David Ma points to a 2020 photo of a sedan loaded down with the tools of his trade — a mobile vehicle detailing service — with the equipment taking up just about all the trunk and interior space, save for the driver’s seat.
He was a 16-year-old high school student and determined.
The determination hasn’t waned, and his ride is much improved. He now uses a pickup truck to pull a trailer big enough for all the tools and water, too. He figures his company, Status Detail Co., cleaned 600 cars last year and 45 boats taking him and his crew all around his home base of Bradford, south to Lake Ontario and north to Orillia.
Along the way he picked up the Youth Entrepreneur/Business Excellence Award presented by the Bradford Board of Trade last fall. Ma and his business ticked off all the boxes, explains Charlotte Kapralik, the board’s chief administrative officer.
“David’s initiative serves as an inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs, proving that with passion, perseverance, and a clear vision, one can achieve remarkable success regardless of age,” she says.
This year he may find himself going even further afield to add a small fleet of single-engine aircraft to his workload. But that deal’s still in the works.
All this and school too. The 20-year-old is in his third year of the honours urban and regional planning co-op program at the University of Waterloo. It’s all a bit of a juggling act, Ma admits. But he tries not to lose focus by prioritizing school while acknowledging that the business is defined by his quality of work and customer service. That, he says, happens through the support of clients and of friends, family and mentors in the community.
The detailing venture started as a hobby at age 14 with his parents’ car as he sought to restore it to its off-the-lot condition. Then he worked on his neighbours’ cars. A business, now called Status Detail Co., had sprouted.
“I started packing my equipment and tools into crates and my parents dropped me off at clients’ houses,” he recalls. “I bought my first car with this money which I then drove myself and crew to jobs when I acquired my driver's licence.
“Fast-forward to 2024; we are a licenced and insured, fully self-sufficient mobile automotive, marine and aircraft detailing business servicing the Greater Toronto Area using my pick-up truck and trailer.”
Ma entered the university’s entrepreneur co-op program at Waterloo, meaning his business wouldn’t have to be restricted to just the summers. And he’s looking to grow it further.
But there’s that other bit — urban planning, a profession he fully intends to explore which developed from the fascination of watching his hometown grow along with him. He recalls how, as a child, he would draw the town, expanding his vision onto several pages. From there grow other towns and cities with roads accommodating his Hot Wheels cars.
“It allowed me to become inspired by how the community, its people, infrastructure, nature and cars; become interconnected, function and direct our day-to-day lives,” he said.
“The long-term plan is I want to finish my school as well, but get to the point where I manage the business,” he says, adding that he envisions have a shop with multiple trucks and an enterprise he can manage while pursuing a career in urban planning. “I don’t want to wake up dreading going to work.”
