The deadline for the International Carwash Association’s® Emerging Leaders Scholarship is March 6. Are you, or one of your employees, an up-and-coming leader, under 45, on either the operator or vendor side of the industry? Nominate them today for the Emerging Leaders Scholarship...

Eric Wulf, CEO of the International Car Wash Association will appear as keynote at the Puget Sound Car Wash Association’s Car Wash Solutions Conference to be held from 10 a.m.to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31 at the Muckleshoot Casino, 2402 Auburn Way S, Auburn, WA 98002. Wulf will speak on current trends in the car washing industry. Conference attendees will choose from roundtable discussions covering a variety of topics. Robert Andre, president of Sonny’s Car Wash College will lead conversations regarding marketing that makes sense for car washes. A noted appraiser of car washes, Barbara Montro, MAI, AI-GRS will cover car wash valutions. Glenn Potter of Inland Insurance will inform attendees about what to look for in the fine print on insurance policies. Sessions specific to self-serve car washes will be two moderated open forums and two roundtables about converting self-serves to automatic express sites. Social media, lighting, and servicing Cat Pumps will round out the list of topics.

NACS Online Delta Sonic Car Wash opened the doors to its new flagship location in Fairmount, N.Y., last week, in spite of below freezing temperatures and wind chill. The newest location features a state-of the-art car wash and detail shop, 16 fueling positions, a 3,000 square foot convenience store serving a variety of made-to-order meals, and a Tim Horton’s Café and Bake Shop with a drive-thru.

JDNews Matthew Radzewsky knows what snow can do to your car. The former Marine turned civilian electrician and Jacksonville resident spent the first 20 years of his life in Long Island, New York, where at least one heavy snow storm is a virtual guarantee each winter. That meant driving on roads covered in snow, ice, slush, sand and salt.

CNBC The vast majority of businesses in the United States are small businesses and many of those are family owned operations or partnerships. Unlike large corporations, small businesses and partnerships without solid succession plans often fail when the owner or a senior-level partner retires, becomes incapacitated or dies. What's more, problems can arise when partners no longer get along and decide to their own ways. That's why industry observers say that proper succession planning is essential.

WilmingtonBiz Insights For successful business owners, a vital part of the estate planning process is to think about what will happen to their businesses after their deaths. Succession planning can be a serious challenge for someone whose entrepreneurial vision and drive created a thriving enterprise.

WealthManagement.com In an increasingly complex and competitive post-recession environment, CEOs of family businesses are making strides to plan for an uncertain future, navigating the interplay between innovation and technology and grappling with barriers to growth. With family-controlled businesses accounting for 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies,1 they’re a huge driver of the U.S. economy. Therefore, their ability to thrive within the current business landscape and expand operations becomes even more important for their own organizations’ sustainability, as well as that of our country.

Business2Community There’s more to a perfect pricing strategy than economics alone. Alongside input costs, demand, and industry competition, there’s another factor determining the success of your pricing: psychology. Psychology and marketing go hand in hand. Today, I’m taking a quick look at four psychological principles behind successful pricing strategies. By combining these psychological quirks with a bit of customer insight, adjusting your pricing strategy by as little as a few cents could massively improve your sales.

Forbes One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen executives make over the years is not spending enough time thinking about their pricing models. They think about price, but not creatively enough about pricing model, which is more about how you package your prices.

Huffington Post Pricing is one of the building blocks of marketing that appears to be easy to understand, but is probably one of the most difficult. Many think it is easy because we all buy products that have prices, and many believe all you have to do is sell the product for more than it costs you to earn a profit. As cost accountants will tell you, determining the real cost is not trivial. More importantly, deciding on the price is so much more difficult because, in addition to the physical factors of cost and profit, price is subject to psychological factors some of which are out of your company's control.