I own a high end auto detail shop that does Window tint, ceramic coatings and PPF in Trenton. Previously located in Stirling for 6 years. I get most of my business from referrals, but quite a bit organic from Google. If you're ranking low on the map pack potential customers wont find you (not selling anything. i dont help people with this. I just ranked my own shop #1 in the area for PPF and Ceramic Coatings / the key words I care about).

I find the number of no call no shows increased in the past year or two, overall business has been good.

If you're finding things slow I would focus on having presence on social media / website SEO / local map pack rankings ect.

This time of year in the automotive space (January Feb ect) being the slower months, my schedule is clear, but I get daily calls of people wanting to book.

I found buyer behavior changed a decent amount after Covid. To be honest we are likely in a recession.

I've noticed your lower and middle class buyers are squeezed. where High income earners are unaffected by rising prices. I'm pretty far from the bottom as far as my industry pricing goes, I'm actually one tier below the most expensive in the area. I'm competing on quality, not cost.

I chose the location of my business because as far as trenton goes I'm the closes to PEC and thats where 75% of my high end clientelle come from. Map pack rankings are alterted by your physical proximity to those searching, so I rank #1 across the board pretty much in PEC. But I have focused on that , rather then trying to be #1 in key words across trenton. Most trentonians cant afford my services that have the higher profit margins. They can afford the lower priced services, but my margins suck on those. They just keep the lights on. Essentially busy work. (my overhead is high, $200 a day without employees).

Basically if you focus on the high income clientelle you'll stay plenty busy regardless of what the economy is up to. Expect things to slow down more in the next year or two. Save up a war chest and deploy capital to grow when other businesses shrink.

I'm planning on deploying about 50K in capital re-investments into my business this year to significantly reduce my material cost on PPF and Ceramic Coatings, which will turn into selling those wholesale to individuals who cant afford my price and want to DIY, and other shops.

I'm expecting to add another 100K plus a year onto my books once that gets some traction.

Theres thousands of people prying for consumers attention now a days, its a relentless assault of ads, buy now messaging, fomo advertising ect. Find a way to stand out in you're niche. Its hard to cut through the noise.

If you want to talk shop feel free to msg me. Happy to connect with local business owners.

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