Vehicle wrapping is the process of putting plastic stickers on a car, van, or truck to advertise or make it look better. It is now worth $4 billion and is expected to grow at an amazing 22% per year until 2028. This makes it one of the fastest-growing industries in the US. To get into this growing market, you can get licensed as a wrapper and start your own car wrapping business.
To wrap cars, you will also need to know how to run a business. This step-by-step guide gives you all the information and advice you need to start your own business wrapping cars.
Step 1: Find Out if this is the Right Business for You?
There are positive aspects and negatives to consider before considering if car wrapping is best for you.
Positives Vs Negatives
| Great Money: Vehicle cover makes a lot of money. Hot Market: Interest in wrapping cars is growing fast Easy to Learn: Take classes and get certified in just a month. | High Start-Up Costs: Training and equipment are expensive. Finding a Provider: We need to find a printer to make unique wraps. |
Industry Trends
- By 2020, it was thought that the world business of car enclosures would be worth $4 billion.
- Forecasted growth: From now until 2028, the global market for car wraps is expected to grow at a rate of 22,4% per year.
Cost of Starting a Vehicle Wrapping Business
Starting a business that wraps cars could cost between $10,000 and $18,000. All tools, training, and certificates are included in the price. If you could use your own garage or already had one, you could save a lot of money.
You must choose a nearby place, like Avery Dennison, that offers hands-on training in wrapping cars. You’ll spend about $2,500 on the test and two two-day workshops.
Investment Items:
- Heat lamps
- Tool fitting
- Tools used for cutting
- Kudos to the hood
- The car’s doors and trunk
- Magnets
- Those who help things stick together
- Vinyl
Is a Vehicle Wrapping Business Profitable?
On average, wrapping a car costs about $3,000. After paying for materials, labor, and rent, your profit margin should be about 30%.
In your first year or two, you could wrap one car every week, which would bring in $156,000 per year. With a 30% edge, this would be worth $47,000. As more people hear about your company and you do more marketing, you might sell three cars a week. With an annual income of more than $470,000, you’d make a nice $140,000 profit.
Entry Barriers
- Education and tools start-up costs
- Different from the other well-known companies that wrap cars.
Step 2: Create a Strategy
Identify a Gap
Looking into nearby companies that wrap cars to find out about their services, prices, and customer reviews. You want to fill a gap in the market. For instance, there might not be a company in the area that makes vinyl or metal-colored wraps for custom advertising.
This could get people talking about your business again and bring you customers right away.
Solutions
All that’s left is to choose where you want to focus. One-color wraps, wraps with patterns, or wraps with ads can all be used.
Pricing
Your prices will depend on how big the car is and how much the materials you use cost. On average, it costs about $3,000 to wrap a car. You should aim for a 30% gold edge after paying for goods, labor, and rent.
Once you know what your costs are, you can use our Step-by-Step Profit Margin Calculator to figure out what your markup will be and what your end price will be. Remember that you should be able to change your shipping prices whenever the market calls for it.
Target Market
Your target market may vary depending on the services you provide. If you chose to focus on advertising wraps, most IV treatment clients will be small company owners. You may reach out to them personally or search for them on LinkedIn. You may locate local small businesses on Google or Yelp.
Location
Depending on the services you offer, the people you want to reach may be different. If you decided to focus on advertising wraps, most of your clients for IV treatments will be small business owners. You can talk to them in person or look them up on LinkedIn. Google or Yelp can help you find small companies in your area.
Almost likely, you’ll have to rent a car. On Craigslist, Crexi, and Instant Offices, you might be able to find local office space for sale.
When looking for a place for your business, you should think about the following:
- The position is handy, and public transportation makes it easy to get there.
- The room has good air flow and a lot of light.
- As your business grows, you can keep the lease.
- It’s ready to use and doesn’t need any big fixes.
Step 3: Write a Business Plan
You need a business plan. This will help you lead your new business through the process of getting started while keeping your main goals in mind. A business plan also helps possible investors and partners understand your business and its goals better:
- Executive Summary: A short summary of the whole business plan that should be written after the plan is done.
- Business Overview: A overview of the company’s goals, vision, mission, assets, and control organization.
- What we make and what we do: Describe what you’re selling in detail.
- Do a SWOT analysis and look at market trends, such as how demand is changing and where there are chances for growth.
- Look at what your main competitors do well and what they do poorly, and make a list of what makes your services better.
- Sales and Marketing: Think about your company’s unique selling points (USPs) and use that information to make plans for sales, marketing, and promotion.
- Management Team: A account of the roles and professional skills of the team, as well as the organization of the company.
- Your company’s running plan includes how it will get supplies, where it will put its office, what its most important tools and assets are, and other useful information.
- Financial Plan: A three-year plan for money that includes start-up costs, a break-even analysis, estimates of income and losses, cash flow, and a balance sheet.
- Add any other papers that have to do with money or business to the appendix.
Step 3: Create a Marketing Plan
Even though some of your customers will find you on the street or online, you should still spend money on advertising. Getting the word out is especially important for new businesses because it brings in more customers and makes people more aware of their brand.
Connect your website to your social media accounts once it’s up and running. Social media is a great way to get the word out about your business because you can make interesting material and sell your goods.
- Facebook is a great paid advertising network that lets you target certain groups, like men under the age of 50 in the Cleveland area.
- Instagram has the same advantages as Facebook, but it is made for a different group of people.
- Website: SEO will help your site show up better in search results that are related to it.
- Search engine results are a big part of how people make money. Make sure that your website’s calls to action are the best they can be. Try changing the wording, color, size, and placement of calls to action like “Schedule Now,” since this could lead to a big increase in sales.
- Google and Yelp: Getting listed on Yelp and Google My Business can be very important for local businesses that need to get the word out and find new customers.
- Put up signs that get people’s attention in your business and on your website.
- Flyering: Give out relevant handouts around your neighborhood and at events for your business.
- In-Person Deals: Sell your car wrap to organizations in your area.
- Make a blog and update it often. Change up your content and send it out through many different platforms.
- Give people an opportunity to tell their friends about your business.
- Paid ads on social media: Choose sites where your target audience hangs out and run ads that are relevant to them.
- Pay-per-click marketing: Use Google AdWords to make your search engine results better. Find out what your watchwords mean first.
- Influencer marketing is when you pay people with a lot of followers on social media to promote your car wrap. There are micro-influencers who have a small number of fans and a low rate of interaction.