WDP-Acura TL

There is a car washing station down the street from my neighborhood. Its the car washing area where you manually wash your car with putting quarters in the machine. Then you grab a brush and its pours out soap suds. Then you can go vacuum your car by dumping more quarters in the machine. It also has a brushless high powered water pressure carwash. Pretty kool and its brand new. Anyone have an idea if this would be a good investment to get into. How much will you think something like this will cost. Know I have to buy the land to put the business on. Just been thinking about just don't know where to start.Thnx for the advice

Jinen

I don't know how profitable it could be...I think it will only be marginally profitable and may not be worth it...

a business to look into is cell phones...basically you sign up as an agent and then sell cell phones and you will make a lot of commission and if you pass some of the commission onto your customers, you can build a good reputation and more customers will come to u...i've seen several people do this and they are doing really well...and this is something just on the side of their normal jobs...

dallison

it sounds like a fun job

fusionnv

This is one of those answers where it be depends where you are. You need chemicals, insurance, repairs, etc. You might have water problems where you have to reclaim and clean. Can be costly.

elliot

And in the winter in a part of the country where it's snowy, you may only operate for 9 months.

KavexTrax

locacion. locacion. locacion.

mikeymobiles

It is very much a full time job if you want to own your own cell phone business, especially if your not going to have a storefront....

People want there phones and they want them asap!! so for them to wait for you to get out of your first job to get the phones activated is one story,

start up costs of getting phones, unless your going to get them on consignmnet vs. your commisions

setting up a business, many master dealers wont look twice at you if your a consumer because they will be wasting there time..especially if your only doing about 5-10 lines a month....

there is alot more to it especially if phones break, people have billing problems.. you want to be able to assist them but if you dont have time because you arleady have a job then your not going to be of any help...

fusionnv

Or if you in my neighborhood, u got 4-6 cellphone stores selling the same phones for free with service contract on very block for the 10 mile radius. They are sharks here for plans. They all will try to undercut everybody else to get u to sign up for them.

ccannizz11

with this

Any business that you go into where it is difficult to differentiate you're product will earn you a very small economic profit (if not zero economic profit). That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, because zero economic profit does not mean that the business itself is earning no profit. The point is, you're probably not going to make more money than you already are, or more money than you already would in you chosen career.

If you can find a way to differentiate your car wash and still keep costs down, then you stand a real chance of making a large proft. But there are tons of car washes around and they are pretty much all the same, aside from their location. This happens for a reason, and it's hard to to think that your car wash would be any different from what's already out there.

Bottom line... If you can find a good location where there aren't any other car washes, and people would use one if it was there, then go for it. But if you're setting up shop across the street from another wash, you better have something that makes your soap and water better.

Smitty

go touchless car wash..

check the zoning ordinances because some of them require you recycle the water if you go over a certain amount of useage.

now if you wanted to make a few extra dollars you could go MOBILE and go right to your customers house.... use their eletricity and water.... I started out this way and for a few select customers I still do this.. but they pay me 250.00 per car to detail on location... and after a while you find some help and send them to the house.. take your cut and make some more phone calls.

on top of running a Funeral Home, I own and operate 2 detail businesses..
you need to seriously think things through if you want to make it happen.. and it takes alot of your time in the busy season.... I always wanted a brushless car wash with high tech security cameras to monitor the premises... basically all that would need done once or twice a week is remove trash and fill the machine up with soap and spot free rinse agent.

Jinen

i just gave the cell phone business as just something from the top off my head....

obviously, prior to going into any business, you have to look at MANY MANY MANY different variables (competitors, location, demand, budget and so forth)...

but you know, it all depends on your network...

for example, one of the cell phone guys that i know lives in an apartment complex that is pretty much dominant by Indians...he's an Indian himself...so he uses that to his leverage and all these people go to his house at night (EVERY DAY basically) and he has the phones right there...you give the customers the phone that they want...you activate it right there and then...and the customer is good to go...if the customer has any technical problems / billing questions, then obviously the service provider is responsible for that...not the agent...agent basically makes the transaction happen and provides the customer with a cheaper/better price than going directly to the service provider (some exceptions such as sprint and verizon maybe...let's talk about GSM only for illustration purpose)...

once the agent has completed his transaction, then from there onwards, the relationship is built between the customer and the service provider...agent may have to follow up and see if everything is okay, but it's not necessary...agent has very minor responsibilities once he/she has signed up the customer with the service provider...

all i'm saying is that you need to look at MANY things, and if you play your cards right, then you can make some serious $$$$$...and you also need to have a good network for something like this (cell phone business)....

mikeymobiles:
i disagree with some of the things that you have said...if customers want the lower/cheaper/better price, then they will wait for you...and like i said above, it all depends on the network that you are dealing with...some of these Indians don't care about what time of the day they get their phone, but they want the BEST CHEAPEST PRICE...and word of mouth definitely increases your profits...

fusionnv:
ya, it's very competitive...that's why you need to target a specific audience...know the location inside-out...there needs to be a lot of research, but it is not IMPOSSIBLE...

i'm sure there are MANY MANY MANY MANY other things to look at, it isn't a peice of cake (if that was the case, everyone would be donig it lol)...but it's not impossible...you just have to know how to play your cards right....

Raheel

Cell Phone Business Requires only one THING!

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!

If your in a bad credit location, theres no chance of you giving free phones to people, You dont get enough commission to, at least not through T-Mobile, and the people that do, You see a lot of De-Activations, so you go into LOSS, With Sprint, Its a little better, You can give Free Phones to more people, but you can still have DE-Acts and Lose money on lots of other things, in that type of location, like where I am at, you see more Prepaid, you make money on selling phones, them buying cards, them buying accessories, and the big hardcore people spend good money one expensive imported phones.

Now if you find a solid location, one you think has a good place to sell phones and you will get more good credit people, your gold, but still you will see De-Acts.

Most people dont understand a FREE PHONE IS NOT FREE TO THE DEALER, It goes out of there commissions which they get 60 days, and on top of that if the customer De-Activates, they lose that commission so, if a Nokia 6010 costs me $100 and I Get $200 Commission on the Contract, I net profit $100, I hold up my phone and give it to him free, until I get my money, now if they de-activate, you lose the Phone Plus $200 u got in your commissions, You lost your commission and went $100 Negative, go in a bad area, and it adds up quick.

You have to know what your doing and what your selling. You have to compete with Corporate Stores which have better deals at free phones, you have to compete with lots of other dealers too, you gotta make sure you in a market where you can compete and got the money, You need to hold up money on phones, than give them out free, or if you wanna do prepaid, buy tons of cards, lots of stuff, cell phone aint a side biz, to become a dealer the company looks at your store, location, and tons of stuff, make sure theres no other T-Mobile dealer or etc dealer close to you.

If you are really interested, I would get a job at a cell place, learn the basics, and in the meanwhile find a good location, sorry about the long post, just dont want people losing money in a game they know nothing about hehe.

I have a uncle who had tons of money, invested it, but he lost tons of money because in his area he was having more de-activations than activations, and all he was selling was just phones, not a full phone store, usually u can cover your losses in other things you sell, thats why its good to have a variety, but when you sell just one thing in a little booth, and it doesnt do good, your dead.

This month I was expecting a pretty hefty check from T-Mobile, and I got just as much De-Activations as Normal Activations, so it evened out and I barely made anything, but I dont give out free phones

Water-S

a lot depends like someone said the #1. your location. like for example if your in a good part of town or area people will feel safe and will be okay using your car wash
#2. the other car washes in the area. For example where I go I get "the works" which is wash,wax, and dryed(with one of those giant vaccum things) for 2 bucks.
also this is in the car. it's so cheap i figured by the time I buy the wax,take into concideration my time invested, and water I can't do it that cheap. and it looks pretty good(on shine on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being crap and 10 being pimpin' I'd give it a 7.5 or 8 after i come out of there). if you're in a market of a lot of car washes YOU MUST MUST do something different than the other car washes. either do an awesome job washing it, or cheap prices(like my place), or great service.

BTW: They also have one of those car vaccums to clean the insides. I can do my whole car(both front seat, back seat, and even my trunk) for 1 buck . so for 3 bucks my car looks good inside and out.