Business Ideas

As consumers we all want to get the best good or service for the lowest price possible. People are always looking find a cheap way to purchase something they need. And when it comes to such mandatory things as vehicle insurance it’s evident why drivers are constantly looking for ways to save on this service. Sure, it’s really useful for a lot of drivers but having to pay a lot every year just for keeping your car insured is something that a lot of car owners aren’t happy about in the current economy. So, is there anything that can be done in order to get your car insured at an affordable price?

Of course there is! One of the easiest and most effective ways to get a good insurance for a lower price is to explore your discount options. Most insurance companies have different types of discounts to award different groups of low risk drivers and attract new clients. So you can exploit this opportunity and get a discount to gut your rates with. Every company has different discounts and various amounts of them offered. But in general the basic selection of discounts tends to be the same across most providers. So you can look into one of the following:

Multiple car discount

Most insurance providers are really happy when you’re insuring two or more cars with the same policy. This lets cutting down some costs and you can generally get a better overall discount compared to buying separate policies for each car.

Multiple policy discount

Some insurance providers specialize in providing different types of insurance services in the same area. So if your home insurance provider offers auto insurance too you may consider getting a policy from them because in most cases you can opt for a really good discount by doing so. Just ask your provider if they have such discounts for multiple policy owners.

Low mileage discount

Drivers who tend to drive less during the year can also get a good discount. If your yearly mileage is below 10,000 miles then you can opt for a low mileage discount with most insurance providers. Just make sure to check the requirements with your company in order to get this cheap car insurance option.

Security discount

Most car insurance providers encourage the use of additional safety and security options in your vehicle that will reduce the risk of the car being stolen or damaged. So if you install additional alarm devices, seat belts, anti-lock brakes, anti-theft devices to your vehicle you can then opt for a discount with your provider.

Good driver discount

If you are a good driver with a clean driving record and no claims made during the last couple of years you can opt for a good driver discount with your insurance provider in order to get cheap car insurance. Some providers will require you to maintain a good record for a period of 3 to 5 years, but it varies from company to company. Besides, good drivers with no accidents on their records usually get lower insurance rates right from the start.

Why on Earth is Procter and Gamble getting involved in the Car Wash Industry? Moreover, why is perhaps the greatest consumer product company of all times getting into the franchising business. You see, P&G is a great branding company, and some believe the best in the world.

What intrigues Corporate America about the car wash business anyway? Well, here are some of my thoughts: There is a contingency of Harvard Business School MBA’ers who have as part of their class assignments to access the concept of a nation-wide “Car Wash Company” and once these kids get out of school, they remember this and then think it’s a good idea.

Thus, some end up in large fortune 500s like P&G (which is a GREAT COMPANY, so don’t get me wrong), some end up as investment bankers, and a few turn up in the car wash sector every once in a while.

I can recall P&G’s Mr. Clean showed up to debut at the International Car Wash Convention back many years ago and I actually sensed a bit of angered from car wash owners. It appeared that P&G assumed that car washes would sell their ‘personal’ car washing systems for home washing and thought they are a kindred spirit to those in the car wash industry.

P&G advertised in all the Car Wash Magazines and spent huge money (in relation to the car wash industry, not the behemoth P&G, whose annual gross is 15 times the entire car wash industry combined). I laughed because, I thought it was good to rub it in the face of the arrogant and politically petty car wash industry, they deserve it, mostly knuckle-heads, only a few really get it (5-10%). [personal opinion from years of observing the industry].

The Mr. Clean product showed up at major box store retailers in little packages and sold well, as expected and well researched I am certain. Again, I felt the tension, it appeared to be making the industry angry, kind of like Maguire’s did when it turned on the auto-detailing industry and sold directly to the public, it pissed off everyone. Good move for their bottom line, but bad move for their dealer networks, especially with other strong product lines like Pennzoil’s sub-brands or Auto-Magic an industry mainstay, ready to pick up new dealers.

Car Wash Owners and the Car Wash Industry; well, it’s a cut – throat, throw you to the dogs industry, it’s a cash-cow business and it attracts disreputables, wannabe mafia types, it’s pretty sickening. Many have been critical of players like Mace Securities that got into the business for instance, interesting history there.

P & G could make a go of it, but I believe they should buy Mister Car Wash, change the name to Mr. Clean, and make the “Mister Car Wash” a mini-sub-brand, merging without disrupting either brand; I think I could make that happen well enough. This would give P & G market notoriety, but would cost them too.

Then, Mr. Clean could sell off those units as Master franchises, where they were clustered and use them for new training facilities, for new owners. P & G has big guns and could use this to help get financing since new car wash business building has come to a standstill, financing issues. Still, car washing is down straight across the board, virtually everywhere. Yes, it will pick up and the new model will have to be $5.00 car washes in 5-minutes. Only, a couple of companies have mastered that so far.

P&G plans to sell its franchises for $500,000 and that may not be enough to do a car wash venture, and I have not seen the FDD (Franchise Disclosure Documents), to see what all that gets the franchise buyer. Indeed, I’d like to see the “Pre-Fab” buildings first (if that is there strategy), then maybe it could fit into a 500K deal.

P&G could also make it work, as an all-hand-wash, mostly outdoor thing, like they do outside Tempe, AZ near the college, where college students wash cars on top of a concrete slab with a clarifier underneath, but that will not be so great for a inclement climate weather locations. And I doubt if P&G would be looking there because that is not their style, but it would work well. Although I have not seen the plans, I doubt they are looking there.

Instead they are looking at a full-on facility, it’s just not in the cards in my opinion and I question their strengths and weaknesses, I’d like to see their SWOT Analysis, and poke some holes in it. Plus, for a company like P&G, they want to sell their products, thus, they do not want to own the car washes so they wish to franchise them. Wrong! That’s not right for their corporate focus, or core-business. And franchising is a litigious industry, just as Amos their new CEO, he knows better than anyone in the industry that truth.

Most franchisors in the car wash sector; Bob’s Car Wash, Rapido Rabbit, etc, have failed due to undercapitalization, and selling to franchisees that didn’t get it. Whereas P&G doesn’t have to worry about that, it doesn’t mean they need to go and throw money into a car wash sludge pit!

The car wash industry is over-saturated now and with the economy down, more so, it will be clearly 18-24 months until it returns, meanwhile new outlets will not be hitting legitimate ROI targets in that climate. Sure, things will return, but it will be a while. Any company entering this market will have to be low-cost, extremely high volume to win.

Most cities will most likely expedite building permits now, meaning 6-9 months max between submitting plans and first shovel turn, and 6-months to build. That is 12-months and means 6-12 months of dismal performance. Yes, the best time to go for it is when land is cheap, available, and distressed sales. But there is a gap in the time lag here and biting the bullet now, for big a full-on-franchise system is the wrong strategy once again in my opinion. I could make it work, but I guarantee they can’t as it’s been laid out.

Mr. Clean brand is in a pickle, because NPDES and storm water rules are tightening, their home-use product puts consumers in jeopardy of breaking the law with water pollution rules. So, their only option is to do something different, but I do not think they have thought this through correctly. It will be interesting to watch, that’s for certain. Think on this.

Every year, more of our children die on the road. It’s a national disgrace that, in 2009, more than 3,400 teens died. That’s 10% of all those dying on the roads. Even though right wing politicians disapprove anything the federal government does to limit freedoms, it makes sense to impose new limits on the right to drive. Indeed, the more we do as a country to keep our children safe the better. Except, when a bill was introduced in Congress last year, the GOP used every possible procedural device to slow it down. As a result, it failed to make progress and so was wiped from the slate at the end of the year. Now the Democrats are reintroducing the STANDUP Act (Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection Act). It’s always pleasing when titles make good acronyms and this is no exception.

The aim is simple: to keep younger inexperienced drivers off the road. This would be achieved by setting a national standard for graduated drivers’ licensing. Federal highway funds would be tied to encourage states to enact the federal standard within three years. The bill creates a ladder to climb for a full license. It begins with a learner’s permit no earlier than 16, passes through an intermediate stage and ends with a full license. It also creates a number of specific criminal offenses, including driving unsupervised at night without a full license, using a cell phone while driving, and a limit on the number of young passengers. The intention is formally to introduce the rule that no one can have a full license under the age of 18.

Needless to say, the GOP believe this unreasonably interferes with the sovereign right of states. Further, they argue driving in an essentially rural state is not the same as in New York which is full of traffic. Only state legislatures know the detail of local conditions and can make appropriate laws. This explains why teens in North Dakota can start to drive on their 14th birthday, whereas New Jersey prevents a teen from moving to the intermediate stage until his or her 17th birthday. This is not to say any state is derelict in its laws. The Insurance Institute for HIghway Safety rates 37 states as having good laws, but there’s a general failure to deal with distractions while driving. Only 30 states currently ban texting. Worse, only 28 states ban cell phone use by novice drivers. Most driver safety experts think there should be a general ban on texting by drivers of all ages.

Whatever your opinion on hand-held technology and cell phone use, the death of teen drivers is potentially preventable both by limiting unsupervised driving and by insisting on every driver going through an approved course of instruction before being allowed a full license. Of course, nothing can prevent teens determined to drive no matter what the law says. But if we can reduce the number of accidents, this will reduce the auto insurance rates for both teen and young adult drivers. Doing nothing should not be an option. Indeed, it may be better not to use auto insurance quotes as a reason. Simply pitching this to parents as a way of keeping more of their children alive should be enough to pass the bill into law.

If you listen to the commentators, they all sing the same song. We’ve now entered the internet age. This is supposed to convince us something new and wonderful has happened. It’s such a complete break with the past it heralds the beginning of a new information age in which, somehow, we can all get ahead and do things never possible before. This is, of course, pure rubbish. The only difference between the digital age and the hard-copy age that went before it is the ease of access. Having a PC or some other online device gives you access to a vast library with a search engine to help you find the pages you need more easily. But, when you have the right page on the screen in front of you, it’s the same words you could have found in a book or some other written material. All that’s changed is the way the words are presented to you.

So, if you go back in time, printed words have always been used to manipulate people. They sell ideas to you. This means real power lies in the power to control access the means of publication. If a group can control what gets printed and distributed, the words can always tell the same story. But if the means of publication is open to other voices, this can give a completely different view of the world. This is why reputations can be made or unmade depending on who has the power to publish.

The problem for modern companies is anyone today can start up a blog or website. Many internet services are free to use. Similarly, the networking sites like Facebook allow people to write their opinions and describe their experiences. In the past, we would never get to hear Anne from Denver bought a steam cleaner that sprayed boiling water over her hands. Now she can write it and thousands of people can tweet it. It makes it very difficult for manufacturers and service providers to protect their reputations. This explains, in part, why insurance companies very rarely allow interaction on their sites. Since they cannot control what sometimes angry customers may say, they try to deny them a voice. Except there are now some very high profile sites on which people can complain about bad products and services. This movement is not yet sufficient to damage the vast insurance industry, but individual companies are finding it more difficult to prevent their reputations from slowly washing away.

This makes the recent announcement of a new online forum all the more encouraging. The intention is to allow people from both sides of the insurance relationship a chance to ask questions and have their say. Instead of a blank screen on which insurers give you the news they think you should hear, you can now ask about how to get more affordable car insurance rates, what to do if a claims adjuster low-balls the fair market value offer, and so on. This does not mean everyone on the forum will be an “innocent” consumer. There will inevitably be anonymous industry experts giving balancing views and opinions. But this is a hopeful sign of change. You may even get cheap car insurance quotes because of pressure through forums like this.

The sunglasses have become an integral part of our attire and fashion as a whole. It is hard to see a model who poses without a sunglass. Thus the fashion and trendy taste that a person has is explicitly expressed by the sunglasses he sports. The designer and branded glasses have come to stay here. The branded sunglasses are more becoming an integral entity of a person that shows of the grandeur and sense of the person’s styling and fashion.

You surely don’t want others to think you are still a decade behind, not sporting a branded sunglass but using a latest model car. The fashion of present day as exposed by many of the models and celebrities. You can see from the stills of the celebrities out there that clearly shows that they are intended to represent themselves as a follower of a specific fashion or a brand.

The level to which the brands have their innovation into their style of sunglasses, they have many of them accepting the brand. There are extensive variety of brands ranging from the biggies like Ray-Ban, Gucci to the others who have just entered but had made a strong statement of fashion in their products. The Branded sunglasses offer you the versatility and ever improving fashion to be exhibited in your attire. The branded sunglasses thus have virtually become rulers of the present day fashion trend. The sunglasses have become more of an extension to ones personality and decides how you appear to the others eyes.