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Potential Car wash owner questions

robert roman

Bob Roman
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“…. not to pursue this business I'm out 6k in debt.”

Every entrepreneur faces this dilemma; nothing ventured, nothing gained.

In other words, all entrepreneurs, deep or shallow pocket, face risk with the effort, money and time spent on due diligence.

I know commercial property developers that have spent tens of thousands of dollars to evaluate the political, environmental, construction, leasing and re-sale market risks that are involved in real estate development and investment.

Sometimes a developer finds good reason to walk away from a proposed project after spending a sum of money. The developer may discover it will cost too much money and time to obtain entitlements or that some former use of the land has resulted in toxic contamination. Developers know these possibilities exist and are a cost of doing business.

Over a decade ago, a young gentleman came to me for help on how to achieve his dream of becoming a carwash owner. He possessed many of the traits conveyed in your post; a willingness to learn, not afraid of hard work and sincerity.

My advice to him was to get a job working in a carwash for a year or so. This way he could judge for himself if this was a possible vocation. He did so. Today, he owns and operates a high volume carwash and is planning for his second and third and fourth.

I understand your situation because I also worked my way through college. In my case, it was in the horrid environment of a steel mill. I never borrowed a dime and no grants, always paying cash on the barrelhead. If you stay the course, you will eventually benefit because it demands discipline and self-sacrifice which helps build character.

This character will be invaluable when you decide the time is right to springboard into small business.

Consequently, my advice is to stay the course and continue your due diligence. $6,000 may seem like a lot of money now but later you will discover this was an inexpensive way to help insure your future success.
 

Turbo

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New owner advice

I have a different perspective than most of the others but same conclusion.

I DID NOT work in a car wash before I bought one. I had good luck/results in real estate business, job was going well, I am fairly handy. I read the "millionaire next door" (successful car wash featured in the book). I was realtively frugal for my demographic.

Saw some financials for the carwash (poor quality-I was a CPA so I have a clue). Lots of cars driving in front and not too fast. Lots of rooftops. Each one worth 300k. "I can turn this around! I'll do it on the weekends! You only live once!". I bought it 8 years ago

Result: carwash made very little revenue, everything broken (I had it all inspected but inspector was worthless and I didnt know the difference), I was in way over my head, devastated, depressed, lost 25 lbs. Single worst mistake of my life (admittedly I have a good life). I was an idiot newbie that I subsequently saw mentioned on forum (more $ than smarts).

Luckily I had kept my job and had reserves. No one would buy the car wash.

I ended up buying the quick lube that it was attached to (after going to trade shows and doing 100 times more homework as I did on the carwash) and have made that a reasonable success. I used the "free car wash with oil change" as a differentiator.

I have fixed a lot of things and made a lot of improvements at the car wash (I am NEVER done). Spent a approx 200k on paying bills and improvements (carwash only). Worked 7 long days a week for a few years, now I avg 6-7 medium days.

Now that oil change is almost done and I just now installed a sign for both my rear entry car wash and the oil change business, I am back to focusing on carwash revenue. My goal is to double revenue this year (had a rough carwash year last year and I have a 8 by 10 sign with a 4 by 10 LED SIGN (another 50k investment!).

I am just adding some color to what happens if you dont listen to the wise voices (I was so arrogant or ignorant as to not even look for advice).

As for the 6k, you need to figure it out: save the 6k? cut expenses (cut cable/cut home phone/eat oatmeal/turn down heat/etc.)? You sound like a resourceful guy: buy/sell cheap cars on craigslist, paint houses, etc. work 40 hours for carwash and another 30 somewhere else (its only 13 weeks). If you cant finanically/menatlly take a 6k hit you really need to do what these guys are telling you or you could be bankrupt.

Why not look for a business with low/no overhead. I know an owner/operator locksmith that does no advertising, works out of a chevy blazer and makes $400/day. Or a sewer and water guy that makes about $500.

If I was smart, hard working and young I would look to these types of businesses for right now (at least in midwest america). By the way, the houses that were worth 300k are now 100-150k.

So far youve taken the advice on the chin, good for you. Keep it up.
 

K.Erickson

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Thanks again for the info, I'm really thinking hard about the business. I'm 40 so I don't have many years left. I know land is down in the US but here in Canada they are going up and steadly so. I also have to realize that even though mortage rates are around 4% for 5 yrs, lending rates are low too.. its bound to come up over the next 10yrs.
 

DavidM

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There is a lot of good advice here. Be careful not to convince yourself that everyone is just trying to keep competition away.

Maybe I missed it, but I am trying to figure out how you can come up with the money to build a car wash but can't give up 6k to learn the business? Working at a car wash isn't the only way to learn but it is probably the cheapest and most effective. Most of us have stories of new operators who lost hundreds of thousands in poorly planned car washes.

You can't get nearly enough information here. We don't know your situation well enough and it can be difficult to sift the bad advice from the good. Carwashing can be a decent way to earn a living but there are at least as many, maybe more, failures than success stories.

Just my thoughts, I certainly don't know it all.

David
 

Indiana Wash

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Thanks Robert and everyone else for their input. Can I ask for those that worked for 3 months free how did you manage to pay bills etc? Do you have a spouse or family that gave you money as I did some quick math and I spend around 6000 over 3 month. So for me a single dude, too not work and then decide not to pursue this business I'm out 6k in debt.

Yes I realize 6k is not near as much as 750k+. Maybe not buying that property but instead leasing it maybe a better way to go. Property here in Winnipeg is going up constantly.
If you don't have $18k to invest then you do not need to buy a $750k car wash. If you don't go ahead and build a wash, don't look at it as you lost $6k, look at how much you saved by only losing $6k-$18k instead of hundreds of thousands.

You say property values are constantly going up. Why would you lease then instead of buying?
 

K.Erickson

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Hey Indiana, well some comments said I was crazy paying 1mill to build a carwash. 650k for land 400k for building/wash. The guy that bought the property last summer (650k), is now asking 1.9million...But he is willing to build up to a 700 sq ft building. If I decide to do this, I was going to offer him 700k but no way he ever find a guy to pay 1.9 for that spot. This is why I suggested leasing as then the cost of the building is his and I just need to pay for the machines and rent.

To answer other ppls questions I have about 100k of equity in my house I was going to borrow against, plus "hopefully" get some Native American business loans as I'm 1/16 Cree. That plus my business partner has around 400k in savings.

Yes I would love to buy property but like someone else mentioned, you have to know what the city is planning to do in the area.
 

Waxman

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On rainy days I am glad I am invested in the real estate portion of my carwash and detail shop. It is a nice feeling to be a land owner rather than leasing.
 
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