Today we’d like to introduce you to Allan Gascon.
Hi Allan, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started this business during the summer of 2020, it was a few months into the pandemic. I’ve always had a packed schedule prior to the pandemic juggling a full time job, going to college full time and everything in between. So when the pandemic started and we were all stuck at home doing nothing that was pretty foreign to me and I found myself antsy to occupy myself with something to do. A buddy of mine was detailing cars on the side at the time and I was really inspired by him to go out there and try it out myself. I really didn’t have money to spend but I bought a basic detailing kit from amazon, I watched a few youtube videos and I was ready to give it a shot. During the pandemic all the car washes were closed but there was plenty of people still driving their cars so naturally they needed them cleaned. I made some posts on facebook marketplace offering my services and to my genuine surprise I got a handful of messages instantly, like within minutes. I would say within a day of posting on facebook marketplace I had maybe 5-7 appointments setup for that week. I remember feeling super excited and nervous because in reality I had zero experience detailing, I had never worked at a car wash but I did work in retail for 5 years prior to that. Which I think is important because although I didn’t yet physically know what I was doing, I was very confident in my customer service skills which ultimately helped a lot. From there it was quite the snowball effect, sure I made plenty of mistakes in those first few months from simple things like being late to appointments or just delivering a subpar service in general but the referrals really began to come in quick. Along with the referrals I began to gain a lot of repeat customers and I really felt like my brand recognition began to really ramp up. Fast forward 1 year I find myself working a full time job, in college full time and running my detailing business on the side every single day. It was a lot but I truly enjoyed how hectic it was, I thrive off of seeing measurable results so seeing my business growing quickly each month was fueling the energy I needed to juggle all three things. At this time I was working 24/7 and I became obsessive on growing my business, I mean I would work at my full time job from 8am-5pm on Saturdays and have my detailing clients drop off their cars with so I can work on them overnight. I remember one particular Saturday working on detailing a car until 2 in the morning after working an 8 hour shift at my day job and starting work again at 7 in the morning, I was obsessing. Ultimately I did burnout after a year and a half of working 7 days a week non stop, so I took the leap of faith and quit my day job to run my detailing business full time. From there the snowball continued to grow, I was able to take on more clients and over the course of the next 4 years my business grew year over year up to present day where I can thankfully say we have a list full of clients and stay busy year round.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It was not a smooth road, throughout the first two years of running my business I was going through some pretty serious family related issues. The issues my family and I were facing were pretty much a daily battle so like I mentioned previously at this time I was working 24/7 but I was also going through these family related issues that definitely made it difficult to keep a clear mind. I know that people deal with things differently but once these family related issues started to take a toll on me I wanted to use working and growing my business as my outlet. It might not be the healthiest way of doing things but I definitely used working harder as a way to push through and I can say without a doubt that the ability to push through when the going gets tough ultimately led to some success. My business itself and the day to day operations themselves truthfully aren’t all that complex so I’m not going to sit here and say I was building a rocket. However I do think my struggles came in a different form which were more tied to my personal life rather than growing the business itself but ultimately the same concept applies, to be successful you must be able to stand on all ten when roadblocks come up because they will come up at some point.
As you know, we’re big fans of Platinum Auto Detail. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
So Platinum Auto Detail specializes in paint correction and ceramic coating installations. We do offer your standard detailing services but over the past few years we have really narrowed our attention to paint protection services through our ceramic coating installations. I think what sets us apart from others is actually the most simple things like being on time, delivering on our word, communicating with our clients about everything. Even down to small things like letting customers know that we are two or three minutes behind schedule, customers really appreciate knowing that we value their time just as much as they value ours. Clients will tell me all the time that the reason they no longer use other companies not because they did a bad job but because they could not deliver on their promises. I sleep very well at night knowing that my clients know if I say that I will be at X place at X time that I will be there and if for whatever reason out of my control something changes, I am communicating that ahead of time. As for our brand I’m proud of the marketing efforts I have made over the last few years, I’m a big believer in if you want to have high value clients on your books then you need to give them something to be attracted to. In my mind, if clients see we are consistently posting high quality content on social media with videos that were clearly filmed by a professional videographer or having a functional and polished website, that will speak volumes about how seriously we take our service.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I’ve gotten to meet a lot of successful people over the years and have been lucky enough to build great relationships with people from all kinds of career paths. From successful business owners to doctors and everything in between but I’ve come to realize although many successful people have consistent traits like the ability to work hard or have a high risk tolerance etc., at the end of the day they’re just regular people. They are regular people who put words into action, they’re not some super humans who are anomalies in society. I only mention that because finding people to network with or finding a mentor is actually much easier than people think. I like to find common interests, whether it be sports, cars, really anything that can align me with a potential mentor will really help create a natural relationship. Some of the best advice I have gotten has come from successful people who are good people and are more often than not eager to share their knowledge. I would say if someone is looking for a mentor or people to network with they can find them in places where your interests naturally are. I like playing tennis and I’ve been able to network with others I’ve met at tennis courts so having the common interest of tennis is an easy door into expanding my network.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.platinumautomotivedetail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/platinumautodetail_/
Image Credits
Credit to all images: Mitokino
