As we study the foundational story of a developing franchise business, we see how opportunities in the marketplace make businesses grow and how entrepreneurial thinkers seize those opportunities to offer goods and services that match the desires of the marketplace. In this review of the history of aircraft washers, we see the company branching out and finding other niches to serve, some of which were better than the original plan. This is very common and typical of start-up startups, however all too often regulators and government rules fail to see how real businesses come about. This study shows similarities to many of the humble beginnings. If you look at Walt Disney who started in a shed behind the studio or Apple works in the garage or even Bill Gates and his car counting machine, you can see how things grow and build and entrepreneurs find and exploit niches. Now back to our story of the History of the Plane Wash Guys Part III:
Mr. Winslow decided after all the research that it was time to do it; time to launch the franchise business on his own without any risk capital. He planned to build the business the way we had always done it, starting from the bottom line. He went on to build the car and plane wash business and renamed it The Car Wash Guys. He created car washes in 35 units serving 43 cities using independent contractors. In 1996 he decided to become a franchise company and formed Car Wash Guys International, Inc. He was now able to better control consistency, color schemes and quality of service, based on Ray Kroc’s comments in his book “Grinding it Out “.
Coming from aviation to automotive services, I tended to run our business strictly by the book. In aviation things are more critical than in the automotive sector, but he believed that worrying too much about the small details would actually be a good thing and an advantage over the competition when it comes to cars. During the “.Com” craze, he changed the name to WashGuy.com and added websites for the different brands. Of course, Aircraft Wash Guys has always been Mr. Winslow’s favorite, as this is where he started some 27 years ago. After the successes and difficulties of learning all the other different market segments for Team Wash Guys, it was wonderful to offer Aircraft Wash Guys as a completely separate franchise module for those people involved in aviation who would like to have their own business.
Wash Guys wash cars, trucks, boats, concrete, and many other things, and as you probably know, aircraft washing requires different training, soaps, equipment, and sewage reclamation for environmental reasons. The FAA will withhold funding for aircraft upgrades if airports don’t follow strict environmental laws. It is for this reason that Mr. Winslow has been so proactive in helping the team with environmental compliance and bringing his expertise to government agencies that are developing BMPs for the aviation industry.
In 1997, Lance Winslow brought in and hired Arthur Dickey, the creator of the Tidy Plane, to work on product development. He trying to improve a product called Dry Wash, using kerosene as the active ingredient. Tidy car tried to market Tidy Plane, but that didn’t work out well without Arthur’s devotion. Arthur helped the company design labels and, with the help of his chemist, design better products that would be safe for the aviation cleaning industry that actually worked out of Lance’s garage. Arthur was one of the original Tidy Car franchisees, his father once owned a small airline in Los Angeles, who flew jet planes and later owned one of the best Mail Boxes Etc franchises Tidy Car made Arthur stop his Tidy Plan Concept, through a franchise agreement clause that he felt did not work with his brand. A decade later, Tidy Car sold that brand to Ziebart. Arthur’s brother operated Tidy Car Franchise after that and did many plane washes for plane customers in Florida. Arthur was hired by the founder of the Paxton Super Charger and the Paxton Racing Team after he had developed his brand of super wax to sell at Wal-Mart and Pep Boys, after Arthur left the brand he never reached his full potential. . Arthur with all this knowledge made it easy for us to meet all the MSDS requirements. Arthur, after developing the company’s product line, went on to explore other opportunities and continued his passion with the dry cleaning concept and, with a friend, convinced Fed Ex to use it exclusively in many markets and established a few associates. a network of operators using their new mix.
In 2000, Mr. Winslow gave all Car Wash Guys a notice stating that they were prohibited from washing planes due to possible negative public relations in the newspapers if they polluted, plus the equipment and insurance requirements were not correct in case of damage and the UFOC for Car Wash Guys did not cover these issues and those independent contractor contracts were 10 years old. This was a big dilemma. So the team got together to make a series of training videos, upgrade the team so the team could maintain aviation customers and comply with laws. Several of the franchisees with Car Wash Guys complied and continued to wash planes. It was determined that the aviation market was not satisfied, so we have expanded into a full franchise system. It was noted that FBOs, flight schools and especially the fractional jet market was really taking off. This allowed Car Wash Guys to sign Aircraft Wash Guys agreements or, in some cases, where they purchased specialized equipment, make verbal agreements for them to continue.
Then when we started to get going the FTC hurt a lot of our franchisees by attacking Car Wash Guys and then the other 9-11 terrorists almost dealt the death blow to general aviation but the aviation people are hard as it seems and today the market sector is rebounding. Lance often wondered who was worse, the government’s terrorism regulatory lawyers or the current Osama Bin Laden and company.
Mr. Winslow has always been passionate about flying and aviation. His father was a decorated naval aviator who flew in Puerto Rico’s F-8 Squadron during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 250 combat missions in an A-4, later CO of a Naval Squadron (A-7 Corsair II ), later Navy Captain, later and Airline Pilot (737, 727, DC-10, 747, 777, 757), after retirement, currently flies for Gulfstream Corporate Aircraft. Mr. Winslow’s father wishes he could be flying F-18s in the Sand Box right now. Mr. Winslow’s grandfather was head of the FAA at Fresno International Airport and flew a B-24, while his step-grandfather flew a B-17 Flying Fortress) and his other grandfather built the first ring laser gyroscope that it is now used as a guidance system throughout the aircraft, marine, and space industries. It’s in my blood. Lance Winslow’s brother is a pilot in command of a C-130 in the US Marines stationed in Miramar.
Today the Aircraft Wash Guys team have washed for Millionaire Aviation, Executive Jet etc. And companies like Raytheon, Cessna and others. They have washed jets at Little Rock Arkansas, Scottsdale AZ Airpark, Colorado Springs CO, Bozeman MT, Columbus OH, Van Nuys CA, Palm Springs CA and many other airports across the country. Today’s goals include having 35 Aircraft Wash Guys in 2007 and 50 in 2009 and 100 in 2011. Ambitious, go big, and can they do it? Well, they think it’s possible, time will tell. They have some competition in the industry like any business, not much, but they plan to do whatever it takes to be and stay ahead of the curve.
If you study any service franchise in the United States or in the aviation sector any large company, you will see that they all come from the humblest beginnings, they made mistakes along the way; it had to wrestle with government regulators and competitors and lobby to succeed. Of all the great names in aviation that hang on the walls of museums across the country, like the Wichita Aviation Museum, the Wright Patterson Aviation Museum, or even the Smithsonian, you see the die-hards who make aviation great. this industry and this country. Burt Rutan recently made such a comment to Congress during his testimony on the birth of the private space industry. America is great, but we have to go out there and take some risks if we want to stay on top.
