We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Hughes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Our main objective of this business is to make our customers fall in love with their ride again. Either it be auto or marine, we aren’t your average detailer. Andrew (owner) took his background skills from working for body shop specializing in classics along with his combined experience at other body shops and working the assembly line at GM to build his every growing legacy. When most detailers cringe at black vehicles, he enjoys the challenge and specializes in paint correction of black/dark paint. Our move to the lake threw us into the boat restoration game, and we are now one of the only licensed and insured companies that will come to your dock to do the restoration work. We strive to make ever boat and car shine like new here at Smith Mountain Lake. We love seeing our customer’s face when they see there older vehicle look better than new again, without having to have it re-painted.

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?

What started as a strong passion for bringing the life back into cars, is now growing our legacy. Andrew has over 18 years experience in restorations, detailing, body work, PDR, and paint correction. His first job out of high school was working for General Motors on the paint line for the Saturn Sky, Pontiac Solstice and Opal vehicles. He worked as a body tech for years, with his main experience in a collision and restoration shop who specialized in classic cars. Since moving to Virginia, he continued to work in the automotive field while prepping to launch our business. His favorite mantra is “Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life”.

Since we officially launched in 2020, we have been growing every since. We started in a one garage bay shop and quickly moved to a 1400 sq.ft. shop in the heart of our service area. We have a full time employee as well as an appetence.

We specialize in high quality deep cleans of interior and exteriors, on boats and cars alike. We also offer IGL brand coatings for those wanting ease of projection for their rides. Our favorite types of projects are the restorations of boats. We love taking an old, chalky boat, that looks like its past it’s prime, and bring it back to life. My favorite is when people say “my blue boat needs some love”. When we get done, turns out the boat was black, but the oxidation was so bad, they had no idea.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Our lake is home to some great detailers that have been in the game for a while. However, there are a lot of “pop up” detailers. We set our selves apart by first off, actually showing up to the job (you would be surprised how many times people are thrilled we actually showed up). We also always make sure to have clear communication with the customer about what they need done. We do not believing in upselling just to make a few extra dollars. We give customer’s their options and our honest suggestions like it was our own. I also will adjust quotes lower if needed, if I over estimate, I will go lower if the job wasn’t as involved as we thought. Finally, we treat ever car and boat that we touch like it was our own. We think about the customer service experience that I would want, and try our best to give that experience to the customer.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The business started as a side gig for Andrew. Soon, he was turning away jobs that were offering more he was making at his M-F job the entire week. It just made sense for him to continue to grow this. However, the entire journey, we have built the business on cash. We worked with what we had, and slowly upgraded when funds allowed. We do finally have a business credit card but we honestly just got it for the points and for ease of filing taxes. But if we can’t purchase outright, we save up until we can. We do not have any business partners or “money man”. We hope to continue this method unless something big comes our way that would require a loan.

Our words of advise are, start where you are, start small, and grow as you can.
We launched during COVID and still deal with a shaky economy. Another rule we live by is savings. I always make sure to make sure we have enough to cover shop rent and payroll for a few months.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.parkwaydetailing.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkwayDetailing/

Image Credits
Nathan Younger, Photographer