I wanted to say something about blogging in general. It’s a lot to be the boss and the blogger.
In 2012, I now understand the importance of the details of media maintenance. Weekly is the goal for input. Daily is the attention I have to others blogs. I will try to link them here often.
Its still the middle of the off season but we are already 3 boats deep for the season.
Currently a Sea Ray 630 for a full buff has become a liability on my calm due to its storage position overhanging on a loading dock making the bow almost unreachable. Tomorrow I will have to rent a scaffold set instead of my original notion to float a bolson chair of the cleats.
I will check in when she’s done
Howdy WordPress folks,
My name is Shane A. Desloges. They call me “Spike” on the water. I started a boat detailing company here in my home town Toronto, On. We service boats on site marinas and yacht clubs across the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).
Now in the off season leading up to our sixth season of operation I am really excited about the big changes we are making to our website check it out now (www.spikeonthewater.ca) to get the before picture. In January 2011 the site will relaunch with new features like customer profiles with purchase history, so our clients can comment on their services more efficiently and also have a more functional record of what we do when we do what we do.
The e-Commerce element is long overdue and will allow our clients to request and purchase our services independently, individually or for the entire season.
Our staff will have their own profile pages to manage their personal schedules and keep our boaters informed on the boats issues we may observe when performing our services.
I have been wrestling with the idea of providing a retail element to our new site. All the specialized products and equipment that we use associated to the services we provide but I’ve realized that maintaining this kind of operation will require a lot more physical space than my living room, sun room and entire basement which are already consumed by my home based business.
Back in 2004, I decided working for the city as a marina operator was unfulfilling and with the help of a book called “The Artists Way” by Julia Cameron I developed a business plan that was derived in whole from my pure desire to spend my life on the water!
With a mop, bucket, a couple rags and a bottle of boat soap I strapped on my roller-skates and started living my life the way my soul designed it. It took about 2 weeks before somebody gave me a shot. My first job was a mast cleaning, a job that did not appear in my business plan. I hit the dock shoppe and inquired what somebody might use to polish a mast. They sold me a bottle of Flitz. Well for the next 17 hours with a tube of flitz and my own personal toothbrush I polished this mast from foot to masthead, spreaders, stays and every thing in between. I made this thing ridiculously shiny. The captain was a bit more than surprised when he arrived and was forced to wear sunglasses to review my work. I was paid a mere buck a foot totaling $65 dollars for this job ( that job today would be $650). With my first of many overwhelming satisfied clients in the bank the dock talk started……..
Over the next four months i spent everyday learning on the job. My favorite job is interior cleaning because I could do it at night when everyone I knew was at the bar or sleeping I was transforming moldy, dusty, greasy, disorganized and sometimes really smelly boats into obscenely clean environments. When I clean a boat, the result is designed to far exceed expectations. On more than 100 occasions I have witnessed tears of joy from my clients. On more than 1000 occasions I have seen a boater go grab a neighbor and force them to look at their boat immediately after I have finished my job. This is how it all started.
For those who don’t know, boating in Ontario is over in December meaning I’m out of work. I starved, I cried, I had serious issues with mice and roaches in my crappy bachelor apartment. When March finally came around I was 3 months behind on rent, no phone and a mailbox filled with debt collection letters including a long overdue student loan. This was a very depressing time but the sun was shining and I knew if I could just get to a marina I could l make money. Roller-skates strapped on I traveled to Toronto Outer Harbour Marina. I sorta stood out on my roller skates bopping around to jamiroquai on my iPod. I asked people if I could help them wax their hulls. from 4 different boats took me up on my flat rate offer of $200 bucks. I finished up about 3 am on the last boat. I slept under the last boat and very lucky for me all of them were satisfied. With $800 bucks in my pocket I fired off the the dock shoppe and bought my own one step restorer wax and some applicator pad and a huge wad of terry cloths, back to the marina and booked 9 more boats at $300 each since I had my own supplies this was a bargain. I rented a ladder from one of the first boats I did for $100, the guy though I was nuts to offer him a hundred bucks back but i just wanted to be certain I could do this on my own without owing somebody a favor.
My second year was wicked busy, I had built a reputation on hard work, tireless attention to detail and reliability. This is still my reputation today, with a full time seasonal staff of 9 we are known as The Best of Toronto, mentioned in Toronto Life magazine August 2010.
Our service area is Burlington to Whitby, more than 20,000 boats a moored, docked and stored in our region there is plenty of work to do and we never say “can’t” when it comes to beautifying a boat. Our rates now standardized by LOA (length overall), contracts prepaid, stocked with the highest quality equipment and supplies and thousands of satisfied customers to thank for turning my big dream into a big business. I feel blessed.
It is my current 5 year plan to introduce our formula for boat detailing success to 5 other areas in Canada. Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston, Port Carling and Vancouver.
If you or somebody you know loves to spend time on the water in any of these area, I’d love to hear from them. A very rewarding life awaits us all on the water!
