Ferrari after foam cannon

What is it?

Mobile Automotive Detailing is a specialty cleaning business that travels on site to the customer’s preferred location to perform a variety of paint, restoration, cleaning, and treatments to a vehicle. These detailing businesses have grown in popularity due to the increase in social media and other online tools to help the business owner spread marketing, confirm bookings, accept payments, and allow the owners the freedom to work when they want to work. In addition to cars and trucks, many businesses service boats, trailers, and RVs.

Who is this good for?

This type of business is ideal for an entrepreneur who has or wants to build a skill set in paint correction, exterior washing techniques, and interior detailing. The attention to details and personal pride in viewing the final product are critical to your success.

The owner should have a balance of marketing skill, technical competence in detailing, as well as longer term plans for the company. Do you have a pipeline of customers who will appreciate and pay for your work? Can you find new customers? Next, we’ll run through sample equipment you need to get started and then discuss legal contracts.

What do you need to get started?

Basic detailing supplies such as:

  • Exterior
    • Rinseless liquid (1 gallon) $33
    • Microfiber mitt (1 piece) $8
    • 5 gallon bucket (2 buckets) $10
    • Tire dressing (8 oz) $15
    • Glass cleaner (16 oz) $18
    • Microfiber towel (drying) $20
    • Microfiber towel (glass) $20
    • Microfiber towel (wheels) 20
  • Interior
    • Vacuum Cleaner
    • Interior Detailer Spray (16 oz) $13
    • Glass Cleaner Spray (1 gallon) $40
    • Carpet Cleaner (1 gallon) $40
    • Leather Cleaner (16 oz) $32
    • Leather Conditioner (16 oz) $32
    • Rubber Mat Cleaner (1 gallon) $45
    • De-odorizer Spray (8 oz) $13
    • Detail Brushes/swabs (10) $10
    • Bristle Brush (1 piece) $15
    • Microfiber towel (cleaning) $20
    • Microfiber towel (glass) $20
    • Microfiber towel (scrubbing) $20
  • Durable Equipment
    • Transport Vehicle (small van or SUV) $5,000
    • Pressure Washer (2000 PSI) $300
    • Water Tank (1,000 gallon) $600
    • Rolling Stool $50
    • Paint Spotlight (500 lumens, 3 temperatures) $75
  • Legal Contracts
    • LLC Formation (1-2 partners) $1,500
    • Customer Agreement for Mobile Detailing Business $1,250
    • Vendor Contract Review (for discounts) $500
    • Marketing Contract Review (YouTube, Instagram, etc.) $500

Equipment can range from pressure washers, hose accessories, portable water tanks, or a dedicated vehicle to transport all your supplies to the job site. The above list just covers basic cleaning and doesn’t cover paint correction, swirl and scratch removal.

Legal Contracts for your Mobile Detailing Business in Texas

In Texas, we recommend forming a Limited Liability Company or LLC, this can be solely owned or you can have multiple partners who each own a percentage of the LLC. The Law Office of Ronald Rohde, PLLC can help form your LLC, draft your partnership or operating agreement, obtain your EIN, and provide all of these services anonymously to keep your name out of the public records.

Drafting customer agreements for mobile detailing represents one of the most important documents for any service business handling cars or trucks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. These customers love their cars, if they perceive any damage, they will take it out on you and your business. We draft custom waivers, incorporate the techniques and procedures that your business actually performs to ensure the safety of their vehicle. We’ll also work with you on incorporating the contract into a digital format, suitable for an iPad or tablet to be signed on site by the customer.

Finally, any contracts that you sign need to be reviewed by a lawyer. Leases, vendor contracts, employment agreements, marketing firms all need to be reviewed to ensure you are signing what you intend to agree to.

Too often, we see money wasted by our clients on products or services the business did not need.

Don’t let that happen to you, contact us right away to schedule a free consultation.

    The Law Office of Ronald Rohde, PLLC is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and we’ll only use your personal information to administer your account and to provide the products and services you requested from us. From time to time, we would like to contact you about our products and services, as well as other content that may be of interest to you. You do not have to agree to either option in order for you to obtain services from our firm. If you consent to us contacting you for this purpose, please affirmatively indicate below:

    Select all that apply:


    In order to provide you the content requested, we need to store and process your personal data. You will always retain the ability to opt-out and request that your information be deleted or removed from our systems. If you consent to us storing your personal data for this purpose, please affirmatively indicate below.


    You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For more information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and how we protect and respect your privacy, please review our Privacy Policy.

    * Required fields

    Who is going to sue you?

    By far, the most likely person to sue a mobile detailing business is the customer. Damage to the customer’s vehicle whether pre-existing or new, can easily be blamed on the mobile detailing business. Therefore, its critically important to address two key items: customer agreements and proper insurance coverage.

    Customer Agreements

    The customer agreement will describe, in detail, what work is to be performed, how it will be done, what the limitations are, etc. The agreement should also include a pre-service inspection that requires the customer to acknowledge any pre-existing damage. At Ronald Rohde Law, we recommend that you take photos of existing damage (loose trim, scratches in the paint, or cuts in leather) and attach them to the customer agreement. You should be utilizing a digitally signed contract such as Docusign, HelloSign, etc. This will provide the strongest evidence that your business did not damage the customer’s vehicle.

    Often, a customer may not remember such pre-existing damage, especially if its covered under dirt or grime. Once you’ve done an amazing detail job, the scratches are now visible and they may accuse you of damaging the vehicle. A single angry customer can cause irrecoverable harm to your business. This Agreement is an easy way to remind them the vehicle was already damaged!

    Liability Insurance for Mobile Detailing Business

    The second most important tool to protect yourself is to purchase liability insurance for your mobile detailing business. this type of commercial insurance protects you against legal claims that your business caused harm in the course of ordinary business. Note, this insurance can only be issued to a valid legal entity such as an LLC (limited liability company). Contact the law firm today for LLC formation prices!

    How do you scale a mobile detailing business?

    A mobile detailing business can earn more for the owner like any other personal service business: charge more, work more, or hire people. Charging more per job can start to reach natural limits given your market. If there are 1,000,000 people, only 10% or fewer may be interested in paying for a detail. Of those 100,000, only 1% are interested in pricing around $300. Therefore, to try and charge $600 or more for a detail will be competing for only a very few customers. On the other hand, if you’re skilled at marketing, then you could work on expanding your market by convincing other customers to spend $600 when they might not normally consider it.

    Mobile detailing can make more money simply by working more jobs. A regular detail (interior and exterior) may take 3-4 hours from start to finish. A long day schedules one client in the morning and one client in the afternoon with a short lunch break. By scheduling three detail jobs and taking lunch in your car, you can increase your mobile detailing revenue by 33%. If you maintain that across five or seven days, then your net income will increase substantially!

    Finally, mobile detail owners can increase and scale their business by hiring additional staff. Once there are enough detail jobs to fill a schedule, the business should hire and train an apprentice. Doing this will enable the owner to focus on higher value tasks such as; higher cost detail jobs, marketing, sales, finances, and legal management.

    Conclusion

    This is a tough business.

    If you don’t already have most of the supplies, it will cost nearly $10,000 to get started. However, for individuals who love taking care of their cars and trucks, this doesn’t feel like work. Imagine the satisfaction of transforming a previously neglected, dirty car into a shining, factory perfect example. Be sure to think about your exit, or where do you want to be in five years? A business like that needs a good lawyer, contact the law firm below!