Episode 25: How ShowCar Auto Spa Scales Fast — Sebastian Wolfgram & Spencer Hess on Building a High-Ticket Mobile Detailing Franchise

Franchise Sisters (00:01)
Hello, we are back with another episode of the Franchise Business Radio Show powered by the Franchise Sisters. This is your co-host Pam Currie

Shari Currie Skjoldager (00:10)
and your other co-host, Sherry Currie Skjoldager

Franchise Sisters (00:13)
Yeah, and as many of our listeners already know, the Franchise Business Radio Show is designed to be a platform to bring together business professionals to educate and serve aspiring entrepreneurs looking to invest and operate a franchise. On today’s show, we have a ground level emerging brand that I’m very happy to introduce. We have the founder, Sebastian Wolfram, along with his colleague Spencer Hess of Show Car Auto Spa.

⁓ Choke Car is a fast growing auto detailing franchise built around a modern mobile first model. They are helping entrepreneurs launch profitable detailing businesses with fully equipped vans, professional training, and ongoing sport without the heavy overhead of a traditional brick and mortar. ⁓ Matter of fact, their system focus on

premium services like ceramic coatings, paint correction, using efficient tech and marketing to help franchisees scale quickly. In short, Showcar is redefining what it means to own a detailing business in today’s on-the-go world. I’m going to go ahead and kick it off with you, Sebastian. Why don’t you give us a story and the backdrop behind Showcar.

Sebastian Wolfgram (01:37)
Well, thank you so much, Pam and Sherry for inviting me. very excited to be a part of this podcast. yeah, Showcar is a very exciting business model, but thank you again for having me on. Yeah. So my name is Sebastian Wolfram. I started this business in 2021 out of my town home garage in Colorado Springs. was around cars and I was really enjoying cars at the time. And I was really, you know,

Franchise Sisters (01:48)
around.

Sebastian Wolfgram (02:02)
wanting to gravitate towards something that wasn’t very much like auto-mechanic-y, like, know, kind of get my hands dirty. I really wanted something that was fun and exciting. And so that’s where Showcar came into play. And so I started Showcar on my town home garage. I started with one mobile van, just like a lot of our franchisees are starting out. And it picked up very, very quickly. I realized people want the service. if you, you

If you do great services, you have great standard operating procedures in place, people like it because it’s very, very hard to find quality in this industry. So I scaled it from there. I started posting on social media. One of my first videos I posted on social media got 1.8 million views of me pretty much just detailing a car. Every video after that got millions of views and we eventually scaled to 400,000 followers across the nation.

And people were just constantly asking, you know, to bring their cars into, into Colorado, which I thought was crazy because they live in Florida or they live in, you know, Kansas and all around the United States. So I, I realized, well, let’s, let’s expand. we, you know, opened up a few more locations worked out great. ⁓ But, you know, I really focused heavy on that mobile model, which was, you know, something that was highly profitable for the business. And I knew that I eventually wanted to expand it past myself.

Franchise Sisters (03:00)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian Wolfgram (03:18)
came out with our own show car Caroline, which is our own detailing products to help increase revenue and decrease expenses. And yeah, it became a really good model for, you know, myself and I figured, hey, I might as well franchise this. So at the end of last year, I decided to franchise and yeah, it’s been great ever since.

Franchise Sisters (03:37)
Okay, Sebastian, before Sherry takes over and starts diving into the specifics of the business model, you do not look like you’re in Colorado right now.

Sebastian Wolfgram (03:46)
I’m not in Colorado anymore. I realized, year-round this model, for me, I’m originally from Florida. And so I wanted to come back to Florida. We sold three franchises down here. And so I figured, hey, it might be time to move back and enjoy the Florida sunshine.

Franchise Sisters (04:06)
love it.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (04:08)
Yeah, not to mention I’d like to see that first video. They got 1.8 million views. What was the shock value that you put in there? What did you do to pull them all in?

Sebastian Wolfgram (04:11)
yeah.

⁓ Basically, I think it was the authenticity of what I was putting out there. I basically was just putting myself out there. And at that time, a lot of people weren’t willing to put themselves on social media. And I’ve known social media my whole life. I’ve done marketing. You know, I help my franchisees out with marketing. And it’s what I really enjoyed. So I just made a video about me. Hey, I’m in Colorado Springs. I detail. Here’s my detail van. Check it out.

and my phone blew up that night. thought it was a scam. I didn’t know people were actually gonna reach out to me. So I figured, hey, I might as well take advantage of this and hired some people that I knew and they helped me build the thing. So it was great.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (04:58)
That’s pretty cool. Well, let’s cut it like Pam said. Let’s dig into the business model. Can you explain to our listeners, what is this business model? What services are you offering? How does it work?

Sebastian Wolfgram (05:09)
Yeah, basically we really care about convenience. And so, you you realize most vehicles nowadays are so expensive and a lot of people don’t want to go out and buy new vehicles. They want to take care of their current vehicles that they have. And so we like to offer is mobile detailing for convenience. But we do, you know, inside now detailing, steam cleaning, heated extraction, shampooing on the inside of the vehicles, vacuuming, wipe downs. And on the outside.

Obviously full exterior details and we also offer higher end services like paint corrections and ceramic coating. So we’ll remove the scratches across the whole vehicle to preserve the paint and protect it with a ceramic coating, which is obviously one of the best protections out there in the industry. And yeah, it’s very exciting. We do other services like PPF and window tents in our shop locations. So if someone starts mobile, they can eventually scale into a shop. And so those services are phenomenal. They’re super high ticket.

And you know, there are a lot of fun to do.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (06:04)
That’s great. And so if you stay on the mobile side of the house, know detailing along with the ceramics and the correction painting, but with the detailing, you need certain things like water. How does that work?

Sebastian Wolfgram (06:17)
Yeah, so we actually have a great partnership with Penske Trucks and we actually source all of our trucks through Penske. They’re Ford transits, F-350s and we actually have a custom builder. ⁓ They have three locations around the United States. We send the truck to them, takes eight days. It includes a full build out on the inside, water tank, pressure washer, generator, air compressor. I mean, everything you possibly need is built out inside the van.

And with a little bit of extra room, if you ever wanted to expand in some mobile window tents or, there’s some new product that comes out that we want to add inside the van, we can easily do that as well. ⁓

Shari Currie Skjoldager (06:56)
Awesome. So, and

okay, so you do the build out, you’ve got the relationship with the trucks and you do the full build out for the franchisee to go ahead and start those primary three services in the mobile space. And they bring the water, not the client. Okay.

Sebastian Wolfgram (07:15)
Yeah, yeah, we, you don’t need

anything from the clients at all, which is really awesome. Like whenever you show up and you tell a client that, they’re always like, do you need my water? you need my electricity? I’m like, nope, you don’t, we don’t need anything from you. You know, we just need your keys. Yes. Basically it’s, it’s really cool. You can go to your work, your house, school. It does not matter. We can get your car done.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (07:24)
Now, the car does it all.

Spencer Hess (07:26)
We could do a deal of

car in the middle of the desert if we needed to.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (07:29)
Huh? I love that answer.

And so with that being said, what about the technicians? I mean, do they have to any licensing? How hard is it to get them to actually be doing the work for you?

Sebastian Wolfgram (07:48)
Yeah, no real licensing. You know, we just, we provide training to them and that’s what we, you know, we care about. ⁓ I do believe in making sure that, you know, I wanted to be in a business where you could go hire someone younger and you can get them trained up. So there wasn’t a limited labor pool. So we have a really, you know, it’s really easy for us to hire a lot of our franchisees right off the bat are able to hire people right away. And actually Spencer.

is our main trainer. So he’s been in the industry for eight and a half years. He’s ran mobile detailing vans. He’s ran massive shops. And so that’s where Spencer comes into play. He is the main trainer.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (08:27)
Very nice. And so that just to confirm the type of operators that you’re looking for. It’s more of a fully involved executive model, so you’re not doing any of the detailing or any of the car work, or are you open to semi involved? Is that a possibility?

Sebastian Wolfgram (08:43)
Yeah,

really, I mean, both options work out great. We have some franchisees that are fully involved and they want to be on it. They want to be in the van, doing it themselves. Obviously, they’re going to save a lot on labor. ⁓ But at the same time, we have some franchisees that are more executive and they don’t really want to be in the day to day, which is totally fine. We’ll find an operating manager who can do those tasks and report back to the franchisee.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (09:10)
All right, so lots of flexibility in regards to what you’re looking for and how much you want to scale versus just run your space, kind of doing it yourself. ⁓ I don’t want to miss this part before we move on to some other questions. You said something about proprietary ⁓ products. What is the proprietary piece and how did that reduce expenses, which is great that you’re already looking into that.

Sebastian Wolfgram (09:30)
Yeah, actually, a few years ago, we came out with our own product line. It was called Showcar Care. We’ve also came out with our marketing company, Social Refresh, just to help. because we realized you always need marketing, but at the same time, you know, you don’t want to be spending, you know, thousands and thousands of dollars a month on it. And so we created that. Now, when it comes down to Showcar Care, recently we’ve, you know, we don’t really push a lot of like, not, I wouldn’t say we’re like insanely money hungry, you know, a part of Showcar. And so like, I’m, ⁓

Shari Currie Skjoldager (09:36)
Okay.

Sebastian Wolfgram (09:58)
really open with you working with other vendors and our actual vendors we supply to you. So we’ve created great relationships with a few other detailing product vendors that have actually allowed us to drop our expenses even more. so ⁓ with scalability comes economies of scale, which allows us to get better pricing and it helps our franchisees overall.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (10:21)
Yeah, that makes sense. And you kind of tapped into marketing, which kind of leads to customer acquisition. So how are you helping the franchisees get their customers and who are the customers? Is it B2C only? Or do you have some B2B options? How does that all work?

Sebastian Wolfgram (10:38)
Yeah, so we recommend 70 % B2C, which is our recommendation across the board. And then 30 % B2B. B2B would be like dealerships or, you know, big office buildings or valets, some of those that we work with, you know, body shops, you know, there’s a ton of different, you know, B2B options, but B2C is one of my favorites. And, you know, the reason why is obviously retail prices are slightly higher, so better margins.

Spencer Hess (10:51)
fleet.

Sebastian Wolfgram (11:05)
And on top of that, you get to give a unique experience, which is Showcar is all about. And so for our franchisees, we not only just have marketing services, but we also have sales services. We have a vendor who allows us to have an in-house corporate sales team that allows us to actually sell for our franchisees. And so the actual acquisition is covered. ⁓ We call them, text them, ⁓ click deposits, put them on the calendar. And so all the franchisee has to worry about is showing up to the job.

and getting the job done, which is really unique. a lot of lot of, I don’t know of any other franchise that actually does that. And we just, always want to go above and beyond. Now it is optional. There’s some amazing franchisees that are really, really good at sales and we let them be really good at sales. But if there’s an opportunity for someone who just wants to more handle the work, we can handle the sales side.

Franchise Sisters (11:39)
Thank

Shari Currie Skjoldager (11:56)
That’s a big deal because that is unique and I love that. So you really support the customers. It’s almost like in-house done-for-you marketing it sounds like where you find them the customers they just go out and do the work.

Sebastian Wolfgram (12:03)
Yeah. ⁓

we do all the done for you. Like it’s all done for you marketing. We run all your Google ads, meta ads, landing pages, lead forms. We implement our in-house CRM that we can build out any way you want. Track, manage and automate all the leads in one place. Automated ⁓ messages. have AI chatbots. We have anything you possibly need. It can easily be built out. You could track the vans at any time from the app. I mean, it’s, it’s a unbelievable platform, if I’m being completely honest.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (12:33)
Wow, okay, I’ve got to ask this random question. since I, did I hear that I could run my business from the app? Is that what I’m hearing? Like, so therefore I don’t have to necessarily be physically in the location. can maybe go on vacation, but still run my business.

Sebastian Wolfgram (12:40)
Yeah, there’s

Yeah.

Yeah. You can still run your business while, you know, being somewhere else. mean, I, know, I’ve done it multiple times myself and I can tell you, you know, when it comes down to the mobile, I love, I believe in simplifying, you know, you go to, you know, raising canes or you go to Chick-fil-A, what do they serve? They serve chicken and they keep it simple. And so when you buy into a show car mobile franchise, we keep it as simple as possible. And that’s what I believe in one app, one, you know, place where you can look at everything and when one spot.

And that’s what I believe for the same thing across Showcar. And so, you know, only have three services. It’s very, very difficult to mess up with our training. And ⁓ it’s very straightforward.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (13:26)
sounds like I love the simplicity ⁓ so you guys just got started right you just started selling franchises how many franchisees do you currently have

Sebastian Wolfgram (13:37)
Yeah, yeah, so we have three franchisees, which is really exciting. And we’re gonna be at five franchise locations. We have two more that are ⁓ possibly coming up, which I’m very, very excited about. ⁓ Can’t speak too much about that yet, but ⁓ at the same time, we’re always looking to expand, but we are also somewhat picky. We really want, because this is a long term and I care about working with my franchisees and I really wanna work with great people.

And so, you know, Spencer knows a lot about that. I just, want to be able to, to make sure I can give them a great experience and they obviously give us a great experience at the same time.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (14:11)
Yeah, I’m going to wrap it up with another question. I’ll get Pam in here. Any competition? I mean, you guys are providing come to you type service, right? We’re going to come to your office, we’re going to come to your house, wherever you need to come for that customer service aspect that is not offered, usually in the automotive space, we usually have to come to them. Any competition or at all?

Sebastian Wolfgram (14:33)
This is a

very, this is a very fractured industry. It’s very much a, ⁓ you know, solo plenure, ⁓ doesn’t have any standard operating procedures, doesn’t have, you know, quality control. And they’re usually have one or two vans and that’s about it. And they, know, they have a small ⁓ area, you know, with Showcar, we implement those standard operating procedures. We implement those quality control efforts and we have marketing and sales above anyone else.

Also at the same time, think a lot of our franchisees, what they really like is the reoccurring revenue model, which is obviously our maintenance plans. So that is something that this allows us to go above and beyond. Clients love our Shine Club. ⁓ It’s very easy for us to sell a ceramic coating, which is a very high margin product for us. And then on the back end, sell ⁓ a maintenance plan to make sure that their vehicle looks that same way for the next five to 10 years. So it’s pretty awesome. So yeah, I don’t really see much ⁓

I really see much competition. Any market we go into, it’s very easy to penetrate just because usually it’s either older people, because we are young. I’ll tell you, we are young team, but that’s a good thing. I believe we bring new ideas. I believe we bring great marketing, great sales skills, and we have drive to make sure that every franchisee is successful.

Franchise Sisters (15:54)
Yeah. So can we go ahead and you kind of hit on something ⁓ when it comes to the different revenue streams and ⁓ I get the detailing piece, right? The mobility of that, going to someone’s house, going to an office building, doing the auto, wash detailing. What I’m trying to wrap my brain around a little bit is the ceramic coating and the paint correction. Is that something? How does that work?

Shari Currie Skjoldager (15:54)
I like it.

Sebastian Wolfgram (16:22)
Yeah, we can do that mobile as well. mean, we detail the car and basically we have a, it’s called a polishing machine. And so a lot of the, a lot of vehicles have scratches and swirls. I don’t know if you guys have any black vehicles, but if you point out in the sun, you can see all the scratches and swirls of the car. What I basically like to say is it’s not really in your paint, it’s in your clear coat. And so we take a polisher and we put a pad on there and we obviously put our compound.

Franchise Sisters (16:24)
Okay.

Sebastian Wolfgram (16:50)
And we basically remove the scratches and swirls off the surface of the paint. And then we protect it with a ceramic coating, which is a diamond-like hardness product that goes across the paint of the vehicle to protect the clear coat against failure, UV rays, bird droppings, anything that pretty much hits the vehicle and is protected by. And that’s something that we do offer. And it is mobile. So we can knock it out. We can do about

It takes about six hours to get one vehicle done depending on how bad the paint is. But, you know, one ceramic coating is, you know, $1,500 to $2,200. And the material cost is not too much, which is really exciting.

Franchise Sisters (17:29)
is that is so so did you say we have three key revenue streams go ahead and rattle those three off to me

Sebastian Wolfgram (17:37)
Yeah, so on the mobile side, is basically detailing. So mobile detailing, paint corrections, which is obviously, you know, we can do that on boats. We can do that on ATVs. We can do it on airplanes does not matter. And then we can also do our ceramic coatings as well. So those are three revenue streams. And then if someone decides, say they decide, hey, let’s get into a small shop, you know, you want to do a shop service, you know, you can always do window tents on top of that, which we have great trainers for window tent, great relations with our vendors. A lot of our shops do, you know, a ton of window tent.

paint protection film, is protects the paint against rock chips, scratches, swirls. And then we could also do vinyl wraps and all that fun stuff. So, you know, change up the color, make your car pink. Yeah, yeah, you can grow into that. It creates an opportunity. I believe in growth. I believe everybody should have the opportunity to grow. And so if you’re like, hey, I want to expand into, you know, three more vans. Hey, let’s do it. And then you got those three more vans. You’re like, hey, I want to add a shop.

Franchise Sisters (18:16)
Yeah, so you can grow into that, right? Those are some of the that you should

Sebastian Wolfgram (18:33)
Let’s do it. And that’s what we believe in. want people to grow and scale with us.

Franchise Sisters (18:37)
Okay, thank you for that. And let’s continue down the money matters path because everyone wants to talk about money. ⁓ Tell us a little bit about what it costs to get this business off the ground and up and running. What’s your estimated initial investment?

Sebastian Wolfgram (18:52)
Yeah.

Yeah. Now I’m actually going to have Spencer jump in on this because I think he’s, he’s actually been working with a lot of our franchisees and getting them through the sales process. And so I’d rather you to open up that relation for, Spencer to talk about.

Franchise Sisters (18:56)
Okay.

Atlas.

Spencer Hess (19:07)
Yeah, absolutely. the initial investment range, including the franchise fee from just a mobile event is usually around 82 to 158,000. Typically just north of 100,000 is a pretty safe bet. It obviously depends a little bit on how in depth they want to go right off the bat. If they want to get that plotter machine in there to start doing film, they can. It’ll just be a little up to price.

⁓ Opening a shop right off the bat, ⁓ shop plus van, usually around 251,000 518,000, which is why we’re leaning so much into mobile first, know, get them started with the van, know, have them expand into multiple vans, and then we can, you know, work into a shop one day with the profit from that, so.

Franchise Sisters (19:55)
That makes perfect sense. And I know that, which is impressive, very often ground level franchisors don’t even offer an item 19, however you do. Who would like to speak to your item 19 financial performance representation?

Sebastian Wolfgram (20:08)
Yeah. Yeah, I’ll talk about the item 19. basically, you we have actually a franchise financial packet as well for any potential franchisees we work with. So they can see that listed out in there. So basically our revenue for 2024 out of one of our locations, which is specifically Colorado Springs was $922,000. And I can pull up the exact amount, but.

Franchise Sisters (20:29)
Thanks.

Sebastian Wolfgram (20:33)
$922,000 and that is out of a shop location and that is actually without mobile because our mobile van was down for the whole year. We just, you we weren’t too focused on it because Colorado gets really, really cold. that was kind of a little bit of a struggle. figured it out. We were able to get through the winter season and it was really exciting. So now they’re adding mobile van and actually adding two more, which is really exciting. So yeah, that’s our item 19. And I think Spencer, you might have.

the actual numbers on that. Do you want to pull that up as well? We get the financial packet.

Spencer Hess (21:04)
Yeah, you pretty much

hit the nail on the head with the 922 for the item 19. I could dive into anything if you have any more specific questions.

Franchise Sisters (21:16)
Yeah. Do you guys have, when you break down your item 19 in your FTD, do you break it out into, because you have two franchise formats in my opinion, right? You’ve got your mobile and you’ve got your shop, which is bricks and mortar. In your item 19, are you breaking those out separately?

Sebastian Wolfgram (21:17)
Was there any other specific questions on that?

Yep. Yeah, they’re, broken

out. And so on the mobile side, ⁓ it’s for the actual item 19, when it comes down to the, ⁓ the mobile van, it’s about $28,000 per van when it comes down to, revenue. And Spencer can confirm that, he’s inside of my FDD on a consistent basis. So making sure we get things updated as needed. but we, we do, we always recommend with anybody who’s starting off, you know, never

Franchise Sisters (21:41)
you

Sebastian Wolfgram (21:58)
I would never say take on too much, know, because that’s never the goal. Start mobile, start small. There are higher margins. We all know this, you know, you’re going to have less overhead. You’re going to have, you know, ⁓ less things to deal with, less things breaking, ⁓ start mobile, scale into a shop and, you’re going to penetrate the market a lot easier. So. Yeah.

Franchise Sisters (22:02)
Mm-hmm.

Makes sense, it makes sense.

⁓ And when you think about ⁓ funding strategies, again, we’ve got two different formats here, two different franchise formats. ⁓ How ⁓ are you recommending that your franchisees put a wise funding strategy in place?

Sebastian Wolfgram (22:36)
Yeah, so when it comes to it depends obviously if you know you have to cash. Hey, let’s you know, let’s go to cash route. It makes it way easier. ⁓ But you know some the unique part about the vans, which is what I really like is number one, you can get into it a lot easier because vans can be financed. ⁓ Specifically the vans that we work with. We have a partnership obviously with Penske and they have financing options in place, which is really exciting for us for first time business owners who are looking to buy vans.

And on top of that, we’ve actually had some of our franchisees go through SBA as well, which is really exciting. ⁓ But at the same time, the vans, they’re very easy to get financing on. It takes a few days to get van financing if you really need. Our other vendors, such as our van builder, also has financing as well. there’s a lot of great options across the board. But at same time, if you could use cash, you could use cash. It just depends on what their goals are.

Franchise Sisters (23:30)
So obviously quicker to launch would be the mobile concept. A little bit more unpredictable timeline to launch is going to be your shop because of the bricks and mortar piece to it. One other question that comes to mind is territories. Do we have two territory definitions depending on the mobile versus the shop?

Sebastian Wolfgram (23:51)
Yep, it’s 10 miles. And we really don’t like to have any shops without mobile. Like, that’s just not like our goal. So like each and every shop will have a mobile, because you’re always going to start mobile first. We believe in that. I believe that is the structure that’s going to allow you to be the most successful. ⁓ And so every shop will have mobile, and that 10 mile radius is going to encompass ⁓ any mobile units.

Franchise Sisters (24:13)
Gotcha. All right. That makes sense to me. And what’s

your vision of growth? mean, ground level things are getting some nice traction. ⁓ What’s your vision there?

Sebastian Wolfgram (24:22)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, I’m really excited. We have actually been growing. I’m actually surprised on how fast we really have been growing. But when I look at growth, I don’t look at like, okay, how can I grow as fast as possible? I always think about how can we grow as strategically as possible and create the best partnerships with our franchisees. I don’t just see my franchisees as franchisees. I see them as partners. I work with them on a day-to-day basis. And so that’s what I believe in. And so I believe, you know, making sure all my, you know, all my franchisees reflect

what I want the show car brand to be, which is obviously authentic. You know, I want them to understand that like, Hey, sales solves everything. You know, whenever we’re in a bad situation, Hey, let’s sell our way out of it. You know, we got to sell. ⁓ and, and, those are the traits that I believe in, but I believe that reflects on the bigger vision, which is obviously I want show car in as many States as possible. ⁓ I believe that every, I believe that show car can serve every community, big, small, tiny. does not matter.

which is the very, very unique part about this business. Everybody’s like, well, it’s, you know, we’ll only work in bigger cities. We’ll only work in small cities. Where does it work? And I, it works everywhere. There’s no cap to where Showcar can go, which is obviously why we are mobile. You know, it does not matter where you’re at. We can serve you. And so that’s what I believe in Showcar. You know, everybody always say, you know, you want to be as big as possible, but at the end of the day, Showcar has the capability to do so. And so I want all of my franchisees. I don’t want, you know,

hundred franchisees I want you know I want a really amazing group of franchisees that are able to take over regions and they’re able to take over ⁓ you know large amounts of areas instead of just one small location I want them to be thinking bigger than that I want them to be thinking about how can I take over this whole state you know how can I be taking like that’s what I want them to see and they all have which is really really exciting

Franchise Sisters (26:14)
That is so what I’m what I’m hearing from you and what you shared is this is your sales driven organization.

You can sell yourself out of ⁓ any dips or what might happen. Obviously, you’ve proved to your customer acquisition strategies work and are solid. And it’s almost like you’ve taken a tried and true business model and wrapped some ⁓ digital marketing presence and technology around it. ⁓ Very cool. And looking for those empire builders, right? Scalability is in their vision. sense. So now Spencer, this question may come a little bit more

towards you because I want to talk about training. ⁓ Talk to us about the training program for your show car partners, also known as franchisees.

Spencer Hess (26:59)
Yeah, absolutely. you know, ShowCart, as a whole, offer unlimited free training for our franchisees through Zooms and phone calls. At a minimum, we like to check in with everyone at least once a week. ⁓ Once they get started, get launched with their first van or a shop or whatever it is, ⁓ I personally go to their location and spend as long as it takes to make sure that they are fully equipped to

you know, tackle, I’m essentially an employee within the company for that first week. You know, so, you know, I make sure they know how to, you know, work the software all the way down to, you know, basic detailing. work on, you know, how to, how to upsell, you know, certain ⁓ ceramic coating packages on, ⁓ on cars, which, you know, you can easily double the, double the value of a detail really quickly, just with a, you know, a simple question, right? And so we work with them, make sure they’re, you know, totally competent with

⁓ you know what they need to hit the ground running and like I said, yeah, we check in very regularly with all of our franchisees make sure nothing’s falling through the cracks, make sure, you know, we have, ⁓ you know, a leadership, you know, in place within the company even under the franchisee for ones that are growing a little, you know, farther and yeah, I mean, it really goes as far as they need it to go.

Franchise Sisters (28:20)
And before we get into our closing questions here, any questions that I should have asked and did not.

Sebastian Wolfgram (28:28)
No, I love it. This has been great.

Franchise Sisters (28:32)
Fabulous.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (28:33)
All right, well great it has been great having you guys on the show this has been really informative and it’s such a cool model because the simplicity but all it like Pam said how you guys have really provided such a great back office system for these guys to really scale and and Their business so I love that so how Pam and I like to wrap up the podcast as we we ask you guys one final question

to share with our listeners and that is what tip would you give to a budding entrepreneur? Who wants to start? Okay, very good, We’re on.

Sebastian Wolfgram (29:06)
Spencer, you go first.

Spencer Hess (29:08)
Well, I, sure, not a problem. I mean,

Franchise Sisters (29:08)
I’ll put you in the hot seat, Spencer.

Spencer Hess (29:13)
I definitely, I believe that, you know, where I’m at today, it only exists because of, you know, the fact that I have been afraid to just ask, you know, hard questions, have hard conversations, ⁓ and never be afraid to learn, you know, I,

You know, I was working in, you know, the automotive industry or detailing industry for over eight years. ⁓ and I knew Sebastian from years back from another shop that I used to work at. ⁓ and he actually, he came and hosted a training through our shop. we were just chatting, you know, and we just, stayed in touch over, you know, the next three years and I didn’t have to do that, you know, but I liked the guy. I just kept conversation going. And, ⁓ one day I just decided to, ⁓ you know,

see if ⁓ he needed any help because I heard he was franchising and here we are today. So it’s just all about being open to conversation and never burning bridges, anything like that. That’s kind of where my belief is at.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (30:14)
Networking is where it’s at, very nice. What about you, Sebastian?

Spencer Hess (30:15)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian Wolfgram (30:18)
Well, I appreciate the kind word Spencer. can say I like you as well. So thank you. Yeah. mean, really any young entrepreneur or early entrepreneur, doesn’t matter if young, old, does not matter. It’s just take action. know, a lot of people are stuck in the planning phase. You know, I like to call it analysis paralysis and they somewhat overthink every single scenario. But in some ways, you know, you’re going to have roadblocks, you know, you’re going to have things you’re going to have to overcome. And that’s whole part of being an entrepreneur is to solve those problems.

Spencer Hess (30:20)
Hehehehe. Hehehehe.

Sebastian Wolfgram (30:47)
And the only way to get to those problems and get to those roadblocks where you can elevate yourself is to start taking action today. It’s not going to be, ⁓ you know, there’s no perfect time for anything. We all know that in life. And so if you could start taking action today, you’ll be where you want to be a lot.

Franchise Sisters (31:05)
Well said, thank you for sharing those tips, guys, both. Zando, if you don’t mind me just summarizing your tips for budding entrepreneurs. Spencer, what I was hearing, being open to conversation, keeping that line of communication open. That can lead to future opportunities. Sebastian, what I heard from you is this.

take action, don’t wait for things to be perfect, don’t fall into the paralysis by analysis, get in there and take action and then because you’re problem solving from there because everything’s going to be, ⁓ nothing’s going to be perfect, right? ⁓

Sebastian Wolfgram (31:39)
Nope, never is, sadly.

⁓

Franchise Sisters (31:42)
Well, you know, guess.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (31:42)
And yet that’s always a thing that holds us back. Pam. Perfection is what always holds us back. So I agree with you there.

Sebastian Wolfgram (31:48)
Yes,

Franchise Sisters (31:49)
the grades, Sheri.

Sebastian Wolfgram (31:49)
100%. Well, awesome.

Franchise Sisters (31:50)
Agreed. Well, we really appreciate

you both being guests on the Franchise Business Radio show, ⁓ obviously co-hosted by the Franchise Sisters, and we can be found on any apps that are out there, any podcast apps. ⁓ To our listeners, we do want to say thanks for tuning in. ⁓ If for some reason you are interested in Franchise Business ownership and specifically Showcar, please reach out to the Franchise Sisters. We are here as a resource to you. ⁓ We would also like to be able

to give you not only a complimentary consultation call, but a book, Top 10 Questions to Consider Before Investing in a Franchise. We always like to say, investigate before you invest.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (32:34)
That’s right, the goal is to put you in a position to make a wise franchise decision, dodge costly mistakes, and achieve financial independence.

Franchise Sisters (32:41)
That’s right. Thanks for tuning in to the Franchise Sisters Franchise Business Radio Show. Signing off. Fist bump.

Sebastian Wolfgram (32:49)
Thank you.

Franchise Sisters (32:49)
Thank you.

Shari Currie Skjoldager (32:50)
Thanks you guys. for being on the show.

Nice job. Both of you. We’re hoping to do some deals with you. ⁓

Spencer Hess (32:53)
was awesome, loved it.

Sebastian Wolfgram (32:53)
Yeah, of course, I appreciate

you guys. ⁓ Great talk. Of course.