You can pre-determinethe success and profitability of your new car wash, valeting, detailing orspecialist detailing business by working through our simple guides and makingprofessional and not emotional decisions when deciding how, where and when toget started..

 This articlelooks at how you can evaluate the opportunity.

 Remember - Always Do Your Research Thoroughly - BeforeYou Start!

 Whether youhave even taken the brave decision to leave your current employment, followyour dream and go it alone or interested in the industry because of redundancy or lack of other work opportunities, thekey to any successful start up car wash operation is to do your research first.

 Make surethat there is a demand for the type of car cleaning business you hope tooperate in your area you want to work in, before you start creating long drawnout business plans, buying chemicals and equipment or having leaflets printed.

 One of the most importantaspects is to determine if you are entering a specific market segment that hasroom to grow, or is already over-supplied within your area.

 To understand the statusof each specific market segment, you need to determine who your main competitorsare, estimate their current volume of business, and establish the percentage ofmarket that is already taken (and why).

 Only then will you arriveat what the market potential is for your new business that exists today.

 The role of continuedmarket growth has to be seriously considered as well ? as it's very easy tohave too many suppliers and too few customers.

 Firsttake a trip to a number of local automated, jet wash or hand car wash and centres to see how their operation works anddetermine each businesses benefits and customer base.

 Spendsome time at each operation and take make notes on the volume and type of carsthat are cleaned and the services they are offered. Even if you are thinking ofopening a mobile car valeting business, this gives a good indication of howpeople treat their cars (often through lack of choice) and how you can improveon the service they are currently receiving.

 During your assessmentyou might discover that most of the businesses have no redeemable benefits andno value added proposition, but rather they are ?just another car cleaningbusiness.? This gives you an opportunity to do it bigger and better, with morecare and customer service!

 By using an onlineservice such as a mobile car cleaning company your compiled information andsearch, within a 5-mile radius of where you'd like to focus your business, tosee who else is competing in your car cleaning sector.

 At the click of a button you canfind out details of all car wash openings and other news results and information forany given area in the country. Although these are not specific and exact figures,they still can be very helpful in making rough estimates of the opportunity in yourarea and how these businesses have faired since opening (i.e. are they stilltrading ? if not why not?).

 You can check at anygiven time whether other car wash operators have applied for planning permissionto open a site within the area. If they have already deemed the area has ?significantmarket potential? this means that you can piggyback on their research and takeadvantage of their belief in operating a profitable business there.

 By using all the dataavailable, you can estimate the percentage of the market that is being servedby the existing carwashes and specifically for the type of car wash business youare considering. When you've arrived at that number, you will then know whatportion of the market is truly non-competitive.

 If that number alonegives you the volume you're projecting for your business, then your analysis isfinished. However, if that number does not give you the volume you want, tomake the returns that you need, there is more research work to be done anddecisions to be made on the realistic potential of the business.