As a carwash owner, one of your ongoing quests is to find new ways to make money on your site. No doubt you have space constraints on your lot — so the question becomes: “How can I optimize the offerings on my site to make the most out of what I have?”

There are many motivations for adding more services to your site, including:

• Give customers more reasons to drive onto your lot in the first place
• Offer added conveniences that your customers will appreciate
• Keep things fresh by offering something new
• Make more money!

Some of the obvious long-time standbys in this department include basics like vending machines for car care products and even soda machines. Vacuums and fragrance machines fall in this category too. These days, some exciting new options have been introduced that greatly expand your options.

Give ’em More Reasons to Stop In…

This first group represents complementary services that will drive traffic onto your lot, including prospective customers who may never have tried your wash. By getting them to come onto your lot for one of these services, you greatly increase the odds that they will also try the carwash. Classic examples of complementary profit centers include gas stations and laundromats, but here are some relatively new and less expensive options:

Coffee Hut — Own and operate one yourself, or lease some space on your lot to a company that will operate a drive-up coffee station. The attraction of the second option is that you both stay focused on your core business, while benefiting from the shared space.

Water / Ice Kiosk — A nifty idea, this standalone kiosk will vend both purified water (to refill up to 5 gallon bottles) and ice (typically 10 lb bags).

Pet Washes — People love their pets and are willing to pay for the convenience of washing Fido at your location. Just be aware that this is a business that takes attention and cleaning to keep the area attractive for pet- and car-owners alike.

…And More Reasons to Stay (and Pay) Awhile!

This second group represents add-on car care services. They directly expand the products and services that you offer for the care and cleaning of your customers’ cars.

Self Serve Tire Shiners — Your customers will love to drive off with shiny black tires! Just as tire shiners have been added as an in-line service to conveyors, new equipment is now available for customers of self serve and in-bay carwashes as well. The equipment easily installs on vacuum islands or can be free standing.

Self Serve Drying Systems — Another nice self serve item are the new dryers that ‘blow dry’ the entire surface of the car. They can also be installed in-bay or at any convenient location on your lot.

Laurie Sherman is Co-owner of Blendco Systems, LLC. Blendco manufactures a full line of detergents and waxes for the professional carwash industry. You can contact Blendco at: www.blendco.com.