September 5, 2005
At the car wash | A chat with John Massengill, co-owner of Sudzie Autowash.
By Richard Smart
Founded: April 2004
Employees: 15
Startup costs: $2.8 million
Projected revenues, first year: $600,000
Projected revenues, second year: $800,000
Contact: 885-8811
285 U.S. Rte. One, Scarborough
www.sudzie.com
Tell me a little about your background in the car wash industry.
My grandparents built a car wash in Chicago in 1949. My parents ran it and I grew up in that business. My wife worked with my mother for five years in Chicago running the business.
The more we've talked to people here in Maine ˆ we've both lived here for nine years ˆ the more people indicated [that we] should consider doing this here. The more we thought about it, the more we figured, who better than us to do this? So that's when we started looking for land. We came across the right lot and figured, let's put a business plan together and go for it.
How do you distinguish yourself from your competition?
I would say [we have] a complete passion for customer satisfaction. We're willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the customer is satisfied to the point that not only do they want to come back, but they want to tell all their friends what a great job we're doing.
Our motto is "a step above in service," and we feel that when you come to Sudzie you're gonna get a clean car and it's going to be dry. We go above and beyond what most other car washes in the area do. We give your car a thorough vacuuming, and we have the ability to offer [detailing like] interior window cleaning and wiping down the dashboard, the steering column and the car's door jambs. In the wintertime, that's very important so that your doors don't freeze after you wash the car.
Do you have a lot of competition?
I think it's not heavily saturated, but there's certainly competition ˆ southern Maine is a small market. I think that 80% of your business at the average car wash is pulled from within three to five miles of your wash. There's several companies to choose from and, frankly, we're not the right wash for every customer that's out there. Some people want to do it themselves, and other people don't want to get out of their car. They want to go through the automatic car wash and that's fine, there are places that they can go and do that.
What kind of marketing have you done?
We've done a little bit of everything. We did a little bit of radio when we first opened, we've done a fair amount of television commercials with Time Warner and we've done a lot of print media.
One form of advertising that we have found to be very successful is to go to numerous charity organizations and donate services to them. I think it works for both of us. We get exposure as a new business by helping the charity raise money and at the same time it serves a purpose for [the charity] as far as development is concerned. They can use Sudzie car wash as a form of fundraising.
How did you finance the launch of your business?
We went to nine different banks, most of which were in the state of Maine, and we had three out of the nine make commitments to us to finance the project. We ended up selecting Camden National Bank.
We had to contribute 20% of the funding. Camden contributed 50% of the funding and the Small Business Administration contributed 30%.
So you contributed quite a bit in personal savings.
This is now the third generation of car washing and, frankly, that's most of my grandparents' life savings, half of my parents' life savings and so far all of our life savings put into this deal.
What are your plans for growing the business?
I think ultimately our growth is going to come from additional locations and possibly segmenting the [car detailing] business into its own operating entity. We grossly underestimated the demand for our detail business. I think that very soon we're [going to] run out of capacity here in this building to service our customers' needs as far as detailing cars go. We're going to have to look for another location, possibly off site, where we can accommodate the demand.
Is the original car wash in Chicago still around?
In 2000, we sold it. It was right in the city of Chicago, and the land actually became more valuable than the business.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
Employees: 15
Startup costs: $2.8 million
Projected revenues, first year: $600,000
Projected revenues, second year: $800,000
Contact: 885-8811
285 U.S. Rte. One, Scarborough
www.sudzie.com
Tell me a little about your background in the car wash industry.
My grandparents built a car wash in Chicago in 1949. My parents ran it and I grew up in that business. My wife worked with my mother for five years in Chicago running the business.
The more we've talked to people here in Maine ˆ we've both lived here for nine years ˆ the more people indicated [that we] should consider doing this here. The more we thought about it, the more we figured, who better than us to do this? So that's when we started looking for land. We came across the right lot and figured, let's put a business plan together and go for it.
How do you distinguish yourself from your competition?
I would say [we have] a complete passion for customer satisfaction. We're willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the customer is satisfied to the point that not only do they want to come back, but they want to tell all their friends what a great job we're doing.
Our motto is "a step above in service," and we feel that when you come to Sudzie you're gonna get a clean car and it's going to be dry. We go above and beyond what most other car washes in the area do. We give your car a thorough vacuuming, and we have the ability to offer [detailing like] interior window cleaning and wiping down the dashboard, the steering column and the car's door jambs. In the wintertime, that's very important so that your doors don't freeze after you wash the car.
Do you have a lot of competition?
I think it's not heavily saturated, but there's certainly competition ˆ southern Maine is a small market. I think that 80% of your business at the average car wash is pulled from within three to five miles of your wash. There's several companies to choose from and, frankly, we're not the right wash for every customer that's out there. Some people want to do it themselves, and other people don't want to get out of their car. They want to go through the automatic car wash and that's fine, there are places that they can go and do that.
What kind of marketing have you done?
We've done a little bit of everything. We did a little bit of radio when we first opened, we've done a fair amount of television commercials with Time Warner and we've done a lot of print media.
One form of advertising that we have found to be very successful is to go to numerous charity organizations and donate services to them. I think it works for both of us. We get exposure as a new business by helping the charity raise money and at the same time it serves a purpose for [the charity] as far as development is concerned. They can use Sudzie car wash as a form of fundraising.
How did you finance the launch of your business?
We went to nine different banks, most of which were in the state of Maine, and we had three out of the nine make commitments to us to finance the project. We ended up selecting Camden National Bank.
We had to contribute 20% of the funding. Camden contributed 50% of the funding and the Small Business Administration contributed 30%.
So you contributed quite a bit in personal savings.
This is now the third generation of car washing and, frankly, that's most of my grandparents' life savings, half of my parents' life savings and so far all of our life savings put into this deal.
What are your plans for growing the business?
I think ultimately our growth is going to come from additional locations and possibly segmenting the [car detailing] business into its own operating entity. We grossly underestimated the demand for our detail business. I think that very soon we're [going to] run out of capacity here in this building to service our customers' needs as far as detailing cars go. We're going to have to look for another location, possibly off site, where we can accommodate the demand.
Is the original car wash in Chicago still around?
In 2000, we sold it. It was right in the city of Chicago, and the land actually became more valuable than the business.
New Entrepreneurs profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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