College can become expensive, but Weber State University students, like Brayden Hamilton, can find a way to make it easier on their wallet. Hamilton, a professional sales major and football player, opened his own car detailing business, Rocky Mountain Auto and Cleaning, to pay his way through school.

“I came home from a mission, and I wanted to keep the work ethic up, but I just couldn’t find work because of my football schedule, so I just kind of felt like I wasn’t being fulfilled,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton said that with his training and football schedule, it was hard to find time to work. He needed to find something flexible that worked around his schedule.

“This last football season in the fall, it’s really hard to work, to practice all day and everything,” Hamilton said. “I really felt like, what could I do that would allow me to work but also be flexible with my schedule? I work some odd jobs here and there. And then I found this car detailing, car painting thing. I was like, man, it only takes three or four hours, and it’s flexible.”

After finding car detailing, Hamilton wanted to put his degree to use and start his own business.

“I really wanted to start my own business,” Hamilton said. “That’s just kind of my personality, and I didn’t want to work for anybody. So I started it like, two or three months ago, and got all my materials and just kind of went with it.”

With his drive and passion for what he does and his goals of completing his degree, Hamilton has already gotten several customers for his business and is gaining more.

Hamilton also takes into account what the needs of customers are and how he needs to grow his business in order to succeed.

“My services are consistently changing just because I’m always seeing what would work best,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton offers different services. He has a normal cleaning, like going through the carwash and using the vacuum. He also offers different levels of detailing: a low- and medium-level interior only and the full detail, which includes interior and exterior. His most popular service is interior detailing due to the winter weather.

Hamilton has even talked about opening up a membership for his business and trying to do car detailing for commercial vehicles as well.

“Just like how car washes have similar options that are like $25 to $30,” Hamilton said. “You can go as many times as you want. So I want to offer that service. For example, I’ll detail your car, and then I come once a month and keep it as clean as well as detailed. So I want to start that monthly car cleaning. Then I thought about going into a whole different side of it that’s a lot more expensive, which is polishing, paint correcting and ceramic coating. And ceramic coating, you can charge up to $1,000 for that.”

Although Hamilton’s journey hasn’t been without difficulties along the way. He’s faced challenges learning the ins and outs of doing car detailing.

“I had never detailed a car before this, so I have made mistakes along the way but learned from them,” Hamilton said. “The other day actually, I had plugged too many plugs in the same outlet and tripped their entire garage.”

Hamilton also had to find the best supplies for the job and how to get his name out there.

“It’s been challenging at first, getting the supplies as well, then knowing what supplies are best,” Hamilton said. “There are so many different brands out there that sell chemicals and all that stuff. Knowing what’s the most efficient and the cheapest was hard. And then right now, my big challenge is obviously the marketing aspect of getting clients continuously.”

Hamilton wants to put his business degree to good use and follow in his family’s footsteps. His father and brother are both salesmen.

“I found passion in creating something, like giving a finished product,” Hamilton said. “I kind of like that so I’ve stuck with it.”