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Dr. Jazz retail location in Cornelius. Having rented the location since 2003, Wilson was able to purchase the entire commercial property in 2020.

Davidson Native, Jazmin Wilson, Builds Expansive Business Enterprise Through Persistence and Vision

Jazmin Wilson has achieved spectacular success as a self-made businessman. Jazmin built Dr. Jazz Detailing & Wash from the ground up. His business began humbly as a mobile car detailing service that he ran for a short time out of the back of a truck until he was able to find a retail location. Jazmin’s vision for Dr. Jazz came about as an assignment in a business course that he took during his freshman year at High Point University.

After graduating from North Mecklenburg High School, Jazmin earned an academic and baseball scholarship to High Point University, where he studied International Business. “The professor told us to create a detailed business plan,” explains Jazmin. “By then, I already had a lot of work experience––working with my dad, running a yard service as a teenager, working for several different car washes. I could see what would work. I had big dreams, and I wanted a big, expansive business. I already knew about car dealerships, and how fleets of cars were kept in great condition.”

He paused and then went on. “You know, it’s hard to believe, but that ambitious business plan that I wrote when I was in college is exactly the business I have built. It’s Dr. Jazz.”

Jazmin Wilson as a 4th grader at Davidson Elementary.

Jazmin has since earned multiple lucrative contracts up and down I-77 with car dealerships for exclusive car detailing services, relationships that he has nurtured and grown over time.

Jazmin’s mother, Elizabeth Wilson (Lib), says her son has always been a visionary.

Lib says, “Jazmin was the kind of kid who watched everything, who noticed things.” He watched his family and the families around him in the Lakeside neighborhood work tirelessly to build homes, raise their families, and create the kind of wealth that they could pass along to the next generation.

Growing up in West Davidson, Jazmin saw that hard working people could lose their jobs, their savings, and their homes all too easily. His predominantly African American community has historically experienced the consequences of business, college, and town decisions that could upend lives and livelihoods without warning.

Jazmin learned the value of finding ways to adapt, to broaden opportunities, and to keep intently focused on goals. Jazmin and his father kept a list of Jazmin’s goals tacked to the refrigerator door and the two of them monitored progress regularly, said Lib Wilson.

As a student, Jazmin was driven to success in multiple arenas. He attended Davidson Elementary, Davidson IB Middle School, and North Mecklenburg High School. He was an excellent student, a first chair trumpet player, and a talented athlete, excelling at both baseball and basketball. But Jazmin was always focused on earning money.

“I always liked making money,” he said. At eight years old he started doing yard work, washing cars, helping his father with repair work. At 12 years old, he got his own lawn mower and started a neighborhood lawn care business.

His mother says she found out after the fact that Jazmin had been saving up his lunch money regularly to buy candy that he sold at his high school for a profit. Jazmin admits that he did sell candy financed with his lunch money. In his defense, he said he needed to have a little extra money to get a fresh haircut at the barber shop every week so he would look good at Friday night games. He also admitted that selling candy was a great way to meet girls at school. “Girls always liked to have candy,” he said. “And this was a good way to have conversations with them.” Smart kid.

Lib Wilson says Jazmin got much of his entrepreneurial spirit from her and from his father, Javet Wilson. Lib always found ways to create multiple streams of income with different enterprises. At various times she sold jewelry and Mary Kay Cosmetics, even as she was raising kids and taking care of extended family and others in her community.

Jazmin Wilson and his younger daughter.

Javet Wilson, Jazmin’s father, is a lifelong learner who actively pursued training and certification in multiple trades, increasing his opportunities for work and advancement. Javet worked with highly technical machinery for a Swiss-founded company, Daetwyler USA, that opened a new facility in Huntersville in the 1990s. Work with Daetwyler often required Javet to travel for extended periods to Switzerland. When Javet was traveling for work, Lib said, Jazmin stepped into his father’s shoes to help his mom and sisters at home.

After a few years at High Point University, taking classes and playing baseball, Jazmin became restless. Jazmin enjoyed business courses, but when he had finished the courses in his business major, he decided he had learned everything that he needed to start executing his plans. But he knew his decision to leave college wouldn’t go over lightly with his family.

Jazmin took advantage of the fact that his father was in Switzerland to call his mother one day to tell her to come pick him up at college. “Jazmin knew his father wouldn’t be happy that he wasn’t going to complete all of his education,” explained Lib. “So he waited until his father was out of the country. I was a little bit softer with Jazmin, and I drove with his sister and got him.”

Jazmin came home determined to start building Dr. Jazz. “I knew enough to know that I wanted to work for myself and create my own business,” he said. Still, it took many years of consistent, hard work to build a diverse business that includes numerous retail detailing locations, as well as commercial contracts with large car dealerships.

One interaction with a customer proved pivotal to the expansion of Dr. Jazz.

On a Friday evening in 2012, Jazmin was pulling down the bay doors to close up his detailing shop for the day. All of his workers had gone home. A woman drove up and said she really needed to get her car cleaned before the weekend and had waited until the last minute.

Even though he was anxious to leave because he was going on a long-awaited vacation, Jazmin told the woman that he would take care of her car, giving her a seat while she waited. Afterwards, the woman was extremely complimentary, he said. She had never seen her car so perfect. To Jazmin, this was the caliber of service he always provided to customers, so he didn’t give it much thought.

But when he returned from vacation, there were multiple business cards tacked to his door from Lake Norman Chrysler Dealership. “Give me a call” was written on the cards.

The woman who had visited Dr. Jazz for a last-minute car detailing was Robin Salzman. Robin and her husband, Jack Salzman, were the owners of Lake Norman Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram and Gastonia Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. Robin Salzman was so impressed with Jazmin and his business that she wanted to introduce him to Jack immediately. The meeting led to Jazmin’s first contract for detailing and cleaning with a car dealership. More contracts followed.

Jazmin describes Jack and Robin Salzman as family. He has worked with the Salzmans for many years and has continued the business relationship even after they sold their North Carolina dealerships to the Parks Group and moved to Charleston.

Dr. Jazz has now expanded to South Carolina to handle the contract for the Salzmans’s new dealership in Charleston. Jazmin is indebted to Jack for his mentorship and support. “He elevated my life and business,” said Jazmin. “It was such an education to work with someone daily who has this kind of business expertise. I learned so much from watching how he thinks, and plans, and expands his business.”

Jazmin lives in Denver now, close enough to Davidson to stay in close touch with his family. He has one adult daughter who is starting a graduate program in nursing at Duke, and a younger daughter who is ten years old and already an accomplished gymnast.

Jazmin credits his success to a number of factors. He was mentored and encouraged early in life by strong entrepreneurs, men who didn’t necessarily have formal education, but who had the dedication and work ethic to be able to create their own opportunities in life.

Jazmin says there are two important parts to success in business. One is the educational part: the knowledge and study of how to make a business work. The other part is the work ethic, the drive, and the hustle. In his experience, it’s ideal to have both parts, but he absolutely believes you can’t make it without a strong work ethic.

He also has the ability to connect with people, no matter who they are, and to see all people as equal. Jazmin has a reputation for hiring workers that other employers might overlook. He has no problem giving people second, and even third, and fourth chances. He says, “I can accept a person for who they are, which allows me to overlook their past and focus on the future.” He feels that his success gives him the opportunity to help others.

Possessing a clear vision of exactly what he wants to accomplish has always helped Jazmin to focus on what matters. He pays close attention to all the small details that help him move toward his goals. “After all,” he says, “detail is my profession.”