Past News Articles
Dec 12th, 2008
by Juliana A. Torres
Osceola News Gazette
Despite the name of their company, Buster and Wanda LaFauvre don’t call the service they provide auto detailing anymore.
The owners of B&W Auto Detailing – winners of the 2008 Kissimmee-Osceola County Chamber of Commerce Best Home-Based Business award – say they have taken the next step in the industry, to auto reconditioning. To say they’re enthusiastic about the details required to make an old car look like new would be an understatement.
“We are passionate in what we do. We’re just trying to show people that detailing is not just going out and washing and waxing the car,” Buster LaFauvre said. “Our greatest reward is knowing that we’re giving them a brand new car.”
The LaFauvres started B&W, which stands for Buster and Wanda, in 2003. The couple’s inspiration for the business came as they attended various car shows and found themselves wiping down neighboring cars... The couple, who have been married for 37 years, now team up in business as well.
“We did this side by side together. My wife can buff out just as well as I can,” Buster said. “Now we get up together, go to work together. Not every day is perfect. But a few hours later, it’s water under the bridge.”
The key to auto detailing is proper products and know-how. With the wrong products and the wrong techniques, auto detailers can ruin a car.
B&W handles every sort of car malady inside and out from scratches, oxidization, pigmentation, carpet stains and leather damage.
Buster said his favorite part of the job is the reaction from his clients as he shows them the completed job. Often he gets told, “Wow, this looks better than when I bought it brand new!”
One of his best experiences with a client came when he found a wedding ring in the track of a seat as he washed a car belonging to a widow in Orange Gardens. “It almost brought me to tears to find this lady’s wedding ring that she lost years ago,” he said.
Buster said the slumping economy has slowed business, but that he wasn’t concerned for his future.
“I think once people understand fully about auto reconditioning, we will expand,” he said. “I have faith in our business that we are going to expand.”
At some point, he would like to open a fixed location in addition to his current mobile operation, Buster said. With a fixed location, he could expand services and eventually offer the auto detailing training that got him started in the business.
Buster said his heavy involvement in the both the Kissimmee and the St. Cloud chambers of commerce were instrumental to his success as a business. Still, he said he was surprised to receive the award for the best home-based business.
“I went numb when they called my name,” he said. “I never thought we at auto detailing … would reach this level and get this kind of recognition.”
As one who’s always looking to expand a business opportunity, Buster made a quick plug at the ceremony as he accepted his award.
“We’ll be out the front door if anyone wants their car detailed,” he announced to the chamber audience at the Kissimmee Civic Center Dec. 4 after he received his award.
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