Re: starting a car wash and detail shop -- Small Businesses Discussion Forum

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Subject: Re: starting a car wash and detail shop

Author:
Dennis S. Vogel

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Date Posted: 23:42:25 06/13/03 Fri
In reply to: Alfred Torregano 's message, "Re: starting a car wash and detail shop" on 20:12:20 06/12/03 Thu

Hi Alfred,

To succeed you need to overcome prospects' hesistation, procrastination & objections. So, your advertising HAS to/MUST get people to take action.

The common formula ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE, ACTION isn't just something to do. You have to achieve it.

In visual advertising -- print & TV, you can use before & after pictures. What I think may be more effective (you should test this idea as I advised in my other posts) is USED & DIDN'T USE pictures. If you can get pictures of vehicles whose owners had them cleaned regularly & put those next pictures of same model/year vehicles that were rarely, if ever cleaned, the comparison may be dramatic.

WARNING- Just because something is true, it doesn't mean people will believe it. Example - If you might find a vehicle that collided with a train because the brakes didn't work. (I don't know how realistic this maay be.) Even if you KNOW the brakes didn't work because gritty dirt built up & wore them out, people may not believe a vehicle was severely damaged because it wasn't cleaned (even if by chance it were true).

My advice is to find cases that are about half as bad as the worst case scenario. If you get favorable responses (because people trust you), you may be able to get good results later by showing a worst case scenario.

Headlines (if they're true, verify them before using them) like "What Steals More Cars Than Car Thieves?"
"Are You Stealing Your Own Car?"
"Stop This Thief From Stealing Your Vehicle!"

Then use true stories about loss of value. Maybe somebody who was the victim of an accident got very little from an insurance company for his/her car because it was so rusty it was nearly worthless. Then s/he had find enough money to buy a replacement car.

I've heard of & been in cars with holes in the floors &/or doors falling off because of rust. Definitely not safe rides.

To some extent this depends where your business is. In dry climates, there's dusty grit. What does it do to vehicles?
What will your car wash to do to remove it?
Example- If your car wash includes an under body wash/rinse does it increase safety & the vehicles useful life span?

If so, how? Is the grit like sand paper wearing away at parts of vehicles?

Some will wash their vehicles to prevent them from looking dirty. Others may only do it if they get what they consider a more substantial benefit.

A problem is people tend to fix problems instead of preventing them. So, prevention has to be vital/critical to get many to opt to do it.

Where I live (Wisconsin), I avoid washing my car during cold weather (though this is the worst time for cars) because I've had problems with doors & door locks getting wet then freezing. Do you have a way to prevent that. Maybe a hot air blower would remove water & prevent it.

What seems like the major rust problem on vehicles I've seen is rust starting from inside fenders & doors, then it blisters the paint. Will what you offer to prevent that?

What if people feel just too busy or tired to go through the "hassle" of washing their cars or trying to find an automatic car wash? What will you do to "take" the hassle out of it, so you'll accept your offers?

I know it's a lot to consider, but if starting & owning a business were easy, there'd be more business owners than employees staff businesses.

Dennis S. Vogel
You don't need a miracle. You don't need magic.
You need powerful marketing. Here's where to get it.
http://www.thrivingbusiness.homestead.com

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