are
0:03:03 everything in this business. Because if you can have a great five-star review on Google and Facebook,
0:03:07 then you will stand out amongst your competitors.
0:03:12 Okay. Did you already have all of the equipment necessary?
0:03:17 Like maybe we should back up and ask what equipment is necessary for this stuff?
0:03:21 Yeah, that’s a great question because we didn’t have everything necessary.
0:03:27 But really to start, there’s a few things that are really important to have.
0:03:31 For one, you obviously need some kind of bucket.
0:03:46 We actually started out with using a bucket and a wash mitt, which the bucket is like about $30. I think the one that we bought in the wash mitt was like $5 or $10. You can go buy it. One at your local O’Reilly or one on Amazon pretty easy.
0:03:48 That’s a very fancy bucket. What does it do?
0:04:06 So essentially, it has a grit on the bottom that you can use to scrape your wash mitt. And it’ll kind of help to separate the dirt from the rest of the water in the shampoo. So that way, it just helps to kind of cleanse out all the dirt that you’re using whenever you’re washing the car.
0:04:22 We actually started without a pressure washer. We were just using these little tanks, pumping them up, spraying them on the vehicles. It worked out okay, but it doesn’t allow you to get the underbodies of the car and really the stuff that kind of soaks in a lot.
0:04:37 So we were going through a lot of towels with using just those little pump buckets. So we eventually decided to go ahead and buy a pressure washer. It’s actually called the Worx. And it is a completely mobile pressure washer. It’s about $170 is how much it cost us.
0:04:53 And the great thing about that one was it was battery powered. So we could charge with the batteries before we would go to the site. And the batteries would usually hold for about an hour. We do ask, including now, most of our customers to use their water and electricity, and they are completely fine with it.
0:05:08 We’ve only had a few that have apartments. And sometimes we can usually work around by having them travel to their friends or families. And a lot of the times they’re very flexible and they’re completely okay with that. But besides the pressure washer and the bucket, obviously some great towels help, some brushes.
0:05:20 Chemicals wise, we like to use a degreaser for most of the stuff we do. We have a spray wax and a tire shine. Those three chemicals are really great. I think the extract we bought was about $120.
0:05:28 I would say that’s a pretty critical part of the interior part of your business because we made the most of the money to start out with interior detailing.
0:05:37 And that extractor is something that it adds a huge value to the service whenever you can get out stains and stuff like that.
0:05:49 So that extractor, which could just be bought on Amazon for around $120, was huge, as well as a steamer. A steamer helps with doing the leather seats or the side panels on doors
0:05:57 or center console areas that have coffee or some kind of drinks that have been spilled and sticky stuff in there. That steamer was also very helpful.
0:06:04 And then obviously a vacuum is definitely needed. A shop vac, about $40, I think is how much we paid for ours.
0:06:10 By the end of it, I think we had spent about $500 to $600 total on equipment.
0:06:14 But a lot of that stuff had been added on, like after we started making money up first.
0:06:21 But all in all, pretty low startup cost business. And I’m glad you clarified what you were extracting.
0:06:27 It’s like, well, what does an extractor do here? It is very clear my car has never been cleaned to this level of detail.
0:06:32 So maybe I am due for a detailing. But maybe that goes to the next section is like, well,
0:06:38 you probably don’t have many late model Ford Escapes as customers. Like, what kind of cars are you working on here?
0:06:42 Most of the time, our customers, it is their first time having the detail done.
0:06:47 We always luck out every now and then by having the customer that they do clean their car a lot.
0:06:52 And a lot of the times they call us up for a full detail, expecting to pay the full price.
0:06:54 And their car is not bad at all.
0:06:58 And those are usually the customers that say to us like, oh, my car is so bad.
0:07:01 I’m so sorry. Those are the best case scenarios for us.
0:07:03 You’re like, believe me, believe me, we’ve seen worse.
0:07:05 Exactly. That’s what we like to tell people.
0:07:11 So right now, a lot of the time we are doing customers that it’s the first time they’re ever
0:07:17 having their vehicle detailed. They probably saw one of our advertisements on Facebook,
0:07:23 or they heard about us through a friend and they realized like, wow, my car needs to be detailed.
0:07:25 I would love to have it just spotless.
0:07:30 Some people even can search on Google if they search for like mobile car washing or mobile
0:07:33 detailing in my area or even detailing in my area.
0:07:35 We do show up in some of the Google results, too.
0:07:40 So definitely those first time customers are, I would say, our prime target market.
0:07:42 We also have a dealership.
0:07:47 It’s a small dealership that calls us about three or four times a week for different cars.
0:07:55 And that’s the best case scenario because they are reoccurring and they’re always bringing new cars in from auction.
0:08:02 That is someone that we can rely on without having to spend any new marketing dollars towards every single week.
0:08:03 Yeah, that’s awesome.
0:08:05 How did you start that relationship?
0:08:10 They called us and I’m not sure how they found us out.
0:08:19 It’s a question that I should probably figure out because the dealership owner called us and he either found us through one of two ways.
0:08:23 He either found us through a Facebook ad or through Google at the time.
0:08:31 And he reached out and just asked about coming to their dealership and doing detailings for them on a weekly basis.
0:08:37 We said absolutely, came out, agreed on a price that we would start at, and we just went from there.
0:08:38 Okay.
0:08:48 For these first customers, either the dealership or the friends and family, mom’s text and Facebook post, how did you figure out how much to charge these folks?
0:08:51 So that one was kind of random.
0:08:52 We started low.
0:08:59 I think that we initially started with $30 for a full detail, both inside and out.
0:09:01 I believe that took us around two hours.
0:09:06 We didn’t have all the add-on services at the time, so we were just doing like vacuuming, wiping things down.
0:09:10 We were putting a shine on like all the upholstery, kind of like an armor roll.
0:09:12 And it was around $30.
0:09:16 I think we actually had listed it at $50, and we were running a special for $30.
0:09:22 So I remember my brother telling me actually the first day that we did like a stranger’s car.
0:09:25 It was someone that had seen a Facebook ad that we had done.
0:09:29 I remember him telling me whenever we went to go grab lunch, I don’t think this is worth it.
0:09:33 Doing car detailing for this cheap, it’s just not worth my time.
0:09:35 It’s hard work.
0:09:41 And I told him that our prices are only this cheap temporarily, and we would raise them soon.
0:09:52 And really, this was to get initial startup customers to build reviews and to build some kind of marketing materials, as well as experience under our belt.
0:09:54 So it sounds like he’s the one doing the labor.
0:10:01 You’re the one behind the scenes doing the marketing, the Facebook stuff, providing the seed money, and all this.
0:10:04 He’s the one who’s putting the elbow grease into these vehicles.
0:10:05 Absolutely.
0:10:07 It wouldn’t be able to work without him.
0:10:10 But at the beginning, I definitely was helping him out.
0:10:13 And then now he does primarily all of the detailing.
0:10:21 More with Josh in just a moment, including collecting positive customer reviews, quoting jobs, and some more creative marketing ideas.
0:10:23 Coming up right after this.
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0:12:47 Okay, so starting very, very inexpensively to the point where the labor is questioning whether or not it’s even worth it.
0:12:50 But hey, we’re building up before and after pictures.
0:12:53 We’re building up hopefully happy customer testimonials.
0:12:58 Did you do anything specific to request those reviews on Google or Yelp or Facebook?
0:13:08 Yeah, so I had been – I had done some Amazon FBA selling before I got into the mobile detailing business, and it had failed massively.
0:13:19 I lost around $3,000 in the span of about six months, and I think I put in about six months to a year of total prep work, learning how to do this whole business model.
0:13:24 And while I lost out on a lot of money, I learned a ton of stuff.
0:13:32 And one of the things that I learned from this coach actually that I had bought a course from was the importance of reaching out and asking for a review.
0:13:40 And making that as easy as possible by sending them a link where they can click on the link, and it’ll immediately take them to either a Facebook or a Google review.
0:13:45 So before we even went in with our first customer, we had that review link set up.
0:13:52 And as soon as we were finished with the service, we would just ask them, hey, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could leave us a positive review.
0:13:55 And at first, we were just doing Facebook.
0:13:56 We eventually switched over to doing Google.
0:14:04 We try not to overwhelm them by doing both of them at the same time, although if there’s someone that really wants to leave a review, we often will send them both review links.
0:14:10 But we kind of switched off by doing one or the other just to try to build up positive feedback on both those sites.
0:14:17 Facebook seems like an interesting option to try and solicit reviews for where Google makes sense to me.
0:14:20 I can show up in Google search results.
0:14:25 If somebody searches for mobile detailing service near me, you’re likely to show up there.
0:14:27 Has that started to happen?
0:14:46 Yes, and that’s a great point because you want to build your business to where over time it will start to rank organically and you’ve established your presence and you’ve built up your reviews on Google because there will be a ton of people that will be searching for mobile detailing near me, car washes near me.
0:14:56 And if you can build up those positive reviews and you can have a good rank on Google, that’ll help with reaching people organically without having to spend advertising dollars.
0:14:59 Have you seen any of that start to take effect?
0:15:04 I would say we get probably five to seven calls a week from organic Google traffic.
0:15:06 Two months ago, that was zero.
0:15:08 So it can pick up pretty quickly there.
0:15:11 I was going to say 30 bucks is a steal.
0:15:15 You can come over to my house anytime, but it sounds like pricing has evolved a little bit since then.
0:15:20 What’s it look like today and maybe how much time does that take you?
0:15:23 So it was a couple hours, you know, maybe to do this full detail.
0:15:29 Have you or has your brother improved his speed and process or really depends on the car?
0:15:30 Yeah, definitely.
0:15:33 We’ve improved the speed and process for sure.
0:15:37 And that just comes with experience and learning like what method to use, what to do first.
0:15:41 We started out with, like I said, about $50 for a full detail.
0:15:52 Soon after, once we started to get a little bit more, a little bit more traffic in, we raised it about $20 up to $70, eventually raise it up to $100 within like a few months after that, eventually up to like $120.
0:16:02 And now, as of a few months ago, we’ve established $90 for starting cost or starting price for doing an interior detail.
0:16:08 We start at $50 for exterior detail and then $140 starting price for a full detail.
0:16:17 And notice I said starting cost because I tell every single person that calls me and wants a quote that we must inspect the vehicle beforehand.
0:16:23 And that’s because some vehicles take way longer and are way dirtier than others.
0:16:28 And the customer, a lot of the times, will like tell you, oh, my vehicle really isn’t that bad.
0:16:35 And then once you take a look at it, you realize that it’s going to take you five hours of work and the initial $100 you quoted them is not worth it anymore.
0:16:41 So it’s very important that you tell the customer that we will need to inspect it to give you an exact quote.
0:16:54 A lot of the times, I will offer to give a quote to them for free and we can set up a time to come out directly to their work or to their home at their convenience and give them a quick five to ten minute quote.
0:17:01 Either myself or my brother will go out and we’ll take a look at it, kind of talk to them about what things they were liking to have done.
0:17:14 If they were liking to have their carpet shampooed or if they were liking to have their leather seats conditioned or if they were wanting to have a special kind of coating put on the exterior, all those things will communicate with them and then come out of quotes.
0:17:24 So the starting price for the interior, the $90, it does not include things like carpet shampooing or seat shampooing or leather conditioning or if there is excess dog hair.
0:17:37 Those are things that we do add on extra for and then if they have like a truck or an SUV, we’ll charge a little bit extra for that or if they were wanting something like a cream wax or ceramic coating, we’ll charge them extra for that as well.
0:17:40 Is there an hourly rate you’re shooting for on those quotes?
0:17:41 Yeah.
0:17:43 So we go for $40 to $50 an hour.
0:17:47 That is a fantastic college gig.
0:17:49 I mean, that’s a fantastic gig for anybody.
0:17:50 That’s pretty cool.
0:18:01 When you guys were starting out, I’m curious if there were any, if there was any competitive analysis, competitive research, like, oh, there’s already half a dozen detailers in town.
0:18:03 I don’t think there’s a market for this.
0:18:06 Like, did any of that go through your head or was that part of the process?
0:18:19 We definitely did think of that because there are a ton of other detailers and a lot of the, a lot of the detailers that were online, they were charging, charging quite a bit for their services.
0:18:21 And well, they were also, they weren’t mobile.
0:18:23 So you had to go directly to them.
0:18:28 And a huge part of our business is the fact that we can come directly to your home and do it.
0:18:32 So you could be sitting on the couch, watching TV on Saturday morning and we can be cleaning your car.
0:18:35 So that is a huge selling point.
0:18:39 And there was no one that was really doing that business model in our town.
0:18:43 But even if there is, there’s still so many holes in the market that people leave.
0:18:46 And there’s so much opportunity that it definitely isn’t an end all be all.
0:18:56 I will also say that a lot of the dealerships, especially on Google, when you go to look at their reviews, their reviews aren’t the best.
0:19:02 And they treat their customers, I think that they pump in customers a lot and they don’t treat their customers as well.
0:19:06 So we really go for 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
0:19:16 We’ve had several customers who will call me after my brother has taken care of the car and say, hey, this wasn’t up to my standards.
0:19:18 I thought that it would be different.
0:19:22 Would you come out and, and take care of this again?
0:19:25 And sometimes they won’t even offer that, but I will always tell them.
0:19:31 That we will absolutely find a time to come out and to make this right with no extra charge.
0:19:35 And we have never had a bad review because of that.
0:19:36 We always make it right.
0:19:41 And I always make sure to tell my brother that communication is key.
0:19:50 So he’s learned over time to have the customer take a look at the vehicle and walk around through it once they’re finished up to make sure that everything is up to their standards.
0:19:56 And we didn’t miss any spots is sometimes the customer may know the vehicle a little bit better than we do.
0:19:59 There might be some nicks and crannies that we weren’t aware of.
0:20:02 So it is communication is key.
0:20:16 Well, I think that’s a big advantage you guys have as, as a, as a smaller company is the customer feels comfortable calling you up and telling you rather than blasting an anonymous review online, like they might with a, with a larger company.
0:20:24 It’s like, I know, like I have a little bit more of a personal relationship with these guys and, you know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to hurt their business, but I want to give them a chance to make it right.
0:20:28 I think that’s an advantage for smaller operators in this space.
0:20:36 One thing I’m curious about now, you mentioned like, Hey, you’re sitting here inside, you’re watching football while you guys are out working on the car in the driveway.
0:20:41 I imagine that can lend itself to neighbors walking by.
0:20:49 I don’t know if you’re allowed to like put up a little sign as you’re vacuuming out the car or something that says like, Hey, bulk mobile detailing is here or working on this.
0:20:55 But like, can you give me a sense of the just natural marketing that happens during the work?
0:20:56 It’s great.
0:21:07 Whenever that happens, whenever a customer can just come by that it’s either a neighbor or they’re maybe driving by and they, they see our car outside and they see the pressure washer all hooked up.
0:21:10 They stop and ask us, Hey, how much do you guys charge?
0:21:11 Or what are you guys doing?
0:21:15 And you can start a lot of business just by that.
0:21:17 And the best part about that is it’s all free.
0:21:20 You don’t have to do anything to, to market to those kinds of people.
0:21:30 I mean, a lot of the times just by them seeing their neighbor or someone that they know getting their car detailed, it immediately builds up that, that trust.
0:21:32 They are much more likely to sign up for a detailing.
0:21:45 You ever go to like an office park or an office building where if you could somehow get in with the office manager, I don’t know, like the property management company and just set these up on a lunch break or you guys could do it all day long.
0:21:48 Like, you know, have people bring down their keys or something.
0:21:48 I don’t know.
0:21:50 Just spitballing here.
0:21:52 Yeah, I think that’s a great idea.
0:21:54 And that’s something that’s untapped.
0:21:56 So that goes back to what I was saying.
0:22:05 I don’t think that no matter how many mobile detailers are in anybody’s area, there is so much room to grow and there’s so many untapped markets still.
0:22:11 And that is something that we haven’t explored much yet, but I think it’s got great potential.
0:22:22 And I think that it could be a great reoccurring customer to come down like every Friday to this office building and you might be able to knock out five cars in a day at $100 each.
0:22:25 I think that that is a great business model.
0:22:31 And what’s best about it is it can be reoccurring and it could happen every single week or every month if you set it up that way.
0:22:39 Man, I can even see some employers like offering it as a perk of working here, of coming to this office.
0:22:44 Like, hey, you know, they’re the ones maybe they foot the bill and like, hey, we’ve got capacity to do five of these every week.
0:22:45 Put your name on the wait list.
0:22:48 I think that could be an interesting way to go.
0:22:50 But you mentioned Facebook ads a couple of times.
0:23:01 And so curious how this works, because it’s something that, you know, scrolling through my Facebook feed, maybe I wasn’t necessarily in the market for it.
0:23:03 But then I see an ad and all of a sudden I’m ready to click buy.
0:23:05 How’s Facebook working for you in that way?
0:23:06 So it’s interesting.
0:23:15 We spent $100 on an initial giveaway, and that’s how I thought that we were going to gain the bulk of our starting customers.
0:23:18 That was in New Year’s of last year.
0:23:19 It was like a New Year’s special.
0:23:28 Starting with the new year, we actually decided to give away one month or each month of the whole year, you would get a free car wash.
0:23:36 And all you had to do was sign up, was enter your email, and then at the end of this week that we would contact them, and we’d let them know the winner.
0:23:40 We spent about $100, and I think I got about 50 leads from it.
0:23:47 Out of those people, we picked one person, and that person actually told us, I don’t want your giveaway.
0:23:50 So why did they sign up for it if they didn’t want it?
0:23:56 So I think that maybe she thought that it was a scam, or she just decided she didn’t want it.
0:23:57 Might have been an impulse click.
0:24:08 So nonetheless, we targeted those people that we had captured their emails, and we decided to give every single person 50% off if they would sign up in the next two weeks.
0:24:20 Out of those, we got one person, and that was our starting customer that we started with, and we used that person to get marketing pictures for.
0:24:24 Their sister was actually there at the house and decided to book her detailing with us, too.
0:24:31 So that was a great start, but that was an unsuccessful Facebook ad campaign.
0:24:44 However, about a month later, we decided to run a Valentine’s Day special, and we had a gift card that we were selling for $59.99, and it included an interior detail and an exterior wash.
0:24:49 I spent about $80 on Facebook ads over about a week period.
0:24:58 We got 290 landing page views, and we were just driving people directly to the gift card purchase page on our website.
0:25:01 As a direct result, we got about $600 in gift card sales.
0:25:07 So I just used Canva to create just kind of like an appealing Valentine’s Day gift card.
0:25:10 It just said like, Happy Valentine’s Day.
0:25:14 Here is a free car detailing, interior detail, and a wash.
0:25:25 We would send this email and this Canva template of a gift card to them whenever they would purchase it, so that way they could print it off and put it in a card and send it to their loved ones.
0:25:26 So that did really well.
0:25:27 That’s pretty creative.
0:25:28 I like it, yeah.
0:25:30 Yeah, we got a lot of indirect sales off of that, too.
0:25:33 So it wasn’t just people all who bought the gift card.
0:25:39 Some would just reach out and then want to book a detailing for the full price because that was a special price at the time.
0:25:44 We eventually went on to do a Mother’s Day special in the month of May.
0:25:47 That was our most successful campaign that we had run.
0:25:53 Between the 3rd of May and the 9th of May, we spent $67 on Facebook ads.
0:26:03 We got 216 landing page views and $2,200 in sales as a direct result, and that was just gift card sales.
0:26:14 So we had probably an additional $1,000 to $2,000 in sales that resulted from people just deciding to send us an email because, hey, I saw your ad.
0:26:20 They weren’t necessarily wanting to buy the gift card, but they still wanted to book a detail, or maybe they decided to reach out later on.
0:26:29 So we spent $67 and made $2,200 in gift card sales plus the other benefits that came with the exposure of running these ads.
0:26:37 Yep. We reached about 6,500 people total, and it was a $0.31 cost per landing page views.
0:26:44 You mentioned doing FBA before this, but did you study Facebook ads as a part of that experiment as well?
0:26:48 It seems like awesome results relatively pretty quick out of the gate.
0:26:55 Yeah, so I had a big part of that FBA launch, and launching the product was doing a Facebook ad campaign.
0:26:59 And Facebook is very simple to use their ad account manager.
0:27:13 I mean, it’s as simple as choosing who you think your target audience would be, whether it would be 40 to 50-year-old women who enjoy arts and crafts
0:27:18 and also have kids between the ages of 10 and 16.
0:27:23 You can target that specifically on Facebook, and that’s exactly what we did.
0:27:28 And then you can just set whether you want to spend $5 or $10 a day and how long you want to run your ad.
0:27:32 So Facebook really is not challenging.
0:27:35 I think that it’s very easy to use, but I did have a little bit of experience coming in.
0:27:38 Well, those are pretty impressive results.
0:27:44 Anything else, either on the Facebook ad side or other marketing efforts that have paid off for you?
0:27:51 We’ve done a few Google ads where if someone searches automotive detailing in my area, we would be the one to show up.
0:27:54 That one hasn’t been as successful.
0:27:55 It was all right.
0:27:57 We’re still exploring that avenue.
0:28:08 Google SEO is obviously huge, just ranking organically, making sure your website is optimized so that over time you will show up on Google organic searches.
0:28:10 We tried Nextdoor app.
0:28:12 Are you familiar with the Nextdoor app?
0:28:13 Yes.
0:28:14 We tried that.
0:28:18 I ran a $50 campaign on there, and we didn’t have anyone reach out.
0:28:28 But that one is interesting because I see people posting all the time for things like yard work or roof repair or pest control in there, asking if their friends and family know people.
0:28:35 So I think that there’s definitely still room to grow on the Nextdoor app, but so far, that paid campaign hadn’t been the best for us.
0:28:37 Obviously, word of mouth is huge, too.
0:28:40 Whenever we first started, we actually did go door to door.
0:28:48 I think that I really just wanted to get the experience with my brother and just to kind of show him like, hey, this is what some people have to do on a day-by-day basis to gain business.
0:28:50 So we tried that out.
0:28:51 We printed out some flyers.
0:28:57 Didn’t have anyone that called us after putting flyers and knocking on about 50 people’s door.
0:28:58 It was freezing outside.
0:29:00 We decided to call it quits early.
0:29:03 I think everybody should have the experience of going door to door at some point.
0:29:04 Absolutely.
0:29:08 Did you guys have custom-built detailing polo shirts made up or something?
0:29:11 I’m curious, like, well, you said it was freezing, so you probably got jackets on.
0:29:13 We didn’t at the time.
0:29:15 That would have been a great addition, though.
0:29:16 Now we do.
0:29:20 We recently bought several shirts and polos to use.
0:29:27 We try to use the polos whenever we’re giving people quotes, and then we try to use the t-shirts, obviously, whenever we’re doing the work.
0:29:35 More with Josh in just a moment, including hiring additional help, the tools and tech he uses to help run the business, and where he wants to go from here.
0:29:36 Coming up right after this.
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0:31:53 Has it expanded beyond you and your brother doing the marketing, doing the work these days?
0:31:57 We had one of the guys that I actually went to high school with.
0:31:58 He was a few years older than me.
0:32:02 I had noticed that he was doing mobile detailing, and I had reached out to him.
0:32:13 We had had him helping us out here and there, but he was maintaining a full-time job as well and just wasn’t able to make as much time as we had really liked him to.
0:32:24 My brother did have a few friends of his that would come and help out here and there with things, but eventually all those people ended up getting full-time jobs somewhere else.
0:32:25 We were just kind of spotty with it.
0:32:27 It wasn’t necessarily consistent.
0:32:33 They might make a lot of money in a day, but we might not always need them every day of the week.
0:32:39 It might be just two days or one day, so eventually they all decided to go elsewhere.
0:32:46 Are there any tools or technology that you’re using to help manage the customer database or manage the bookings that come in?
0:32:48 Yeah, that’s a great question.
0:32:53 Square Appointments is what we use, and Square Appointments has just been awesome.
0:32:58 They do so much of the tax side of things.
0:33:01 They can track all of your progress and your reports.
0:33:05 They can track exactly which services you’re selling the most of.
0:33:09 Is this Square the same as the credit card reader?
0:33:16 Yep, exactly, and they will actually send you a free credit card reader, which is like a $50 value whenever you set up your account.
0:33:20 So we use that currently whenever we’re taking credit cards from people.
0:33:26 If we don’t do that, a lot of the times that we will prefer cash or check, obviously, we can also send someone an invoice.
0:33:33 If they weren’t there at the time, whenever we finished up, we could send them an invoice to their email, and they can pay like that, and that is also set up through Square.
0:33:34 Cool.
0:33:35 Well, Josh, what’s next for you?
0:33:37 Where do you want to take this thing?
0:33:43 I tell my brother all the time that you can evolve this detailing business to be anything, anything automotive-related.
0:33:50 You can evolve it to be auto repairs, oil changes, tire changes, car washes.
0:33:53 There’s so much room for growth.
0:33:58 People don’t want to have five different businesses or people to take care of their car.
0:34:04 In fact, they would love if they could just have one person that they reach out to for everything automotive-related.
0:34:12 So utilizing that book of business that we’ve built up for the detailing customers to eventually expand into other things is definitely a possibility.
0:34:15 I started this business with my brother in mind.
0:34:29 I wanted to help him out to help him make some money while he’s starting college and while he was finishing up high school so where he doesn’t have to be strapped down to some job and some boss that’s telling him what to do all the time.
0:34:33 And he can also kind of get that practical business experience, too.
0:34:38 So my plan is actually to pass it off to him eventually.
0:34:49 I would like to stay involved just kind of as a mentor and a mediator of the business in some way, but I would like him to eventually to take it on full-time.
0:34:57 As far as me, I will be graduating in May of this year, and I’m planning as of now to start a full-time career as a financial advisor.
0:35:06 I think that helping people with money and managing their money and creating financial freedom for themselves is a calling that I have.
0:35:12 It’s something that I’ve always been interested in and enjoyed, so I think that’s something that I’m shooting for.
0:35:26 But at the same time, I’m also passionate about helping student entrepreneurs just to reach their full potential because I think that there’s so many student entrepreneurs that rely on college and are forced to go to college through their parents or through their peers.
0:35:35 I think that there’s so many other ways in which student entrepreneurs can explore and so many other paths.
0:35:42 I just don’t think that it’s shown on the mainstream, and a lot of the times friends and family don’t support that.
0:35:52 So I’m also exploring trying to create some kind of community for those student entrepreneurs just to connect with each other, to make friends, and to kind of explore avenues outside of college.
0:35:55 Do you have a home base or landing page for that yet?
0:35:57 I’m currently working on it.
0:36:03 The name of the site is Student Hustles, but I don’t have it finished up yet.
0:36:05 Looking for a lot of help on it.
0:36:12 Obviously, I’m very busy with a full-time job as a web designer, helping out with the detailing business and going to school full-time.
0:36:15 So it’s difficult to find time for that.
0:36:21 Eventually, I’d like to pass off this detailing business to my brother full-time and be able to focus a little bit more on that, especially after college.
0:36:22 All right.
0:36:28 Well, when it is ready, we will be sure to link everybody up to Student Hustles.
0:36:29 Josh, I appreciate you joining me.
0:36:31 I know you’ve got a lot going on.
0:36:37 I appreciate you taking the time and sharing the inside workings of the mobile detailing operation.
0:36:40 Like Josh said, $40, $50 an hour on your own schedule.
0:36:42 This is a pretty interesting one.
0:36:47 Let’s wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.
0:36:52 My number one tip for Side Hustle Nation would be consistency always wins.
0:37:01 And even if you’re starting out and you’re not really sure where to go or what to do, day by day, moment by moment, stay consistent with what you do.
0:37:08 Whether it’s with working out or building up a business or studying for school, consistency always wins.
0:37:10 It is so true.
0:37:12 Josh, thanks so much.
0:37:13 And we’ll catch up with you soon.
0:37:23 In Josh’s initial email to me, he called himself a, quote, obsessed entrepreneur.
0:37:28 And he wrote that, I see my family and peers stuck in the rat race, living paycheck to paycheck.
0:37:31 And I do not want that to happen to me after college.
0:37:33 And so Josh took action.
0:37:36 He committed to learning along the way, but he took action.
0:37:41 And since you’re listening to this, I think you probably have at least a little bit of that same attitude, too.
0:37:45 Even if your college days are, like mine, ancient history or maybe never even happened.
0:37:50 But regardless, the good news here is that everything is learnable.
0:37:50 All right.
0:37:53 My top three takeaways from this call with Josh.
0:37:56 Number one is to think first time customers.
0:38:03 Josh mentioned that many, if not most of his clients have never had a car detailed before.
0:38:09 That’s one reason I’m excited about these types of local service businesses, that the pie just keeps getting bigger.
0:38:14 A generation ago, people would either do it themselves or not do it at all.
0:38:18 And today, people are happily paying someone else to go do it for them.
0:38:20 Now, how does the saying go?
0:38:23 A luxury once experienced becomes a necessity.
0:38:27 But that’s great news for providers of local services like mobile detailing.
0:38:35 I thought Josh’s gift card campaigns on social media were a really cool idea because it is kind of a luxury service.
0:38:38 It makes for a great treat yourself kind of gift, right?
0:38:42 Now, could you apply a similar strategy in your business around the upcoming holidays?
0:38:44 That’s takeaway number one for me.
0:38:46 Focus on these first time customers.
0:38:50 Maybe they’ve never bought a service like yours before, but there’s a first time for everything.
0:38:53 Takeaway number two is to collect reviews.
0:39:00 For any new business, social proof and building trust with those first time customers is so crucial.
0:39:07 And I like how Josh mentioned that they had the review links for Facebook and Google ready to go before they even had a customer.
0:39:15 The cool thing is here for most local services in most cities is not going to take that many reviews to stand out.
0:39:17 Maybe five, maybe ten, and you’re off to the races.
0:39:23 And this is especially important if you’re following their strategy of pricing low early on.
0:39:30 Working for less than you normally would makes sense if you can turn that client into several more clients,
0:39:34 either through their glowing testimonial or through word of mouth.
0:39:39 That was takeaway number two for me to collect reviews and be really diligent about that.
0:39:43 Takeaway number three was to target business to business, target business customers.
0:39:50 It sounded like the most consistent source of jobs were from their relationship with that local car dealership,
0:39:59 which makes sense because they’re constantly turning over inventory where an individual car owner might get his car done or her car done maybe a few times a year at most.
0:40:09 If I had the capacity, if I were in Josh’s shoes and had the capacity, I would be building relationships with other similar businesses, other similar dealerships.
0:40:18 And you might find through conversations there’s a sweet spot where the super small used car lots do it themselves and the mega dealers,
0:40:22 maybe they already have somebody in-house, but you never know until you strike up that conversation.
0:40:29 Now, that said, Josh did say it can be tough to find other detailers, subcontractor detailers,
0:40:34 to fulfill that work because it can be a little inconsistent in terms of timing and demand.
0:40:41 And I think that’s a struggle for a lot of freelancers, a lot of service providers who need or want to graduate from doing the work themselves.
0:40:45 But maybe they don’t have the volume to hire it out yet.
0:40:47 Maybe they don’t have the margins to hire it out yet.
0:40:53 In our cleaning conversations with Chris Schwab, he called it the trough of despair or the valley of despair.
0:41:00 But if you can find great workers to build out your team, like Josh said, there’s a ton of opportunity for growth here.
0:41:06 But going back to the thing on targeting a business customer, it could be as simple as asking the question,
0:41:08 how do you guys handle detailing around here?
0:41:09 Start that conversation, right?
0:41:15 And if you today have a primarily consumer-facing business, a consumer-facing operation,
0:41:23 is there a slight pivot or refocusing that would make that offer of yours applicable to a business customer?
0:41:24 Something to think about.
0:41:32 And cool side note here is that in niches like this, where there is no dominant regional or national player,
0:41:34 there’s an opportunity to go really big.
0:41:38 Think beyond the side hustle to go really big and become that player.
0:41:45 Maybe in this case, it looks like a booking or matchmaking app that connects you with a reliable,
0:41:50 reputable local service provider and just takes a percentage of each job.
0:41:53 Like firsthand, I use a similar service for house cleaning called Handy.
0:41:55 It’s very easy to do business with.
0:41:57 I came across GreenPal.
0:41:59 You’ll find it at yourgreenpal.com.
0:42:03 They’re building something similar in the lawn mowing and yard care space.
0:42:08 In the virtual space, we’ve heard from folks like Design Pickle for graphic design.
0:42:12 There’s Belay Solutions in the virtual assistant arena.
0:42:15 It’s an exciting place to explore, for sure.
0:42:21 But once again, make sure to hit up SideHustleNation.com slash detailing for the full text summary of our call
0:42:23 and links to all the resources that Josh mentioned.
0:42:25 Hey, one last thing.
0:42:26 Can I send you some free stuff?
0:42:32 If you head on over to SideHustleNation.com slash join, I’ll send you my free report,
0:42:37 The Five Fastest Ways to Make More Money, plus my weekly newsletter packed with money-making ideas.
0:42:42 On top of that, you’ll also get access to hundreds of members-only goodies and bonus files,
0:42:46 including tons of tactical tips from top podcast guests,
0:42:52 plus an invite to the world’s largest, most active, and most supportive SideHustle community.
0:42:56 That’s all free for you at SideHustleNation.com slash join,
0:43:00 or text the code HUSTLEON to 33444.
0:43:02 That is it for me.
0:43:03 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:43:06 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen,
0:43:09 and I’ll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show.
0:43:10 Hustle on.
0:00:11 How a couple college students built a $6,000 a month business out of a Honda Accord.
0:00:17 What’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here. Welcome to the Side Hustle Show because yes,
0:00:22 you can cut your own paycheck. I got a note from a listener the other day and he explained
0:00:28 he was a full-time college student working full-time in web design and in his spare time
0:00:34 had started a $6,000 a month side hustle with his younger brother cleaning and detailing cars.
0:00:40 Josh Belk from BelkMobileDetailing.com said the inspiration came from two things.
0:00:42 Thing number one was his brother’s obsession.
0:00:48 He drove his car about 12,000 miles in the first three months of owning it.
0:00:53 It was a Honda Accord and was driving it just all the time. It’s just what he liked to do for fun,
0:00:56 was drive it around. And while he was driving it all the time,
0:01:00 he had to make sure to keep it clean. So I’d always see him out in the driveway,
0:01:04 detailing it, vacuuming out his car.
0:01:08 And thing number two was an email from Ty Lopez.
0:01:13 I was just kind of browsing through this email that he had sent out. And one of the ideas was to
0:01:18 start a mobile car washing business. And I just kind of put the two and two together
0:01:25 and told my brother one day, hey, why don’t we try to monetize this thing and make some money on it.
0:01:30 And make some money is what they did. Stick around in this one to hear how Josh and his brother
0:01:35 landed their first customers, how they price their service, and how they stand out from the
0:01:40 competition. Notes and links for this episode, plus the full text summary of our call are at
0:01:46 sidehustlenation.com slash detailing. And one important thing to note here is to use this as a
0:01:51 lens for any number of local service-based businesses, which broadly speaking is one of
0:01:57 the side hustle models I’m most excited about right now. It’s about mobile detailing, but it’s
0:02:02 not just about mobile detailing, if that makes sense. I’ll be back with my top takeaways from this chat with
0:02:07 Josh after the interview. We start this one off with where those crucial first customers came from.
0:02:09 Ready? Let’s do it.
0:02:17 Friends and family is key. I think that that was the most important starting point for us.
0:02:21 Just being our mom was very helpful with everything that we’ve ever done.
0:02:27 She’s always supportive. So one of the first things that she did was send out a text message and post on
0:02:33 Facebook just to like a few of her friends and other family members around town, just letting them know
0:02:38 like, hey, my sons have started up a mobile detailing business. And 99% of the people that she sent
0:02:46 that too didn’t reply and didn’t call us, but that’s expected. And the 1% that did, we had a few
0:02:52 people. Those are your starting customers. And you really use those people for getting great marketing
0:02:57 material through before and after pictures, helping to establish some good first reviews and reviews are
0:03:03 everything in this business. Because if you can have a great five-star review on Google and Facebook,
0:03:07 then you will stand out amongst your competitors.
0:03:12 Okay. Did you already have all of the equipment necessary?
0:03:17 Like maybe we should back up and ask what equipment is necessary for this stuff?
0:03:21 Yeah, that’s a great question because we didn’t have everything necessary.
0:03:27 But really to start, there’s a few things that are really important to have.
0:03:31 For one, you obviously need some kind of bucket.
0:03:46 We actually started out with using a bucket and a wash mitt, which the bucket is like about $30. I think the one that we bought in the wash mitt was like $5 or $10. You can go buy it. One at your local O’Reilly or one on Amazon pretty easy.
0:03:48 That’s a very fancy bucket. What does it do?
0:04:06 So essentially, it has a grit on the bottom that you can use to scrape your wash mitt. And it’ll kind of help to separate the dirt from the rest of the water in the shampoo. So that way, it just helps to kind of cleanse out all the dirt that you’re using whenever you’re washing the car.
0:04:22 We actually started without a pressure washer. We were just using these little tanks, pumping them up, spraying them on the vehicles. It worked out okay, but it doesn’t allow you to get the underbodies of the car and really the stuff that kind of soaks in a lot.
0:04:37 So we were going through a lot of towels with using just those little pump buckets. So we eventually decided to go ahead and buy a pressure washer. It’s actually called the Worx. And it is a completely mobile pressure washer. It’s about $170 is how much it cost us.
0:04:53 And the great thing about that one was it was battery powered. So we could charge with the batteries before we would go to the site. And the batteries would usually hold for about an hour. We do ask, including now, most of our customers to use their water and electricity, and they are completely fine with it.
0:05:08 We’ve only had a few that have apartments. And sometimes we can usually work around by having them travel to their friends or families. And a lot of the times they’re very flexible and they’re completely okay with that. But besides the pressure washer and the bucket, obviously some great towels help, some brushes.
0:05:20 Chemicals wise, we like to use a degreaser for most of the stuff we do. We have a spray wax and a tire shine. Those three chemicals are really great. I think the extract we bought was about $120.
0:05:28 I would say that’s a pretty critical part of the interior part of your business because we made the most of the money to start out with interior detailing.
0:05:37 And that extractor is something that it adds a huge value to the service whenever you can get out stains and stuff like that.
0:05:49 So that extractor, which could just be bought on Amazon for around $120, was huge, as well as a steamer. A steamer helps with doing the leather seats or the side panels on doors
0:05:57 or center console areas that have coffee or some kind of drinks that have been spilled and sticky stuff in there. That steamer was also very helpful.
0:06:04 And then obviously a vacuum is definitely needed. A shop vac, about $40, I think is how much we paid for ours.
0:06:10 By the end of it, I think we had spent about $500 to $600 total on equipment.
0:06:14 But a lot of that stuff had been added on, like after we started making money up first.
0:06:21 But all in all, pretty low startup cost business. And I’m glad you clarified what you were extracting.
0:06:27 It’s like, well, what does an extractor do here? It is very clear my car has never been cleaned to this level of detail.
0:06:32 So maybe I am due for a detailing. But maybe that goes to the next section is like, well,
0:06:38 you probably don’t have many late model Ford Escapes as customers. Like, what kind of cars are you working on here?
0:06:42 Most of the time, our customers, it is their first time having the detail done.
0:06:47 We always luck out every now and then by having the customer that they do clean their car a lot.
0:06:52 And a lot of the times they call us up for a full detail, expecting to pay the full price.
0:06:54 And their car is not bad at all.
0:06:58 And those are usually the customers that say to us like, oh, my car is so bad.
0:07:01 I’m so sorry. Those are the best case scenarios for us.
0:07:03 You’re like, believe me, believe me, we’ve seen worse.
0:07:05 Exactly. That’s what we like to tell people.
0:07:11 So right now, a lot of the time we are doing customers that it’s the first time they’re ever
0:07:17 having their vehicle detailed. They probably saw one of our advertisements on Facebook,
0:07:23 or they heard about us through a friend and they realized like, wow, my car needs to be detailed.
0:07:25 I would love to have it just spotless.
0:07:30 Some people even can search on Google if they search for like mobile car washing or mobile
0:07:33 detailing in my area or even detailing in my area.
0:07:35 We do show up in some of the Google results, too.
0:07:40 So definitely those first time customers are, I would say, our prime target market.
0:07:42 We also have a dealership.
0:07:47 It’s a small dealership that calls us about three or four times a week for different cars.
0:07:55 And that’s the best case scenario because they are reoccurring and they’re always bringing new cars in from auction.
0:08:02 That is someone that we can rely on without having to spend any new marketing dollars towards every single week.
0:08:03 Yeah, that’s awesome.
0:08:05 How did you start that relationship?
0:08:10 They called us and I’m not sure how they found us out.
0:08:19 It’s a question that I should probably figure out because the dealership owner called us and he either found us through one of two ways.
0:08:23 He either found us through a Facebook ad or through Google at the time.
0:08:31 And he reached out and just asked about coming to their dealership and doing detailings for them on a weekly basis.
0:08:37 We said absolutely, came out, agreed on a price that we would start at, and we just went from there.
0:08:38 Okay.
0:08:48 For these first customers, either the dealership or the friends and family, mom’s text and Facebook post, how did you figure out how much to charge these folks?
0:08:51 So that one was kind of random.
0:08:52 We started low.
0:08:59 I think that we initially started with $30 for a full detail, both inside and out.
0:09:01 I believe that took us around two hours.
0:09:06 We didn’t have all the add-on services at the time, so we were just doing like vacuuming, wiping things down.
0:09:10 We were putting a shine on like all the upholstery, kind of like an armor roll.
0:09:12 And it was around $30.
0:09:16 I think we actually had listed it at $50, and we were running a special for $30.
0:09:22 So I remember my brother telling me actually the first day that we did like a stranger’s car.
0:09:25 It was someone that had seen a Facebook ad that we had done.
0:09:29 I remember him telling me whenever we went to go grab lunch, I don’t think this is worth it.
0:09:33 Doing car detailing for this cheap, it’s just not worth my time.
0:09:35 It’s hard work.
0:09:41 And I told him that our prices are only this cheap temporarily, and we would raise them soon.
0:09:52 And really, this was to get initial startup customers to build reviews and to build some kind of marketing materials, as well as experience under our belt.
0:09:54 So it sounds like he’s the one doing the labor.
0:10:01 You’re the one behind the scenes doing the marketing, the Facebook stuff, providing the seed money, and all this.
0:10:04 He’s the one who’s putting the elbow grease into these vehicles.
0:10:05 Absolutely.
0:10:07 It wouldn’t be able to work without him.
0:10:10 But at the beginning, I definitely was helping him out.
0:10:13 And then now he does primarily all of the detailing.
0:10:21 More with Josh in just a moment, including collecting positive customer reviews, quoting jobs, and some more creative marketing ideas.
0:10:23 Coming up right after this.
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0:12:47 Okay, so starting very, very inexpensively to the point where the labor is questioning whether or not it’s even worth it.
0:12:50 But hey, we’re building up before and after pictures.
0:12:53 We’re building up hopefully happy customer testimonials.
0:12:58 Did you do anything specific to request those reviews on Google or Yelp or Facebook?
0:13:08 Yeah, so I had been – I had done some Amazon FBA selling before I got into the mobile detailing business, and it had failed massively.
0:13:19 I lost around $3,000 in the span of about six months, and I think I put in about six months to a year of total prep work, learning how to do this whole business model.
0:13:24 And while I lost out on a lot of money, I learned a ton of stuff.
0:13:32 And one of the things that I learned from this coach actually that I had bought a course from was the importance of reaching out and asking for a review.
0:13:40 And making that as easy as possible by sending them a link where they can click on the link, and it’ll immediately take them to either a Facebook or a Google review.
0:13:45 So before we even went in with our first customer, we had that review link set up.
0:13:52 And as soon as we were finished with the service, we would just ask them, hey, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could leave us a positive review.
0:13:55 And at first, we were just doing Facebook.
0:13:56 We eventually switched over to doing Google.
0:14:04 We try not to overwhelm them by doing both of them at the same time, although if there’s someone that really wants to leave a review, we often will send them both review links.
0:14:10 But we kind of switched off by doing one or the other just to try to build up positive feedback on both those sites.
0:14:17 Facebook seems like an interesting option to try and solicit reviews for where Google makes sense to me.
0:14:20 I can show up in Google search results.
0:14:25 If somebody searches for mobile detailing service near me, you’re likely to show up there.
0:14:27 Has that started to happen?
0:14:46 Yes, and that’s a great point because you want to build your business to where over time it will start to rank organically and you’ve established your presence and you’ve built up your reviews on Google because there will be a ton of people that will be searching for mobile detailing near me, car washes near me.
0:14:56 And if you can build up those positive reviews and you can have a good rank on Google, that’ll help with reaching people organically without having to spend advertising dollars.
0:14:59 Have you seen any of that start to take effect?
0:15:04 I would say we get probably five to seven calls a week from organic Google traffic.
0:15:06 Two months ago, that was zero.
0:15:08 So it can pick up pretty quickly there.
0:15:11 I was going to say 30 bucks is a steal.
0:15:15 You can come over to my house anytime, but it sounds like pricing has evolved a little bit since then.
0:15:20 What’s it look like today and maybe how much time does that take you?
0:15:23 So it was a couple hours, you know, maybe to do this full detail.
0:15:29 Have you or has your brother improved his speed and process or really depends on the car?
0:15:30 Yeah, definitely.
0:15:33 We’ve improved the speed and process for sure.
0:15:37 And that just comes with experience and learning like what method to use, what to do first.
0:15:41 We started out with, like I said, about $50 for a full detail.
0:15:52 Soon after, once we started to get a little bit more, a little bit more traffic in, we raised it about $20 up to $70, eventually raise it up to $100 within like a few months after that, eventually up to like $120.
0:16:02 And now, as of a few months ago, we’ve established $90 for starting cost or starting price for doing an interior detail.
0:16:08 We start at $50 for exterior detail and then $140 starting price for a full detail.
0:16:17 And notice I said starting cost because I tell every single person that calls me and wants a quote that we must inspect the vehicle beforehand.
0:16:23 And that’s because some vehicles take way longer and are way dirtier than others.
0:16:28 And the customer, a lot of the times, will like tell you, oh, my vehicle really isn’t that bad.
0:16:35 And then once you take a look at it, you realize that it’s going to take you five hours of work and the initial $100 you quoted them is not worth it anymore.
0:16:41 So it’s very important that you tell the customer that we will need to inspect it to give you an exact quote.
0:16:54 A lot of the times, I will offer to give a quote to them for free and we can set up a time to come out directly to their work or to their home at their convenience and give them a quick five to ten minute quote.
0:17:01 Either myself or my brother will go out and we’ll take a look at it, kind of talk to them about what things they were liking to have done.
0:17:14 If they were liking to have their carpet shampooed or if they were liking to have their leather seats conditioned or if they were wanting to have a special kind of coating put on the exterior, all those things will communicate with them and then come out of quotes.
0:17:24 So the starting price for the interior, the $90, it does not include things like carpet shampooing or seat shampooing or leather conditioning or if there is excess dog hair.
0:17:37 Those are things that we do add on extra for and then if they have like a truck or an SUV, we’ll charge a little bit extra for that or if they were wanting something like a cream wax or ceramic coating, we’ll charge them extra for that as well.
0:17:40 Is there an hourly rate you’re shooting for on those quotes?
0:17:41 Yeah.
0:17:43 So we go for $40 to $50 an hour.
0:17:47 That is a fantastic college gig.
0:17:49 I mean, that’s a fantastic gig for anybody.
0:17:50 That’s pretty cool.
0:18:01 When you guys were starting out, I’m curious if there were any, if there was any competitive analysis, competitive research, like, oh, there’s already half a dozen detailers in town.
0:18:03 I don’t think there’s a market for this.
0:18:06 Like, did any of that go through your head or was that part of the process?
0:18:19 We definitely did think of that because there are a ton of other detailers and a lot of the, a lot of the detailers that were online, they were charging, charging quite a bit for their services.
0:18:21 And well, they were also, they weren’t mobile.
0:18:23 So you had to go directly to them.
0:18:28 And a huge part of our business is the fact that we can come directly to your home and do it.
0:18:32 So you could be sitting on the couch, watching TV on Saturday morning and we can be cleaning your car.
0:18:35 So that is a huge selling point.
0:18:39 And there was no one that was really doing that business model in our town.
0:18:43 But even if there is, there’s still so many holes in the market that people leave.
0:18:46 And there’s so much opportunity that it definitely isn’t an end all be all.
0:18:56 I will also say that a lot of the dealerships, especially on Google, when you go to look at their reviews, their reviews aren’t the best.
0:19:02 And they treat their customers, I think that they pump in customers a lot and they don’t treat their customers as well.
0:19:06 So we really go for 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
0:19:16 We’ve had several customers who will call me after my brother has taken care of the car and say, hey, this wasn’t up to my standards.
0:19:18 I thought that it would be different.
0:19:22 Would you come out and, and take care of this again?
0:19:25 And sometimes they won’t even offer that, but I will always tell them.
0:19:31 That we will absolutely find a time to come out and to make this right with no extra charge.
0:19:35 And we have never had a bad review because of that.
0:19:36 We always make it right.
0:19:41 And I always make sure to tell my brother that communication is key.
0:19:50 So he’s learned over time to have the customer take a look at the vehicle and walk around through it once they’re finished up to make sure that everything is up to their standards.
0:19:56 And we didn’t miss any spots is sometimes the customer may know the vehicle a little bit better than we do.
0:19:59 There might be some nicks and crannies that we weren’t aware of.
0:20:02 So it is communication is key.
0:20:16 Well, I think that’s a big advantage you guys have as, as a, as a smaller company is the customer feels comfortable calling you up and telling you rather than blasting an anonymous review online, like they might with a, with a larger company.
0:20:24 It’s like, I know, like I have a little bit more of a personal relationship with these guys and, you know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to hurt their business, but I want to give them a chance to make it right.
0:20:28 I think that’s an advantage for smaller operators in this space.
0:20:36 One thing I’m curious about now, you mentioned like, Hey, you’re sitting here inside, you’re watching football while you guys are out working on the car in the driveway.
0:20:41 I imagine that can lend itself to neighbors walking by.
0:20:49 I don’t know if you’re allowed to like put up a little sign as you’re vacuuming out the car or something that says like, Hey, bulk mobile detailing is here or working on this.
0:20:55 But like, can you give me a sense of the just natural marketing that happens during the work?
0:20:56 It’s great.
0:21:07 Whenever that happens, whenever a customer can just come by that it’s either a neighbor or they’re maybe driving by and they, they see our car outside and they see the pressure washer all hooked up.
0:21:10 They stop and ask us, Hey, how much do you guys charge?
0:21:11 Or what are you guys doing?
0:21:15 And you can start a lot of business just by that.
0:21:17 And the best part about that is it’s all free.
0:21:20 You don’t have to do anything to, to market to those kinds of people.
0:21:30 I mean, a lot of the times just by them seeing their neighbor or someone that they know getting their car detailed, it immediately builds up that, that trust.
0:21:32 They are much more likely to sign up for a detailing.
0:21:45 You ever go to like an office park or an office building where if you could somehow get in with the office manager, I don’t know, like the property management company and just set these up on a lunch break or you guys could do it all day long.
0:21:48 Like, you know, have people bring down their keys or something.
0:21:48 I don’t know.
0:21:50 Just spitballing here.
0:21:52 Yeah, I think that’s a great idea.
0:21:54 And that’s something that’s untapped.
0:21:56 So that goes back to what I was saying.
0:22:05 I don’t think that no matter how many mobile detailers are in anybody’s area, there is so much room to grow and there’s so many untapped markets still.
0:22:11 And that is something that we haven’t explored much yet, but I think it’s got great potential.
0:22:22 And I think that it could be a great reoccurring customer to come down like every Friday to this office building and you might be able to knock out five cars in a day at $100 each.
0:22:25 I think that that is a great business model.
0:22:31 And what’s best about it is it can be reoccurring and it could happen every single week or every month if you set it up that way.
0:22:39 Man, I can even see some employers like offering it as a perk of working here, of coming to this office.
0:22:44 Like, hey, you know, they’re the ones maybe they foot the bill and like, hey, we’ve got capacity to do five of these every week.
0:22:45 Put your name on the wait list.
0:22:48 I think that could be an interesting way to go.
0:22:50 But you mentioned Facebook ads a couple of times.
0:23:01 And so curious how this works, because it’s something that, you know, scrolling through my Facebook feed, maybe I wasn’t necessarily in the market for it.
0:23:03 But then I see an ad and all of a sudden I’m ready to click buy.
0:23:05 How’s Facebook working for you in that way?
0:23:06 So it’s interesting.
0:23:15 We spent $100 on an initial giveaway, and that’s how I thought that we were going to gain the bulk of our starting customers.
0:23:18 That was in New Year’s of last year.
0:23:19 It was like a New Year’s special.
0:23:28 Starting with the new year, we actually decided to give away one month or each month of the whole year, you would get a free car wash.
0:23:36 And all you had to do was sign up, was enter your email, and then at the end of this week that we would contact them, and we’d let them know the winner.
0:23:40 We spent about $100, and I think I got about 50 leads from it.
0:23:47 Out of those people, we picked one person, and that person actually told us, I don’t want your giveaway.
0:23:50 So why did they sign up for it if they didn’t want it?
0:23:56 So I think that maybe she thought that it was a scam, or she just decided she didn’t want it.
0:23:57 Might have been an impulse click.
0:24:08 So nonetheless, we targeted those people that we had captured their emails, and we decided to give every single person 50% off if they would sign up in the next two weeks.
0:24:20 Out of those, we got one person, and that was our starting customer that we started with, and we used that person to get marketing pictures for.
0:24:24 Their sister was actually there at the house and decided to book her detailing with us, too.
0:24:31 So that was a great start, but that was an unsuccessful Facebook ad campaign.
0:24:44 However, about a month later, we decided to run a Valentine’s Day special, and we had a gift card that we were selling for $59.99, and it included an interior detail and an exterior wash.
0:24:49 I spent about $80 on Facebook ads over about a week period.
0:24:58 We got 290 landing page views, and we were just driving people directly to the gift card purchase page on our website.
0:25:01 As a direct result, we got about $600 in gift card sales.
0:25:07 So I just used Canva to create just kind of like an appealing Valentine’s Day gift card.
0:25:10 It just said like, Happy Valentine’s Day.
0:25:14 Here is a free car detailing, interior detail, and a wash.
0:25:25 We would send this email and this Canva template of a gift card to them whenever they would purchase it, so that way they could print it off and put it in a card and send it to their loved ones.
0:25:26 So that did really well.
0:25:27 That’s pretty creative.
0:25:28 I like it, yeah.
0:25:30 Yeah, we got a lot of indirect sales off of that, too.
0:25:33 So it wasn’t just people all who bought the gift card.
0:25:39 Some would just reach out and then want to book a detailing for the full price because that was a special price at the time.
0:25:44 We eventually went on to do a Mother’s Day special in the month of May.
0:25:47 That was our most successful campaign that we had run.
0:25:53 Between the 3rd of May and the 9th of May, we spent $67 on Facebook ads.
0:26:03 We got 216 landing page views and $2,200 in sales as a direct result, and that was just gift card sales.
0:26:14 So we had probably an additional $1,000 to $2,000 in sales that resulted from people just deciding to send us an email because, hey, I saw your ad.
0:26:20 They weren’t necessarily wanting to buy the gift card, but they still wanted to book a detail, or maybe they decided to reach out later on.
0:26:29 So we spent $67 and made $2,200 in gift card sales plus the other benefits that came with the exposure of running these ads.
0:26:37 Yep. We reached about 6,500 people total, and it was a $0.31 cost per landing page views.
0:26:44 You mentioned doing FBA before this, but did you study Facebook ads as a part of that experiment as well?
0:26:48 It seems like awesome results relatively pretty quick out of the gate.
0:26:55 Yeah, so I had a big part of that FBA launch, and launching the product was doing a Facebook ad campaign.
0:26:59 And Facebook is very simple to use their ad account manager.
0:27:13 I mean, it’s as simple as choosing who you think your target audience would be, whether it would be 40 to 50-year-old women who enjoy arts and crafts
0:27:18 and also have kids between the ages of 10 and 16.
0:27:23 You can target that specifically on Facebook, and that’s exactly what we did.
0:27:28 And then you can just set whether you want to spend $5 or $10 a day and how long you want to run your ad.
0:27:32 So Facebook really is not challenging.
0:27:35 I think that it’s very easy to use, but I did have a little bit of experience coming in.
0:27:38 Well, those are pretty impressive results.
0:27:44 Anything else, either on the Facebook ad side or other marketing efforts that have paid off for you?
0:27:51 We’ve done a few Google ads where if someone searches automotive detailing in my area, we would be the one to show up.
0:27:54 That one hasn’t been as successful.
0:27:55 It was all right.
0:27:57 We’re still exploring that avenue.
0:28:08 Google SEO is obviously huge, just ranking organically, making sure your website is optimized so that over time you will show up on Google organic searches.
0:28:10 We tried Nextdoor app.
0:28:12 Are you familiar with the Nextdoor app?
0:28:13 Yes.
0:28:14 We tried that.
0:28:18 I ran a $50 campaign on there, and we didn’t have anyone reach out.
0:28:28 But that one is interesting because I see people posting all the time for things like yard work or roof repair or pest control in there, asking if their friends and family know people.
0:28:35 So I think that there’s definitely still room to grow on the Nextdoor app, but so far, that paid campaign hadn’t been the best for us.
0:28:37 Obviously, word of mouth is huge, too.
0:28:40 Whenever we first started, we actually did go door to door.
0:28:48 I think that I really just wanted to get the experience with my brother and just to kind of show him like, hey, this is what some people have to do on a day-by-day basis to gain business.
0:28:50 So we tried that out.
0:28:51 We printed out some flyers.
0:28:57 Didn’t have anyone that called us after putting flyers and knocking on about 50 people’s door.
0:28:58 It was freezing outside.
0:29:00 We decided to call it quits early.
0:29:03 I think everybody should have the experience of going door to door at some point.
0:29:04 Absolutely.
0:29:08 Did you guys have custom-built detailing polo shirts made up or something?
0:29:11 I’m curious, like, well, you said it was freezing, so you probably got jackets on.
0:29:13 We didn’t at the time.
0:29:15 That would have been a great addition, though.
0:29:16 Now we do.
0:29:20 We recently bought several shirts and polos to use.
0:29:27 We try to use the polos whenever we’re giving people quotes, and then we try to use the t-shirts, obviously, whenever we’re doing the work.
0:29:35 More with Josh in just a moment, including hiring additional help, the tools and tech he uses to help run the business, and where he wants to go from here.
0:29:36 Coming up right after this.
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0:31:53 Has it expanded beyond you and your brother doing the marketing, doing the work these days?
0:31:57 We had one of the guys that I actually went to high school with.
0:31:58 He was a few years older than me.
0:32:02 I had noticed that he was doing mobile detailing, and I had reached out to him.
0:32:13 We had had him helping us out here and there, but he was maintaining a full-time job as well and just wasn’t able to make as much time as we had really liked him to.
0:32:24 My brother did have a few friends of his that would come and help out here and there with things, but eventually all those people ended up getting full-time jobs somewhere else.
0:32:25 We were just kind of spotty with it.
0:32:27 It wasn’t necessarily consistent.
0:32:33 They might make a lot of money in a day, but we might not always need them every day of the week.
0:32:39 It might be just two days or one day, so eventually they all decided to go elsewhere.
0:32:46 Are there any tools or technology that you’re using to help manage the customer database or manage the bookings that come in?
0:32:48 Yeah, that’s a great question.
0:32:53 Square Appointments is what we use, and Square Appointments has just been awesome.
0:32:58 They do so much of the tax side of things.
0:33:01 They can track all of your progress and your reports.
0:33:05 They can track exactly which services you’re selling the most of.
0:33:09 Is this Square the same as the credit card reader?
0:33:16 Yep, exactly, and they will actually send you a free credit card reader, which is like a $50 value whenever you set up your account.
0:33:20 So we use that currently whenever we’re taking credit cards from people.
0:33:26 If we don’t do that, a lot of the times that we will prefer cash or check, obviously, we can also send someone an invoice.
0:33:33 If they weren’t there at the time, whenever we finished up, we could send them an invoice to their email, and they can pay like that, and that is also set up through Square.
0:33:34 Cool.
0:33:35 Well, Josh, what’s next for you?
0:33:37 Where do you want to take this thing?
0:33:43 I tell my brother all the time that you can evolve this detailing business to be anything, anything automotive-related.
0:33:50 You can evolve it to be auto repairs, oil changes, tire changes, car washes.
0:33:53 There’s so much room for growth.
0:33:58 People don’t want to have five different businesses or people to take care of their car.
0:34:04 In fact, they would love if they could just have one person that they reach out to for everything automotive-related.
0:34:12 So utilizing that book of business that we’ve built up for the detailing customers to eventually expand into other things is definitely a possibility.
0:34:15 I started this business with my brother in mind.
0:34:29 I wanted to help him out to help him make some money while he’s starting college and while he was finishing up high school so where he doesn’t have to be strapped down to some job and some boss that’s telling him what to do all the time.
0:34:33 And he can also kind of get that practical business experience, too.
0:34:38 So my plan is actually to pass it off to him eventually.
0:34:49 I would like to stay involved just kind of as a mentor and a mediator of the business in some way, but I would like him to eventually to take it on full-time.
0:34:57 As far as me, I will be graduating in May of this year, and I’m planning as of now to start a full-time career as a financial advisor.
0:35:06 I think that helping people with money and managing their money and creating financial freedom for themselves is a calling that I have.
0:35:12 It’s something that I’ve always been interested in and enjoyed, so I think that’s something that I’m shooting for.
0:35:26 But at the same time, I’m also passionate about helping student entrepreneurs just to reach their full potential because I think that there’s so many student entrepreneurs that rely on college and are forced to go to college through their parents or through their peers.
0:35:35 I think that there’s so many other ways in which student entrepreneurs can explore and so many other paths.
0:35:42 I just don’t think that it’s shown on the mainstream, and a lot of the times friends and family don’t support that.
0:35:52 So I’m also exploring trying to create some kind of community for those student entrepreneurs just to connect with each other, to make friends, and to kind of explore avenues outside of college.
0:35:55 Do you have a home base or landing page for that yet?
0:35:57 I’m currently working on it.
0:36:03 The name of the site is Student Hustles, but I don’t have it finished up yet.
0:36:05 Looking for a lot of help on it.
0:36:12 Obviously, I’m very busy with a full-time job as a web designer, helping out with the detailing business and going to school full-time.
0:36:15 So it’s difficult to find time for that.
0:36:21 Eventually, I’d like to pass off this detailing business to my brother full-time and be able to focus a little bit more on that, especially after college.
0:36:22 All right.
0:36:28 Well, when it is ready, we will be sure to link everybody up to Student Hustles.
0:36:29 Josh, I appreciate you joining me.
0:36:31 I know you’ve got a lot going on.
0:36:37 I appreciate you taking the time and sharing the inside workings of the mobile detailing operation.
0:36:40 Like Josh said, $40, $50 an hour on your own schedule.
0:36:42 This is a pretty interesting one.
0:36:47 Let’s wrap this thing up with your number one tip for Side Hustle Nation.
0:36:52 My number one tip for Side Hustle Nation would be consistency always wins.
0:37:01 And even if you’re starting out and you’re not really sure where to go or what to do, day by day, moment by moment, stay consistent with what you do.
0:37:08 Whether it’s with working out or building up a business or studying for school, consistency always wins.
0:37:10 It is so true.
0:37:12 Josh, thanks so much.
0:37:13 And we’ll catch up with you soon.
0:37:23 In Josh’s initial email to me, he called himself a, quote, obsessed entrepreneur.
0:37:28 And he wrote that, I see my family and peers stuck in the rat race, living paycheck to paycheck.
0:37:31 And I do not want that to happen to me after college.
0:37:33 And so Josh took action.
0:37:36 He committed to learning along the way, but he took action.
0:37:41 And since you’re listening to this, I think you probably have at least a little bit of that same attitude, too.
0:37:45 Even if your college days are, like mine, ancient history or maybe never even happened.
0:37:50 But regardless, the good news here is that everything is learnable.
0:37:50 All right.
0:37:53 My top three takeaways from this call with Josh.
0:37:56 Number one is to think first time customers.
0:38:03 Josh mentioned that many, if not most of his clients have never had a car detailed before.
0:38:09 That’s one reason I’m excited about these types of local service businesses, that the pie just keeps getting bigger.
0:38:14 A generation ago, people would either do it themselves or not do it at all.
0:38:18 And today, people are happily paying someone else to go do it for them.
0:38:20 Now, how does the saying go?
0:38:23 A luxury once experienced becomes a necessity.
0:38:27 But that’s great news for providers of local services like mobile detailing.
0:38:35 I thought Josh’s gift card campaigns on social media were a really cool idea because it is kind of a luxury service.
0:38:38 It makes for a great treat yourself kind of gift, right?
0:38:42 Now, could you apply a similar strategy in your business around the upcoming holidays?
0:38:44 That’s takeaway number one for me.
0:38:46 Focus on these first time customers.
0:38:50 Maybe they’ve never bought a service like yours before, but there’s a first time for everything.
0:38:53 Takeaway number two is to collect reviews.
0:39:00 For any new business, social proof and building trust with those first time customers is so crucial.
0:39:07 And I like how Josh mentioned that they had the review links for Facebook and Google ready to go before they even had a customer.
0:39:15 The cool thing is here for most local services in most cities is not going to take that many reviews to stand out.
0:39:17 Maybe five, maybe ten, and you’re off to the races.
0:39:23 And this is especially important if you’re following their strategy of pricing low early on.
0:39:30 Working for less than you normally would makes sense if you can turn that client into several more clients,
0:39:34 either through their glowing testimonial or through word of mouth.
0:39:39 That was takeaway number two for me to collect reviews and be really diligent about that.
0:39:43 Takeaway number three was to target business to business, target business customers.
0:39:50 It sounded like the most consistent source of jobs were from their relationship with that local car dealership,
0:39:59 which makes sense because they’re constantly turning over inventory where an individual car owner might get his car done or her car done maybe a few times a year at most.
0:40:09 If I had the capacity, if I were in Josh’s shoes and had the capacity, I would be building relationships with other similar businesses, other similar dealerships.
0:40:18 And you might find through conversations there’s a sweet spot where the super small used car lots do it themselves and the mega dealers,
0:40:22 maybe they already have somebody in-house, but you never know until you strike up that conversation.
0:40:29 Now, that said, Josh did say it can be tough to find other detailers, subcontractor detailers,
0:40:34 to fulfill that work because it can be a little inconsistent in terms of timing and demand.
0:40:41 And I think that’s a struggle for a lot of freelancers, a lot of service providers who need or want to graduate from doing the work themselves.
0:40:45 But maybe they don’t have the volume to hire it out yet.
0:40:47 Maybe they don’t have the margins to hire it out yet.
0:40:53 In our cleaning conversations with Chris Schwab, he called it the trough of despair or the valley of despair.
0:41:00 But if you can find great workers to build out your team, like Josh said, there’s a ton of opportunity for growth here.
0:41:06 But going back to the thing on targeting a business customer, it could be as simple as asking the question,
0:41:08 how do you guys handle detailing around here?
0:41:09 Start that conversation, right?
0:41:15 And if you today have a primarily consumer-facing business, a consumer-facing operation,
0:41:23 is there a slight pivot or refocusing that would make that offer of yours applicable to a business customer?
0:41:24 Something to think about.
0:41:32 And cool side note here is that in niches like this, where there is no dominant regional or national player,
0:41:34 there’s an opportunity to go really big.
0:41:38 Think beyond the side hustle to go really big and become that player.
0:41:45 Maybe in this case, it looks like a booking or matchmaking app that connects you with a reliable,
0:41:50 reputable local service provider and just takes a percentage of each job.
0:41:53 Like firsthand, I use a similar service for house cleaning called Handy.
0:41:55 It’s very easy to do business with.
0:41:57 I came across GreenPal.
0:41:59 You’ll find it at yourgreenpal.com.
0:42:03 They’re building something similar in the lawn mowing and yard care space.
0:42:08 In the virtual space, we’ve heard from folks like Design Pickle for graphic design.
0:42:12 There’s Belay Solutions in the virtual assistant arena.
0:42:15 It’s an exciting place to explore, for sure.
0:42:21 But once again, make sure to hit up SideHustleNation.com slash detailing for the full text summary of our call
0:42:23 and links to all the resources that Josh mentioned.
0:42:25 Hey, one last thing.
0:42:26 Can I send you some free stuff?
0:42:32 If you head on over to SideHustleNation.com slash join, I’ll send you my free report,
0:42:37 The Five Fastest Ways to Make More Money, plus my weekly newsletter packed with money-making ideas.
0:42:42 On top of that, you’ll also get access to hundreds of members-only goodies and bonus files,
0:42:46 including tons of tactical tips from top podcast guests,
0:42:52 plus an invite to the world’s largest, most active, and most supportive SideHustle community.
0:42:56 That’s all free for you at SideHustleNation.com slash join,
0:43:00 or text the code HUSTLEON to 33444.
0:43:02 That is it for me.
0:43:03 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:43:06 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen,
0:43:09 and I’ll catch you in the next edition of The Side Hustle Show.
0:43:10 Hustle on.
Josh Belk is a full-time college student, he works full-time in web design, and in what little spare time, he’s started a $6,000 a month mobile detailing business with his younger brother.
This idea came about when Josh connected the dots between obsession and opportunity.
On the obsession side, Josh would always see his brother out in the driveway cleaning his car.
On the opportunity side, he received an email about business ideas anyone could start, and mobile car washing was one of them.
He asked his brother if he wanted to team up to see if they could make some money cleaning cars — and with that, Belk Mobile Detailing was born.
Tune in to hear the full podcast episode to hear how the pair:
- landed their first mobile detailing customers
- price their service
- stand out from the competition
Full Show Notes: Zero to $6k a Month With a Mobile Detailing Business
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