Business opportunity identified - Thousands of cars need to be washed right away and I know where they can all be found

[Anfield]

My 11 year old son plays soccer for a local club. Every 2 weeks, he plays on a big field, where there are several other soccer fields. All these kids are hauled back and forth by parents that are driving their own cars.
There are probably several thousand cars that go through this field on a weekly basis. Here is the pain point that every parent I talked to is complaining about: parking costs $10 per day, they accept cash only (they do provide you with a ticket, though) and, due to the fact that this is a huge dirt lot in So Cal, where it almost never rains from May through November, the cars get covered in dust, so everyone has to get their cars washed after parking them on this lot.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to identify what the need here is: people need to get a deal for a car wash after parking on this lot.

Here is my question: how would you go about coupling the car wash offer with the parking on this lot. I currently don't know who owns the lot, however, I intend to find out in the coming days, so I can approach them.

I have a couple of ideas, however, I would love to hear from the serial entrepreneurs in this forum (and anyone else, for that matter) on how this could be executed.

 

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[Kingsta]

Over here in the UK we have car wash companies renting out spaces in parking lots of supermarkets. You can get your car washed while you're shopping for food. You could just apply the same practice.

Rent space from the parking lot owner.

 

[Anfield]

Over here in the UK we have car wash companies renting out spaces in parking lots of supermarkets. You can get your car washed while you're shopping for food. You could just apply the same practice.

Rent space from the parking lot owner.

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, this won't work because there is so much dust and the dirt road is so long and dusty, that the cars would simply get dirty again on their way out.
One idea is to somehow direct those people to one of the existing car washes in the area.

 

[Spikeroo]

Doesn't cost any rent to use a mobile car washing van or trailer. The sales pitch has to be perfect, same with price. Because if I'm driving to and from everyday, a wash isnt worth it for me. Why pay someone everyday to wash my car on Monday, when its going to be just as dirty on Tuesday? and Wednesday? You could offer a deal, $50 for 2 washes. or $50 a week for an everyday rinse? Obviously those prices are just examples.

Second suggestion, you could sell the lead. Find someone with mobile car wash and talk to them about a commission. Send the customer to the wash, and you get cheddar for just networking.

 

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[Knugs]

Are you sure the volume is right?

 

[Primeperiwinkle]

My first thought off the top of my head..

Do you remember those signs on the highway from like an eon ago that advertised aftershave? They were all funny and they built on each other? If you had ten and they started at the dirt road leading down the highway to the car wash (assuming your place for car washing is less than 2miles away) it could work great.

I’m talking about those little wire signs which are SUPER easy to put in the ground and just take up when you’re done.

First sign says “ARE YOU FEELING DIRTY TODAY?”

Second sign “I’m talking to your car!”

Third sign “DIRTY CARS ARENT JUDGED!”

Fourth sign “We LOVE dirty cars!!”

And so on and on down the road. The cool thing is that this idea (or a better one) would get adults laughing AND kids trying to find the next sign... which leads on a clear little path to the car wash.

I’d sell ice cream bars at the car wash too if I were you. Hope that helps.

 

[Anfield]

Are you sure the volume is right?

Which volume are you talking about? If you are referring to the amount of cars that are coming to this parking lot every Saturday, here is the math: every team has between 12-16 players and 1-2 coaches. There are 35-40 games each Saturday, with each team playing one game. Some kids have divorced parents, so, in some cases, one kid's presence generates 2 cars being parked there. A conservative average would be, imo, 16 cars per team. If we go with the lowest amount of games (25), then the math should work out to 16x2x35=1120.
I truly believe there are actually more cars than that are coming through every Saturday, especially since I have not taken into account the referee cars (3 per game, 3 games each), or any other officials, grandparents, other relatives, etc.

 

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[Anfield]

My first thought off the top of my head..

Do you remember those signs on the highway from like an eon ago that advertised aftershave? They were all funny and they built on each other? If you had ten and they started at the dirt road leading down the highway to the car wash (assuming your place for car washing is less than 2miles away) it could work great.

I’m talking about those little wire signs which are SUPER easy to put in the ground and just take up when you’re done.

First sign says “ARE YOU FEELING DIRTY TODAY?”

Second sign “I’m talking to your car!”

Third sign “DIRTY CARS ARENT JUDGED!”

Fourth sign “We LOVE dirty cars!!”

And so on and on down the road. The cool thing is that this idea (or a better one) would get adults laughing AND kids trying to find the next sign... which leads on a clear little path to the car wash.

I’d sell ice cream bars at the car wash too if I were you. Hope that helps.

That is a really cool idea! By doing a quick google search, it appears that the nearest car wash is 4.3 miles away, because these fields are way out in the countryside. This particular reason is why the owners get away with charging $10 for, essentially, just getting your car dirty. There is nothing else close by, with nowhere to leave your car, other than on their huge dirt lot.

Going back to your idea, I wonder what the cost would be to advertise on such billboards...
The ice cream bars idea is also awesome. They could be sold for a profit or given for free to kids, as a hook, so that they could tell the parents to drive them to that "free ice cream place again".

 

[Nick M.]

For one of my recent smaller UpWork jobs that I use to keep my job success score high, I had to research 13 facts about car washes. Here are some that I think would really help you out with your situation in particular:

Fact 1
66% of all car washes come from heavy users, those who wash their car multiple times a month.

Off the top of my head this shows that you can easily get recurring customers. Kind of like mentioned above, bundle car washes. Maybe like $100/month for 4 washes (one a week), so they can always have a clean car on the weekend. Or have an unlimited plan so they can come whenever they want. If you can make it convenient for them, you're bound to have people coming back month after month.

That would also tie into a rewards program very quickly.

Fact 2
78% of people who don’t detail their car more often say it’s because of cost, time, or because it’s not necessary.

Given your location, you've already knocked out the "it's not necessary" excuse. So to get customers, you'll have to combat the price and time issue.

Fact 3
The number one reason people have their car cleaned professionally is because it makes them feel good.

This will just help your copywriting and overall message to your prospective customers.

----

There were 10 more facts I had to research if you want them, but none of them apply as well to your situation. Here's the source (admittedly, all these came from the same source, although the rest were from other sources).

 

[Paul David]

It’s bad enough living in the same City as Anfield and that football club. Now I’ve got to be reminded of it on here!

Haha. Welcome to the forum.

 

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[Anfield]

For one of my recent smaller UpWork jobs that I use to keep my job success score high, I had to research 13 facts about car washes. Here are some that I think would really help you out with your situation in particular:

Fact 1
66% of all car washes come from heavy users, those who wash their car multiple times a month. (source)

Off the top of my head this shows that you can easily get recurring customers. Kind of like mentioned above, bundle car washes. Maybe like $100/month for 4 washes (one a week), so they can always have a clean car on the weekend. Or have an unlimited plan so they can come whenever they want. If you can make it convenient for them, you're bound to have people coming back month after month.

That would also tie into a rewards program very quickly.

Fact 2
78% of people who don’t detail their car more often say it’s because of cost, time, or because it’s not necessary.

Given your location, you've already knocked out the "it's not necessary" excuse. So to get customers, you'll have to combat the price and time issue.

Fact 3
The number one reason people have their car cleaned professionally is because it makes them feel good.

This will just help your copywriting and overall message to your prospective customers.

----

There were 10 more facts I had to research if you want them, but none of them apply as well to your situation. Here's the source (admittedly, all these came from the same source, although the rest were from other sources).

These are some wonderful insights! I don't know anything about the car wash industry (yet), so this will be a great starting point!

Thank you for your post!

 

[Anfield]

It’s bad enough living in the same City as Anfield and that football club. Now I’ve got to be reminded of it on here!

Haha. Welcome to the forum.

Thank you for the warm welcome! I take that you must be an Everton supporter?

 

[Paul David]

Thank you for the warm welcome! I take that you must be an Everton supporter?

Unfortunately! Haha.

 

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[Kid]

My first thought off the top of my head..

Do you remember those signs on the highway from like an eon ago that advertised aftershave? They were all funny and they built on each other? If you had ten and they started at the dirt road leading down the highway to the car wash (assuming your place for car washing is less than 2miles away) it could work great.

I’m talking about those little wire signs which are SUPER easy to put in the ground and just take up when you’re done.

First sign says “ARE YOU FEELING DIRTY TODAY?”

Second sign “I’m talking to your car!”

Third sign “DIRTY CARS ARENT JUDGED!”

Fourth sign “We LOVE dirty cars!!”

And so on and on down the road. The cool thing is that this idea (or a better one) would get adults laughing AND kids trying to find the next sign... which leads on a clear little path to the car wash.

I’d sell ice cream bars at the car wash too if I were you. Hope that helps.

My thoughts exactly.

You could also make some catchy domain on that billboard.

Make a site on that domain with map pointing to nearest car washes.

This way you could get advertisers on your site and turn profit.

You could even try with one billboard as a start.

I'm not sure about billboards but site would cost you about $70 per year.