Local Resident Teams with Digital Harbor Students on Car Detailing Business

Low Slow Flyer Waxing: A Neighborhood-born Auto Detailing Company Powered by Baltimore City Youth

Written by: Trevor Prophet, Owner of Low Slow Flyer Waxing

After receiving overwhelming support and an energizing spike in Low Slow Flyer’s car detail business this past week tailing an introductory post on the South Baltimore Neighborhood Association Facebook Group page, I decided to revisit my founding script that I posted to my social media pages a summer’s past.  It read: “Ultimately, my end vision is to take on board under-privileged youth in the neighborhood to share a couple hours of mentorship, school talk, and life chat in general.  I hope to instill a sense of responsibility, pride, and understanding of maintaining a job and the privilege of steady work.”  As the proud owner and operator of Low Slow Flyer Waxing, it is with great pleasure and gratitude that I can report: we are running a great thing here in South Baltimore, and both employee and patron benefit from operating this business, “as advertised.”

The recipe for LSF Waxing from the outset was simple: provide a convenient, trustworthy, and industry-competitive auto detailing service while involving the community from both clientele and employee postures.  Although both my detailing and business experience were green, I was confident in the self-branding process through spirited hustle, reputable referrals, and skillful online marketing.  Once established as a perfect 5-star rated and preferred service on Yelp! in early summer, the timing was right to commence the hiring and mentoring process.

Recognizing the occasionally fragile relationship the neighborhood and Digital Harbor High School had with each other, I hoped to serve as a small, but impactful, shoring between the two.  With a few fortunate student encounters while walking about Fed Hill Park, and the networks of neighbors and their relationships with DHHS leaders, Low Slow Flyer quickly assembled a strong team of DHHS students.  Besides passing an informal interview and completing the on the job training process, LSF team members are committed to more than just quality car detailing.  By signing on and accepting the challenge, each DHHS detailer has bought into an entire system: one that runs on teamwork, consistent work ethic, self-pride, customer-first attitude, and a pledge to becoming a better individual- professionally and personally.  In exchange for their promise, all team members are provided guidance and mentorship across a vast field of life subjects, an appreciation and responsibility of holding a steady job, and a band of brothers and sisters of other committed community role-players.

As mentioned, my skill set lies not in automobile detailing but rather in personnel management, specifically of the aircrew and technician type.  I am an Active Duty Naval Helicopter pilot and U.S. Naval Academy engineering instructor.  Over four operational deployments, I have gained invaluable managerial experience that lends itself perfectly to our car-detailing model.  All DHHS team members are learning translatable life skills on every job.  Tool control (accountability), proper equipment use and preventive maintenance, quality assurance, the critical nature of being punctual, attention to detail, calculations involving detailing chemical mixing ratios, and the final product presentation of the vehicle to the client all come to mind.  Similarly, all LSF personnel are committed to respectable and healthy interaction with customer and community, as they understand they are now the face of an organization bigger than themselves.  Understanding and conducting the monetary exchange of payment for service, purchase of required supplies, and lessons in how to save personal earnings, all round out the mentoring goals of Low Slow Flyer Waxing.

A few of you have been past repeat customers of ours and I thank you for sparking our growth.  To formally summarize our budding service: we are a 100% mobile, auto detailing company with a twist in the business model: I run the business as a side entrepreneurial experiment, splitting every sale 50-50 with local Digital Harbor High School students that I interview, train, and mentor on each job.  We are currently #1 for Baltimore city on Yelp and love serving the neighborhood.  I’m trying my best to tweak the model to support the recent spikes in customer demand, so please bear with us as we scale up.  Thank you for your patronage, and more importantly, for enabling a potentially game-changing opportunity for our community’s rising, but often misunderstood, talent. #WeWaxYouRelax