California is a hot spot for mobile car detailers and mobile car washes, why? Well, a lot of it has to do with the number of cars and the excellent weather. So, I wasn’t too surprised when someone from Sacramento, CA asked me a series of questions about weather issues, rain in particular, and how that affects the mobile car wash business. You see, he is considering starting such a small business venture himself and asks:

“With California being the sunshine state, we’re lucky to have good sunny days. When the rain comes, will I still be able to work?”

Ah, very good question, yes, the weather, well, we eventually figured it out and got it down to a science. When you clean fleets, rain helps you go faster, it also uses less water, presoak is seconds instead of minutes, and rinsing is too. Concrete Cleaning, Shopping Carts, Signage, QSR (ConcreteWashGuys.com), Decks (DeckWashGuys.com), well, rain is your friend. And when it comes to snow, we’ve got that licked, too: WashGuy.com/mt.

The California market is good for several reasons, but it also has major drawbacks. The regulatory climate is crazy and some angry small business owners say that the bureaucracy has its head in the back most of the time. Ronald Reagan had some good quotes about it, much more critical than me.

Now this is not to say that rain is not a problem, it is a big problem, but smart planning, good organization, lots of accounts and being on the verge of manipulating the schedule is where you can win, turn the lemon tree that mother nature Brought you Sunkist Lemonade by trainloads. Oh, cleaning trains is also a good business.

• TruckWashGuy.com/railcars.shtml
• DetailGuys.com/nw85.shtml

Then there are all those tomato truck trailers outside Sac, we cleaned them in the rain, they should have been on TV for that; The dirtiest jobs! Yuk, but he sure paid well. Next, the would-be entrepreneur asks me another big question: “People tend to leave their cars in the winter and don’t wash them as often. How could I keep working in the winter months and switch to airplanes?”

Yes, people ie personal cars, SUVs, office lot wash or corporate employee car wash on site can be a problem in winter and in Sac depending on the year El Niño for example can be a challenge for that sector of the business. Switching to airplanes isn’t that easy, airplanes are a year-round endeavor anyway, and you need to know what the heck you’re doing, have bills, lots of insurance, and your employees need to be of a higher caliber, maybe pilots themselves and also background was checked.