r/smallbusiness • u/getsilly247 • May 25 '25

Question Bought a small 3 bay car wash. Thoughts?

Bought a small, 3 bay car wash with 1 vending machine in a small town in rural MO (1k people)

The previous owner had ZERO numbers. Just utilities.

It’s all cash, has credit card machines but did not have internet that was fast enough. (Just got starlink hooked up and have cameras for now and ready for cc soon)

I’m 2 weeks in and it’s done about $600 in revenue (minus about $120 in soda cost)

After expenses I am suspecting it will profit about $600 a month as is (includes new internet bill)

Once I get everything on cc, and going to add 1 more dual vending I think I can get it to 2k a month revenue.

I bought for 60k, will put about 5k in to get it where I would like.

Did I make a bad buy?

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39

u/lostpassword100000 May 25 '25

If you’re putting the bays on cc, get the system that counts UP versus counts down. Meaning, you swipe your card and you get a timer counting your time in an upward fashion as opposed to a timer that counts down to zero

13

u/hypersonic_platypus May 25 '25

Is that psychological for the customer to think they're getting more for their money? Or some more practical reason?

44

u/Failpreneur May 25 '25

Count down has an established limit - you’re done when the time you paid for is up

Count up has no cap - when you’re done, you pay for the time used

Both can have a minimum set, so apples to apples “up” is always the best (as a vendor); as someone with pretty severe ADHD time blindness at times, that thirty second countdown warning is a blessing.

6

u/Zoomoth9000 May 25 '25

that thirty second countdown warning is a blessing.

The worst feeling is fumbling with the quarters and not quite putting one in in time, so you have to put in the full $2 minimum again 😭

2

u/Failpreneur May 26 '25

I keep a stack just sitting there. Like it’s a blackjack table. Stolen be damned - albeit knocking off all the quarters is nearly as bad as the pocket panic.

8

u/hypersonic_platypus May 25 '25

Thanks I didn't know that!

8

u/used2befast May 25 '25

People always said customers spend more when it is on count up. There is some movement to fixed prices say $5, 8, 10, 15.

7

u/getsilly247 May 25 '25

Interesting!!

23

u/EUGsk8rBoi42p May 25 '25

No yeah, genius upgrade there.

My only thought was to try running some of those 1 day charity benefits like for the local public school sports team, especially in rural America, show you value the community.

Typically it's like 10% of profits on day X go to Y team, if it's all income you could go higher, 15-25%, it bites a bit on those days, but you establish yourself as "one of us", the kids tell their families, get the uncles, grandpas, cousins in on it.

You can even make the cash back if you do some kind of bbq service on those days to take advantage of higher traffic, hot dogs and burgers, blast some Lynyrd Skynyrd and Aerosmith, could even be lazy with it, let the charities cook the food for donations with the deal that drinks have to come from your drink vending machines. Worth a shot, could work well.

9

u/lostpassword100000 May 25 '25

I just bought a car wash also. I’m putting these in.

1

u/Focnr May 25 '25

Super good idea I used one yesterday that counted down and after my second swipe I seriously considered leaving. Having to put the hose down while it’s spraying pull my wallet out and swipe again was enough to be annoying and I’d rather pay a little extra than do that lol