A Detailer’s Routine
Welcome to the J&J Mobile Detailing’s first blog post… A Detailer's Routine. Find out what goes on behind the scenes, as car detailing owner.
Everyone has their own morning routine! Some people wake up early, take their time getting up, and truly enjoy the start of their day. Others wake up at the last minute and run straight out the door for work or other responsibilities. Whatever your morning routine is, it’s unique to your life.
A detailer's routine can be a blend of both! There are mornings filled with enjoyment and mornings of total chaos, because let’s face it… sometimes we all wait until the last minute to tackle our morning tasks.
I won’t talk about both sides of the morning scale, but I’ll talk about an average morning for me!
An average wake up for me goes like this…
I wake up semi-early, roughly between 6:45 and 7:00 AM. It's an early enough start to accomplish everything I need to, while still feeling refreshed and not completely drained. Occasionally, like everyone else, I'll have those dreadful mornings when getting out of bed is a struggle, but most mornings, I wake up at the same time
Before diving into any productive work, I start my day with a few essential morning habits: making the bed, taking a shower, and getting dressed. These routine tasks help me set a structured tone for the day. Once completed , I settle down for breakfast and engage in some business-related research.
As a business owner, I believe in being well-versed across all pillars of my company. From operations and sales to tax compliance and marketing, I aim to maintain a comprehensive understanding of every aspect. While this approach may not be perfect, I hear it’s good to be familiar with everything that goes on in your own business
My research can consist of short videos, long form lessons, books, articles, or even trial and error attempts. I like to start my day with learning something new and finding something I can improve on, even if it’s small. I believe something as small as editing a file name can help my business grow. I try not to spend too much time with this, as the mornings are short; as we all know!
With the administrative research out of the way, I move to my garage to check out the inventory. The garage is kept at a cool temperature, so the chemicals stay cool and won’t expire due to heat.
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Heat or extreme cold will accelerate the expiration time on most chemicals. So, keep those chemicals at a room temp
Inventory inspection is a key component before starting the day. You don’t want to just throw everything in the truck, get to a job and realize… “we’re out of chemicals.” Believe me, that has happened many times before.
So as of now, I inspect and identify what chemicals we currently have, and which need to be refilled or bought. Recently, I made a strategic change regarding the sizes of our chemical products. After doing the math, it became clear that buying our most frequently used chemicals, such as Stain Remover, Tire Cleaner, and Exterior Soap, in bulk would be more cost-effective.
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Buying large gallons (In Bulk) is cheaper in the long run. Just keep smaller bottles on hand, then refill them before each job.
Once the inventory passes my inspection, I will load up the supplies and off I go.
During the day, I will go back to the admin tasks. Actual detailing is a main component, but the behind-the-scenes work will be the reason the business grows. During this time, I log accounting totals of any past jobs, post marketing material, create marketing material, or even brainstorm new strategies. This is the part of being an owner that I truly enjoy the most.
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My personal tasks I complete on a weekly or daily basis are:
Logging miles from jobs
Updating expense records
Implement new SEO strategies
Create marketing material and post to socials
Edit our website
The time spent on admin tasks sure goes by fast and will be time to leave for the detailing job of the day.
There is a whole process that goes on for jobs and that’ll be described in future blogs. The short version goes like this...
· We arrive on site
· Contact owner and greet them
· Set up the detailing equipment
· Perform the detailing
· Wrap up detailing and clean up
· Get paid
· Go back home
Job durations can vary, but the whole process typically lasts anywhere from 3-4 hours. I’ll finally get home, unpack the supplies and get ready to start again the next day. Sometimes there are 2 jobs, or no jobs and extra admin work.
As we wrap up our first blog post, "A Detailer's Routine," we hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes glimpse into my life as a car detailing business owner.
Remember, the secret to smooth operations lies in the details—whether it’s keeping chemicals at the right temperature, buying in bulk to save costs, or meticulously planning admin tasks. The day may begin with structure and end with hands-on detailing work, but it’s the dedication to both the visible and invisible tasks that drives our success.
Stay tuned for more insights and tips in our upcoming blog posts, where we’ll dive deeper into the overall business, and share more about how to keep your car in pristine condition. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to sharing more of our detailing adventures with you!
