Starting a hand car wash
- Thread starter tommy05
- Start date
Envious Eric
New member
look up stuff from auto laundry magazine...I get the mag all the time sent to me for some reason, maybe because I have a registered business, IDK. It has a bunch of static wash setups, etc. great mag for supplies and industry news I guess, crappy for paint correction stuff
imported_advs1
New member
tommy05 said:
honestly if you have only 30K i would rethink starting that type of business. especially when you consider insurance, product, equipment, rent, wages for employees.
David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
Probably one of the cheapest start up auto repair markets to enter. $30K is way too much personally. More like under $10K. I'd love to someday have one. Make sure you choose your location wisely.
imported_advs1
New member
David Fermani said:
i dont know what rent is like in your area, but anything with a 4 car bay, even out door is gonna be at least $1500 a month. so take first, last and security deposit and youre looking at $5000 to sign a lease. plus insurance binder for min $2.0m and garage keepers, plus workmans comp and you slice another $2000+ a year, then equipment and supplies, plus wages? at minimum you have 2 people at $8.25 an hour for 20 hours a week, thats $1320 for part time. plus either software or a service for payroll? security system, phone line, business license, internet, remodeling for building(doubt you will find a place ready for what he wants). i could go on and on, unless youre going to do it the wrong way and just open a place and hope nothing happens, pay your people under the table, break some laws and such.
i dont want to discourage any one, just wish i had some one tell me all this stuff before i sank money into my business only to come up short. rather be real and keep the "dream" alive than crush his dream
David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
Here's a very rough draft of a bare minimum start up:
Leases are usually 1st month and last month(security deposit). Or atleast they can be negotiated to that in this depressed commercial market. $3000
You only need $1mil insurance and can probably get a premuim for well under $2000/yr. Only needing 25% down and paying quarterly. $500
Equipment & supplies for a hand car wash (soap/dressing/cleaners) + (Pressure washer/Vacuume/etc) = $1500-$2000 which might be able to be financed
Sub-Contract Labor = pay as you go
Leases are usually 1st month and last month(security deposit). Or atleast they can be negotiated to that in this depressed commercial market. $3000
You only need $1mil insurance and can probably get a premuim for well under $2000/yr. Only needing 25% down and paying quarterly. $500
Equipment & supplies for a hand car wash (soap/dressing/cleaners) + (Pressure washer/Vacuume/etc) = $1500-$2000 which might be able to be financed
Sub-Contract Labor = pay as you go
WAS
Driven
I'm with David on this one, it wouldn't need much capital to start up that business, IMO.
Labour is your single biggest expense, and usually is in any business. Hire part time employees, without a guarantee of hours. That way, you simply pay for help as you need it.
One huge thing is the personal commitment required. You would have to be at the shop EVERYDAY for months on end until it got running and busy enough to the point where you could hire a manager to run the place for you.
Labour is your single biggest expense, and usually is in any business. Hire part time employees, without a guarantee of hours. That way, you simply pay for help as you need it.
One huge thing is the personal commitment required. You would have to be at the shop EVERYDAY for months on end until it got running and busy enough to the point where you could hire a manager to run the place for you.
Hmmm. I debated on whether or not to post but I think I can help.
I am currently starting a Hand Wash with my dad. He is retiring soon and looking for a business to start and I need a job. With that said, there are a few things you need to do.
First is you need to decide how you are going to structure your business. We chose a Sub-chapter S corp as it will limit total liability to the amount invested and its favorable for tax reasons. So consider lawyer and accountant fees.
Second, you need to seriously consider what type of volume you can move through the place. An employee's wage and taxes can put you under fast. For a drive through style building (118'x23' based on the inside walls in a typical Chicago lot) you can fit 7 stations. With 5-6 employees fully cooking you can do about 20-25 cars per hour and fatigue will eventually set in. This will mean you need to break up shifts and have a decent sized staff. So open up excel and start making spreadsheets that can help with projections. This can also give you your break evens. I have a good one you can play with so PM me your email and I can forward it to you.
I noticed you said you would like to be able to handle 4 cars at a time. DO NOT limit yourself to 4 cars at a time. In my market, your ability to make money is your ability to absorb rushes in business. This is the people before work. (Early Bird Specials). Hand Washes near me can do 60 cars in the first 3 or so hours of business then its dead till mid/late afternoon assuming no bad weather.
Also, DO NOT try to play the under the table game. Its ok if a person pays cash for a detail but pocketing car wash revenue is easy for the IRS to figure out. Soap consumption, water usage, and the list goes on. They can figure out how many cars you go through a year.
And lastly, have an exit plan before you pull the trigger. Without one you are putting yourself in financial jeopardy. Put criteria down on paper in which you WILL follow. If bad times come and you loose a certain amount of money, get out.
I don't want to discourage you. I have run into many hurdles that have nearly killed the whole business. Your biggest problem is going to be employees and the way you market your business. Buying pressure washers and stuff is kinda the fun part. Don't forget the things that will make or break you.
Hope this helped and I didn't sound too harsh.
Dan
I am currently starting a Hand Wash with my dad. He is retiring soon and looking for a business to start and I need a job. With that said, there are a few things you need to do.
First is you need to decide how you are going to structure your business. We chose a Sub-chapter S corp as it will limit total liability to the amount invested and its favorable for tax reasons. So consider lawyer and accountant fees.
Second, you need to seriously consider what type of volume you can move through the place. An employee's wage and taxes can put you under fast. For a drive through style building (118'x23' based on the inside walls in a typical Chicago lot) you can fit 7 stations. With 5-6 employees fully cooking you can do about 20-25 cars per hour and fatigue will eventually set in. This will mean you need to break up shifts and have a decent sized staff. So open up excel and start making spreadsheets that can help with projections. This can also give you your break evens. I have a good one you can play with so PM me your email and I can forward it to you.
I noticed you said you would like to be able to handle 4 cars at a time. DO NOT limit yourself to 4 cars at a time. In my market, your ability to make money is your ability to absorb rushes in business. This is the people before work. (Early Bird Specials). Hand Washes near me can do 60 cars in the first 3 or so hours of business then its dead till mid/late afternoon assuming no bad weather.
Also, DO NOT try to play the under the table game. Its ok if a person pays cash for a detail but pocketing car wash revenue is easy for the IRS to figure out. Soap consumption, water usage, and the list goes on. They can figure out how many cars you go through a year.
And lastly, have an exit plan before you pull the trigger. Without one you are putting yourself in financial jeopardy. Put criteria down on paper in which you WILL follow. If bad times come and you loose a certain amount of money, get out.
I don't want to discourage you. I have run into many hurdles that have nearly killed the whole business. Your biggest problem is going to be employees and the way you market your business. Buying pressure washers and stuff is kinda the fun part. Don't forget the things that will make or break you.
Hope this helped and I didn't sound too harsh.
Dan
imported_advs1
New member
David Fermani said:
i'll address your points one by one:
that might be working in your neck of the woods, but in cali rent for street visible is still fairly high, so figure about $1 a sq ft or more, min
any business space i have ever looked it has req min 2mil liability, thats given you have walk in traffic. if it was a warehouse it might be diff. that i dont know. and again this is here in cali
unless you plan one having a bare lot buying P/W and vacs from home depot wont cut it. the way the water laws are around here you need reclaim and separation tanks. if not expect to not get a pass from the city inspector. even body shops are getting hit for excessive water usage during peak hours.
they, the feds, have limits as to how much an employee can earn before you have to put them on pay roll, just found that out.
like i said, thats what i ran into here in cali. it is a huge under taking and 30K would not get you very much. unless, you cut corners and dont follow by all the laws. heck around here the fees for just being unlicensed have gone up to $2000 per business, mobile or fixed. for a lot of detailers running around doing $12 washes its a cat and mouse game.
advs1 - you are right on. Chicago is starting to get crazy with the water laws and what not. That and getting past the aldermen to get your special use permits are another hurdle in itself.
I agree that 30k to not nearly enough to do this legitimately. 30k is a lot of money but when starting any kind of business that involves real estate, 30k is nothing.
Also consider that the cost of land can be the difference from making it to not making it. Some car washes own their land without debt, and and have for years. They can lower their prices and keep you out the the market. Think of that as a barrier to entry. Having to make up an extra 1500-4000 a month for rent at $10-30 a pop for washes is a big disadvantage.
I agree that 30k to not nearly enough to do this legitimately. 30k is a lot of money but when starting any kind of business that involves real estate, 30k is nothing.
Also consider that the cost of land can be the difference from making it to not making it. Some car washes own their land without debt, and and have for years. They can lower their prices and keep you out the the market. Think of that as a barrier to entry. Having to make up an extra 1500-4000 a month for rent at $10-30 a pop for washes is a big disadvantage.
imported_advs1
New member
you also have to remember about the unions in some places. i think i read a thread on here or some place else about some one in chicago getting squeezed by the union mob.
Envious Eric
New member
was this another post and run or what...you would think someone asking a question as big as this would want to discuss....
I would love to start one up...aside from the start up, an automatic location would seem like cash cow...just keep the supplies filled, the machines working and let the money roll in. No employees, just a manager to oversee the entire lot - trash pick up, customer concerns, coin machine handling, etc.
I talked to one guy by me a while back...he used to do detailing like me, mobile, but express type stuff, no correction. He then got sick of it and decided up open up shop and says he is making over double, doing MUCH less work!
I would love to start one up...aside from the start up, an automatic location would seem like cash cow...just keep the supplies filled, the machines working and let the money roll in. No employees, just a manager to oversee the entire lot - trash pick up, customer concerns, coin machine handling, etc.
I talked to one guy by me a while back...he used to do detailing like me, mobile, but express type stuff, no correction. He then got sick of it and decided up open up shop and says he is making over double, doing MUCH less work!
WAS
Driven
advs1 said:
Unions ? Seriously ? Sounds like Chicago isn't a great place to start a business, IMO.
toyotaguy said:
Automatic touchless car washes are awesome, I'd love to own one myself. Big thing is getting someone who is able to work on the equipment when it breaks down (which it does), having to call a tradesperson everytime something goes wrong gets pretty costly.
Again, we see the trends, volume work is where the money is at. Whether it's detailing, car washing, or basic retail sales (everything from $2 burgers at McDonalds to $0.19 photo prints at Wal-Mart), volume is where the real money is at.
David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
WAS said:
Or California apparently for something so basic as a hand car wash.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your responses. toyotaguy, no its not a run off
Let me just clarify one thing, the $30k was for equipment and the what not, rent/payroll will come from a different amount, and I understand (like you all said) that it will get expensive.
Im looking more towards what equipment/supplies you guys would recommend for this kind of startup, because you do have way more experience (and probably bad stories in the this business.
Oh, and Im located in Canada if that makes any difference.
Now lets get a little personal,
LX1, Im sure you are 100% correct about how many cars can be done in 1 hour and I will try to get a place as big as possible, but the bigger they are, they more they cost to rent unfortunately.
Also would love to see those excel spreadsheets, will PM you.
advs1, I did not give much thought to the water laws here, will have to look into that, thanks.
David Fermani, I hope it will be cheaper, but have to be prepared anyway
Do you guys have any recommendations to the equipment/supplies to use? everyone has to have some favorites.
Thanks for your responses. toyotaguy, no its not a run off
Let me just clarify one thing, the $30k was for equipment and the what not, rent/payroll will come from a different amount, and I understand (like you all said) that it will get expensive.
Im looking more towards what equipment/supplies you guys would recommend for this kind of startup, because you do have way more experience (and probably bad stories
in the this business.Oh, and Im located in Canada if that makes any difference.
Now lets get a little personal,
LX1, Im sure you are 100% correct about how many cars can be done in 1 hour and I will try to get a place as big as possible, but the bigger they are, they more they cost to rent unfortunately.
Also would love to see those excel spreadsheets, will PM you.
advs1, I did not give much thought to the water laws here, will have to look into that, thanks.
David Fermani, I hope it will be cheaper, but have to be prepared anyway
Do you guys have any recommendations to the equipment/supplies to use? everyone has to have some favorites.
Autopia will not allow me to post a new thread so I will just add to this existing one.
I have been getting emails about how to calculate your break even when opening a car wash.
This Exel spreadsheet allows you to change everything that is in RED.
On the Left you will approximate your chemical usage and insurance per month ect. And because it is setup to operate as if you are a Sub-chapter S Corporation you need to give yourself a salary in the managers position.
In the employee section you can change your employees total hours for each shift. And at the top you can change the red number pertaining to the % of business based on total capacity for the day.
This spreadsheet allows you to figure out how much you will make and how much your investor will make on the back end of operations. Obviously this does not account for weather and seasonal change so keep that in mind.
Also, this spreadsheet does not include my market research section as I don't feel like giving that up, but you can estimate that you will bring in 1/4 of 1% of the daily traffic that goes by your business per day. Check you Department Of Transportation website for this local information.
I also do not have employee taxes and unemployment taxes included as every city is different and if I added all of Chicago's bull**** you would be left wondering why even open a car wash in Chicago. So get the calculator out for that stuff or add it to the bottom.
Hopefully this little file upload site works. So Enjoy and feel free to ask questions.
Car Wash.xlsx
Thanks
Dan
EDIT: I forgot to mention the section about tips. This model is based on paying employees tip adjusted wages. The excel spreadsheet iteslf calculates these tips as income in the end but in reality it is a subtraction to the cost of wages.
Tip adjusted wages are somewhat controversial right now but they serve 2 purposes. It lessens your wage expense. And employees must pay taxes on their tips. You do not have to pay unemployment tax, income tax ect on their tips. So it is an added benefit to you the business owner. However, it is a lot more paperwork. So you have to decide, if you average $1 a car and you sell 10,000 car washes a year. Do you want that $10,000?
Alternatively you can hire workers at Sub-Contracted workers. But you you will be in serious trouble if dont follow the rules regarding Sub-Contracted workers. You cannot give them a schedule technically, you cannot make them wear a uniform. Basically you cant tell them how to do their job. But you can fire them whenever you want because they technically don't work for you.
I have been getting emails about how to calculate your break even when opening a car wash.
This Exel spreadsheet allows you to change everything that is in RED.
On the Left you will approximate your chemical usage and insurance per month ect. And because it is setup to operate as if you are a Sub-chapter S Corporation you need to give yourself a salary in the managers position.
In the employee section you can change your employees total hours for each shift. And at the top you can change the red number pertaining to the % of business based on total capacity for the day.
This spreadsheet allows you to figure out how much you will make and how much your investor will make on the back end of operations. Obviously this does not account for weather and seasonal change so keep that in mind.
Also, this spreadsheet does not include my market research section as I don't feel like giving that up, but you can estimate that you will bring in 1/4 of 1% of the daily traffic that goes by your business per day. Check you Department Of Transportation website for this local information.
I also do not have employee taxes and unemployment taxes included as every city is different and if I added all of Chicago's bull**** you would be left wondering why even open a car wash in Chicago. So get the calculator out for that stuff or add it to the bottom.
Hopefully this little file upload site works. So Enjoy and feel free to ask questions.
Car Wash.xlsx
Thanks
Dan
EDIT: I forgot to mention the section about tips. This model is based on paying employees tip adjusted wages. The excel spreadsheet iteslf calculates these tips as income in the end but in reality it is a subtraction to the cost of wages.
Tip adjusted wages are somewhat controversial right now but they serve 2 purposes. It lessens your wage expense. And employees must pay taxes on their tips. You do not have to pay unemployment tax, income tax ect on their tips. So it is an added benefit to you the business owner. However, it is a lot more paperwork. So you have to decide, if you average $1 a car and you sell 10,000 car washes a year. Do you want that $10,000?
Alternatively you can hire workers at Sub-Contracted workers. But you you will be in serious trouble if dont follow the rules regarding Sub-Contracted workers. You cannot give them a schedule technically, you cannot make them wear a uniform. Basically you cant tell them how to do their job. But you can fire them whenever you want because they technically don't work for you.