Average hours a week owners work there laundromat

[Jon dickey]

I am actively looking to buy my first MAT. My wife is concerned that I will be gone all the time working my 9-5 and this new venture. Taking away all my time and not be present for her and our family.
This question is for all my first time laundromat owners. How many hours do you averagely work at your store a week for the first few years?
I know there are outlier when machines are down and when you have to be present. Before I jump in full force I would like to see what others think.

[Ben Anderson]

This is a question I have as well.

[Jon dickey]

Hey Ben,

When you buy your first store are you planning to continue a working somewhere else or are you making the store your main Source of revenue?

[Ben Anderson]

This would be a secondary income source. I have a W2 job that I am not looking to leave and some other real estate investments.

Ben

[Jason Dodge]

No easy answer here because all locations have different demands. If this is a unattended location that does less than $100k in sales annually, then I would guesstimate at 5 hours a week if you have a cleaning person to do the daily cleaning. You would have two stops a week doing collections. Maybe a hour a week doing office type work, bank runs, payroll, entering sales data and paying bills. Maybe another hour or so getting supplies for vending machines or cleaning supplies.

Then all the little issues that can come up are hard to predict. Some weeks I have no issues. Then all of a sudden I will have multiple issues that I need to drive down and handle. Some fixes are quick and require very little time. Some times I’m there all day fixing or doing maintenance.

Busier locations have more issues and require more time.

[Juan Vazquez]

I’ve owned my mat for several years and work full time. A reasonable average of hours to keep the place, well lit, clean, and exceptionally maintained is about 12 – 16 hours per week. Considerably less if you plan to have someone else do the cleaning and maintenance.

Then again do keep in mind that it’s not so much the time rather the timing. Emergency issues can arise at any time and typically end up being at a most inconvenient part of the day or your schedule.

Good luck.

[Author]

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