This week’s Farmer Focus is on junior Joshua Chon, a co-founder of Wash Funnel, a company that jumped on an untapped market of advertisements specifically for car washes. 

SNAPSHOTS 

Favorite season: Winter

A song that instantly calms you: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem

If you could be any animal, which would you be: Lion

What color you embody: Navy blue

Go-to coffee order: Black coffee

ZOOMING IN

Q: How did you get involved with Wash Funnel? 

A: “I got involved with Wash Funnel whenever one of my mentors and previous business partners came to me. He asked if I wanted to be involved with a new startup. He asked me, ‘How bad do you want to own a business?’ So I said, ‘I’d pretty much give up anything I can.’ An opportunity came up and I took it. The way the company started was my co-founder, Tanner, his parents actually owned the car wash, and they had just opened it up. It was brand new in McKinney and cost millions of dollars to build. They used this other marketing company, and they were losing about $20,000 per month. It was a brand new location, state of the art equipment, brand new wash, new equipment, everything you could think of, it had.”

Q: Describe the main goal of your company and how you plan on achieving them.

A: “The main goal of any company is to make money. Our goal is to maximize revenue for other businesses that choose to partner and work with us. We win when they win. We make money when they make money. It’s a healthy relationship that’s mutual in both ways. The main goal of it is to make money for our partners.”

Q: As you try to expand your business, how do you handle rejections and setbacks? 

A: “I get excited with every setback. Every time someone says no to a deal, I get excited because every no gets me one no closer to a yes. Initially, it was difficult, but now, I’m used to it. If they say yes, then great. If they don’t, it’s fine.”

Q: What do you think distinguishes you from other marketing companies? 

A: “In the industry, other companies are not transparent with the way they manage ad [spending] or the budgets they are given by these car washes. That’s one thing our company does differently. All the money they allocate toward the advertisement spend[ing] fees is spent on their ads and their campaigns – we don’t have any hidden fees. We operate on complete transparency, compared to these other companies that are more focused on just taking people’s money than actually doing any good.”

Q: How do you overcome disagreements within your team? 

A: “It’s communication. It’s the most important thing to any relationship and business. We talk things out, and put emotions aside. We use straight facts and what we know, will benefit everyone – mutually and the company as a whole. Any disagreements, we talk them out logically and put any emotions aside.”

Q:Where do you see your business in the next five years? 

A: “In the next five years, hopefully we’ll have our first 1,000 clients signed on and by then, we will have scaled to be an integrated tool for not just advertising, but also a solution for just any car wash CRM [customer relation management] needs. We hope to be a CRM tool for car washes to where, not only are we just doing advertising, but also a tech solution for these car washes. We hope to have more types of marketing, as well.”  

Q: What advice do you have for someone trying to get into the business world, especially someone younger than you? 

A: “Find opportunity. That’s one thing I wish I would have done sooner. I saw a bunch of opportunities as a young kid, but I never acted upon it and never took advantage of the opportunities I had. That’s one thingI think could benefit a lot of young entrepreneurs, or young people in general – having a sense of urgency. In the way our world operates today, everything happens so fast. People, companies and our society are growing at such a pace that the average person won’t be able to keep up with it. So, if you want to be at the top of society, you want to be one of those people who is a visionary and entrepreneur. To be there, you have to be urgent, opportunistic and capable of taking advantage of all those opportunities and seize them when they come, like a tiger shark.”