Chapter 35
Thankful for a
Start-up
“Buddy’s”
Let me tell you a story about a little boy, who loved to
make a dollar.
At age seven, this little boy was bitten by the
entrepreneurial bug. The bug bit during Halloween, when he realized he could
save his candy for selling. He opened his first candy shop out of a Nike shoe
box, where he’d sell the candy to visitors to his home, or to spectators at his
sister’s basketball games.
His entrepreneurial activities would expand at age 10, where
he began to make and sell bow and arrows with his neighborhood friends. Until
this time, the little boy had only sold his items for $.25, but his first bow
sold for $2.50. The small step of selling the bow on the street corner, was one
of the small signs of future success for this young boy. However, the bow and
arrow business didn’t last long. The little boy got upset at his neighborhood
friends during one summer, and fired his entire staff. And with the firing of
his staff, the little boy saw his bow and arrow business slowly die away.
It took the boy a while to bounce back from the fall of his
small business. For countless weeks, the boy was restless. He wanted a way to
make money, a way to be on his own, and he just wanted to start a business. So,
without knowing, his parents made the best $5 investment they had ever made.
They brought home a bucket and some soap, and they taught this boy how to
detail a car.
Austin’s Amazing Car Wash was born, and the entrepreneurial bug
took a firm hold onto this boy’s life.
As you may have guessed, that young, entrepreneurial boy was
me. My businesses continued to grow and expand far beyond the shoe box filled
with candy. I have dabbled in video production, t-shirt design, vending
machines, and most recently, the start-up that I believe will be a huge
success, Buddy’s.
Austin’s Amazing Car Wash, was a car detailing business that
I started at 12 years old, that turned into a successful high school business.
The services offered were outside, inside, and full details, and my customers
mainly consisted of teachers around the area. During my junior year in high
school, the business saw the biggest success when I made $2500. For a high
school student, making that much money in the summer was a huge deal. However,
as a business man, I knew that this model couldn’t grow on a huge scale. Even
though I knew AACW wouldn’t scale at its current model, I knew that with a
unique concept or pivot, it could easily scale.
While I was in London this summer, I visited Tesco, a large
retailer in Europe. For those of you who don’t know Tesco, it’s a lot like Walmart
(but locals would never compare the two).
When we arrived at Tesco, my roommate’s mother parked the
car at the back of the parking lot, so this company called Waves, could detail
her car while she shopped. They call it “wash-while-you-shop.” Being the entrepreneurial,
car washer, I had to take a few pictures. In the United States there are some
mall parking lots that have car detailers, but nothing like this. This was a
real company. And I would learn later, that Waves is located at 160 Tescos
across Europe.
In an earlier chapter, I spoke about the awesome experience
that I had in London, but the experience lasted more than just two weeks. Those
two short weeks spent in London continue to benefit me today.
After crossing the pond once more (Atlantic Ocean), and
coming back home, I began to explore and plan a launch for my very own
wash-while-you-shop car detailing company called Buddy’s.
I believe the best time to start a business is when you’re
young. Most of the time it’s less risky,
more creative, more time, and you don’t have anything holding you back. Also,
universities offer so many classes that deal with entrepreneurship.
When I enrolled into BUSI 500: Entrepreneurship and Business
Planning with Jim Kitchen, I had no idea what the class entailed. More
importantly, I had no idea what opportunities this small class would give me. Firstly, the class is much different than any
other class I have ever taken. In this class, I get to work on starting my own
business. Mr. Kitchen encourages students to step out of their comfort zone,
and really start a business.
For our first project, “Ready, Fire, Aim”, we created teams
of 2-3, and had four days to start a business. All proceeds raised or earned
would help send Scott, a five year old with leukemia, to Disney World. Our
grade would be determined on how much money we raised, and the profitability of
our businesses.
Kitchen gave us $50 in seed funding at the end of a class,
and said “go.”
My partner and I raised $1904 from donations, and selling
water and milkshakes during those four days. We not only broke the record for
most money raised by any team ever, but also helped send Scott and his family
to Disney World. By far the coolest and most rewarding classroom that I have
ever experienced.
Now to Buddy’s.
The “ready, fire, aim” project was just a small project to
prepare us for the big project. Starting a business.
I decided to explore the idea of the wash-while-you-shop
concept that I saw in Europe this summer for business. Also, I wanted to bring
on a partner to increase the efficiency and overall future success. One of my
suitemates, Randy Short, was super interested, and without hesitation joined
the Buddy’s team.
Quickly, we learned of the high liability of detailing the inside
of vehicles, and how difficult it would be to use water in the use of these car
washes, without taking up a lot of real estate in the parking lot.
So, we took our first pivot. We would only detail the
exterior of vehicles, but still couldn’t figure out the water part. How could
we detail cars efficiently with water?
We couldn’t. So we pivoted another time. One of the teams
during the “ready, fire, aim” project had detailed cars using this special
waterless product, and introduced it to me. It was a total game changer.
Now we had it! Buddy’s would be a waterless car detailing company
that provides a wash-while-you-shop service. Since we were waterless, we could
detail customer’s cars anywhere in the parking lot. Anywhere! We would also
shine the tires, wheels, and clean the windows.
But, where could we put these things?
Luckily, I had a small connection with Southern Season, a
retailer in the Chapel Hill area that was nice enough to listen to the Buddy’s
pitch in October. Randy and I shared our thoughts and ideas for a Buddy’s test
market at Southern Season, and they happily told us that they would love to
work with UNC students. However, they asked a few important questions that they
wanted us to answer before moving forward. They wanted to meet again to work
out the logistics, and what % of money would be donated/paid to them.
After various meetings with Randy, we scheduled another, and
what would be the final pitch to Southern Season. We decided to donate a % of
our proceeds to Southern Season’s Share the Food foundation, and we would
launch Buddy’s on Nov 16, 2014. Our test market would last until Nov 22. We
believed that a one-week test market would allow us to raise a good amount of
money for their foundation, and we could learn a lot about our business.
A week before we launched our
test market I heard a quote that rang so true, “starting a business is a lot
like having a baby, fun to conceive, but hell to deliver.” The ideation of
Buddy’s was really, really fun, but the hard work and grinding was difficult, but
we knew in the end, it’d all pay off.
The launch week of Buddy’s was by
far the longest, busiest, yet most rewarding week of my entire life.
On Nov 16. 2014, Randy Short and
I launched the first ever Buddy’s at Southern Season. Customers could recognize
us by the bright yellow shirts, and the sign that Southern Season had created
for us. Our hours were 1PM-4PM, and detailed seven cars during our launch. The
launch was awesome! My family surprised, and supported me as I launched my
first company, and we made a little $$, what more could I ask for?
The week got even better.
In total, we detailed 53 cars,
and raised $375.00 for the Share the Food Foundation.
We won $1,000 at UNC’s Carolina
Challenge Pitch Party (Thursday of launch week), which is an event that is held
each year. The pitch party, featured 110 UNC ventures that all had the
opportunity to pitch to 85 judges during the first 90 minutes of the
competition. The judges would listen to 60 second pitches from each team, and
with five votes, selected their favorite five teams. The top 10 teams, then
moved on to give a 2 minute pitch on stage.
Buddy’s received 15 votes, and
was invited to pitch on stage.
Side note:
I’m
by no means Allen Iverson, but perfect pitch practice, makes perfect. During
the entire launch week, I had prepared for the chance to be on stage to win the
prize money. I practiced walking to class, in the bathroom, to my friends, and
anywhere I could. Each time I got better and better.
Back to the challenge.
“And the first team to present……..Buddy’s,”
said the Pitch Party coordinator. I looked at Randy, he looked at me, and the
rest is history.
I grabbed the mic, which would
soon die, and delivered the Buddy’s pitch that I had probably practiced 100
times. With an ending like, “Become our Buddy, and throw us some money,” you
are destined to give a chuckle to the crowd, and place 3rd in the
Carolina Challenge Pitch Party.
The launch week also allowed us
to detail an Aston Martin, and I got to drive a Tesla Roadster.
It was a phenomenal week. A week
that’ll I never, ever forget. This week was years in the making. 8 long years
in the making.
I’m thankful for the launch week. Not because of the success
that we saw, or the money that we made, but because of the people that helped
get me here. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for: the early supporters of my Nike
shoe box, my former teachers, coaches, customers, random advice givers, and the
good Lord above. I’m thankful.
So, the next time you pull into a grocery store, shopping
center, or restaurant, take a long look at the parking lot. Chances are, Buddy’s
will be there soon.
Waves at Tesco in
Europe
Buddy’s at Southern
Season in Chapel Hill, NC
