Door-to-door

When I started I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my first customers.

I decided to go door-to-door initially as:

1) It will help me improve my communication skills and help me develop a strong value proposition.

2) It costs nothing, as I was boot-strapping this business, anything that didn’t cost anything but my time was fair game.

After all, door-to-door sales aren’t that uncommon in the Burnaby area. It works for landscaping, power washing, and telecom businesses, that’s why these businesses send salespeople out in the field to go door-to-door. I figured car detailing was fairly similar with landscaping and power washing businesses. Instead of helping the client with their home, I’d be helping them with their car.

I could not be more wrong.

My door-to-door adventures were cut short as I kept running into a similar issue - trust. As I was trying to keep costs low, I had no business cards, website, company attire, etc. It was hard to build credibility at the door as a legitimate car detailer. With the rise in online car detailing scams at the time, I don’t think that helped my case either. I realized if I wanted to start getting customers and build up my client base, I would first need to legitimize my business. In my goal of building trust in my prospective customer base I:

1) Established a business name.

2) Designed and ordered business cards.

3) Established my website, social media pages.

4) Posted some pro-bono work I did for friends and family.

I also began focusing more of my efforts on social media marketing, posting about my business on Facebook, Nextdoor, Yelp, etc. I realized that car detailing is not something everyone is looking for. For many, a car wash does just as good of a job at a fraction of the price. So marketing myself online would allow me to attract and bring in clients who are looking for detailing services and be a more effective use of my time.