For seniors Maximilien McGuire and Henry Vare, a shared interest in cars became something more than a hobby. Together, they turned their love for cars into a successful car detailing business, serving over 80 customers.
The business began in their sophomore year, when the two of them decided it was time to find a job. However, they didn’t want to do anything traditional, and they tried to find a job that they could do together.
“[McGuire] has been washing cars since he was ten, so he came up with the idea,” Vare said. “I thought it was a good idea because I wanted to make money, and I thought it was good business experience.”
Although the idea of starting a business seems intimidating, they began by acquiring supplies and devising a way to advertise.
“Creating the business wasn’t too difficult. We just went online and bought products. However, the advertising was hard. We put up flyers around Tiburon and started posting on Nextdoor, which helped us reach parents, which is our target audience,” Vare said.
Aside from Nextdoor and posting flyers, they wanted to expand their business and explore additional ways to advertise.
“Clients also find us through our website, or we’ve also been running an advertisement campaign in the local movie theater in Tiburon that’s been running for several months,” McGuire said.
One of the reasons their business is successful is due to its efficiency. Car detailing takes time and precision, but their speed allows them to serve more clients without sacrificing quality.
“Reinvesting is everything. We reinvest a lot into getting newer, better products to improve efficiency,” Vare said. “It used to take
us an hour and a half or two hours for our most basic standard wash, but now it only takes 45 minutes.”
Their ability to connect with customers is also what sets them apart from other car detailing businesses.
“We are a lot more local. When people go to a car wash, there is no attention to detail; they just want their car to go through, and they don’t care. We are much more closely connected to a lot of our customers,” McGuire said.
Although they are both seniors, the two of them have managed to find a balance between their schoolwork and part-time work after school and on weekends.
“A lot of clients understand that we are in school, and most of them book on weekends. If it is after school, we don’t do more than one, so it doesn’t take up too much time,” Vare said.
For the two of them, the business has been more than a way to earn money; it has been an opportunity to learn responsibility and gain experience that they wouldn’t have been able to elsewhere.
