# Average Salary of a valeter/detailer



## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Just wondering what the average salary of a) a self employed car valeter and b) a self employed detailer (or someone who does both) would be...

Does anyone know?


Cheers.


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

2 buttons and a bit of fluff.


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## Guest (Oct 28, 2009)

Not as much as all the weekend warriors think when they start thinking its great money.

Take away Tax/NI/van/unit/insurance/products etc all depends on your overheads and how busy you are.


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## ArcticVXR (Apr 10, 2007)

yes...........


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

I can't imagine your going to have much luck with this question, I certainly wouldn't post what my income is for all to see on the worldwide web.


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

Agreed, Rob. Potentially a very argumentative subject this (going on past history), not to mention rather vulgar IMO discussing income and salaries in public.

In fact to avoid us having to keep an eye on this for the rest of the evening, I might even close it yet


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Cheers all, Gleammachine - I thought that may be the case which is why I mentioned an average instead of asking a more specific value question i.e "what do you earn", worth a shot for a less prying question I suppose


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Viper - Completely understand your viewpoint, appologies if I have struck on an inappropriate topic.


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

Rob88 said:


> Viper - Completely understand your viewpoint, appologies if I have struck on an inappropriate topic.


No need to apologise, but I've seen too many of these types of threads start off with the best of intentions and to be fair, the OP has usually got the info he was after within a few pages, but then as the evening wears on we get the trolls spouting up and, well, you can imagine how it progresses from then on


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## PETER @ ECLIPSE (Apr 19, 2006)

margins are massive , depending on where you live , services you offer ,as paul mentioned overheads , but each will be different , so tough to answer.


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Ah right I see where you are coming from Viper, fair enough  fully understand then should the thread be closed. 

Peter - cheers matey


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## DE 1981 (Aug 17, 2007)

I dount there is an average figure mate, you get out what you put in etc etc plus overheads will vary greatly depending on set up.


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## Dougster (Jun 12, 2007)

One MILLION dollars!!


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

Rob88 said:


> Ah right I see where you are coming from Viper, fair enough  fully understand then should the thread be closed.
> 
> Peter - cheers matey


No probs 

Perhaps if anyone has some useful 'ballpark' figures that they think could be of use, they could PM them to you rather than post it in public? I think that might be the best option :thumb:


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## cleancar (Sep 21, 2006)

Dougster said:


> One MILLION dollars!!


love it !!


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Viper - agreed, that would be more suitable, cheers


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Rob88 said:


> Cheers all, Gleammachine - I thought that may be the case which is why I mentioned an average instead of asking a more specific value question i.e "what do you earn", worth a shot for a less prying question I suppose


No worries fella, didn't mean to come across abrupt.
Most base their prices upon an hourly rate x the time necessary to complete the work, depending on how good they are, reputation and the ability to bring in the business, would amount to what they are likely to earn.:thumb:


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Gleammachine - not at all matey, I just wanted to clear up as I'm not always that great with the words I choose & didn't want to make myself look too prying into other peoples business is all.

Cheers for the info, much appreciated  I'd like to give this a go as a career really and admire those who have their own business etc etc so I'm trying to find out as much about it as I can


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## Guest (Oct 28, 2009)

i work in the veichle cleaning trade,have done many year's now we get paid a set hour rate time and a half overtime double time on saturday's ,we also get a bonus for every veichle cleaned i earned last year £22,ooo apprx before tax, probally get flak on here now but that's what i earned.
spent 16 year's as a fully trained butcher college trained,10 year's as a manager and the hour's i worked to the wage i earned did not match this,we earn a great deal of money in the winter month's as soon as the salt goes down.:thumb:


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## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

Just hypothesising here, but going by the recent thread on 'costs', if the detailer was busy, i.e, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year the gross would be between £84K and £240K py.
As the higher charging guy would probably have higher costs (nice fancy unit etc) we could guesstimate that all in costs for both would be 50% of gross, which takes us to between £42K and £120K py.
Add in the factor that most pros probably can't get work 5 days a week every week of the year and would maybe average out at 2.5 days over the course of a year we are now down to between £21K and £60K py.

Now lets remember that to stay in business (i.e repeat custom, word of mouth etc) they would have to be pretty good at what they do, which takes time and skill, and it's not the easiest of jobs, I would say that £21K is not really enough, especially when you have the stresses and strains of running your own business.

So maybe it's not the cake walk that a lot of folk think it is!

But as I said, this is just hypothesising, and I could be *way* out)

I have heard talk of most of the pros swapping yachts with each other when they go their hols


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Cheers all


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

swiftshine said:


> I have heard talk of most of the pros swapping yachts with each other when they go their hols


Shoosh don't tell everyone.:lol: Mooring costs in Puerto Banus are outrageous also.

Swings and roundabouts with the days per week booked, the weather plays a big part also, have been working 7 day weeks since beginning of Sept, but I know come Jan/Feb it will be a different story.


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## R1KK1 BFG (Jun 17, 2009)

Starting off its not going to be loads cause of insurance tax Ni etc ... But as rep starts to build and you gain more peoples trust and confidence then the money will slowly start to increase as time goes on.


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## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

Gleammachine said:


> Shoosh don't tell everyone.:lol: Mooring costs in Puerto Banus are outrageous also.


Don't blame me. It was MD that let the cat out the bag:lol:

Now that I come to think of it, was it your yacht or Clarks that got Abramovich jealous enough to go and upgrade


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## dominic32 (Jul 13, 2009)

i thought you all got a tea and biscuit and that was your pay :thumb:


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## rgDetail (Jul 16, 2009)

Cheers all


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## PETER @ ECLIPSE (Apr 19, 2006)

another point that people forget , is give yourself at least the first 3 years , before you will begin to bring in profits .
and thats if your lucky .


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

swiftshine said:


> Don't blame me. It was MD that let the cat out the bag:lol:
> 
> Now that I come to think of it, was it your yacht or Clarks that got Abramovich jealous enough to go and upgrade


You must mean this recently purchased item, obviously offset against my earnings, it is a work vehicle.


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

^^^ Very nice, Rob :lol: :lol: What LSP you using on that baby these days?

btw, whoever put the transfers on the side wants shooting - it's about 2 degrees off horizontal, and I know what a perfectionist you are


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Viper said:


> ^^^ Very nice, Rob :lol: :lol: What LSP you using on that baby these days?


Didn't leave me with a lot of ££'s over, so just some SRP for the time being.


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

hmmmm wonder how much nanolex will bed needed for the windows Rob lol


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

swiftshine said:


> Now that I come to think of it, was it your yacht or Clarks that got Abramovich jealous enough to go and upgrade


Away you go! I no longer have my Yacht as the neighbours in Monaco were fed up of the noise my Helicopter made when I came home from work every night!


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

Saying that i could see an order for one of these going in soon.

http://www.platinumyachts.ae/platinumyachts/triton.html


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## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

Gleammachine said:


> You must mean this recently purchased item, obviously offset against my earnings, it is a work vehicle.


:lol:



Clark said:


> Away you go! I no longer have my Yacht as the neighbours in Monaco were fed up of the noise my Helicopter made when I came home from work every night!


Well you do work pretty late sometimes


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## -ROM- (Feb 23, 2007)

I don't suppose many of the detailers are trading as limited companies but if any are you can download their accounts from Companies House.


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## Epoch (Jul 30, 2006)

Clark said:


> Away you go! I no longer have my Yacht as the neighbours in Monaco were fed up of the noise my Helicopter made when I came home from work every night!


It was the fact you had you chopper out all the time that annoyed the neighbours Clark


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