Eileen Figure Sandlin - How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Car Detailing Business

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication

To Edward and Eleanore Figure

Your boundless love and support make my heart soar.

Foreword

For years, auto detailing was nothing more than an automotive car care service done by or for the auto dealer to get used cars ready for resale.

If an individual was doing the work for the dealer, he or she typically did it from a back-alley operation that had access to water and could handle a few cars. There was little professionalism about the work, the people, the technology, or the facility itself because the only thing the auto dealer cared about was a cheap price and a fast turn-around to get the vehicle to the lot for resale.

In the late 1970s, we began to see some changes occurring in the U.S. and Canadian market mainly, the rise in vehicle prices. As prices increased, the financing terms began to increase from the 12- and 24-month contracts of the 70s to the 60- or 84-month contracts today. The average price of a new car in 1978 was $6,379. Today, that price is $27,000. The average length someone owned a vehicle in 1978 about three years. Today, it is reported to be about six years. People are paying more for their vehicles, keeping them longer, and recognizing that they represent a substantial investment, often the second-largest investment next to their house.

Couple this with changes that were occurring in society. More women were working outside the home, and families had more disposable income, but less time. As a result, people became more protective of their leisure time and did not want to spend weekends washing and waxing their cars, cutting their lawn, or cleaning their gutters. They began to seek others to do these things for them. The United States and Canada were moving from a do-it-yourself economy to a more do-it-for-me economy. And in the automatic carwash business, you see a huge proliferation of such facilities springing up all over the country, reflecting the consumer demand for others to take care of their motor vehicles for them.