Congratulations! You've made the wise decision to open your own Tommy's Express Car Wash franchise location. Hopefully, you've done your pre-planning work, such as developing your business plan, determining your ideal location, and covering your capital, regulatory, and legal requirements.
Now it's time to break ground! Since you've selected us as your franchisor, we'll guide you through every step, but there are still important considerations to ensure a smooth start. These are the top five factors to a successful car wash franchise opening.
Building & Construction
If you still need to select and purchase property for your car wash, we can help. Our team can identify options that provide the best opportunity for your market saturation. You'll also want to make sure you've chosen a site model for your car wash based on your business goals. Once you're ready, your project manager will connect you with an approved contractor to begin the construction process. While construction projects can be daunting, especially on your own, the Tommy's Express franchise team is here to help you check the boxes and solve any issues.
Staffing Your Car Wash
Our model is designed to operate efficiently with a small number of employees, reducing your overhead costs. Even with a small team, it's vital to have dedicated, trustworthy employees. Your Franchise Business Consultant (FBC) will help you with hiring and onboarding, including a list of standard positions you'll need, qualifications for each role, and job description templates. You'll want to start the hiring process within 2-3 months of opening your car wash, so you have time for training and team building.
Employee Culture
Creating a welcoming and encouraging employee culture is critical to the success of your car wash. A car wash is a fast-paced, guest-first environment that can be a fun and rewarding experience when the management team fosters a positive culture. Determine the vision, values, work environment, and internal behaviors you want your team to exhibit. Your team members will follow your lead, so be sure to live out the expectations you set. Tommy's Express's core principles are enriching lives, adding value, and serving communities. Be sure you reinforce and communicate this clearly to your team members.
Marketing Your Car Wash
With over fifty years in the car wash industry and a growing list of franchise awards and honors, we know how to successfully market a car wash business. Our clear marketing strategy will help you turn your guests into raving fans. When you are ready to start washing cars, our team provides you with soft opening and grand opening support, ongoing national and regional marketing campaigns, and continued education through Tommy University. We will also work alongside you to establish local marketing budgets, strategies, opportunities, tracking, and performance benchmarks. Starting at your groundbreaking, you will always have marketing experts available to support every decision and next step in the Tommy Journey.
Car Wash Services & Inventory
Your FBC will guide you through everything you need to have in stock to wash cars, from detergents to equipment. You'll also have some decisions around additional services and product offerings. Vending items create an easy, ongoing revenue stream and increase the service offering to your customers.
From our in-house Guest Services team to ongoing training opportunities, Tommy's Express supports all areas of your business. And the support doesn't stop once you're up and running. Our teams work with franchise partners to ensure ongoing success, whether you're brand new to franchising or just opened your tenth Tommy's Express location! You can also be confident that you're using the best car wash industry equipment, backed by Tommy Car Wash Systems’ dedication to continuous innovation.
Tommy's Express Car Wash has proven to be one of the most lucrative business opportunities in the franchise industry today. If you're ready to take the next step in your franchise journey, contact a member of our franchise development team and attend one of our no-obligation exploratory webinars today!
Not a Franchise Offer: This information is not intended as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy a franchise. It is for informational purposes only. If you are a resident of a U.S. state or a country or wish to operate a franchise in a U.S. state or a country that regulates the offer or sale of franchises or business opportunities, we will not offer you a franchise until we have complied with any applicable pre-sale registration and disclosure requirements in your jurisdiction.