Business Growth in 2026 and Red Flags To Look Out For. Plus, Chemical Dwell Time. Episode #945
Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast
Business Growth in 2026 and Red Flags To Look Out For. Plus, Chemical Dwell Time. Episode #945
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Company
AWX
AWX is a cleaning product used to help keep cars looking nice by removing dirt and spots. You have to use it carefully so it doesn't hurt the car.
Term
acid
Acid is a strong cleaner that helps get rid of hard water spots on your car's paint or windows. But if you use it wrong, it can hurt your car, so you have to be very careful.
Term
ceramic coating
Ceramic coating is a special clear layer put on your car to protect the paint and keep it shiny. Sometimes it gets dirty and needs cleaning to work well again.
Term
lower rockers
Lower rockers are the panels on the bottom sides of your car below the doors. They get dirty easily and need cleaning.
Term
iron deposit
Iron deposits are tiny bits of metal dirt that stick to your car's paint or wheels, usually from brakes. They can cause rust if not cleaned off.
Company
Fuego
Fuego is a cleaning product used to get rid of tough dirt on cars, especially stuff that comes from brakes. It's usually used before other cleaners.
Term
TRX
TRX is a cleaning product used on cars to help remove dirt and keep surfaces clean. You need to let it sit on the car for a bit before wiping it off.
Term
dwell time
Dwell time means how long you leave a cleaning product on your car before washing it off. Leaving it on long enough helps it clean better but too long can hurt the paint.
Term
elbow grease
Elbow grease means using your own muscle power to clean or scrub something, like when you wash a car by hand.
Term
pump sprayers
Pump sprayers are tools that help you spray cleaning liquids on your car easily without wasting any.
Concept
no touch detailing
No touch detailing means cleaning your car without rubbing it by hand, using sprays and water pressure instead.
Term
power washer hose
A power washer hose is a strong hose that carries water from a pressure washer to clean cars or other things.
Concept
custom hose cutting and fittings
This means buying long hoses and cutting them to the size you need, then adding the right connectors so they fit your tools perfectly.
Term
pressure washer hose length (50 feet)
A 50-foot hose is long enough to clean your car easily without being too heavy or hard to handle.
Car
Land Range Rovers
The Range Rover is a fancy, comfortable SUV that can drive on rough roads and city streets alike. People talk about it because it looks nice and can handle tough driving conditions. It's like a very fancy car that can go almost anywhere.
Term
top tier gas
Top tier gas is a type of gasoline that has extra cleaning chemicals to keep your car's engine clean and working well. Using it can help your car run better and last longer.
Term
gasoline octane rating (87 vs 91)
Gasoline octane rating is a number that shows how strong the gas is against knocking or pinging in the engine. Regular gas is usually 87, and premium is 91. Some cars work better with higher numbers.
Term
stack
Stack means putting on layers of special coatings on a car to protect it and make it look better for longer.
Term
two step correction
Two step correction means polishing a car's paint in two parts to get rid of scratches and make it look shiny.
Concept
pre-purchase inspection
A pre-purchase inspection is when a car expert checks a car before you buy it to make sure it doesn't have hidden problems. This helps you avoid buying a car that might need expensive repairs later.
Concept
long term coatings
Long term coatings are special layers put on a car's paint that protect it for a long time from things like sun and dirt. They keep the car looking nice longer than regular wax.
Concept
mobile detailer
A mobile detailer is someone who cleans and takes care of cars by going to where the car is, like your home, instead of having a shop you visit. It's easier for customers but can be harder for the detailer.
Concept
paint protection film (PPF)
Paint protection film is a clear sticker put on a car's paint to stop it from getting scratched or chipped. It helps keep the car looking new for longer.
Term
tint
Tint is a dark film put on car windows to make it harder to see inside, keep the sun out, and make the car look cooler.
Concept
door edge guards
Door edge guards are small protectors put on the edges of car doors to stop them from getting scratched or dented when you open them.
Term
rolls of film
Rolls of film are big sheets of clear or tinted plastic that get cut and put on cars to protect paint or darken windows.
Term
CRM software
CRM software is a tool that helps people keep track of their customers and appointments so they don't forget anything important. It helps businesses stay organized and keep customers happy.
Company
SEMA
SEMA is a big car show where companies show off cool car parts and accessories. It's a place where people in the car business meet and talk about new ideas.
Company
Hyper Clean
Hyper Clean makes special cleaning products for cars, like things to clean wheels and make cars look nice. People who clean cars use their stuff to get great results.
LIVE
Welcome to the pints and polishing podcast. The most influential and listen to podcast in auto detailing. Welcome to the community
getting text and talking to different listeners. Nick, it's a blast, right? Especially when they're like, Hey, guys, we love that you came out with AWX. And they just have more questions.
Right? It's the best thing. It really is people really curious now about how the different things that they can use AWX for inside of the specialist group. Had some great questions around paint around glass.
Go ahead and fill us in. You know, what, what do we need to do if we got water spots? I know a lot of people use acid for water spots on pain or on glass.
I wouldn't do that on glass. I think a lot of people will have a very shocking experience with any acid touching glass. So I will not sign off on that.
There's certainly people that do it. There's certainly people that are comfortable doing it. I would say the average person probably needs to stay away from that.
Yeah, you want to dilute it down and spray it on some, some, you know, water spots on the body. I've done it here with AWX, some of it. Obviously, guys, if you have super deep water spots, nothing beats cutting them out of there.
But, you know, just surface minerals, things like that. Acids always good. You need to be careful around trims and different things like that. You could always get some kind of reaction.
But acid is just one of those things to be more safe than sorry when you're trying to use it for these extra things.
And I think that's kind of where I would come out on it is all the years I've used acid, you've used acid. A lot of great uses. I think you just need to use these things with caution and be a little bit more safe and, you know, maybe turn the headphones off and watch what you're doing would be kind of the thing I would say.
That is interesting question. Dale talking to Dale thanks Dale for the phone call and discussion. He asked, you know, because he had heard previous episode we were talking about what clogged ceramic coatings and lower rockers and can I spray AWX down on lower rockers to help unclog a ceramic coating?
Yes, I mean one of the things you have to realize with anything. I mean this goes for anything we talk about this with TRX and AWX and Fuego and whatever is, you know, first hit it with Fuego.
Make sure you don't have some type of iron deposit when you see lower rocker stuff. The first thing I think of detailing cars all these years is somebody's brakes are shooting off a lot of stuff on the car.
Okay, so start with Fuego. You know, start there. The next thing that I would do is then go to something like an acid. But remember, all of this stuff needs some type of dwell time.
So one of the things that somebody sent me is they wanted to use acid on a lower rocker and they spray it on. In the same video, this is sprayed off in like seven and a half seconds.
And I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Make sure it's a cool panel. Make sure you're all good to go. Make sure you can let it dwell a little bit and a little bit's not five seconds.
Okay, if you got to keep rewetting the area to keep it going and give you some more dwell time, that's a positive. That's what you want to do.
So it comes down to, yes, you can use it. I would dilute it, you know, three to four to one, you know, something like that. If you've got really bad situation, can you go two to one? Absolutely.
This stuff is safe. Want to make sure you don't have any trim around it when you go stronger dilutions. You want to make sure you rinse really well. You really want to make sure you use something like a strong cleanse dilution to go over the area or even spray TRX over top of it.
After, you know, you've rinsed it off and kind of neutralize the area. Guys, acids are great. You just have to understand them. Okay. And dwell time is something we don't talk about enough, even with I see guys throw on TRX and immediately start scrubbing the rubber.
Dude, I'm spraying it on there, then I'm doing the wheel, then I'm, and if I got to put a little bit more TRX to rewet the, I'd rather let things dwell to make my job easier. So acid needs to be seen through that same last.
You mentioned something there that I don't know that we've, we've ever talked about or heard to talk about, but you know, if you are using it on paint, you use that word rewetting. It is vital. It is vital, whether that's mist of your power washer, just kind of, you know, back out of the way a little bit, just getting a little bit of mist back.
It's keeping that surface wet, especially when you're working with acid is very, very important.
Same on a wheel, right? I mean, if you start, if you're, if you're trying to let it dwell, people will see this a lot of times in my videos, and we do get comments about this. People are like, you're using a lot of product.
Guys, I'm really anti elbow grease, if I can help it.
Okay, you detail long enough, you start to learn that elbow grease is what beat you up.
And if you let chemicals work, yes, maybe I use a quarter more of a bottle than you use for talking pennies.
I'd rather just spend the pennies than have to work harder. So I do a lot of rewetting. You know, it's just natural to my process. And, you know, if you use things like pump sprayers, it's almost a no brainer.
Yeah, I, I wondered if people were going to comment on that wheel video, you, you re sprayed the tire with TRX again.
And I was like, there's a reason for it. I mean, there is a reason for it, but I wondered if people were going to start.
And it's, it's a viable question. Okay, I'm not, I'm not like here to be mad about the question, but guys, I am trying to make my life way easier when I detail a car.
And many people, as you guys can see in other, you know, detailing Facebook groups or whatever, they're always talking about how do I use less? How do I do?
Guys, when you're talking about using a quarter more of a 32 ounce bottle, just to kind of have less elbow grease and sometimes be able to do things completely no touch, not having to scrub everything, potentially scratching surfaces or whatever.
I just, I just don't think it's that big of a deal. And that, that's where I come out on it.
All right, I want to move over and talk about something else we don't really ever talk about much. And that's, that's hoses.
Like, even when I said to you here, we're going to talk about, you were like, what? What are we going to talk about hose board?
Like, it is the power washer hose. And the reason why I want to bring it up is I saw multiple posts inside of different groups where people, and I know that there's guys that always question power washers.
So it's just because they split crack, they do something. And an easy versus doing just a little bit of homework is really the key to your power washer hose, right? Easy is a Home Depot hose.
Yeah, don't do it, right? Don't don't do that. Royobi hose, it's just not going to last as long. It's not going to take the pressure is going to have cracks.
Easy is to just get something off of online, you know, like, it's easy. But to me, I don't know what your place to me, my play was always a host company inside of your town.
There's going to be somebody that makes hoses here, right? It's either water hose lubrication hoses, right? Any of those companies are going to manufacture like make hose, maybe they don't manufacture wrong word.
Sure. But they'll bring in, they'll buy the big roll, and then they can go and cut them down specifically. They'll put the exact fittings on for you. Yeah.
If you're in a big enough city, I mean, which is most people at this point, you got something. Yeah, you got some type of company doing hoses. We've always used one place here.
The rule of thumb for me is every truck has a hose on the pressure washer and a hose in the back of the bed. In case that pressure washer hose goes down.
What, fifties or hundreds?
We do fifties. Fifties are plenty for us. We don't, we don't, I think if you were doing a lot of big stuff, maybe like tractor tray, you're in a different class. But you know, Range Rovers or Ford Raptors fifties work great.
But guys, they bust. That one's done. The new one goes on. The stop on the way home is to buy another hose to put in the back ready to go. That's that's been the rule for 15 years.
Now, do you buy the heavier, I think another color two ply or one ply?
We run gas pressure washers. We need them to hold up to the pressure.
The more you detail, the more you realize that gallons per minute that, you know, pumping out real amounts of water saves you water.
Number one doesn't cost you more water. It gets things done faster. It rinses things cleaner.
So no, no doubt about it. If this is a conversation, it is go with the nicest hoses that you got at your store.
They're going to be there because other industries use them. A bunch of fleet washing guys and all these people just buy the nicest hose.
You are going to get cracked in the head, put two in your shop, two in the truck, wherever you're at, call it a day.
Yeah, because it really comes out of you just see the guys and they like this one. He's just posted a picture of the hose.
He's like, you know, it just keeps busting on me and he lists the place he goes and it's, you know, it's just a big box type place.
And he's like, I keep going here and I keep buying and they keep busted.
They're always going to come on my guy, maybe stop buying from there and go give something that's and most people have gotten the other price and go, I don't want to pay that.
I mean, let's be fair. We know what I'm sure it's worth it. Yeah, no question. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. All right.
So the other part that I've seen not only is it and I wonder too from from hoses if it's, you know, what's some of the cold weather?
I don't know if people really understand how that plays onto it now that the weather's breaking and we definitely have great weather here.
Most people I've talked to here, the weather's breaking and and it's awesome to see.
Well, not awesome to see though is suddenly now that that price at the pump has changed.
Wow. Unless you're living in Oklahoma, you're paying quite a bit more than normal.
Yeah, I mean, I just told you this, I think the last decade I have, I've definitely never been under four dollars a gallon.
I think pretty regularly we're above four or 50. We're going to see well over five pretty quickly. I paid I think I paid close to five already.
It's one of those things, man. I have a lot of trucks on the road. If people saw my fuel bill, it would be a lot of people that wouldn't be able to believe it, but it's always been that way.
So if it's about hoses and easy and getting the cheaper ones, when you go to the pump and even your guys there using, you know, your Dodge trucks, right?
I mean, are you the which which level are you going because we've understood there's a reason for the better gas.
But right now, I'm not trying to get better gas if it's, you know, listen, I know you guys don't have 275 to 80 like we got.
But but geez, I remember like, I remember times are going, man, I don't I don't know how much I can put in.
I mean, it's one of those things. It all depends on your level of business. The rules for my guys is we go to top tier gas stations that have the top tier gas because if you've ever been to some of those other gas stations, you've, you know, seen what it can do to an engine.
It just depends on the truck. I mean, some trucks run off 87. Some of them, you know, the Dodge that we ran for years, it ran way better, way more efficient on 91.
And we found that out ourselves. And, you know, people can make a distinction on their own. But I just don't think if you're running your business and 20 cents here and 10 cents there is that big of an issue you probably have either.
You're not doing enough details. That could be one reason or you're undercharging for the things that you're doing and you we've stated on this podcast the last five years if you didn't really do some significant price increases across PPF across 10s across detailing.
You know, you were losing money every year. I mean, inflation got out of control to get, you know, the gas now is one conversation. But remember the egg conversation and groceries are up and food is up and electric is up and everything's up.
And yet we still see people when gas starts to fluctuate, they go, Well, this is the body. It's been a problem the last five years. I mean, not just gas, but bills in general, I said told everybody on this podcast, you know, liability insurance for shops here in Las Vegas went up.
220% year over year. Like, that's a real thing. And we're talking about, you know, 30% rising gas or 30 cent rising gas. I just I think the last five years shown you you need to stay on top of everything.
You know, a key point that you and I have talked about is, you know, well, do you cut? What do you do? Do you do this? Or do you begin to focus your clientele into one area in a day or in every couple days?
I've never understood that on mobile guys and why they don't focus in and go, Hey, alright, somebody calls. Hey, I need a detail to get through everything. When can you do it? Well, what part of town are you in? I'll be on that part of town on Tuesday on on Friday.
I don't think people do that. I really don't. I think they just go next openings on Wednesday. Great. I'll see you Wednesday. They look around them. They've driven four different places on Wednesday on three different parts of town.
Yeah, people would probably be shocked. There's just parts of Las Vegas we don't serve. It's not economical.
That would be just things that, you know, there's just parts of town it takes when I factor in traffic when I factor in taking my guys out of a route when I factor in all that.
Even if I get a bigger ticket on that job, I'm like, my guys are so out of rhythm. They're not in that. It would just be a headache. I mean, I think you're right. Nobody talks about it.
Yeah, they don't because it just that we do understand the system. The overall system of detailing is hey, somebody needs a detail. They look up who you know, whether that's Google.
I know it was back in the day when I would get TV repair, they would use the yellow pages, right? Right. We can all take that joke. I'll take it more. I get it.
But, you know, they just look up whatever form whatever way they look up, and then they call the guy to get the price they want or what, right?
It just seems to be kind of a hit or miss a don't know who's going to have like flip of the coin. You kind of call it whatever it is.
It's like people just wondering if I'll get somebody. And when they get somebody and they land on my my order, okay, I'm just going to meet them at the time that's best.
I don't really think about now, people might though. Now when they start seeing these prices and I'm sure you probably don't think it's going to go down anytime soon doesn't seem like that.
Like it's just going to keep going up like it's a good time to start thinking about that, right? Like, how did you get into that of associating where to go on parts of your town and setting up your days?
Because for me, it was mistakes. I mean, right? Some of it was mistakes.
I was gonna say for me was just because I just I just was like, Hey, I can't do it at this point. I just landed it there and just go hit like to me it was just a hit or miss like I just hit on that and go, I'll just be there next Thursday and I'll be there every next Thursday.
Right, right. I mean, that's kind of how it all happens. But you know, when I was starting mobile, there was nobody to talk to.
Right, there was no pints and polishing podcast or any of that. And we're telling you detailing is a luxury service. So I'd find the luxury areas that I want to be in.
And that's where I'd concentrate all my efforts, all my ad spend, all my, you know, business cards, whatever it is you're doing.
And, you know, we can work. I mean, basically, you know, we only work one part of this town.
I don't work the south part of the town, the east side of the town, the southeast part of the town. I don't do any of that. We're on the west side of Las Vegas.
My trucks don't go anywhere else. They just don't. You know, we have some different executives that we have to go to certain offices.
But even then, we've made that all worth it and work into the greater good of that customer. But we don't do the whole let's go all over town.
Because this isn't a town that facilitates that well. I mean, if you look at Phoenix, there's parts of towns that are hour and a half away from where you could be at.
Right? You look at, you know, parts of Houston, you look at parts of Boston, you look at, you know, South Florida has some of this and Southern California for sure.
I mean, you could drown yourself in traffic, right?
But if you're talking about, you know, guys going 30 minutes away, and you go, that's all that I really have the option to do, then you should have always been pricing that into your number, right?
The trip time, the gas, that should have been before gas got nuts or is getting nuts. It should have always been factored in.
So maybe this is the time to take a look at that and see if your pricing is in line.
And, you know, if we did raise our prices a couple years ago when there was that milk and egg and all that craziness, you're right. I forgot about that.
Is it okay to raise it again? How, how soon or how often should I raise it? And then should I start to listen to what you're saying and put a little bit of a cushion there of going, hey, I'm going to raise it and I'm going to raise it actually another level, a double raise, just so I don't have to raise again if something else happens.
Yeah, I mean, we, you and I have talked about this with some vendors we've received some letters from, right? So we'll let people behind the scenes, large companies, very large companies panicking because gas is getting out of control and Marty and I are having a discussion about it.
And I go, they just don't have any wiggle room and they're pricing. You know, so one reason to price things the way they should be priced is to factor in that the world could have something happen.
So in a detailing space, what's what could happen to me if I'm mobile gas can go up.
So if you if you go, hey, we pay $2 and 50 cents here, but in the worst of times we've seen it go to 310, then price in $3 and 20 cents. Give yourself some wiggle room there. So when it's 250, you're in the plus a little bit when it goes up to three bucks.
You're like, hey, I've priced that in. That's what you're kind of meaning by give yourself a cushion for the rainy day happening. Right. This is the rainy day. We got, you know, a lot of people that thought their certain vote for president would bring all of these things.
They found out a little differently that that, you know, you're going to be paying higher at the pump. All those pray all those promises that you that you thought were going to come true. You and I have just happened to be in this business long enough to go.
Yeah, gas is going to go up at some point. It's going to go up and it's going to go up more than you think it should. And, you know, if I look at our price increases over the last five to six years, we're priced for about $5 and 50 cents at the gallon.
It's not a reality for some of you to see $5. $5. Here's a Wednesday. You know, like the shit just happened. I see people be like, well, if it was ever five bucks, it's like, I don't know, man, one time I was in Southern California, I paid seven something.
Yeah. Well, you guys that hate my premium at $3.30.
Yeah. I mean, you see what I'm saying? But it's like, you don't want to, I want to say this realistically, like guys in your area, if the world goes nuts and you could go to $3 and 50 cents, just price your services as a $3 and 50 cents.
Because at the end of the day, you're not talking about that much money. You know, if you have a 20 gallon tank, you're talking about 20 bucks difference between pricing it at $2 and 50 cents and $3 and 50 cents.
So just price the 350 in, like you said, if you have to do a price raise now, do it a little bit more intelligently than maybe you did it last time and start factoring in some of this stuff automatically getting out of hand at some point.
So raising is one thing. The other that I've seen, and especially there's a guy here locally that's been, I mean, his sponsored ads are nonstop 30% off ceramic coatings.
Right. So his way of handling this sudden, you know, financial burden on his company is to offer a, you know, top tier of what he would call in one of his top packages, not one of our installers, right? I don't know who he uses.
I just see his ads and I just see the 30% off, you know, we got to get and you just go, man, wow, is this really the right move? Like, should you go dump 30% off your top packages?
Or should you just have time to maybe find a different avenue, right? Maybe find some other way of offering a ceramic coating that fits the market.
Well, I mean, this is kind of where you and I have this conversation pretty regularly. If you feel like you got to discount 30% number one for anybody thinking that way.
There's an end date to that. And the end dates usually pretty ugly, meaning most of those guys end up out of business in the history of you and I being in this business that just doesn't stick around long.
But if you want to hit more customers, then offer things that are more value oriented, but very profitable to your business, right? Not necessarily making less profit margin, right?
But it's a less cost to the consumer. That's why we've been huge advocates of stacking UNO, right? Because once people see that I'm a discount guy, they never unsee that.
Ask Bed Bath and Beyond that no longer exist, okay? They don't unsee it. The customers don't unsee that you're the guy looking, you know, that they can get a deal with.
And that's a really tough thing to ever come back from. Now you are specifically seen as you're probably going to get calls from the least qualified leads to most trashed vehicles.
All those things go along with that type of branding. Can it work for some? I've seen very few make it work. Can it work? I'm sure it can, but I've seen very few make it work.
So the value is, you know, somebody calls you up and they say, I don't want to spend $1,500. It's not to discount the $1,500 service. It's to have the $999 service that you still make good profit on, that you do in less time, that still gives them incredible value, right?
That is the way to quote unquote discount it 30%. You get to the 30% by giving somebody a different style of coding, probably a different year, you know, promise on the coding.
And you're probably doing a little less of a service to the car, meaning probably not doing two step correction and maybe you're doing a one step really quickly and you're only going to remove so much of the scratching and swirling and all that kind of stuff.
But I think you also have to say out loud, there's just a lot of installers that don't understand that technologies change. You and I have this conversation with people a lot of times and they go, Wow, I use stack and I can't believe it and this and it's their first time realizing the technology is there to do something else.
And so this would be kind of a time where we see that sort of know it all installer who's discounting things 30% and you go, Do you know stack exists? Do you know Uno exists? Do you know dose exists? Do you know that you can do?
And most of the time the answer is no, they don't. Or they believe that stuff doesn't work because they've never used it and they don't understand technology change.
Or they lump it in with the other sprays that people parade around and they're like, No, it doesn't work. And you're like, No, man, you haven't used it because everybody inside the specialist group that you stack raves about it. There's there's there's no question.
No question at all. I think there's a moment here to not only just not doing the 30% and an offering maybe that's a new package with stack and like you mentioned that maybe it's that 99 it maybe you offer just a come see me type of package that is dramatically much lower.
And you go back and you call those people from five years ago from three years ago all these people that that you've just let go that you're like you sold them this, you know, lifetime coding and then guess what they never came back to see your business.
Hey, if you need customers stack in that moment, how do we go and make that phone call what what's our what's what's that conversation look like.
Yeah, I mean, I think one of the interesting things to me and this would be even in our sparta program or guys that do a lot of tray.
I mean, sort of the no brainer money is bringing those guys in once a year.
Just automatically you get to see the car, you get to make sure it's maintained, it's not necessary to get the coding to last.
But it's a service that gives your customer an elevated experience that you're always on top of it that you always want their car to look the best that you always have something to offer them to come back, have their car detailed, make it look freshly detailed.
Right, which, which a lot of customers love that, you know, they just want that once a year come back, you know, go through the interior real quick do the exterior real quick things like
Just kind of refreshing up a bit. Yeah. Yeah.
This is, you know, for everybody doesn't know I mean, April and May will do so much stack it'll blow your I mean you blow your mind.
Yeah, it is right every year you always like hey man, gotta get some orders in gotta get this people back.
Yeah, because what we do is a pre summer I mean summer is the harshest time for cars out here.
So it's a natural let me see your Sparta application some people are stacking Uno every year.
Right, it's just a summertime thing that's why if I lived in a in a place that really had lots of different climates, I'd have a winter package.
I'd see him again before summer.
I mean, I would be doing all of that because guess what it's a natural sales point that provides a ton of value to that customer.
Let us see it before winter. Let us see it before summer hits and the sun starts hitting your car.
I would be doing all of those things.
But if you're offering long term coatings and you're never bringing the customer back the conversation your business has to change right now in my opinion.
You know that coatings in those long term coatings they they had their spot on the the quote unquote journey of a detailer.
It's something I've I've noticed for for a long time and I've talked about publicly there's there's always this journey.
If I start mobile, I have to go get a shop right whether that's in six months or in four years.
There's thousands and thousands of shop owners that started as a mobile detailer and they go I used to detail out in the weather but I don't want to I've got to be indoors.
Right like there's there's that like it's by the massive a lot of our listeners but not all of them not every mobile detailer also has a shop.
This is not all but most eventually want to get to a shop once they get to a shop.
Well you know they might be there for six months might be there we don't know but there's always this next step and they go all right now I'm ready for more.
And that more isn't necessarily more detailing it's more around the car which hey we understand we love the idea of being a car care provider for people.
It's what we talked about if you're the specialist well then you know all the different things and know the different parts and different things that you should put on a car like.
Tint right then you would go into PPF wraps and get into all this different stuff right like this seems to be the journey for somebody right they start here if you're a detailer quote unquote you get into the business.
Your finality seems to be you want to get to this big shop that has PPF has everything is that is that somebody's own personal agenda because they are somebody that are motivated by success and they're motivated by achieving levels
or or as some of it sometimes they just think they have to write this detailing just ain't cutting it Nick like I just can't keep doing this anymore I gotta get up to those bigger prices.
It's not a bad way to operate a business right it's perfectly we've seen people have great success doing that we've equally seen about 90% of people that doesn't work.
You know we just a couple people come to mind with you and I that I know I've told those people at the time.
Relax on PPF right now get your detailing business under control get into a better spot then do PPF.
They didn't listen and they sunk their business you and I watched it personally.
I think it's great when people can add those services and do them right and get their their tickets up get their customer base up because different customers want those things.
I think if you're still asking simple questions about detailing it's probably not the right time to do those things.
Right and that's what we see is that you know you and I have kind of been having a conversation it's everything but detailing more vehicles.
You know it's something different I got to do this I got to do undercarriages and I got to do you know door cups and door edge guards and I got to do.
You just need to detail a few more cars.
You don't really have that part figured out so those leaps become much easier when you have a robust detailing business to jump off of meaning you're making profit.
You've hired some team members things are going well you got some money saved you can put the money into it you can put the time into it which by the way costs you money on top of the money you're spending.
And you can take the headache you can take the people coming back because you're not perfect at installing those things and you can take the you're good at customer service because you have a ton of detailing clients so you deal with a lot of people.
I think one of the interesting things we're seeing right now in the professional space is for some reason the conversation never turns back to detailing more cars.
It's never the answer for some reason.
I would say everybody that's successful goes yeah you just need to do more of it.
It's a real dichotomy between the top 10% and the bottom 90% and the 90% thinks this next service or this next thing I'm going to do that's going to change everything.
The top 10% are like no you just need to be doing what you're good at more.
And I think that that starts the professional conversation right now is anywhere online.
It's always about something other than detailing a car and detailing more of them.
And I want us to think about what you just talked about a couple minutes ago of packages and building prices and how much you have built in.
I know just from around here locally with different trainings that I did locally as well as trainings from across the country and then even today talking to people.
There is always this idea that if I go to Tint and PPF I'm going to make more money.
It is like they do believe that they see that big ticket they see that number whether that's from a PPF salesman right or some group or are they just looking at their own personal account looking at all the work they've been doing.
And they go man there's just not enough here I can't keep detailing.
I've got to go do this next thing because that's quote unquote the next journey that's that's the next step where if we pause like you're saying and we we think about detailing how profitable could we make detailing instead of bringing some new thing in which is less profitable by the way.
Why do you say that because it is it's more cost heavy.
So if you can't make a lot of money in detailing it's usually a pretty hard sell to go make a lot of money in these other things because they're just more cost heavy rolls of film cost more than a bottle of soap right and it costs more to do a car just in material exponentially more.
And most people don't get that right out of the gate.
Their costs really go up highly efficient PPF shops know how to drive their costs down but they've also been doing it for 15 years.
So they know how to install it quicker.
They know how to pay installers they know how to buy the material which by the way they buy in massive bulk pallets at a time to get the pricing down on the rolls of film you're buying one roll or two roll you have no buying power.
It's a buying power business just like we see inside of our you know we have a pro 20 discount.
You know you can take your cost of chemicals down 20% by just buying a little bit more at a time you can take your cost significantly down by putting in distribution orders right.
That's the whole game the whole game and PPF and 10 is buying in bulk it's not buying one roll two rolls getting through a car whatever that's how people start but it's a slow bill.
You know and a lot of those people are doing all the installs themselves and and here you are trapped not being very good at installing film trying to make this transition and you thought.
You thought detailing wasn't that profitable way to start doing some PPF yourself and messing up some cars and having to do reinstalls and your plot are messing up and having to recut pieces like that's all money that nobody talks about.
And by the way for the most profitable shops that's easy to absorb they have that figured into their cost they are more efficient in those things but what we're seeing is a very interesting thing.
We are bringing on some massive shops here recently who have been doing it they started as mobile guys 20 years ago have massive shops if not multiple locations.
They're all reinvesting in ceramic coating because they see where the economy is going they now know they can bring more people in with coding because it fits more customers.
And they really are kicking themselves that they didn't stay heavily invested in coatings in their ads and then things like that because it is so much more profit margin driven.
There's just way more profit also there's way less risk.
You know there's way less risk to ceramic coat of vehicles so I'm all for people trying to grow their business and do these things but I think we've we've really entered into a time when the conversation is how do I do everything else other than detail more vehicles.
And I think that's a really unhealthy place to be because this is the most profit margin you're going to see in any one of these businesses.
I'm just going to say I was going to try and lead into it but I'm not.
I think the reason is people don't like to detail.
I don't have any other way but to coat it or rip the bandaid off or whatever I was trying to think of how can I lead into it and I don't think there's a way.
I think people look for an exit out because they really don't enjoy cleaning the car.
I think that like I think they get into the business and then two to three years or whatever time frame I got to do something and was I that person.
I don't I don't mind say I said it I've been down to clean a wheel and I went oh I know when I'm in my 40s I'm not going to be able to do this.
So trust me I understand it wasn't out of like hey I don't enjoy it I don't want to do it.
Also knew that I as the actual guy doing the work could not continue doing the actual work on a day to day basis.
But I enjoyed it.
Yeah I think you have a point but let me say something else.
Talk about you think your body is going to not be beat up with PPF you haven't done a lot of PPF.
There's a lot of laying on the ground and contorting your body and all that.
Go get into a back seat to do a back window attempt and fingers.
I remember I used to work for a tent guy in my college job was I've come back in summer and I'd work for a tenor and I drive the cars back and forth his fingers his hand.
Yeah so I say I do agree with you that look man this stuff is hard on your body this stuff is it's a blue collar profession.
I mean it truly is and anybody can say what they want but when you do it long enough it beats you up.
That's the reason we advocate people growing their business and for all these people that go well I don't want to hire and all good man we're going to support you.
But there's going to be a payday for all this and if you know people back from the early body shop days you know some body shop guys that have done a lot they're beat up.
I mean that's part of this and to your point I don't know how many people enjoy being involved in detailing but they don't want to go do something else.
So I think they're going to go you know they're going to go spray undercarriages and magically that's going to change their life not exactly the easy on your body easy on your health move but they're looking for a move.
And one of the things I'll say is I've seen this recently there's a lot of conversations around CRM's a lot of conversations around CRM software things like that.
I think those things are great and I think anything that helps you stay organized in your business is is a great thing.
I see people posting in CRM groups who don't even detail enough cars to worry this much about a CRM.
I know them and I go dude you've spent just on the Internet somewhere around 20 to 25 hours worried about your CRM you don't detail enough cars to be this worried about your CRM.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a CRM but we're doing everything but detailing a car.
And that should be the warning sign to anybody if you're trying to find things to do that's not bringing more detailing into your business and you already don't detail tons of cars that should probably be the red flag.
And I just see too much conversation I mean it's like I saw a post about a guy looking for fittings for a keg sprayer.
You know to detail cars and I just go this guy's going to spend two hours dealing with this keg just online that another couple hours just trying to figure it out at his house in four hours you could have just bought the keg you wanted if you were detailing some cars.
But it's everything but detailing.
I see guys with setups and I go I don't know what you have this setup for because you don't detail enough cars to worry about your.
It looks good.
It looks great but you don't detail enough to worry about that.
And by the way you've been doing it long enough that I know you should be detailing two three five X what you're detailing I don't have to guess I've been there and everybody starts somewhere.
So I'm all for the guy and gal getting their start and look we all started with very few clients and trying to grind out I'm with that.
But guys there's people we know five years in that are finding everything to do but detailing more cars and the detailing of more cars would solve all their problems.
So they might not do it because of finances we talked about maybe these bigger ideas you know talk about this other idea of well maybe they just don't enjoy it.
There's another idea of they just think which totally understand to you know you start a business you get into it.
You begin to adapt this Cape around you and you tighten up this string and on that Cape it says the word entrepreneur.
So I am the entrepreneur and I will continue to find things to make totally get it all good still not a knock.
We're just looking at these people one I saw very interesting a pad cleaner that they had as a prototype and they were going to take the air out of the room and then you were going to be able to use that air to clean pads.
Okay sound sounds like a very massive big ordeal that didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense other than using a compressor but okay we've seen also where people want to clean trash cans or clean random things for people.
Not always a bad idea you know but if I'm a detailer how odd is that.
Yeah about just detailing more cars trying to solve your problem of why am I not detailing enough to make this work detailing is extremely profitable.
Almost everybody on some level understands they got to detail their car if it's presented to them right like oh man my car is kind of a mess I should have it.
You know it's just sort of one of those things people understand.
And I think the point of this is if you're in the position of I'm doing a lot of things that aren't detailing and you're not extremely busy.
I think this is the time to go hey I got a problem and I need to figure out how to get more business.
That's what I think the conversation has been completely lost around.
How do I actually get more business not how do I add a service like clean in someone's driveway or clean in a trash bin or whatever it's why are you having to do these things that are not your core business.
And I get tons of questions DMs text messages calls you know we get emails all the time and those things teach me a lot so I'm glad people send me that stuff.
But I also go I can see what you're doing online if we're friends online somewhere Instagram Facebook whatever and I go.
A lot of your confusion is because you haven't detailed as much as you think you have right.
You look at men and women that have really detailed a lot of vehicles they don't have a ton of questions.
They just don't they go maybe they'll come across something random once or twice a year that they go hey you ever seen this and that's how they'll ask you.
I ever seen this.
But it's not the basics.
It's it's not questions about the basics and and I think a lot of people have questions about the basics because they just haven't detailed enough.
Like you got to detail more.
The one way to get better at this is you know YouTube is great and Instagram is great and tiktok's great.
But at some point your hands got to be on that car and running across things happening in real time that you have to fix or that you have to address.
And that's one of the things in my career I guess I'm the most thankful for is like I was in spots and took jobs where you were just going to do a lot of cars.
And you were going to either have to figure it out or you weren't going to make money you weren't going to get paid like you had to do work.
And boy you learned or you just weren't in the business anymore.
And I think we've lost that volume when priced properly solves all your issues almost.
Now if you mismanage your money and overspend it it doesn't fix that.
Or didn't do your pricing right.
I'm saying if you're priced correctly and you do volume you fix 95% of any business problem that can come to you.
The 5% of is your personal life spending out of control is the business spending out of control are you buying a lot of extracurricular things that you don't need.
All of that's that 5% but 95% of business problems are solved one simple way more revenue priced correctly having good profit margin and the perfect example this is a company like Apple.
You know Apple went into autonomous driving spent like 1020 billion dollars and just killed the program is blue like 20 bill.
Well they also have a trillion dollars in cash in the bank.
So they're like yeah we're not going to do this anymore.
So how are they able to do that.
The more revenue you have the more you can absorb problems the more you can absorb headaches the more you can try things like PPF intense.
Right so we don't necessarily have to learn from you know Nick the detailer.
Sometimes you can look at a company like Apple and go you know how they solve their problems they got a shit ton of money coming out.
So if I'm a detailer and I've chose that profession I need to figure out how to detail as many cars every day as I can for as long a period as I can.
And adjust my pricing when it needs to be adjusted make sure I'm making my profit you almost solve every business problem.
A CRM doesn't solve that sales program or that all of this stuff comes down to you need to detail more cars.
It's almost every problem we see on the Internet.
Speaking of on the Internet and problems on the Internet you know one that glaring that nothing never stops every day you and I just wonder why don't they have somebody trying to help.
Like you know the interesting part we talk about this journey and where everybody goes and what happens.
It doesn't matter if you're doing great or you're not like there seems to be always this desire for us to go on social media.
Which again we're always going to give our hat and commend Mark for doing such a great job for getting us to always be on there.
I think the final part of this discussion which you and I find curious well if I'm on social media and I'm out there and I'm busy and I'm going well a lot of times we just feel like we can say whatever we want to say.
Right like we get drawn in and whether it's we have this internal desire to help people and if we see somebody out on social media and they're in this Facebook group and they've had this question.
Some of us do feel the need is an internal need to pay back right like well you know somebody help me in the past so I want to go into these groups and help people and you know they they ask a question that I want to give my professional experience because well I've been detailing for filling the blank right.
I've been detailing for three years I've been detailing for three months I've been detailing for eight it doesn't matter.
There's always this innate desire for many of us to go and list a response to somebody's comments or questions or get involved right like it's in these times how much time should we be spending doing that.
Yeah I mean that's why we've kind of curated the specialist group on Facebook the way we have it's like I love people show in their work I love people asking genuine questions hey I'm confused about something can I get some help.
I think those things can be good but many of you realize who you're hearing from in the specialist group or other people that are using the product you're questioning about.
When I go into a general group and they're talking about a million subjects every day and I don't know anybody making comments because none of them have really been vetted through any system.
What is the use of that time what is the use of time of putting up chat GPT post what is the use of time.
If you're going to be on the Internet look are you trying to get business off the Internet are you just going in to groups to answer everybody's questions and tell everybody how much you know and you may or may not know as much as you think.
A lot of subjects get brought up you know business subjects I go I know that guy.
I don't know why he's saying that right it's not out of judgment I just go he's never really built a large business and this guy's obviously trying to build a large business why is this guy commenting so passionately and fired up about it.
It just one of these things like everybody's going to use their time the way they want but the amount of questions we get all the time is why we have conversations about this and not out of judgment it's because we genuinely get a lot of questions.
And.
I think when you move through this and start to have real.
World results you go.
Almost everybody's time is better spent trying to grow their business.
That would always be at the top of everyone's list and the other thing is the biggest shop owners you and I know which is big shops in almost every state and several across the world now.
They don't spend time in those groups they're not the guys answering in those groups they're not the guys doing that.
And so at some point it becomes like this self fulfilling prophecy as you go here's this group you'd want to hear from none of them are talking.
You guys can all take that for what you will it is just what it is.
And I mean we wonder why I guess or maybe some people wonder why if you're quote unquote newer into detailing.
Then why are some of these people not not back out there helping quote unquote like time you can see time you can see these trainers that are out you can see this.
I saw this recent group of these are detailers that have been in the business.
But then you know they started getting hired by some brands and then they started doing something now they're all in this group and they're going to lead a training together.
And these are detailers that five years ago had a business and they were going out going to all the expose getting all the stuff on their wall doing all the stuff.
But now I don't know what their business like I just can only see now online on social they're putting out come train with us.
Hey we got this.
This big thing.
The thing that I brought up to you that I think that the wild part is we never know we just it doesn't we never know who the person really is what they're really all about until you meet them face to face.
Some of these people I met at my trainings and they came to train.
One of these people didn't ever use a bug cleaner they weren't sure what it was.
Sure.
No I had a conversation with a tool company the actual owners of a large tool company globally.
And they asked me why I don't use the tools anymore.
And I pointed directly to their hires.
I said come on you guys have people out here that have never even done anything in this business.
Claiming that they do and I'm not going to be a part of that.
And I also think there are better tools out there I think you guys have fallen behind listening to the wrong people.
That's a hard conversation to have because I was used a lot of tools from that company over the years.
And I'm not saying this to to say right or wrong or I have the right way.
It just doesn't sit right with me.
I know and make a joke to people on their team.
They're detailing a car in 1985 for money one time.
I mean you don't I mean you don't really know.
I mean a guy was my rep at a company what 15 16 years ago.
He ain't that old.
Like you know he's not 75 years old.
So most of his life has been spent working for companies.
There's nothing wrong with that.
You know people need to work for companies.
But also when business gets interjected by people that have never built a successful business.
That's where I think everybody needs to have a little bit of a stop.
Who am I really learning for learning from.
I think learning technique is great.
The conversation never just stops with technique.
It's all here's what you need to do and here's what you need to do.
And so that guy's worked for a brand for 25 years.
He'd literally detailed a car for money like in 1989.
That's that's not really you know shouldn't really be talking about the business.
And we do have that trouble in this business.
It is what it is.
It's not something to be mad about.
But I want people to just step back and go.
Do I solve a lot of my problems in my business if I detail more cars.
And I bet 99 out of 100 people.
It's hell yes.
Yeah it is.
But we go on social and we see these people and they tell us who they are and they tell us how they have the answer for us.
And there are plenty of people that then go follow and go believe.
You know I said to you the other day it was this is interesting post from a guy like I won't bring up his name.
Nobody in detailing.
He's a guy that wrote a book.
I'll bring it up.
It doesn't matter.
His name is Robert Kiyosaki.
We can remember the rich dad poor dad right.
Like I was just scrolling through Facebook and then suddenly there was a post by Robert Kiyosaki.
That was sponsored right Facebook wanted me to see it.
And it was he was talking about the different things of the this Iran war.
You know now he asks this question about you know my rich dad dad dad right whatever.
I said to you I go I doubt there's many people that will understand that Robert Kiyosaki himself did not write that post.
Right.
But they will expect that if I go into a group that I can ask this question or not even a group.
If some quote unquote trainer or some other person somebody puts this big dialogue out or this detail or that you know I'm supposed to be talking to customers but I'm I say a shit ton about detailing to detail or like whatever.
How do I know that person is real.
Yep.
As in real as in has the the nut sack has the skills has the gump chew has has a years in his belt has all that stuff and or to if they are real and they've actually reached a level like a Kiyosaki type of guy.
There's no way that that guy is actually him.
So it's ironic right like the people that you think that you would want to hear from.
They ain't on there.
No.
No they actually you know we've talked about this a lot on this podcast like I have some pretty famous clients buddy they don't run their social media.
Now you may see their face on social media and we could say it for our own company.
I mean guys we don't have the time to run our social media every day.
And we have a social media team.
Now you see my face and Marty's face and it's our content but I can't sit there and goof around on Instagram and Tik Tok and YouTube all day long.
Like we have a great team that supports all of this right.
They're a part of all of this and we oversee it and we make the content but you know this is a lot of this is a very heavy workload just on content.
Like there's times where you and I making this podcast is a real like hey we got to go now like I got other stuff to do you got other stuff to do.
So I think just what I want people to get from this conversation is is you and I really are coming from a place of this feels like the time in the economy where it's time to buckle down and detail some more cars.
Because if you don't and things keep going the way they are in the world this stuff's going to get worse not better.
And the only way we can say that is we're old enough to know like that's just something you have to go through with age and go this feels different.
This feels like we could have a two or three year period here where things are pretty uncomfortable.
Not just because of this or because of that because it just feels like we're due for things being a little uncomfortable.
And guess what the topic at SEMA the topic for last year behind the scenes with big companies that we talked to they've been uncomfortable for a year 18 months.
They've been they can see things we can see things that hyper clean that give us a story that's a little different than what somebody says online.
Because we have all this back end data of our business and who's really doing work and who you know what I mean like we just have access to those things big companies at SEMA were like.
Things look pretty rough. You know we saw this last year and we think we're going to see this this year and that's not to complain.
It's to say we need to buckle down get back to our core business do what we have to do work a little bit harder stay on top of things sell a little bit more.
I think the same goes for everybody that details a car for a living. This isn't the time to not buckle down.
I think you get away with it in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. I don't think that's going to be the case for twenty six twenty seven and twenty eight.
I agree. All right great talk. Hey everybody go to hyper clean store dot com. That is where you can pick up a WX acid wheel cleaner.
I'm ready to see those photos as more and more people do and show us the results and everything that they're doing all the different ways that you're using a WX.
So go hyper clean store grab it but then go to the hyper clean specialist group. Let us know how you're using it. Talk to you soon guys.
About this episode
Dive into expert advice on using acids safely for water spot removal on paint and glass, emphasizing proper dilution and dwell time to avoid damage. The hosts discuss the importance of rewetting surfaces to maximize chemical effectiveness and reduce physical effort. They also highlight the value of investing in high-quality pressure washer hoses to prevent frequent replacements and maintain efficiency. Fuel choices and costs for detailing business vehicles are touched on, stressing the benefits of top-tier gas for engine health and performance. Practical tips and real-world experiences make this a valuable listen for detailers aiming to optimize their processes.
Original notes
In this episode, Nick and Marshall discuss the practical applications of AWX Acid Wheel Cleaner, water spots, acid dwell time, hose selection, pricing strategies, and the importance of focusing on detailing more cars to grow your business. They share insights on safety, cost management, and business growth strategies for detailers.
Chapters
00:00 Exploring AWX and Its Applications
03:06 Understanding Acid Use in Detailing
06:10 The Importance of Hose Quality
08:51 Fuel Costs and Business Operations
12:12 Strategizing Clientele and Service Areas
14:46 Pricing Strategies in a Changing Market
18:09 Innovative Solutions for Customer Retention
27:25 Seasonal Strategies for Car Care
28:11 The Journey of a Detailer
30:28 The Importance of Core Services
32:20 The Dichotomy of Success in Detailing
34:21 Profitability in Detailing vs. Additional Services
36:19 Reinvesting in Core Services
37:51 The Reality of Detailing as a Profession
40:18 The Pitfalls of Overthinking Business Management
44:03 Focusing on Core Business
48:23 The Role of Social Media in Business Growth
Pints and Polishing Auto Detailing Podcast
Nick Walters and Marshall Hill
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