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After having our remote video capability down for a while, I got it back and running today. So checking on my phone tonight, and I see a guy washing down his trailer. After washing, he pulls forward then proceeds to clean down the bay. We all have challenging customers, but I still have lots...

Agreed. If a customer believes they have a claim, that is on the business. The insurer only gets involved if the business chooses (at least here in Australia).

Our dog wash does about 60% of our least used self service bay, and about 30% of our most used self service bay. And given that the dog wash is very low maintenance and had very low capital cost to set up, it has pretty good return. We would definitely recommend. Our particular dog wash set up...

A slightly different perspective..... My father and I are business partners in our auto workshop, which is our primary business. The carwash is a good little business, but definitely secondary. In the auto workshop, being partners definitely has some advantages: - Two people that can make...

Randy, I know 100% what your answer already is! And I am sure that once you stand your ground on this issue that the whole thing will go away. Man, the joys of running a business!

I'm at our wash every day. If it was 2 hours away, it would be a big "No" from me! Best of luck with whatever you proceed with.

On the topic of credit cards, picture below show typical credit card / cash split for us. For context, we are in a country town of about 1500 people in Australia.

I find that if I am at the wash, people will come to see me about every little trivial thing possible. But very few people will bother to actually ring the mobile phone number that is posted everywhere around the wash. However I do agree with Mac about firing customers. At our auto workshop...

We've got a 5 gallon bucket (20 litre in our part of the world!) in the base of our vacs. I checked this morning and we have one Model 800000 (with fragrance and shampoo) and one Model 200000 (vacuum only). Ours have 3 x pleated cylindrical filters per vacuum that I find to be pretty good...

Not long after we bought our wash, I found that our chemical supplier was really good in helping us get the chemical dilutions & air mixtures into good shape. Once we did the first pass, I had learned enough to continue to tweak them myself. To attract new customers I purposefully made sure all...

We basically did all of what you listed above when we bought our wash about 2.5 years ago. We have seen roughly 30% increase in revenue over that time. Good luck with your new venture.

Geez Randy, I think I would be out of patience and sold up by now.

Just a couple of general thoughts. (1) Small business is really difficult. It always seems easy from the outside, but if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. (2) It's easy to think that there is just some particular issue (I'm in the wrong state, it's the wrong format of carwash etc.)...

We went from white tape to a heavy duty pink tape that I can buy here in Australia. Leaks gone! The few extra dollars is worth every single cent.

The joys of buying 2nd hand! ;) From my experience in engineering and project management outside the carwash industry, buying 2nd hand always looked pretty appealing, and turned out to be really challenging.

We're in Australia, so as far a I know there are no benefits to spitting the property and business over here.

We own the property, all under the same business entity.

I understand your point. We all make mistakes (I make more than most) and if this guy admits his mistakes and is prepared to work with you, that counts for a lot. Also difficult if you are short on options. In our part of the world there are lots of electricians that will wire a house, but few...

If cleaning bays is a big issue, don't get a carwash. Just part of the deal. Today we had two 5 gallon buckets of horse manure and a bay wall covered in engine oil. We have no choice but to clean it up and roll on. 😀

I'm already bald, just the last few remnants going grey.