In Store Vending - Make sure to change out video games for the customers - if the income starts getting light - you'll be paying more in electric bills on the things than you'll make - especially if you're doing a split with a local vendor which is probably the easiest route, and still the preferred way to go. Monitor non-plugged in vending too - like kids toys that do okay and maybe be able to take the place of plug-ins.
Purex 3 in 1 sheets - You may remember the recent post on these: http://laundrycapitalist.blogspot.com/2009/06/purex-3-in-1-laundry-sheets-purex-has.html
I tried them and I think they're awesome. My main concern was would there be enough suds on these 'sheets' and would there be enough juice left for the dryer for the softener. Also overall would their be a nice clean scent - which customers denote as CLEAN, and people like in general after the the wash/dry is done. The answer was yes to everything. The side benefits which are equally big: NO MORE DETERGENT OR SOFTENER BOTTLES. Good for the environment - obviously. Also No more filling up your recycle bins - less trash and recycling to drag to the street. No more lugging them from the store to the car, up the stairs...
Twitter - I've seen some Mats with twitter pages for their stores - good start. Many of them though have weak followings and they're following a light number of people as well. Actually I've given away enough Jedi mind tricks forget it.... OK, one easy tip. Use the search key and search people in your city. Start going down that results list and hit "follow", "follow", "follow". People tend to reciprocate your follows on twitter. Before you know it you'll be connected to a whole gaggle of locals. Now blasting your weekly deals, or marketing news won't go straight up to the ether - it will go to townies you want in the store.
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- The LC is an Entrepreneur with different business interests. Very interested in passive income streams as well as do it yourself businesses. Discussions outside the sexy laundromat industry are welcome also (Real Estate, Car Washes, sites, blogs, adsense etc.) There are 'comment' links at the bottom of every article where you can interact, ask questions or add comments.
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8 comments:
are you using those purex 3 in 1 sheets for WDF?
good question - NO -
they're so new to market that they're relatively expensive now
Hi, I stumbled upon your blog through a google search on advice about owning a laundrymat. I'm interested in purchasing one for myself and have a prospect lined up. I've looked through your blog posts and really like the information that you've documented. Because of your blog, I think you'd be a great person to ask some advice from about a deal that has been proposed to me. However, it doesn't involve getting to own the building. Rather the seller is offering me the "business" for a lump sum, and I would then rent the equipment and location from him. The thing that concerns me is that I'm not actually paying for anything other than the right to rent his equipment (and a contract that goes along with it). Long story short, any advice from you would be greatly appreciated. My question - is $20,000 unreasonable to purchase just the business with no equipment or land? Expenses for gas, water, etc. run about $3,000 per month. I've looked around and there's 9 apartment complexes with 1.5 miles of this laundrymat, and he told me the old owners moved out because of a family divorce. Sorry for the long post, but I couldn't find an email address to send a message by.
dwhood - Thanks for checking us out. Your apprehension is justified, I have concerns about this arrangement myself - beyond the side details, for the most part it sounds like you're paying this guy to manage HIS store & assets, with the hopes of a cash flow that will be your scrape. If you're managing the store you should be paid to do so. Am I missing details here?
LC$$$,
Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your time in advance for sure. In response to your reply, technically, I would say that I am being paid to run the store, in that all gross income is mine. However, I'm unsure how much net will be left over after all the rent and operating expenses. On one hand, if things turn out to be extremely profitable, the advantage is to my benefit exclusively, however, if it turns out to be a flop, there's no downside potential on his end unless I back out. If I do back out, he will already have a down payment (assuming I owner finance the rest). I'm wondering if there's something I'm missing as well. Is this common for someone (like myself) to pay someone else to manage their assets (in exhange for gross income minus expenses plus a contract to do business) or is he trying to put me on the hook to hedge his losses and get rent plus me buying the business. How can you own a business without owning equipment and "office space" in a sector like a laundrymat that has no inventory and no guarantees (like customer contracts). I just can't see this happening with say a restaurant (example: give me $20,000 and I'll let you rent my restaurant from me and all my equipment and you can keep any extra after it's all said and done).....one last note - he claims that this particular location can do $100,000 gross income in a year - reasonable or not? I'm hoping you can tell me.....
I couldn't tell you what that location can do without devilish details obviously. Is it possible? Sure. That kind of revenue on only $3k total expenses - don't think so.
Bottom-line I would consult with all your business colleagues on this one and ultimately the choice is yours. I think your instinct of being the Guinea Pig who's taking the risk for some other guy's test might be right. You have NO control in this deal. Let's say you did make over $100k in year one and proved the store IS a money machine. Do you think the landlord would continue the deal? I don't.
LC, how would you rate this business against your other endeavors? If you were running a "big city" laundromat in a generic case, what can you expect to pull in at the very top end on an annual basis? I am also in the corporate world and would like to know where I can put money to work outside of real estate and the stock market. Thanks,
by big city I mean population and demographics, still location is important in terms of traffic and parking and a bunch of other variables - see blog on demographics/top end the numbers vary dramatically on a host of all those variables - I've seen 130+ machine stores doing over 1M in revenue but they were enormous, others that size are sucking wind - bottomline most of the veterans recommend buying someone else's store first if you're serious about the business and then you can rake them over the coals about the numbers & expenses - I'm going to have to start charging consulting fees or put a donate button on the site!
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