Car Wash Consultants- Good, Bad, or Ugly?

[ScottV]

I agree with Bill. Finding a good consultant is like finding a needle in a haystack.

As far as surveyors, appraisers, etc. they are professionals in their respective fields. I wouldnt lump them under the category of "consultant." They have a specialized skill or provide a service that I either don't have or can't provide myself.

I offered my experiences of networking with other operators as an alternative to hiring someone that may not know squat about your business or the industry. Talk to people that are in the trenches with you. Who get their hands dirty every day. Who've made their share of mistakes but also had to stick around and pay for them. The "consultants" that I have encountered, don't do any of those things.

Obviously Mr. Crowe has his own opinions on the effectiveness of consultants. Since I have worked in a fortune 100 company as a financial Controller for ~15+ years, I too have formed an opinion.

Hence the network.........

 

[Reds]

I believe you hire consultants to help you solve a problem/issue that you don't know enough about. We used groups of franchisees when i was in the fast food biz to help evaluate each others operations. That was an area in which we were all familiar with. But when I wanted to go into the carwash biz I did a LOT of homework, visited many washes, talked to operators, etc. But in the end, before I spent a half a mil I hired someone who knew more than me about carwashes. I can evaluate fast food sites real well. But had no experience with car wash sites. That consultant looked at the demographics, etc., and did cost reports, projections, etc. His conclusions were correct, as were mine. But he was worth the cost to have my inexperienced conclusions confirmed by someone with industry knowledge. I have been in biz since I was 19 yrs old and always went with my gut feeling. This time I bounced my ideas off of Robert Roman and I am glad I did. Now that I am in the biz (3 years) I would once again go with my own analysis and gut feeling. But I think that there are certain situations where you need to you admit your limitations and get some help.