Academics and business students over recent periods have studied the fascinating business model of franchising. In most of the history of trading under a common currency from Amsterdam to the Global Power House of the United States of America, we have seen franchises lead the way. The first franchise was said to be the Singer Sewing Machine. However, if one were to carefully study the Catholic Church or even colonialism itself, one can see that the franchise or at least its structure is present in all of humanity’s creations. This is one of the reasons why we study franchises and franchised companies. From Ray Kroc at McDonald’s to the dealerships of modern car manufacturers, we see the mark of franchising throughout our civilization.
However, we rarely study the ingredients and humble beginnings of niche franchise companies. This article is about the history of such a company. It is intriguing to read how franchising occurs naturally in free market systems. Below is the story of how Aircraft Wash Guys was founded and how they got their start in the aircraft wash business. Although there are plenty of facts and articles written to back it up, the story is written from a fictitious point of view and opinion, so we don’t intend to prove anything to anyone, nor do we want the founders to get into trouble. for the fun of the past. We claim freedom of expression, of the press in its entirety since a good part of it is opinion. This, of course, should be familiar to anyone who has read the McDonald’s story in “Grinding it Out” or Ray Kroc’s Subway Sandwich Story; “Start small, end big.”
Aircraft Guys weren’t always called Aircraft Wash Guys. The original company of the founder, Mr. Lance Winslow, at age 12 was Speedy Waxers. He starred with partners. Andrew Rice and Mark Daily, who also had planes. Lance’s family had a Piper Colt, two-seater, on which Lance had about 80 flying hours. Andrew’s dad bought a Cessna 150 and Mark’s dad had a Bellanca Decathlon and a Beech Bonanza. He was in the aircraft wax and wash business. Mark Daily became a businessman, Andrew Rice joined the Air Force. All three were in the Civil Air Patrol at the time. Andrew and Lance were also in the Boy Scout Aviation Explorers. Lance eventually came to own the business for himself and later sold this business to a friend, Glen Tierney, who was in Junior ROTC. This was in 1979 at the Camarillo Airport (CMA) in California, just off the coast of Los Angeles. After selling Speedy Waxers, Lance went to work for a local McDonald’s as an employee, for franchisee Clay Passion, who owned a Beechcraft Debonair that Lance used for weekly laundry. Clay was a longtime customer and his office staff were Car Wash customers for at least a decade at Lance’s other company, Car Wash Guys; http://www.carwashguys.com. Clay promised Lance a quick breakthrough due to his prior business experience and his loyalty to the plane wash. Lance was waiting for an appointment to train to be an assistant manager. Meanwhile, he read Ray Kroc’s book and studied every manual and videotape on the site and how every detail was accounted for. WOW, he thought, that’s how you really do it, that’s when Lance decided he’d emulate Ray Kroc whenever he got the chance. Glen Tierney then joined the Air Force five months later and left the business. Lance recontacted all the customers and went back to business under the Aero Wash name, later installing more units at the Santa Paula airport, Van Nuys airport, Oxnard airport and even getting accounts in Santa Barbara. Back then, we were washing 135 planes a week at about $10.00 each. (Can you imagine those prices today?)
Back then, Lance thought I would try to sell planes, however, I was young and naive and no one would give me a chance. He knew he would do well, he knew almost everyone at five different airports, contacts for sales would be a no-brainer. He was not only young, but he was small for his age. It was hard enough getting people to let him wash his planes at 12, let alone sell planes at 15. So at 15 he started a plane finder’s fee business and asked for a commission for referring buyers. . That’s when the ITC-Investment tax credit was removed, America was still in the energy crisis with high fuel prices, and the luxury tax law went into effect the following year and killed General Aviation. We still had the airplane washing business, but Lance now armed with a driver’s license at sixteen knew no bounds. He started washing fleets for utilities, the California Highway Patrol, Post Office Jeeps, whatever. At that time we had several independent contractors that we called “franchises.” Of course, at the time, Lance didn’t really understand the full scope of what the franchise was, he understood McDonald’s and the attention to detail, but he was only beginning to understand what it would become one day. Lance was winning in the market in the middle of the recession, he said we don’t participate in recessions. We’re also good at down times, we’ve been there and won and we understand the market and the sectors we’re in. Here are some articles at the beginning.
http://www.carwashguys.com/history/beginning.html
http://www.carwashguys.com/history/hist2.html
http://www.carwashguys.com/history/hist3.html
http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum2.shtml
http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum3.shtml
http://www.carwashguys.com/history/museum6.shtml
Lance founded a company he called Speedy Aircraft Finders. As part of this business, he started the first multiple aircraft list service, which was online. Although the internet wasn’t really being used yet and the TRS 80s were just coming onto the market. He used dummy terminals and watt lines to send updated listings to aircraft brokers. He sold approximately 40 planes at the time and helped other brokers do the same. He took two partners and then they were able to pull out the patron’s spear. Two years later, one of the gentlemen went to prison for embarrassment when he sold the same plane to three people, the other reprimanded him for another deal, and ultimately lost everything.
Lance, after being forced to sell his third of the business, went to work for Air Camarillo and started the Aircraft Sales Department determined to outsell those gentlemen. He did it and so did everyone else. Although he didn’t really like to make sales, he loved to fly the plane for sale. At times, he would insist that each buyer fly all the planes in the line up for sale and many that Lance had brokered deals, before they were allowed to make and offer, sign a conditional sale contract, or buy an airplane. So Lance got more flight time on a lot of great planes and I doubt he ever had a dissatisfied customer, they always gave referrals and always came back. It was through this high volume of sales that Mira Slovak, a famous Russian defector during the Cold War, came to Lance with a proposition to help him sell Partnavias. An Italian-made aircraft, which Mira had the rights to sell in North America. Lance also became a distributor for that brand.
One day, Mira shows up in an Italian biplane and asks Lance if he wants to take a ride. Lance says sure. Lance and Mira, Slovakian inventor of the aircraft, maneuver the Lumshovak, fly at 300 AGL and do the inverted entry somersault and somersault through the sky. Lance then got hooked on aerobatics. There was a time when if Lance couldn’t cage the gyros and in a plane to be able to spin or roll or in an aerobatic plane to loop or tail slide he just wouldn’t fly. He got over it fast enough, it gives you a real headache sometimes.
End Part I
