Choosing a Location for Your Car Wash Business

Choosing a Location for Your Car Wash Business

The Car Wash business is flourishing into a highly profitable industry today. It is indeed a good investment option since it requires very low operating costs and brings forth decent profits. All this comes down to choosing the best location for starting your venture.

The primary decision to be made is regarding whether you want to buy an existing established business or you intend to start from scratch and set it up yourself or go in for a franchise business. Taking over an existing business reaping good profits is a safe option but if you have decided to set up on your own there are numerous formalities to be complied with. Here is a brief insight into the various factors to be considered.

The importance of the statistics

The composition or demographics of people in a particular locality, i.e. in a neighborhood or town you have in mind influences your business. For e.g. if you plan to set up in an area occupied by high income professionals who drive posh and expensive cars then a full service car wash equipment car wash would be more profitable. This requires more sophisticated equipment; therefore your budget should accommodate the extra costs. But the returns definitely will be greater. On the other hand, a middle class or low income town demands only a self-service or in-bay automatic service. Here you can save on the Car Wash Systems as well as the land prices but the business need not necessarily be good. Therefore make your decision considering the amount of capital you have in hand and the amount of money you are hoping to make.

 Make your decision regarding whether to buy land or lease it for this purpose. If you plan to buy then it’s necessary to go into a detailed analysis of the geographic set up of the land you wish to acquire. There should be no threat from environmental hazards like flooding, storms etc. Abide by the regulations set by local Environment Protection Associations regarding the recycling of water, proper sewage facilities and treating the water before releasing into drains etc.

Acquiring land and assets

Land today doesn’t come cheap; therefore make sure that the area is in good visibility to potential users before you pay a high price for it.  In case you decide to lease, then push for long lease agreements with favorable renewal options. Consult and involve a lawyer to study the other factors associated with the Lease and make sure to get a good lease price. The access and exit paths should be well defined.

Check with the local authorities about the various laws of the state regarding the opening and working of such businesses and the licenses to be obtained. Make sure the land is not under any dispute.  A SWOT analysis to ascertain the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is a good idea.

An important point to be kept in mind is that people do not go in search of a car wash location and car wash equipment Installation. It must be conveniently located next to a place where they frequent for other purposes like an eatery or a supermarket or a fuel station so that it serves a dual purpose. Busy traffic brings in more customers so it’s best to place it in a commercial area.

The land in question should have the capacity for expansion if the need arises.  Even otherwise simply operating a car wash alone may not be profitable in the long run. Setting up a car accessories shop or a gift shop or even a gas station next to the car wash area will bring in additional business, so as mentioned earlier the land should be able to accommodate these services.

Strategies and market survey

A look at competitors business and location will give a fairly good idea. Become a member of International Car Wash Association and other similar local associations. This gives you an entry into a very close knit community willing to share valuable information regarding setting up of the business. It will help you place your business in a place where there are no threats of other established car washes operating or planning to operate in the near future. Also an opportunity to network with other operators from other locations and states is an added advantage.

Thus we can come to a conclusion that a well set up Car Wash business with all the right equipment in the right locality has all the potential to remain in business for a long time since people are never going to stop buying cars and they will only seek out professional car washes who guarantee a thorough clean up and maintenance of their cars.