Investing in a car wash
 

Anyone have good/bad experiences... I need to find a main stream biz besides my sites :helpme

I think the book, "Millionaire Mind", speaks of a guy who invested in a car wash and became, of course, a millionaire.

This does not mean that everyone who invests in a car wash will, but shows that small niche markets have potential too.

Nude Car Wash: Hot babes wash your car in the nude.

People who invest in things they know shit about will in most cases lose their money.

Invest in a business you know the inner workings and something you have complete control.

There was a guy that did that here but he closed down after a few mths... didn't have the balls from the conservatives. It was a topless wash :(

My cousin's father-in-law owns a chain of car wash on the East coast. They have a good bottom line, but its all about location, as some do way better than others. Its also a capital intensive business.

If you're looking for a good side biz, I've know quite a few people who have done well with candy machines and game machines. Those kind where you pay .25 cents for one gumball. Know one fellow who had video games in a whole lot of 7-11's and he went out in a pickup truck a couple times each month to pick up all his quarters and averaged about $15K a month.

Payphones where good for a while til cell phones took over.

Best side business I know of is Real Estate. Buy fixer uppers or properties about to be foreclosed on way below market and throw $20K to spruce them up and you should be able to make a nice profit.

Mail order is always good, but you need a great idea.

Also have an uncle that has 15 of those mini-donut systems at malls, swap meets, etc, and he's become a millionaire from them.
Big markup on those suckers I guess.

Good Luck $!

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I agree but I've got to find something that I like to do and that I'm knowledgable in. I've also been doing research on real estate and I'll start buying properties early next year.

KRL - Alot of those idea's make $$$ but it's all about location, location, location as you know. Kiosks, vending machines and other stuff I've looked into by reading those "biz opportunity magazines". I'd like to have my own infomercial and pitch a product... kinda like Don Lapre or Carlton Sheets. Maybe I'll push a "How to.." manual on the adult biz :thumbsup

I was looking into gas stations fora while. Car washes are supposed to be good especially if you get the land.

Also think about laundry mats.

Jerk off booths are also a good investment.
Rather than haveing em in a adult store, perhaps a wherhouse full of arcade jerk off booths. With a twist of customer service with a niche.

The niche being food. Finger food.

Serve food. Like fresh fruit or nachos.
Think about it. You're in a booth trying to bust a nut, what would be better than nachos before, during, or after your fulfllment.

Thats one thing the local jerk off booths lack around here.
That uniqueness. Add this uniqueness and you could make an already highly profitable idea into a gold mine.

Keep it clean, keep the movies in the booth quality, and serve food. Perhaps a fresh bowl of fruit, or chips and salsa. You could do it for free with no charge. (charge will come out of the higher booth rates) and if they choose to oder from the menu, you could have nachos or ceaser salads. Something simple.

:ak47: :ak47: :ak47: :ak47:

Read a few books to put you in the "business" mindset first, I like the first couple Rich Dad/Poor Dad books. There are also lots more that give you general education on investing and owning a business. Don't just jump into it, or you will fail :)
ZoiNk

damn you guys will never make money.

i give you an idea from my master mind, a gift if you will and you dismiss it.

When greatness speaks you all should listen

That was in the back of my mind for awhile... I'm from NY and I used to go and rub one out, then go to the bars/clubs after... those were the days :thumbsup

did you ever crave chips and salsa during or after?

how is your jerk off booth going to differ from mine? Each 15x15 room has 50'' plasma's plastered to every inch of the wall,lotion dispenser that drops from the ceiling... You're late in the game BP! leave it to the pro's

No other guy in the biz has an informercial on the adult biz... this is worth gold... I need a partner :D

Im seriously thinking of opening a burrito joint in the gold coast of chicago. We are going to call it 40's (maybe) and only serve 40oz burritos and 40oz beers.

Yea, I did... I always felt hungry afterwards. I don't think you can mix a j/o booth and food in the same location. Is that healthy? What about the food inspector?? :2 cents:

I'm part owner of a chain of comic book stores but it is not a business you want to go into if you want to make good money.

Might I suggest something in photography? My brother-in-law isn't that great of a photographer and he doesn't have the best equipment...but he makes a nice side income doing it. There is also a big demand for wedding videos.

Also, I know a guy that supplements his income doing portfolios for local models for $100 an hour. Pretty girls paying YOU to take photos of them is a nice switch.

yes, one of the best money makers is to hire a couple guys and pay them commision to hang out at the mall and approach pretty girls and tell them that he/she represents a modeling agency and he/she thinks they are model material. Hand them a card and the girls call to set up an appointment. Then you tell the girls it will cost 600 bucks to get their portfolio shot. you give mall guy 100 bucks and you keep the 500. What girl doesnt want to be a model?

I invested in a car wash once, but it got dirty and I had to do it again about a week later. Needless to say, it was a bad investment.

i've thouight about openning up a nighclub down the line as a side business. That would be interesting, to say the least.

I heard theres good money in Telemarketing Fraud

silly


lol

BIG MONEY, clean up... then cash out :2 cents:

There is a club downtown vancouver,
selling for i think 1.8 million.

they do about 400 /year gross.

so if you want to move to vancouver BC ... thats an investment opportunity.



Post office isn't that bad of a business to get into either.

Karoke (sp?) can make good money in Vancouver/Richmond. The places have about 20-30 sound proof rooms and they are rented out by the hour. Mostly Asian people use them. But Those rooms cost around $20/hour and often times the place rents out every room. Its not common for them to make hundreds of $$$ per hour. Plus of course they sell beer and its expensive as hell. During the day they aren't too busy though.

Mindyou I have no clue how much it costs to buy the new songs & the startup cost would be immense.

I'm seriously considering ordering Carlton Sheet's "no money down" method and try to get paid that way. Since I don't work anymore, I'll actually have some time to devote to it.

Real Estate is the way to go. The problem is getting into it without getting burned. (something like porn)

I have been thinking more often about opening up a laundromat. Think about it... The start up cost is about a dozen heavy duty washers and dryers plus extended warranties on all the machines if they break down. Plus location and a huge power bill... You pay some kid $6 an hour to break change and you throw a shitload of food and video games in the place for people to spend on while their laundry is going on. Most of the vending machine people give you a deal 50% of the profits go to you and you don't have to spend a dime!

But the upside is if you put this business in a low income area with lots of apartments you will have a ton of clientele and it is all cash!

I have been thinking about it a lot more often recently.

DH

Here in Brazil the new songs aren't cheap, but the Karaoke machines costs the same as a good DVD.

Photography can be very lucrative, even more so with digital cameras- where you're not having to pay for the cost of developing and printing of each shot.

I know a lawyer-during-the-day doing the photographer-at-night bit in the strip clubs here with digital equipment. After a shoot, he walks through a slide show of images that he got and sells the prints that the girls decide will help their "modelling career".

He doesn't just get the dancers, but goes for the cocktail waitresses and barmaids as well. Most of his "work" doesn't realize anything else than the pleasure of shooting but his completely-amateur approach, coupled with a genuine interest in the subjects, has had returns.

Since it's more of a hobby with him than anything else, he invests all his profits back into his equipment and has worked his way up to the point that he's now renting a studio location in an artists' co-op for the occasional inhouse shoot (most of his work is at the models' homes or place of business), has about 5K invested in lighting, 3K in props and backdrops, and works a Canon EOS 1D back with a variaty of frontends: All bought and paid for with proceeds from his "hobby" in the past year, which he started with about a $300 outlay for a basic "point-n-shoot" digital camera that still sees action.

Now, if I could just think of a way short of murder to get my hand on his originals...:Graucho

Bad idea. It's something else you'll have to manage. Choose something that requires as little supervision as possible like a Coin Laundry.

YOu go in, pick up the change once a month, service the machines every year when they need it. Money in your pocket.

This is so funny, I was thinking of opening a detail shop just the other day.

I just bookmarked it... good info :thumbsup

Startup costs on a decent new laundry mat will run you close to 500k if you do it right. You have to think about the plumbing and all the new electrical that has to be done. If you're going to set it in a shopping center, those places aren't set up for that. You're going to have to pay to bring that all in. It's enormous. A buddy of mine picked up a thrashed laundry mat for a little under 100k and in 9 months has turned it around to 8k net per month. His costs are around 4k including rent. His uncle owns two laundry mats in orange county and NETS 25k a month. Yes, all in cash. It's a lot of work though. If you think paying a kid $6 bucks an hour to keep it up is going to cut it, it's not. Machines go down, even new ones, and you're constantly repairing them. I've learned a lot about the business through him and it's definetely a good business because it's recession proof. You always have to wash your clothes.

Very interesting thread. (Making mental notes)



The Dawg

Not so, the bar business has a number of variables unique to the industry that have to be considered over and above the gross reciepts.

For instance, in the Quarter (here in New Orleans), a bar license is seperate from the the bar location and is usually "onioned"- you'll have to pay a percentage to any number of "owners", who are grandfathered into any deal you might arrange. For instance, when the first Tropical Isle opened on Tolous Street- Pam and Earl had to pay rent for the property, PLUS, vigor to a number of other owners of the actual license to have a bar in that location. {edited}

When one is putting out over 20,000 a month before paying for the beer one plans to sell, you best have a business plan PLUS!!!

Yeh, telemarketing is big money fast. Knew a guy pulling in about $1.5 Mil a month back in the 80's with 2 crews (day shift night shift) about 50 guys per crew. Problem is a lot of salesman lie their asses off to close the deals and the owners pay the price. Sometimes the owners are thieves too, but you see less of that now since they've cracked down so hard.

Sweetcuties infomercials can be big winners. But most come and go with little profit. Get Rich Quick in adult a bunch of companies advertise in print and do well, so I'd imagine it would work for late night cable.

We did really well in the 900 biz but with unique one of a kind programs. But its hard to come up with new ideas, since most of them have all been done now.

Coming up with a killer softwar app is the way I see now to really make bucks fast and without a lot of hassles. Development is a bitch, but once you get a hot program, having the Net to launch it at low cost, you can make a ton of money and then sell the company for million$$$$$.


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Also, if you want to get a whole bunch of biz ideas, the best way is to run a classified ad in major city newspapers and USA Today like this.

"Retired Millionaire has money to invest. Looking for unique startups with innovative ideas. E-Mail or Fax your business plan to .........."

By doing this you'll get loads of good ideas sent to you.

I think its a great idea. Me and my Bro wash cars downtown chicago for 10 years, and we made great money. Low overhead, rent on a nice garage, soap and water :Graucho

It was nice cuz the valet from the resturants around us would run us cars all day and night.

We were doing the portable car wash also. We Would load up my pick up truck with a water tank, and pressure washer and go to the customer. We would wash cars, buses, boats, houses, bikes, anything that needed some soap and water.

I came across this site about 4 years ago

http://www.carwashguys.com/

looks totally awesome. I talked with Lance the owner a few times, he's way cool. I LOVE WHAT HE HAS GOING. At the time they were NOT operating in Illinios. I know he ran into some federal problems, but ALL was dropped and he was cleared, but I would do it, but in chicago, with the Bbbrrrrrrr cold and SNOW, its hard to wash outdoors, however I do well with snowplowing in the winter, provided that there is SNOW to plow. :Graucho

let me know what ya think

ok check this.. Its a car wash/asian massage...u get your car washed, the door shuts, and you get to pick your asian slut from the touch pad..she cleans your shit and u drive away..u wont have to fuck with visa either

Yeah I figured the songs could be expensive, and you would need to update often. I just couldn't believe going to these places and finding out all 30 rooms are being used and we had to wait over an hour. 30 rooms x $20 = $600 that hour, plus sales on drinks. I've been to Karaoke a few times (I don't like singing, just dragged along)
and each time the place was full.

I could see where a car wash would be decent money.

The one I go to costs like 14 bucks for just the basic plan. And of course they offer extra services like a hand wax job etc which they charge a lot for.

All the workers are mexicans who probably make around minimum wage, plus tips.

I think part of a good investment is just analyzing the location and seeing what would do good.

An example, In San Diego there is no decent miniature golf courses. Just shitty ones at family fun centers that look like a retard designed them. From travelling to other states I've seen some unbeliveably good ones. Put one of those in a decent location in San Diego, charge 6 bucks a round, and it would be busy all the time. Plus money from selling refreshments, and have coin operated video games too.

Old thread, but anyone still looking into a main-stream biz, y'all forgot one goldmine that has a high startup cost, but once it's set up is all gravy. Get a partner or two, and spread out the downpayment. The idea? Self-storage facility.


..by the way, looking back, any of you guys actually do it and get one of those ideas started?

Yeah sounds good :pimp

give it a try.

Great advice

Honestly i think your money would be better spent somewhere else depending on the type of car wash your doing. Even in a good location how many cars per day do you expect to come in and about how much are they going to spend? About $5 each if its a self wash but then you gotta remember the cost of actually running it.

Shit, do you guys know this is a 2yr old thread? It got bumped, I'm not doing the car wash thing anymore... I'm in real estate and my sites