From Polish to Profit: How to Start a Car Detailing Business

When was the last time you gave your own car a deep clean?

Not just a hey-let-me-throw-out-all-these-fast-food bags clean, but a true detailing?

Probably never.

It’s just so much simpler to hand that off to someone else. It’s a win-win. You hand your car off looking like a hot mess and get back something that shines and smells better.

Car detailing services can rake in the cash. The average cost for a car deep cleaning ranges from $98 to $200+, depending on where you live.

And it’s a consistent business model (because the car always gets dirty again).

Car detailing is a highly profitable business when you do it the right way. Buying an existing car detailing business is the best option since you’ll start out with immediate cashflow.

Here’s what you need to know to start and why buying an established business is better.

Understanding the Car Detailing Market

With a car wash, the focus is mostly on the outside of the vehicle. Customers handle any interior cleaning, which is usually a light touch with a vacuum to get rid of the worst of the mess.

Car detailing, on the other hand, involves someone else doing everything possible to make the car’s interior and exterior look new again.

An auto detailing business can stand alone, work as a mobile service, or even be an add-on to a car wash facility.

Isn’t it funny how many business opportunities lie in dealing with other people’s dirt? 

The car wash and detailing market is worth $14.4 billion. 

Here’s the real kicker: 92% of American families own at least one vehicle, so car detailing is applicable to almost everyone in your area.

You might think you don’t need much to start, but it’s easier to buy a current operation and zhuzh it up. If you can’t find car detailing companies for sale, you might want to consider buying a car wash and adding detailing services to get double the value. 

Buying an Existing Car Detailing Business vs. Starting From the Ground Up

You don’t need many supplies to start a mobile detailing business. But you’ll have a long road ahead of you when it comes to establishing yourself and gaining customers.

And if you want brick and mortar, you may be better off buying an existing car wash and adding detailing services.

It takes a tremendous amount of work to start a business with a physical location. For a car wash with added detailing services, that might include things like:

• Buying land
• Managing the connection of electricity, water, and wastewater disposal systems
• Verifying proper permits for construction and operations
• Getting a business license
• Taking out a loan to cover startup costs for the equipment

Buying a business, though, that’s a lot easier. Check out how this 22-year-old made it work:

Buying an existing company helps you build on the success of an established business operation. If you find a car wash in your area that could use some tweaks to enhance profitability, you’ll still benefit from:

• Their established customer base
• Existing location and equipment (which means no construction or downtime to get materials)
• Immediate cash flow

With an existing business, you want peace of mind that you’re taking on a desirable location with solid equipment in place, but you must also evaluate other aspects of an existing business to make sure it’s the right fit for you.

If you still want to start from scratch with your new car detailing business, follow these steps.

1. Do Detailed Market Research

Check out the volume of potential customers in your region and whether existing services meet that need.

Call to see how far out competitors are booking and whether it’s easy to work with them. Problems indicate you could pick up business quickly as an auto detailer by taking some of their clients.

As you research, look for unique selling points like:

• Adding online booking
• Adopting sustainable practices
• Gift cards and loyalty programs
• Automatic reminders.

Talk to potential customers in the region to find out what they care about and what they wish other services did better.

Doing your research in advance is well worth it—a lesson Investment Joy learned after buying two car washes: 

You’ll skip a lot of this when you buy an existing business. Someone else already put in the research needed to build up a profitable business. All you’ll need to do is plug into it and find ways to improve the business for the existing market.

2. Develop a Comprehensive Business Plan

A business plan outlines the opportunity, the risks, and your specific strategy to achieve success with auto detailing.

Your business plan should:

1. Explain services and pricing
2. State your chosen business structure, such as sole proprietorship or limited liability company. (If you’re unsure, talk to a business attorney about pros/cons)
3. Include a budget for startup costs and ongoing operations
4. Evaluate the potential for business growth over time 
5. Discuss the need and plans for the right kind of insurance (such as workers’ comp, liability, and property coverage.)

You also need to know which local business permits or licenses you need before you start. Take care of those applications when you register your business and get a tax ID. Plan to purchase business insurance to protect yourself, too.

That’s a whole list of things you can skip by buying a detailing shop instead.

An existing business should already have a business plan in place. They have all the permits, licensing, and registration in place. You’re focus is on modifying the plan instead of starting from nothing.

With your full plan laid out, it’s time to shop for a space.

3. Choose an Ideal Location

Car detailing is a service people might forget about unless they drive by a location or get a gift card from someone else.

Solution: position your location in a visible spot where the drivers can spot signs from the road.

Look for somewhere close to existing car washes. This way, your ideal customers (people who care about cleaning their cars) can spot your business as they go for a wash.

Note: location is far less important in the mobile detailing game. Instead of spending cash on rent in a brick and mortar space, you might trick out your own vehicle with ads on the side about your mobile detailing business. As you ride around town to your next client appointment or you’re out running errands, the vehicle is your moving billboard.

Scouting for land is no easy task.

You might find that all the good spots in your area are taken or that the price of land is too high. Buying a business has the edge here, too. As long as the existing business is in a good spot, you’re good to go.

4. Get Your Financing in Order

Your financial need will vary based on the kind of business you start. Check out some examples:

Option 1: Starting a car wash or detailing business from scratch will require the most funds. 

You’ll need to set get money for:

• Land
• Construction materials
• Contractors
•  Equipment 

Budgeting for all of these makes it harder to start turning a profit right away. You’ll need to account for building time and then recoup your costs after you’re up and running.

Option 2: Becoming a mobile detailer without any attachment to a car wash. 

This comes with the lowest price tag, but there are hidden startup costs. You’ve still got to build up a customer base in order to start making money. Most people who take this route will end up living in side hustle territory for a long time as they ramp up.

Option 3: Buying an existing detailing business or a car wash and adding detailing services.

This still requires some cash, such as if you need to upgrade the existing equipment. But compared with starting from scratch, this is the best option by far. 

Why? 

Because you can leverage the power of seller financing. You can get a reduced budget and shorten your timeline to profit by making a deal with someone who owns a detailing business. You make them an offer where they sell you the business for a small upfront investment and then pay them off over time with revenue from your new business.

You may even be able to keep the old owner on for a while, benefiting from their experience and skills while you learn the business.

No matter what route you follow, start by creating an in-depth budget for startup and operational costs.

Operational costs may include rent, vehicle payments for the car used to carry all the mobile detailing materials to worksites, utilities, and staff pay.

Look into all your financing options as you draft your business plan.

There are many ways to get the funds you need. Where you seek them out will depend on the kind of business and how much risk you want to take on.

Here’s a rundown of your funding options:

1. Self-financing (cash or funds from personal/private loans)
2. Bank business loans (hard to get, as banks have strict guidelines and ridiculous red tape even for folks with solid business plans)
3. Business credit cards (most of which require proof of existing revenue)
4. Small Business Administration (SBA) loans
5. Equipment loans (which cover the cost of car wash machines)
6. Funds from investors (helps you get the cash you need to start but requires giving up equity)
7. Seller financing (if you purchase an existing business you plan to spruce up and systematize)

You may even use a combination of these funding options to get things off the ground.

Our favorite is seller financing since you can get customized terms and pay off the business owner (instead of the bank or the SBA) over time.

5. Gathering Necessary Equipment and Supplies

You’ll need a variety of tools and equipment to start a detailing business:

1. Detailing brushes
2. Vacuum
3. Air compressor
4. Microfiber towels
5. Professional-grade car interior cleaners 
6. Pressure washer
7. Foam cannon

Of these, the pressure washer and the vacuum carry the highest price, but you’ll have plenty of options to choose from in your search to match your budget and power.

With cleaning supplies, buy in bulk. A membership to Costco or Sam’s Club keeps your expenses down while ensuring you always have a steady supply of your most-used items.

Some of these items won’t take much upfront money, but vacuums and washers can cost a pretty penny. 

You’ll do one better by buying an existing business that comes with the necessary equipment. That’s especially important if you plan to buy a full-on car wash as a base for your new car detailing biz since wash equipment is extremely expensive.

6. Hire and Build a Team

It’s easy enough to run a one-man or woman mobile detailing shop.

But scaling to keep up with demand is where things get tough.

Building from the ground up means you’ll need to find, hire, and train your team. At some point, you’ll need someone else to fish the broken Cheerios and dried-up french fries from under the seats.

The devil’s in the details. For a cleaning business, every single nook, cranny, and crevice matters.

You can build a scalable car detail business by:

1. Setting standards for service delivery (such as cleanliness level or turnaround time)
2. Training all your staff on expectations, as well as providing feedback immediately after mistakes
3. Taking feedback from customers and using it to improve operations

All 3 points are already in place when you buy a business. You’ll skip the process development steps and cut right to the chase with a pre-trained staff.

And you’ll do even better if you can keep an experienced operator in place after you buy the business. If you can’t keep the owner on, try to keep existing staff or even promote a longtime employee to manager.

7. Attract Customers to Your Business

One of the most important aspects of hitting early success with a car detailing business is how you tell other people it exists.

With no word of mouth yet, startups need to hit the ground running and build an online presence.

Build a website for car-cleaning-related and local keywords to draw in customers. Set up a Google Business Profile and ask your first few customers for reviews.

Other options that might work include:

• Attending community events
• Advertising in local business magazines
• Posting videos and content on social media platforms (TikTok and Instagram before-and-after videos, anyone?)

@dw_autocare 1 hour in… Client! Are you done yet? #mobiledetailing #cardetailing #deepclean #asmr #oddlysatisfying #satisfyingcleaning #fypシ゚viral #satisfying #carcleaning #screammovie ♬ Losing Interest – Remix – Stract & Shiloh Dynasty & Burgettii

And don’t sleep on setting up a customer relationship management tool (CRM) to capture customer data and remind them to come back.

Here’s where buying an existing detailing operation has another leg up over a new business. By buying a business that’s been around for a while, you inherit its existing brand and customer loyalty.

Tips for Managing and Growing Your Business

Starting a new business means a long ramp-up time. You’ll need to get on your feet before starting the long list of ways to expand your business.

But if you buy a current car wash or detailing business, you can jump past most of the traditional startup hurdles and get right to expanding and improving.

Owning a car detailing business positions you for something with high profit margins. But you can push that even further with technology.

The more you can automate, the less time you’ll spend handling admin or marketing tasks.

Use technology to:

1. Enable online or mobile booking
2. Provide updates to customers about the status of their booking/car
3. Stay in touch with customers about deals and openings using a CRM and email reminders
4. Tap into the power of social media and online marketing

Expand your biz over time by:

1. Launching multiple locations
2. Expanding into additional services
3. Offering pickup and delivery
4. Providing mobile detailing services
5. Forming partnerships with other local businesses

With plenty of upsides, you might forget that owning even a mobile detailing business presents challenges.

Think ahead about how you might handle things like:

1. Seasonality of the business, which could lead to huge revenue fluctuations
2. How to find and get clients without an established reputation
3. Ensuring quality and consistency of service
4. Scaling the business while keeping costs low
5. How to accurately quote someone the cost without seeing the vehicle

Pro tip: Train your customers that one size doesn’t fit all. Offer a base estimate for general cleaning, but warn people that more advanced issues like spills, pet accidents, or mud inside will carry a bigger price tag.

Buff and Shine Your Way to a Thriving Detail Business

With limited startup costs and no physical location required for options like mobile services, ownership in the auto detailing industry is a low-risk business venture with potentially high rewards.

But purchasing an existing car wash and adding on valuable services that expand profits, your car detailing business can bring recurring revenue for years to come.