In a recent article where I was talking about different tips and ideas for profitable businesses with little money, one of the businesses we mentioned was the car wash at home. As within all the ideas that I presented in the aforementioned articles, this is one of the most interesting, from my point of view, now we are going to elaborate on different aspects that make the car wash business.
Car wash in an artisanal way
The car wash service has evolved and these places not only offer the washing of the vehicle, but all kinds of treatments are offered to take care of the paint, polish the windows, treatments to repel dust, etc. This expansion of services has generated an evolution in this type of service, and it is not uncommon for people to seek this type of business as ¨spa for automobiles.
Car washing is a very profitable business, in general a 50% profitability is calculated on the fixed costs, but in turn it is also a volume job, so the location and competition that our future business has will be decisive for assess whether the business will be profitable or not.
In general, car washes work with a higher volume of clients on Saturdays and Sundays, since people have time and can do without their vehicle for a couple of hours. In turn, the main enemy of this business are rainy days, in which there is no direct work, but also sales decrease a lot when the next rains are forecast.
Different car wash companies have implemented a guarantee system in which they offer their customers to re-wash the exterior of the car if it rains in the next 24 hours. This means that before the rain forecast does not decrease so drastically in work in the laundries.
Strategy marketing to increase washes
A strategy to attract customers and that is widely used in gas stations, for example, is to use pretty girls to run the wash. For example, I would apply this strategy on weekdays (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), which is when work in the laundries decreases due to lack of time on customers. It would also offer discount days to regular users of vehicles such as Taxis or Remises, for example, to cite an example.
Car wash service
An alternative to reduce costs or initial investment for this type of business is to offer a car wash service at home.
In this way, we will be able to differentiate ourselves from traditional car wash businesses and in turn satisfy a need of the target market not yet covered by traditional stores, which is to adapt to the client’s times.
For the home car wash or car wash service to be successful, it is essential that our collaborators (operators) do a good job using the best car wash products on the market.
Another factor to take into account is precisely the fulfillment of schedules, since it is advisable to work by appointment, religiously carrying an agenda. For this we must know the average times it takes to wash different types of vehicle and thus not overlap schedules.
Basic equipment for car wash carts:
– Vacuum cleaner.
-Pump 1 / 10hp 12 Volts.
-12 Volt battery.
-Lance for the expulsion of the mixture.
-Dirty water tank.
-Raps.
-Atomizer with grease remover.
-Atomizer with rinse aid with applicator.
-Uniforms for your staff.
-Stationery (notes or orders, business cards and flyers).
-Cleaning supplies (shampoo, wheel product, polish, grease remover).
Other services that we can offer as additional to washing:
-Wax
-Polished
-Body decontamination
-Body porcelain
-Crystallized bodywork
-Washing and crystallizing the motor
-Washing cloth or leather garments
-Teflon in garments
-Elimination of acid rain
I believe that washing as a car wash is a very profitable business and with a large market that we can reach and offer the service at a very low cost.