Starting (a small) business - what to watch out for?

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:08

Hi all

Considering starting a small business.

I've done some ground work and started building a website, custom domain, business email, unit location.

I've still got a lot to do, though.

In the mean time I know a few of you have successfully started and continue to run your own businesses - wondering if you had any pointers on things to watch out for & consider at the beginning?

I don't want to get stuck in the weeds with it all, but prefer to err on the side of caution.

Thanks

sidimmu · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:10

Hey,

What sort of business are you starting? Do you need tools? products? materials? etc to get started?

I guess the only thing I would say is to ensure you got work coming in, how are you currently promoting/finding work?

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:14

sidimmu said:
Hey,

What sort of business are you starting? Do you need tools? products? materials? etc to get started?

I guess the only thing I would say is to ensure you got work coming in, how are you currently promoting/finding work?

It'll be a detailing business. I'm in a fortunate position where I can roughly afford a year without any incoming work.

I have pretty much all the basic tools necessary to start working, as I've been doing it for 6+ years as a hobby/friends and family.

Building some pipeline will be the toughest thing. My outreach plan includes:

Networking with local car clubs
Custom branded clothing
Setting up the website & Google Maps
Committing friends to kick things off
LinkedIn - reasonably connected through my previous work

I'm most nervous of the 1-6 month lull, where I think I'll be energised for the first month by the fact it's new/exciting/stressful, but then trying to maintain the momentum.

Ayahuasca · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:16

If you can manage without any income from this for about a year, my only advice would be to bank everything for the first 12 months, only taking money out to reinvest it if absolutely necessary.

sidimmu · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:25

MrRockliffe said:
I'm most nervous of the 1-6 month lull, where I think I'll be energised for the first month by the fact it's new/exciting/stressful, but then trying to maintain the momentum.

Yeah this is the concern and biggest risk to any starting business. I was very lucky in doing sub-contractor work and I could keep a large amount of my current work, but of course that has slowed down, but I had a lot more time to go splitting the eggs in baskets so to say.

Keep building what you are building for reach and visibility, get down on your instagram/tiktoks too as it'll certainly help with what you are trying to offer. Your outreach plan seems sensible, I'd certainly put some focus on social media and car forums.

I do agree with @Ayahuasca comment, try to save as much as possible for rainy days.

radderfire · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:42

MrRockliffe said:
Networking with local car clubs

I'm not a business guru, but since you asked:

Won't people at car clubs want to clean their car themselves?

I would consider flyering rich neighbourhoods and office blocks where they have nice cars. Your customer profile is a rich person with a nice car that doesn't have time to clean it.

There's also work cleaning cars that are absolutely trashed on behalf of car dealers, is that of interest to you?

dirtychinchilla · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:45

Can you do my car?

lee1101 · 10 Jun 2025 at 15:47

If its not been mentioned already then sort out insurance as well. Also consider in what form you want to trade (i.e. Ltd, sole trader etc)

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 16:04

dirtychinchilla said:
Can you do my car?

R u a povo tho?

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 16:10

radderfire said:
I'm not a business guru, but since you asked:

Won't people at car clubs want to clean their car themselves?

I would consider flyering rich neighbourhoods and office blocks where they have nice cars. Your customer profile is a rich person with a nice car that doesn't have time to clean it.

There's also work cleaning cars that are absolutely trashed on behalf of car dealers, is that of interest to you?

That's a really good question, and while I do hate saying this... it depends.

I did do some asking around in the different clubs I'm already part of, and what I found is that, TYPICALLY:

Younger people with more time but less money = clean their own car
People with more work history, at the crux of their career with little/no time = happy to pay someone else to get their car done perfectly

So a car club like MX5 owners wouldn't be a great example, but then the local Porsche Club would be good place to start. A lot of the local chaps use Konings, for example.

There's also a market for training, something I think I could do reasonably well (and am passionate about) - quite a few people want to do their own car but are perhaps overwhelmed with the amount of information online, and don't have the personality to hyper-fixate on digesting tonnes of information in 2 days (like yours truly)

SupraWez · 10 Jun 2025 at 16:44

Interesting, where is the Unit and what are your prices

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 17:03

SupraWez said:
Interesting, where is the Unit and what are your prices

I’m looking at one in Liphook which is around the corner for me.

Pricing isn’t yet quite decided. Reason for it is I’m working on my USP.

I’ve been trialing the service with some friends, working out the value adds, pitching ideas and the like.

I’ve got a Cayenne for 3 weeks, where I’m going to do pretty much everything I can do before polishing it, so:

- Interior deep clean with carpet steaming & wet vac
- Leather deep clean, hydrate and ceramic coat
- Trim protection

Exterior inc:

- Full chemical decon wash (fallout & tar)
- Glass polishing & coating
- Full wax and sealant

And this weekend I’m up at Kelly Harris’ doing a full 2 stage & ceramic on my 340i with him.

radderfire · 10 Jun 2025 at 17:21

Start a YouTube channel and do tuition videos until you can get enough customers.

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 17:26

radderfire said:
Start a YouTube channel and do tuition videos until you can get enough customers.

Thought about that but the challenge is that a lot of the industry is wrong in their approach to and technique for detailing.

Kelly has been doing this for years but it’s hard to fight against big brands & marketing.

radderfire · 10 Jun 2025 at 18:03

Extra income though.

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 18:10

radderfire said:
Extra income though.

Yeah you’re absolutely right, it just depends on whether you can get it off the ground vs the extra work required to do so. I don’t know if I’d have enough energy to do both, and the detailing should be significantly more profitable

It’s a good reminder though and could be a great shout, even if it just helps with marketing.

radderfire · 10 Jun 2025 at 18:13

Would local garages hire detailers?

Journey · 10 Jun 2025 at 18:14

MrRockliffe said:
Thought about that but the challenge is that a lot of the industry is wrong in their approach to and technique for detailing.

Kelly has been doing this for years but it’s hard to fight against big brands & marketing.

If you are certain they are wrong then surely the fresh new/correct perspective would be welcomed? If you can provide objective scientific data that shows what you are saying then you'll do well.

From running a business personally i'd say don't kill yourself, but kill yourself enough so you gain traction and allow yourself to slow down. If you've done your maths and you know how much you need to earn too be comfortable and keep the business running that's very important.
e.g. If you want 4 weeks of a year what do you need to earn gross for the business for the other 48 weeks, and if you are excluding weekends, then work out how much you need to earn for the 230-235 days you will be working. Can you earn £170 per day gross?

d_brennen · 10 Jun 2025 at 18:17

There's a garage unit near me that was a detailer for a bit. Bloody useless, hardly ever open, didn't answer the phone/reply, couldn't be bothered to do my car the one time I caught him open (just a fancy wash from the price list, nothing special) because he'd had a slow day and was closing in 45min. Went out of business within a year. He did have a few really high end cars pictured being worked on, but I suspect that was the exception rather than the rule. That's one example of how to ruin it

MrRockliffe · 10 Jun 2025 at 18:17

Journey said:
If you are certain they are wrong then surely the fresh new/correct perspective would be welcomed? If you can provide objective scientific data that shows what you are saying then you'll do well.

From running a business personally i'd say don't kill yourself, but kill yourself enough so you gain traction and allow yourself to slow down. If you've done your maths and you know how much you need to earn too be comfortable and keep the business running that's very important.
e.g. If you want 4 weeks of a year what do you need to earn gross for the business for the other 48 weeks, and if you are excluding weekends, then work out how much you need to earn for the 230-235 days you will be working. Can you earn £170 per day gross?

Yeah I’ve done the maths. With overheads inc unit cost it needs to be about £300 a day, accounting for 3 weeks of holiday a year and pension.

I totally agree in that a fresh perspective might be welcomed, but in all honesty I don’t have the desire to try to re educate the entire community. Even when you can produce facts, backed by science and evidence, you can get swamped by people who have been reading/watching the same content for years telling you otherwise.

I’d rather focus my energy on putting together a highly bespoke, service driven business for customers - build a brand first, then educate.