An express car wash is not a revenue business. It is a subscription business with a conveyor attached, and that is the single thing most models get wrong.
This workbook underwrites the acquisition of a single express exterior site the way the deal actually behaves. The engine is the membership base, and it is built as a stock, not a growth rate: steady members equal monthly sign-ups divided by the monthly churn rate. Change either input and the base re-solves, along with average tenure, lifetime value per member and the penetration of your site's traffic. That one relationship replaces the usual assumption that revenue simply grows a few percent per year.
The second correction is on cost. Members do not pay per wash, they consume washes, and a member who washes 2.6 times a month costs you 2.6 times the variable cost while paying one monthly fee. The model charges variable cost against washes actually consumed rather than against the sticker price, which is where most car wash templates quietly overstate margin.
On top of that sits the acquisition itself: purchase price at a multiple of Seller's Discretionary Earnings, the SBA 7(a) capital stack with equity injection and an optional seller note, and the tests a lender applies. You get the debt service coverage ratio, the unlevered yield on cost, cash-on-cash, payback in years, and a Year 1 monthly cash runway that shows the minimum cash balance you have to survive before the membership base reaches steady state.
A three-way toggle switches the whole file between Express Exterior, Flex Serve and In-Bay Automatic, each with its own price points, member behaviour, throughput and cost structure, so you can compare formats on the same deal rather than rebuilding the model.
The file is a ten-sheet Excel workbook with no macros, no add-ins and no external links, so it opens in Google Sheets as well. Inputs are grouped and unlocked, the dashboard is formatted to share with a lender or a partner, and a benchmarks sheet carries sourced industry figures with their references.
The second document included with this purchase is an eighteen-page PDF user guide: quick start, sheet-by-sheet walkthrough, how the membership engine solves, how a lender reads your coverage ratio, and where to find the real numbers for the site you are buying.
Got a question about the product? Email us at support@flevy.com or ask the author directly by using the "Ask the Author a Question" form. If you cannot view the preview above this document description, go here to view the large preview instead.
Source: Best Practices in Car Wash, Integrated Financial Model Excel: Express Car Wash Acquisition and Membership Model Excel (XLSX) Spreadsheet, ProformaWorks
|
Download our FREE Strategy & Transformation Framework Templates
Download our free compilation of 50+ Strategy & Transformation slides and templates. Frameworks include McKinsey 7-S Strategy Model, Balanced Scorecard, Disruptive Innovation, BCG Experience Curve, and many more. |