Seeking Guidance on Completing My Business Plan

Naaz616

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of finalizing my business plan and could really use some advice or help. Specifically, I need insights on:

• Market analysis
• Financial projections
• Any other key sections

I’m aiming to start a Car Wash business and would appreciate any templates, tips, or resources that have worked for you.

Thank you in advance!

DullGreyGuy

What's the plan for? Just for best practice of starting a business or to secure credit etc?

Given you're in finalisation stage, rather than just starting out, its probably worth asking more specific questions rather than just a nebulous request for insight.

What relevant experience do you have in this business?

Grumpy_chap

Naaz616 said:

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of finalizing my business plan and could really use some advice or help. Specifically, I need insights on:

• Market analysis
• Financial projections
• Any other key sections

I’m aiming to start a Car Wash business and would appreciate any templates, tips, or resources that have worked for you.

Thank you in advance!

If you are "finalizing" the business plan, what templates have you used to get this far?
OR, are you at the very first stage of preparing a business plan?

Is this for your own purposes, to set your own targets, or is this to seek funding?

Naaz616

Thanks so much for your reply!

Lets be clear, I'm working on this business plan to apply for a startup loan. My business partner has experience in the car wash industry, and I have a background in management.

I’d love some advice on a few specific areas:

• Financial Projections: How detailed do they need to be for a loan application?
• Market Analysis: Where can I find the best data and insights? (i,e: google reviews or visual observation from competitors) 
• Structure: Are there any formats that lenders seem to prefer?

Any tips or resources you could share would be amazing!

DullGreyGuy

Have a look on your potential lender's websites. Some offer a template and others will point you to the one on the government website. 

Financials in the plan itself should be to a mid level but you should have a granular analysis sitting behind it either literally in an appendix or in a separate file. They'll want to see that you've considered all your costs and put sensible numbers in so a single bar/line for costs aint going to cut it but they dont need you itemising out the 3 shamies and 2 bottles of wash and 1 bottle of conditioner etc you expect to use but they could be lump together as consumables. 

A car wash is a very localised business and so most the market analysis is going to be your own in your area. You can supplement this with some general publicly available data like if you think you've a 5 mile catchment area then how many properties are within that area, what is the rate of vehicle ownership etc... what you include will obviously depend on your proposition... if you've got a space in a carpark then any data on that carpark is going to be more important whereas if you're hiring a railway arch then its more catchment area stuff 

You could either look for, commission or attempt to conduct a survey of carwash users or car owners, again you may ideally want to differentiate carpark to non-carpark. How often do they use a car wash, do they always use the same one, why do they use the one they do, what price will they pay etc. 

When we had our car we used the one in the carpark of the shopping centre and it was always done because we were shopping never a special trip because the car needed washing. We used the same one as whilst expensive they got the car spotless each time and the products they used seemed to keep the leather seats cleaner longer

Savvy_Sue

DullGreyGuy said:

When we had our car we used the one in the carpark of the shopping centre and it was always done because we were shopping never a special trip because the car needed washing. We used the same one as whilst expensive they got the car spotless each time and the products they used seemed to keep the leather seats cleaner longer

Likewise - and this is highly non-scientific but may help you work out the research you need to do - I don't think we've ever gone out on a special journey to get the car washed. It's always "oh look, the car's filthy, there's a carwash, we've got time to get it done." Places we've used more than once: charity carwash offered we've seen while passing; supermarket car park, dedicated car wash premises near DH's work. Now generally using the one in the car park at DH's gym: he does a good job BUT if DH doesn't get there early enough he's fully booked. 

I tried using one in a shopping centre car park near work a couple of times, but they never had the basic price shampoo, so were always trying to upsell me to the Silver wash. That didn't wash, and I gave up trying to use them. 

Naaz616

Thanks so much for your advice!

I did a search on FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy) and found zero car washes in the borough and surrounding neighborhoods. It seems they aren’t registering their businesses correctly, which makes it tough to research our competitors!

I’ve been using Google reviews as a source for information. Do you think it's reliable enough to mention in my market analysis? Any other suggestions for finding accurate data would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your help!

Grumpy_chap

Some car washes may be operating as sole traders so not registered as a business as such.
Some may operate under a franchise basis, so the business is reported via a central business rather than individual local sites.  (I am thinking of the brands that appear at supermarket carparks and such like.)
Some may operate as Ltd Co., but the registered office may not be at the operating site.

I would have thought that researching competitors for a prospective car-wash business would be relatively straightforward:

• Drive around local car washes and take a photo of the tariff boards.
• Park up and watch them operating to see how many staff they have and how many cars they wash per hour.  Repeat this for different days and times of the week and different weather.

Savvy_Sue

One thing to be aware of is that some car washes may be operated on a less than ethical basis, and they may not be registered at all. Like Nail Bars, some of those working there may not be doing so willingly. 

This is one of the more recent articles I can find on the subject. It may be difficult to compete on price alone.

Have you sorted out your plans for disposal of the waste water? 

DullGreyGuy

Naaz616 said:

Thanks so much for your advice!

I did a search on FAME (Financial Analysis Made Easy) and found zero car washes in the borough and surrounding neighborhoods. It seems they aren’t registering their businesses correctly, which makes it tough to research our competitors!

I’ve been using Google reviews as a source for information. Do you think it's reliable enough to mention in my market analysis? Any other suggestions for finding accurate data would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again for your help!

The tool only covers companies not sole traders. Likewise it's likely to be based on registered office rather than trading address. Not sure which SIC code you'd use as "car wash" doesn't have its own code and at best you've got "specialist cleaning" or "other cleaning" maybe "maintenance or repair of motor vehicles" 

Google Maps may be an ok start but a quick search in our area shows at least one is missing. You can also do the leg work and drive around looking for them. You may also want to consider mobile services which will be more online research for those willing to cover the extremes of what you think your catchment area will be.