Building a Laundromat From a Woman's Perspective

Sharon Brinks is a rock star laundromat owner. She built her laundromat from the ground up and shares the lessons she learned doing it in today’s show. From being burned by sharing financials to the nuances of building from scratch and getting and keeping customers in your new build, Sharon shares it all! This show is packed with practical tips and lessons that you can apply in your laundry business!

In today’s show, Sharon and Jordan discuss:

  • Using an SBA loan to buy a laundromat
  • Retooling equipment
  • Building from scratch
  • Selling vs. shutting down a laundromat
  • Factors to consider when building from scratch
  • How to get customers when you open your new build
  • Sharon’s key to running a great laundromat
  • The percentage of people who use cash vs. her app payment system
  • How to promote wash, dry, fold business
  • How to start a pick-up and delivery business
  • Sharon’s keys to building a great team
  • And tons of resources for you (see links below)

And way more!

Photos of Sharon's Laundromat

Sharon's Bio

Born and raised in Southwest Missouri, Sharon graduated from Missouri State University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems. She was an Information Technology professional from 1985 to 2011, during which time she began buying investment properties. She became a licensed real estate salesperson after a layoff due to a corporate merger in 2011. Sharon later became a real estate broker and in August 2018 created Brinks Realty LLC.

She purchased her first laundromat in January 2014. During the next few years of upgrading and making it profitable she became hooked on the laundry business.

Sharon and her husband then built their flagship store, The Laundry Station in Wichita Kansas, from the ground up and opened for business in April 2018. It was the first new laundromat in the United States to use Speed Queen’s state of the art Insights technology and app payment system, including the very first Speed Queen Value Center installation. The Laundry Station was asked to be a very early adopter of Speed Queen’s Point Of Sale system which was installed April 2019 and used in the store through November 2021.

Sharon created a laundry pickup and delivery service, Laundry Express LLC, in April 2020 which is based out of The Laundry Station.

Sharon is married to Steve Brinks, a structural engineer who holds PE licenses in Kansas and Missouri and is the owner of Brinks Engineering LLC. She has two grown sons, and via marriage has a bonus daughter and family, and a bonus son and family.

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Today's Sponsors

AtmosphereTV We’re brought to you today by my friends at AtmoshereTV! Now You may have heard my interview a few months back with Mike Kelly from AtmosphereTV where we talked about what a simple change in content on your TVs can do for your laundromat by getting depressing news stations OFF and something much more fun, entertaining, and family-friendly ON.  Since then, Atmosphere has grown to 50+ channels included in their service with everything from Surfing Dogs to Extreme sports, hilarious fails, and jaw-dropping videos from all over the world built specifically for business use. Atmosphere can be used to supplement your cable or you can completely cut your expensive cable bill and use Atmosphere 100% FREE saving thousands a year! Use my code RESOURCE when you check out or click the link or image to have your setup fee waived or contact Mike.Kelly@Atmosphere.tv for more information!

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Episode Transcript