Offering Carpet Extraction at a Self Serve Car Wash?

[nuub]

Hello all,

I am not interested in cleaning exteriors for other people. But I have this idea that it would be very complimentary to offer carpet cleaning at a self serve car wash since carpet cleaning is not an option at those places (in my area, at least). I have never seen anyone offer this and maybe the car wash owner would never agree to it for various reasons, but lets assume I can get an owner to agree. At a minimum lets assume I can get permission to use parking space from an adjacent retail business. Either one might include a space rental fee to be negotiated. Ideally, I could use their plug, but I could use a generator, too. I have a little cargo trailer and figured I could put some signage on it, toss up a little tailgating type tent cover and just walk up to folks and offer the service, hand em a card or something and maybe get some customers.I was thinking I could do a 30-40 minute extraction job and charge about 35 bucks. I think the client base I am aiming at would be thrilled with that quality of a job at that price (but I am just guessing). Does this idea, even if I could get permission, sound crazy? I'm just looking to make 150 to 300 bucks for a day of work and I foresee only doing this on Saturdays. Is it highly unlikely that the self serve car wash customer would be interested?


Additionally, do you have any opinion on the Mytee Lite II?

Thanks in advance for any input.

[yakky]

I think you have a great idea, but the price point is pretty high for that crowd. I think you'd get more hits at the $20 range. Do a real quick 15 minute job for that, and then upsell, perhaps on the more dirty cars schedule full cleanings.

[piscott]

When you speak with the car wash owner inform him/her that you will provide the necessary insurance--E&O, Liability, etc. Shouldn't be much, my guess...$ 800 to $ 1000 per year.

[SuperiorAutoLLC]

A 30 minute carpet cleaning will turn into at least an hour-long job. First you have to remove all of the person's belongings, vacuum the carpet, pre-spray the area, extract the carpet, replace their belongings, etc. You have a really good idea and I'm sure that, with fine tuning, you may be able to get it to work.

[nuub]

Thanks for the feedback. Considering I anticipate only making around 150-300 per day working only on Saturdays, I'd be throwing away 6 to 8 weeks of income per year away for the suggested insurance. Don't think I would enjoy cleaning carpets enough to do that much free work. I'd definitely have to find someone willing to not require insurance.

I was thinking it might be easier to charge 35 bucks if I accepted credit/debit cards. It is very easy to accept credit cards with a smart phone nowadays. I don't think I'd be willing to charge less.

I can definitely see the time creeping up to an hour, meaining I'd probably want to charge more than I might be able to get....

Well, I am kind of just looking for an excuse to get a commercial extractor for myself and provide a little profitable diversion on weekends when I feel like it. It would probably be easier to just do some stuff for coworkers and maybe word of mouth. I like the car wash idea becuase it would not require me to travel around.