Black In Business

My first job. was washing a car for one of my father’s friends.Chester Miller was a private chauffer and spent much of his free time at our home. Chester taught me how to clean his pride and joy properly. I would hose down the car, soap it up, hose again, and then dry it with semi wet towels.

Car washing today  is much more detailed and prosperous. Chester would pay me between 2 and 3 dollars for washing his car. Today  you can spend as much as 20 dollars.

There are times for the guys to be together. I did a post about my barber shop in October of last year. My barber shop is 95% black. Another place for the guys are the Car Wash and detail shop. I have 3 I frequent, one, all black, one diverse;black,white,and Hispanic. I have another that is mostly Italian. For now we will leave out the sports bar.

I remember, when former St Bonaventure basketball star, Matt Gantt, worked for me, he sold his car wash. Matt played with former NBA Bob Laneir, and lead the Bonnies to the final 4. The Bonnies may have won the national champsionship but Laneir went down with a knee injury. Matt, who is 6ft 7in jumped center in the place of 6ft11in Bob Laneir. Matt jumped against 7ft 4 in, Artis Gilmore and won the jump ball to start the game.

OK back to car wash, Matt sold his car wash for 200,000 dollars. A lot of jack in those days. I had forgotten how lucrative the car wash business  was valued untill I was reminded. I read Crane Chicago business magazine and found a couple of car washes for sale at 750,000 for 1 and the other was priced at 800,000 dollars. These are hand car washes so there is not  a lot of equipment cost.

On Division street in Chicago in the Austin neighborhood is a car wash owned by a young black man. He has had this business for over 12 years and at least one of his employees has been with him the whole time. On a busy day he has cars lined upped the block waiting to get in. He has an line concept and can have 5 or 6 cars being cleaned at once. He has a lounge area with reading material and the men’s room has pin ups. They do a great job and are pros.

One of the other shops sells crome wheels, in some cases these wheels cost more than the cars. They also sell a lot of car accessories and have at least 5 other shops

I have noticed, all of the owners will wash cars and hussle to ensure customer satisfaction. They all have a loyal customer base and are building equity in an asset that will bring a healthy selling price in the future.

A car wash in the right location will allways make money. On rainy days they can still wax or do dealers cars for extra cash. All the car washes I visited offer mutlple cleaning services.The biggest worry for the owners are, work force stability and the weather.

This is a great blue collar business but is also very demanding. These guys are good business men and employee several mostly men. The employees are able to care for their families and  have hope for a brighter future. So, Instead of naming this working at the car wash, we should name it owning the car wash!