Selling Your Car Wash – Think About This Before You Start A Car Wash Business

Why would information on selling a car wash be of interest to someone who is just getting started in the car wash business? Well, for me it is something I gave very little to no thought about when I built my first car wash back in 2004. I probably should have paid more attention to what the “end game” is would be when I wanted to sell my car wash business.

After 10 years in the car wash business, I am actively selling my two car washes. I am selling them because I am ready to move on to some other business interests inside and outside of the car wash business. It’s interesting because many of my friends, as well as prospects interested in purchasing my car washes can’t understand why I would want to sell them based on how well they do.  In my estimation, most of my days working my two car washes usually only takes a couple hours, but, there is an “always on” nature to the business. On Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day (usually very busy days) I go to work. On weekends, I go to work. When I go on my weekly summer vacation, the business is still running and my fill-in help can normally keep things running, but you even while on vacation, you are “always on” and I feel like a need a break from this at this point in my car wash career. With all this said, there are challenges to selling a business that you invest $1m plus in. First, the pool of prospects who have the financial wherewithal to purchase your business shrinks your selling opportunities tremendously. I have had many, many interested prospects recently because they understand the financial rewards they could reap by owning my car washes but most will have problems raising the initial investment that banks require and even if they do have the wherewithal banks aren’t stepping up to loan on car washes as they once were prior to the credit melt-down in 2008. So, even though your business, is performing well and you have interested buyers the sales cycle becomes frustrating. The good news is that it is not a “fire sale” and the business continues to perform while I try to find a bonafide, qualified buyer of the business.

Main add value’s from this blog:

If you are considering starting a car wash business, keep in mind that the sale of the business will normally take a considerable amount of time and you should be aware of this before getting started in the business.

Buzz Glover is the author of Car Wash Business 101, a book written for people who are interested in getting into the car wash business available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Car-Wash-Business-101-Start-Up/dp/1466447966/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371317791&sr=8-1&keywords=car+wash+business and for download on this site.

He has also built two self serve car washes with in-bay automatics, and bought a third wash.