You already know how to detail a car. That's the hard part, and no guide can teach it. What's left is the business around it — the paperwork, the water, the first customers, and the habit of asking for the next one. This is that part, kept to what's true everywhere.
Do ten cars first
Before any of the rest, detail ten cars for people you know, and charge them. Not full price, but a price — a free job teaches the customer that free is what it costs, and it teaches you nothing about whether the number works. What you're buying with those ten cars is information: how long a sedan actually takes you, how much product an SUV interior eats, how many towels a truck goes through, what your back feels like after two in a day. Every price you set later comes from those numbers, and nobody else has them.
The paperwork
A business needs a name, and where you live it may need a license or a registration to trade under one — the local rules differ enough that the only honest advice is to ask your city or county, which usually takes one phone call. Whether to form a company or work under your own name is worth an hour with an accountant, because what it costs you in tax and what it protects you from both depend on where you are. Two things don't vary: open a bank account that is only the business, from the first job, and keep every receipt. Neither is about tax. Both are about being able to tell, in a year, whether this is working.
Insurance
Two kinds matter. Liability, for damage you cause — the neighbor's car, the driveway, the person who slips on your hose. And cover for the customer's car while you're working on it, which is a separate thing and often not included in the first. Insurers name that second one differently; describe the risk and let them name the policy. The vehicle you drive to jobs may also need to be insured for work rather than personal use, and the time to find out is before a claim, not during one. What all of this costs depends on where you live and what you drive, so no number here would be true for you.
Water and power
Mobile means you bring both, or you borrow both, and you should know which before the first booking. Bringing: a tank and a pump in the vehicle, and a battery or a generator. It's heavier and it costs more up front, and you never again depend on a spigot. Borrowing: ask on the booking whether there's a hose bib and an outdoor outlet, and treat a yes as the customer making your job cheaper. Some places restrict where wash water can run off, and that is a local rule — ask, don't assume. Rinseless and waterless methods exist for exactly the driveways where you can't run a hose, and a lot of working detailers use them everywhere because they're faster.
A first kit
Buy the plain version of almost everything and the good version of towels and the vacuum. You'll learn which of the rest matters by using it. What you actually need on day one:
- A way to wash: a pressure washer or a good hose nozzle, and a foam sprayer. Two buckets with grit guards and a wash mitt.
- More microfiber than seems reasonable, sorted by job — paint towels never touch wheels, and the ones that touched the door jambs don't go back on glass.
- A vacuum that runs on whatever power you're bringing, with a crevice tool you'll use more than the rest of it.
- Brushes: soft ones for vents and seams, stiff ones for carpet, a set for wheels and wheel wells.
- Chemicals, one each: an all-purpose cleaner, a glass cleaner, a wheel cleaner, a tire dressing, and a spray sealant or wax. Add an interior protectant when you've used the first bottle of each.
- A steamer or a carpet extractor when the interior work is paying for it, not before.
Your first ten customers
They already know you. Not because you're a stranger to everyone else, but because the first ten need to trust you before there's any proof, and the only people who do that are the ones who already do. Ask them directly — a text with a price and two dates, not a post hoping someone notices. Then work in the driveway, not the garage. A clean car on a driveway is an ad for an hour, and the neighbor who walks past and asks is your eleventh customer if you have something to hand them. Ask for the referral while the car is still clean and they're standing next to it. That is the moment; a week later it's a favor.
A link beats a phone number
A phone number starts a conversation you have to finish. Someone asks how much for an SUV, you answer, they say they'll think about it, and the thinking happens after you've stopped being in front of them. A link they can book from finishes the conversation while they're still interested: they see the price, pick a time, and it's done before the next thing on their phone arrives. Answer the question they asked, then send the link. Put it in your bio, at the bottom of every text, and anywhere you'd otherwise have put the number.
Reviews compound
To a stranger, a page with three reviews and a page with none are two different businesses, and only one of them gets the call. Ask after every job, the same day, in one text with the link to wherever you collect them — a customer standing next to a clean car will do it; the same customer on Thursday won't. Reply to every review, including the good ones, in a sentence. Nobody reads a hundred reviews; they read the last three and check that you answer.
Price it, and take a deposit
Price by the vehicle — a sedan, SUV and truck rate for each package — and take about a quarter of the price when they book. Both have a guide of their own: What to charge for mobile detailing has current price bands, and Deposits and no-shows is the argument for the deposit and the rule for keeping it. The short version is that a booking with no money in it is a plan, and you can't fill a week with plans.
The calendar is the business
What you sell is a slot: a morning, a driveway, your hands. Everything above exists to fill the calendar and keep it honest — leave drive time between jobs, don't book a truck into a sedan's slot, and treat an overbooked day as more expensive than an empty one, because the empty one doesn't cost you a review. When you'd rather the page, the calendar and the deposit were one thing you don't have to think about, you can claim a booking page at detailcall.com/claim.