Meet PJ DeCoste of Sapphire Mobile Car Detailing in Buckeye/Goodyear and Tempe/Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to PJ DeCoste.

PJ, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started this mobile car detailing business when I was a sophomore in high school. Originally I was business partners with a close friend and we would go door-to-door in Verrado trying to get people to let us detail their cars. After about six months, the business was left entirely in my hands. For the next year and a half, I built up my client-base in Goodyear and detailed over 150 cars, golf carts, and RVs in the retirement community Pebble Creek. Over the summer of 2017, I hired my first two employees and Sapphire Mobile Car Detailing was doing eight or more cars a day. I was taught how to detail cars by Mr. Morales who used to run his own car detailing service and after 3 years of practice, Sapphire Mobile Car Detailing delivers the best mobile car detailing in the state of Arizona.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Unfortunately, no start-up has an easy time in the beginning stages of the business. The biggest roadblock I had to overcome was figuring out how to build a client base. I solved this problem using three different strategies; social media marketing, referral specials and word-of-mouth. I saved almost all of the money I made in the first year and put all of it towards marketing on Facebook. This benefited the business a lot by opening up a new stream of clients and making it easier for people to schedule appointments with me because clients could simply do this through Facebook. The most effective way I gained clients was by offering referral specials. I always offer one simple referral special which is: refer a friend and receive a free wax OR 25% off your next detail. Clients loved it because they were receiving high-quality car-care for such a cheaper price and I loved it because I got over 100 clients through that method. Lastly, I relied heavily on word-of-mouth marketing because I had a lot of friends that were amazed at the car detailing work I was doing and the affordability of it that they would tell upwards of seven other friends.

Please tell us about Sapphire Mobile Car Detailing.
The service my business provides is mobile car detailing. This means I come to your house, place of work or anywhere with a water spigot, and detail your car there. This saves people time from having to take their car to a detail shop and it gives customers a sense of security knowing they can look out their window and make sure their car is being treated the way it should be. What sets Sapphire Mobile Car Detailing apart from competitors is the affordability of a mobile car detailing job. For just $35, you can have the inside and outside of your car super-cleaned in your own driveway!

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over I would spend more time practicing my detailing on people’s car for no charge. This would have helped me experiment with certain techniques to find what works best and get closer to mastering car detailing.

Pricing:

• $35 Cars
• $45 Trucks
• $25 Golf-Carts
• $3 per foot RVs

Contact Info:

• Address: 14175 W. Indian School Rd.
• Website: https://azdecoste.wixsite.com/sapphire/about
• Phone: 623-237-2216
• Email: azdecoste@live.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AZMobileCarDetailing/

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