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Auto Detailing Los Angeles Resource
Identify Your Target Market
Understanding the basics of starting a car detailing business, you need to have a good marketing plan.
Who will be your target market and what needs will you be fulfilling?
Why did you choose this particular business?
Who are your products/services meant for?
Who do you want to do business with?
What is unique about your product?
Your goal is to sell products used in automotive detailing. Vehicle owners are your unique target market. Your business will help them take pride in how their vehicles look.
Break your target market down into smaller sections.
Eliminate groups that are unsuitable such as those who bring their cars into the shop for any detailing. You want to appeal to the customers who will do their own detailing at home.
Your niche group or target group is an automobile owner who likes to do their car detailing on their own, likely at their own home. They take pride in caring for their own car and they take the time needed to make sure their car looks great!
Now assess whether or not your unique target market exists in enough numbers that would make your business a viable one. If you feel that it is you can move on.
Profile Your Target Market
You want to define specifics here.
How much do you know about your target customers?
What are their spending habits and where do they shop?
How much do they spend on their car care needs?
Where do they live and what is the car detailing market like in that area?
What kind of car do they own?
What kind of spending power do they have?
Where do they shop for their car care needs?
You need to have an entire profile on your prospective customers in order to understand how your niche business will best meet their needs.
Once you have successfully identified your target market you can now do more intensive research. This will conclude, in exact terms, if there will be enough business in your target market area to support your business at every proposed stage of growth. You will prove that a specific need exists for your car detailing business.
Look for good research using:
Local and international business directories
Internet resource directories
Car care statistics
Local and regional newspaper articles
Magazine articles
Market research surveys and focus groups
It is also critical to know your competition! There are excellent on-line sources for this information. Find out the market share for your car detailing business as well as future trends and predictions. A good source for this information will be your department of labor and statistics.
Once you have compiled all of your research you are ready to move forward with your plans.
As with running a sole proprietorship, there are a lot of benefits and pitfalls as well. Grocery stores have this idea down pat. Once a business spends too much money on credit, they learn all too late that the interest rates on credit cards can force hundreds of extra dollars in expenses. You want to stay available to all of your customers because if you disappear from view, so will your customers. 2 or 3 microfiber towels ? Cars with leather interiors need detailing on a regular basis to look half-decent. |
