We recently connected with Kevin Ernster and have shared our conversation below.
Kevin , appreciate you joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
Since I have been in business, I first started detailing out the back of my 2010 Honda Civic. You do what you can with the resources you can afford. I then saved up enough capital about 6 months later to buy a work van, this work van would later be wrapped with my lime green logo. Everyone in the city recognizes the van because of how bright it is. From there the work van had all my supplies but I was still missing vital detailing equipment. Fast forward into my 2nd full year of business, I have purchased a large generator and a 35 gallon water tank to support my detailing van, this allows me to detail virtually anywhere! I also started my own chemical detailing brand for which I use on all my projects, Rival Rad Detailing Supplies is my brand. I took the knowledge I gathered from the first year and improved it tenfold. I now am generally booked out 2 weeks to a month. This is super exciting for me to see how far it has grown. On top of this I have utilized my detailing capital and invested it into starting one of North Carolina’s first liquid car wrap shops! At this point I will be working and building up 3 companies thanks to my detailing business. My work life balance is still there, I still enjoy raising my 4 month old daughter and enjoying the company of my friends and family. The realistic aspect of this journey is that is it not easy by any means, I go through work stress almost daily trying to get more traffic to the detail shop, while trying to build the other companies. This requires networking with various networking groups, donating some free details to give back to the community, and going to car shows or local city festivals to get my name out there! The biggest way I scaled up was through Google and social media such as facebook, tiktok, instagram and youtube. My biggest following is tiktok where I have roughly 22 thousand followers. With Google I utilize their ads to get in front of people, this takes careful time and consideration on how to write the ad in a manner where people can find value in detailing with Critical Shine Auto Detailing. The journey is still ongoing and proves to have its complications, but I will not give up. Never.
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?
I started Critical Shine Auto Detailing right after my deployment to Saudi Arabia (Army Reserves). I was visiting my sister in Colorado and we were talking about businesses and how cool it would be to own a business. It appealed to me because I could make my own hours and be my own boss. About a month after that I started up Critical Shine. I researched LLCs and different ways to go about creating a business. From there I just researched and asked questions to the awesome mentors I have to this day. 2 years into auto detailing and we are still going strong and even expanding into a detailing studio! I take pride in saying we have sent one our projects, a classic car, 1957 Ford Custom to SEMA in Las Vegas (this is a big car industry show that millions of people attend). Our company also details motorcycles, boats, and RVs.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I would say my biggest story/event that illustrates my resilience to keep going was when I first started detailing. I would say I was a good 5-6 months in and I was getting a client here and there. Nothing significant where I could go full time detailing, so in this period of time I was an uber driver as well. I set up my Uber with signs in the back letting people know that I did auto detailing. I got a few clients off that which was great. I passed out a ton of business cards as well. One of the people I was transporting told me that they hope to see me get big one day so that they could say they were a passenger in my Uber. Truth be told I did not enjoy driving for Uber, I had the worse anxiety driving people around so I strived every single day to improve my business. January of 2022 came around and inquiries were arriving daily, from that point forward I no longer had to drive for Uber, I have been a full time with my detailing business and now I have 2 part time associates working with me helping me build and expand the company even further.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I get asked a lot of how I funded my detailing business. For me it was simple, I sacrificed a year or so of my time in the Middle East. Being deployed as a 1st Lieutenant in the Army treated me well. I came back home with some solid cash, instead of blowing it all on cars and random stuff I decided I did not want to work for that tech company I was working at anymore. So I used all my deployment funds to start Critical Shine Auto Detailing. I never asked for charities or loans, I just used what I had to build up what I have now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.criticalshineautodetailing.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/criticalshine_autodetailing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/infocriticalshineautodetailing
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-ernster-bb5baa94/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@criticalshineautodetailing/about
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@criticalshine_raleighnc