Starting Pressure Car Wash Business – Complete Guide

An automatic car wash business can be a smart business investment. This is because there is still a high demand for high-quality car washes in most markets. In this article we teach you How To Start a Car Wash Business. Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

With so many cars on the roads, car washes are needed to maintain exterior appearance. And defend the paint from chipping and rust from debris like tar, salt, mud and bird droppings. Consumers will line up for a quality automatic car wash that is affordable, convenient and efficient.

Related Post: Best High Pressure Car Washing Machine To Buy

Car washes are also a great way to increase traffic and profits for an existing business; like a gas station or convenience store.

But there are challenges of starting any business and there are specific challenges for starting a car wash:

• And many other factors!
• How to make it echo-friendly?
• How to dispose of waste water?
• What type of car wash systems to build?

……….How To Start a Car Wash Business………

As a veteran entrepreneur I’ve seen it all. I know what a daunting and potentially confusing process starting a new car wash can be.

• What comes first?
• Securing financing?
• Assessing your market?
• Prospecting site locations?
• How long will the process take?
• How soon should you begin marketing?

Related Post: The Best Car Wash, Wax and Detailing Supplies

While we certainly can’t cover everything you need to know to start a car wash in a single post. We can take a few words to cover what we feel are the 10 most important steps to launching your own car wash business.

Location is Everything – Go Scouting – How To Start a Car Wash Business

Car washes aren’t automatically successful. Great care must be taken when selecting the location on which you want to build. Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Our Site Model Pages have in-depth descriptions of location criteria to consider (including population, competition, street types, car counts, and more) and our site development services can help you select and approve the best locations available in your area.

Start by driving around your target area. Pay close attention to the relative traffic, types of local businesses, and anything that looks for sale.

Get a feel for your potential market. You should also visit a commercial real estate MLS in your area or many others. Be sure to take your time and never rush into a purchase.

Related Post: Best Car Washing Foam Cannon Kit to Buy

Review the Competition

Try to get a feel for the local car washes in the area. How many customers do they have and how aggressively are they marketing?

• What will they do when you open your wash?
• Can they afford a multi-million dollar renovation to bring their wash in line with yours?
• Are they debt free and can they cut prices to out compete you (with your interest payments) in the short term?
• Are their customers frequent users and very loyal—or are they waiting for something better?

Entrenched local competition can be dangerous, even for Totally Tommy buildings, and selecting a location with some elbow room between you and competitors is important.

But don’t worry too much about single stall automatic car washes or local fundraisers—you’ll be working in a completely different weight class.

Do the Paperwork: Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Find out what local city or county department handles business licenses and request an application, as well as information on local utility usage codes, insurance requirements, tax rates, and other requirements for opening a business.

Related Pot: Washing Car Sparkling Clean – The 14 Rules To Follow

Each area and city has different rules, so make sure you take the time to understand everything and keep your business in line. If you can, also get information on local sanitary sewers (for your waste water), utility prices, water usage limits, and other regulations.

Planning and Approval Process – How To Start a Car Wash Business

Set up a meeting with the city planner. Show them a rendering of your concept and try to get verbal approval of the design—or a list of probable issues to address.

If you have approval you can set up a formal meeting to present your plans and have them voted on at a city council meeting. With luck, your car-wash business with its modern style, efficient design, and great investment potential will blow them away!

Try to be friendly, optimistic, and down to earth. If the city gets on board with your project it can make the whole process move along more smoothly.

Research Car Washes: Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Tour as many successful car washes as possible to see what makes them tick—especially if you haven’t been in the business very long. Check out automatic car washes, partially automatic, express, detailing, and other washes to see how they differ from one another.

Operations, promotions, pricing, services, demographics… Try to learn as much as you can and develop as deep a background as you can with operations, staffing policies, equipment repair, and customer management.

To help out, our team has training available to teach you everything you need to know BEFORE you’re trying to run your wash on hot days with long lines.

Operations Decisions: Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Will you run your car wash independently or will you have a franchise, LLC, or S-corp? There are many models, each with pros and cons.

Franchises offer support at the cost of a residual. Solo operations offer total freedom but deprive you of much-needed backup and brand awareness.

How much personal involvement are you looking for? If you plan on hiring a manager instead of handling things yourself, make sure he or she has the necessary qualifications and is heavily invested in your future success.

 Make a Business Plan! – How To Start a Car Wash Business

Your car wash business plan (click for outline) should focus on both long term and short term operations. Use a professional service and remember that the more detailed, thorough, and researched your plan is, the better it will look to investors or your bank.

Include costs (up front and overhead costs), planning for building to long-term revenue management, and marketing strategies (launch and long-term).

Professional proforma companies are ready to help and our team is also standing by with years of experience to back up our advice.

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Get Financing

This is likely the most challenging step, and your success here will largely depend on how well you’ve researched and prepared your business plan ahead of time.

A solid revenue model can help convince investors to put up the capital for your new car wash business, so be prepared to demonstrate that you need enough funding for a truly high quality car wash facility and equipment with great return potential.

You will also need a convincing resume with business and/or car wash experience, and a solid marketing plan.

Build The Right Wash: Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Car washes thrive when they capture the attention of the local market and are designed to make turning in, purchasing a wash, and moving through the tunnel as quick and easy as possible.

Invent is the best way to do just this, drawing huge numbers of passing customers with a great looking building, perfected layouts, and a full and fast service menu.

Proven in scenarios around the country, every component of this facility design can been carefully thought out to create a single, cohesive investment that pays off.

From towers to pay system, deceleration lanes, glass walls, stainless steel equipment, and clear roof, everything can be designed to project sophistication, professionalism, and value.

So why waste money reinventing the wheel, and why risk building a second-best wash when you can design your car wash the way you want it to look?

Get This Pressure Car Wash Machine from Alibaba.com

Market your New Business – How To Start a Car Wash Business

Customers don’t know what they don’t know, so don’t just expect them to line up without any effort on your part. Make sure to let the community know about your wash ahead of the grand opening with onsite advertising as well as print, radio, local web, and possibly TV advertisements.

You’ll begin to build a curious customer base who will drop buy and tell their friends and family afterwards. $20,000 or $10/ car for initial marketing including billboards, mailings to 5 mile radius, promotional washes, and radio commercials is a good place to start at your launch and $.10 / car is a standard ballpark long-term rate for the future.

One or two day Social media campaigns (incentivize customers with free washes for best results) can also be highly successful. Be prepared to collect feedback and adapt your marketing program for the greatest possible effectiveness moving forwards.

Launching any business, and especially a brick and mortar car wash filled with high-end technology, is a complex and daunting prospect. But don’t worry.

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Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Level One

There are five levels in this business. The first is the hand car wash, which is the simplest way to wash a car because everything is done by hand.

An example is when you see high school students offering car washes on a busy street in order to raise money for school programs.

Level Two

The second is self-serve car wash. This is a coin-operated car wash that requires the vehicle owner to do the washing. This system works on a timer basis and the vehicle owner gets to choose if they want to apply soap, scrub with a brush, or rinse with high-pressure water.

Additional service is also available to pay for a timed use of a high–powered vacuum system to clean the interior of the car.

Level Three

Car detailing is the third level. With this method, you are washing the cars by hand and you are bringing them back to pristine condition as if they are brand new.

It may take you many hours to prepare a single car in this way. The results are fantastic. The car is perfectly clean. The hand wax you apply is brilliant. When the occupants enter the car it smells like it is brand new.

Maybe it is a “new car” smell or a fresh aroma that the client selected that is their favorite. In any case, this car is seriously prepared and everything is perfect. There is no dust and no odor.

The windows gleam with a shine that is better than when the car first left the factory. The tires and the dashboard all sparkle as well.

Level Four

The fourth level is automatic washing. This is a computer managed system that processes each car one-by-one and puts them through an automatic pressure washing.

It is somewhat abrasive and can damage parts of the vehicles, especially if they are older. There is a lot of scrubbing by brushes and high-pressure water spray that intends to remove all the dirt and grime that vehicles collect.

Level Five

Lastly, Touch-Less washing is the fifth level and combines the best of the high-pressure water systems, but does not let any mechanical things come into direct contact with the car. The finishing work is done by human beings and done with a gentle nature and by hand.

Learn how to start your own Car Wash and whether it is the right fit for you.

What are the costs: Starting Pressure Car Wash Business?

The costs involved in starting this business depend on the level you want to operate.

Level One – Hand Car Washing

Anyone who can afford a few hundred dollars can start at this level. You will need:

• A water supply (monthly cost is $20+)
• Buckets – $10 each
• Soap – $20
• Sponges – $10
• Window Squeegees – $10 each
• Chamois – $10 each
• Industrial Wet/Dry Vacuum – $100
• Promotional Flyers – $50
• Signage – $75
• Shade Cover – $150

Level Two – Self-Service Car Wash

This type of operation requires a significant investment of up to $200,000 or more depending on the location. You will need:

• Self-Service Car Wash Equipment – $50,000
• Car Wash Shed Building – $100,000
• Lease Payment and Deposits – Allow $5 per square foot. For example, a 1,000 square feet facility would typically require $5,000 per month rent and a $10,000 security deposit.
• Signage – $2,500

Level Three – Car Detailing

Some automatic car washes and touchless car washes offer car detailing as an enhanced service. However, it is also possible to operate a car detailing business independently and do all the work by hand.

The startup investment for an independent car detailing business is similar to a hand-washing business, except because you will offer more services you will need additional supplies and perhaps helpers. You will need:

• A water supply (monthly cost is $20+)
• Buckets – $10 each
• Soap – $20
• Car Wax – $25
• Water Repellant – $35
• Armor All – $50 (used for treatment of tires and other surfaces)
• Window Cleaner – $25
• Leather Restorer – $30
• Air Freshener – $20
• Chrome Polish -$25
• WD-40- $50
• Sponges – $10
• Window Squeegees – $10 each
• Chamois – $10 each
• Industrial Wet/Dry Vacuum – $100
• Pressure-Wash Cleaning Equipment – $500 (used to clean the engines and undercarriages)
• Promotional Flyers – $50
• Signage – $75
• Shade Cover – $150

Level Four – Automatic Car Wash

This type of operation requires a significant investment of up to $500,000. It is a much bigger facility than a self-service car wash. You will need: Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

• Automatic Car Washing Equipment – $250,000
• Car Wash Building Construction – $200,000
• Lease Payment and Deposits – Allow $5 per square foot. For example, a 5,000 square feet facility would typically require $25,000 per month rent and a $50,000 security deposit.
• Signage – $5,000

Level Five – Touchless Washing

This is the highest level of car washing that uses automated equipment with lots of hands-on workers. Luxury vehicle owners are especially attracted to this type of car wash because nothing except human hands and soft clothes touches the car.

These facilities can easily cost up to $1 million or more to start and many find it easier to buy an existing one rather than create a new one.

You will need:

• Touchless Car Washing Equipment – $250,000
• Car Wash Building Construction – $500,000
• Lease Payment and Deposits – Allow $5 per square foot. For example, a 15,000 square feet facility would typically require $45,000 per month rent and a $90,000 security deposit.
• Signage – $25,000

If you are going to open a commercial car wash you will need to make a significant investment in the equipment needed to operate the car wash.

The best places to have a commercial car wash are on very heavily used streets with lots of auto traffic passing by. This means the rent will be a very substantial expense.

Car washes need to have plenty of space for the cars to pass through the washing system and for them to be parked while they are being dried by hand to make each car ready.

Typical car wash lots are at least 5,000 to 10,000 square feet and rent for a minimum of $10,000 to $50,000 per month. To be really successful operating a commercial car wash, you will need to do at least 100 cars per day at an average profit of $10 each per car.

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Who is the target market? Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

The best customers are the ones that return weekly to get a car wash. Many car wash companies give a free wash after a certain number of washes to get customers to come back again and again.

How does a car wash make money?

Each car wash has a basic charge and there are typically additional things that can be requested by clients, such as using auto freshener or wax that are sold for an additional charge. Detailing is the most expensive because of all the additional services provided.

How much can you charge customers?

The average price for a simple hand car wash is $5 to $7. For self-service systems, the charge is usually $1 to $2 for a 15-minute use of the washing equipment. Vacuum charges are about the same. The average customer might spend $2 to $4.

For automatic car wash systems, the average charge is $10. Most customers like to add some extras and can pay as much as $15 for a wash with the extras of interior cleaning, freshener, tire treatment, and the application of car wax.

Touchless wash is about $20 per car and with some extras added on the charge can go up to about $30 per car. Car detailing is the most expensive and the customers pay about $50 to $150 per car.

How much profit can a car wash make?

Level One – Hand Car Washing

• About $7 per car

Level Two – Self-Service Car Wash

• About $3 per car

Level Three – Car Detailing

• About $50 to $75 per car

Level Four – Automatic Car Wash

• About $10 to $15 per car

Level Five – Touchless Car Wash

• About $12 to $18 per car

An automatic car wash operating at 100 cars per day at the average price of $10 per car will make $1,000 in gross profits per day. Labor will cost about $60 per hour so for an eight-hour shift that is $480 plus $120 more for employment taxes paid by the employer.

Electricity will be about $10 per day and water about $20 per day and supplies about $7 per day. Insurance will cost $100 to $300 per month depending on your location. Taking these expenses into consideration gross profits per day would be about $220 per day.

The owner of a modestly successful commercial car was would make around $6,600 per month in profits after paying all the expenses. In really busy areas, it is possible to make up to ten times this amount.

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How can you make your business more profitable?

Level One – Hand Car Washing

• Also advance from simple hand-washing to offer car detailing as well.

Level Two – Self-Service Car Wash

• Open in multiple locations and create brand awareness.

Level Three – Car Detailing

• Contract for providing service to customers of high-end luxury hotels and luxury auto dealerships.

Level Four and Five – Automatic and Touchless Car Wash

• There is an excellent opportunity to sell additional items to clients who are waiting for their car wash to be finished. One terrific and very successful idea is to have a drop-off dry cleaning and laundry service associated with a car wash.
• Offering fast food is another revenue source. The typical car wash customer, using an automatic or touchless car wash, is waiting for about 15 minutes at a minimum for their car to be washed. This is an excellent time to sell them other things.
• Making deals with auto dealerships to wash cars at night is a great way to make extra money. Typically, the public is not looking for a car wash at night. However, car companies and auto rental places need to have cars washed at all times of the day and night. This is a great deal to seek for extra income if there are such dealerships and car rental places nearby.

What will you name your business?

Choosing the right name is very important. Read our detailed guide on how to name your business. We recommend checking if the business name you choose is available as a web domain and securing it early so no one else can take it. Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

How to promote & market a car wash

Level One – Hand Car Washing

Your best promotion will be receiving positive word-of-mouth referrals from existing customers. Giving them a discount card to hand out to their friends and business associates is a really good idea.

Distributing flyers in the local area and walking around to do a “meet and greet” with local residents and businesses is an excellent way to find new customers.

Offering to collaborate with another business such as a restaurant or a parking lot is another way to create new business.

Level Two – Self-Service Car Wash

Staying open 24-hours with bright signage when located on a busy thoroughfare is the best way to attract business to this kind of operation. People are attracted to use these services by seeing them when they drive by.

Level Three – Car Detailing

For this type of business, you will be looking for customers that have luxury vehicles. One excellent way to promote your services is to create an affiliation with a five-star hotel and offer the car detailing to guests. You will make their cars look perfect overnight and ready the next day as sparkling clean.

Level Four and Five – Automatic and Touchless Car Wash

These businesses use different equipment; however, the promotional methods are the same.

How To Keep Customers Coming Back: Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Asking existing customers to spread the word about your services by giving them a discount coupon to give to their friends is an effective marketing method.

Register the discount cards, which are numbered, to the person you give them to. If someone uses the numbered discount coupon, the registered person gets a free wash.

Loyalty programs work very well. Issuing a reward card for the number of washes and giving a free wash after a certain number of paid washes is a terrific way to keep customers loyal. Giving rewards to customers that come back for repeat business is a really good idea.

In dirty environments, such as big metropolitan cities or winter road conditions that throw destructive salt up to the undercarriage, a car wash is needed about once per week. This means that a single customer that returns once per week for a year will be a very valuable customer.

Establish your Web Presence

A business website allows customers to learn more about your company and the products or services you offer. You can also use social media to attract new clients or customers.

Is this Business Right For You? Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Some people are naturally attracted to this business. They like to see clean cars and they like working to make cars look clean.

Let me share a real-life story about a man who migrated to America as a refugee from Myanmar. He was a fairly wealthy businessman in Myanmar and became successful selling the delicacy of bird eggs. The government got jealous of his success and literally took his business from him. He left Myanmar with almost nothing.

When he arrived in the USA, he took a job as a dishwasher at a fancy restaurant. He could not even speak English, but he washed the dishes so well the owner was very impressed. On a lark, the owner, using sign language, showed him the owner’s car and asked him to wash it.

……….How To Start a Car Wash Business………

Because the man was previously wealthy in Myanmar and he had a nice car there, which is an incredible luxury for a person in such a poor country, he took very good care of it.

In the past, he washed his own car so well and when asked to wash the restaurant owner’s car he washed it with the same enthusiasm. The results were spectacular and the owner was very happy.

In this fine restaurant, the customers would drive up and give the keys to the valet to park their car. Normally they would stay having dinner for two or three hours. This man from Myanmar asked the owner using sign language if he could wash the customer’s cars.

……….How To Start a Car Wash Business………

The restaurant owner immediately recognized the opportunity to make his customers so impressed. They could have a dinner and have a hand car wash done while they were eating.

He immediately set up the special offer to give a free car wash for the diners. He also took the man from Myanmar off of washing dishes and told him to concentrate on washing the cars of the customers.

Of course, the customers paid a nice tip to the valet for parking the car and paid an even better tip for a perfectly clean and washed car.

……….How To Start a Car Wash Business………

The man from Myanmar got to share in the tips and the restaurant became even more popular. The reason for telling this story is the only real requirement that you need to enter this business is to love washing cars.

By the way, the man from Myanmar is a real man. He went on to learn English and built up his efforts to wash cars.

He now owns two professional car washes in California and he became a multi-millionaire from this effort. His name is Mr. Tan and his car washes are named after him.

It all starts with loving to wash cars. You can do this also if you like to make cars look great!

What happens during a typical day at a car wash?

Get the supplies. Turn the water on. Get the equipment ready and make sure the helpers show up. If you need inspiration play this song, Car Wash.

Level One – Hand Car Washing

• You will want to make sure you will have some cars to wash. The way to get customers is to locate on a busy street or have an affiliation with other businesses. Probably you may spend some daily time looking for other opportunities to find cars to wash.
• Check to make sure there are enough supplies. Make sure the water connection is working. If you have helpers. you will supervise their efforts.

Level Two – Self-Service Car Wash

• Each day you will need to make sure all the equipment is functioning properly and there are enough soap and wax supplies to feed the systems. Remove the coins from the coin boxes to collect the money made from the day before. Fill the bill changer with coins to make sure the customers can get the change they need to use the system. Make sure the facilities are clean and attractive to potential customers.

Level Three – Car Detailing

• This can be either an independent business or operated in association with a professional car wash. Car detailing includes not only washing and waxing the car but also bringing the interior back to pristine condition. The main thing you will do each day is to make sure you have enough supplies and if you use helpers you will make sure they show up on time to take care of the clients.

Level Four – Automatic Washing

• These systems are the most common form of car washing. The simple ones will be offered as part of a gas station. Your daily duties will be to check that the equipment is working properly and replace any worn out parts, such as brushes, with new ones. You will check to make sure there are adequate supplies that are needed for the operations such as soap and liquid wax.
• If payment can be made by coins or bills at the entry point, you will remove money from the collection device for deposit to the bank.

Level Five – Touchless Washing

• Touchless washing combines an automated system to do the rough washing with many employees to do the final cleaning. Besides checking the equipment for proper operation and making sure you have enough supplies, the main part of your job is to make sure there is enough staff on hand to help process all the cars that come through. A successful system may wash 200 to 300 cars per day.

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful car wash?

Being a gregarious person helps when looking for customers for hand-washing or detailing services. For self-serve, automated, and touchless car washes, it is important to pick a very good location with lots of automobiles that pass by.

Make sure your washing services are excellent and the customers feel very happy with the results. Give them all a little extra bit of attention and they will tell their friends.

What is the growth potential for a car wash?

Since getting a car wash is a matter of convenience, there is the possibility of having multiple locations served by a hand-wash company or a detailing company.

For self-service, automatic, and touchless car washes, it is possible to have one on any major thoroughfare and even add other locations after the first location is successful.

Having the locations a few miles apart will help to make sure you do not cannibalize your own market.

Pros & Cons of Starting a Car Wash Business

A car wash business can be attractive to a prospective entrepreneur. There are many advantages to starting a car wash business like the enduring need for affordable, accessible vehicle cleaning and maintenance, which makes a car wash appear to be a safe investment.

However, there are also disadvantages, like very expensive repairs when equipment breaks and, in some markets, lulls during the off season.

Before investing in a car wash business, thoroughly research the market where you plan to operate to determine whether the pros of car wash ownership outweigh the cons – or vice versa.

Pro: Car Washes Are Always Needed

10 Mistakes People Make Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

For whatever reason, otherwise savvy business people with no car washing experience suddenly envision themselves installing their own equipment with an enthusiastic attitude of “how hard can it be?”

Any industry veteran can tell you that succeeding in this industry requires a level of effort, persistence, and passion few are prepared for.

Below, I’ve assembled a list of the tragic misconceptions. New investors and existing operators looking to expand would both do well to review them before starting their next project; let’s get started.

1. I’ll build it and they will come

Many new investors carefully conduct demographic studies, create proformas to predict market potential, build the wash, and open their doors expecting to capture the percentage of traffic they calculated.

Maybe an established national brand such as Starbucks can get away with that today, but I sincerely doubt they pulled off that trick with their first location. I’d bet they fought tooth and nail to attract first time customers to try their product.

I’m sure they had a marketing plan in place that included everything from community involvement strategies and advertising to training programs to ensure absolute consistency.

It’s likely they crafted and refined every detail of the customer experience until first time buyers became raving fans. Believing you’ll attract your estimated capture rate without a comprehensive marketing plan and a lot of effort is a tragic misconception.

2. I’ll steal an existing wash’s business

For many new investors not familiar with the concept of a “single use property,” this misconception makes intuitive sense. It’s a scary proposition to combine intuition and research to select the perfect piece of land in an underserved market.

For many new investors, building across the street from a busy wash with a plan to steal their business by offering a better customer value seems like a safer bet.

There’s no denying that this logic has advanced every technology from cell phones to social media. So why doesn’t it work for car washing? Because car washes are “single use properties.”

That means that once a property has a car wash built on it, it can only be a car wash. If you build across the street from another wash and are successful putting it out of business, the bank takes over the other property when it fails. Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

They will then try to get rid of it fast, more often than not to an experienced operator well below market value.  Now you have a competitor across the street with a lower debt service that can retrofit the wash and reopen at a lower price to steal market share.

Believing you’ll build across the street from a busy wash and steal their business is a tragic misconception that rarely turns out well.

3. It’s easy to expand into multiple locations

Happily, there are numerous examples of flex and express-exterior operators quickly expanding their brands and opening multiple locations.

Sadly, many new investors see that and believe it’s an easy thing to do. There’s a reason our industry remains largely composed of independent owner operators; it’s incredibly difficult to replicate a consistent customer experience across locations.

Believing you’ll open your first wash and finance a quick expansion from cash flow can be a tragic misconception.

4. A car wash is perfect for an absentee owner

Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. When you choose to build a car wash, you’re not investing in a business, your embracing a lifestyle. Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

With cash flow only as predictable as the weather, making the quick decisions to capitalize on volume spikes and deliver a consistent product demands ownership of the process.

Believing that you’ll find a manager that functions with the passion of an owner in your absence is a tragic misconception that normally results in failure.

5. It can’t cost that much to build a car wash, it’s just soap and water

Most ground up car wash projects cost between $1.5 and $3 million. Believing you’ll be able to save on skilled trades or shave other construction costs along the way is a tragic misconception that normally results in project delays and poorly timed grand openings.

6. It will be easy to get permitting

Unfortunately, the stigma associated with car washing persists in many communities. Although a modern car wash is an automated marvel combining safe chemistry, minimal labor, and careful water reclamation to perform a valuable service, many townships still have our industry zoned with as much affection as an adult book store.

This is changing, but the words “car wash” continue to conjure images of labor intensive dirty tunnels that attract transient labor, or unattended 24 hour bays that attract less savory nighttime visitors in the minds of too many town board members. Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Believing your car wash project will sail through zoning and permitting without a hiccup is a tragic misconception that can cost thousands of dollars in unplanned delays.

7. Managing staff will be easy

As in all retail businesses, turnover can be astronomically high. Although gated entry systems and fully automated tunnels that eliminate labor from the wash process have lessened an owner’s reliance on labor, you still need a trained crew to keep things running safely and customers satisfied.

For flex-serve and full-serve operators, plan to be part leader, part parent, and part babysitter. It’s not unheard of for a full-serve location to go through more than 300 employees in a single year.  That may not be the norm, but believing that managing your staff will be easy is a tragic misconception.

8. You’re always busy after bad weather

Most beliefs that connect car wash profits with weather patterns are wives tales; stories with a foundation in truth, but not something to plan your business on.

Sure you may see a spike after a storm, but only if it’s sunny a few days after, and not if there’s another stormy forecast on the horizon.

Believing you can predict weather related volume spikes is a tragic misconception; hence a hands-on owner needs to be present to “make hay when the sun shines.”

9. Equipment alone cleans the car

Getting a consistently clean, dry, shiny car is an art form that marries chemistry, water quality, ambient temperature, wash material, road grime, and conveyor speed with moving equipment.

The problem is that each part of the equation that delivers the consistent product changes seasonally, or even hourly. Believing that delivering a clean car is as easy as buying equipment is a tragic misconception that will result in frustration and dissatisfied customers.

10.  “A car wash is a “cash cow” 

Your car wash business can generate increasing income for years, or even generations, but a cash cow? Ensuring wash quality and customer satisfaction is a daily challenge that demands hands-on maintenance, training, and procedures. Starting Pressure Car Wash Business

Attracting and retaining customers requires leadership, planning, and perseverance along with creativity and innovation – and success may be rewarded by competition entering your market.

Over your career in this industry you’ll become part chemist, part computer programmer, part electrician, part maintenance person, and the level of your success will be directly related to how hard you work at it.

The only thing I can assure any new investor looking to begin a career in car washing is that you’ll never be bored. Each day will represent a new opportunity to grow your business, which to me, is what I love most about this industry.