Information for a Newbie

[HLWoodson]

Hi! I’m new to car washes. We no longer have one in our area since the convenience store closed years ago, and a floral shop moved in. The carwash bay just sits there now, dilapidated, and there is no interest from the current owners on opening it back up. I’m looking for all the information on opening and building a self-service carwash. If there are any courses on doing so, share a link to them as well!

Thank you all so much,

Hunter

 

[Rookie68]

I jumped in blindly almost 4 years ago buying two self serve washes in my hometown. My advice is Do Not Do It. I am losing my ass and the financial, physical, mental, and emotional stress has not been worth it at all up to this point. I realize my situation is not ideal as I am juggling a regular 8-5, some long term rentals, my family and my two washes. Cant afford any of the necessary upgrades my sites require to have a chance at being successful. Attempted theft and vandalism are weekly occurences for me. Taxes, Utilities and necessary maintenance and repairs are my biggest expenses. I think that housing is a better investment than a self serve car wash at least in my market. As the economy continues to put the hurt on people washing their cars falls lower and lower on the list of things they spend money on. You will not get rich running a self serve car wash unless you are in a major market. If your goal is to just pay off the land over 20 or 30 years and eventually cash out then I can make an argument for it. The guys I know that are wealthy from car washes started right out of highschool, have owned several throughout the years, and usually own several different types all at once. I dont mean to be a dream killer. Just trying to save you some heart ache. If you have unlimited funds a self serve car wash could be a great business.

 

[MudMoney]

I agree with the above, but if you still want to proceed look up regional car wash shows near you. Waxman on this site advises to work @ car wash for awhile. That is always good advice too. Btw what is the population of town and county area.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

It can be a rough business if you're not prepared for the realities.

1) It's not a no or little work business. Reality is it will be the easiest 80 a week job you'll ever have. Some weeks you may only need to be there a couple of hours a day, others it will seem like you never leave

2) As recommended, get a job at a car wash if at all possible so you can get real world experience. The guys on youtube show some great theater but leave out a great amount of the grimy reality. For example: They love to show off stacks of cash coming out of their bill changers and claim it's revenue. It's not. The revenue is what gets deposited in the equipment. They typically don't show you when they are at the site at 2am fixing something or show you the invoice for how much it cost to have a technician come out to fix something

3) Attend several regional trade shows and the ICA show.

4) You need to read as much of this forum as possible. There is a incalculable amount of wealth to be gained.

5) You're going to need a quality distributor if you're doing a ground up build with no prior experience. Contact the manufacturer of the equipment you are interested in. In the past there were protected territories but currently the quality manufacturers will have more than one in most areas.

Without knowing your land, permitting, construction costs, what size/type wash you're looking at there is no real way to give a true estimate of cost. You could be looking at $10-$15K per self serve bay for equipment and $200-$300K for an automatic. Of course on top of that you have vacuums, vending, water softener, water heater, changer, etc.