Are you thinking of starting a car wash business? With more and more American drivers caring for their cars by utilizing both personalized car washes and automatic systems, your new business could be the start of a profitable future. But one of the most important factors — if not the most important — is how your location encourages an ideal customer pool.

How can you find the right customer pool by choosing your location carefully? Here are a few things to look for.

1. The Right Businesses

What types of businesses are in the area? A popular retail and shopping location attracts a regular set of clients to surrounding businesses, from which you’re likely to draw your pool of customers. The businesses should also see sufficient traffic to their own stores rather than a declining client pool.

Some types of businesses are good indicators of a great car wash location. Fast food restaurants, for instance, often need a higher rate of passing traffic to stay in business. So if these are thriving in your area, there’s a better chance you will too.

2. Sufficient Car Traffic

Certainly, you want a location with plenty of car traffic. Drivers who regularly pass your car wash will see you and stop in. If you’re on regular commuting routes, too, you’ll get more repeat business and employee traffic. The specific amount of car traffic needed depending on the number of washes you need annually, but you may need a location with 20,000 or more cars passing daily.

In addition, the car traffic must be able to slow down, read your signage, and enter/exit your property. Preferably, this calls for not only good amounts of cars but a road with a speed limit under 35 or 40 mph. These drivers have the ability to actually divert into your business as opposed to speedy highway drivers.

3. Neighborhood Growth

Which direction is the community population going? Is it a growing area with a healthy mix of new construction, revitalization, property buyers, and new businesses starting up? Or is it filled with homeowners sporting For Sale signs in their yards, failing businesses, or stores which aren’t attracting new customers? A stagnant or diminishing customer pool will hinder future growth.

4. Potential Business Partners

Does the area contain other businesses with whom you can form business partnerships? For instance, you might offer corporate packages to businesses with a fleet of vehicles. Or you could partner with local car-related businesses to offer discounts, to cross-promote, or to craft package promotions. Partnerships help you expand in more ways than relying solely on individual drivers, so look around for opportunities.

5. Targeted Demographics

Finally, what are the demographics in the community? If your local area doesn’t boast many drivers — and drivers who care for their cars — even significant passing traffic may not turn into a lot of people stopping. This could be a problem in areas such as universities with more students than employees or neighborhoods that rely heavily on public transportation services.

Good demographics for many types of washes can include apartment renters who don’t have their own car care facilities, younger individuals who drive more miles, a professional population, and families with multiple vehicles in their driveways.

Where to Start

If you want to learn more about evaluating a location’s potential customer pool, start by meeting with one of the team of experienced car wash business pros at Advance Car Wash Solutions. We can help you evaluate any location to accurately assess its strengths and weaknesses — then to help you find ways to overcome obstacles to making business ownership a reality. Call for an appointment today.