January 9, 2024 • 10 mins
Brian Krusz is the Founder and Director of Growth & Development at Sgt. Clean Car Wash. Founded in 2013, Sgt Clean Car Wash is an express exterior chain, currently with 16 locations throughout Northeast Ohio. Sgt Clean is a five time Inc 5,000 winner, five time Weatherhead 100, 3 time Vet100 winner, Smart50 Honoree and two time Smart Culture Award recipient. Brian spent eight years in the United States Marine Corps and graduated from Kent State University with an undergraduate degree in Business Management. Brian currently lives in Strongsville with wife and two sons. Brian enjoys spending time with family and friends along with playing golf and hockey, alongside his passion for all Cleveland sports teams.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This is CEOs you should know andiHeartRadio. I'm Keith Hotchkiss. One of
my favorite parts of this podcast isgetting to know CEOs from all different backgrounds
in all different industries, some ofthem unheralded, like the car wash business.
But it's more interesting you might think. And we sat down with retired
marine Brian Cruz about his next missionrunning Sergeant Clean's car Wash. So,
(00:22):
Brian, tell me a little bitabout the car wash business. Everybody uses
car washes, but not everybody thinksI think that's a franchise I want to
get into, or they're just kindof they're sometimes just inconspicuous on the side
of the road and you get yourcar washed, you never think it about
it again, how do you Whydid you get in this business? All
(00:44):
right? So the first question,why did I get in the business?
Well, in two thousand and eight, I was an executive banking recruiter,
okay, and the banking world intwo thousand and eight, we all know,
went south, yes, rapidly.So I was a low man on
the total pole and I got laidoff. Okay. So on the drive
home, I said, you know, I get it. It's the economy.
I want to kind of control mydestiny, and entrepreneurship was the first
thing I turned to. My fatherand grandfather were entrepreneurs in some levels,
(01:10):
grandfather a little bit more than mydad. So I thought, okay,
here we go. And along theway in twenty twelve, we found our
first car wash and it was verydistressed, very blighted, and to say,
you know, amongst other things,and it was just kind of poorly
ran. And at the time wehad some beverage drive through stores, so
(01:30):
we were somewhat familiar with how torun a business and kind of what next
steps were. So we took overthat facility in March of twenty thirteen.
And how we came about a carwash was I believe in knowledge is power.
So we were at a convention forthe Beverage Stores National Association and Convenience
Stores NACS. Met a gentleman.He said, hey, you should go
to Atlantic City. I got Seastores and I got car washes. So
(01:55):
we went from Vegas to Atlantic City. You know these horrible places. Yeah,
right, and just all lover theindustry. Long story short. Met
a gentleman from Strongzill who is adistributor for equipment and soap and found us
the location in Strongzil and next Marchwill be eleven years and how many locations
currently of Sergeant Cleans. So wejust opened up our fifteenth location last week
(02:15):
in Brovy Heights and then number sixteenwe'll open up in North Campton here at
the end of January. So congratulationsBrian Cruz running Sergeant Clean's car wash.
You're probably familiar with it if you'relistening in the Cleveland area. Talk us
to us about the name. Isthat a nod to your military background?
Yeah, So when the car washI spoke of just a couple minutes ago.
We ran it for a year andit was called New Image car Wash.
(02:38):
So everyone's a good marketer. Soin my background, I was like,
hey, you know, we shouldmarket this thing and kind of do
kind of do a new spin onhow we create the name. No offense
to any of the car washes acrossthe nation, but they're all bubbly and
sudsey and washy and kind of youknow, generic common names. So we
wanted to come up with something unique. So we had a contest. We
were going to close the facility down, remodel it up with the you know,
(03:00):
the unlimited program, add some freevacuums, add new equipment. So
we had a contest ninety days priorto closing to rename the car Wash.
So we got twenty one hundred entries. One of those entries was Sergeant Clean.
The individual knew I was spent atyears in the Marine Corps. It's
catchy, Yeah, it's it's there'sbackground to it, there's meaning, you
know, maybe you know the military, you know, kind of taking care
(03:23):
of your vehicle, taking charge ofthe situation efficiency, get in, get
out, you know, things inthat nature. And obviously the name stuck
to myself in my background. Talkto us a little bit about what you
learned in the Marine Corps that isapplicable to running a business and being an
entrepreneur. How does that square thecircle? Yeah, you know, I
think back in my career, I'dspent years in the Marine Corps. I
(03:44):
was a bomb builder in the Marines, so of all the fun and wonderful
things. So I was an aviationordnanceman and then from there the last three
years I had transitioned to be arecruiter. But as I got promoted,
different leadership courses that I took fromcorporal to sergeant I got it as a
staff sergeant. Tons of different leadershiptraits and principles. Some of the ones
that really resonated me is my organizationalskills. Just being really organized, teas
(04:05):
crossed, ice dotted, you know, being very prepared. You know,
it's like any good marine. Youneed to be prepared for what's going to
happen or what situation is. Sobeing very thorough, very you know,
very maybe methodical, you know,and decision making, but also being decisive,
right, you can't take too longto make a decision. We're talking
with Brian Cruz, CEO, ownerof Sergeant Clean's car Wash here in the
(04:28):
Cleveland area. You know, Brian, I know a little bit about the
car wash business. Uh, talkingto some owners, it does seem as
a business person, seems like aninteresting business because my understanding is there's not
a lot of overhead. That youhave water and soap and maybe some maintenance
guys, right, so it seemslike a pretty profitable business to get into.
(04:51):
But then again, it rains alot here and nobody goes to a
car wash on today it's supposed torain, so there's probably some give and
take, right, that's the businessas it stands right now, talk to
me a little bit about where thebusiness is. Yeah, so maybe I'll
take you back ten years when westarted, so in Northeast Ohio, the
car wash business was very lackluster.It was very poor. It was a
(05:12):
twenty thirty minute process to get yourcar washed, completely inefficient. You know,
in every manner, you pull up, you'd get out, someone would
get in your car, you'd driveup, you'd pressure wash the vehicle,
basically cleaning it before the equipment wouldSimilar to our first location, you know,
half the equipment worked. It wasold school, completely inefficient. So
what we've done is we've brought thatand really, as I say, changed
the face of car washing from tenyears ago to now. Where you brought
(05:35):
efficiencies, technology, You know,awesome men and women to you know,
put in a nice polo shirt,smile, be fun, loving and energetic,
change customer service, embrace technology,huge efficiencies in our business. You
get in, get out four minuteslater. And then we also offer things
like free vacuums, hospitality cart sothat way you as the consumer can spend
(05:56):
five minutes cleaning the inside of yourcar or fifty minutes to provide those services
for you and allow you to dothat. So a lot of that has
been the big shift and change,you know, in just the decade.
But yeah, I mean to speakto the economics and the a passion for
the business is it makes sense,it works. The unlimited program is great
for us. You know you talkedabout the weather. Yeah, if it
(06:17):
gets up and it's raining tomorrow orcloudy, it it's okay for us.
We get residual income. And it'sawesome for the consumer if they just got
their car yesterday, you know Murphy'slaw, they get to kick it out
the window. Yeah, and theycould just come back tomorrow, you know,
one one flat fee to use allsixteen of our locations. And then
it's also good for our team members. I would imagine the sustainability part of
(06:38):
this, right, we're hearing alot about water, and you know it
doesn't necessarily feel every day like inCleveland, like there's a water shortage around
the world, but there is,right, and water will become a scarce
resource and an important resource for thiseconomic engine. So you guys, I
imagine you have a lot of waysthat you're using the water and not wasting
a lot of the soap and thingsright. Can you talk a little bit
about that. Yeah, we've beena member of the ICA, which is
(07:00):
the International Car Washing Association Water Saversprogram, So we've been a member there
for a number of years. Andwhat that means is that we're just using
safe measures as well as efficient measureson our water intake and then our outflow.
So if you're washing your car inthe driveway, you're probably using fifty
gallons of water on your vehicle.At the car wash, probably on average
twenty gallons, okay, So youcan see a significant difference, and then
(07:21):
there's a certain percentage I'd say maybeten percent of that water is reclaimed.
We go through the recamp tanks toclean it, and then we use it
certain portions of the car wash.So I have an idea. Now,
you got to tell me if youthink this is crazy. You owned drive
through beverage stores right now, Youown car washes. Why can't we have
(07:42):
them combined into one thing. Yougo and you pull in, you get
your favorite beverage. Then you sitthere and relax and drink it while your
car is going through the car wash. Do you think am I am I
crazy? No, you're not.There's actually when we were doing our discovery.
So about six to nine months priorto owning our first one. It
everywhere. I was swiping my creditcard stand in the hotels, flying,
(08:03):
driving everywhere. And there's a gentlemanin Florida who has just that. So
when you can go through the carwasher's glass and he's got it wasn't a
dry through beverage store, but whatit was is a standalone c store so
you can shop. It was afull service car wash. You can get
out, you can shop, andthen you can see the cars being washed,
okay, and then as the washconsumer, you can see, oh
I need to pick up a caseof pop, ye, a beer or
whatever the case may be. Iwonder if do you think they might be
(08:24):
on the horizon for you or you'renot quite there yet. Yeah, I
don't know, not quite there yet. I kind of standardize. What we've
done in the car wash is justyou know, fast, easy, convenient,
shoot him through, get the carwash. So, Brian, we
talk a lot about on this podcasthow high performance, high energy folks with
high stressed jobs and owners and CEOshave those, How you center yourself,
(08:46):
how you keep yourself from getting toostressed out or you know, in their
own head. What kind of thingsdo you like to do to decompress and
keep yourself healthy mentally? Yeah,that's important. I thought maybe my wife
called you in advance. No shedidn't, but I mean, we all
know how important it is right nowwithout a doubt, and mental health has
been you know, over the lasttwo years, you know, candidly,
(09:07):
I had a little episode with likevertigo. It was it was like an
inner ear displacement and they say itwas triggered distress. They resulted it back
that they couldn't actually put an actualfinger on it, right, but they
said us a stress induced thing.And it was a pretty weird, scary
time. So I think it wasGod and my body telling me, hey,
get your stuff together, dude,Yeah this is important and not you
know, the business is important,but it's not everything. So it was
(09:30):
awesome kind of a point in mylife where I course corrected and I work
out every day now in the mornings, you know, whether it's just walking
or running, doing some calisthenics.My wife has held me accountable, so
really just exercising, eating right andthen having people hold you accountable right,
and then you think about what's next. For Sergeant cleans. Are you going
to expand beyond Ohio? Are yougoing to franchise? What? What do
(09:52):
you see in the horizon. Yeah, so we got three locations ready for
next year, so we look tocome in the Worcester Market, North Riginal
and then Jackson Township. So wegot three locations. We're rided to rock
and I think we just continue onthis path. Yeah, you know,
two to three every year in NortheastOhio and just continue to grow and do
the awesome things we're doing. Sothe unlimited car washes is the best deal
(10:15):
at Sergeant Clean's and you can findit on the website by gift cards for
the holidays, those kind of things, right, absolutely, Ran Cruz,
so great to talk to you today. Thank you and congratulations. We love
talking to Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs on ClevelandCEOs. You should know today's show was
produced by Bob COATESID. I'm KeithHotchkiss. We'll see you next time.
This is CEOs you should know andiHeartRadio. I'm Keith Hotchkiss. One of
my favorite parts of this podcast isgetting to know CEOs from all different backgrounds
in all different industries, some ofthem unheralded, like the car wash business.
But it's more interesting you might think. And we sat down with retired
marine Brian Cruz about his next missionrunning Sergeant Clean's car Wash. So,
(00:22):
Brian, tell me a little bitabout the car wash business. Everybody uses
car washes, but not everybody thinksI think that's a franchise I want to
get into, or they're just kindof they're sometimes just inconspicuous on the side
of the road and you get yourcar washed, you never think it about
it again, how do you Whydid you get in this business? All
(00:44):
right? So the first question,why did I get in the business?
Well, in two thousand and eight, I was an executive banking recruiter,
okay, and the banking world intwo thousand and eight, we all know,
went south, yes, rapidly.So I was a low man on
the total pole and I got laidoff. Okay. So on the drive
home, I said, you know, I get it. It's the economy.
I want to kind of control mydestiny, and entrepreneurship was the first
thing I turned to. My fatherand grandfather were entrepreneurs in some levels,
(01:10):
grandfather a little bit more than mydad. So I thought, okay,
here we go. And along theway in twenty twelve, we found our
first car wash and it was verydistressed, very blighted, and to say,
you know, amongst other things,and it was just kind of poorly
ran. And at the time wehad some beverage drive through stores, so
(01:30):
we were somewhat familiar with how torun a business and kind of what next
steps were. So we took overthat facility in March of twenty thirteen.
And how we came about a carwash was I believe in knowledge is power.
So we were at a convention forthe Beverage Stores National Association and Convenience
Stores NACS. Met a gentleman.He said, hey, you should go
to Atlantic City. I got Seastores and I got car washes. So
(01:55):
we went from Vegas to Atlantic City. You know these horrible places. Yeah,
right, and just all lover theindustry. Long story short. Met
a gentleman from Strongzill who is adistributor for equipment and soap and found us
the location in Strongzil and next Marchwill be eleven years and how many locations
currently of Sergeant Cleans. So wejust opened up our fifteenth location last week
(02:15):
in Brovy Heights and then number sixteenwe'll open up in North Campton here at
the end of January. So congratulationsBrian Cruz running Sergeant Clean's car wash.
You're probably familiar with it if you'relistening in the Cleveland area. Talk us
to us about the name. Isthat a nod to your military background?
Yeah, So when the car washI spoke of just a couple minutes ago.
We ran it for a year andit was called New Image car Wash.
(02:38):
So everyone's a good marketer. Soin my background, I was like,
hey, you know, we shouldmarket this thing and kind of do
kind of do a new spin onhow we create the name. No offense
to any of the car washes acrossthe nation, but they're all bubbly and
sudsey and washy and kind of youknow, generic common names. So we
wanted to come up with something unique. So we had a contest. We
were going to close the facility down, remodel it up with the you know,
(03:00):
the unlimited program, add some freevacuums, add new equipment. So
we had a contest ninety days priorto closing to rename the car Wash.
So we got twenty one hundred entries. One of those entries was Sergeant Clean.
The individual knew I was spent atyears in the Marine Corps. It's
catchy, Yeah, it's it's there'sbackground to it, there's meaning, you
know, maybe you know the military, you know, kind of taking care
(03:23):
of your vehicle, taking charge ofthe situation efficiency, get in, get
out, you know, things inthat nature. And obviously the name stuck
to myself in my background. Talkto us a little bit about what you
learned in the Marine Corps that isapplicable to running a business and being an
entrepreneur. How does that square thecircle? Yeah, you know, I
think back in my career, I'dspent years in the Marine Corps. I
(03:44):
was a bomb builder in the Marines, so of all the fun and wonderful
things. So I was an aviationordnanceman and then from there the last three
years I had transitioned to be arecruiter. But as I got promoted,
different leadership courses that I took fromcorporal to sergeant I got it as a
staff sergeant. Tons of different leadershiptraits and principles. Some of the ones
that really resonated me is my organizationalskills. Just being really organized, teas
(04:05):
crossed, ice dotted, you know, being very prepared. You know,
it's like any good marine. Youneed to be prepared for what's going to
happen or what situation is. Sobeing very thorough, very you know,
very maybe methodical, you know,and decision making, but also being decisive,
right, you can't take too longto make a decision. We're talking
with Brian Cruz, CEO, ownerof Sergeant Clean's car Wash here in the
(04:28):
Cleveland area. You know, Brian, I know a little bit about the
car wash business. Uh, talkingto some owners, it does seem as
a business person, seems like aninteresting business because my understanding is there's not
a lot of overhead. That youhave water and soap and maybe some maintenance
guys, right, so it seemslike a pretty profitable business to get into.
(04:51):
But then again, it rains alot here and nobody goes to a
car wash on today it's supposed torain, so there's probably some give and
take, right, that's the businessas it stands right now, talk to
me a little bit about where thebusiness is. Yeah, so maybe I'll
take you back ten years when westarted, so in Northeast Ohio, the
car wash business was very lackluster.It was very poor. It was a
(05:12):
twenty thirty minute process to get yourcar washed, completely inefficient. You know,
in every manner, you pull up, you'd get out, someone would
get in your car, you'd driveup, you'd pressure wash the vehicle,
basically cleaning it before the equipment wouldSimilar to our first location, you know,
half the equipment worked. It wasold school, completely inefficient. So
what we've done is we've brought thatand really, as I say, changed
the face of car washing from tenyears ago to now. Where you brought
(05:35):
efficiencies, technology, You know,awesome men and women to you know,
put in a nice polo shirt,smile, be fun, loving and energetic,
change customer service, embrace technology,huge efficiencies in our business. You
get in, get out four minuteslater. And then we also offer things
like free vacuums, hospitality cart sothat way you as the consumer can spend
(05:56):
five minutes cleaning the inside of yourcar or fifty minutes to provide those services
for you and allow you to dothat. So a lot of that has
been the big shift and change,you know, in just the decade.
But yeah, I mean to speakto the economics and the a passion for
the business is it makes sense,it works. The unlimited program is great
for us. You know you talkedabout the weather. Yeah, if it
(06:17):
gets up and it's raining tomorrow orcloudy, it it's okay for us.
We get residual income. And it'sawesome for the consumer if they just got
their car yesterday, you know Murphy'slaw, they get to kick it out
the window. Yeah, and theycould just come back tomorrow, you know,
one one flat fee to use allsixteen of our locations. And then
it's also good for our team members. I would imagine the sustainability part of
(06:38):
this, right, we're hearing alot about water, and you know it
doesn't necessarily feel every day like inCleveland, like there's a water shortage around
the world, but there is,right, and water will become a scarce
resource and an important resource for thiseconomic engine. So you guys, I
imagine you have a lot of waysthat you're using the water and not wasting
a lot of the soap and thingsright. Can you talk a little bit
about that. Yeah, we've beena member of the ICA, which is
(07:00):
the International Car Washing Association Water Saversprogram, So we've been a member there
for a number of years. Andwhat that means is that we're just using
safe measures as well as efficient measureson our water intake and then our outflow.
So if you're washing your car inthe driveway, you're probably using fifty
gallons of water on your vehicle.At the car wash, probably on average
twenty gallons, okay, So youcan see a significant difference, and then
(07:21):
there's a certain percentage I'd say maybeten percent of that water is reclaimed.
We go through the recamp tanks toclean it, and then we use it
certain portions of the car wash.So I have an idea. Now,
you got to tell me if youthink this is crazy. You owned drive
through beverage stores right now, Youown car washes. Why can't we have
(07:42):
them combined into one thing. Yougo and you pull in, you get
your favorite beverage. Then you sitthere and relax and drink it while your
car is going through the car wash. Do you think am I am I
crazy? No, you're not.There's actually when we were doing our discovery.
So about six to nine months priorto owning our first one. It
everywhere. I was swiping my creditcard stand in the hotels, flying,
(08:03):
driving everywhere. And there's a gentlemanin Florida who has just that. So
when you can go through the carwasher's glass and he's got it wasn't a
dry through beverage store, but whatit was is a standalone c store so
you can shop. It was afull service car wash. You can get
out, you can shop, andthen you can see the cars being washed,
okay, and then as the washconsumer, you can see, oh
I need to pick up a caseof pop, ye, a beer or
whatever the case may be. Iwonder if do you think they might be
(08:24):
on the horizon for you or you'renot quite there yet. Yeah, I
don't know, not quite there yet. I kind of standardize. What we've
done in the car wash is justyou know, fast, easy, convenient,
shoot him through, get the carwash. So, Brian, we
talk a lot about on this podcasthow high performance, high energy folks with
high stressed jobs and owners and CEOshave those, How you center yourself,
(08:46):
how you keep yourself from getting toostressed out or you know, in their
own head. What kind of thingsdo you like to do to decompress and
keep yourself healthy mentally? Yeah,that's important. I thought maybe my wife
called you in advance. No shedidn't, but I mean, we all
know how important it is right nowwithout a doubt, and mental health has
been you know, over the lasttwo years, you know, candidly,
(09:07):
I had a little episode with likevertigo. It was it was like an
inner ear displacement and they say itwas triggered distress. They resulted it back
that they couldn't actually put an actualfinger on it, right, but they
said us a stress induced thing.And it was a pretty weird, scary
time. So I think it wasGod and my body telling me, hey,
get your stuff together, dude,Yeah this is important and not you
know, the business is important,but it's not everything. So it was
(09:30):
awesome kind of a point in mylife where I course corrected and I work
out every day now in the mornings, you know, whether it's just walking
or running, doing some calisthenics.My wife has held me accountable, so
really just exercising, eating right andthen having people hold you accountable right,
and then you think about what's next. For Sergeant cleans. Are you going
to expand beyond Ohio? Are yougoing to franchise? What? What do
(09:52):
you see in the horizon. Yeah, so we got three locations ready for
next year, so we look tocome in the Worcester Market, North Riginal
and then Jackson Township. So wegot three locations. We're rided to rock
and I think we just continue onthis path. Yeah, you know,
two to three every year in NortheastOhio and just continue to grow and do
the awesome things we're doing. Sothe unlimited car washes is the best deal
(10:15):
at Sergeant Clean's and you can findit on the website by gift cards for
the holidays, those kind of things, right, absolutely, Ran Cruz,
so great to talk to you today. Thank you and congratulations. We love
talking to Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs on ClevelandCEOs. You should know today's show was
produced by Bob COATESID. I'm KeithHotchkiss. We'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Start Here
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.
3. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.