Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Nicolas.
Hi Ryan , can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
3RE Auto Detailing was created by a couple of Century High School students looking to complete some sort of business/marketing project, in order to meet graduation requirements for the business program. We decided to go through the entrepreneurial route by running our own business. Throughout the process, we showcased and gained hands-on experience in areas such as marketing, customer service, budgeting, and business management. With several marketing strategies and active social media presence, we grew to 400+ followers across different platforms in less than 5 months, while juggling school, sports, and other extracurriculars. We are currently on hiatus as we have all graduated and are preparing to begin college and explore what comes next in our lives. While we are still determining the future of 3RE Auto Detailing, we would be happy to share our experience of starting a business as high school students and what we learned along the way.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
3RE Auto Detailing has faced several issues, especially during the beginning. Whether it be weather during colder seasons, scheduling details, budgeting, or just something didn’t go as we hoped. During fall/winter season, there is less of an incentive to get vehicles detailed as rain, snow, and harsher temperatures make it harder to operate. Scheduling was also challenging because we had to find time around school and customer availability, sometimes leaving one of us to skip their extracurriculars for the day. Marketing required us to constantly find new ways to reach potential clients, whether it was going door to door, hanging around advertisements, or even creating entertainment videos relating to our business for attraction. We had to maintain this on almost a daily to weekly basis, all while maintaining academics and extracurriculars for the year. For myself, it was the ultimate test of time, operations, financial, and marketing management under pressure as the leadership role.
We had a self funded business building it from scratch, our funds and budgeting had to be precise in specific areas in order to maintain a sustainable business model. We had to carefully decide when to restock on supplies, equipment, marketing, and other improvements. We slowly reinvested any funds made and kept upgrading our business model over and over again. We slowly learned to have patience and practice professionalism, not letting any immaturity or negativity affect the way we represented our business. There were times where our equipment broke, or products did not work out for us. Through trial and error, we were taught the importance of financial responsibility and understanding that building success takes time and risks.
As a new business with a bunch of competitors, we had to figure out a way for clients to trust us high schoolers. At times, we dealt with people questioning our professionalism, making fake inquiries and constantly seeing attempts to scam us. When we first started, we were still learning how to communicate with customers and represent who we are as a business. We dealt with many people who never took our business seriously which gave us distractions. Building trust also takes time, and we needed that time to gather positive reviews and create a platform that people can look and see our work. When we first started learning proper detailing practices, it took us almost the whole day just to finish one car. Over time, we consistently built a system in order to complete each part of our services efficiently, while maintaining the quality of our work.
It wasn’t always a smooth road, especially when we were first starting out. It took a lot of time and effort, but the experience we gained from building 3RE Auto Detailing was well worth every penny. We were taught lessons about business, responsibility, social skills, and perseverance that we can carry with us in the future.
As you know, we’re big fans of 3RE Auto Detailing. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
3RE Auto Detailing specialized in automotive detailing and basic paint protection. We offered both interior and exterior details, waxing, ceramic sprays, deep cleaning, and pet hair removal. We serviced sedans/coupes, SUVS, vans, and trucks. We focused on providing quality work while making sure every vehicle received the attention and care it deserved.
What set us apart from others is that we offered more affordable pricing for local customers and thanks to our business partner Emmanuel GalvanAraiza, we had access to a shop to operate on our work which provided clients a place to drop off their vehicle and do something else meanwhile. We were also able to provide a mobile detailing service occasionally, giving another customers another option depending on their needs. Being able to offer both shop-based and mobile services helped us accommodate different types of clients.
We are most proud of being very professional as a student-led business. We take our clients and job very seriously and our marketing campaigns are explosive and engaging. Century High School students and staff supported our business through bookings and word of mouth. Emmanuel and I went door to door handing out business flyers and cards, talking to several people about our services and introducing them to 3RE Auto Detailing. We worked really hard to build a professional looking brand, and build a good reputation with our experiences talking to people. Every single interaction with customers or people who wanted to conversate about our business gave us opportunities to improve how we presented ourselves and represented professionalism in our business.
What we want to let readers know is that you can be capable of taking action and making something like your own business no matter who you are. As students, we wanted to set an example for others our age and inspire young entrepreneurs to take their ideas and passions seriously, potentially turning them into something bigger. There is no better time to take action on your goals than today. We hope our story shows other students that they do not need to wait until they are older to start pursuing their goals. No matter who you are, always chase your goals, dreams, and take risks.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
When my friend Emmanuel and I started 3RE Auto Detailing, we knew we wanted to build something of our own and turn our hard work into something meaningful. While we didn’t have a formal mentor for our detailing business, we learned to be resourceful and to use connections and resources available to us as students. Having an experienced business owner to guide us would have made a big difference by giving us advice, sharing their experiences, and helping us recognize what steps we need to take for success. There is so much I personally have to learn still.
We created our own merchandise and marketing materials, giving us a more professional look for our business model. Things that worked well for us were paying attention to our surroundings and not being afraid to step out of our comfort zones to market ourselves. I’m a more introverted person myself, but what gave me the confidence to keep moving forward was my business partner Emmanuel’s enthusiasm and conversationalist attitude. Having more confidence led to my passion into making our business become successful, slowly turning my role into the leadership position of 3RE Auto Detailing. Being polite and approachable when networking is super important, as you never know who you might meet or what opportunities could come from one conversation. We gained a lot of local attention by making ourselves known, which followed to clients booking us. We used social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook to showcase our business, we were able to attract several other detailing businesses across the world supporting one another.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3re_autodetailing/
Image Credits
Ryan Nicolas and Emmanuel GalvanAraiza
