The Advantage of Starting a Mobile Car Wash Using Google Mobile Map Apps and Street View
Before retirement, I had run a mobile car wash franchise business.
Each time we set up a new franchise in a different city in some state, we would send in the blitz marketing team.
Before we sent in the blitz marketing team, we sent in what we called; scouts.
They would go in collect business cards, information, data, phone books, and take pictures of some of the larger corporations in town where we hoped to sign up customers for mobile car wash services and get the account.
Of course, we did all this back in the early and late 90s.
But if we did it today it would be so much easier, it would almost be unbelievably a piece a cake.
Why you ask? Because now we have Google mobile apps, Google street view, and Google's satellite views.
Before that, we relied on aerial photographs, and often used companies that specialized in working in the real estate sector, or aerial surveying.
Now, you can fly over the city on Google satellite view, and then zoom in on every single company.
Today, with the 3-D views available from Google, you can zoom into the parking lot, and even see the types of cars that are there.
If you see lots of Mercedes, BMWs, and Porsches in the parking lot, you know that would be an excellent mobile detailing or mobile car cleaning stop to come in once a week and make good money.
And mind you if my Corporation is in Los Angeles, and I am selling a franchise in Atlanta, I can have a single employee use Google maps to find all the best areas in a given franchised territory.
It used to cost us a minimum of $10,000 to get all this information, to send people there, and collect all the data, but now the hard part is over before you start thanks to Google.
Often, people don't understand the value to small businesses having these sorts of things available online, 24-seven.
However, as a former franchisor, I am blown away with the tools we have today, compared to when I was in business and they are free to the user - amazing.
Of course, I guess I'm not too surprised because previously when I started my business, my very first business, there were no fax machine, 800 numbers, no computers, no Internet, and therefore no e-mail.
I suppose in the near future we will have holographic videophones, and all sorts of technologically advanced tools that we never had before.
When I hear small businesses complain that it's just too hard these days, I laugh, they don't have a clue how hard it used to be.
Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Each time we set up a new franchise in a different city in some state, we would send in the blitz marketing team.
Before we sent in the blitz marketing team, we sent in what we called; scouts.
They would go in collect business cards, information, data, phone books, and take pictures of some of the larger corporations in town where we hoped to sign up customers for mobile car wash services and get the account.
Of course, we did all this back in the early and late 90s.
But if we did it today it would be so much easier, it would almost be unbelievably a piece a cake.
Why you ask? Because now we have Google mobile apps, Google street view, and Google's satellite views.
Before that, we relied on aerial photographs, and often used companies that specialized in working in the real estate sector, or aerial surveying.
Now, you can fly over the city on Google satellite view, and then zoom in on every single company.
Today, with the 3-D views available from Google, you can zoom into the parking lot, and even see the types of cars that are there.
If you see lots of Mercedes, BMWs, and Porsches in the parking lot, you know that would be an excellent mobile detailing or mobile car cleaning stop to come in once a week and make good money.
And mind you if my Corporation is in Los Angeles, and I am selling a franchise in Atlanta, I can have a single employee use Google maps to find all the best areas in a given franchised territory.
It used to cost us a minimum of $10,000 to get all this information, to send people there, and collect all the data, but now the hard part is over before you start thanks to Google.
Often, people don't understand the value to small businesses having these sorts of things available online, 24-seven.
However, as a former franchisor, I am blown away with the tools we have today, compared to when I was in business and they are free to the user - amazing.
Of course, I guess I'm not too surprised because previously when I started my business, my very first business, there were no fax machine, 800 numbers, no computers, no Internet, and therefore no e-mail.
I suppose in the near future we will have holographic videophones, and all sorts of technologically advanced tools that we never had before.
When I hear small businesses complain that it's just too hard these days, I laugh, they don't have a clue how hard it used to be.
Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
