Published January 28, 2025
BY LAITH RODRIGUEZ
Two Carmel High School juniors have found success in opening and running their very own car detailing business, an endeavor the pair have been dedicated to since early 2024.
Joshua Granat and Carson Varney offer their services online through their Nextdoor page, where they list contact information such as an email address and phone number for customers and clientele. The detailing duo found themselves working almost daily during the summer, and as the school year progresses, mostly on weekends.
Josh Granat begins an interior detail for a client. (photo by LAITH RODRIGUEZ)
“We’re all mobile, so we have a nice truck with all the tools and accessories needed,” says Granat. “We ask for pictures of their car to get a quote on how long it’ll take us and what we price them at.”
The young entrepreneurs explain that jobs often take around three hours, ensuring customer satisfaction by taking their time to get into every nook and cranny in a client’s vehicle. They accept around 90% of jobs offered, only holding back when it comes to physical damage to vehicles.
“[We don’t accept] some of the horrible stuff that we can’t fix, like dents and scratches,” Varney adds.
Granat and Varney say their inspiration for starting a detailing business stemmed from something they thought of while driving in Seaside during Car Week, while passing an O’Reilly Auto Parts. They decided to buy a ton of car cleaning materials and went all in on advertising.
Carson Varney details the interior of a client’s car, who he hopes to work with again this year. (photo by JOSHUA GRANAT)
“I’ve been cleaning my grandpa’s cars for years, and he always likes it a certain way, so we went and looked for all the products he has and purchased a lot of those,” Varney explains. “We spent $500 that day on the weirdest stuff and built up from there to where we are now.”
The teens find themselves buying car cleaning supplies two to three times a month and printing business cards on an irregular basis, depending on how many they hand out. They borrow a truck from Granat’s family, where they store and move their equipment from location to location, going all the way to Salinas sometimes.
Regarding a solid clientele, the duo find themselves at many of the same locations they have visited in the past, boasting a range of service all over the peninsula.
“If we pick up the phone and call someone, we’re most likely going to get a job,” Varney explains. “We have a monthly plan to keep a client’s car clean, like a maintenance plan. Every month you get a wash, and if for some reason it gets terrible after a month, we can charge full price.”
After they had their first customer, they knew they had hit a goldmine.
“We had a really good first customer, who was located on their own estate,” Granat comments. “We were nervous because it was our first time detailing someone else’s car, but our customer was really happy with how it ended up.”
Joshua Granat and Carson Varney look forward to working with clients more and hope to buy a pressure washer as another major upgrade to their business quality.
Customers and clientele can find their business on Instagram @detailersbythesea or on their Nextdoor page at nextdoor.com/pages/detailers-by-the-sea-carmel-ca/.
