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If you are all in the same book, you can be on the same page.

I know it's hard to get everyone to read the same book. And this is starting to look like a book review, but learning is important. Setting an example and a standard to follow that everyone understands is one of the most important things in leadership. If people don't know what to do they will make it up. And their idea will not be your idea. You have to tell them.

If you use a book on how to do things, then you will have a reference manual. The One Minute Manager is a simple read (or listen) and has a couple simple ideas to work with. If everyone on your team understands this is how we will get things done, it will be so much easier and faster for you to implement new things that need to work.

Three simple concepts from the book; one-minute goals, one-minute praises, and one-minute redirects. If you can implement these three concepts across the board at your washes you will win.

Make it mandatory reading for anyone who manages anyone and suggest it for anyone who wants to be a manager. Then do the three things.

It's really that simple, it's just not as easy as it sounds. But I bet someone told you that car washing was easy...

The New One Minute Manager The New One Minute Manager

5 Easy Emails to Write for Beginning Email Marketers

Everyone gets stuck sometimes. Use other people for ideas.
Here are 5 emails you can write and add to your email lists to help your car wash grow.

1. The Best Time to Use a Car Wash

Write the message like it is any car wash. Notice I said "a Car Wash". But just make a couple of lines on when the best times a person could use your wash. Hint: It's normally Tuesday morning.

2. What is BLANK?

Put the chemical that you advertise the most here. Then explain how that chemical protects their car. You don't have to mention your wash at all. This is to get the customer to understand what the wash does. (you could reuse this over and over again with different blanks)

3. How can we help?

After giving them some free info above, ask for a sale by explaining why a monthly program is the way to go. Remember, tell them how the monthly program helps them.

4. How Bad Was It?

Ask them what the worst experience at a car wash was. Tell them you are looking for funny stories to share with your staff to get them going in the morning.

5. What is that?

Put a picture of a piece of equipment people don't understand and explain how it helps clean and/or protect their car.

Keep going. Marketing is fun and easy. You could write all these emails in an afternoon and if you can't figure out the tech as someone in your wash. Some of those employees running around would love to do some marketing for you.

Now go wash lots of cars, make lots of money, and have lots of fun.

Contact AutoBrite Company | San Antonio, TX Questions about our car wash equipment and products? Contact us today! We want to know, what can we help YOU do

How to Get Accountability from Yourself and Others

Go to the extreme and own every problem in front of you and everything that happens. This book is one of the most motivating things I've ever read... I suggest the audiobook because these guys sound even better.

Do you want your employees to take ownership of what is happening at your wash? Do you want your kids to own their mistakes? Do you want your customers to own the problems with their vehicles (especially when there is damage)?

Me too! Image that...

We all want everyone else to take ownership of their problems and fix them. But the truth is that as a leader in your wash, home, community, business, or between friends, you are the one.

That's why the book is called Extreme Ownership. You have to own everything and see how you could be at fault so you can fix the problem. Your employees aren't doing what you want them to? Have you explained it to them in a way they understand? Have they been taught? Have they been properly motivated to what you expect? Waiting for your employees to take responsibility and fix themselves is probably not going to happen. You need to take ownership and solve the problem.

Are your customers being unreasonable about their expectations of your wash? Have you explained to them what to expect? It doesn't have to be you one-on-one, but have you posted videos they can watch on what is going to happen? Did you post signs that are actually readable on how your wash works and how they are supposed to use it?

In any situation, there is something you can do to make it better. Own it. Do it. Make it better.

Your wash will be better. You will be a better person. And you just might make the world a better place.

Read the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

or even better, listen to it. Jocko has an incredible reading voice that brings everything to life and makes you remember the important stuff.

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

Become an Email Marketer

Do you use email to advertise your business?

Email marketing is something I'm getting into more and more. When used, it will expand your business a lot. And is one of those things you do once and let it ride for as long as you have the system going.

Here's my suggestion on how and what to do:

- Create a landing page
- Create a quick start guide on using your car wash
- Create 5 emails on how to best use your wash, what times, and how to protect their vehicle
- Create a QR Code for the landing page
- Put up signs with QR Codes that say scan to learn how to best protect your car
- Create the automation to send people to your quick start guide as soon as they put in their name and email
- Create the automation to send those 5 emails over the next 5 weeks
- And a thank you email for coming to the wash (just a suggestion)

Yes, this seems like a lot of work, but this will only take you a day or so (don't let it take you longer). And then you will be building a list of people that like your wash and you can talk to any time you want.

Here is more in-depth on how:

I use ConvertKit.com for some of my other businesses and it is simple and works. Start out for free and get up to 300 subscribers.

Sign up for an account, go to Grow on the top menu, and select landing pages and forms. Then click the red button that says Create New. Then select the landing page.

You will get a list of pages. Just pick one and put your car wash name, logo, colors, and location on it. Save and Publish it. You don't need it on your site or anything. Here is one I made in a couple minutes.

Then click settings, general, and redirect to an external page. This is where you put your guide on using your wash. It could be a YouTube video, a post on your page, or a page on your website with your quick guide.

After that go to send, sequences, and then the red button to + New Sequence. Choose a template. Now wright one email that has one thing someone can do at your wash (but say at a car wash) to better wash their car. It only has to be a paragraph or a picture with a couple of words. Make it easy and only take a couple of minutes to do it (15-20 tops, set a timer).

Click Add Email and write another one. 15 minutes! Go!

Do this again until you have 5 or 6 (if you are ambitious) and then click settings. Fill out the boxes and read all the stuff on this page. Just don't forget to pick the subscribers to get your emails. Click the down arrow next to Forms find the landing page you created and click the box.

Use any QR Code generator to create a QR Code. I used QR Code Generator by Bitly to create this QR Code:

Put your QR codes on a sign that says how to use your wash. And see if anyone signs up. You can print a sign with your computer and a laminator to see if it will work before spending any money at. It will take a while, but you should get about 1 to 5% of people who come to sign up.

The key to being a good email marketer is giving useful information to your list. If you just advertise yourself and sales, people will unsubscribe. But if you give them value they will be yours to send ads to.

Besides, if you put your car wash info on the bottom of every email, they will remember you when they need a car wash and they will have an affinity to your brand the next time they need a car wash.

Now go wash lots of cars, make lots of money, and have lots of fun,

Want to do better in your car wash? Here is a reminder of a basic principal that we could all use a refresher on.

One of our Car Wash Consultants had an article published in Professional Car Wash & Detail Magazine and they reposted it on their website, CarWash.com.

Developing a strong unique selling point for your carwash A solid sales statement for your business helps attract more customers and keep existing ones.

Motivation Monday
Motivation Equals Excitement

Does this work for you? Why would you expect it to work an anyone else?

In case you missed it the world changed. You can't just offer a pay check and have people show up, work hard, and be happy about it. I think I was on the leading edge of that. I always wanted something more then just a pay check.

One of my first real jobs was working for an Armored Car Company in Los Angeles California. As jobs go, it was one of my favorite ever. But I quickly ran out of motivation to be there. There was no practical advancement because I made more money then most of the supervisors as just a messenger and driver. And most of the supervisors worked more hours then I did. We were union and pay was handed out by seniority so it didn't matter that I could make twice as many deliveries a day as someone else. We all got paid the same. So why did I stay for almost 7 years?

I stayed at that job because of the work and the people. Most of my bosses were great people to work for and helped me out when I had problems (no matter how good you or your employees are, there will always be problems to solve), taught me things, and treated with respect even when I didn't always be as respectful as I should have been. Most of my fellow employees were awesome too! And the ones that sucked, because of the nature of the job, I could avoid them and only see them for 5 minutes a day or not at all.

Why did I leave that job? I transferred to Texas and found the bosses were not good people and my fellow employees were not fun to be around let alone work with. So I tried to move into management again to effect a change. When that didn't work, I just got another job.

So what motivated me to stay? The people. Good people make any job doable and even fun. I learned that the hard way as a Marine Grunt. For me, the ultimate motivation is the people I get to work with. Other people are going to be different.

You need to find what drives each person that works at your wash. When are they having the most fun at work? What is it that makes it the most fun? It could be the money. It could be doing something great for the world. It could be they just enjoy the work. It could be mentoring.

Find out what drives your employees and yourself. Write it down in their file. And then work with them to activate that drive.

And actively work towards not demotivating them by working against that drive.

If your workers are like me and it's about the people, don't put them on a shift with a leader or workers they don't like if at all possible. This isn't high school, they don't have to work it out and they won't. And your better employee will just go find another job because there is always lots of jobs for good employees.

Find what drives you too. Write it down. And then do more of that.

Want to get your employees to take ownership of your wash?

Here's how.

The car wash industry is having a hiring problem just like almost every industry in America right now (and most of the world). People just don't seem to want to work. And if they do come to work making them actually work like it is their wash is nothing but frustrating.

I spent 10 years in the Marine Corps where we were constantly taught about leadership and constantly given classes on the subject. I thought I knew it all after all that time. Turns out, I knew very little. And a Marine learning from a Sailor is just an ego gut punch. Or at least it used to be. Now I learn from anyone I can to be better.

"It's Your Ship" is one of the best books I've ever read on leadership including all the manuals the Marine Corps made me read. It's an underdog story of how Captain Abrashoff took a rag-tag bunch of sailors on a ship that was failing and turned them into the best ship in the Navy. Sounds like a great movie, right?

But in the story, Abrashoff tells you the leadership tactics he used to get the sailors to make it the best ship. And it wasn't military discipline that did it.

Read the book, or check it out on Audible. It will make you a better leader and improve your car wash.

It's Your Ship by Michael Abrashoff on Amazon

It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy

Easy peezy... Their car wash equipment. Our easy to install surface-mount conveyor belts. autobriteco.com/car-wash/belt-conveyors

The six things that will make your wash more successful.

In order from least to greatest... and before you argue the order, read them all and the explanation. Then ask yourself, do you have all six at your wash being done in an outstanding fashion? Or at least 10 percent better than your competition?

Number 6: A Clean, Shiny, Dry Car

Yes, I know you have been programmed to believe this is the most important thing and you are always trying to be one percent better. And you should be working on being better always and forever. But, it shouldn't be the only thing you are working on to the detriment of the other things on this list.

I've met car wash owners who think this is the only thing that matters at their wash and will let everything else go. Their wash starts a downward trend and they don't know how to break it, so they double down on a clean car.

Or worse, the owner thinks that because they are doing everything else successfully, they can save money on cleaning the car and cut chemicals, water, and power used to wash the car.

You need a relatively clean car. Relativity is in the eyes of your customers. If they think it is good enough, then you have a clean, shiny, dry car.

Number 5: Everything Appears to Work

We know there is always something that is being worked on or that has been bypassed because it broke on a sunny Saturday morning with a line already around the corner.

If customers can tell something isn't working they will think they are being cheated and think the car isn't clean enough. If something doesn't work, tell them about it and how you made it so that the car will be just as clean.
Appearance is everything.

Number 4: Helpful, Happy, Fun Employees

In that order. When someone asks a question it is because they think they need help and want help. Ask me how many times I was asked where the bathroom was when I worked at Disneyland Park as a college student.

I know you and your employees get asked the same questions ten or twenty times a day, but a helpful employee will have that customer remember the car wash as a good experience and one they want to come back for, or will remember how horrible that employee was.

Happy and fun employees just add to a great customer experience and the number one thing you need at your wash.

Number 3: Ease of Use

If your customers feel like a monkey doing a math problem using your wash, they aren't coming back. The easier it is for the customer to use and understand what is going on, the more they will use your wash.

Some of your customers will just want to know, put the car in neutral, and go through the tunnel. Others will want to know what each chemical does, why the car is in neutral, and are the brushes scratching the car. QR codes and websites with explanations will give these customers a great experience and you only have to explain it once.

If you are running a self serve car wash, a video on a website displayed on the bays with a QR code and a quick This is how you use the wash for best results will improve your customers' experience, answer all the questions that you and your employees don't want to answer, and keep customers their longer and coming back more.

Number 2: A Clean Environment

No one wants to go to a place with trash on the ground, dirt everywhere, and graffiti on the walls. Keeping everything clean should be an obsession of yours and your employees.

Bonus: Your wash has enough light at night and daytime to see that everything is clean.

Number 1: A Good Feeling

If your customers feel good about the money they invested (not spent) at your wash, they will come back. If they feel like they spent money and got nothing, you will never see them again.

To do this, break down what you are selling in the simplest form. You are selling a want or desire. No one needs a clean car to survive.
Wants are broken down into the big three: entertainment, financial improvement, and life change.

I haven't figured out how getting your car washed could be life-changing. If you figure it out, let me know.

But, your car wash should be entertaining. Point out the fun parts of the car wash. Whether it's the music you play, the employees dancing, the smells you put in the tunnel, the light show, or the foam. Whatever part of your car wash that could be considered fun, point it out so your customers remember it.

You should be pointing out how the wash will keep the car's paint looking better for longer and that it will make their car worth more in the long run. If you are doing monthly programs or rewards, point out how that can save money.

And finally, you should be pointing out how a clean car makes people feel better about themselves, their lives, and their car. A sign like "your car looks great" at the exit could pay big dividends to your wash.

People love compliments and it makes them feel good. If they feel good at your wash, they will come back for that feeling again and again.

It's just car wash common sense,

P.S. Did we get it right? What's the most important thing at your wash?

Wishing you and your family a happy 4th of July!

Are you looking for things your team is doing right?

When is the last time you found your team doing something right and praised them for it?

We all know praise in public and punish in private, but how often do you actually praise your team?

Are you looking for things to praise for? or punish?

Do you praise new people a lot? In today's society, you should almost praise your new people for showing up.

In Ken Blanchard's book The New One Minute Manager this is secret number two out of three. Find the things you want people to do and praise them for it.

All you have to do is look for the things you want them to be doing, see them doing it, and say good job.

Your employees will appreciate you, do more of what you are praising them for, and your wash will be better.

It's just car wash common sense,
Ben

You and your customers will love our high quality products!

Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at AutoBrite.

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Visit us a NACS Booth B5130 to see how you can convert your old IBA into a new ModBrite 40ft Mini Express tunnel.

Do you know what day it is?

NACS in Atlanta is around the corner! Stop by our booth to learn more about the BEST mini-express tunnel, the ModBrite™, and our superior engineered conveyor belts. autobriteco.com/nacs