Last year, someone contacted me from Flagstaff AZ and he indicated to me that he couldn't find work in his area of expertise there due to the recession and was going to start his own business cleaning cars. A mobile car washing and auto detailing company, was the business that he'd convinced himself was needed in that city. Well, I've been to Flag before and surely, such a business could work there, although it would be seasonal too, since you can't wash cars outside very well when it is snowing.
It turns out he had read one of my many entrepreneurial articles about the need to put together a solid business plan, but that is where he got into trouble having never been in the mobile washing business before. They were putting together their pro forma and attempting to set revenue goals, but they didn't know where to start. Okay so, perhaps we should talk about this, and it might give you some insight in case you to have the same challenge ahead.
First, the reality is that; it depends. Indeed it depends on a lot of things. In Flagstaff Arizona they have seasonal issues which make it tough to wash in the wintertime, but the salt on the roads also mean that people eventually have to get their cars washed otherwise they will rust through. Likewise the fleet vehicle owners and businesses have no choice but to maintain the quality of their equipment; delivery trucks, trailers, and over the road trucks.
Secondly, if he and his wife planned on cleaning cars at office buildings and at large corporations, so there will be some days when no one will wish to have a carwash, because as soon as they drive their car it will get dirty again right away, due to the weather. Thirdly, their market segment and market mix between fleet vehicles and personal cars matters very much.
This is because when you're cleaning fleets of vehicles were all the cars are parked in a row you can wash quite a few cars in an hour, whereas washing one or two cars at each location means you have to travel between locations which takes up time in your day, and therefore even if you are charging more money per car, you will make less money by the end of the day.
Before you ask this question of; how much money can I make? You must ask yourself what type of mobile carwash company you wish to run; do you plan on doing personal car detailing, and cleaning cars at office buildings, or you plan on specializing in fleet washing. Once you figure out those questions and your market mix, then it is much easier to address the challenges of setting revenue goals for your first year in business. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, http://www.carwashguys.com/ and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,222 articles by July 22, 2011 at 2:22 PM is going to be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..
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