Car Wash Service Business
Are you passionate about owning or partnering with a car wash service center? You can actualize this with flexible capital, following these easy steps;
Like every other business, money is needed but not the basic thing when considering launching your car wash service centre. You must check out possible risk factors like location, what location is suitable for both raining and dry season and other factors.
Has it been your passion to set up a car wash service centre? What strategies do you want to use in commanding the market? What works for a Emeka whose car wash service centre is located in Imo state might not work for Ayomide whose car wash service centre is located in Lagos and so on. It can be same business but what determines success is first location, strategies and services rendered somewhat aggressive marketing too works wonders. How do I mean by aggressive marketing? It means effective service delivery on this context.
Steps to set up
First, think of a simple unique business name. A simple but catchy name that represents your services is enough.
Get Trained: apprenticeship is one of the key PowerPoint of business owners, mostly overlooked by most people without basic knowledge of the business. Having the funds, reading all business books won’t be enough to succeed in a business. Practical training is what will help you understand every step and that would form your experience when setting up your own business. A typical example is the Igbos, they do not joke with an apprenticeship, and no wonder they are the most successful people when it comes to business success in Nigeria.
Choose a business structure. Should you form an LLC? A sole proprietorship? Your choice of business structure will affect many aspects of your business, from liability to taxes.
Choose Location
Car wash is best seen when located by the road, not just by the road where it can be visible and accessible. As prospects won’t want to, after paying for car wash still drive through bad road immediately. Location is a very important factor when launching a car wash service center. Also checking out the number of cars plying the roads you’re intending to laugh your services is very important.
Who is your target audience?
How do you get clients? Once you’ve determined who your target audience is, you need to find them! Figure out where they live, what social media platforms they use, where they hang out, and what jobs they have. Get to know your clients’ base then figure out what services they’re seeking for their cars and how you can help, even if it requires you to hire services! Clients will feel like you understand their needs, making your business more attractive. Clients are ready to pay any amount for quality but won’t take any mistake likely as long as you are paid.
Getting clients can be challenging for starters, that’s why you will need to hire experts to help you launch campaigns on the internet, also considering offline prospects you will have to make business flyers to share with church members and members of other organisations accessible too. Create a marketing plan: Although social media is a powerful tool, and one you should utilize, not every client especially the elderly will have Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages. So, once you’ve made social media pages for your car wash service business and share them with all your friends and family, start considering other avenues for advertising.
Open a Bank Account
A business bank account keeps your personal finances separate from your business finances. For LLCs and corporations, keeping separate finances is essential for maintaining liability protection. To open an account, LLCs and corporations typically need to bring to the bank a copy of their articles, their operating agreement or bylaws, and their EIN and Register for Taxes.
Nearly all LLCs and corporations will need to request a federal employer identification number (EIN) from the IRS. If you file corporate income taxes, have employees, or file certain franchise taxes, you must have an EIN. An EIN is also a common requirement for opening a business bank account. Most businesses can request an EIN by filling out the IRS’s online form.
Buy The Essentials:
- Rent a space by the road, make a shade – Get car wash machine
- Prepare the borehole or a well
- Get washing chemicals
- You may put a TV, a few chairs (you may choose to sell drinks and snacks or pepper-soup along)
There are a vast range of car wash machines for your reference, depending on your financial ability. They can be operated manually or automatically. The quality also differs due to the distinctive technology of each. As you may see, it can be as simple as this (on the first photo, compact pressure water car wash). Compact and easy to buy. The prices are just around N60,000 to N120,000.
It can also be like this (second photo, . You don’t need to touch in vehicles. The detergents then pressure water is sprayed from pipes in multi-angles to clean the exterior of the car. The average price of this touchless is from N5 million to N10 million.
Car washing machine prices in Nigeria
Varies among types of the machine as has its own price in Nigeria. The price range is from N60,000 (simplest pressure water manual machine), to several million for the automatic machine as above pictures, or even up to N15 million (the entire set of automatic car wash machine) as the technology has no fixed price in itself. You should identify the type of businesses, target customer and financial status to pick a reasonable investment for washing machine, then search straightly on the Internet for suitable equipment
Create/ launch your business.
Legally Form Your Car Wars Business;
If you opt for a sole proprietorship or general partnership, there’s no formal paperwork to file to legally create your entity you just start selling your services. However, you will not have any liability protections or tax flexibility.
Research the market, Review Competition:
How do you want your business to stand out from the crowd? You may want to check out the competition level in the service market, look at other car wash service centers around finding out what their challenges are and what their services are best known for to enable you to create something unique that stands your brand out of the norm.
It’s very important to think about what type of client you’re seeking and wanting to serve? VIP car wash focuses on wetty clients and that requires going extra miles to fetch them and going extra miles to satisfy them. Moreso, your services must be VIP. Including where customers relax while you wash/service their cars.
Right now, there’s a high demand for commercial cleaning services in the world, Nigeria and car wash is not an exception especially as more sanitation protocols are put in place for businesses. However, that specific market is dominated by established companies. So, unless you have a set team or a good lead, it will take time to start tackling larger jobs.
Check out the competition: Look at websites or social media pages for other car wash centres. See what services they provide and where you can fill in the gaps. This also helps when trying to determine your prices, clients want a good deal and will gladly pay any amount only for added values. Create offers no one can refuse: The goal here is to make the most of what your audience needs, adapting to them, and following the season. For example, washing and servicing a Benz with 50% off window washing timely can be a great spring deal to fetch VIP clients.
Operations Decisions/ Service charges:
You may want to choose a day off each week but then which day? Do not forget that weekends are usually the main cash-in periods for car wash service businesses. It is not advised to take a day off especially as a starter. Unless you have an assistant. Also, you must set a standard price for respect cars, not to go into price negotiation with each customer.
How do you find capital to launch your car wash service business?
Find the investment capital to open a car wash. A bank loan requires a loan-to-value ratio of 75%. You will need to come up with 25% of the fair market value and the bank will fund the other 75%. The start-up costs for a car wash business in Lagos Nigeria can start from 500,000 above within. It can be lesser in other locations.
Manage your finance
Make sure you know how to raise money for your business. To small-scale one, sparing a budget around N200,000 to N500,000 from your own savings might be sufficient for initial operation of a car wash service business. However, the capital must be many times higher for large-scale car washing services. In that case, you may need to call upon the investment from other partners with strategic business plan for annual revenue. Always remember: failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Starting from the scratch is never easy but setting a car wash business in Nigeria, I can tell you it is not too difficult so long everything is done appropriately according to plans.
If you need help with branding, contact us today and have your online presence properly done by professionals.