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I built a business I’m too embarrassed to talk about

★ signal-weak   r/entrepreneur  ·  ↑ 1273  ·  💬 1079  ·  2026-05-01  ·  kw: too much time  ·  open on reddit ↗
your rating:
Tool
none
Issue
Mobile detailing business operator lacks systems for customer scheduling, recurring billing, and client communication — currently managing ~$72k annual revenue ($5k/month recurring base) and 9-month seasonal operations manually without documented workflow tools.
Cost
unstated
Recommendation
none
Date context
2026-05-01; seasonal business (March–November operating window)
extracted with
anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 · 2026-05-08

Body

I started a mobile detailing business in college as a side hustle to make some extra money. I went to a great private college and now work full-time remotely for an insurance company in a finance position where I'm quickly climbing up. Promoted quickly, intern mentor, highest close ratio on my team, etc. Now, 7 years later, while detailing is still a "side hustle," the income the business generates in 9 months (the mobile detail season in my area) is quickly catching up to my much more respectable finance job and I'm not sure how to feel about it. I'm 26 and make \~$85k + 5% bonus at my day job. My business did \~$72k last year, working from March to November all by myself part-time, so nights and weekends only. I also own 2 duplex rental properties. Detail clients who I talk to tell me I'm crushing it and are always impressed, but I can't help but feel embarrassed to know that I went to such a great college for a finance degree, and here I am shooting soap at cars and chiseling melted candy out of minivan cupholders. I've even met a few business owner clients for breakfast just to chat about business. I have a fully custom trailer, and I just added a top of the line ford transist connect mobile detailing setup, wrapped with my logo. I also built monthly maintenance revenue of \~$5k each month, so those are jobs I don't need to find each month, it's my new base revenue. The business does too well to ignore, but it feels so beneath me to tell people what I do. Very few friends and even family members know because I try to keep it as secret as possible. I don't want to be seen as somebody who went to school for finance, and now they shoot soap at cars for a living. It makes me feel like such a failure, even though the business can produce $12k months working solo only part-time. I have few expenses so it's mostly profit. Does anybody else have similar feelings towards their business? Should I put more focus on my real career or this business?

Top comments (6)

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[score=1340] Beneficial_Air_8212
Wait.. there’s GENUINELY nothing to feel embarrassed about! It sounds like you’re truly crushing it dawg.
[score=505] No_Issue853
Sounds like you went to a really good college and earned a degree, now you own a profitable business that you can make your own hours. Keep sucking at life. Your future self will thank you.
[score=315] LeadGenMachinist
Bro. You need some ego death. If your friends can’t hear that and go “holy shit how can I help”- then they shouldn’t be around you much if at all. As you get older, you will look back at this and recognize this work ethic is what made you far wealthier than any of your friends. Keep crushing it. Make sure you’re saving. Fortune favors the bold.
[score=126] cargoman89
Bro prestige is a crock of shit. A profitable business is everything
[score=105] Drives_A_Buick
You *can* use your finance degree, if you are sufficiently risk-welcoming: scale up. Right now you make $72k as a side hustle. You could easily do $150k full time. What if, instead, you took out a small business loa and bought three trucks? Hire somebody in Eastern Europe to run the phones and scheduling and billing. You spend your time acquiring new customers and training two people to be as passionate as you are? You have the skills to calculate exactly how many customers required to make this work, and in principle with the leverage you should be able to more than double earnings.