Rising Tide Car Wash
Rising Tide will be a franchisable and environmentally responsible conveyorized car wash centered around providing employment for people with autism. Rising TIde will use both nonprofit and for-profit models to meet the needs of any individual, family or organization that is interested in helping people with autism thrive. Both of these models would allow for cooperative funding by families of adult children with autism.
Rising Tide will be scalable, have high exposure in the community and provide employment for people with autism through easy to learn, process driven labor. Rising Tide will have strong enough profitability to support a community of people with autism through housing and living assistance.
Why a car wash?
We see a need for a consumer-facing business built for and
owned by people with autism. All too often people with autism fade into the
background of society once they age into adult services, building a business as
visible in the community as a car wash will ensure that they are not forgotten.
We also see a market opportunity for autism focused B2C (Business to Consumer)
companies based on the size of the issue. As 1-in-110 individuals are diagnosed
with autism, we believe there is a competitive advantage here as everybody
knows someone affected. Thus, Rising
Tide will generate an extremely high-touch service which allows customers to
see the positive community impact their purchase is having.
The car wash industry is relatively unexploited. It’s
largely untouched by big corporations and dominated by small, family owned,
businesses. Due to high capitalization franchising has been unsuccessful.
Contributions could be one tool to offset to this barrier to entry, but with
the incentive to care for a family member and foster sustainable independence;
this model may have multiple families shoulder capitalization. Therefore,
Rising Tide removes a primary barrier to independent ownership yet maintains
franchise scalability.
A car wash has favorable labor attributes for many people with autism. The car washing process is largely automated and the tasks are easy to learn, structured and process driven. While car washing is process driven by nature and therefore relatively repetitive, there are a variety of tasks that must be done including vacuuming, drying and polishing with some variation such as washing different types of cars. Moreover, many people with autism have a great eye for detail which lends itself perfectly to providing a quality car wash. In summary, car washing provides work that can fit into a structured routine, provide enough variety so it doesn't become monotonous and use the attributes of the individual as an advantage.
How will we do it?
Following the process outlined in the methodology section of
our website, our first step to actualize Rising Tide is running a proof of
concept model. This small scale operating model is key to public buy-in and
will help us work out the kinks and prove Rising Tide can produce a quality
carwash before opening the company up to paying customers. Our goal is to have this phase of the process
running by early summer 2012.
Next we will build a fully operational car wash which will
provide an outstanding service to our consumers and will be a community center
where people can learn about autism. The profits generated through the
operations of this car wash will be distributed among the employees with autism and will be used to provide housing and living assistance. The car wash will
also be environmentally responsible through recycling water, using the most
efficient equipment available and only purchasing nontoxic and biodegradable
cleaning chemicals. In addition, we are evaluating the feasibility of using
renewable energy to power the facility.
During the operating phase we will refine the model and
develop a process to ensure replicability. The final step in actualizing Rising
Tide is scaling the company through franchising opportunities. At this point,
CanDo will act as the franchisor for Rising Tide and provide direction and
assistance to the franchisees.
What’s the outcome we’re hoping for?
Rising Tide will send a powerful message that people with autism can be contributors to a community. Done through a both nonprofit and for-profit models which distribute 100% of profits to the operators with autism, our goals, to educate people,
create sustainable income and build a community of financially independent people with autism living together, will be met.
