Carwash Business
Cars increase in number by the second. Because of loads of cars on the road you may think that this would be the best opportunity to have your own carwash business. It seems that having a carwash business is very easy, for you need not to deal with too much competition and advertising, yet you would be flooded by customers and the capital would not be that high. But honestly this is not true, this are all just perceptions.
Having a carwash business is very daunting. In this kind of business only 15-20% of your customers would become regular. The number of customers may even be affected by the weather, the location, demographics, intersection and most of all competition. For a carwash business, competition is very great because some other businesses offer better and faster facilities and have more appropriate locations. You may avoid competition and increase customer numbers by having a business plan. To devise the business plan, first have a research about the location where you would put up the carwash business. Include information about other carwash businesses within or around the area and know what type of carwash business they are in. Once you have this information, decide now which type of carwash business you would be into. There are four types of carwash businesses – self-service, exterior-conveyor, in-bay automatic and full-service. In a self-service carwash, customers wash their cars in individual wash bays. This offers the least cost on labor and equipment, but area or the lot size that you may need would have the greatest cost. Exterior conveyor on the other hand, works with motorized track that drags the car into the tunnel, where it is washed, rinsed, dried and waxed.
Equipment would be your number one expense, you need not to worry about labor and lot size, though this may still be needing a capital which is not less than $10 000. In-bay automatics on the other hand are most preferable if lot size is limited and would cost less than an exterior-conveyor car wash. Your primary considerations though would be about traffic counts, demographics and competition. Finally, a full-service carwash business is labor intensive and the amount of cost is the greatest among the four types, because you have to pay for labor and equipments are more expensive. The only advantage that you can have is that it can attract more customers than any other type of carwash. After deciding which type of carwash to have, estimate the capital needed. This can be done knowing the exact type and number of equipment that you need, the expense for the location and other overhead expenses.
Unlike any other business, having a carwash business means loads of effort and investment for the owner. Total return of investment may come within the first five years, so you must be patient with your business. You must have enough money to keep the business running even in rough times as well.
