Teri Rooney was a stay-at-home-mom to two young girls when her husband, Jim, approached her with a dilemma: As part of his duties in a position with Chrysler Corporation, he was preparing to open an annual new car auto show when he realized he hadn’t set up any detailers for the week.

“Her reply was basically, ‘If you tell me what you need, I’ll go get it done,’” Jim Rooney recalled. “That’s how Teri rolls — nothing is too tough, even if she’s never detailed a car in her life.”

Who could have predicted the one-time gig for the busy mom would snowball into a family business that took the couple’s passion for entrepreneurship and clean cars in two parallel paths of success? Certainly not Jim or Teri, who were self-described “yuppies with different careers” who never imagined they’d be working together outside the home when opportunity first knocked in 1995.

But two years after that car show, the couple founded a detailing company and went nationwide with their services. It would only be a matter of time before they were able to translate that success to the car wash industry.

Two Parallel Paths to Success

Today, many in the industry know Jim Rooney for his accomplishments with 3 Minute Magic, the chain of express car wash tunnels he and Teri launched in Knoxville, Tenn., in 2005. But not many know about the achievements he and Teri have realized with NDI Group.

Although the core of the NDI Group business model focuses on providing vehicle services at new car auto shows and events, the couple has branched out to offer services as unique and varied as “ride and drives” — which offer manufacturers a way to showcase vehicles through a customized driving experience — and other specialty marketing tools like automotive tours or sporting events, or helping manufacturers reach consumers through grassroots experiential marketing.

“The only similarities, literally, are that each company cleans cars to the best of their ability within the budgets of our customers,” Jim pointed out.

As he explained, detailing 300 show cars under the lights at New York’s International Auto Show is a world apart from an exterior tunnel wash in Tennessee. “Quite a difference in budgets, execution and expectations,” Jim admitted, “but each customer still wants clean, shiny cars.”

Despite the differences, Jim and Teri have found a plethora of synergies between the two businesses to help smooth operations and improve efficiencies. “We learn and teach each other all the time,” Jim stated. “Each company shares the same culture and common goal of delivering a world-class experience. We realize car washing and detailing are often viewed as commodities, especially in oversaturated markets, so we try hard to climb above the commodity-price thinking by blending our professionalism with quality, and customer experience with our brand.”

Jim also pointed out the couple’s commitment to hiring and training the best staff. “We learned a long time ago that without great people and a solid training initiative, we would limit our capacity and might fail under the weight of our own success,” he explained. “I’ve seen it before with small companies — great service and quality in the beginning with rapid increase in customers wanting more. They hire too fast to fill demand but fail to properly train and maintain high levels of performance.”

Today the couple has more employee talent in waiting than promotions available, he said, and their managers continue to grow the business “as if they owned it.”

“When employees’ value structures are in line with our own, the business will expand properly,” he added.

A Family That Works Together…

Many car wash operators will be able to identify with a large component of the couple’s success: The family’s personality, which has high doses of energy and passion, as well as a willingness to work together and learn from mistakes, including a failed car wash venture in 2003.

“Simply combining opportunity with passion can’t be as carefree as it was in the beginning of our adventures,” Jim acknowledged. “Back then there wasn’t much to lose and everything to gain. Today it has to be well thought out, well executed, and needs to fit within an overall strategy.”

He recalled those first few years, when the couple drove on passion alone.

“For the first decade, we couldn’t find the off switch,” Jim recalled. “Our kids literally grew up in the office listening to mom and dad talk incessantly about car shows and car washes — their height charts are found penciled on office door-jambs.”

Over the years, the couple has struck a balance, with Jim taking on the car wash operations and Teri focusing on the auto show and event company, and they have also managed to inspire their daughters. The youngest is in college studying business, while the oldest has already graduated and is working in the “corporate side of the house,” as Jim coined it.

“Both our girls worked on the retail front lines loading vehicles and emptying trash,” Jim explained. “Even today, we still don’t know where the off switch is — we’re just a happy and passionate family who works exceptionally well together.”

The Golden Nugget

Jim had one last piece of advice for car washers and detailers: Look for the golden nuggets. “I find golden nugget ideas everywhere I go,” Jim stated. “I find them in unexpected places and can somehow relate almost everything back to a car wash.”

With every new “golden nugget” idea, Jim asks himself two questions:

• Has it already been done in my market?

• Will it make a difference to the customer experience?

“I’m a detail-oriented student of business with a blue-sky frame of mind – my wife says I exhaust her,” Jim admitted. “Truth is, I’m just a car wash junkie who can’t stop thinking of cool, new ways to make my next car wash better than the last!”