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Biodiesel is a fuel comparable to petroleum based diesel fuel, but is made from vegetable oil. A wide variety of vegetables can produce the quality of vegetable oil that the Biodiesel conversion process needs. This wide variety of fuel sources gives hope that Biodiesel can be helpful as an alternative-fuel, not just in the more developed wester countries, but the underdeveloped countries as well.

A partial list of the kinds of vegetable oils that can be used in Biodiesel manufacturing:

Peanut Oil
Cottonseed Oil
Rapeseed Oil
Soybean Oil
Mustard Oil
Sunflower Oil
False Flax Oil
Rice Bran Oil
Radish Oil
Safflower Oil
Palm Oil
Corn Oil
Coconut Oil
Tung Oil
Hemp Oil
Jatropha
Radish Oil
Algae
Castor Oil

Biodiesel can also be made from WVO (waste vegetable oil), which is previously used vegetable oil, like that which would be discarded from restaurants and delis. When using WVO to make Biodiesel there is an additional process that has to be undertaken to remove all the impurities, while this process would add to the overall cost of the fuel, it would not be prohibitive. It can be financially profitable to use WVO as a source for Biodiesel, but there are already other established industries using WVO in their manufacturing process, namely soap products.

Animal fat can also be used to produce Biodiesel in a very similar process to that of vegetable oil conversion. Because of the limited supply of animal fat this is rarely undertaken.

The combination of waste vegetable oil, vegetable oil, and animal fat is not even close to sufficient enough to replace liquid fossil fuel as the main form of fuel used in transportation. Some environmentalists, although supporting of the use of Biodiesel as a viable fuel option, are not in favor of raising production of the vegetation needed to manufacture more Biodiesel. The argument being that if natural vegetative growth is removed to make room for the growing and harvesting of plants intended to be used in the manufacturing of Biodiesel, then in the end the Earth would suffer in spite of it’s well intentioned efforts.

Biodiesel, as a fuel, has many sources or raw materials but none so plentiful that it could challenge the current standardized petroleum based oil industry.

Mark Allen is a strong supporter of the continued serch for a viable alternative-fuel. More information at www.biodieselplans.info

Most of our mobile washing competitors are the enemy. Not because they are evil, but because if you are also in the business they will do anything to get your customers. They will obviously be impressed with image if you have a classy rig and be little intimidated; you should use this to your advantage to keep them at bay. I can tell you that most of our mobile car wash competitors (I run a business called the Car Wash Guys), operate out of short bed pick up trucks can’t use 5.0 hp Craftsmen Shop Vacs or small 5 X 7 foot trailers. Either way there is just not enough room. If a competitor has a short bed pick up, he will be inefficient and clumsy, moving stuff around every time they wash a car. This will take time; time costs money. Being all discombuberated is also very irritating for the operator. This type of competitor fits our perfect competitor profile of $150-200 per day gross sales with heavy Friday and Saturday routes of up to $300-500. They try hard, but they can’t be too serious about their business in a short bed pick up truck. When all of the car washing equipment is close together things break. Such as:

Extension cord melts on exhaust of generator

Towels burn up on exhaust of pressure washer

When pulling out pressure washer hose it catches on controls of generator or
linkage to engine ripping them off

Vacuum falls out of truck because tail gate is down while moving between cars

Vacuum hose melts on exhaust or gets smashed between truck and tank when going around corners

Brakes on truck are warn out due to the extra weight of water

Leaf springs permanently inverted due to over weight of payload

Front of truck smashed due to reduced stopping distance (due to violation of the laws of physics)

Inside of truck bed blackened and ruined from exhaust of pump

Front tires warn out due to alignment being off because of change in weight in truck

Bed of truck dents back of cab because water tank half full moves around too much

Towels fly out of truck on freeway, no space for them

Containers low on product fly out

Products get stolen at night out of truck

Gas cans (plastic type) one to five gallons tip over and get on towels and if present a bed liner. They stain and mix with water every time it gets wet. Towels streak windows.

Since our company has had all these things already happen to us we have designed our units so these things do not happen to him. If you are smart you will think about these things as you design your mobile car wash rig. We refer to Murphy’s Law when it comes to operations. “If it can break, it will.” It’s only a matter of time. And just because you fix it, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen again. Every thing needs to be in its space for a reason. It’s not that Murphy doesn’t live in our trucks too, he does. It’s just that he has nothing to do. So he sleeps all day. The best thing to do is to drive up next to a competitor real close and slow. Then Murphy can jump out into their truck. He’ll have much more fun.

Play it smart and realize that when you design and build your own car wash rig that you need to make sure none of these things can occur and build your rig to best service your customers. Make sure the signage, logo and colors all match, besides, if you put a competitor’s truck next to your mobile car wash rig, there is no comparison. It’s the ultimate intimidation; which will help you from having them attempt to walk in and try to steal your clientele at office buildings. If you do not take care of these issues they are major obstacles to overcome when you start your business. Think about these things as you design your mobile car wash rig and start putting a pencil to graph paper to insure everything will fit right and be efficient and easy to use.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

If you run a mobile auto detailing business or a mobile car wash, you know how much advertising can cost. One advantage to being a mobile business is that you are out and around the community all day and are an excellent source of human intel and information. You can use this knowledge to your advantage and develop a great Media Relations Strategy.

Not all advertising has to be expensive much can be free thru a little bit of pre-planning on your part. Media relations are essential in larger businesses to maintain a strong image with customers, employees and investors a like. Not all small businesses understand the importance of proper media relations. Fortunately I do and it has served our companies well. www.carwashguys.com . Feel free to tour the “In the Media” section of our website and see just how good things can be even in the smallest of companies. You owe it to your self to have an understanding of these things. Below is an outline, which I have prepared which can help you do the same things we have done in your own community.

Here is what I recommend that you do. Take this outline and modify it slightly to fit your individual small business and then write a paragraph or perhaps two for each item listed, then try to be thinking about these things while you are out and about servicing your clientele on your cleaning route.

MEDIA RELATIONS

I. WASHING CARS

A. At Radio Stations

B. Newspapers

C. Cable Companies

II. TIPS

A. Scoops

B. Accidents

C. Interesting Things

III. PRESS RELEASES

A. Spacing

B. Faxing, Email

C. Drop Of

IV. FRIENDLY

A. Say Hi At Events

B. Remember Names

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Sometimes when you go to sell your car you are stumped as to how to write your ad. If you’ve never sold one before you just don’t know what gets a response.

This is where a few pointers can put you in the success lane straight away.

Let’s cover a few quick basics first. Like any sort of advertising there is a physical response at the other end.

For example, say you are reading a piece of junk mail. The advertiser has only a few seconds to grab your attention before you throw it in the bin.

His mission is to get you to read it.

It works like this. Say he prints 1000000 pieces. 1% read it and out of those 1% 10% buy. He has just sold 1000 units, which is
pretty good.

Now if he can get 2% to read it and increase the buying rate by 2 times, he has just sold 4000 units - even better.

When you are advertising your car, you are competeting with other advertisers who are advertising similar vehicles in that price
range.

Your mission is to get qualified buyers to call.

Imagine a buyer, he scans down the page and marks off advertisements - say every Toyota in the $10000 range in the
model he wants.

Now that is if he is particularly thorough person.

But is everybody like this. No, they are not. People have lazy eyes. We are conditioned to have advertising thrust into our
faces.

We are also conditioned sub-consciously to evaluate the quality of advertisements and make some sort of value judgement about the product at the other end.

It is only my opinion, but I believe we all pride ourselves on our ability to ’suss’ out whether we want to follow something up or not.

Therefore you advertisements should be of sufficient quality to reflect your vehicle in it’s best light.

The Mental Checklist

A buyer usually has a mental checklist in his mind when he is looking for a car.

E.g auto, low kilometers model, color maybe, what the wife wants. Reliable.

It’s his checklist. Some of these things he would like to be able to isolate from the ad.

If you’ve ever looked through advertisements, you would be familiar with that spinning feeling where there are so many things on offer.

It is frankly a relief to settle on something you see and tick it off as something you are interested in.

The Easy Way Out.

Regardless of the better side of life and even with amounts of thousands of dollars, people are basicly still lazy. If you make your advertisement clear and answer as many details as you can you have done work for them. You have saved them time. Now they are ever so slightly in your debt and your rating goes up.

Generally people will take the easy way out.

Saving them time is money in your pocket.

Bigger Ad, Bold Lettering

No,it’s not a myth and an attempt to bilk money from you by the
newspaper. In my experience it works. It’s based on solid principles. First you must get the buyer’s attention and only then can he evaluate your ad.

Even when people see the big ad and they think they have worked out your strategy.

‘Aha, he’s trying to sway me with those bold letters. I’m not going to fall for that”

It doesn’t matter. They still come back and the next thought they have is.

“Yeah, but what if that’s because it’s a great car. I better not miss out on that”

The fact of getting someone to see your ad is half the battle. What they do after that is mostly internal wackiness anyway.

The killer combination is to get your ad seen and write a killer ad, which answer’s their mental checklist.

Mistakes advertisers make.

Leaving key information out - like whether it’s auto or manual.

Apparently some people do this to encourage people to call.

Look guys, you don’t want people to call to ask silly questions, you want the qualified and interested buyers to call - don’t you?

This is just plain stupid. You will miss a lot of people just because you have annoyed them.

When they do call, you have a little hump to get over before you can close them to come and see your car.

Use of abbreviations

This is fine, so long as the abbreviation is decipherable. Use other classifieds as a guide to see what others use - don’t make up your own language as there is no way anyone can figure it out.

That’s the end of part 1. In part 2 of this article series, I’ll give you some example advertisements as well as reveal some killer little lines that can prompt people to call.

Graeme Sprigge is the webmaster of sellmycarforcash.com. He is also the the author of The 90 Minute Car Salesman. You can find more articles on selling your car in a private sale at http://www.sellmycarforcash.com
This article may be reprinted provided this resource box is included. Copyright 2005 Graeme Sprigge

A car prototype can be considered to be the test model of a new car design that is intended to be produced in mass quantity. There is no company that goes out and starts mass production of a new car, without first creating a prototype of it.

Before a car is actually built, it is designed, researched and developed into a car prototype. It is the researchers who conduct consumer surveys and analyze market trends to get an idea of the type of car people want, and then, based on these findings, car designers design drawings of car prototypes. These drawings help engineers adapt parts in existing cars to be implemented in the new model. This is when they proceed to produce the car prototype. The car prototype will have all these new implementations displayed in it. Most of the manufacturers usually start by building a few car prototypes before actually setting up a factory to build the new car.

A car prototype can also be referred as a test car. These car prototypes are developed to demonstrate the new qualities of their product to clients. By subjecting these car prototypes to numerous tests, the car designer gets to see the strengths, weaknesses, mistakes and limitations in a new car project. Then, by gathering this information, the car designer proceeds to rework the design through the car prototype until the car reaches the objectives of the designer. Sometimes, the participating cars in a race are also called prototypes. The reason for this is that these cars are not mass-produced. These car prototypes are specialized machines that are supposed to showcase new innovations and designs that the car manufacturer carries. These car prototypes are the models for future mass-produced cars the manufacturer will be creating, based on the results of the tests on the car prototype.

Prototypes provides detailed information on Prototypes, Prototype Makers, Pcb Prototypes, Car Prototypes and more. Prototypes is affiliated with Invention Patents.

The aftermarket auto parts market is well noted with creating some outstanding products. Some of the more popular creations include, brake dust shields to keep unsightly dust off of your wheels; car covers to protect your car from impacts, pollution, debris, and more; step rails to help you get in and out of your truck easier; and many other products. Wind deflectors are another product that is catching on. Read on for more information on what a wind deflector is and what it does to protect your vehicle.

Wind deflectors, also known as bug deflectors, are showing up on more vehicles across North America. Installed horizontally across the front most section of your vehicle’s hood, deflectors are noted with accomplishing several things when the vehicle is driven down the road:

With car wash fundraisers it pays to sell tickets in advance, there is a right way and a wrong way. It is essential that you understand the sales strategies necessary to maximize your pre-sale efforts. Not every person is a crackerjack sales person. Some people are introverts rather than extroverts. What may seem to come naturally for some will seem like an insurmountable task to others.

If you find that a few sales people are falling behind, put them in a team with an extrovert. If you can’t do that, put them with an introvert. Two introverts together will find success because they will draw upon each other. They will lose fear of rejection and will not be afraid. In the case of kids, they may not tell you that they are totally terrified of knocking on a stranger’s door and asking them for money. Since you don’t have time to fix this problem now, simply put them with an extrovert or perhaps their best friend in the group. This usually works. Whatever you do, don’t criticize or ridicule them in front of their peers. Even simple teasing will only worsen problems. I’ve seen kids go home and cry, stop selling altogether and even quit the group. Remember kids join groups to feel like they belong. If they no longer feel like they belong why should they stay. You may or may not realize it but you can cause psychological damage to a young person by submitting them to something that terrifies them and then ridiculing them in front of their peers for not performing.

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

It may be wise to start a full-blown assault in ticket sales or pledges. You’ll have to have a game plan. We suggest you ask each salesperson or pledge driver to put a dot on a map of where they live. Try to assign streets near their house for them to target. Be careful not to duplicate streets otherwise you will be competing against yourself. The larger your group the more neighborhoods you’ll be hitting. It’s similar to precinct walking during elections; each person must commit to knocking on every door in their assigned area. Again, remember that teams might be a good idea. Try to pick between 75-150 home areas per person. If it’s a high-income area or a medium income area but is mostly families, 75-150 homes will be ok. Low-income areas will need 125-150 home areas. This should net you approximately twenty to thirty tickets or pledges. If you are desperate for cash go on the high side with 150 homes. Don’t bother counting houses. Use your best guess. If you don’t know which areas are high income ask the kids where all the rich people live. They know. It would be better if you drove through various neighborhoods before assigning streets to be targeted by each kid. We suggest getting a big map, put it on a poster board and let the kids put a mark where they live. If you have a roster of homes addresses do this yourself. Then go and assign areas after you do some marketing by driving around (MBDA).

OVER LAP PROBLEMS

If you don’t assign areas for a small group you may be ok. With a large group you will have some overlap problems. One or more of your pledge drivers or ticket salespeople will knock on doors and the people answering will say they already came here. Even if they didn’t buy a ticket, they will lie and say they did. Even more discouraging, they may say four people already asked me. Don’t come back. Whoops. The question to your salesperson/pledge driver is now where did they start and where did they stop in that neighborhood? This is a dilemma since it will probably be in a high income area. Kids are not stupid. They go sell in the rich areas first. When all their tickets are sold they quit. Since every kid will go to the easy sell areas then get depressed when they don’t sell any tickets there because ‘Billy’ hit all the good areas first, this will be their excuse for not selling any tickets. You will be facing this excuse. Also, if four kids live in the same area, the first kid who is not scared to sell will go out and sell leaving nothing for the other three in that area. The most likely to procrastinate until the last minute will be the introvert who is terrified of selling and when he or she goes to sell in this area, the neighbors will reaffirm the child’s belief that they can’t sell and they will refuse to knock on any more doors. All because your best salesperson already sold there. You should also realize that if they fail at the last minute, it’s too late to send them out in teams, too late to motivate them and it’s too late to help them overcome their fears. Even if you’re a hard liner, “They’ll just have to deal with it. I did when I was a kid,” if they fail your group loses money and you may have to do a whole other fundraiser if this happens to too many kids in your group. Be very cautious. This is serious.

OTHER LOCATIONS

Where else can your group sell tickets? There are a number of prime locations and I mean prime locations. Ask the owner of the bowling alley if you can ask bowlers to buy tickets. Same with the manager of driving range at the golf course. Outside of major grocery stores are good. Medical centers where there are individual doctor’s offices are good stops. Casinos are good if you have parental escort. Regional shopping centers can also be great. Pizza places after softball games are good. Ask large corporations to put up a small shoebox for donations or a pledge sheet with a stack of free car wash coupons. Small business clusters, office complexes or high-rise office buildings can be good. Soccer fields, baseball, basketball, hockey and softball games work well. Try a local farmer’s market. Service clubs such as: Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimists, Soroptimists, Elks, Lions, Mesonic Masons, Toastmasters, Promise Keepers, Networking Groups are excellent because lots of people who really care about your community are at these meetings. Some members may even volunteer to take a booklet of twenty tickets and sell them for you at other clubs or at work.

Senior citizen groups and citizen/city sponsored committee meetings are good. How about bingo nights? You should also try car clubs that meet monthly.

If you are a sports team, associated student body or school club, anything associated with schools, then go to: Back to school night, PTA meetings, High school football games, Baseball games, Track meets, Basketball games, Wrestling matches and School District Office (Make sure you have permission from the school district for your car wash first for this).

Craft shows, bazaars, trade shows, chamber of commerce are good places to go. Chambers of commerce have regular: Board of Director meetings, Seminars, Mixers, Luncheon meetings, Breakfast meetings.

You should figure out how much money you need to earn from this fundraising event. How many people do you have in your group? Figure out how many tickets you will sell or how many pledges you will most likely receive. Also, how many cars you can wash. Extrapolate these figures out and decide if it is feasible to reach your budget goals. Make sure you know your goals before you start. Let everyone in the group know. Figure out a worse case scenario and best case scenario and then go for it.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Out West after large wildfires many carwashes have long lines for weeks. Many think it is a boon for the industry. Indeed, a lot of revenue is generated during fire seasons and the ask must be cleaned off the mini-vans, cars, light trucks and SUVs or it could contribute to the early decay of the clear-coat finish.

Fire Season comes every year in the Western States, started by lightning, carelessness and arson. These fires burn thousands if not hundreds of thousands of acres annually. Special soaps and sometimes even in the best and most efficient carwash tunnels a double pass is needed to truly clean the vehicle. This of course equates to more hassle, higher operational costs and therefore adverse effects on return on investment.

A carwash near a fire area could expect double or triple the volume and therefore double or triple the revenue, although not double or triple the profits. The full service carwashes must spend more time and effort in pre-soak and scrubbing prior to the tunnel allowing for proper soap dwell time. Automatic rollover carwashes experience dirty brushes, which move sooty streaky muck onto the next car and this causes issues. Those in the mobile car wash business absolutely hate it, because it means a lot of hand scrubbing, extra soap and therefore more rinsing which depletes their on board water supplies. Additionally the extra water usage causes more runoff, which is not allowed into a storm drain and must be collected and removed to a POTW Publicly Owned Treatment Works.

The car wash industry therefore asks the public to be careful this fire season, do not throw cigarettes out the window and report any suspicious potential arson activity you see. Think on this.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

To make your car handle and look better you need the right car ground effects. Use aero-dynamic wings, spoilers, dams or skirts to get the down force plus the stylish look you have been looking for. These car ground effects features are not just pretty add-on’s, they are designed to really work on your car, truck, jeep or suv ! Generally, they are wind-tunnel tested to generate huge rear down force to dramatically improve traction and keep your vehicle stable at high speeds without draining power from the engine.

When I was in Little League, I was transformed from being an outfielder and an occasional third baseman into a catcher.

Our aging receiver was moving up to Pony League, so the always forward-thinking manager and coach of the Dodgers, started to groom me to take over, which I did with relish and some distinction for two years.

Along the way, I had a blast because you may or may not know this: Catchers rule the game of baseball.

When a coach has confidence in us, he or she lets us position the fielders, call for the pitches we think are appropriate from one moment and situation to the next, and really control much of the pace of the game.

Before long, I could size-up an opposing player from how he walked up to the plate, where he positioned his feet and the way he took his practice swings. Then, I’d call for specific pitches to ideal locations to exploit his weaknesses.

Most of this was intuitive, but it was based on real world data, as I rapidly interpreted and adjusting to the behaviors batters revealed to anyone who paid sufficient attention.

Later, when practicing martial arts, I’d refine this opponent-analysis a significant amount, enabling me to earn a Black Belt in Kenpo Karate after eight years.

What I’ve found is the same perceptual ability to size-up an opponent’s intentions and likely behaviors serves me well in traffic, as a driver. When I turn on my attention, I can almost perfectly predict who will try to cut in front of me, suddenly make an un-signaled lane change, or stop abruptly.

Occasionally, my awareness can “see around corners,” and I’ll feel it’s important to slow down to a near crawl, and when I do, sure enough, there is a disabled vehicle or other obstacle awaiting me that comes into view, that I have more than enough time to avoid crashing into.

I believe we all have an innate version of Roadway ESP, but we just haven’t activated it.

The next time you’re in traffic, deliberately start predicting what the drivers to the sides, the rear, and front are going to do next.

You’ll come to see certain cars getting WIDER within their lanes, and this will often be a precursor to a lane change, sudden or not.

Your eyes might become fixed in the rearview on an approaching car that is heading toward you at too fast a clip, and this will induce you to move forward a little or to the side to give him room to miss you.

This happened to me in Florida, two days ago, and sure enough, if I hadn’t peeled to the left, a pickup would have smashed into me. After the near miss, another driver, encamped at the traffic signal saw what had happened and just shook his head in disbelief.

I’m convinced everybody has Roadway ESP to at least some extent, so use yours, and you’ll enjoy safer motoring!

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 900 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered “The Gold Standard”–the foremost expert in sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.