A self-service car wash as a business

What a car wash's revenue is made of

The formula is short, and it has just three quantities: number of bays × cars a day per bay × average ticket. Everything else is derived from it.

An example you can check in your head. Two bays, forty cars a day per bay, an average ticket of 250 ₽ — that is 20,000 ₽ a day and 600,000 ₽ a month. A year comes to 7.2 million ₽. The numbers are not invented: they are the same values that stand by default in the calculator on the franchise page, and there you can adjust them for your own city.

Then the operating costs come out of revenue — chemistry, water, electricity, cleaning and routine maintenance. Across our network that is about 35%. If you work under the franchise, a 5% royalty on revenue is added. About 60% is left — a calculated figure, not a promise: it depends on the traffic, on water and electricity tariffs and on how carefully you run the site.

Three ways in

There really are three of them, and you do not choose between them by the price of the equipment — in the first two cases it is almost the same.

• Build from scratch. You find the plot yourself, design it, buy the equipment straight from the factory, launch it and work out how to bring in the first customers.
• Take the franchise. The equipment is the same, but it comes with a site calculation, supervised installation, commissioning, training, software with a CRM and an app, the brand and support. That is what the royalty on a working wash pays for.
• Buy a working car wash. The site is already built and running, and it has a revenue history. You are paying not for equipment but for a going business — and for decisions somebody else made before you.

Build from scratch

What you get: complete freedom. Your own name, your own prices, no deductions. You buy the equipment straight from the factory — a BRIZ station costs from 430,000 ₽ per bay.

What you take on: everything else. Finding the plot and checking it for traffic, the land or the rent, the concrete slab, the canopies, the water connection, 380 V and sewerage or a septic tank, the permits, commissioning, staff training (even when the staff is you) and finding the first customers.

This route is cheaper in money and more expensive in time and mistakes. It makes sense if you already have a suitable plot, experience in construction or commercial property, and you understand how a good location for a wash is measured.

Take the franchise

What you get: the same stations, but with delivery, installation and launch — from 450,000 ₽ per bay. Plus everything around it: assessment of the site before the purchase, supervised installation, commissioning, training, software with a CRM and a mobile app, the brand and support after the launch.

What you pay: with us a 0 ₽ entry fee — we charge nothing to join the network, because we earn on the equipment and on the royalty. The royalty is 5% of the revenue of a wash that is already running: until the site opens there is nothing to pay it from.

The point of a franchise is not the brand but the fact that mistakes at the site-selection and launch stage cost more than several years of royalties. A detailed breakdown is in the article franchise or equipment.

Buy a working car wash

We do not sell working sites, so we will look at this option from the outside — that is more honest.

One advantage, but a solid one: the site has a history. You see real revenue rather than a projection, and you understand what you are buying. The wash earns from day one, with no construction and no permits.

The drawbacks that listings rarely mention:

• People rarely sell because life is good. The reason for the sale is the first thing to find out and check for yourself rather than take on trust.
• You are buying someone else's choice of location. This is the only thing that cannot be redone: equipment can be replaced, a plot cannot.
• Wear does not show in a bank statement. Pumps, hoses, guns and the payment terminal have a service life. Ask when the wear parts were last replaced and whether there is a service history.
• The equipment may be someone else's and out of support. Then you will be hunting for spare parts yourself. Find out the manufacturer and whether it still supplies units for that model.
• Revenue is easy to dress up. Ask not for words but for a year's export from the payment system — broken down by month, so that you see both winter and summer.

If the site runs on our equipment, you will get service and spare parts exactly as any partner in the network does: we build the stations ourselves and support them regardless of who the current owner is.

How much money it actually takes

The beginner's mistake is to count the equipment only. It is less than half the budget.

Our part for a two-bay wash, from 900,000 ₽: that is the stations, delivery, installation and launch.

Not our part, and it is costed separately: land or rent, the concrete slab, canopies and gates, the water connection, 380 V power, sewerage or a septic tank, lighting, signage and landscaping. The spread here is wider than in everything else put together: in one city the utilities already run to the plot, in another you bring them in at your own expense. That is why the final figure is named only after the particular site has been inspected — before you sign anything.

An item-by-item breakdown of the budget is in the article how much it costs to open a self-service car wash.

Where money is most often lost

1. The location was chosen by the rent. A cheap plot with no traffic is the most expensive saving in this business: there is nothing left to fix it with.
2. They counted on market averages. An average wash in an average city does not exist. You have to count your own traffic, your own ticket and your own tariffs.
3. They saved on water treatment. Hard water leaves streaks, the customer leaves without a word and does not come back. Osmosis and water treatment pay off through traffic, not through saving on chemistry.
4. They forgot about winter. In central Russia a wash earns for seven to eight months a year, and heating and a heated floor are designed in from the start — adding them later costs twice as much.
5. They did not count the running costs. Hoses, guns, lances and brushes are a recurring expense, not a one-off purchase.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to open a self-service car wash?

Equipment costs from 430,000 ₽ per bay bought directly from the factory and from 450,000 ₽ per bay under the franchise, where delivery, installation and launch are already in the price. For a two-bay wash our part starts at 900,000 ₽. The other half of the budget is the site: land or rent, the slab, canopies, water, 380 V and sewerage. The spread on it is wider than on everything else, which is why the total is named after the particular site has been inspected.

Is it profitable to open a self-service car wash?

You have to count on your own inputs. A bay's revenue is the number of cars a day multiplied by the average ticket: two bays, forty cars and a 250 ₽ ticket give about 600,000 ₽ a month. Around 35% of revenue goes on chemistry, water, electricity and maintenance, plus a 5% royalty if you work under the franchise. What is left is a calculated figure, not a guarantee: it depends heavily on the location and the traffic.

Which is better — buying a working car wash or building from scratch?

A working wash has one solid advantage: you can see the real revenue, and the site earns money from day one. The drawbacks are that you buy somebody else's choice of location, which can no longer be changed, that wear and tear does not show in the paperwork, and that the equipment may already be out of support. Building from scratch is cheaper in money but more expensive in time and mistakes. The franchise sits in between: the equipment is the same, while the choice of site, the launch and the follow-up are taken on by the network.

Do you need a business plan for a self-service car wash?

Yes, but not the thirty-page kind written for an investor. Four things are enough: a traffic estimate for the specific location, a budget split into equipment and site, operating costs at your own water and electricity tariffs, and the time to break even under a conservative scenario. Everything else in this business is derived from those four numbers.

How many people does a self-service car wash need?

There are no staff in the bay — customers wash their own cars, and that is the point of the format. You need someone to keep the grounds clean and do minor maintenance; at a small site the owners often do it themselves. Equipment status and revenue are visible online, so there is no need to visit the site every day.

Can you open a car wash in a small town?

You can, and the network has such sites, but you count the traffic, not the number of residents. In a town of twenty thousand a wash can do better than one in a residential district of a city of a million, if it stands on the way out of town or by a highway. That is exactly why we look at the specific site before naming a figure.