At home car wash???

[Marta Mike]

Good or bad business idea, all opinions appreciated.

[Cliff]

SN2BJDM: yea i know those businesses are out there
SN2BJDM: but i dont know of any that go door to door

-ehhhh but that would narrow down your time to just late at night and early in the am....if you do it at businessess your chances are better-

[jdmlude]

are you 12 years of age?

seriously i did that when i was a kid. i don't think it'll work

[UnEEk4DR]

Carwash= just washing the car or full on detailing..........you may get people who want full detailing but i dont know about just washing the car unless you plan on waxxing and buffing and all that great stuff

[Brett]

Mike just dont go to white suburb areas, Youd scare the white folk!! HA HA HA HA

[civic95]

It's a bad idea IMO. Most people aren't meticulous like the majority on this site, a car wash is a car wash. They can run their car thru a machine for $5, and don't even realize how much better a hand wash is. I used to detail cars when I was a teenager. I charged $10 an hour, and I'd usually spend 8hrs on a car. That's to hand wash, hand wax, vacumn, shampoo carpet/seats, clean all the windows, engine bay, trunk, wheels, etc... So it was usually $80-$100. Which is more than taking it to a detail shop where they can have 4 latino's attack the car at the same time, use a orbital buffer, and get the car done in 30 mins for half the price. Is it the same quality? No. But the average person doesn't know the difference.

[trythefly]

^^what he said...

My family used to own a detail shop so I know how to clean the fuk outta rides. Would I do it again....hell no. Not worth my time. I still detail my own tho lol....

[Marta Mike]

come on guys 75 views and 5 replys. VOTE VOTE VOTE right now is 50/50

[4dmin]

You wouldn't last a year w/o commercial business... the cost is too great traveling from one point to another to do a couple of cars. You need to get into the commercial part of it and territory it like we have a guy that does Gnett and comes here every other week, during busy season once a week, makes like 30+ a car out in the parking lot. he banks 10s of cars in a couple hours out in the parking lot. In the complex i work i'm sure 100's of cars in a weeks time.

[Chuckster]

if you have the right stuff, maybe. how much detail you go into washing cars, maybe.

[Chuckster]

right now im getting a government something BS, (forgot what its called). Business loan for 30gs is in processes right now. I will be doing pretty much what Paul explained, but mainly car dealers. more money to be made.

[Marta Mike]

You wouldn't last a year w/o commercial business... the cost is too great traveling from one point to another to do a couple of cars. You need to get into the commercial part of it and territory it like we have a guy that does Gnett and comes here every other week, during busy season once a week, makes like 30+ a car out in the parking lot. he banks 10s of cars in a couple hours out in the parking lot. In the complex i work i'm sure 100's of cars in a weeks time.

Yea i know those commercial people are out there who go to offices and stuff and wash cars but they have those big ass tanks for water. Im trying to stay away from that. At home i can use their hose-lol

[4dmin]

^ if you don't plan on eating then do the at home thing w/ hose... but you'll find out real quick owning your own business if you don't go 100% it won't make it.

[trythefly]

^tru dat

[Marta Mike]

word. I hear that, i know most businesses fail at their fisrt attempt. So i guess now im trying to figure out if its worth a try or not.

[chuck]

if you think you've got the motivation to get going then go for it, drew (drupason) and i did this for about a year, the money was actually pretty good but it was hard work. obviously the less driving you do the better it will work, try to get as many cars at a house or in an area as you can. we had customers who we would go see like once a week, one guy had 5 or 6 cars that we would wash every time we would go over there, i think it was like $20 for a basic wash but the best money we made was doing like interiors and waxes and such. we also did a wash twice a week at a parking deck, we would take my truck with the 100 gallon (just a guess) water tank and a water pump, all we did was plug in on their power and use our water to wash the cars...we'd put a sign at both the entrances and people would drop off their cars in the morning and pick them back up at lunch or we would run them their keys when we were done. we also did a couple schools and a real estate office in a similar fashion but we had a teacher or someone who would set up a list of cars and we would just go see them and get the keys...but like paul hinted toward, you have to be careful who you wash for, i know at a school you're not supposed to be operating a buisness, we did a couple washes at my moms school and i just donated a portion of the money to relay for life. I don't know what part of town you live in but if you are interested IM me and I can try to set you up with some of our better customers, we had some nice cars (porsche, ferrari, bmw, etc) that we would wash in like 10 minutes because the guys never drove them but we still would make $20 or $30 plus tips for those 10 minutes...if you schedule it out right and have weekly or bi-weekly customers then you can make some good money, we'd sometimes average $30-40 an hour but only work for like 10-15 hours a week. its a good business and makes good money but you have to have the motivation to call and check on customers, get to know the customers, and know what they look for (some are anal about windows being perfect, some are anal about the rims, interior, etc)

like i said, IM me if you want and i can tell you all about it...

[chuck]

are you 12 years of age?

seriously i did that when i was a kid. i don't think it'll work
seriously, you don't have to be 12 to wash cars, this was my only job for about a year and it paid my rent ($345 a month+gas, electric and water), car and motorcycle insurance, cell phone bill, and i still had good money to spend on my car, go out with friends, and do whatever other shopping i needed to do.

[civic95]

You can make a little money, but not a living. This time a year (pollen), winter, and rainy days there will be little to no business. You won't make enough the rest of the year to survive.

[Buford®]

It's a good idea if you have the determination, like what Chuck mentioned. I'd do it, if I didn't have two jobs.

[Nittanys1]

where abouts do you live? there is a car wash already built and ready to go on L'ville Suwanne rd and Dean rd. Only problem is that it has been through two different owners/names....

[punkr6]

I can think of a million better ways to make a buck, washing cars suck. Especially other peoples...

[Elbow]

I detail cars at my house regularly, I've never had anyone with an issue of me picking their car up, driving it there, detailing it, then dropping it back off at a scheduled time. I charge about $100 a car unless it's an SUV that needs a lot of work, a van, or a real dirty car.