Start A Car Wash Business

Industry Overview

There are currently an estimated thirty thousand car washes in the United States. The car wash industry is over ten billion dollars a year in this nation and shows no signs of stopping as sixteen million or more cars are sold each year in the United States.

Additional factors pointing to higher industry growth include; a decline in home car wash because of lack of time, environmental awareness, communities outlawing home car washing and technological improvements.

The car wash industry has grown 50% during the past nine years. Some other interesting statistics:

Average revenue for wand-bays has risen from $942 per month in 1991 to over $1,200 in 2004.
Average revenue and net profits for in-bay automatic has risen by over $1.00 per car since 1991.
In-bay wash volumes have trended upwards from an annual average of 12,100 cars per year in 1991 to over 21,500 in 2004.
Exterior-only wash volumes have risen from an annual average of 51,000 cars per year in 1991 to 77,300 in 2004.
Net profit for exterior-only has risen by over $1.40 per car since 1991.
Full-service wash volumes have increased by 2,000 cars per year since 1991.

Top 7 Tips For A Car Wash Business

Many people believe their repeat customer rate is 80 percent in the carwash industry and statistically that is a bogus figure. When putting up signage for your carwash it is important that your customers driving can see the sign for 40 seconds. It is also smart to be near a fast food restaurants and a major intersection.

When considering traffic counts and flows, as to the number of people who might pull into your carwash you should also considered that center medians that cannot be crossed over will limit the number of cars which will come into your carwash to get a car wash.

All carwash businesses should have uniforms for their employees or at least some sort of dress code. It makes sense to have polo shirts for all the people who are on the line drying the cars and dark blue shorts. The polo shirts should have your logo on them and should all be the same color.

Carwash businesses should also have frequent customer rewards programs. If you are going to start a carwash I hope you will consider all this.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

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