PUMPED UP FOR A NEW YEAR! That’s the key: clear, concise goals. New lights? Designing a company t-shirt? New trash signs? Painting the bays? Raising your prices? Is there anything you want to do? If you’re wondering what others are doing take a look at what self serve owners are planning for this year. “First of all, before you pump, you must warm up or else you’ll hurt your muscles. Now, listen here: We can’t make you warm up, that’s entirely up to you!” - HANS THE SECRET OF SUCCESS FROM VID ODERMAT OF BROWN BEAR This story is told by Car Wash Hall of Famer Vic Odermat, president of Brown Bear Car Washes, to Perry Powell during his podcast, Wash Ideas. “Keep plodding on. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. That’s exactly what I did. It was from the ground up. You helped yourself by picking yourself up off the ground and continuing. If you have a goal in mind, I think anyone can succeed. But they have to have some idea or some goal of what they want to be or what they want to do. … But the next year I knew I had to do something. I went and leased a sign for $135 a month. That helped. But I think the thing that really helped was that there was a local newspaper called the BALLARD Tribune. I took out a one-inch column ad on the front page and made every Tuesday be Ladies’ Day and I gave fifty cents off. I think between the sign and the Ladies’ Day promotion, we generated the volume. Within a year, year and a half, I was doing close to 5,000 cars a month. Then, when the opportunity came to acquire another car wash that had been built in 1965 by Dan Hanna – in business with another individual – I acquired that car wash. And then, in 1967, another car wash had been built that was having trouble and I acquired that car wash. Then I built my first car wash in 1969. I built another in 1970. Acquired another two or three washes that year, too. And we just continued to grow. I want everyone to know – that in my opinion: ‘Bulls make money. Bears make money. And pigs get slaughtered either way.’ And I would like to encourage everybody to have a philosophy in mind. Perseverance in principle is more important than ambition.” “One of my exciting new goals is to further enhance the security at my car wash! I already have 31 HD video cameras, provided by Alert 360. They recently added a video monitoring service, using 2-way audio cameras where they can speak with individuals to discourage loitering and/or illegal behavior. Between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., they monitor 14 of my cameras. When they see such behavior, they announce, “This is Citrus Heights Car Wash Security....” If the activity continues, they can immediately call me or the police. Video monitoring is much cheaper than having a security service drive through 3-5 times a night or having a patrol officer sitting on-site for 6 hours a night (which can intimidate female customers). Knowing that a 3rd party is watching over my business, has given me more peace of mind. Since my car wash is located on a busy corner, I have opted to upgrade the sound system with louder speakers. My car wash is open 24 hours and stays busy, so I don’t want to close it down at night with a gate.” - Kimberly Berg of Citrus Heights Car Wash, Citrus Heights, California “LED. LED. LED. Just having a super hard time nailing down exactly what bulbs/fixtures we want to do. …We may put in something today that we love, and 12 months from now it’s obsolete. And the lighting colors never match when you have to start putting in different LED lights because the ones used before aren’t made anymore. I don’t want the washes to look bad, so we’ve been very hesitant to pull the trigger on this. The consistency with metal halide technology has been fabulous for the last 24 years. But we feel it’s time that we switch over to LED.” - Jeanine Humphrey of Hidden Cove Car Wash, Utah “I always try to do something either new or upgraded each year. This year I will be replacing a landscaped/vacuum Island that is outdated. I am working with a landscape contractor now about putting in something done all in stone. Up-todate, more modern and aesthetically pleasing.” - Timm Bauldauf of Advanced Car Wash, Voorheesville, New York “I’ve worked hard for the last 20 years making sure everything works how I want it and improving energy efficiency. The hard work is finally paying off now because I have few breakdowns. The downside is that I get very bored without having a large project in progress or on the drawing board. I intend to add more colored LED lights to complement the existing lighting on my Razors. People typically make favorable comments about the lights so adding more should bring more compliments and satisfied customers. I hope it helps differentiate my washes from the competition. I’m also considering some new business opportunities and partnerships. I’m trying to locate another property for a wash in a neighboring community, but land prices are too high. I’m trying to convince my competitor to sell to me but that looks to be a VERY long time from now. After 22 years of washing cars, which should read as “picking up after slobs,” I’m feeling a little burnt out. I still love this business, but I may be ready for a new challenge.” - Eric H of Leominster, Massachusetts “Increase another 20%” - Mac of Cape Coral, Florida “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” – PABLO PICASSO “I’m planning to do all the finishing touches on my remodel of my automatic wash. I am completing the signs for my entrance archway. I would like to add another sign on the front of my wash that says: Car Wash Open 24 hours. I would like to build a small storage shed for my hand tools and some car wash items. I should repave a section of my parking lot. I am closing on a five-plex apartment building with a commercial space that’s currently set up as a beauty shop. That should keep me pretty busy, but what I really want to do is sit around and watch the cars go in and out of my new razor car wash!” - Waxman of House of Wax, Orange, Massachusetts “I want to install new all-in-one bay meter boxes, with adding on some new options in the bays.” - Sydney H. King of The Good Spray Car Washes, Utah “Upgrades! Several new in bay features...Purchase new sites.” - Kyle Peel of Happy Days Car Wash of Jackson, Louisiana 52 • WINTER 2022
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