Archived Blog Posts for June, 2012

Meet The Detail King’s Team: Warehouse Manager, Gary Long

June 22, 2012|Category: Meet The Team|2 Comments
Gary-Long-Detail-King

Gary Long- Detail King Warehouse Manager

Gary Long is the type of employee most business owners can only dream of saying they have on staff. Not only does this Detail King veteran show up on time and do whatever it takes to get his job done, but he’s also a lot of fun to work with and an all around great guy. He started working for Detail King in December of 2008, but truth be told – as you’ll read below – Gary’s been around the company for a lot longer than that!

Meet Gary:

Detail King: What exactly is it that you do here at Detail King?

Gary Long: I’m the warehouse manager, and one of my responsibilities is to pack and ship all of Detail King’s outgoing orders, including UPS, USPS and all freight shipments. In addition to packing the orders, I check all incoming freight to make sure it’s all accounted for and in good condition. I also help train students during our auto detailing training seminars.

Detail King: What did you do prior to working here at Detail King?

Gary: I actually worked for a company that made supplies for auto detailers. Besides helping manufacture the products, I was responsible for placing the raw chemical orders as well as orders for stock items. I also took customer orders over the phone, conducted all of the end-of-month billing and printed all of the sales staff’s orders.

Detail King: What attracted you to work for Detail King?

Gary: It’s actually funny because the company I previously worked for made a lot of Detail King’s products, and that’s pretty much how I got to meet our founder, Nick Vacco. When my previous employer took the company in another direction, I had the opportunity to come on board with Detail King and I jumped at the chance.

Detail King: Where did you go to college and what did you major in, and how did that prepare you for the job you have today?

Gary: I went to  Continue reading…

Car Care Spotlight: Soaps, Cleaners and Degreasers

June 21, 2012|Category: Auto Detailing Tips, Car Care Spotlight|Comment

Every professional auto detailer has a secret mantra, and that chant is this: Time is money. Nowhere is that incantation more appropriate than when you’re busily toiling away on a dirty vehicle and your rhythm and pace come to a screeching halt due to a smattering of tree sap, a compilation of bird crap, a fender lined in tar splatter or a heavy dose of brake dust build-up on a wheel.

This is a time when the collection of chemical compositions you have immediately at hand can help keep you on track, on deadline and in the groove, so you can finish the job and get on to the next car in line.

Labor is an auto detailer’s biggest expense, and having the right equipment on site and within grabbing distance keeps that expense down. The bottom line is the bottom line, and access to the strongest exterior soaps, cleaners and degreasers means bigger profits and less expended elbow grease at the end of the day so you can do the same thing again tomorrow.

And by strong, we don’t mean bad for the environment. Here at Detail King, all of our soaps, cleaners and degreasers are volatile organic compound (VOC) compliant, which means they meet local, state and federal regulations for substances that contain mineral spirits. In addition, all of our chemicals are 100 percent biodegradable and environmentally friendly.

So while they’re safe for the planet, they’re absolute hell on those hard-to-remove greases and grime that seem to become attached to most every vehicle. In fact, our soaps, cleaners and degreasers act as if they’re on steroids — without the Congressional hearings, thank you. And most of them smell good, a factor that makes your job more pleasant and is certainly welcomed by your customers.

What follows is an introduction of some of these products, with maybe our hardest-working cleaners heading the list because, after all, these are the weapons in your arsenal that are going to enable you to maintain a timely pace in your work day: Continue reading…

Understanding Detail King’s Authorized Licensee Program

June 12, 2012|Category: Authorized Licensee Program|3 Comments

Franchises are a great thing if you’re selling hamburgers, but when it comes to operating your own auto detailing business or mobile detailing operation, why empty your savings account or borrow a bundle to get started?

Detail-King-Authorized-Licensee-LogoWith Detail King’s Authorized Licensee Program (ALP), you become business partners with an experienced leader in the auto detailing industry who specializes in something the franchise owners don’t: intense mentoring at a fraction of the cost of a franchise and absolutely no monthly fees.

What more could you ask for — a guidance and mentoring program that is based on decades of experience in providing squeaky-clean vehicles to satisfied customers. And with the Detail King name behind your independent business, you’re demonstrating in red, gold and blue that what you offer is a part of the bigger picture.

The ALP enables you to hang your shingle with our Detail King Authorized Licensee logo right alongside your company logo for advertising and marketing purposes. We also provide superior marketing tools and guidance to assist you in the creation of flyers, door hangers, inspection checklists, invoices and follow up collateral.

These auto detailer marketing tools are essential in order for you to get the word out about your detailing services, as most do-it-yourselfers find the task too overwhelming to contemplate, let alone initiate. In addition to outstanding handouts and brochures, we’ll even help you build a first-rate professional web site that makes it easy for potential customers to not only find you, but to see what it is you have offer.

Detail King Authorized Licensees have password-protected access to an online administrative dashboard for their custom web site, giving them the ability to easily keep their content updated, upload new images, change prices, add new services and announce specials. Or even blog a little — if they’re so inclined

In addition, Authorized Licensees’ websites are placed on the Continue reading…

Car Wax, Polish and Sealant: What’s Best for Your Customer’s Cars and Why?

June 7, 2012|Category: Auto Detailing Tips|10 Comments

polish sample kit includes STS 3000 Polymer Paint Sealant, Cherry Wet WaxUnderstandably, there’s a lot of confusion among consumers about the attributes and intended purposes of our industry’s overwhelming variety of car waxes, polishes and sealants.

But here in the world of professional auto detailing, we know the proper uses of these complex polishing compounds. For instance, we know that a good polish product targets paint correction and is used in conjunction with either a rotary buffer or a random-orbital polisher. Depending on the condition of the paint, the professional detailer will choose the polish that he or she thinks will do the best job in correcting and “leveling down” these imperfections.

We know that buffing the vehicle with the proper polishing product and the appropriate buffing pad removes light to medium scratches, water spots, oxidation and other blemishes during this stage of the detail. Moreover, we know that polishing a vehicle’s painted surface also brings out that glossy wet look and shine depth for that showroom new look that car buffs love! Problem is, most polishes on the market today don’t offer paint protection (except Detail King’s) and in most cases, they strip away any wax protection on the paint.

The very best auto detailing outfits will typically use a polishing glaze combination product that not only repairs minor imperfections, but also deep cleans the clear layer of paint that most vehicles have today. Detail King’s Paint Correction Polishes include glaze and actually have paint protection ingredients blended into the product. That’s a unique concept compared to other polishing glazes on the market.

Then there’s our Foam Pad Glaze that will not only perform paint correction and remove light swirls in the paint, but will leave behind a half-decent layer of protection. An application of premium wax or commercial grade polymer sealant should still be applied following the polishing process for maximum protection and gloss appearance.

So the paint’s been corrected, and the minor blemishes repaired. Now it’s time to apply a protective barrier that will prevent damage to the freshly polished surface. Nothing’s going to prevent scratches or car wash swirls from occurring again, but a generous coat of Carnauba Wax goes a long way toward providing protection for Continue reading…

Why a Business Plan is a “Must” for Your Auto Detailing Business

June 5, 2012|Category: Auto Detailing Business Management, Starting an Auto Detailing Business|3 Comments

If you’re setting off on a driving vacation with the family, you most likely download some road maps, chart out the most interesting route, then go online for hotel reservations and tickets for points of interest that can be found along the way.

It takes a little effort, but it keeps you from finding yourself in Possum Grape, Ark., at midnight with no place to stay. In other words, you instinctively know there are consequences for not planning ahead.

So if you were more than willing to expend a little time and do the footwork for a successful summer road trip, why on earth would you toss common sense out the window and not prepare a business plan for your auto detailing business?

After all, this is your livelihood we’re talking about here. It’s essential. And believe us when we say a good auto detailing business plan doesn’t have to resemble a 30-page term paper. This isn’t a master’s thesis. Even just a few pages of well-constructed notes with certain objectives in mind are better than no business plan at all.

But if you hope to be successful — particularly in this business climate — a well-researched business plan is as important an element as your auto detailing equipment, your auto detailing supplies and your auto detailing employees. For one thing, if you’re seeking financing, most banking institutions require a business plan before you even schedule a sit-down.

No question about it — operating with a plan in black and white is a “must” in assisting the auto detailing entrepreneur in setting up, operating and growing a successful brick & mortar or mobile car detailing business. And you don’t have to go into this task alone. There’s plenty of help for those new to the business world.

Organizations like the Small Business Administration (SBA) and SCORE — a nonprofit group dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground — both provide free and invaluable coaching and mentoring to assist you with developing and reaching the objectives outlined in your business plan. And here at Detail King, our own knowledgeable staff and state-approved auto detailing training programs are also valuable resources when starting a new auto detailing business of your own.

The more critical elements of a good business plan might include: Continue reading…