We were lucky to catch up with Aaron Preciado recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Aaron, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Taking a risk to start my own business was something I’ve always wanted to do. At the time, I was at a dealership going on five years and it was great. I learned a lot, honed in on my skills, and was feeling pretty comfortable where I was. So comfortable that I was just another employee, moving myself up to becoming manager, so you can say it was great. I had everything, so of course I was comfortable. My fiancé was going to college at this time and my job was pretty much bringing in all the money and supporting us. I was even able to buy her a new vehicle and more, so it shows you just how comfy I got. I had everything going and it finally got to that point where working for the dealership in my area I had reached as high as I can go there. I couldn’t move further up the ladder, unless it was moving over to being a salesman (which I did not like doing). So there came a time in 2019, when I decided it was time to move on and take that risk. During my time at the dealership, there were many Service Managers that would come and go and I had to constantly prove my worth. It imitated a revolving door of service managers, but that was the dealership industry. It would get pretty tough sometimes and it would get to me. I was pretty hard on myself and always trying to one up myself cause if you didn’t follow the rules/guidelines there, then they would start to look at you. I decided to leave the comfiness of everything at my disposal. Money played an issue in this decision to leave my current role at the dealership and restart on my own. It was tough but luckily I had my fiancé with me throughout the whole thing. We came up with a plan when she was done with college and got her job that it would be my time to start my own business. We did follow through with that plan. I told her “just like it took you four years for college, it should take me four years of running my own business to become stable.” So I pushed hard, and luckily I have great communication skills, knew how to talk to people very well and I’m very friendly. All those skills that I had inquired over the years, I had to put them to work. It was really tough at the beginning just like any other small business when starting. You have to look for customers, build a website, buy the tools and supplies you need. At the moment I didn’t have a lot of money so I had to bargain with everything and make it happen. Everything I have now, I did not start with. It was just a few bottles of chemicals, a truck that my brother gave me and having to hook up to customers water at their house to get the job done. Now, first steps were to reach out to family and friends, which some of course did try it out. I’ve heard this many times that family with ask for discounts and sure enough those that didn’t try it out were wanting just that. Since I know they wanted to help me out still, I had to figure those things out and push through it. I was very dedicated to really making something out of this, and some family members took it hard. To tell your whole family that you’ve quit a good job at the dealership and now you’re starting off fresh with a business to clean cars, well that just didn’t sit right with a lot of people. I of course knew I had to prove them wrong, and that’s just what I did. I started pushing hard and motivating myself each day. At the time, I was living in an apartment so I would store all my equipment and supplies in storage at my grandma’s house. I would wake up between 5am-6am, to drive over to my grandmas and pack up my truck to then head out to the first appointment of the day that started at 8am. It was a lot to do and those winter months were cold for me. I guess it was a good thing that I learned to adapt to these weather changes from working at the dealership since we didn’t have the best building when I was there. Things are going great at the time I had started the business back in May 2019. As a business owner there is no guidelines on how to get started, so its like where do I start? So I went to social media, created a small logo and just got into different apps for the community like NextDoor. Anything that I could use to help push my business out there. I also got involved with a contracting company that would send work to me and literally that helped tremendously. The experience of being out there, understanding customers wants, and learning to to get the job done in a timely manner was great. It was completely different from being at the dealership all those years and only getting paid $50 bucks for one vehicle since they were sold vehicles and needed to be put out fast. Everything I learned there really helped me and customers were loving my work. The biggest obstacle came when COVID started and businesses went on lock down. I was able to adapt. With mobile detailing, I didn’t need to interact with my customers in person, since I supplied my own water, electricity, and the tools needed, plus payments could be made online. Customers were able to leave their keys in a safe place and I was able to disinfect the whole vehicle. The business and I were able to survive these times, because of the luxury style of mobile detailing where a customer could stay safe and didn’t have to step foot outside their own home. All of that was super helpful, but it was still a hurdle to get over because during these times, people were not spending their money like normal. I then had to strategize different ways to market. I was able to help community members who were on the frontline during COVID. First responders and nurses who were working 24/7 to assist those in need. They were very appreciative of the discount and stress free of having their vehicles cleaned. It definitely was hard to be out working during this time.Seeing a city that was robust and moving each day to hardly any cars on the road. You know in Walking Dead when he wakes up and everyones not there, well thats what it felt like working at that time. Through all that, I got through it and was on the end of no profit still. I knew I wasn’t going to be profitable as a small business for a few years so I stuck with my faith in myself and kept going. I had a lot to prove still. I can be hardheaded and when I stick to something I’m going to make it happen. There were still people to prove wrong. People who didn’t think I could make money in the auto detailing business. I had to prove what I could do in this industry, especially since it is still a new industry in peoples eyes today. There are now certification classes, you can travel working on luxury cars, and new skills to learn all the time. Detailing is an art form that is still growing and people are starting to realize that. So I just keep moving forward. In 2019, I knew it was only the beginning and I knew if I survived the first year, I had a good chance of making it. Forward to the year 2020, and I made the business fully legit as a LLC. I now started to invest more money into the business. By the summer of 2020 I brought on my first employee. I taught him everything I knew so he was able to assist me, therefore allowing us to work on more vehicles. As 2021 started, I then hired a second employee. I decided to purchase another truck and that allowed my employees to do their own jobs and me to still take care of customers as well. I taught them very well. They learned great communication skills as I learned this is very important aspect to the job. To this day they are still helping and slowly growing even more. Now in 2022, I have a shop which has really put us on the map in our city. All in all, the risk of leaving my secured job and starting my own business was very much worth it. I stayed committed to making it out and my vision is really starting to enfold. My fiancé and I were were able to purchase our own home (which was a risk in itself), the business is profitable, and I’m happy with it all.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Aaron Preciado and I am the owner of an amazing detailing business here in San Antonio called the Detail Code. I’ve been running it since 2019 which I started all on my own. I’ve always been around cars since I was just a little kid. My father owned a car dealership so I was always around. In 2014, I started working in a collision center, where I worked on the paint and body of the vehicles. Making a vehicle look good was awesome to learn. You bring in your vehicle after a fender bender and we make it look like it never happened. The collusion center unfortunately closed down so I moved over to the dealership side of the business where I worked on getting vehicles ready for customer to buy or trade in. I was part of what they call Make Ready, which is the detailing business that was located in the back of the dealership. It was good at the time. I did it for 5 years where I learned all the dos and don’ts, for which I am grateful for. During the 5 years I became a manager in my team but after a while I learned the only other way up the ladder was to switch to selling the cars there. I did become a salesman for a bit but it was not my thing. I just wasn’t into it so I did end up leaving in 2019 to start my own business. My business provides really great service and is considered a luxury service. We come to you and detail your vehicle at your home or place of business. The best part is that we rejuvenate your vehicle leaving it like you just got it again or better than when you got it. We also restore a lot of older vehicles. Restoring the paint making it look again and getting the engine cleaned up is part of this process. Customers love that they can continue to stay home and work while we get the job done in their garage or driveway of their home. It’s definitely a game changer. Due to Covid, more people are at home now.
The biggest problem we solve is freeing up time for customers to be able to get more things done. Instead of going to a car wash and physically have to do everything yourself, we are there to eliminate that part for our customers. Even when you have to physically take the time to take it a big drive thru car wash, you are still having to make those arrangements to drive there and wait. We are there to help customers avoid all that, so we are there for you whether you’re at home or you’re at work. Customers love that while they work they can have their vehicle cleaned and by the time they get out, we’re all done. What sets us apart from others is what our customers love to say about us. Our customers are constantly telling us how they love the quality work, how polite, and how respectful we are. Here in San Antonio that goes a long way with businesses.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

During February 2021 in Texas, we had one of the worst winter storms that I’ve ever seen. Growing up in Texas, it was the worst any of us had seen. Half of the community was without water and power which really affected a lot of people. I happened to be part of the lucky ones not affected directly. I fortunately still had water and electricity, so that left me in an okay state, but once I hears that a lot of people were out, I just couldn’t sit at home and let others go without food, water, and power. Of course my business was already shut down during the time too, so we weren’t able to work, therefore leaving the multiple generators in our mobile trucks unused. We were able to lend those out to family members that needed it. All of our mobile trucks have 100 gallon water tanks of purified water, thus allowing us to set up at community pantries around the city. Through Instagram we were able to spread the word informing people to bring canisters and gallon jugs or anything they had so that we could fill them up for each individual/family. Along with setting up at community pantries, with our mobile trucks we traveled around the city supplying anyone in need with fresh water. We didn’t just stop there, we also set up food at these community pantries. We were able to donate goods and even were able to partner with a few food trucks. This all came from just being a human like everyone else. I’ll never forget the kind of genuine help I would see and get when I was a kid. I wanted to pay it forward and do it out of the greatness from my heart. Once the winter storm moved past and things got back to normal, I was just so astonished by the amount of people that were reaching out to my business and utilizing our services. They would highlight that they saw us donating and wanted to utilize our services. I am very thankful for my community and I am proud that I can overcome these obstacles to give back.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What really helped me build my reputation in the San Antonio Auto Detailing Market was two different things; the professional quality of work that I put into each and every vehicle & the strong respectful communication skills I’ve gained over the years working at a dealership. It wasn’t a year or two of detailing that got my skills to where it is now, it was all the learning and time to brush up on my skills over the years. I even took the time to travel to another state for a large master class, of which I received certification to work on paint. This really helped push my skills further. In San Antonio, being respectful is one of the top tier things that can get you far. I use that with every customer that I work with. The “yes/no sir” or “how can I fix this”, with a smile is all it takes sometimes. There are going to be rough moments, but I learned you have to do some critical thinking and figure out how are we going to help this customer while staying respectful. There is going to be a lot of problem-solving along the way, but the customers really love that. The return of great customer service is the amazing referral numbers and Google reviews. We are flooded with great feedback on how we are respectful and how great the quality of work is. I intend to keep this amazing recognition in our market.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thedetailcode.com/home
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedetailcode/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDetailCode
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-detail-code/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-detail-code-san-antonio

Image Credits
Amber Trevino