Laundromat Business - Tines Have Changed Baby
So you have been thinking about a Laundromat business, congratulations. A well put together Laundromat business can be an asset that will pay you a good income for many years.
The famous Entrepreneur and Educator/Author Robert Kiyosaki had a Laundromat business when he was at college, it was one of the first real businesses he had a hand in, and from all reports he still has a soft spot for the Laundromat business.
And why not, the staffing overheads are minimal, most Laundromats are cash businesses (always a good thing), and your clients for the most part will look after themselves. Many Laundromats can also run 24 hours – 7 days a week and there are not many business models that can boast this feature that do not have high staffing costs.
A Laundromat business can be looked at as a walk-in vending machine and to my mind this is only a good thing.
These days our clients demand more of any goods and services they consume than ever before, no longer is the pile of outdated magazines sufficient entertainment for your clients. On average a Laundromat client will spend over an hour at a time washing their clothes and it is your job to keep them fed, watered down and entertained.
Consider having a combined cool drink and coffee machine in your Laundromat, it may even be worth considering a candy machine too. Your clients are sitting in your premises for over an hour, so why not help them to spend a little more of their money. After all you are doing them a service.
Some forward thinking Laundromat owners have even installed internet access in their businesses to allow their clients to be able to jump on the net to while away the time when they are cleaning their socks and shorts.
With the rapidly changing face of technology you may even want to think about offering a wireless internet access point for your clients. This will make it more difficult for you to directly monetize your internet provision, though it will have your clients using you business over the competition because they can use their iPhone to stay in touch with friends and family.
So like all businesses, think a little outside the box, put yourself in your clients shoes (or socks anyway), think of what you would like as a customer of your business and provide it.
Good luck with your Laundromat Business
Cheers for now
Coin-Op
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The Laundromat Business is a great business. Like any business large or small it does have its challenges like any other.
The cost of maintaining your infrastructure can be random, finding laundry parts and hardware replacements can be time consuming. And if you are leasing premises, the threat of an unexpected move can be fatal. It is expensive and even though new clients will find your new location, it is far more like starting again than it is moving shop. Like life though we see either problems or opportunity, the choice is entirely your own.
The aim of wash-around-the-clock.com is to provide a place where those of us in the laundromat business can get together and share information, make a contribution and receive experience in return.
Our businesses can be lucrative, we hope that with the synergy we can generate here we will become even more successful.
Best of Success with your Laundromat business
Admin
My fiance and I are considering leasing space to operate a laundromat business. What are some of the anticipated start-up costs? Also, does anyone have any idea on estimated monthly costs to operate a laundromat business? And monthly profits?
Hi Alexis
Great to see you looking to get into the business.
In all honesty it is difficult to give you solid numbers of monthly costs and profits. Like any business? it depends. That said it is all about the numbers.
Think about the fundamentals, things like rent for your premises, cost of leasing the laundry hardware, or repaying the loan to buy the laundry hardware, consumables ? water, power, ongoing maintenance and of course your time.
Way all this up against your estimated value per client transaction, and the number of people you expect to be able to help with your business on a regular basis and the answers will present themselves.
Be a little on the conservative side with your estimates and if you are buying an ongoing business of any kind, you want to see a lot more than the past 3 months sales statistics, remember if something seems too good to be true chances are it is!
It is important to examine all of these things and compare them with where else you could be devoting your resources and energies. If there is a better opportunity elsewhere ? go for it.
With me, it is all about the bottom line. If you can make more money having your own business, be it a Laundromat or anything else, fantastic. Remember, play the devils advocate with yourself. What are the opportunity costs involved with going ahead versus doing something else.
No one can make these decisions for you, because no one cares as much about the consequences as you do. Do your due diligence, and only make it happen if you can make money now. Tomorrow is a canceled cheque, yesterday an IOU, today is CASH, make the most of it?
I would love to know how things turn out?
Cheers and Good luck with your future business ventures
Coin-Op
Thank you for the advise you are giving,
I’m also very very keen on open/starting a laundromt but how do I know if poeple are going to come
Hello Luvo
Your question is a good one, the Laundromat business is just like any other business.
If the Laundromat business you are looking at buying is an existing business, check the records. The further back the better. You want to see what the growth of this Laundromat over a longer term has been, increasing or decreasing. I would certainly want to look at 2-3 years records as a minimum. Three months really show nothing of how a business is going.
If the seller can?t supply these records or simply wants to tell you verbally, there could be reason to be cautious. A successful business owner will be proud to show you the numbers when they want to move on. The price you should pay for your Laundromat will be about 3-5 years expected profits.
In this situation I also think it wise to find out why they want to sell in the first place. Once again, if it feels too good to be true – maybe it is.
If you are looking to establishing a new business of course none of this information is available. I would talk to some of the local businesses around where you intend to locate (do this in any case) and I would also spend a lot of time thinking about who my customers are.
Try to think of who they will be, why they will want to use your Laundromat and what problems you will be solving for them.
Any business has only one main purpose, this is to solve our clients problems. The car industry grew out of a personal transport problem, mobile phones grew to solve a personal communication problem. All businesses solve a problem and you need to look at the problem you will be solving, finding an area where people have that problem and then providing a solution. Always try to peddle your wares to ?the starving crowd?.
I know this my not be the quick answer you are looking for, though remember, you will be in business for years, spending a few weeks or months doing your homework before you start is part of your ?Due Diligence?. It will help guarantee your Laundromats success and your success along with it.
Once you are up and running you have to think about marketing, though that?s a whole other subject. I will cover some of my thoughts regarding Laundromat marketing over the next few weeks, hope some of this helps.
Good luck and best of success to you!
Coin-Op