The Wash Meisters

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>When 28-year-old Gaurav Shokeen and his 24-year-old cousin Vineet Dabas tossed up the idea of carwashwale.com before their families asking for initial investment, they were snubbed. "What kind of work is this? Will you clean dirty tyres and windows of cars after doing MBA?"<br><br>After some initial struggle, the cousins managed to take carwashwale.com online in February 2011. The company provides doorstep services of exterior and interior cleaning of cars in and around Delhi and will soon extend its presence to Chandigarh.<br><br>The car-cleaning-at-the-doorstep idea for carwashwale.com generates 100 queries a day, 30-40 get converted into firm calls and the founders claim this business to be highly profitable. According to Shokeen, the net profit is Rs 1.8 lakh on a Rs 3-lakh monthly revenue. The initial capex of Rs 10 lakh will be recovered within a year. "Looking at the scale of our business, the families are happy," smile Dabas and Shokeen. <br><br>The company is also in talks for franchise operations in Lucknow, Coimbatore etc. The franchise will not just bring them royalty of 30-40 per cent of the revenue but also a one-time payment for lending the brand name. Next, it intends selling accessories such as door mats and car fresheners, gradually moving to basic services such as engine oil and seat cover replacements.<br><br>A one-hour long pressure cleaning, buffing and minor scratch removal costs about Rs 700. Prices vary according to the kind of service you opt for.<br><br>"There is a huge demand for doorstep cleaning but not many people are aware of it and so the revenues are not stable," says Dabas. Gradually carwashwale.com will start offering membership plans so as to get a stable source of income and to get bulk payments.<br><br>Though the company is ramping up at a great pace and is eyeing pan India presence through franchises, it faces huge competition from traditional car washing/servicing companies, who have started providing door-step services. These companies have the advantage of being established brands and thus carwashwale.com might have a tough time competing with the already established players in the space.<br><br>It also has rivals in city-specific sites such as delhicarwashers.com and pegasusfacilities.com. The Chennai-based pegasusfacilities though is a broader business. The website is a one-stop shop for cleaning not just cars and motorbikes but also living room, bathroom, kitchen, even gas stove, chimney and exhaust fans. Founder Vijay Simha, started way back in 2000, and earns Rs 30 lakh a month. Simha,who has been providing these services only in Chennai, has now started looking at franchises and will take its business to Pondicherry by end of January 2012. However, scaling up to other cities is a puzzle he is yet to crack.</p>