Yeah I mean, if you are knowledgable about something it is hard to appear "non arrogant" without using loads of smileys (then you can appear a bit special)
I am like that sometimes I will come across as a bit up myself even when I'm not really and whatever I wrote is not meant to offend. So you have to be careful HOW you says rather than what you actually say, which makes no sense to me but hey
I do it as a hobby. I'm not a professional detailer haha. I feel, given a unit, I could be pretty comfortable doing it professionally or working alongside someone who does it already. Problem is working outside there is only so much you can do. I feel definitely limited by my environment.
Problem is on my current salary working in IT, it is next to impossible unless you're VERY highly regarded (eg Kelly at KDS level or Polished Bliss) to earn enough to do it as a living. - Basically you have either got a HUGE presence within the detailing community and a good customer base, or you are the only guy (or group of guys) in the middle of an area where there is a high demand for detailing but few people who actually do it.
I mean let's say you charge someone £300 to do their car for a 2 stage correction (so we're talking about 80-85% correction) along with a ceramic/si02 sealant such as Cquartz.
I did a 90% correction on my friends Audi S3 to return a favour (so didn't charge him anything!) and with him helping me do things like tape up the car and apply the wax I spent over 18 hours on correction alone. I spent probably 23-24 hours on it in total.
So let's round it down and say you save time by doing things differently and you get a 80-90% correction down to 25 hours (and trust me you can spend 45+ hours chasing perfection).
In a normal working week there are let's say 40 hours - So by the time you've paid your unit's rent, insurance and products out of that £300 you probably TAKE HOME about £100. (that's just a rough calculation).
So on the basis you work 8.30-5 Monday - Friday and a couple of extra hours in the evening a few days a week, you manage to do 2 cars and after your expenses, your actual take home is around £200. Which to me is not enough to live on.
Thing is doing something for fun and doing something for a living are VERY different. And I wouldn't want to get sick of doing detailing.
Detailing is hard work it is a lot of effort and you need to concentrate on what it is you're doing.
The best money is in Enhancement details where you do a single stage machine polish to get about 60-70% of the swirls out and top with a decent carnuba wax or sealant. These can be done in 6-8 hours (normal day basically) and you can pay up to £150 to have this done at a "professional".
Many decent detailers also offer a simple wash & dry! (with other things like a decent wheel clean and trim dressings and what not) but still charge £50 for a couple of hours work..
Local to me a friend of mine does do it professionally. His quality of work is amazing and he has built up (with hard work and nothing but word of mouth reputation) a very large and loyal customer base doing Ferraris, M5s, Aventadors, anything... But even so I'm not sure if it'd be enough for him to work it full time. I believe he still works in his day job and does this on the side.
I don't step on his customers or business as I support what he does - I only do friends and family, people who wouldn't pay his (very
very reasonable) prices so I do it for them for £50-100. People who I do wouldn't ever pay someone else that amount if it makes sense? If a friend comes to me saying they've already gotten a price from this guy and if I would dp it for less, I'd say no and tell them to use him.
It's not really a masterpiece haha it's actually pretty poor I think but hey
Edit: well that turned out to be longer than I thought LOL
