cleaning up at ss wash

[Bubbles Galore]

With your above example, why don't you do what it takes to increase revenue 25% and then hire a manager to maintain it in pristine condition and then go buy another wash? Try and help me understand why you would want to have a mediocre, run of the mill car wash?

 

[Jim L.]

If you've got a big loan that can only be serviced by running at absolute maximum volume or if you've got nothing better to do with your time and actually like picking up after other people because it's your baby then that philosophy works for you. But that's not me. If I had to do that to make it work I'd be out of this business real quick. Life is too short to spend 3 hours a day picking up trash unless you don't have a choice.

You are dead wrong on all of your assumptions.

I take care of the money and repairs while my cleanup guy takes care of the trashy slobs.

I guess I could get cheap and cut back on the number of his daily visits but at the end of the day the place would look like a pig sty. Would this help or hurt my bottom line? Could I save enough to compensate for the customers I ran off? I don?t know. Like you I?m satisfied with the way things are running today and don?t plan to change in the near future.

 

[SCS]

"settle for mediocrity" hell I'm at a point in my life where mediocrity sounds like a type A overly ambitious goal. I accept mediocrity in an awful lot of areas of my life. In all honesty I probably would push the washes higher if I was certain I'd be selling them (which I may if labor continues to be a problem).

Let me turn the tables on you guys. Why don't you spend this time/money on another more profitable endeavor. Seems kind of lazy to just be content with investing the time and money in a wash when there are so many other more profitable things you could do.

 

[Fatboy769]

"settle for mediocrity" hell I'm at a point in my life where mediocrity sounds like a type A overly ambitious goal. I accept mediocrity in an awful lot of areas of my life. In all honesty I probably would push the washes higher if I was certain I'd be selling them (which I may if labor continues to be a problem).

Let me turn the tables on you guys. Why don't you spend this time/money on another more profitable endeavor. Seems kind of lazy to just be content with investing the time and money in a wash when there are so many other more profitable things you could do.

SCS, what are the more profitable things you could do? Maybe it's just me, but I don't know any other legal thing that I could spend a few hours a day at and make the money that I do and enjoy doing it. Guess I'll just be lazy and content counting all this money.

 

[SCS]

Last time I checked most of the businesses and jobs in the U.S. weren't carwashes. Those hours would produce more money doing lots of things and many of them don't even require the capital. Everyone knows the rate of return in the carwash business isn't considered high. Look at the cap rates at the prices carwashes trade at. The bottom line is it is what you want to do with your time and money. It's not what I want to do with my time, that's why I don't put the time in to make it more profitable. does that make me a bad guy.

 

[MEP001]

If I posted the numbers of the wash versus the amount of time I spend for it, it'd probably knock your socks off. I was a technician for years and worked 12 hours a day for a lot less money than I make now for 3 hours a day.

 

[Kevin James]

I have to agree with SCS. When we first got into the car wash business we spit shined the carwash every day. Added a few more options, worked our butts off trying to please our customers. After about a year of working our rears off the decision was made to cut back on the clean up guy and clean the wash once a day and not have anyone there, I believe that is the concept of Self Serve, not have anyone on site. Our revenue has gone up slightly because we have less labor now. Our clean up guy is only there about an hour a day. If something breaks or is not working he calls. This arrangement works well for us. It hasn?t taken us long to figure out that the Self Serve car wash business is a very low profit, degrading, janitorial business. I?m very happy for you MEP that your car wash is doing so well for you. The majority of the carwashes that I know of are not making much in return.
The guy on the other side of town from us completely gutted and remodeled his car wash. He spent close to $175K on this project. The last time I talked to him he said that wished he had not done the remodel as it hasn?t generated any return. It?s basically doing the same as what it was doing before the remodel. Its beautiful facility, new lighting, paneling, vac?s, Stainless steel vac islands, credit cards in the bays, it?s nice. He has almost no completion, the closest carwash is about 6 miles away.

 

[SCS]

MEP you maybe forgetting something in your analysis like the $800,000 or so of capital that is providing the return.

Are you trying to tell me the carwash business is the best business in the world with the highest rate of return and we're the only ones who know this and the other 99.9% of business owners just haven't figured it out yet.

I don't know why my comments here have struck such a nerve with some of you. All the talk I hear on this site about how you can't just swing by and pick up the money and the disregard you have for owners who run facilities that are not state of the art and pride of ownership facilities. All I'm saying is I confess I'm one of those guys that just picks up the money, I frequently have very poor attendants, if it aint broke I don't fix it, my prices are "too low", I don't continually upgrade to stay ahead of my competition, my places are not "inviting", I don't put up my phone number cuz I don't want them calling me. And all I'm trying to say is it works a hell of alot better this way for me for a variety of reasons and the most important reason is I have other higher/best uses of my time and money away from these facilities. If that bothers you because you feel otherwise about your own situation I can live with that.

 

[TurboJet]

Interesting talk. I know one operator who once told me that people don't expect much, so long at they get pressure when they pull the trigger they're happy. He's partly right, but he is probably leaving some revenue dollars on the table.

Personally when I drive down the road and I see two gas stations, and if one is newly renovated, I'll probably go to the newer station. Likewise, why do large chains, be it restaurants or retailers renovate or modernize the look of their locations, why because it tends to generate more sales/traffic. Everything being equal, I would think locations that are clean, have newer equip., and everything works would outperform a nearby competitor.

But back to what this thread is really about, what is the optimum expense/reward amount for improvements or the amount a wash is attended. I don't think there is a real answer, each location is unique. As suggested you have to try different things and see if they work.

Personally I never really advertised for years because I have a high traffic location, was making decent returns and I was happy. 18 months ago I decided to try some advertising in the local paper, it wasn't cheap, but revenues increased 25% and are holding. I don't want to know how much money I left on the table all these years.

 

[Red Baron]

I can't imagine what you need that level of attention for. If you have to have someone come by 2 or 3 times a day to clean up you should consider investing in more and larger trash cans. I have 3 washes which each get a visit once per day during weekends. During the week they get 1 visit every other day Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun. I've paid as low as $8 hr. for a crack head who couldn't do anything and didn't show up to as high as $13 for a very responsible guy.

Wow! I'm envious of you, and your incredible customers. I check my wash 5-7 times each day, but then I can drive there in 60 seconds. If I left my car wash unattened for even half a day it would be trashed.

Just today I was commenting about the high percentage of customers who will drop a half dozen used up paper towels in the middle of the bay, 6' from a Pitch In can. When I get on them about this, if they don't chew me out, they look at me like I've just asked them to paint my house.

 

[Red Baron]

Let me turn the tables on you guys. Why don't you spend this time/money on another more profitable endeavor. Seems kind of lazy to just be content with investing the time and money in a wash when there are so many other more profitable things you could do.

Fair question. It's a quality of life issue with me. I've spent 28 years in the roofing industry and I know it frontwards and backwards - it's easy for me. I could start a brand new roof patching business tomorrow with a $500 investment and a ladder, and knock off $1,000 a day gross profit minimum, with a $5,000 day thrown in here and there. But, it's miserable work, and the phone rings when it rains. The car wash is my escape from the roofing business. That's why I don't mind going there so frequently - it's my entertainment. lol

Generally speaking and setting education aside - and this is a lesson I've preached to my son 10,000 times - the more miserable a job is, the higher it pays. There's probably great money to be made in pumping septic tanks...

 

[Bubbles Galore]

I don't have any complaints about how someone takes care of their wash. All I am saying is that I take pride in my wash. I like getting the numerous compliments and seeing my wash bays wet when my competition is dry. I don't want my wash to be an impulse purchase as much as I would like it to be a destination.

As long as you are happy with your return on investment, then it really doesn't matter what any of us think. The way I see it is, if I am doing $10,000/month and I can do some additions and kick that up to $12,000/month, then why not?

 

[Jim L.]

But back to what this thread is really about, what is the optimum expense/reward amount for improvements or the amount a wash is attended. I don't think there is a real answer, each location is unique.

I agree. Low volume locations don?t need as much attention as a high volume one does. No sense paying someone to clean up if there were no customers there to make a mess.

Red Baron

Like you I spent 30+ years working on oil rigs all over this country and a few others. I was away from home over 180 days each year and just got tired of it. A year and a half ago I became eligible for early retirement and took it. The only thing I miss about the oil field is the paycheck. Quality of life definitely took a turn for the better.

 

[MEP001]

Are you trying to tell me the carwash business is the best business in the world with the highest rate of return and we're the only ones who know this and the other 99.9% of business owners just haven't figured it out yet.

Seems more like it's my comments that have struck a nerve with you.

I don't care how you run your washes. That's completely your business. I'm convinced that the attention I'm willing to give to it is worthwhile, and any time someone asks I'll tell them that.

I've been to hundreds of different washes, and the operators who say "I don't understand why no one hangs up the hoses" or "Why does my equipment get beat up so much?" do as little as they can to get by - stuff doesn't work right, customers lose money, they cut back on the soap, the walls are filthy, etc., and they don't even see this as a problem.

A friend who owns several other washes had stopped by to see me, and overheard one of my customers on his phone practically raving about how great the wash is. To me that's almost as much reward as the income.