Mr. Dude with a face
New member
Being that this is my first post, I will start of by giving a introduction about myself, followed by an unfortunately long list of caveats before I actually ask any questions. This post may take patience to read, so if you are not willing, please feel obliged to carry on elsewhere with something else. For those who feel they can be genuine, and helpful, I hope you will take the time to read, and comprehend where I am coming from. Thank you in advance.
Firstly, I am 20 years of age. I will ask that you pump the brakes on you assumptions of me based on my age by the way, I consider myself a hard working, logical, pragmatic adult, so please don't treat me like a child. However, I do still tell you my age because I feel it is valid. I have grown up and always lived in central Utah. Me and my family have always been blue color through and through, Diesel Mechanics, Salesmen, Retail employees and Truck Drivers pretty much sums us up. Everything we have is self made, none of us are more wealthy or poor than the other. I only mention this for the sake of showing that I have no aces up my sleeve, I am a regular guy from a regular family, with a regular job.
Now, my motives for joining this forum (this is the caveats to my question).
1. I don't want the same life as my family before me. - I don't want to be financially dependent on a W-2 for the rest of my life. I am a believer in being self-reliant, I believe you get out what you put in, that you reap what you sew. I also don't believe in "get rich quick" schemes, or subscribe to the idea of getting something for nothing. I also don't want to live a life in which I give all of my time away to an employer. I am obviously young, and I work a 40 hour week, and already, I feel that it is taking too much time away from the things, and the people that I value. Again, I am not looking for some imaginary "free lunch", I love being a contributing member of society, I am not looking to be a free loader, and never have been, but I am looking to make the juice worth the squeeze.
2. "Juice Worth the Squeeze" what do I mean by that? - I know that what I have described is the life I want. I know that it is possible. I know that you can't change my mind and tell me that it isn't. Fact.
I am fully aware that these are very profound statements for a 20 year old to make, who still has yet a small scope of the world, but these are words I now live by, and I have seen far to many examples of people just like me who have done it to not believe in it. To name a small few, big names: Robert Kiyosaki, Anthony Robins, Brandon Schlichter, Christopher Atkins (yes, we will get to that) and Danny D'Angelo. A quick search of any of these names will prove that I am right. And now, for the punch line to my list of caveats: I want to invest. Anything from Real-estate to laundromats, investments are the way to wealth. And I will add, I mean wealth, not rich. To me, wealth is long lasting, and provides fulfilment, where as riches are temporary, and can come with a lining of greed. I am not a "Rich" type of guy.
3. "Okay, I get you want to invest, but why car washes?" - Valid question! If you can believe it, I have been researching different investments and business's since I was in my Junior year of high school. I started with Brandon Schlichter of "Investment Joy" on YouTube, and his laundromat and vending pursuits, and I was starting to get kind of serious about it too, going as far as getting consulting from my local small business administration about forming a vending business. Then after that, maybe even up to a year later my dad gave me a book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. All I will say about the book is what a eye opener! That was the first time I ever thought seriously about investing (Doing pretty good for 18 aye?!). Then after that it just started this massive onslaught of research of all the different facets of the world of investing. I thing for probably almost 2 years now, me and my dad have not stopped learning about different investments and ways to better ourselves financially. I would like to think we have covered a lot: vending, Real-estate, laundromats, car washes, self storage, stocks the list goes on. And for whatever reason, or a combination of multiple, I keep coming back to car washes, again, and again, and again. So now, in the present, I am trying to do what I can to nail down the details, so I can move forward with confidence, and make good decisions.
If you have made it this far, I really am impressed. I apologize it has taken me a small novel to get to this point, but I feel that my question would not be taken genuinely without all the prologue. If I felt that I could have done without, I would have, because I have been writing the post for 2 hours now, but finally my question:
I have been having a difficult time finding a way to predict how much a particular car wash location will make in income, or to figure out what its potential is. I am mainly interested in leasing existing self serve car washes (In bay automatics as well), but I want to make sure I negotiate leases that are financially viable. So, for those of you who run self serve car washes, how do you predict income like this? I want to hear what you have to say about location (like analytical stuff maybe, such as traffic count, or surrounding population) and also seasonal effects. What do you consider to be the critical, pivotal factors about a location, and most importantly, how do you derive a $$$ amount from that? Whatever you have too help me out is so highly appreciated. Thank you to all who have made it this far.
Firstly, I am 20 years of age. I will ask that you pump the brakes on you assumptions of me based on my age by the way, I consider myself a hard working, logical, pragmatic adult, so please don't treat me like a child. However, I do still tell you my age because I feel it is valid. I have grown up and always lived in central Utah. Me and my family have always been blue color through and through, Diesel Mechanics, Salesmen, Retail employees and Truck Drivers pretty much sums us up. Everything we have is self made, none of us are more wealthy or poor than the other. I only mention this for the sake of showing that I have no aces up my sleeve, I am a regular guy from a regular family, with a regular job.
Now, my motives for joining this forum (this is the caveats to my question).
1. I don't want the same life as my family before me. - I don't want to be financially dependent on a W-2 for the rest of my life. I am a believer in being self-reliant, I believe you get out what you put in, that you reap what you sew. I also don't believe in "get rich quick" schemes, or subscribe to the idea of getting something for nothing. I also don't want to live a life in which I give all of my time away to an employer. I am obviously young, and I work a 40 hour week, and already, I feel that it is taking too much time away from the things, and the people that I value. Again, I am not looking for some imaginary "free lunch", I love being a contributing member of society, I am not looking to be a free loader, and never have been, but I am looking to make the juice worth the squeeze.
2. "Juice Worth the Squeeze" what do I mean by that? - I know that what I have described is the life I want. I know that it is possible. I know that you can't change my mind and tell me that it isn't. Fact.
I am fully aware that these are very profound statements for a 20 year old to make, who still has yet a small scope of the world, but these are words I now live by, and I have seen far to many examples of people just like me who have done it to not believe in it. To name a small few, big names: Robert Kiyosaki, Anthony Robins, Brandon Schlichter, Christopher Atkins (yes, we will get to that) and Danny D'Angelo. A quick search of any of these names will prove that I am right. And now, for the punch line to my list of caveats: I want to invest. Anything from Real-estate to laundromats, investments are the way to wealth. And I will add, I mean wealth, not rich. To me, wealth is long lasting, and provides fulfilment, where as riches are temporary, and can come with a lining of greed. I am not a "Rich" type of guy.
3. "Okay, I get you want to invest, but why car washes?" - Valid question! If you can believe it, I have been researching different investments and business's since I was in my Junior year of high school. I started with Brandon Schlichter of "Investment Joy" on YouTube, and his laundromat and vending pursuits, and I was starting to get kind of serious about it too, going as far as getting consulting from my local small business administration about forming a vending business. Then after that, maybe even up to a year later my dad gave me a book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. All I will say about the book is what a eye opener! That was the first time I ever thought seriously about investing (Doing pretty good for 18 aye?!). Then after that it just started this massive onslaught of research of all the different facets of the world of investing. I thing for probably almost 2 years now, me and my dad have not stopped learning about different investments and ways to better ourselves financially. I would like to think we have covered a lot: vending, Real-estate, laundromats, car washes, self storage, stocks the list goes on. And for whatever reason, or a combination of multiple, I keep coming back to car washes, again, and again, and again. So now, in the present, I am trying to do what I can to nail down the details, so I can move forward with confidence, and make good decisions.
If you have made it this far, I really am impressed. I apologize it has taken me a small novel to get to this point, but I feel that my question would not be taken genuinely without all the prologue. If I felt that I could have done without, I would have, because I have been writing the post for 2 hours now, but finally my question:
I have been having a difficult time finding a way to predict how much a particular car wash location will make in income, or to figure out what its potential is. I am mainly interested in leasing existing self serve car washes (In bay automatics as well), but I want to make sure I negotiate leases that are financially viable. So, for those of you who run self serve car washes, how do you predict income like this? I want to hear what you have to say about location (like analytical stuff maybe, such as traffic count, or surrounding population) and also seasonal effects. What do you consider to be the critical, pivotal factors about a location, and most importantly, how do you derive a $$$ amount from that? Whatever you have too help me out is so highly appreciated. Thank you to all who have made it this far.
