Fortunately for car cleaners, the people love ASMR

It seems we all still yearn for those childhood trips to the car wash, because videos of dirty vehicles getting a thorough scrub are garnering millions of views on social media. On TikTok, where ~2 million clips are tagged with #cardetailing, the trend is driven by a new generation of bootstrappers who have foregone more traditional jobs to start lucrative car-cleaning businesses.

One reason for the car-detailing career boom is its low cost of entry. You can start with a couple hundred dollars worth of cleaning supplies, and the profession doesn’t require any certifications (but training courses are on the rise). According to the Wall Street Journal:

• A former Amazon warehouse worker who started his own car-washing business in 2022 now makes ~$18,500 per month from the venture, plus another $50,000 from car-detailing classes and coaching.
• Another car detailer who runs a $1,995, three-day training course for car detailers said inquiries have spiked by more than 50% in the past four years.

Zoom out: Some entrepreneurs who do car detailing full-time initially got into it as a side hustle when the pandemic threatened their main lines of work. This type of crisis-induced pivot has precedent: The International Detailing Association, a group representing the industry, was founded when hordes of professionals pivoted to the field during the 2008 financial crisis.—ML