How to Assess Your Mobile Detailing Competition

Before you go and start a mobile detailing company or a mobile car wash you must assess your competition. Before retirement, I was in the franchising business and I founded a company which franchised mobile detailing units and mobile carwashes in 23 states. Indeed, I would often ask franchise buyers to look around in their area and see what sort of competition they had.

The last thing I wanted to do would be to sell a franchise into a small town which had 4 or 5 operators which had been in business for 10 or 20 years, and several hand carwashes perhaps at an old gas stations within the town. It's not that I was afraid of the competition, more so I was afraid that our franchisee might have a tough time breaking into the business as an unknown. Yes, we had developed a brilliant marketing plan, but that's beside the point (besides that's my opinion, and in business you always need a reality check).

If a franchisee could only squeak in by the skin of his teeth to afford the equipment and franchising free, then he wouldn't have the extra money to market to get himself well-known fast enough to compete with entrenched competitors. Okay so, how you go about assessing the competition for your future mobile detailing business? Well, I believe this is one of the most important parts of the business plan, and I do believe you should create a business plan before you start.

First, it makes sense to find who the legitimate competitors are by going to City Hall and getting a copy of the list of everyone that has a business license in the various categories such as;

1. Auto Detail Shops
2. Carwashes
3. Mobile Auto Detailers
4. Mobile Carwashes
5. MLM Dry Wash Companies

Next, it makes sense to go into the phonebook and see who is advertising in the Yellow Pages. It also makes sense to drive by and check out your competitions facilities, and take a look at their equipment. Are they serious about running their business, do they have a line of cars waiting? Another smart thing to do is, do a survey of their customers who leave, by physically stopping them and asking them if you can ask a few questions about how they like the services they have just received.

Just because your competitor has a nice facility, or a nice rig to go out and clean vehicles, does not mean their customers like them, it doesn't mean they do a good job, and it doesn't mean they show up on time. If they don't, their best customers should be your first prospects. Whatever you do, don't just go online and assume that everyone in your area has a website and is easily findable on the Internet.

In the real world it's all about referrals and who you know, much of that word-of-mouth advertising comes from people not from the Internet. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, http://www.detailguys.com/ and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,222 articles by July 22, 2011 at 2:22 PM is going to be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

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