How to Start a Car Washing Business Plan

Here we go with our innovative business plan for you, a car washing business plan! (Car wash)

But why this business.?

With new technologies and demand, automobile industries have also increased the production of vehicles.

Let’s understand this with a short statistic – in the last 2-3 years, the car washing business is at a net revenue of 55 percent growth.

Moreover, with an increase in population, pollution, and the number of vehicles, car washing is a need now.

Before we dive into the benefits and all the pointers related to a car washing business plan, let us know about what this business is about.

What is a car washing business

This is a business in which, cars or such vehicles are cleaned from the exterior to their interior. It can be a self-service, full service, or fully automated service.

Washing a car on your own doesn’t provide you with attendants to wash your vehicle. Unlike self-service, you get helpers to wash the cars and other vehicles. If we talk about fully automated, which is connected with a gas station, is the best possible service to get your car cleaned.

The best services that you can provide your customers with are: –

Washing	Cleaning
Coatings	Beautification
Rejuvenation	Restoration
Sanitizing

What are the major benefits of the Car Washing Business

By the way, the car washing business has several profits if we discuss. Let us share some of them:

• This business requires lower franchise costs.
• It doesn’t require much time to start operating.
• Car washing has a faster return on investment.
• It is an instant marketing strategy.
• This is a comfortable and thriving business.
• It provides you with the opportunity for social responsibility.
• It also has high growth opportunities.

Strategies To Start A Car Washing Business

1. License, other required paperwork, and cost

Most importantly, your business needs several licenses and permissions from the Indian government and the local authority. To use the water resource, you need some special permission.

Wait, let me help you with a list of such documents required for a car wash business.

• Business Registration and GST Enlistment
• Land & water resource permission
• Trade License from Local Authority
• Other Tax Liabilities
• Check if the area is under permission for car washing business
• Permission for waste treatment and disposal from Pollution Control Board

The total cost will be around Rs. 30,000 for getting these documents completed.

2. Selecting the type of car washing business

 This service can be provided in three ways: –

A. Door to door,

B. Taking a Franchise

C. Car wash Centre.

A door-to-door car washing business: In this kind of service, you just need a simple company name and a couple of skilled laborers. With their company identity cards, you must go to the customer’s residence and provide them with the entire range of services.

You should also have a tracking facility set up so that your clients can track them easily.

Everyone, nowadays, prefers the door-to-door car washing service because it is a time-saver and the client doesn’t need to leave home to travel to the wash centers.

For a start-up, you should try a door-to-door car wash business as it requires lesser investments and effort than a car wash center.

Taking a Franchise: The second method is to take a car washing agency’s franchise. These costs are lesser than owning your agency. However, you should follow some essential tasks like gathering details about the agency you are looking to join with. The pieces of information required are:

Past, present, and future growth.	Speak to the franchisor directly.
Investigate their social media profiles.	Get legal knowledge and advice.
Their number of customers.	Consider the lease policy.

A car wash center: It is always considered a classic business model. Once you set up your center in a popular area, clients come to the place to get their vehicles washed.

No doubt, it not only requires a good investment for area and equipment but also a properly skilled team for several works.

However, I must say, with a good amount of investments, you also get a good profit too! You and your attendants can’t sit vacant if you select a business-relevant area.

3. Location for the car washing business plan

A car washing business is not always profitable but depends on the area you select to start your business with.

We must suggest you start this business in an urban area rather than a rural one. Vehicles are mostly run-in cities and smart locations.

According to the facts and stats, more than 80 percent of the car wash customers look within a 20 km radius of the car wash center. We also strictly suggest you select your location near a residential complex.

You also should avoid setting up a location with narrow and uneven streets. Select the location on the main roads that should have an exit to a smaller service lane so that customers can easily check-in or out.

4. Do proper market research and review your competitors

Doing market research and reviewing your competitors will certainly going to help in many ways. You need to gather all the possible information about other car washes agencies such as: –

• From how long they have been nearby the location you have set up?
• What services are they offering?
• How much are they pricing for washing vehicles?
• How loyal are their customers and the number of their customers?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses?

This information will help you provide better services to the customers. Try avoiding the location where you already see a car washing agency.

5. Required equipment and funds

An automatic car washing machine: This machine has the facility to wash the vehicle without taking the help of any attendant. It does everything automatically. However, this will cost you high. It typically costs you from 20 to 30 lakhs. Here are some pros of this machine:

• It is convenient, a time-saver, and gentle on the car’s paint.

“Due to its perfect process, it is also known as a “one-man army machine”.

• The machine is energy-efficient and has a customized process too.

With the strengths, unfortunately, it has some cons (Darkside) also:

• This machine is not cost-effective.
• Sometimes, it leaves water spots on the cars.
• It also has reduced capacity.

Although having a high price, it always gives profitable business and ultimately you grow.

The portable car washers: The portable Car washer is comfortable for cleaning around a car without moving attendants from a distance of 10 feet.

You would find it odd, but it can also be used for gardening and agriculture, sanitary, nursery, pest control, and construction.

It has a washing brush with an internal fan nozzle that can spray water while brushing a vehicle and a hose with a strong power gun for powerful water pressure. It doesn’t cost more than Rs. 5000

The vacuum cleaner: One more important piece of equipment required is an industrial-grade for cleaning the interiors of cars and clearing them out at the end of a wash. 

It costs nearly Rs. 35,000

Consumables: Consumables are used every day and include car washing liquid, car polishing, wiping cloths, wax, sponge, and so on.

Water tank: For this business, you need a 10,000-liter water tank capacity. Because you have a plot that won’t come with underground water storage tanks.

6. Land and required funds:

If we talk about minimum space, you must have around 2000 square feet of area. It may cost you around Rs. 80,000 a month.

7. Hiring staff and salary: 

Hiring veteran staff is also a difficult task for this business. In case employees are not skilled, a task has been added to the list to train them properly. Among them, two should be technically smarter than others so that they can help the rest of the team.

 There should be at least 5 to 6 staff members for a car washing business. It may cost you around Rs. 60,000 to pay salary.

8. Place to buy equipment: 

You have both the options available to buy the equipment online or offline from the local market. You can go for second-hand machines as well if you are getting them in good condition.

9. Marketing of your business:

This is one of the most important tasks. With the advancement in technologies, digital or online promotion has become more necessary than offline one.

Social media marketing is also being used to promote your products online and become a brand. There are several social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube, where you can update your products and services and establish a healthy and productive profile.

With the profile update, you can add elegant images, carousels, videos, reels, and of course articles. If everything goes fine, you will increase your audience reach and you will also have additional benefits than other car washing business agencies around you.

The genuine charges for the services are: –

Eco Car Wash Price Range	Rs. 250 to 300
Water Car Wash Price Range	Rs. 900 to 1000
Interior Detailing Price Range	Rs. 1300 to 1400

These are the standard charges, but more likely the charges are car brand-specific.

Conclusion

Well, there is no doubt that the car washing business is not only an intellectual but also a profitable plan. It has several benefits and a bright future. We have tried to cover all the aspects whether it is the types of business or importance, profits or loss, pros or cons, equipment or staff, investments or income, and so on. You just need to follow this article to cover all the steps accordingly. Since you have read this article thoroughly, we consider you a loyal user and we only wish you can make your dream come true. If you find anything hard to understand, confusing, or any pointer that we missed in this article, please drop a comment. We will get back to you swiftly and resolve the concern!

May God bless all!