At 29 years old, Curtis Lyons is a multi-laundromat owner and real estate investor with aspirations of big growth going forward. In this episode of The Laundromat Resource Podcast Curtis tells us how he found himself owning multiple laundromats and rental real estate at such a young age.
Curtis is an inspiration to the many young investors and business owners out there because he has found success despite his young age. In this episode he shares his secrets to success and his simple, yet persistent ways that he continues to grow his businesses and his assets.
Also in this episode, Curtis talks about the value of community in his successful laundromat and real estate ventures. He has received knowledge and support from his family, his community, and the community of laundromat owners found online.
Join the Laundromat Resource community today and be a part of those of us finding financial freedom through laundromat ownership together!
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Episode Transcript
[Music]
you’re listening to the laundromat
resource
podcast the show by laundromat owners
for laundromat owners with your hosts
jordan barry
what’s up guys it’s jordan from the
laundromat resource podcast
this is show number 14. i’m super
excited that you’re here today today
we’re talking with
curtis lyons and he uh
is just blowing it out of the water he’s
out in birmingham
alabama he is 29 years old he’s a real
estate investor
he’s a multi laundromat owner and he’s
just plugging
away out there and he’s going to tell
you all about it today in today’s
podcast so i’m really excited for you
to get to know curtis a little bit more
maybe you’ve seen him around on some of
the uh
forums um or on facebook or something
but
he’s been around i’m super excited for
you to hear his story hear how he got
into uh laundromats and hear how he’s
doing it at such a young age a super
inspiring
story today so i’m i’m really excited uh
to get into that but before we do
there’s a couple of things
that we need to get through so number
one is i feel like
almost every episode we’re celebrating
something around here and today is no
exception
uh i’m so excited so next week
uh a week i think a week about a week
from when this
podcast is coming out uh will be
90 days since we launched the first
episode and
that’s a feat in and of itself that we
made it 90 days that’s
you know pretty much longer than i’ve
stuck with anything uh except for maybe
my wife
um but uh i’ve been enjoying it
thoroughly but something that just blows
my mind
about this 90-day milestone is that
you know we’re not even there yet and we
have already crossed uh
3 000 downloads 3 000 podcast downloads
and it just blows me out of the water
and i’m just so grateful to you guys i
never
expected um to have that kind of
traction
and you know i had i had a friend whose
wife was like
three million downloads and i was like
well no like three thousand i was like
really excited about
the 3000 until you said it like that
so a little bit of wind came out of my
sails from that but
i’m still seriously i’m blown away that
we have three thousand dollars i just
wanted to say a huge thank you to you
guys
and an even huger thank you to the
guests that have come on
the show uh man i’m just so grateful not
only that they
they took their time to come on the show
but just that they’ve shared so much
with me
with us with all of us um of just the
wisdom that they’ve gained from owning
their laundromats and
uh just everything that they’ve learned
man i have learned so much i hope you
guys have learned a ton
and i hope you continue to learn a ton
with me
uh through through these interviews um
today of course
uh but going forward and uh while we’re
kind of talking about that
if you’re someone who owns a laundromat
or maybe you own multiple laundromats or
even commercial real estate that has a
laundromat in it
um we would love to hear your story and
how you
kind of got into it and what you’ve
learned along the way so if that’s you
and you’re interested in coming on and
talking shop with me
i would love to do it uh well i promise
i’ll make it fun for us it’ll be low
pressure
and uh you know we’ll pull out all the
wisdom you got
right out of your brain and you can
share with everybody so that everyone
can be in awe
of you um if you’re interested in doing
that
check out laundromat resource dot com
slash
podcast guest excuse me laundromat
resource dot com slash podcast
guest all one word and uh there’s some
information on there and there’s a form
to fill out
that will start the sequence of uh
figuring out you know if it is something
that you want to do
and uh and if so then when we can uh get
it going so
check that out if that’s something that
interests you i really encourage you i
know some people
have said they feel like they uh they
aren’t doing well enough or they aren’t
good enough to be
on the podcast and i just want to just
take a second to debunk that
right away um because we all have
a story to tell and we all have lessons
that we’ve learned
and even if you feel like you’re not as
successful as maybe some of the other
podcast guests
uh that does not matter i know it can
easily be intimidated
by these owners who’ve owned like 30
plus laundromats or even two laundromats
um but if you’re just a single
laundromat owner
man come on and talk to us about your
your experience with that because that
is super valuable too and and very uh
just interesting for all of us so lot of
my resource dot com
slash podcast guest i will put that in
the show notes which you can find
today on show number 14 at
dot laundromat slash show 14 that’ll
have all the links that we talk about
today
uh you know in in the interview in this
whole episode
um you’ll see there’s a youtube video
embedded there the podcast audio will be
there
and more so go check it out um you’ll
learn a little bit more about who curtis
lyons is
and his story so laundromat resource.com
show 14. okay
uh there’s that i wanted to uh take a
second because
this is actually another milestone so
our uh our membership
at laundromat resource.com has been
growing by leaps and bounds
every day we’re getting a bunch of
people signing up that’s just blowing me
away also and i’m super excited we have
a free membership over there
go be a part of it if you haven’t a lot
of resource dot com and just
uh join us over there because again
i strongly believe we strongly believe
that all of us will do better in this uh
in this industry
if we work together if we help each
other um it’s just gonna elevate all of
us and that’s what i’m all about
elevating this industry and helping you
and and us helping each other find
financial freedom through laundromat
ownership
so come join us we’ve had a bunch of
people doing that and but
one of the milestones uh like a week i
think last week or maybe the week before
i i opened a new forum
on uh learning resource.com forums uh
and it’s for just new member
introductions we have all these members
coming in
and i really want us to get to know each
other and i really want you to go
introduce yourself over there
let people know who you are where you
are and you know what you’re up to
if you own laundromats if you are
looking to buy a laundromat
but big milestone and a huge
huge shout out to todd miles todd i hope
that you’re listening to this because
i appreciate you but also
more than that you will forever be
immortalized
by the first new member introduction in
that new member forum so thank you
todd is uh he’s a new investor
he does real estate investing and he’s
got a group of partners and they’re
looking to buy a laundromat
and wanted to introduce himself so go
meet todd
at lottermatresource.com forums again
link is in the show notes or in the
description
uh and and go say hi to todd and while
you’re there
uh go introduce yourself also and and
introduce yourself to the community
because
that’s when the networking will start to
happen and that is
when when you start networking with
people that’s when stuff starts to
happen for you so
go do that todd huge shout out i’m going
to be doing shout outs for a little
while so if you’re brand new
or even if you’ve been a member and you
haven’t introduced yourself yet
go over there to the new member
introductions forum
introduce yourself and i’ll be doing
shout outs on the podcast for the next
you know few weeks or so so go get in
there while you can
todd you’re the man looking forward to
getting to know you
and looking forward to having you on the
podcast after you get that first
laundromat alright man
uh so there’s that speaking of forums
laundromat resource.com
forums i want to remind you that i am
brainwashing you every single week to go
over there
and ask a question and answer a question
and i want to just say
particularly if you’re if you’re an
experienced owner
we got a lot of people coming over right
now who are
are asking questions because they’re new
investors
um they are you know they’re trying to
figure it out
and as you know if you own a laundromat
that is the most critical phase when
you’re trying to figure it out you’re
trying to get these questions
answered um and uh case in point
you know john wrote on the podcast i
mean on the
forums this week um he he was concerned
because he has a laundromat that he’s
got his eye on
and it’s sandwiched uh between two
competitors within a mile of his laundry
mat and he’s wondering
he says it’s uh it’s showing that it’s
making money on the pro forma but he’s
wondering if that’s
something he should be concerned about
now
that is something that a lot of you
experienced owners can really help john
out with
and there’s a lot of questions like that
on the forums right now and we’re really
lacking
um just some some solid uh
down to earth wisdom from the people who
have been there
who have done that maybe you’ve made the
mistakes
or maybe you’ve uh happened to do it
right and you know
the right ways to do some of these
things so go help john
out and also i just want to point out
that tracy is still waiting for someone
to talk them out of
buying a laundromat on the forums that
is the title
of the forum uh somebody talked me out
of buying
uh a laundromat so go do that
laundrymateresource.com
forums and go ask a question answer a
question do it every week
uh because again that community is where
stuff
happens now real quick before we jump
into it with curtis i want to just
throw a quick shout out you may have
listened to show number two with dave
mintz he’s come up a few times
since he’s been on the show and i know a
lot of you guys really resonated with
him
i just want to shout out real quick that
dave men’s
has a youtube channel called laundromat
millionaire and i want you guys to go
check it out because he’s bringing some
really really cool stuff
he has got a ton of experience a ton of
wisdom
and you will not fail to learn something
from his youtube channel again i’ll link
it in the show notes and in the
description
so go check it out or go to youtube and
search laundromat millionaire
check him out because he’s doing awesome
things for the industry
and it’s stuff that’s really going to
help you out
so good job dave looking forward to the
content that you’ve been putting out
and i’m really really excited about it
all right let’s jump into it with curtis
lyons in one second
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all right i had to jump in with one more
quick thing because i just found this
out and i wanted to throw a
quick congratulations out to mitch who
got his very first laundromat
under contract we’ve been talking for a
little while now he’s been super excited
he’s had some deals fall through
and he just got his first laundromat
under contract so congrats
mitch keep up the good work and make
sure you do your good due diligence
uh to make sure you got a good deal on
your hands all right man uh
keep at it and without further ado let’s
jump into it
with curtis lyons right now all right
what’s up we are here
with curtis curtis what’s going on man
melanie’s how you doing today i’m doing
good thanks for jumping on today and
sharing a little bit about your
experience with
laundromats uh dude i’m super pumped to
have you on
uh can before we kind of get into your
uh you know what you’re doing with your
laundry mats and stuff
can you just tell us a little bit about
yourself who you are and
and then maybe transition that into you
know
how did you get into the laundromat
industry it’s kind of random
yeah it’s very random but like you said
my name is curtis
i’m 29 in birmingham alabama
um been in the industry for
officially four years a little over four
years
but i actually got started in my mom’s
dad he like mom’s from miami
and her dad owns uh
kind of it’s not like a strip mall but a
good little piece of land
where he had like a bodega a hotel
and another part of it was a coin
laundry man so
my parents first got married that was
kind of like one of the things that they
always wanted to have
so about five years ago in birmingham we
met a guy
who didn’t have kids and had nobody to
pretty much pass it on to
it was kind of like just wanted to keep
that going
so he ended up purchasing the first one
from him
and the six months of just
working side by side with him learning
the ins and outs of the business
just pulled the trigger and been four
years since
dang that’s cool so you bought it when
you were 25 years old
yeah oh man that’s crazy how was that
it was definitely interesting definitely
a lifestyle change
yeah i wouldn’t take it back for nothing
yeah did you get comments from people i
mean i just i
remember back when i was 25 because i’m
super old now uh but when i was 25
and like i don’t know if i’m buying
businesses when i’m 25 i don’t know i
feel like i might have gotten comments
from my friends like what are you doing
yeah people just looked at it kind of
like strange but a lot of people was
happy for me just because they just saw
a young guy doing something positive
and making a change in the community
because the other guy he was kind of
like a quarter driver
like i ain’t going to do nothing all i
want to do is just collect all the
quarters and
yeah run up out of here but when i took
over
like this man didn’t even have air
conditioning with a tv
in it so yeah thing i did was i’m not
going to sit it gets real human in
birmingham so
not going to sit in there no summer with
no ac so i put some ac
or some ceiling fans in and just been
making slowly but steady improvements
ever since then
dang that’s awesome yeah i can’t even
imagine
you know with no error in there how
anybody ever even went to that
laundromat
unless they had no choice yeah how you
ended up
going to do laundry then you come out
needing to do the laundry that
that’s right he’s sweating while you’re
doing the laundry i know
ain’t no fun that is no fun man that’s
crazy
but that’s cool though that you got a
lot of support um
you know as a you know as a 25 year old
getting into business
uh man i love hearing that that people
were happy for you because sometimes
people aren’t happy
you know that younger people uh are
making positive steps like that but i
think it’s a big deal
[Music]
a lot of good community well cool okay
so did you grow up in birmingham
no i’m actually born and raised in
atlanta i’m going down
birmingham in 2005.
okay transferred us down here and
steal here yeah how do you like it there
i’ve been there i liked it
but it’s very different from los angeles
that’s for sure
but it’s very different from atlanta too
so yeah it’s like
it’s a whole lot slower but you still is
still at that southern charm to a good
folks and southern hospitality yeah a
little bit more than atlanta
it’s more so they don’t have as much to
do in birmingham
yeah more hospitable environments
yeah yeah it’s not as big of a not as
big of a place you got that good
southern food there too right
oh yeah that seems important plenty of
places to go eat some good southern
cooking around here
yeah all right so 25 years old you
bought your laundromat like how did that
go when you first take over
like what what did that feel like and
then what was your experience like
the first like year or so uh the first
year it was hot like i said we had no ac
so uh went through that first
year with just kept everything the same
just pretty much trying to see
and make sure what we were told what the
sales were to make sure that all that
equated and to see what the business was
about
yeah did it do it did it equate it okay
so that was that was a promise and then
just pretty much learning the day-to-day
hustle of having to run a laundromat
um because like i said about six months
we train with the other owner
but when you’re off on your own and you
guys are responsible for doing
everything to
get a little bit different yep that’s
right
um just in doing all that and um
trying to because he kind of pieced the
whole store together with this
old equipment he bought off different
laundry mats and just kind of stuck it
in here
so after we got some ac in here
you know did a whole retool on the store
and
just still play some steady learning to
this day yeah
yeah it had a lot of good support from
the community so that always made it
easier well i’m sure they really
appreciated
you know somebody who really cared about
the business coming in and
doing their best to improve it you know
even if it took a little bit of time to
get that ac
in there you know just the fact that you
guys were there and improving it that’s
that’s pretty good when you when you
retooled it
did that help business a lot yeah it
definitely did because
all he had was about 10 50 stack old
ebay stripes
so when we did a retool i added
[Music]
with eight 35 pound dryers and
four stacks of 45s and 275 pound dryer
and of course for the washers i added a
80 pound washer
i went with three new 55 pounders got
about
six new 40 pounders and about 20 new 20
pounders
so that definitely helped because
everybody wants something new versus
something old but you don’t know what
it’s going to do if it’s going to stop
so i know something new durable and
reliable
it’s definitely a plus for everybody put
everybody in a good space
yeah yeah that’s what i saw always you
know joke when i bought my first one
before i got the new machines in there
it was kind of like
uh playing like roulette like you just
don’t know you’re gonna put your
quarters in and
you don’t know if you’re gonna get your
clothes washed or not
could go either way and with the whole
washers he had it’s like
that first year you spend so much money
on parts like
yeah you know it’ll just be go ahead
easier just buy new equipment don’t have
to worry about it for seven years
yeah exactly exactly i get that question
all the time like doesn’t the equipment
overhead
just like kill you and i’m like well
yeah if your machines are like 30 years
old
you’re gonna break down every week so
yeah that’s cool so that’s probably a
good feeling when you got new machines
in there and
everybody’s excited about it and that
was a good week right there
yeah yeah all right so then
after you kind of retooled and you kind
of ran for a little bit you have another
one right yeah
how did that one come about how’d you
get into that one
um a distributor that i knew
he knew he had actually toured that
store before
so him and the owner still kept in
contact
and he uh she
previously told him that she was looking
to get out the business
and he knew i was looking for another
one or
wanted another one and so danielle
kind of talked about it and talked to
her about it
that was a little bit more shaky because
she wasn’t as
honored her employee
but it was a great move because now i
retooled that story and i
just put some new drives that one about
a month ago so
taking a lot of other people customers
in that area so
yeah they helped the business a lot put
the new machines in
oh yeah yeah i get that i get asked that
question a lot like
how do you know when you need to put new
machines in and how do you know that
you’re gonna
uh when you put new machines in like
that they’re obviously they’re
very expensive so how do you know that
it’s going to be worth the cost
you know to put new machines in but i
think hearing
you know from people like you who did it
and saw a bump in business
uh it just gives people more confidence
then if you really know your area if you
know what the other laundromats have to
offer
it kind of makes it easier for you
because the only thing that the second
story that i bought
was lacking with dryers but my first
bought it went
for washington you might have out of 20
washers you might have four
good ones guaranteed to work geez
so outside of that they have 10 30 pound
stacks of dryers
but they were hit and missed as far as
getting high
so when i just rolled around the area
looking at all the other laundry mats
i was really in competition but it was
about 10 15 miles down the road about
five miles down the road there was
another laundry mat that was
run down didn’t have ac and stuff like
that
so once i took that last step of putting
the dryer
i kind of took all his customers now
that i have reliable good driver
yeah man just hearing that you’re even
considering looking
at a laundromat 10 miles away as
competition is crazy to me because
there’s probably like 400 laundromats
between me and a laundromat that’s
10 miles away from me here in l.a it’s
crazy
yeah that’s great yeah that’s funny so
what was the
what was the purchase uh process like
for that second one
did you uh just kind of roll in
you know some of your profits from the
first one and and get in there how did
you get into that one
uh a couple of real estate deals helped
out with that one
and some savings nice like uh
are you like a real estate agent no
a real estate investor oh that’s what i
like to hear all right
all right cool so you got some real
estate investments and you kind of
leveraged them or sold them or something
yeah sold a couple properties and made
that deal happen get in there
is your is your cash flow better with
the laundromats
or with the real estate that you sold
uh i say they are equal
as long as i’m making money that’s right
what i’m doing
i don’t really put one more than the
other but real estate can hit that swing
at any point in time
yeah that’s more of a steady business it
grows but it doesn’t grow as much as a
real estate would
yeah as far as just a quick net profit
on the deal
yeah that’s why i like uh i like the
combination of having laundromats and
real estate
just for that very that very reason yeah
how’d you get it this is a little bit of
a side note but i’m i’m super intrigued
by this
how did you get into real estate
investing uh
my my grandfather and my father they
always had rental houses and stuff like
that
so growing up i used to always help them
collect rent and
paint houses and stuff like that so once
i finally got old enough
i just kind of i really just followed in
my father’s in my grandfather’s
footsteps and everything i do
that’s awesome role models and support
systems through everything
yeah yeah that’s awesome i think a lot
of people
you know who don’t come from families
like that struggle with like how to get
into their you know into like real
estate investing how to know what to do
but it just it’s you know
so i come from a family like that we
didn’t do any like investments or
business or anything like that
and kind of my philosophy going into it
was like hey i’m going to get in there
and i’m going to figure it out and it’s
probably going to be messy and i’m going
to make a ton of mistakes
but once i figure it out i can teach my
kids you know about it
and then they’re going to be you know
even better at it than i am and
hopefully it goes down the line like
that so
that’s cool i like that uh so let me ask
you what is like uh
what does like a typical work week look
like for you
now that you got two laundromats and
what do you what are you spending your
time doing and how much of that time are
you spending
well i’ve pretty much been i don’t know
it could be really flexible
um i’m more hands-on with it because
it’s
more it it
it isn’t self-operated as much as the
second one is
so the first one i actually work a
couple hours a day
in this one and i have somebody come in
and they keep it clean throughout the
middle of the day
and uh then i just come back at night
and close it up and
take care of that part but usually by
about 5 30 in the morning i’m
up and probably don’t go to bed it’s
about 12 just
running errands and paying this and that
and
supplies and stuff like that hustling
i like that how in the world did you
have time to buy another one when you’re
working like that
uh you just got to make the time to do
it
that’s what i wanted to hear yeah just
got to make the time
but the second one is a little bit
easier because it’s more of a
self-operated like in the in the first
one i actually have like a counter
where people come up and buy soap right
i also have like a drop-off service that
i offer at this one
so i have to have somebody here to do
drop-offs and stuff like that
versus the other one i just have like
bended
soap machines and all i have them do is
just clean up throughout
the day yeah to keep it clean the answer
any uh
customer questions yeah
do you see this is uh just out of
curiosity do you see
more sales with the counter
uh or the vending or are they about the
same
and you’re too much
you know well the
counter i would say i would say the
first one does more
because i actually have more people that
come
this store has a bigger uh customer base
versus the second one
okay okay yeah i guess i’ll probably
have to say the first one do more
because
the second one all i have is a little
box soaps
versus that the first one will actually
sell like big bottles of extra and gain
and stuff like that yeah yeah yeah i
just found that as soon as i put in
a store like that in mine like
my sales like skyrocketed
versus having the vending so i was just
curious if that was true for you too
yeah yeah cool all right so you’re
hustling pretty much all day
um are you doing like repairs on your
own or
are you hiring that out or what are you
doing oh
you might not have a lot because you
have pretty new machines
as far as repairs at the first one i
kind of have i
probably got about seven older machines
but even on like some of the new ones
if it’s something like that’s a quick
fix
i’ve i’ve learned to do it because one
of the guys
who still works here with me he used to
fix on all the machines
so i if i don’t know how to fix it i’ll
just ask them to but i’ll stand there
and watch them and do it with them
yeah and that’s pretty much every common
problem outside of putting bearings on
the washing machine i’ve done
i still had to do that
i’ve done that on the on the top loaders
i haven’t done a front loader i just
kind of refused to do it so
yeah but i think that’s good i mean
that’s a good tip for anybody right
there is
you know whenever you have repairs if
you can’t do it even if you hire a
repairman to come in
you know sit back there and watch them
because a lot of times they can fix them
real quick
and you know a lot of times it costs you
like 75 bucks just for them to come out
you know so if you save that 75 bucks
and a five-minute fix then yeah it’s
pretty good
pretty good money per hour oh yeah
yeah on down the line when it happened
two or three other times
yeah yeah well
man i so you have two now
have you thought much about and some
real estate investments
have you thought much about the future
and like what your goals are going
forward and you know it doesn’t have to
necessarily just be with laundromats but
have you thought about
like business and investing wise what
what your goals are going forward
yeah i’m actually looking at trying to
get a third laundromat are you
yeah i got a couple of them that i’m
eyeing right now
just waiting on the sellers to get ready
to want to sell it to me
yeah um i actually just met a guy
last week when i was going to pick up
something
and talk to him about it so another
owner
yeah another owner that was looking to
sell yeah so
i don’t want to talk to somebody gonna
sell it to me that’s right
it’s a numbers game for sure oh yeah
yeah
all three come throughs and we’ll figure
out how to get all three that’s what i’m
talking about
so you gonna stop at three are you gonna
keep going or do you know
i’m gonna keep going so i can’t go no
more all right
all right well i know for a fact because
we had luke williford on and he has like
37 or 38 or i don’t know maybe by now
a few weeks later he has like 50 i don’t
know but he has at least 37
so i know it’s possible to have at least
37 so oh yeah
yeah you know i met an older guy one
time he told me
uh he didn’t he wasn’t too
um ecstatic about me buying the second
one
because his philosophy would just take
the one and run it to the best of your
abilities
and then he said because you can’t focus
all your time on it
and the way i look at it is you can make
time for whatever you want
just prioritize and manage your day yeah
i like that i think that’s i think
that’s huge and i think
you know and there’s nothing wrong with
just getting one and i think that’s
fine for a lot of people but you know if
you
if your goal is to do more than one
it’s like you said if you can make time
for it
or you can you know find other people to
spend their time on it and
drop that let them do more and you drop
back more into a management role too
so there’s there’s definitely ways to do
that
cool so you’re just kind of rolling with
it and seeing
where it takes you and how many you end
up with i like that
oh yeah well this uh
this section of the podcast we like to
call it down to business
[Applause]
over and out and down to business is
just talking a little bit about the
details of your
businesses so you’re in you’re in
birmingham right
deep south down is birmingham’s deep
south right is that
considered deep south or no yeah
i guess before you get to florida we
right there with mississippi georgia so
that’s the real part of the south that’s
true all all right
in birmingham okay and you got two
laundromats and some real estate
and you’ve been in the business since
two uh two
four years is that you said 2016. okay
uh can you give us like a ballpark of
like what are your
what what do your vin prices look like
out there in birmingham
like a range of of how much it’s costing
for people to do
laundry there um
for 20 pound machines they
started they have two options you could
do a
regular watch which is two wide cycles
of rants and a spin
for three dollars or you could add an
extra wash cycle
or pre-wash we do that for 350
and we got a 40 pounders for 425
um
no 30 pounder for 425
we have a 40 pounder for 550
and with a pre-wash is 650
and for 55 pounders they’re
625 for regular watching 725
dad of pre-wash and on my 80 pounders
you’ve got a nine dollar regular watch
with a ten dollar pre-watch
uh are they attended or unattended
are you the farmer attended
one of them partially attended is open
from seven a.m to nine pm
but my attendance come in from 10 in the
morning to
seven at night okay
yeah yeah and then are you running
uh all coins or do you have any cards at
all
uh at the moment i’m running all coins
but
in the next couple of weeks i should be
getting some card systems
waiting on the order to come in nice you
already ordered them and you’re just
waiting for them to go
yeah so i’m really interested to see how
that’s going to work
yeah that’s awesome i i think uh it
there’s the card systems are so powerful
not just for you
as as an owner and like the management
of it but it you can really utilize them
to benefit the customers as well so i
think that’s awesome yeah
so i’ll be i’ll be one of the first ones
in birmingham well i will be the only
one in birmingham with it at both
locations so
definitely an advantage right there yeah
that’s pretty awesome
this section of the podcast we like to
call the secret sauce
listen up it’s the secret sauce
and the secret sauce is this what’s one
thing
that’s working well in your businesses
right now that other owners can utilize
uh to improve their businesses
with me i think it’s all about facetime
like i know a lot of people say you
can’t go into
major stores and see the owner but i
think for small businesses that face
time that you actually have with your
customers
means a lot to them and showing them
that you care
like i have a thing on saturdays and
sundays where
i bring in donuts in the morning and
during the real peak times of
saturday and sunday afternoons i’ll stop
by grab a couple pizzas bring them so
people
have something to eat while they wash
clothes and um
just interacting with the customers
knowing them by name and
whatever if some of them have like
little shirts they making or
other little projects they’re trying to
sell just you know
showing that patriotism back to them
being involved i like that
yeah i think that’s a huge you know a
huge perk that
you have in the way that you’re running
your business right now is that you do
get that face
time and the community does really uh
they really
appreciate that um and especially if
you’re supporting what they’re doing
that’s huge the next uh the next section
we like to call
pro tips pro tips pro tips
is for people who are looking to maybe
buy their first laundromat
and it’s this what’s one piece of advice
you’d give to a new investor who wants
to buy their first laundromat
talk to many people that in the industry
as you can and don’t be afraid
just learn everything you can from
whoever you’re buying it from or if
you’re building it pro
if you’re building it from scratch make
sure you find a good distributor that
answers the phone
every time you call and always has an
answer they don’t have the answer make
sure they get the answer back to you
in a reasonable amount of time
so talk to the many previous owners
or owners that you know that have been
around in the area
and you find a very good distributor
yeah
solid solid advice you know and i think
especially with the distributor
piece of it man they can really help you
or they can really hang out to dry if
they
if they don’t help you so i’m saying
about the quick buck and they actually
care about you
that’s what makes a difference that
makes a huge huge difference i think
that’s solid advice so if you’re new out
there and you’re looking to get in the
industry
and curtis knows what he’s talking about
so find yourself a really good
distributor to work with
and if a distributor is not the best to
work with find another one
you know don’t be don’t be afraid to do
that it’s business and that’s how
it should be they got to earn your
business oh yeah
i’ve had one of each i’ve had two bad
ones so
i’m still looking for a good one i know
i know some good ones too
here at laundromat resource we’re all
about you know helping each other out
helping each other find that
financial freedom through laundromat
ownership and one of the ways that
i like to do this on the podcast is
through
um asking guests if they have any
resources that they’d recommend
to help other people either grow their
businesses or just grow personally
in their own you know knowledge and
experience
[Music]
um like i said well a lot of stuff that
i if i don’t know
or if i just can’t if i need a quick
answer there’s a lot of groups on
facebook
where a lot of large fat owners are in
like i believe one of them’s called
laundromat how-to
it’s different laundromat owners from
across the world where they post stuff
about
quick questions and how to do this or
where to find this
at that’s a great resource and
your community like if there’s anything
because there’s a customer your
laundromat that knows something
probably about what you’re looking for
oh yeah
so being involved with the customers
again
that’ll definitely help you out yeah
that’s cool
we’ve never had anybody suggest that or
like uh
give that as a recommended resource but
that’s a pretty cool one because there
are
people in your community that have a ton
of different experiences and skills and
knowledge
you know that you don’t have that’s
genius i like that a lot
yeah yeah i think that’s one of the
benefits of running the laundry mat the
way that you’re doing it where you’re
there
a lot and you’re giving a lot of face
time is that you’re getting to know
those people and you’re getting to know
you know build building relationships
with them and so
you know you scratch their back they
scratch your back kind of thing that’s
pretty cool
oh yeah yeah that’s that’s solid advice
well cool man anything else you want to
share about your uh
your journey your experience in
laundromats or any other advice you want
to dole out
before we uh jump out of here
um no i believe they pretty much touched
on just about everything
awesome well curtis if somebody wants to
get a hold of you
is there a place they can find you um
that’s the best to kind of contact you
uh you can generally find me on facebook
at curtis lions
okay you can look up either one of my
laundromat pages
one’s five points highlander laundry the
other ones fairfield coin laundry
or you can visit us online at www.5
points highlanderlaundry.com
is it uh the number five or spelled out
five spelled out by okay
cool i’ll have those uh those links in
the
show notes um or if you’re on youtube
i’ll have them down in the description
in case you want to get in contact with
curtis who’s killing it
at 29 years old the ideal age
for anybody in the middle age which is
29 years old
but killing it with real estate
investments and with two laundromats
looking to buy a third and possibly a
fourth and fifth if they all just came
it came some of the better that’s right
and he’s hustling
and he is killing it so man if you have
questions about laundromats or if you’re
uh in his area hit him up because he’s a
cool guy and he’s
here uh answering questions that you
know not a lot
not a lot of people are answering and
he’s doing it right here for you guys to
help you out
so hit him up curtis thank you so much
for being on the podcast
uh it was truly a privilege and an honor
to hear your story
and your wisdom i thought you really
brought a really cool perspective so i
appreciate that man thanks for coming on
hey thanks for having me man i
appreciate it yeah all right we’ll have
you back on some time to
to get a uh um update all right i
definitely look forward to it
all right man we’ll talk to you later i
have a good one
how cool was that interview i mean
curtis is 29 years old he’s just he’s so
down to earth
and he’s just got it going he’s got two
laundromats now
he’s gonna just roll over and end up
with five in no time i just know it he’s
got real estate investments he’s doing
he is just killing it down there in
birmingham
and i’m super pumped about what he’s
doing
and i it was just seriously it was just
a huge honor to have him on
on the show and again curtis thank you
again for coming on
and just sharing your wisdom sharing
your experience
i know i learned a lot i want to
encourage you like i do every week or i
try to remember to every week
take one thing that you heard today and
put that into practice you know if you
remember back to luke williford’s
uh show which is um
lotimateresource.comshow10
uh his his quote that he shared with us
was
you know the biggest gap in the world is
the gap between knowing and doing
well curtis gave us some things to uh
you know to absorb in our minds now go
pick one of those things and
do something about it implement it
something into your personal life
something into your business
but take something from this podcast put
it into action
and also go to the forums laundromat
resource.com
forums and ask a question and answer a
question this week
thank you guys so much for joining us on
the laundromat resource podcast
show number 14. we will see you again
next week when we will
bring it i can’t wait to see you guys
and we will talk to you then all right
peace
[Music]
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