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

Hi Mike, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I started detailing cars at a very young age. I would use my parents driveway up until I got my drivers license. Once I had my drivers license, I had freedom. I had the freedom to go mobile. I would pack all of my supplies in the back of my truck and offer mobile detailing services. This was an on and off again process. I would get other jobs thinking they would provide better and find myself falling back into detailing again. After a while, I threw in the towel for what I thought was finally for good. I moved half-way across the country and continued to pursue a different career. One day, I was selling moving blankets and boxes and the person who was picking them up sparked up some great conversation. One thing led to another and we started talking about detailing. The next thing I know, I’ve committed to detailing their cars. It became real, really fast. One of my best friends was with me at the time and we got to work finding ways to accumulate what made it in the move and what I needed to buy. We started buying used equipment off of market place, brainstormed ideas for names, turned it into a registered business, and finally – made it to detail the cars that simple moving blankets opened the doors to. From there we began spreading the word. I had door flyers made. Started social media pages. Made a website. I committed to making it work. It was slow to start, very slow. I continued to work my day job and started filling up weekends and nights after work. Eventually it was time to leap and go head first. I had a mobile detailing business which began to pick up speed.

The mobile side was great but I wanted to be able to provide a higher tier of service. I converted my garage to a small studio to kick up the quality. That lasted all of about 6 months before moving into a shop. Within the first year we had a mobile business, to a home business, to a solid brick and mortar. 7 years later now have 3x the space and specialize in only high end vehicle protection services and no longer offer detailing.

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’ve had a love for cars, trucks, and really anything with an engine for longer than I can remember. When you’re vehicle looks perfect, it gives you a sense of pride with that vehicle. My dad always kept his vehicles perfectly clean and that was something I always wanted to do. I was initially self taught but attended multiple trainings as time went on to perfect the art of transforming vehicles into pristine condition. I now run a fully certified training center teaching the same things I was once taught. I’ve also been invited to prestigious like Motorlux (formerly known as McCall’s Motorworks Revival), detailing automobiles AT said events. I’ve also received multiple awards in the industry as well.

I like to treat every cars as my own. If each vehicle was mine, what would I like it to be like and how would I get there. Most importantly though, our business is run based on relationships and not transactions. My passion flows through each vehicle and to our amazing clients. That means more to me than each transaction. It’s not about how many cars or trucks we can pump through our shop, but how amazing can we make each one and also pass that passion on to each of our clients. Clients and their vehicles aren’t just another number, they are unique and require respect and the attention they deserve.

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

Like most smalls businesses when Covid hit, we weren’t sure what was going to happen. We initially were told to shut down and that was devastating news. It took little time to come up with a solution – find a way to sanitize and eliminate Covid from vehicles. This helped bring clients back in the door and gave us a reason to stay open. This ultimately propelled us further as not only did this allow us to stay open, but people weren’t using their cars as frequently. Scheduling became easier for potential clients and opened up far more opportunities than we had anticipated. We grew exponentially as a business the year Covid hit.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Getting in front of the camera and making personal videos was a game changer for us. It was hard at first being in front of a camera but it got easier and easier. Having beautiful cars posted was great, but it didn’t give potential clients a chance to get to know who was working on the vehicles. Making the videos catapulted our online presence and helped us continually grow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wotautodetailing.net
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/wot_auto_spa
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/wotautospa