The winter season is a rough time to be working outdoors. It rains, it snows, and gets really cold. In this winter detailing guide, I’ll break down how to survive the winter from the business side of things, tips when detailing, and when to look for side work.

Winter Detailing Business 101

So you’re running a mobile detailing business and you’ve hit the winter time. This is the season every detailer looks forward to the least, especially if you’re in the midwest or northern states where it snows. It’s almost impossible to detail a car in freezing temperatures unless you’re doing just the interior and even then it’s much harder because of the elements and temperature. The exterior will freeze over when washing and overall, it’s not recommended.

Find a detail shop to rent out

For situations like this, you’ll have to find a place to rent out and use as your detail shop. This could be a mechanic shop that has extra space, a friend who owns a garage, or a sublease of another detailer’s shop. You’ll need to make relationships with people in the area. Pop on in and introduce yourself. If you haven’t done this yet, here’s how to do it to prepare for the next winter. Say you’re a mobile detailer in the area and would love to discuss options about renting out a space in the Wintertime. Say you’d love to setup a referral network to bring in more business for them. Even to the extent of having your vehicle repaired at their shop or detailed at their detail shop. Make up any reason to be in as much contact with them as possible. Send holiday cards with $10-$20 Amazon gift cards to your favorite spots or hand deliver them.

If they have an asset you want, entice them to go with you instead of your competitor

You’ll need atleast at least 150 to 250 square feet to detail a vehicle depending on the size of the vehicle so make sure they know what you’re looking for in rental space, and don’t try to get greedy and ask for more than you need, but also be transparent about what you will need and offer to pay for it. If you need electricity offer to pay a reasonable flat fee per month of usage. If you need to use their water, offer the same flat fee per month as well. If you’re working under their roof, treat them well.

Get a canopy for the rain and push for Interior Details

If you are in an area where it mainly just rains, then you can get away with staying mobile and just using a canopy. This is the least expensive option and is preferable especially since people don’t like to get their car detailed in the wintertime. They mainly want the interior to be cleaned and quick washes in between the rain to keep their car looking fresh. The caveat to this is that people still want ceramic coatings and ppf /wraps or tinting. Tinting would be a good option as well for mobile but for coatings and ppf/wraps, you need a shop. So for the purpose of this section of the guide, I recommend sticking to the basics of the car detailing world for the wintertime if you’re going to stay mobile. Get a canopy and crank out interior details and cheaper “express washes”. You should have already coated their vehicle during the summer so you shouldn’t have any issues with the protection of the vehicle.

Pricing

So you’ve decided to either stay mobile or get a shop. Now you need to know how to price yourself. There’s only 3 options, you either go up, down, or stay the same. For the winter time you might be getting less details so you have to factor that in to the equation in terms of you need to compensate for the reduced service bookings. Personally, I would recommend staying the same as changing the pricing too much can confuse customers, and weather issues shouldn’t be an issue if you’re checking the weather reports and planning accordingly. However, if you feel compelled to change your pricing, I would increase interior detail prices, and lower exterior wash prices and advertise the decrease in price for washes. The increased volume of exterior washes will compensate for the less amount of services in general and keep referrals coming in, and the interior detail price increase will compensate for the decreased revenue. People see interior detailing as more of a necessity so it’s sometimes easier to sell a deep interior clean, especially with the winter time being muddy and easy to soil a vehicle.

Work on the Other Parts of Your Detail Business

So this is great advice for any downtime period, but especially during the winter, as you’re going to have a lot of free time. You’re going to want to revamp your website, and social media aesthetic, and really refine why you’re business is better than the rest. Your business is like an NBA basketball player. All of them are the best of the best, but often times their appearance can show that one is better than the other or the number of people talking about them can make them more marketable than others. To continue with the analogy, you need to be the biggest cheerleader for your business and make sure everyone is aware of your business. From customers online, to in-person, to other business owners. You want everyone to know about your business because it’s the best! You need everyone to think of you first when they think of detailing. Make sure you’re advertising on all social media outlets, and make sure you are emailing and following up with past clients and customers. Make sure they know you’re open. They might not book, but at least they know you exist which is very important.

If You Have Bills and No Customers

Look for side work! There is no shame in work, especially if you have bills to pay. Sometimes business slows down and that’s just how the world works. The beautiful thing is that with being mobile, you don’t have too many bills to pay and you can work when you want to if you’re working for yourself. Use this time to work for other businesses and see how they operate. Learn from them and implement their ideas into your own business. If you’re at this point, you’re in a learning stage and need to soak in all the knowledge you can to make sure the next winter is a great one.

You CAN Make it Car Detailing in the Winter

This is the most important part of this guide. You CAN make it doing car detailing in the winter. Winter time does not slow everyone down and sometimes it can be just as busy. It’s all in how you manuever. If you’re slow one day, reach out to customers. Rework your website or social media pages, and push ads. You do what you have to do in business to make it, but the most important thing is that people have done it, and it can be done. Whether you stay mobile or go to a shop, you can make detailing work in the wintertime.

Stay Shining San Diego!