Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anthony Meyer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Anthony , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Business ownership requires a lot of strengths: strong leadership skills, adaptability, passion for business, innovation, financial literacy, excellent communication, problem-solving abilities, strong work ethic, risk-taking capacity, networking skills, people management etc. But even before all these strengths… is the ability to dream and vision. A dream becomes a vision when the idea is written down and becomes a goal (and it has some sort of deadline).

I am the owner of A&B Detail St.Louis. In the current season of growth the services that I focus on are all things automotive detailing. This idea of starting a detailing business didnt come from social media or seeing someone else do it…
It actually came organically from friends and family asking me how I kept my vehicle in such good shape and clean (my vehicle was old!) I’ve always loved hospitality and finding ways to give back to people. My focus wasn’t and still isn’t to this day in making money…it is serving people first. After serving my first client offering mobile services I knew if i was going to take on such nuanced work that has quite of bit of variable lability I needed to be a legal business entity.

Before publicly posting and launching A&B Detail St.Louis I did some market research, watched a lot of videos, started looking into skills I needed to acquire and what services I wanted to offer first. I watched hours and hours of every piece of equipment I needed to start the business and then scale up as my skills improved. I looked at business names available in the state of missouri and landed on our current name registered and opened business bank accounts and immediately got business insurance to protect myself against potential damages. Then my next stage was working on business branding-our logo that everyone could recognize. There are alot of moving pieces for startups. I offered mobile detailing services only for quite awhile. It is the most affordable and easiest route in detailing without having to lease a spot immediately.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

A&B Detail St.Louis main goal is to clean and maintain vehicle exterior and interiors. Automotive Detailing goes far beyond traditional automatic car washes or “Full service car washes” and expands into the luxury niche side of car cleaning and restoration. Our business motto is to “clean, perfect, and protect every vehicle every time”. I have detailed small boats, private airplanes, motorcycles and automobiles and commercial vehicles.
It can be very tricky to stand out in a saturated market but I believe branding and customer experience is helping alot with that in this season of growth. Most small businesses start and fail within 3-5 years. I am in my 4th year of business and just want to make it to year number 5 in a tough economy. My future goals are adding services like window tint and paint protection film. With each service addition it takes months to roll it out.(generally this is due to cost of material, equipment, certifications, etc).I love giving back to the local community. The last 2 years I have hosted and sponsored the A&B Detail St.Louis car show. It has provided opportunity to meet new people, engage with and support our first responders and foster even better client relationships. I

Continual training and development is important to me. I have had other new small business owners reach out for training and assessment of skills which has been an honor to be a young business and even provide a nugget of knowledge from what I have learned in my short entrepreneurial journey. I have had the opportunity to apprentice a detailer named Karly after her parents reached out to me at our local church.She completed training and she is a contractor. Watching her level of skill improvement, accuracy and efficiency is awesome. You don’t really know how good you are at something until someone affirms it or you’re able to train and pass on that knowledge to someone else. Working with Karly and other business owners has encouraged me that in the future when the time is right I can offer some strong employment opportunities to those looking in the job market,

Attending car shows and events is extremely important in your industry. But I think what is even more important is connecting with other local automotive businesses and supporting one another and sending work to each other.
In full transparency, We cannot be the best at everything. We will have top services , and client projects we don’t have the margin in booking to take on.It is crucial in a competitive industry to not undercut and hurt each other. If another shop is superior in a service and I get a lead and I am not able to take on the work I send them their way. Great local businesses work together not against each other.

I think about legacy. I think about even more in terms of doing something awesome with my wife and passing something down to my 2 children. There are alot of businesses that don’t make it. Its a well known fact. There are even fewer black owned business owners…. I wanted to thank the 2020 pandemic because it sparked courage in me to try something new.
It’s a difficult journey but worth it.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

The best way I have built brand reputation and recognition is to go above and beyond and serve every single client. Facebook mentions and direct referrals were 100% key in the very beginning stages. When clients leave Google reviews it validates and or invalidates the services we provide and execution of the work.
We do not pay for google reviews but we encourage and always appreciate them in this tough industry. It takes years to develop trust and a strong presence. I will continue to push for great experiences.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

We pull clients from so many avenues paid and non paid marketing:
anything from car shows, outdoor events and hosting events, driving around in my Honda Civic Hatch vehicle with my logo slammed on the rear glass. I even have a QR code on my car window and i looked at the QR code sticker views and it had over 2,000 shares in a month. In 2025 I would not go as far to say that referrals are always “the best” form of new clientele. Referrals truly help with warming those leads up and by the time I have an over the phone or in person consultation… it makes it easier to close the sale/ticket.
New clients come from all sources for my business. Key ones are direct referrals, google searches,
goolge ads, facebook/instagram meta ads, and even as of late people watching my videos on TikTok.
Clients need to be able to research, watch videos and see what’s going on behind the scenes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.abdetailstl.com
• Instagram: @Abdetailstl
• Facebook: A&B Detail St.Louis
• Yelp: A&B Detail St.Louis

Image Credits

Anna Feeney Photography
A&B Detail St.Louis LLC