Take 5 Car Wash’s Sara Ramirez takes on opportunity, and serves as a role model for others
As Take 5 Car Wash’s District Manager for North and South Texas, Sara Ramirez is a leader who she hopes will serve as inspiration to others starting out.
When Sara Ramirez started working as a part-time Sales Attendant at an express car wash in 2014, she was a college student studying to be a medical assistant. “I was also just trying to help out the site manager who was a family friend,” she says with a bit of a laugh.
One year later, in 2015, she was promoted to Lead Sales Attendant. Then, in 2016, she was promoted again – this time to Site Manager. A lifelong high achiever – she graduated in the top three of her high school class – Sara’s part-time support was now shaping into a full-time job.
Her site was acquired by the International Car Wash Group, which was then acquired by Driven Brands. Sara needed to acclimate from managing a smaller business to working for a large company. It was a difficult transition, but, in the midst of the change, one thing became clear – she would now have more opportunities to grow.
“It was at that point that I decided I wanted to pursue a career in this business,” she says. “I told my husband that I wanted to work hard and do whatever I needed to do to move up and grow. It was my boss who helped me to shape that interest into a career path.”
Sara, who had worked as a pharmacy technician for six years before her experience in the car wash business, was now on a management track in an entirely new industry – all by her own gumption.
She became a Certified Training Site Manager responsible for training sites across Texas and supporting new acquisitions. Her big goal? A District Manager position. Once again, her boss was guiding her, showing her the skills needed to be a district manager.
In March 2022, Sara opened two sites in Edinburg, Texas. Then, the regional director of operations reached out with a growth opportunity that would require a move from Central to South Texas. Ramirez took the job.
Today, she serves as Take 5 Car Wash District Manager for both North Texas and South Texas.
Sara’s success is about so much more than the trajectory from sales attendant to district manager. She serves as a powerful and relatable example for women in the car wash industry.
She remembers how, at the start of her career, she was the only woman working for the company in the state of Texas. It was an uphill battle on many fronts.
“Initially, my site wasn’t doing well, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘I have to do whatever it takes to get my site working.’ I hired a mostly female crew when most of the car wash sites didn’t have a lot of women working for them. We started pushing hard, growing, and selling.” Within several months, her site’s key performance indicators were far past their targets. “I’m surprised at how well we did,” she says. “But I also knew that I wasn’t going to back down.”
That perspective and drive is a powerful and positive example for the future, which includes her two young daughters, and honors how far she’s come.
Sara grew up in the Texas Foster Care System, relocating all over Texas from a young age. She is grateful for the parents she grew up with because she learned morals and values that would become an important part of her life and career. She also grew up with a deeply rooted desire to make sure the cycle didn’t repeat itself. “From a very young age, I said to myself that if I had a family, I wanted to break the cycle and strive to be the best parent I could be. I wanted to prove a point to everyone that not every foster kid was going to fail – that we persevere and make careers for ourselves.”
Today, Sara is proud of the opportunities to grow and develop within Driven Brands. “I’m creating a career path not just for me – but for anyone who has worked beside me,” she says. “When I started out, I wished I had someone like me for me. If I can be that someone, I will.”