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If You Weren't in the Car Wash Business...

W

Wash4Life

Active member
What would you be doing? I myself would have been a teacher. I have a teaching degree. What happened was the lure of the family business was too much for me to turn away.
 
I have no idea. My career in car cleaning began at such a young age, I feel like I've done it all my life. I've had lots of other jobs along the way, but none I could see myself doing as a career.
 
Well I am not a full time car wash owner like most here its more of a hobby (investing in real estate opportunities) but I do enjoy it and enjoy being at any of the washes, working on things, and interacting with the customers.

Fulltime I run our family business selling oilseed machinery and equipment...sales
 
I guess I would still be an manufacturing manager for an aerospace company. Man I don't miss the stress, although I do miss access to the machines for personal projects!
 
I’m a retired Nuclear job skills instructor who loaned a guy the money to build a car wash about 15 years before I retired. After he had it for a couple of years he decided that it was too much work and left town, he packed up and moved about 900 miles away. After he was gone for a week he called me and told me that he was done with the car wash business and I would have to cut the door open as he left the keys on the work bench when he left town. Would I do it again, no way, to much disrespect from the public.
 
I was a plumber in construction for a year and a half, worked at/managed a lube center for close to five years, and ran a vehicle inspection station for about four. None of those jobs I'd still want to be doing, nor did they pay very well. I've always enjoyed the car wash side of things, even when I was an attendant at 16 years old. The only part I didn't like was the administrative/warehouse/shipping parts of working for a distributor. I didn't go to college, but now that I have both the time and money I've been considering studying music and a foreign language (or spanish) and/or picking up another trade skill like welding. I know a guy who makes over $200,000 a year at welding.

I'm sure if I'd gone to college I would have gotten into music and chosen a more interesting instrument to master than the tuba.
 
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I gave up my job as an exotic male dancer. I don't think I could go back to that job now.
i did consider leaving the CW industry a few years ago to be a HVAC tech with the intention of being an owner in that industry. School would have been 1 year full time days or 16 months going at night. I didn't think I would be able to get through it with 2 young kids at home. One of those kids is leaving for college in the fall.
I could make a change now but I enjoy the people here too much.
 
I would probably still be in the tire business. Family business that I started working at when I was 14 in a recap plant and then all the other jobs after that. I do have a business degree but could never see myself being a banker with so many free hours.
 
We run an automotive workshop as our main business, and the car wash is a bit of a side gig. Before our current business I was a mechanical engineer and project manager for 20 years, but the stress and dramas drove me crazy. It would great to run a carwash full time, but in our part of Australia there would be very few that are big enough to justify a full time job.
 
Eric H said:
I gave up my job as an exotic male dancer. I don't think I could go back to that job now.
i did consider leaving the CW industry a few years ago to be a HVAC tech with the intention of being an owner in that industry. School would have been 1 year full time days or 16 months going at night. I didn't think I would be able to get through it with 2 young kids at home. One of those kids is leaving for college in the fall.
I could make a change now but I enjoy the people here too much.
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Ha. I am an licensed Air Condition man and gave up my AC business for Car washing.
 
If I didn't need to fund certain addictions of myself and my family like having a nice place to sleep, food and clean clothes I would probably spend time training and perhaps teaching various Martial Arts. Been training since the 1970's, teaching as well. I also currently practice law and might continue that as well.
 
I've owned a few businesses. Roofing. Liquor Store. Night Club. Ambulette. Real Estate which I still own and continue to aquire( Commercial and office ). I really enjoy the car wash business but I wouldn't have a problem going back to a large liquor store.
 
I was a firefighter/paramedic. I fell into the car wash business when a car wash next to a fire station I worked at became available. I wonder sometimes if I made the right call. Right now I'd be retired on a sweet lifetime government pension like my former coworkers.
 
At this point, a retired State Trooper (if I made it this far). When I was going to college for criminal justice, a Delaware Trooper could retire after 20 years of service. So, if I had made it, I would have been retired for about 15 years now pulling in a nice $75k pension or so. Plus getting my health insurance paid for.

A classmate of mine just retired from DE after 30 years of service. He got pretty high up the chain. His pension is over $100k, and he just went to work at a municipality as police chief pulling in $140k. Sweet gig there.
 
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