Is Jan and Feb slow months?

I'm in Georgia. Is January and February typically a slow month for Full Service Car Wash?

When is the typical busy months?

Thank you!

typically Jan is a little slower than Dec (less than 10%) as the consumers CC bills come in from Christmas purchases. By late Feb that seems to clear up. These past two years have been markly different for me. Both months were off by almost 20% in 2007 & 2008. In 2007 that picked up and was almost negated by June and I ended the fiscal 2007 year down by 7% when I was off by as much as 20% in the first quarter. I don't have that much confidence this year.

See what others are saying. I'm hearing that others are off by as much as 40% this first quarter.

In Alabama, we had poor revenue for January and February (off 10% or so) compared to 2007. March was much better, but not quite as good as March 07. April is looking "OK". Spring months with the influence of pollen is out best season. Summer is typically the worst with frequent afternoon rain showers dampening the urge to wash. Our unusually dry Summer last year really was good for business.

I think the recession is just getting warmed up. People are really starting to look for ways to pinch pennies. They are looking for "deals" so you may want to consider some special offerings for those bargain seekers that benefit you both. From a consumer standpoint, I think the $5 Express washes is a very good value. If I didn't have my wash that's where I would be frequenting (but please don't tell my customers)

Off topic here, but I think the American economy has hit a rough spot for a while. We had a stock bubble, then a real estate bubble. The real estate bubble with home equity extraction fueled a lot of consumer spending, Collectively, we have been spending past out level of income for nearly ten years. The consumer cannot continue to spend beyond his income for long periods of time. Once the consumer does spend beyond his income for any material period of time they must then spend below their income level for a longer period of time in order to pay down the debt they have incurred plus interest, or they must default on that debt. It has to stop at one point. If we can't re-inflate housing prices or find another equity source for the average Joe to tap into we have issues. Batten down the hatches, build a cash reserve.

I agree with Greg. And That's rare but has been increasing over the years!

I've averaged 40 years of conveyor #'s in Panama City(we lost the first 14). Of course you have to remember from Baton Rouge to Appalachicola, the Gulf Coast, gets 55 to 65 inches of rain a year. More than you guys in AL, GA or the east coast of FL gets.

My Ranking: from best to worst March, April, May, Sept, Feb, Oct, Aug, Dec, Nov, June and July. With the best and worst 2 being the most stable and consistent...ie: Mar, April always the best...July, June always the worst. All other months can be pretty close to each other or change from year to year dramatically. IE: September can be GREAT if it's dry and we have our bi-annual bug season or it can be HORRIBILE if we have a couple of tropical depressions/hurricanes with no bugs.