Yes. It was worthwhile.
I took notes and here are the hilights:
1. develop personal relationships w/your customers.
2. owners should have a firm grasp of their fixed and variable costs. you want each wash to cover variable costs and contribute to fixed costs.
3. interest rates are likely to rise once offshore us dollars are liquidated.
4. the best full serve customers are women over 50. are you serving them?
5. promote to apartment buildings. flyers, etc.
6. publicize you carwash operating rules so people understand you are open when it's cold, etc.
7. assign a quality control manager.
8. instead of cutting prices, give more quality.
9. develop a 'downturn analysis' that tells your banker "at x% decrease in revenue" you can survive.
10. banks DO need to lend to companies w/assets and a viable business. when a company cannot pay the bank back and must go into 'workout', the bank looks at 2 things: assets and viability of business.
11. try co-operative advertising and purchasing. you can get better deals when you buy anything in bulk!
