HIGHLAND, Ill. (December 28, 2023) – Best friends since the second grade, Donovan Brennan and Aaron Latman, both 19, are finding success as they make their mark in the auto industry.
The duo that grew up together in Homewood opened Attention 2 Detail Luxury Detailing & Coatings, Inc. in February 2023 at 9936 Express Dr. in Highland, IN.
But their work with cars began at an even younger age.
Spending $350 on Amazon
Latman explained how he spent $350 on Amazon to buy supplies to detail the interior of his mother’s car and how he and Brennan came up with the idea for starting a business when Latman didn’t want the leftover supplies to go to waste.
“We just started detailing out of his car,” Brennan said. “Well, at first it was his dad and my mom driving us around.”
They had their first client in January 2020 and did three cars on their first day in business.
Brennan said people didn’t want to leave their houses during COVID and the pair would detail cars in driveways.
“That was our business model to start,” Brennan said.
Reinvesting everything
They kept doing jobs and put the money made into more supplies.
“We didn’t take a paycheck for like almost two years,” Latman said. “We didn’t take a single dime from the company. We just reinvested everything.”
Brennan grew up working at Fine Tune Auto in Lansing, which is owned by his father.
“We were able to use his shop, fortunately, for our start in services that we needed to do inside,” Brennan said.
From Lansing to Griffith to Highland
The pair then opened its first shop in Griffith before moving to the Highland location.
“We built this from the ground up,” Latman said. “It was a build-to-suit lease.”
And business has been so good they opened a second shop next door to allow for more space to work on cars.
Specialized services
Attention 2 Detail offers a wide variety of services, including full detailing, ceramic coatings, window tinting, paint protection film, vinyl wraps, paint correction, and undercoatings.
The business does not do body repairs nor painting.
“We do automotive appearance enhancement and protection,” Latman said.
Interior detailing includes work such as shampooing carpets and cleaning seats, door panels, and dashboards.
Exterior cleaning involves washing and waxing.
The most popular service offered is protective coatings for paint.
Latman called the Icon Rocklear coating the business applies “the world’s thickest, strongest, glossiest and most oxidation protective coating in the entire world.”
“We are the only shop with the rights in the entire state of Indiana to apply this coating,” Latman said. “And we have first right of refusal to the entire state of Illinois.”
Learning and earning
Latman said he and Brennan learned so much about working on cars by reading, watching videos, and through conversations via Zoom with other detail shops.
“Just tens of thousands of hours of just reading and talking to other people and networking in the industry and then just, we just blew up from there,” Latman said.
They “blew up” to the extent that Latman said the million-dollar mark in sales was met a year and a half after the company was started.
Brennan said he actually grew up hating detailing because he had to do it at his dad’s shop, but he always loved cars.
Latman said he has a “passion for cars” and plans to soon obtain his dream ride – a Lamborghini.
The secret: Hard work
Regarding their secret to success, Brennan said there is no secret.
“We had no investors,” Brennan said. “There’s a lot of hard work, a lot of effort, long hours, and working with the right people.”
Latman said there is no easy way to get rich quick and estimates he puts in about 100 hours a week.
Both work the management side of things now instead of doing actual work on the vehicles.
Latman does the sales and marketing while Brennan handles the finances, hiring, and manages the staff.
Brian Blaszak, of St. John, IN, is a repeat customer who has had work done on two of his cars.
“It’s the level of service,” Blaszak said. “It’s the quality of the work that’s done.”
Blaszak remarked on Latman’s quick response time as proof of the customer service offered.
“He responds faster than my wife does,” Blaszak said.
More information about Attention 2 Detail can be found at www.attention2detail.info.
