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What Washing Cars Taught Me About Business.

I worked at my family’s car washes growing up. My family opened one of the oldest car washes in America in 1953. My Dad didn’t just make us wash cars, he showed us things and made us think. He made us visit car washes on vacations and he would point out the things that made them great and made them fail. My Dad is the best teacher/business person I know. Here are some things I learned from car washes that translate into this web industry we love so much.

• The Car Wash Lesson: The cleanest part of the vehicle needed to be the windshield, especially the drivers side. Who cares how clean the rims are if you have a dirty windshield. It’s all the driver sees and they’re reminded of it every time they get into the car.
• The Web Lesson: The most important page of your web app is the page users see first. The landing page, the front page, the dashboard — whatever the user sees first.
• The Car Wash Lesson: You gotta vacuum cars and clean up dirty snot tissues to get to be in charge. I vacuumed cars (the lowest job on the totem pole) for years before I got to finish the car and make tips.
• The Web Lesson: You might have to do an unpaid internship and or an apprenticeship to get to the place you want to be.
• The Car Wash Lesson: Don’t nickel and dime people. My Dad’s car washes were the most expensive in town, but you got the best wash in town. The cheap customers are usually the pickiest and the rudest.
• The Web Lesson: Charge a fair rate with clients and they’ll respect you for it. Don’t squeeze them for every penny, play fair and just, but give them their money’s worth. Always be upfront about your pricing even if you’re the most expenses.
• The Car Wash Lesson: On rainy days, park employees’ cars around the wash like they are customers’ cars. This is called “bait”, people are attracted to crowds. If people drive past a car wash that is empty they assume its closed.
• The Web Lesson: Seed social communities before you launch them, have 20+ people start using the social network adding content and making the site feel alive.
• The Car Wash Lesson: It’s harder to complain to a face than to a business. My Dad would talk personally to every upset customer, he was a hands on operator. My Dad responds to upset customers with “What can I do to make you happy again?”
• The Web Lesson: With any web app you’re going to get negative feedback. Respond to the user like they’re a friend and watch their heart melt.
• The Car Wash Lesson: My Dad always ran a tight ship and didn’t grow his car washes unless he had to. He didn’t hire operational managers so he could take extended vacations. He always said “most of the time when you’re thinking about expanding you’re doing it out of ego instead of need.”
• The Web Lesson: Don’t make any decision out of ego, especially decisions with a price tag.
• The Car Wash Lesson: Too much road signage is usually worse than none.
• The Web Lesson: People will visually block out the important stuff if you surround it with crap.
• The Car Wash Lesson: Your car wash chemicals are more important than your equipment. You can’t have a clean car without the right chemistry.
• The Web Lesson: Who cares about the technology or the code base if your UI sucks. You can’t have a successful app without an easy UI.
• The Car Wash Lesson: The more money you borrow the higher the monthly payment back to the bank. So in turn you have to wash more cars to be successful.
• The Web Lesson: Wanna raise the bar of success for your app? Take a couple million in funding.

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