Stop Washing Cars With Your Own Hands
Be honest with yourself for a second. Did you work more hours last month than you did the year you opened your car wash?
If you did, you're not alone. And if you've started using AI, here's a harder question: are you actually working fewer hours because of it? And if you haven't started using AI yet, you're behind, and it's time to get going.
I recently spent a few days at a large business conference, and almost every speaker talked about AI. The idea that stuck with me most wasn't about a new tool, though. It was about where we spend our time.
Myron Golden teaches what he calls the four levels of value:
Doing – You do the work yourself. Your income is capped by your hours.
Managing – You direct the people who do the work. You're capped by how many people you can manage.
Communicating – Selling, teaching, and leading. There's no real cap on how far this reaches.
Imagining – Vision, strategy, and deciding where the money goes. This is the highest leverage there is.
At a car wash, doing looks like prepping cars, fixing the conveyor, and covering a shift because someone called out. Managing is running the site. Communicating is growing your membership base and training your team. Imagining is deciding whether to open a second location.
Here's the part that can really hit: you don't make more by working harder. You make more by changing your level.
The Faster Shovel Problem
Most owners I talk to are using AI to write an email faster, draft a policy faster, or answer a customer faster. That's helpful, but it's still level-one work. We got a faster shovel, and we're still shoveling.
The real opportunity is different. You stop doing the task and start managing the AI that does it.
So how do you actually make that shift? Here are three suggestions.
1. Figure out which level you're living in.
Look back at last week. Where did your hours go? If most of them went to tasks someone or something else could handle, that's your starting point. You can't climb out of a hole until you admit you're standing in it.
2. Don't just use AI. Give it a job.
Peter Swain made this point in one of the sessions: every AI "employee" needs the same four things a human hire does.
A role – What job does it have?
A goal – What number is it measured on?
A backstory – What does it need to know to do the job well?
Supervision – When should it stop and hand things to a person?
Take online reviews. The role is responding to every Google review. The goal is a reply within 24 hours and a rating that stays above 4.6. The backstory is your brand voice, your complaint policy, and a few examples of great replies. Supervision means damage claims and refund requests go straight to a manager.
That's very different from typing "write a reply to this review" twenty times a week. (P.S. You should automate this so it's checking on its own, writing the replies, and flagging issues that a human needs to deal with.)
Other car wash jobs that are good candidates:
Checking daily reports for anything off, like car count, labor %, or membership sales
Following up on open work orders
Drafting the weekly schedule
Sending win-back messages to members who stopped washing
Turning your SOPs into training quizzes and checklists
3. Start with one job and keep a human on the big stuff.
You don't need to hand your whole operation over to AI. Pick one job, prove it works, then add the next one.
Some things should always have a person making the final call:
Money going out
Customer damage claims
Employee discipline
Anything you'd be embarrassed to see go wrong
AI can draft. A human decides when it matters.
Getting Out of the Hole
Picture your GM starting the day with one simple summary: "Three things need you. Twelve things got handled overnight." That's what it looks like when you manage the work instead of doing it.
This is also why accountability matters. It's easy to hear a good idea and never act on it. Inside the CarwashOS Elite Mastermind, owners hold each other to the commitments they make, so good ideas turn into real changes at the wash. If you want a group of experienced operators in your corner, learn more about the CarwashOS Elite Mastermind.
So ask yourself: if you got ten hours a week back, which level would you spend them on?
The goal isn't a faster shovel. It's getting out of the hole.
