Everytime people think of a car wash, they tend to think of it as an exterior-conveyor wash. These are the washes that put cars on a motorized track and drag them through a tunnel where they are rinsed, soaped up, washed, rinsed again and possibly waxed. The cars then emerge clean (and perhaps even relatively dry) at the other end. But this is only one type of car wash.
Other types of washes include:
To correct the wrong impression about the operation of a car wash business, here are some of the common myths:
Myth #1: This Business Is A Cash Cow
Sure, if you drive by your local car wash on a sunny Saturday morning, you’ll see cars waiting in line for a wash. But drive by that same car wash on a rainy Thursday afternoon, and you’ll be lucky if you see one or two cars waiting. You might even see that the shop is closed for the day. Variables such as the time of the week as well as the weather affect how profitable car wash businesses can be on any given day, or for any given week, month or season. Sometimes, people are content to let their cars stay dirty for "one more day." Or, if the season is particularly wet, snowy or some other factor that would make people reluctant to pay good money for a car that’s likely to be filthy again in a few days, months can pass where business is down—sometimes severely so.
Myth #2: This Is A Hands-Off Business
As an outsider, all you see are cars being dragged along a conveyor as a bunch of gizmos and do-dads spray, buff, rinse, wax and even dry them. You might not ever see a human being doing any work at all (though even most automatic conveyor washes do employ at least a few workers to complete the drying process by hand). In truth though, this is not a business that you can put on autopilot. For one thing, those gizmos and do-dads can and will break down. And, depending on the type of equipment you buy, they might break down much more than you think.
Cars emerge from those washing tunnels not clean enough to satisfy some customers or with a scratch that you didn't cause but that the customer blames you for anyway. Employees sometimes will not treat customers the way they should be treated, especially if you haven't trained them well.
Shipments of supplies will be late, and someone (usually you) will have to be there to deal with it. After all, it's pretty much impossible to wash a car with no soap. The bottom line is that you'll be spending a lot of time at your car wash—at least until you learn the business well enough to be able to hire a professional manager who can take over when you’re not there.
Myth #3: You Won't Have Employees To Worry About
This might actually be true for certain types of car washes (most likely self-service and, to a lesser extent, in-bay automatic washes), but for a full-service or exterior-conveyor wash, you're going to have to hire employees and inherit the headaches and responsibilities that go along with them. In fact, aside from the initial investment in equipment and commercial space, employees will probably be one of the biggest costs you incur while running your business.
Myth #4: You're In Total Control
Well, you are your own boss, that's for sure. But until someone figures out how to control factors like the weather, you're still going to have to answer to a higher authority. No matter how much time you put into your business, there are still going to be things that go wrong—things you just can’t control.
Even if you're a mechanical whiz, some of your equipment is going to break down. And if it happens at a peak washing time, like that glorious sunny Saturday morning we keep talking about, you're going to watch a lot of potential profit go down the drain.
You will have to suffer through days or maybe even weeks at a time (depending on where your business is located) when the weather is so bad that the furthest thing on anyone's mind is getting a car wash. And unfortunately, the bank won’t care about the lousy weather when your loan payment comes due.
Other types of washes include:
- Full-service: This is basically a combination of the exterior conveyor with an inside cleaning (also known as detailing) added in.
- In-bay automatic (also called a rollover): This type of car wash is an automatic wash consisting of a machine that literally “rolls over” a stationary car parked in a washing bay.
- Self-service: Most self-service car washes are coin-operated brush-and-hose combinations that the driver uses to dispense soap, wash the car and rinse it off.
To correct the wrong impression about the operation of a car wash business, here are some of the common myths:
Myth #1: This Business Is A Cash Cow
Sure, if you drive by your local car wash on a sunny Saturday morning, you’ll see cars waiting in line for a wash. But drive by that same car wash on a rainy Thursday afternoon, and you’ll be lucky if you see one or two cars waiting. You might even see that the shop is closed for the day. Variables such as the time of the week as well as the weather affect how profitable car wash businesses can be on any given day, or for any given week, month or season. Sometimes, people are content to let their cars stay dirty for "one more day." Or, if the season is particularly wet, snowy or some other factor that would make people reluctant to pay good money for a car that’s likely to be filthy again in a few days, months can pass where business is down—sometimes severely so.
Myth #2: This Is A Hands-Off Business
As an outsider, all you see are cars being dragged along a conveyor as a bunch of gizmos and do-dads spray, buff, rinse, wax and even dry them. You might not ever see a human being doing any work at all (though even most automatic conveyor washes do employ at least a few workers to complete the drying process by hand). In truth though, this is not a business that you can put on autopilot. For one thing, those gizmos and do-dads can and will break down. And, depending on the type of equipment you buy, they might break down much more than you think.
Cars emerge from those washing tunnels not clean enough to satisfy some customers or with a scratch that you didn't cause but that the customer blames you for anyway. Employees sometimes will not treat customers the way they should be treated, especially if you haven't trained them well.
Shipments of supplies will be late, and someone (usually you) will have to be there to deal with it. After all, it's pretty much impossible to wash a car with no soap. The bottom line is that you'll be spending a lot of time at your car wash—at least until you learn the business well enough to be able to hire a professional manager who can take over when you’re not there.
Myth #3: You Won't Have Employees To Worry About
This might actually be true for certain types of car washes (most likely self-service and, to a lesser extent, in-bay automatic washes), but for a full-service or exterior-conveyor wash, you're going to have to hire employees and inherit the headaches and responsibilities that go along with them. In fact, aside from the initial investment in equipment and commercial space, employees will probably be one of the biggest costs you incur while running your business.
Myth #4: You're In Total Control
Well, you are your own boss, that's for sure. But until someone figures out how to control factors like the weather, you're still going to have to answer to a higher authority. No matter how much time you put into your business, there are still going to be things that go wrong—things you just can’t control.
Even if you're a mechanical whiz, some of your equipment is going to break down. And if it happens at a peak washing time, like that glorious sunny Saturday morning we keep talking about, you're going to watch a lot of potential profit go down the drain.
You will have to suffer through days or maybe even weeks at a time (depending on where your business is located) when the weather is so bad that the furthest thing on anyone's mind is getting a car wash. And unfortunately, the bank won’t care about the lousy weather when your loan payment comes due.
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This is one business I definitely wouldn't want to open. You hit some excellent points here and they are very important details for anybody thinking about starting one to read. I would worry about the economy, washing your car should be done to prolong it's life but many people treat it as a luxury. Luxuries start to fade out of people's lives once they are hurting financially.
The carwash business set-up described is quite different from what we have in the Philippines. Here, washing cars is done manually so Myth #3 is definitely not true. As to being a cash cow, carwash business is definitely not especially if the economic status of our country is considered. Most car owners here wash theirs at home.