147. Full Time Sheriff, Part Time Laundromat Owner with Chuck Castaneda

Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:

Hey. Hey. What’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Laundromed Resource Podcast. It is show 139, and I’m pumped you’re here today because today, you’re back on the show, Steve Andrews. It’s been almost 3 years to the day since he’s been on. I think he was, episode 35. Incredible episode way back in the archives. And, today, even better.

Jordan Berry [00:00:24]:

Super good, episode today. Steve. I almost said Andrews. Steve, shares a ton of great, information. He’s got some amazing stories of, building new laundromats and some stuff that happens with those, which you’re gonna love. But he also shares a whole lot of details about his business. He’s killing it. You can check out, photos of his laundromat on the show notes page, which is at laundromatresource.com/show 139.

Jordan Berry [00:00:53]:

Beautiful, beautiful laundromat in Tennessee. And he just he kills it. And, not only does he kill it, but he’s killing it right in the middle of some very, very strong competition. So, he tells you exact I asked him. I say, how are you competing and thriving so well in the midst of all this competition, gives you the formula. So awesome episode today. Let’s jump into it with Steve right away. Also, happy holidays if you’re listening to this when it’s coming out, because Christmas is about a week away.

Jordan Berry [00:01:23]:

Just a little less than a week away when this comes out. So happy holidays. And if you’re listening some other time of the year, happy whatever time of year it is. How about that? Alright. Let’s jump into it with Steve. Oh, man. We are here back again with Steve Andrews. Steve, how you doing,

Steve Andrews [00:01:40]:

man? Good. Good. How are you, Jordan?

Jordan Berry [00:01:42]:

I am doing awesome. Thank you for coming on again. This is your 2nd time on the podcast, guess which, by the way, is a huge accomplishment. I just wanna point that out. It’s a big deal.

Steve Andrews [00:01:52]:

Yeah. Thanks. Do I get do I get, like, an IMDB listing now or something?

Jordan Berry [00:01:56]:

You know what? We should we should have our own sorta IMDB for just the podcast deck. That would be There

Steve Andrews [00:02:02]:

you go.

Jordan Berry [00:02:02]:

There you go. Be pretty cool. I like that idea. Already, we’re starting off on a good foot. But man, it has been over a 100 episodes, since you’ve been on.

Steve Andrews [00:02:13]:

Yes. Yeah. That’s exactly right. I I think it’s been actually almost exactly 3 years. So I’ve gained a couple pounds and lost a couple of brain cells, but, you know, we’re still intact.

Jordan Berry [00:02:27]:

I see you have not lost any hair though. You’ve got more hair.

Steve Andrews [00:02:31]:

You Yeah. Added a little bit more, but this is a, Honestly, man, this is a last ditch effort. I just turned 48 last week, so, you know, I’m trying to, take advantage of it while it’s till there.

Jordan Berry [00:02:42]:

In anticipation of it going yeah.

Steve Andrews [00:02:45]:

It’s it’s inevitable.

Jordan Berry [00:02:47]:

Yeah. Well, I just I feel like, you know, hair, you you know, give it, take it, whatever. It’s all good.

Steve Andrews [00:02:53]:

Hair today, gone tomorrow. Right?

Jordan Berry [00:02:54]:

That’s right. Well, hey, man. Just in case anybody doesn’t know who you are, first of all, shame on you for not knowing these Dave and Steve Andrews. But why don’t you catch us all up with, a little bit about who you are, what you do?

Steve Andrews [00:03:10]:

Yeah. Sure. So, Steve Andrews. I’m based out of, Nashville, Tennessee. Actually, live in a well, I was gonna say small town, but it’s not anymore. Just south of Nashville, called Franklin. I mean, it’s like in all the magazines

Jordan Berry [00:03:26]:

where people

Steve Andrews [00:03:26]:

are saying, Oh, yeah. Like, move here, move here, and we’re like, no. Please please don’t. But, anyway, it’s a great great place to live. I really, really enjoy it. I’ve got a wonderful family. Been married to my wife for 16 years. She is my absolute partner in crime, and I could do none of of what I do with without her.

Steve Andrews [00:03:48]:

2 kids, Sofia and Max, 12 and 10 years old. So right in the thick of that part of it, got a Future teenager coming up on us and not looking forward to that, but, you know, we’ll, we’ll deal with it as it comes. But, I’ve been in the laundry industry now for a little over 5 years. Matter of fact, we’ll We’ll be coming up on our the 5 year anniversary of opening our 1st store, back in 2018, next week. So, looking forward to that. We’ve got 2 stores. Both are kind of in the broader Metro Nashville area. Actually in the process of, of of beginning store number 3.

Steve Andrews [00:04:38]:

Little we can talk about that a little more later, but that’s a little different venture, both in where we’re doing it, how we’re doing it, all that kind of stuff. But really excited about that. Prior to the laundry industry, I spent about 17 years in the corporate world. We talked about this in the in the last podcast we did, but, you know, it really was a struggle for me in that In that world, and I was really looking for an opportunity, and lo and behold, here comes dirty laundry to save my day. Right? So, learned a lot from that, especially when it comes to,

Jordan Berry [00:05:15]:

you

Steve Andrews [00:05:16]:

know, customer experience client management, managing teams, and and marketing. So really applied all that logic that I They’re into what we do today, and, honestly, have never looked back. I used to used to sit at my desk in my corporate job and stare out the window and just dream of the world outside. And now I’m actually out there every single day, in the world with my own business, doing my own thing, and it’s just it’s the greatest thing ever. I it’s it’s the biggest blessing that’s ever happened in my life other than My family, of course.

Jordan Berry [00:05:52]:

Right. Alright. They’re probably not gonna listen to it, so you can be truthful here. It’s fine.

Steve Andrews [00:05:57]:

Hey. I might Make them.

Jordan Berry [00:05:58]:

Yeah. That’s what I’m talking about. They should be listening to this.

Steve Andrews [00:06:02]:

Yeah. We just get in the car and I turn it on. You know? What what are they do that. Tell me to turn it off.

Jordan Berry [00:06:06]:

Put their earbuds in is what they’re gonna do and ignore you. That’s what I do. 10 and 12, man. Same same with mine. I’m I’m right in the thick of it with you.

Steve Andrews [00:06:15]:

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, last time we talked, I think we were just getting started with store number 2. So, obviously, we’ve completed that and and it’s been a kind of a little bit of a up and down ride from there, but, Some good, some bad, but all all positive, when you look at the total total value. So

Jordan Berry [00:06:39]:

Awesome. Well, let’s get into it a little bit. And just in case, anybody hasn’t listened to your 1st episode yet. I believe it was episode 35 that you were on, the last time that you’re on. So make sure you go back and listen to episode 35. Seriously, super duper good episode and one of the more popular episodes, too. So, do not miss that one. And I I think, if memory serves well, again, I’m also, you know, getting up there.

Jordan Berry [00:07:06]:

So memory’s a little

Steve Andrews [00:07:07]:

bit too soon.

Jordan Berry [00:07:09]:

But I think we did talk a little bit about how you pulled the trigger on, escaping your corporate gig. Because I know there’s a lot of people out there who that is the goal, that is the dream, to get out of that 9 to 5 and, do your own thing. Have your own you know, build your own life the way that you want to. So Yeah. That’s a good one. Go back and listen to.

Steve Andrews [00:07:29]:

Yeah. It’s, it it was it was something I dreamed about a lot. And, you know, what’s funny is, even to this day, I’ll I still have, I’ll call them nightmares, kind of a recurring nightmare that I have and and I don’t know Subconsciously what this means. So if there’s any dream experts out there, maybe you can give me some feedback. But subconsciously, I have this recurring Nightmare that I am back in the corporate world, in the office, sitting at a desk, doing kind of the 9 to Five things. So, yeah, I kinda wake up in with night sweats on that one, but wake up and everything’s all good again.

Jordan Berry [00:08:08]:

Yeah. Well, if you’re if you’re out there listening to this and you’re having similar nightmares, that you’re gonna be stuck in there, listen. This is the episode for you and, episode 35, the episode for you. So go check that out, for sure.

Steve Andrews [00:08:23]:

There you go.

Jordan Berry [00:08:24]:

Alright. So you have a couple of laundromats now getting ready to venture on number 3, which I feel like you did mostly to secure a 3rd podcast episode. Is this correct?

Steve Andrews [00:08:37]:

Yeah, man. Okay. That’s that’s my goal for everything. I’m trying to create my own, you know, reality TV show here.

Jordan Berry [00:08:43]:

You know, I can admire the strategic thinking that you’ve got going on here and I will honor it. So we’ll definitely be back on 3rd when you get that 3rd one open. Alright. Well, I mean, listen. You’ve you sort of teased us a little bit with some ups and downs and stuff, but let’s talk about, you know, how’s how’s store number 1 doing? And then let’s roll into, how you found store number 2 and sort of the the narrative, if you will, of store number 2.

Steve Andrews [00:09:12]:

Sure. Yeah. So store 1’s doing fantastic. We talked about this before, but as far as Location, it is in the perfect location. We, if if there’s anything that I would change about what we did at store number 1 is I would make it larger. We we do, an ungodly number of turns there on average day. I have an unbelievable staff there, which is a lot of of of what makes us successful. But, yeah, store number 1’s doing well.

Steve Andrews [00:09:51]:

At that store, we do strictly, self serve and drop off laundry. We have some commercial customers, but they’re they’re drop off, just drop off specific. And and we’ve grown there, quite a bit. One of the things that we did at you know, I I like to reinvest in the stores on a regular basis, not only just for the benefit of store, but I like for the customers to see that we’re doing that. So we’ve done some re remodeling there, and I actually expanded our parking lot. It’s been about, I’d say about 18 months ago now. Originally, we had 17 parking spots at that store, which, you know, when we built it, I was like, oh, this is this is perfect. You know, I I don’t see a need for more.

Steve Andrews [00:10:40]:

Unfortunately, we we had a need for more. So, we had some space in the back of the property. I got approval from the landlord to, to add on to the parking lot. And so we added 11 additional parking spots, so we’re up to 28 now. And on Sundays, when I’m there, sometimes I still count 30 cars or so. So We still don’t have enough. But, unfortunately, we’re out of space, so we can’t add anymore. But, that was a a pretty big investment, but I think it paid off quite a bit.

Steve Andrews [00:11:15]:

We were were felt like we were losing a lot of business with people pulling up and seeing how busy it was and moving on to another laundry. We’re right smack dab in the middle of about 7 or 8 laundries within our 1 mile radius. So, by expanding the parking lot, it made it look little less sparse and maybe entice a few more customers come in because we did see an improvement in our turns per day. We definitely saw an improvement in our revenue. Also, this is kind of part of the ups and the downs since last time we talked. I think since last time we talked, which was 3 years ago, we were we were we’ve been robbed, like, 3 times, which, you know, is Worst case scenario, unfortunately, they didn’t didn’t take a lot of of money. It was more the damage that was done to the equipment and whatnot. So as part of some of the renovations that we did, we kind of took security in mind and actually created a safe room for All of our change machines, created extra barriers to kinda keep anybody who might get into our backroom, Make it a little tougher for them to get to it.

Steve Andrews [00:12:26]:

Upgraded our alarm systems, camera systems, all that kind of stuff. So, know, if I’m suggesting anything to a new owner, I would say think of the worst case scenario when you are building And, take security very very carefully because it’s something that unfortunately happens, and especially Lee, as times get tougher, you know, the economy gets tougher, people are gonna be more and more desperate. So, you know, it it kinda leads to bad situations. So, Anyway, since we’ve done that, we haven’t had any incidents. So, you know, we’re going on, I would say, about 7 or 8 months now without any any real issues. I also hired we’re open 24 hours at that first store. So I hired a nighttime attendant. Unfortunately, he can only work 5 days a week, but we kind of jumble up his schedule, so it’s not real predictable.

Steve Andrews [00:13:24]:

And, he’s there at nighttime, which kinda helps, avoid problems with people, coming in and doing, you know, Things are not supposed to be. But it also helps with customer security as well. So they like to see someone working at night when they come in. And And honestly, we’ve seen an increase in our overnight, overnight self-service, so that’s a that’s a good positive as well. I think when we talked last time, we were about ready to to to start demo on location 2. We talked

Jordan Berry [00:13:58]:

freaking Pause. Pause. Pause. Yeah. Because you brought up a lot of stuff I wanna ask you about about store number 1 before we get into store number 2.

Steve Andrews [00:14:06]:

Yeah. Go ahead.

Jordan Berry [00:14:06]:

Log us up. Oh, first of all, thank you for sharing about the, you know, the Be and Rob stuff. I mean, that does happen. Just for the for the robbery stuff, was that people trying to break into change machines or washers or was that like

Steve Andrews [00:14:20]:

Yeah. Specifically, the change machine. So I, sometimes this is Good trade. Sometimes this is a bad trade, but when we first built that store, yes, I put locks on things, but I tend to trust people. I I tend to want to trust people. Mhmm. And, you you just you can’t do that in this in this situation. So we just didn’t have good enough locks on the doors to our back room.

Steve Andrews [00:14:45]:

So we’re open 24 hours, and we kinda have our front desk set up as an open front desk, kind of like a a hotel Front desk, if you will. I just kinda like that open feel when we have people there working. But we take everything down and put it in a back room behind a locked door, and behind that locked door is, of course, all of our supplies. It’s where we store all of our our drop off. It’s also access to the back of the change machines. At least that’s the way it was before. And so people were breaking through the door. We did have an alarm on the sit on the on the door, but, unfortunately, the response time just wasn’t fast enough to catch anyone.

Steve Andrews [00:15:29]:

And, Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with what the the types of locks on the change machines are, but we had 2 different change machines. One was just a straight coin changer, and another was a bill recycler so that it would give change for large bills. The, the coin only changer has like a a flush lock. So you literally when you unlock it, it pops out and then you spin it to to open it. The, build changer has kind of a protruding lock on it. And when you open it, it pulls out a little farther. Another suggestion. Make sure on your your rear load coin machines, you get the ones that are flush, with the machines.

Steve Andrews [00:16:13]:

American Changer makes those, the newer ones That we have, the original machine we had was a row, which I think is now part of American Changer. But, the flesh locks, are a lot harder to get into than the ones that are protruding. So I I counted the the time. And once the guy got back there, he was able to get into that the one with the protruding lock in less than 30 seconds. And okay. The 1st time this guy came remember I said that. The first time this guy came, he broke into it, did not know that there is a, a cache, box at the top and didn’t touch it. So his goal was to steal the coin hopper, Which, as you know, is quite heavy.

Steve Andrews [00:17:04]:

And so it was rather comical, as comical as can be when someone’s robbing you, to watch him try and handle that coin hopper and get it out the door. Floor. He spilled coins out in the parking lot. He was able to take some of the coins with him. He also took Our our petty cash drawer, which we had right there beside it, which again, I know that’s dumb. Now I know, but it is what it is. He came back again after we repaired that machine and Broke in the 2nd time. And, this time, he knew about the coin on the the coin box or the, the cash box.

Steve Andrews [00:17:52]:

He took the cash and the coins again. The good news was our cameras were pretty good, so we had him, And the guy had been on a spree for months in the area. He had been robbing other laundromats, car washes, Convenience stores. And so, based upon some of our video, because he had a pretty identifying tattoo on his arm, they were able to catch him. So, he, he’s he’s actually in jail right now. So yay. But anyway

Jordan Berry [00:18:26]:

money back, though, did you?

Steve Andrews [00:18:28]:

No. No. We did not. Unfortunately, insurance insurance did cover the the machine because he destroyed it the 2nd time. And, what we did as part of the renovations is we moved our coin coin machines to a different location, put them in a separate Safe room with 2 by sixes and double bolted metal doors and got the flush locks on everything that we do. So At the very least, once he breaks in 1 well, he won’t. But once someone breaks in, the alarms will go off. They’ll have to break into another door, and then they’ll have to break into the cash machines.

Steve Andrews [00:19:05]:

So we keep all of our cash in the safe room now, and, have, you know, really good 4 k cameras with night vision on there. Good. Pretty good relationship with the, local metro police. And so, hopefully, we won’t see this issue again as best that we can. So

Jordan Berry [00:19:25]:

Yeah. Well, sorry to hear that you, went through that.

Steve Andrews [00:19:29]:

Fun times.

Jordan Berry [00:19:29]:

Yeah. I’ve been through some similar stuff, and I know a lot of us have. So, it’s you know, I don’t know. It’s kinda dumb to rob a laundromat, in my opinion. But, you know

Steve Andrews [00:19:40]:

Right. I know.

Jordan Berry [00:19:41]:

It is what it is. I, know, I had more people trying to break into individual sheen koi boxes than the chain machine, which I think Trying

Steve Andrews [00:19:51]:

to pry them out or drill out the lock?

Jordan Berry [00:19:53]:

Prying them, drilling them, cutting them, all kinds of different things I’ve seen my my laundromat, which man, the the reward there, you know, you gotta time it real well, like, right before I’m coming to collect them to it

Steve Andrews [00:20:08]:

might be

Jordan Berry [00:20:08]:

kind of sort of worth your while. But even then, I don’t know.

Steve Andrews [00:20:11]:

I used to have one of those, white Vendrite soap.

Jordan Berry [00:20:16]:

Oh, yeah.

Steve Andrews [00:20:17]:

Vendors that hang on the wall and, that got broken into twice. And then the 3rd time, they just ripped it off the wall and put it in their car and took it home.

Jordan Berry [00:20:29]:

Good riddance.

Steve Andrews [00:20:30]:

Yeah. So I don’t have those anymore. We use a vending a separate vending machine that’s, on the floor. You know. There’s no way they’re getting away with this one. So

Jordan Berry [00:20:40]:

I mean, man, people do the craziest things. I’ve had people come in through the roof, behind the dryers, like, through the the ventilation. I had I had people literally ripped down an entire wall one time. It was Oh, my gosh. Wild, wild stuff. So, anyways, it’s not boring. Not boring.

Steve Andrews [00:20:59]:

No. It’s not. It’s not.

Jordan Berry [00:21:01]:

So, thank you for sharing that stuff. I mean, I think that’s helpful. You know, again, like, when we’re sharing, like, here’s the experience, here’s what I did to Yeah. Try to, you know, put the kibosh on that. You know? Yeah. I think that just helps all of us out. I appreciate you sharing that stuff. You mentioned yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:21:18]:

You mentioned your 1st location is just like the perfect location. I’m just out of curiosity, like, can you can you tell us, like, a little bit about what makes this location so great so that we know what be looking forward to.

Steve Andrews [00:21:31]:

Sure. So number 1, the the demographics were really, really good. When I first started looking at laundromats with my distributor, they they would talk about looking at the percent of households that are renters in the 3 mile radius specifically, 1 mile as well, but 3 miles really kinda where you’ll pull From. And, you know, they would say, you know, if you can get 35, 36% renters, that’s that’s a good number. So this location, we’re north Of 60%, and that’s out of a base population of about a 100 and 2,000 people. So in the in the 3 mile radius, there’s over a 100,000 people, so it’s heavy heavy residential. And we’re kind of on the edge of a of a small commercial area at a major four way intersection. And then, just up from that intersection is the interstate exit.

Steve Andrews [00:22:33]:

So what happens is a lot of my customers have to drive right past me to get to the commercial area to Either go grocery shopping or get gas or go to the interstate to go to work, go wherever they’re gonna go about town. So, we’re we’re literally on the way to almost everything that people are are gonna do in their day to day lives. So that that really Makes a nice nice setup. And this location is close to the road, so we’ve got good signage. We have huge windows, so you can see inside Day and night, really well lit. All of our our large machines are right up front, so you can see what kind of capacity if you’re driving by the store from the road, you can see what kind of capacity we have just by looking through the window. And, you know, it just it it it’s really nice to be close to your customers and to have other things to Do now typically, we don’t like for our customers to put their clothes in the laundry and then go somewhere else. But there are things within walking distance that people can go do So that they’re gone for 10, 15 minutes, and they can come back.

Steve Andrews [00:23:46]:

Since since we opened that that store back In 2018, there’s been a, a grocery store opened up right next door. There’s been some new restaurants open up across the street. A couple of, a couple of the convenience stores have kind of remodeled and revamped their location. So, they’ve really improved the area. And and the kind of the general area that this is located used To be a really hopping area back in the eighties because there was a huge mall that was there. And, of course, you know, the story of malls, it Kinda went downhill over the course of the nineties and into the early 2000. But now they they’re kinda revamping it. There’s a brand new outdoor outlet mall that Just opened.

Steve Andrews [00:24:31]:

So it’s drawing a lot of people. And so, you know, that’s that’s really helped as well, but Location is super important. Think about where your customers are gonna go on a day to day basis and how you can fit into that process. And then look at the numbers on paper With your distributor to see how many renters you have. You know, you could have 60% renters, which is great, but if there’s 14 people that live in the 1 mile radius, then, you know, that’s not gonna be a good fit. But if there’s, you know, 40,000, 60,000, a 100,000, then you’re gonna have the chance to have a good business there. So

Jordan Berry [00:25:04]:

you know awesome. Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that, awesome, location tips, there for us because, you know, as we all know, like, you know, it’s location, location, location in real estate, but laundromats, maybe even more so. Add another location or 2 onto that, because once you’re there, you’re there, and your business, you know, you can’t really move it most times. And so, get a bad reputation. Kill your business.

Steve Andrews [00:25:33]:

I’ll add one additional thing. So being near the the interstate exit helps as well. Because like I mentioned, there’s 7 no. Actually, there’s 9 now. Laundry mats within the 3 mile radius of us. And they they they have a lot of choices, but they can get to us really easy. I have a lot of customers that, you know, they just go and Google online and see that we’ve got a a 4.7 rating on Google and say, hey, these guys have a good rating. All these other guys aren’t aren’t rated as high, so I’ll drive past them to get to them.

Steve Andrews [00:26:04]:

And so it’s just really easy to do that in this case. So

Jordan Berry [00:26:07]:

Yeah. Awesome. Another just another tick mark in the column of, hey, get good customer ratings and reviews for your

Steve Andrews [00:26:16]:

Yes.

Jordan Berry [00:26:16]:

For your

Steve Andrews [00:26:17]:

Absolutely. It’s

Jordan Berry [00:26:17]:

a big, big deal. Big, big deal. Okay. Couple other things, that I wanted to ask. Well, you mentioned you’re competing with, you know, 7 to 9 laundromats in a in the 3 mile radius, I mean, can you tell me a little bit I mean, that sounds like pretty intense. Can you tell me a little bit about how you’re still doing well in that location while you’re

Steve Andrews [00:26:39]:

such a

Jordan Berry [00:26:39]:

heavy competition.

Steve Andrews [00:26:41]:

So when we first built the store, there were 6. So since we we we we built ours, there have been, 3 others that have been built in the area. So there’s 3 newer than us. I think for us, our biggest competing, our biggest way to compete with all those others is just our our our employee staff. So one other demographic, thing about the area is there’s a lot of Hispanic folks in the area, And so, obviously, a lot of Spanish speakers. And so all of my employees at this location are all bilingual. So they can speak English and And we can we can help both customers regardless of of of whether they’re speaking 1 or the other. And and that’s a big that’s a big Calling card, if you will.

Steve Andrews [00:27:34]:

And all of them, number 1, I pay them really well. I I really try my best to Take care of them to to make an environment that they enjoy coming to. And so I we we talked about this last time, but I rely on them to take care of my customers Because I know if I take care of them, they’ll do that. And so, customer service is a big part of it. You can go and read are, our reviews, and a lot of them will mention our our employees by name. And So I love it when customers do that because number 1, that means our employees are engaging with them. But number 2, it tells me that they now have a personal connection with us. And so it also gives me a chance to pat that customer on the or that employee on the back publicly.

Steve Andrews [00:28:25]:

So, you know, if they They say, oh, we were we were in there the other day, and Darling helped us with this or Francis helped us with that. And I’m like, yes. We love Darling. We love Francis. They’re awesome. And so, and and I’ve I’ve had my employees tell me, hey, I was reading the the ratings that we have, and I saw that you mentioned that. So thank you. So, Don’t be surprised if your employees are reading your own ratings.

Steve Andrews [00:28:47]:

So they wanna see that they’re doing a good job too most times. So, But, you know, I would say our calling card is definitely our employee staff, and then just I I turn red when I see all of our out of out of order signs are red, so it turns me red. I hate seeing a machine down. So I work really, really hard to try and keep everything up and running. And as I mentioned, this is a pretty pretty high turn store, so we get a lot of usage. And so I’m constantly having to deal with machines that that go down one way or the other. And so we’re we’re trying to deal with that on a regular basis to ensure that our Downtime is is short, if at all. And just cleanliness.

Steve Andrews [00:29:30]:

That’s that’s the number one thing for any laundromat, and I think that’s been Sit on here a 1000000 times is as clean as we can keep it, the more people will come back. When I tell people that our store is 5 years old, they kind of look at being surprised. And to me, that’s the biggest compliment that we could get for our cleanliness.

Jordan Berry [00:29:49]:

Yeah. And then you got that great location

Steve Andrews [00:29:52]:

also, Yeah. Can’t change that. Don’t want to.

Jordan Berry [00:29:55]:

Yeah. Well, I feel like you’re you’re leading me, right down the question path that I was trying to get. So I mean, do you

Steve Andrews [00:30:02]:

wanna talk No. Did we plan we plan this? What? We,

Jordan Berry [00:30:07]:

you know, subconsciously, maybe. I don’t know. Maybe.

Steve Andrews [00:30:10]:

Great minds think a lot.

Jordan Berry [00:30:11]:

Yeah. That’s right. That’s right. So do not so great minds, though. So I’m not sure if the jury’s still out I know.

Steve Andrews [00:30:18]:

Yeah. Right?

Jordan Berry [00:30:18]:

Which category we fall into? Well, maybe it’s just me. I don’t know. You seem Yeah.

Steve Andrews [00:30:23]:

Seem like

Jordan Berry [00:30:23]:

you know your stuff. I mean, you you mentioned multiple times now you said, hey. You have this great team. It’s one of the, you know, biggest draws for your laundromat. I’m I just literally just right before we jumped on this, got off a call, with a couple who’s doing awesome. Got 4 laundromats here in California and killing it. But one of their struggles is finding and keeping staff. Do you have any tips on how like, how are you finding staff.

Jordan Berry [00:30:50]:

And how do you how do you keep them around long term?

Steve Andrews [00:30:54]:

Well, I think in this day and age, that is the hardest thing for a laundry an honor to do, is to try and get a team that you can trust and and rely on. You know, a lot of the I have I have 2 stores, and I had a store manager at each store. Both of those store managers started out at my 1st store. And when we first hired those girls And the teams that work for them, I always try and myself as the owner, sit down with the new employees And and essentially kind of let them know, number 1, that I’m not sitting up here on my my throne and looking down on On the world, I’m a part of the team as well. So I want them to get to know me. I wanna know them. I wanna know about their family. But more than anything else, I want them to see my vision for what we’re doing.

Steve Andrews [00:31:51]:

So I’ll be honest with them right up front, And I’ll tell them, hey. Look. I know this is just a laundromat, and you might think that, hey. You know, I’m just gonna go over here and clean and fold close, you know, what have you. But I don’t think of it like that. I think of this as being a place where our customers can come, So proud that they come and have a clean environment so they can get their clothes clean. Wow. Imagine that.

Steve Andrews [00:32:18]:

That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But also be respected, be treated well. And I want us to stand out among all the other laundry mats because, Hey. Guess what, employee? They could go anywhere else. Look at all these other places around us that they could go. And guess what? If they go somewhere else, then what’s gonna happen to what you’re doing here? It’s gonna go away. So we need to make sure that we we love on our employees, That we are our our customers. I don’t know. Maybe that’s a Freudian slip because I do love on my employees, but we love on our employees And our customers.

Steve Andrews [00:32:55]:

And we make sure that, they’re they’re gonna wanna come back and see you. You know? Ask them questions about today. Ask them, hey. It’s it’s Wednesday, Bob. You usually come on Tuesday. What’s what’s going on? You’re a little late this week. You know? That kind of thing. But you can you can learn pretty quickly with any employee if they’re going to be bought into your vision or not.

Steve Andrews [00:33:19]:

You know, you can tell basically, you know, we’ll do usually a 90 day trial period, and we’ll tell them, hey. You’re gonna be in here for 90 days. We’ve got a trading program that you’re gonna go through. Usually, it’s a couple of weeks long. We will teach you how to do everything in this store that needs to be done. Now you might say, well, why do I need to be taught how to fold a t shirt? Well, because we have a certain way that we want you to fold that t Sure. It might match your way. Hey.

Steve Andrews [00:33:47]:

That’s great. You’re gonna learn really easy. It might be a little bit different. And if it is, you know, we want you to do it this way, because we want everything that we do to look the same no matter which employee did it from which store, to really kinda have that, McDonald’s cheeseburger feel to it. You know? You you know they know what they’re gonna get one way or the other. But, you know, we’ll we’ll try and sit down with them as after we go through the, the training process, after the 2 weeks is up, and say, okay. Where are we? How do you feel about it? You know, a lot of our employees are running the store by themselves, so they are the lone employee there. You know, how are you feeling comfortable enough to, to, you know, pick up The pick up the ball and run on your own now.

Steve Andrews [00:34:33]:

And and usually, they’ll they’ll kind of let us know if there’s something they’re not feeling quite comfortable with or something they need some some additional to help on. But I always ask my managers to stay very closely in tune with, with with what’s going on, especially with new employees, And especially if they if they need help with something. So after they they’re out and on their own, at that point, they’re eligible for performance bonuses, Which is really the big enticement going forward. So, the you know, I don’t even know what minimum wage is here in See now, I think it’s somewhere like 7 to $8, somewhere in that neighborhood. But, we start our employees out At $15 an hour. And then, we also pay differentials on the weekends. So we pay a shift diff for for Saturday, is an extra dollar and a shift dip for Sunday, which is an extra $2. So, that becomes available as well after they make it through their trial period, Which is an additional bonus for them to kinda get in, get bought in, and kind of see, you know, what our environment is like, what, What the culture is like within our store.

Steve Andrews [00:35:45]:

We also pay out bonuses as well, monthly bonuses based off of our wash dry fold. So, that’s an additional incentive that they become eligible before or after the trial period as well. So it’s really kinda one of those things where we kind of hold a carrot out in front of them. We say, hey, this is kinda how we want you to be as an employee here and what we expect, you know, it’s it’s not really that hard. It’s it’s work hard and be friendly. You know? That’s that’s not a thing that’s that’s that’s really, you know, revolutionary in any way. Problem is trying to find those folks that are willing to do that these days. And I I have to admit, we have we have gone through a lot of of not of just not good fits For what we’re trying to do.

Steve Andrews [00:36:33]:

And, the sooner that you can identify those and and kind of ask them to to go look for another opportunity, the better you’re Going to be. But, we we like to think that if we can explain our vision to them, give them the carrots out there waiting for them and the incentive to Perform well, that they’ll live up to those expectations. Not always the case, unfortunately. But I think the best that you can, can lay off that that vision for how you want them to be and lay out the opportunity there. I think that’s that’s where you’ll find you know, it might be 1 out of 10, but when you get that one, it is a precious, Precious thing. And no matter what you do with that one, make sure you you take care of them going forward and do what do what they need to keep them happy. To a certain extent, obviously. But I like to, You know, I just I just finished payroll earlier today, and I was able to pay out really nice Christmas bonuses this year.

Steve Andrews [00:37:36]:

And I’m really excited about that because I know when they check out their paycheck on Thursday and Friday, there’s gonna be a because I haven’t told them about it. So it’ll just a little extra. And I just I just like for them to know that I appreciate them, and we we know that together, we’re a great team, But, you know, separate. We’re nothing. So

Jordan Berry [00:37:59]:

Yeah. I I love that. And I love the sort of the the push pull of selling the vision, which is where you started, and then training for the vision, which is where you followed up, and then incentivizing the vision. Dude, like, that’s money right there.

Steve Andrews [00:38:16]:

Well and and the problem is it’s It’s it’s fine. Like I said, finding those folks that that can can hit all those steps and and then be good with it because, unfortunately, there seems to be a little bit of an epidemic of hard workers and and workers who, you know, I I tell my managers. I was like, look. Yes. I own this business, but this this store is your store. It’s it’s you. Your name is on it. So when things happen here good, that’s good for you.

Steve Andrews [00:38:49]:

And and, you know, the employees need to feel the same way. If if someone picks up a drop off And they are so excited about it and and put a a post up on Google or or shoot an email through Google to us Say, hey. Esmeralda was just awesome today. Her the her folding, it was perfect. Everything was separated so that I could put a bag in my kid’s room. I could Put a bag in,

Jordan Berry [00:39:11]:

my,

Steve Andrews [00:39:12]:

you know, father’s room, and then I could put a bag in my husband and I’s room. So everything was separated perfectly. You know, you’ve made their life easier, and the the employees can feel that. They wanna know that when they wear that badge that it says their name, not the wash house.

Jordan Berry [00:39:27]:

So Awesome. I love it. Alright. I have I think 2 more questions based on your first one, then we can roll into your second one, and and how that process went. But, number 1, I mean, you you mentioned, that you try to reinvest into your business every year, can you give some, like, examples of things you do to reinvest in your business? Because, I mean, I think this is great. We maybe we talked about this, I know this has been talked about on, on the podcast a couple of times before, but I mean, I think doing something in your business to, number 1, keep it maintained, updated, not let it get stale. But number 2, to demonstrate to your customers, hey. I we care about this business, and we’re gonna try to keep it, you know, nice and fresh and and updated for you.

Jordan Berry [00:40:18]:

But can you give some examples of what reinvesting in your business looks like maybe?

Steve Andrews [00:40:24]:

Yeah. Absolutely. So first and foremost, I would say the the parking lot expansion was the number one thing that we’ve done that really, I think, added to our Bottom line. But, we’ve done some other things at that store, like I mentioned, the security room, but, we totally revamped all of our signage at that store. I wanted to go to something that was a little more simple, that people could see. It was a lot more, You know, visible for customers to see, so to show them what size machines and where they were. And we we kind of Made everything, a little more coherent from store to store, so that the signage is the same in both stores. The color scheme is the same in both store.

Steve Andrews [00:41:06]:

So we repainted, as an option to, kind of, again, go with that McDonald’s type feel where you know what you’re gonna get from Store to store. We also upgraded our vending machines, which, when we first opened that 1st store, you know, when it come time to look at vending machines, the capital was getting pretty low at that point. So, we bought some used vending machines, And they worked well for the 1st 4 years that we had the store. But I wanted something that was a little more modern looking and something that would provide a little bit better service to our, for our customers. So, we went out and bought a couple of, Omni vending machines through Discount vending. So now we actually vend all of our soaps through 1 machine and all of our snacks and drinks through the other. So previously, Remember I mentioned we had the little wall soap machine? Well, then we were selling soap over the counter, which is additional work for the, for the attendants. But now we do it through the vending machines.

Steve Andrews [00:42:07]:

So now it takes a little work off the attendants. They can focus on helping customers cleaning and doing drop off. And it also helps the customers that come, overnight when there’s no attendant on-site. They can they can access soap that way. I also I’ve I’m kind of a, aesthetic geek as far as that goes. So, we we did a Huge vinyl mural on one of the large walls in our store. I put it out on one of the Facebook pages at one point, but it really allows us to really Punch people in the face with our brand when they walk in the store. So I’m I’m not a graphic artist by any means, but I’m Fairly adept at at Photoshop.

Steve Andrews [00:42:49]:

So I created, like, this graphic of it’s kind of the inside of a washing machine with the water splashing around, And then our logo right on top of it, bright. You know, so that it really stood out. And so it took up 1 whole wall, of our laundry so that soon as they walk in, they’ll know they’re at the wash house. And and it kinda it gives it more of a commercial feel. You know, I I I see a lot of places where there’s Just nothing on the walls or there’s just way too much on the walls. You know, it it gets too crowded. And so there there’s a happy medium there where you can have a nice aesthetic. And, I mean, I’ve had a lot of people ask me, so is this a franchise store? And I’m always proud to say no.

Steve Andrews [00:43:30]:

But, you know, it it has that feel of of something like that. So,

Jordan Berry [00:43:34]:

quick on that on that mural. Do you well, number 1, can you send me a picture of it so we can put it on the show notes? Yeah. Some people would love to

Steve Andrews [00:43:43]:

see it. I’ve got some pictures of it.

Jordan Berry [00:43:45]:

That looks like. And then number 2, I mean, do you know I know this is a little while ago, but do you know about ish how much the cost to do that.

Steve Andrews [00:43:53]:

Yeah. So as far as the printing of it and the, the actual installation, I mean, it was a couple $1,000 to, to do everything, which is not bad. I mean, it it’s a really large wall, so I I would I wanna say it was probably Ten foot tall and, it was probably 24 feet wide, so it was a pretty big area. And I forgot to mention, we did a separate mural of, basically, QR codes. 1 for our Google rate review, And then one for our Yelp preview. And then underneath it says, tell us how we’re doing. So big and bright, right by our front desk, there’s a mirror wall that, has a it’s a it’s a picture of a girl with folded laundry kind of handing it over a counter, and so people can just use their phone and give us a quick Google rating there or Yelp rating. So, again, another way to try and get more more ratings, and, also, it’s kinda putting us out there because if we do something wrong, then it’s gonna be easy for people to tell us.

Steve Andrews [00:44:54]:

Oh, we we have to be on our toes, but that’s okay. I’m okay with that.

Jordan Berry [00:44:58]:

Yeah. No. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. And

Steve Andrews [00:45:01]:

I can send you a picture of that too.

Jordan Berry [00:45:03]:

Yeah. That’d be great. And for you and anyone else out there, you know, I’m I’m open to modeling with or without a computer for a mural or wall. I’m gonna just let you know.

Steve Andrews [00:45:13]:

I’m trying to keep customers, Jordan.

Jordan Berry [00:45:15]:

Really? For your competitors, I mean. That’s what I mean.

Steve Andrews [00:45:19]:

Oh, yeah. Okay. There you go.

Jordan Berry [00:45:20]:

If you wanna If you wanna, you know, prank them, we’ll have that mural and still be a speedo saying, how are we doing? Yeah.

Steve Andrews [00:45:27]:

There you go.

Jordan Berry [00:45:27]:

No. That’s awesome, dude. And I love the I love the mural wall idea. I it’s so easy, you know, especially, like, the sort of that sleek modern look, which I like, but sometimes it can get kinda bland and you know? So I love the idea of, like, a mural wall or something like that to to be able to do it for 2, $3,000, 4,000, whatever, in that ballpark. Like, that’s actually not that much, to do something like that. It’s pretty cool. Okay. The the last question I had about that first one, going back to the parking lot one more time.

Jordan Berry [00:45:59]:

You know, you mentioned you added, in you know, you’re you’re leasing the space. Right? So you added a parking lot essentially for the landlord, it’s worth it to you to do that. Right? Yeah. Do you have any, like well, first of all, what what’s the square footage of that store?

Steve Andrews [00:46:16]:

46 100 square feet.

Jordan Berry [00:46:17]:

Okay. And do you have any, like, framework that you’re trying to think about, maybe even going forward or on this 3rd store or anything, like parking spots to square footage or a number of machines or anything like that. Are you thinking about it in those terms at all, or you’re just like, hey. We need more spots? It’s only I I

Steve Andrews [00:46:34]:

don’t know that I necessarily have a have a ratio. I mean, I I do know I could I could quickly decide if Something worked or not. So I know that we have, you know, going back to the demographics we talked about, we’ve got about, we have 55 total machines in that store, which is about 55 too few. Yes, ma’am. But, anyway, it is what it is. And so we have 28 parking spaces, 46 100 square feet. In our 2nd store, up in the northern Part of Nashville, we have 67 100 square feet there. So it’s, it it really is a huge store, and we have 60 machines in there.

Steve Andrews [00:47:18]:

So not actually a whole lot more. The the difference is, it’s part of a strip center. So the 1st store’s stand alone, with 28 parking spots. The 2nd store is an end cap on a, a strip center. And so we have, I wanna say about, I would say probably about 14 upfront parking spots, And then very easily about 20 or 25 spots kind of out in the general parking lot, which For that store works really well. Of course, there’s handicap right up close, that that takes up a couple of spots. But, you know, if if you’re gonna build a 4 or 5000 square feet, store, if you’ve got a population of of More than between 40 and a 100000, you’re gonna want 60, 70, 80 machines in there, and you’re gonna want to have close to parking spots. At least that’s that’s what I would suggest.

Steve Andrews [00:48:17]:

You don’t want to, you know, cut yourself off at any point by by going short, I I’ve looked at a lot of location potential locations for stores both when I was looking for number 2 and number 3. And as soon as I pulled up, decided it wasn’t a good fit. Even though the demographics looked great, there was just no way for any of those people to park there.

Jordan Berry [00:48:40]:

So Yeah. Yeah. And parking is a big deal and it’s one of the I think it’s overlooked, a lot of times is,

Steve Andrews [00:48:46]:

you know,

Jordan Berry [00:48:47]:

that that parking situation. But it really can be sort of a choke point for your business, your store could have a lot more capacity left, and the demand could even be there. But like you said, if they can’t get their laundry there.

Steve Andrews [00:49:00]:

Right. Now if you’re in a if you’re in a more, urban setup and there’s there’s public transit, that kind of thing, then that’s that’s a different world. We don’t have a lot of public transit Or I should say effective public transit in the Nashville area. So it’s not really a a thing that we look for, at least right now. But, it it definitely can be a choke point. And and honestly, something that I’ve seen in a lot of the new laundry mats that are opening up, and, you know, I don’t mean to offend anyone if that’s the case, but I see a lot of them opening up without Upfront parking. So in other words, it’s you know, you have to walk across the drive. You know, if it’s on a strip mall or something like that, your customers have to walk across the road to get to your store.

Steve Andrews [00:49:42]:

And and to me, that’s just that that’s a no go for any location Just because a lot of people, you know, like to back up, open their trunk, or open their, the back of their SUV and unload and Having to do that to go all the way across and wait for cars, especially if it’s a really busy strip center, it just creates another hindrance and another reason for them to go somewhere else. So I always look for up front parking and lots of it. So

Jordan Berry [00:50:07]:

Yeah. Yeah. And I agree too. You know, having the having the, you know, 25 spots at For the strip center, you know, whatever it is, like, I think that’s great to have that because you you’d probably gonna need more than your, you know, 14 front spots. Yeah. But, you know I mean, you you lose effectiveness of the parking spots as a draw the further out you go, the more they have to hold their laundry.

Steve Andrews [00:50:32]:

Yeah. Exactly. And, you know, obviously, you’ve gotta have the rollover, but, I think, essentially, if you can say you’ve got upfront, it sure makes lot easier, especially on days when it’s slower, you know, it’s raining.

Jordan Berry [00:50:44]:

Yep. Absolutely. I don’t know what that raining thing is here in California.

Steve Andrews [00:50:48]:

Oh, yeah. You’re California doesn’t do that there, does it?

Jordan Berry [00:50:51]:

I’ve seen it in the movies, I think. I’m not sure.

Steve Andrews [00:50:53]:

Yeah. We’re like, We’re mini Seattle here. I don’t know. It rains every day here. Yeah. But

Jordan Berry [00:50:58]:

it’s beautiful there. That’s for sure.

Steve Andrews [00:51:00]:

Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:51:01]:

Alright. So store number 2. Let’s roll into that sucker. Because I think you you were starting to say that you were Yeah. You were getting ready to put this puppy up. Last time we talked. Yeah. Let’s jump in.

Jordan Berry [00:51:15]:

Yeah.

Steve Andrews [00:51:15]:

And it’s been a it’s been a completely different experience. So Well so when we opened store 1, immediately day 1, people started rolling in. And we were I think I even talked about it on the last podcast. We were we were cash flow positive after month 1 there. Not the same experience here. And and and I don’t think most people have that experience, and I I think I mentioned that. But, I I didn’t expect it to be that way. So my expectations were not near as as high as they were after going through store number 1.

Steve Andrews [00:51:53]:

So it it was a bit of a struggle at that store to really get to a point to where we were seeing regular traffic. And and there’s a few reasons for that and a couple that Honestly, were were mistakes that I made. Number 1, my and this is something I still have to work on because the sign is still there because it costs a lot of money. I have not replaced my sign. But, as I was and when I do, I’ll have a professional, you know, create it for me to ensure that it’s very readable from a distance. Because as you look at my sign from, say, the intersection that’s near our store, you really can’t read it. And that that doesn’t help you at all. And then right beside me, there’s, you know, like, An insurance agency or something, and their sign I can read their sign from the from the intersection.

Steve Andrews [00:52:48]:

So I know if I’m looking for it, I can see it. But I think I one thing I definitely need to do there as far as reinvesting in the business is look at doing a new exterior Sign and have the design redone so that it’s very readable from a distance away. It looks great. It lights up at nighttime. You can actually read it better at nighttime. But, you know, it just it just really didn’t didn’t stand out. And then also, Google had our address wrong at the very beginning, And it was something I didn’t catch, so if you were googling us, it would have you going down to the far opposite end of the strip center, which is a pretty pretty long strip center. So, that was something I had to work really hard to get get the pin set exactly on our address.

Steve Andrews [00:53:40]:

And so I was constantly having people call me and says, I I see you on Google, but I can’t find you. Where are you? And then I would have customers come in and say, know, after I’ve been open for 6 months, I I drive right past you. I didn’t know you were here. Oh my gosh. It’s the worst thing I wanna hear. Mhmm. So from a marketing perspective, you know, lesson learned, it’s got to be a really strong really good signage up front and and your Google marketing has to be on point with address, with, you know, everything that you possibly can do to make sure people know about you. And, you know, I think one thing I’ve learned since then too is to Because I did have to honestly, I just had to work harder at this store to get it up and running like it is now than I did at the first one.

Steve Andrews [00:54:22]:

So it was almost like Learning for the 1st time. But I, I got involved in Facebook groups. There’s local Facebook groups for the community, that I’ll go and post different things on about our specials that we’re doing or, you know, about amenities within our store, to make make sure people know about it. We’ve done a few free laundry days there, and so I always put those in there to make sure people know about it. But again, it’s it’s not as highly populated of an area as the 1st store. But and and it’s also more in the middle of a commercial area, which is a little different as well. So it it’s a different marketing approach when you’re in that scenario. So going back to my own advice that we talked about at the beginning of the podcast, know where your people are gonna go on a day to day basis and how you can approach them, and and how you can make sure you get on their radar.

Steve Andrews [00:55:20]:

So anyway, lots of lessons learned through this one. And I think now as we go right into number 3, I think number 3 is gonna be closer to my 2nd store as far as Experience wise. So that’s what I’m preparing for. So when we open the doors there, it it’s going to be, you know, a completely different Animal, if you will.

Jordan Berry [00:55:45]:

Yeah. Alright. Couple questions on store number 2. I mean, you mentioned, you know, store number 1, profitable month 1, and not the same month 2 or for store 2,

Steve Andrews [00:55:57]:

which Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:55:58]:

Is a bummer. If you’ve if you’ve reached that point now, do you know how long it took to get to the profitability?

Steve Andrews [00:56:05]:

So, Yes. It it took us about about 6 months from a a walk in, a self serve perspective. What I did do in the very beginning, and and I really didn’t count this in the equation just because I felt like it was cheating. But we have a a really large commercial customer that we work for, that I moved to this Facility from the old facility. And so the reason I did that is because, obviously, the larger larger space, and we also have ozone in the new facility as well. So I wanted to kinda have that as a as a selling point to keep this customer, a little make them a little more sticky. So we moved a new customer there. So that was already some built in revenue.

Steve Andrews [00:56:49]:

And, I mean, some folks might say, well, you didn’t have to cheat. That’s not cheating. You know? If if you’re still profitable with the other store, you can now say you’re Profitable there. But in my mind, I I wanna see the walk in business get up to a certain point, and then tie in the drop in, and then we can add the commercial Apart. So it took us about 6 months from a walk in and a customer, non commercial drop off perspective. So

Jordan Berry [00:57:12]:

Yeah. Awesome. Well, so couple couple of my thoughts on that are, number 1, it’s just one of the perks of having multiple locations, Right. It’s that you have this ability to kinda move customers around and, you know, in employees too. Sometimes, if you need to do that, if you’re if you’re in the same general area, like, you have some of that benefits of scale when you’ve got multiple locations to be able to do some of that stuff. So kudos to you. And, you know, help help cover those costs, early on, right, when you’re when you’re building it.

Steve Andrews [00:57:46]:

So, I

Jordan Berry [00:57:46]:

mean, I think that’s great. But I also like that you didn’t necessarily count that in terms of profitability. You want it to stand on its own 2 feet kinda thing, which is great. And, you know, to to have that mentality and I think it’s more for the mentality than the books. Like, if you’re able to get profitability by moving this 1 customer from 1 location to the other, then awesome. Like, that’s great. And, know, the books can show it profitable. But having that mentality of, like, hey, I don’t wanna just rely on this 1 customer to keep me profitable.

Jordan Berry [00:58:18]:

I wanna go out there and make it profitable on its own 2 feet. I think it’s awesome. And I think, you know, this is 1 you did you build it from scratch or did you buy it in Vitulli

Steve Andrews [00:58:29]:

No. We it was a restaurant previously. So, we’ve we’ve built both of ours. The first one was a day care previously, and this one was a A restaurant. So

Jordan Berry [00:58:39]:

Yeah. And and, you know, what I see a lot of times just from talking to a lot of people is, really, it takes 6 to 18 months to reach profitability for a lot of these new builds. You know, and even for some of these, like, zombie map builds, where they’re in more competitive markets, a lot of times it’s that 6 to 18 months that it takes. And something that a lot of people don’t think about. You know, hopefully, if you’re building out a store and you’re investing a lot of money, you’re thinking about that, sort of that lead time to profitability. It gets missed.

Steve Andrews [00:59:12]:

Absolutely. You absolutely have to have capital on hand And and have that in your budget to allow for it. So

Jordan Berry [00:59:19]:

Yeah. And you mentioned a couple of things that you did, because I was I mean, I’m I’m always curious, like, when people are building out new stores, you know, obviously, everybody who’s coming to do laundry in your new store after you build it out is currently doing laundry somewhere so you have got to Typically, yeah. Break some habits. You’ve gotta incentivize people, to come to your store, and then you’ve gotta incentivize them to develop new habits of coming to your store,

Steve Andrews [00:59:47]:

to

Jordan Berry [00:59:47]:

do laundry, which is easier said than done. Right? Like, humans are habitual creatures and, breaking habits and and establishing new habits is that can be, tricky. So, I mean, you mentioned, doing, like, jumping into Facebook groups and doing free laundry days. I mean, is that the primarily how you gained new customers?

Steve Andrews [01:00:09]:

Yes. And, again, going back to what we talked about earlier, my my manager there, her name is Vilma. She came from store number 1, and, Vilma is an expert At customer service. I mean, like, she is I mean, she’s better than I ever dared to she just knows how to, build a relationship with people. And it it’s just it’s an amazing thing to watching, and that was a lot of the reason why I I thought she would do really well at starting the stores because she could build those relationships. And so, you know, again, if you go and you read our reviews for this specific location, I’m gonna guarantee you so just to give you an ID, I told I mentioned the other store we were at 4.7 Google rating, which is awesome. Right? It’s it’s about as good as it can get, considering every once in a while, you’re gonna have some some people that aren’t happy with you. At this store, we have a 4.8 so far.

Steve Andrews [01:01:15]:

And we had I was looking the other day. We had a 154 total Google reviews, and that’s in 2 years. So I’m pretty happy with that. And out of those 154, a 141 of those are 5 star. So, I mean and and I guarantee out of a 141, I bet you there’s a 100 that mentioned Vilma. It would not surprise me in the least if her name specifically is mentioned in a 100 of those Because people just they they love her. And, it it just has made all the difference there. So word-of-mouth has been a big part of of what we’ve done there, and it’s grown.

Steve Andrews [01:01:51]:

And, I think with that good rating now, people people will use that as their tool for finding their laundromat if they’ve just Moved into the area. And, yes, I think you do break a lot of habits of people who were going other places to now come to your store, but, know, the nature of being a renter is that you are by nature kind of transient. So a lot of people move into the area, a lot People move out. So that Google rating is gonna be important to lure those new customers when they move in. So I think that’s helped us a lot too.

Jordan Berry [01:02:23]:

That’s huge. You know, and I mean, I just I keep getting reminded of, like, all star owners all, you know, all day every day are, like, customer service, customer service, customer service. I just keep getting reminded of the the book, Unreasonable Hospitality. Right? And just you treat people well and they’re gonna treat you well back. Right? Your business.

Steve Andrews [01:02:44]:

Yeah. Well and we we I had sent my employees as well, so I I will be fully transparent in this. If they talk to a customer who, you know, says, oh, this is great. We we love this place. You know? I I asked them, hey. That’s who you need to ask for a rating. You know, ask them at that point, hey, do you mind going and give us a giving us a rating on Google or yeah. But it helps us grow our business.

Steve Andrews [01:03:07]:

And and then I’ll even tell them, hey. If they mention your name, then, you know, there might be a a little reward for you in So that’s one of those things too. You kind of incent your employees to help grow your business all at the same time. You know, I I don’t think you can necessarily incent the customer Anyway, you know, hey. If you give us a 5 star, we’ll give you $10 or off the wash or something. No. I don’t like to do that. I’d I’d rather it be a legitimate real review, so I like to incent the employees to Ask for it.

Steve Andrews [01:03:35]:

And if, you know, if they don’t wanna give the rating, they won’t. You know? So

Jordan Berry [01:03:40]:

Yeah. No. I I think that’s great. I think that’s great advice and I, you know, I think, you know, incentivizing the employees, to ask for that rating also kind of indirectly incentivizes them to be a good employee. Right?

Steve Andrews [01:03:56]:

Right. Their name’s gonna be on it again. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:03:59]:

And maybe you should just make sure you clarify that if it’s it’s mentioned in the review and it’s positive that they get these. Yeah. Right.

Steve Andrews [01:04:07]:

So it’s negative. Yeah. We we take money off.

Jordan Berry [01:04:10]:

Get all these negative reviews, but get my name mentioned. It’s great. My name is Jordan. If you’re gonna leave a review, knocking the laundry out of their hands.

Steve Andrews [01:04:21]:

There you go. Yeah. Hey.

Jordan Berry [01:04:23]:

Aditya, I mean, you mentioned your your manager who kills it with customer service. I mean, is she just, like, mega friendly? Is she doing anything in particular that’s

Steve Andrews [01:04:34]:

rate She’s just customer service? She’s mega friendly. She’s just the nicest lady. I, like I said, I have a a few core employees that have been we with me almost Since the beginning. And, so, Vilma, who is the manager at my, my Madison store, and then Darling, who is the manager at my, Original store in Antioch. And they’ve they’ve been with me, over 4 years now. So When I first started the business, I was the only employee for the 1st 90 days. I think Velma was employee number 3, and Darling was like number 5. And so since then, they’ve I mean, they’re part of my family.

Steve Andrews [01:05:16]:

You know? When their kids come in, you know, I get the chance to hang out with them, you know, just as much as I I hang out with their mother, over the course of a week. So, you know, I enjoy that, and and that’s to me, is a big part of of why I’m doing this. You know? I I couldn’t do that in the corporate world. I just, You know? You can make friends and make buddies, but it’s it’s just different.

Jordan Berry [01:05:40]:

Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s huge to I you know? You read all the business books and you do all this stuff. I mean, getting the right people in the right seats

Steve Andrews [01:05:51]:

Yep.

Jordan Berry [01:05:51]:

On the team is just it’s critical, right, to run-in a good business.

Steve Andrews [01:05:56]:

Well and they they’re each they’re very similar, right, as far as they is that, You know, mindset about about the business, but they actually have different skill sets that they’re that they really excel at, and it really helps them be successful what they do. So I I couldn’t I couldn’t have prayed for a better combination of of of folks to run my my Two stores, and and I’m really excited about the person that I’m gonna gonna use to run my 3rd store as well. So infrastructure is what it’s all about. They make my life so much easier on a day to day basis. I I told my wife, I I was telling her, you know, what I was gonna give Give them as their Christmas bonus, and she kinda kinda gasped a little bit. And I was like, hey. Don’t you think it’s worth it? The time I get to spend with you and the kids rather than being at laundromat because they’re there doing their job. And she’s like, yep.

Steve Andrews [01:06:51]:

I agree. Go ahead.

Jordan Berry [01:06:54]:

That was risky. Because I’m not sure. My wife would have been like, maybe give him a little less to be gone. Let’s keep business. No, I love that. And I, I mean, I think that mentality is, you know, it’s critical. And especially if your goal is to build a business. Right? If your goal is to kinda have a job to replace your job or what like, you wanna work in your laundromat or

Steve Andrews [01:07:16]:

whatever, that’s

Jordan Berry [01:07:17]:

one thing and that’s a different sort of mindset. And that’s there’s nothing wrong with that either. But if your goal is to sort of build a business and not be the one doing the business, like working in the business, your your job is to go out and find location number 3, coordinate the building, put the right people in place, making sure the marketing’s all good to go, make sure everything’s running smooth like that over, you know, the whole working on the business type of deal. You’ve gotta have the right people, and then you’ve gotta take care of them to keep them around, because you’re not just competing with, you know, other laundromats. You’re competing with all other jobs that they can have. They don’t like working for you and with you. Guess what? They’re gonna go out and find if they’re a quality person, they’re gonna find another place to work.

Steve Andrews [01:08:03]:

And So I I love this business. It’s been one of the best things about it is just, you know, being able to have the freedom that it provides and to to be able to spend more time with my family, you know, go to all of my kids’ sporting events. I’m always there. Now there are some late nights where I have to leave and odd times where I have to go because of an emergency see what have you. Those things happen. They absolutely do, but I’m totally okay with that. But what is even kind of an equally exciting thing about it is I’ve watched a lot of these folks that work for me Kinda grow in their life along with us. So they’ve, seen them go from being renters to being homeowners, to To buying new vehicles, to having children and their kids, going to better schools, you know, things like that.

Steve Andrews [01:08:52]:

I mean, Velma, for example, she was excited about coming to this store and being the manager because there was a really good school that she wanted her kids to go to. And so they’ve been going there for the last 2 years, and she is just ecstatic about it. And so it’s things like that that you not only impact your customers’ lives by giving them An unbelievable place to to do a a mundane weekly thing. But you give a vehicle for your employees To just expand their lives and to, just to live a better life as a whole. And and to me, that I gained more out of that than I do Everything else. I just I love bragging about that. And I’m not a braggart of sorts, but I will definitely brag about that every opportunity I

Jordan Berry [01:09:38]:

and your hair, those 2 rings will give you permission to brag.

Steve Andrews [01:09:43]:

See, what you can’t see is this Head headphones are kind of blocking the bad part.

Jordan Berry [01:09:49]:

You know what? I can’t see it.

Steve Andrews [01:09:51]:

Can’t tell.

Jordan Berry [01:09:51]:

Little man?

Steve Andrews [01:09:51]:

Yeah, man.

Jordan Berry [01:09:52]:

You’re looking good. That’s all I can tell. It’s good. You know, and when you, you know, when you do finally lose it all, you can still keep it long in the back and have the Skollet going.

Steve Andrews [01:10:02]:

I live in Tennessee, man. I could do that all day long.

Jordan Berry [01:10:04]:

That’s what I’m talking about. The Skollet is where it’s at. I’ve got 1 more question, I think, unless another one’s pop up, which could happen. One more question before we jump into the next segment of the podcast. You know, you’ve got 2 stores working on number 3. All 3 of them, you’re you’re building. And one of the big questions I get a lot is the buy versus build question. So I’m curious, like, why have you decided to build and not buy existing? And what do you recommend, people do? And maybe those are 2 different questions.

Steve Andrews [01:10:40]:

Well, so to be honest, I’ve tried both. I have I have tried to buy existing laundromats, and in this market, there is no one willing to sell. I think I’ve I’ve talked to almost everyone, and just I guess everyone loves a business as much as I do. I don’t know. But it it’s really hard to find available opportunities. That’s that’s one reason. Number 2, a lot of the existing laundromats well, let me back up a second. So one of the reasons why I got into this business was because I saw an opportunity to take these awful, dingy, nasty Laundromats and create this these wonderful, beautiful places for people to go.

Steve Andrews [01:11:27]:

And, so part of that is that A lot of them are small. The infrastructure isn’t really there to to to meet the vision that I have for what I wanna for my customers and and kinda have our brand stamped on. So that’s a lot of the reason why I’ve I’ve chosen to build, in most of these cases, rather than than purchase existing. The the third one that we’re about to do, I think I said it was gonna be a little bit different than the other 2 scenarios. So it’s in a smaller town, not in a major, metropolitan area, And we actually are purchasing the building. Well, we’ve already purchased the building in this case. So, it’s a little different from an investment perspective. So my wife and I will, will own the building, and, of course, the business will then lease it from us.

Steve Andrews [01:12:16]:

So it kinda creates Some, some generational wealth for my family personally on top of the business. A little bit of a retirement, you know, alternative retirement plan as well. So we’ll own the we’ll own the, the building, and it’s actually a pretty large building. It’s about I think it was 63 100 square feet total. So we’re going to do about a 4,000 square foot laundromat, then we’re gonna have a separate, shell space that will run out to another customer or to another business. So it kinda gives us the to generate a little additional revenue. This it was a a restaurant as well. So the good thing about Building a laundromat in a previous restaurant is that a lot of the the water, the gas, the electrical are already there.

Steve Andrews [01:13:05]:

Because, restaurants tend to to utilize a lot of the same utilities. The the water, we might have to upgrade that a little bit, but for the most part, everything else is there. So, you know, that’s that’s kinda one of those things that I think, goes back to what we talked about earlier is what you wanna in a potential location, but I love building out because I can put my stamp on it. I can put machines where I want them. I can even and then we did this in store number 2, we’ll do it store number 3 too. I can allow for future growth. So, within my bulkheads at my store number 2, I have the, ability to add more machines if I need to. Within the wall, I have the ability to add additional if I need to.

Steve Andrews [01:13:50]:

So it it just it just gives me more flexibility, and and I learned that from the 1st store. There’s no flexibility there. I can’t add there, but so I’m not gonna make that mistake again because I expect to do well, and I expect to grow and and provide something that people are gonna wanna come to. That’s not boastful. It’s just that’s that’s kind of my mindset in anything that I do. I wanna I wanna be great at it. So

Jordan Berry [01:14:15]:

Dude, I love that. I love the that mindset like I expect to do well so I’m gonna plan for that and, and then just make

Steve Andrews [01:14:25]:

That’s right.

Jordan Berry [01:14:26]:

Make it happen. Alright. We have thank you for sharing all of that stuff. That’s, you know, dude, such good stuff, and I’m glad, your first one is just still killing it. I’m glad your second one, you’ve got it up and running. You got it figured out. And, exciting about that third one where you’re basically just utilizing it to manipulate getting on the podcast the 3rd time. But that’s fine.

Jordan Berry [01:14:51]:

You know, it’s it’s the hair. I’m gonna let you back on either way because it’s the hair.

Steve Andrews [01:14:55]:

So Hey. I’ll I’ll come up with something different for the next podcast.

Jordan Berry [01:14:58]:

That’s what I’m talking about.

Steve Andrews [01:14:58]:

Something a little something a little more exciting. Maybe a purple mohawk or something.

Jordan Berry [01:15:03]:

Well, let me know beforehand. Maybe we can coordinate even.

Steve Andrews [01:15:05]:

That’d be great. Oh, okay. Deal.

Jordan Berry [01:15:07]:

I am a little nervous, though, that, you know, whenever I take any hair off, I’m I don’t know if it’s coming back or

Steve Andrews [01:15:14]:

Yeah. But you got this look at that beard you got, man. I can’t grow any of that stuff. That’s nice.

Jordan Berry [01:15:18]:

It’s just like a couple days. It just pops up like that.

Steve Andrews [01:15:21]:

Yeah. No. This is, like, 4 months. Yeah. Grows on my head, not on my face.

Jordan Berry [01:15:28]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s what I find when you get older. It stops growing where you want it to and starts growing at other places you don’t want it to. So Yeah. Right? It’s all good. Alright. So we have another segment of the podcast called secret sauce.

Jordan Berry [01:15:43]:

And that is, hey. What tip do you have for somebody who’s currently owning, operating laundromats and, maybe you can help them level up to the next level?

Steve Andrews [01:15:54]:

Well so I had 2, and we already talked about 1, which was kind of the the asking for reviews part. You know, we talked about the importance of that, so I I won’t get into that anymore. But I think another thing that’s really important is Go and use your services. You know? If if if you’ve got a self serve laundromat, go and use your machines. Use different ones. If you’ve got a machine that, you know, some folks are having some trouble with, go and use it yourself, see what’s happening with it. You know? If your clothes come out nice and clean like you like them, Use the dryers. Use different dryers every time.

Steve Andrews [01:16:28]:

You know, see what you’re offering to the people yourself. Send your wife or your husband if the other way around. You know? Have them try it and give their feedback. Send your aunt, your uncle, whoever it is, someone you know, someone you feel comfortable in their their opinion, you know they’ll be honest With you, ask them to go and and check out your your place and give feedback to you. I think that could be pretty powerful and let you know, hey. If there’s something you need to tweak or something you’re doing right. Hey. I’m doing it right.

Steve Andrews [01:16:55]:

Let’s keep doing this. I think that could be really powerful. Drop off. If you, if you have drop off Service. Go and drop your clothes off. Let your attendants do it. There’s been many times where I’ve identified opportunities for us to fold things a little differently, need to package them a little differently because when I get it home, I realize, oh, you know what? This doesn’t really make sense. We should be doing it like this.

Steve Andrews [01:17:18]:

Or my wife says, hey. Why don’t they try this? I like this better. You know? So it’s a good way to trial and error to use your own stuff and and figure out how it goes. If you’re doing pickup and delivered, same thing. See how your drivers, are they on time? You know? Are they are they doing doing the job they’re supposed to be doing, taking care of your stuff? And, I just think it’s really important to to not just feel like you’re doing a great job, but actually from experience, know you are.

Jordan Berry [01:17:45]:

Yeah. I love that. I love that. Sort of that quality control, you got going on there just to make sure everything’s

Steve Andrews [01:17:53]:

Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:17:53]:

Smooth and

Steve Andrews [01:17:54]:

Every week.

Jordan Berry [01:17:56]:

Yeah, I’ll do it every week.

Steve Andrews [01:17:58]:

Yeah. I mean, that was part part of my promise to my wife to start the the laundromat business is that she wouldn’t have to do laundry anymore. So

Jordan Berry [01:18:06]:

I’m trying

Steve Andrews [01:18:06]:

to keep that going.

Jordan Berry [01:18:07]:

I love that. Love it. Love it. Love it. I mean, I think it’s a perk of and in the laundromat rides, like, the number one reason why you should probably just have a drop off service, if not a pickup and delivery. So

Steve Andrews [01:18:20]:

Well, And I pay too. We pay for it. I tip just like a regular customer, all that. So

Jordan Berry [01:18:26]:

Yep. Killer. Awesome. Alright. We have another segment called Pro Tips. And Pro Tips is what’s your best advice for somebody trying to get into the business, chilly, right now, I mean, I think what you’re seeing in terms of, like, the inventory thing, that I I’m seeing that all over the place. We’re all over the country right now. It’s just it’s tough to find those laundromats right now.

Jordan Berry [01:18:51]:

But if you have any advice for somebody trying to get in, what would that be?

Steve Andrews [01:18:57]:

Well, I think you need to really understand the amount of capital that’s involved in in starting this business. And depending on the scenario you choose, whether it be, buying an existing laundromat or building from scratch, those two numbers are different. Building from scratch will require much more capital than actually purchasing, because in most cases, you do have to add in all the infrastructure. If you’re buying an existing laundry, hopefully, They’re gonna already have those things in place. Now you might have to retool and put new equipment in. There’s a cost involved with that, of Of course. But it’s not as great as having to not only buy new equipment, but also install plumbing, install electrical, install gas, install ductwork, Build the walls. You know, all the things that are involved with a complete build out.

Steve Andrews [01:19:56]:

So there’s capital differences there. And when you’re budgeting that capital, Make sure you do like we talked about allowing for the, the runway. You’ve gotta have a runway after you’re open so that you can stay open, But knowing that you’re not gonna be profitable. My experience with my 1st laundry was not typical. I hope and pray that everyone has The same experience that I did because that would be wonderful for you, but it’s not the case, unfortunately. Know, make sure you’ve got the capital there to allow for that, and you don’t get into a scenario where you’re coming towards the end of your rope, and you’re all of a sudden have to take out credit cards Balance is just to keep you moving because that’s gonna put you in a kind of a a hole to start off with. Now, you know, credit these days is super expensive. You know? I know a lot of people have funded laundries in Pass through HELOC loans and things like that, and that money is really expensive.

Steve Andrews [01:20:55]:

So do not forget about, what what interest rates are like these days and and make sure you understand that as part of your holding costs, there’s gonna be some expense there. Not only while you’re building, but while you’re growing to be to be profitable, and and that can add up in a hurry. I I would also make sure not only understand the capital aspect of it and and talk to your distributor. If you have a good distributor, talk to them, And they will kinda help you understand the budgeting for the once you get the store open. But then you you might wanna talk to other laundromat owners about what you need to budget While you’re building out, and then also, you know, while you’re you’re you’re going down that runway. But also think about the time that’s involved. So for example, when when we built the 1st store, it was gonna take 3 months. It ended up taking 9 months.

Steve Andrews [01:21:48]:

When we built the 2nd store, it was gonna take 3 months. It ended up taking 6 months. So no matter what, it’s gonna take longer than you Think gonna cost more than you think, so you need to be prepared for that. And, and and not only time that it takes To do the build out, but your personal time. And this I know this has been mentioned on here many times, and and I’m afraid that, know, there I see lots of the laundromats opening up all over the country. I’ve seen lots of them opening up in our market, brand new laundromats. More probably in the last 5 years than the previous ten or 20. And and a lot of that has to do with kind of the, you know, the growth of the of the business.

Steve Andrews [01:22:29]:

And I think there’s a lot of really good owners coming into this business, Really intelligent. Really know how to run a business. Really, geared up and ready to to hit the road, hard. But you have to know that this business is not just a go collect coins and it’s passive. It’s funny. Almost every single week, at some odd time of the day, there’s Facebook groups out there of of existing owners. And some Facebook owner will post a picture of something crazy happening in their laundry, and they’ll put hashtag passive income because it’s a joke because it’s not. It’s not passive income, and you have to know that you’re gonna be spending weird hours, in a bad part of town, most likely, at your store, and and knowing that, you know, in the beginning, it’s gonna take a lot of your time.

Steve Andrews [01:23:18]:

Your family needs to be aware the time it’s going to take. Prepare them as well because you’re you might have to leave that baseball game early or you might have to miss, you know, church 1 Sunday morning because you’ve you’ve got a flood in your floor, and it’s happened to me few times, unfortunately. So Me too. We can we can sit here and talk about all the wonderful things that happen in this business, but there’s a lot of of of bad things too. And in my opinion, the good far outweighs the bad, but you’ve got to mentally be prepared for the time it’s gonna take to deal with those things and and to deal with getting up and and off the ground. So

Jordan Berry [01:23:55]:

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome advice, for anybody, you know, getting in into the business. That time and money, knowledge that you’ve gotta have, like, you wanna you wanna make sure you have realistic expectations of what you’re getting into. And, you know, there’s a lot of people who our soul well, myself included when I first got in this business. Sold that dream of the passive income, and then, you know, after the 1st year, realized this is not what I expected and and get out of the business.

Steve Andrews [01:24:27]:

That’s right.

Jordan Berry [01:24:28]:

It’s a tale as old as time.

Steve Andrews [01:24:30]:

Yeah. I mean, I’ve I’ve had 2 AM wake up calls because someone had passed away in one of my bathrooms. So there’s stuff like that.

Jordan Berry [01:24:41]:

Yeah. Stuff stuff happens. And, you know, not to not to oversell the horror stories, but, it does happens not smooth sailing.

Steve Andrews [01:24:51]:

Right. No. It’s not. But I still I have to actually even with, And we’ve talked about a lot of the negative stuff today. But even with that, when I talk to people about this business, I have to force myself to talk about Bad usually because I’m so excited about the good because it it really is, amazing. So

Jordan Berry [01:25:11]:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it’s not it’s not to discourage anybody, but it is to give just a realistic expectation. Right? Like most of it’s good. But whenever I say this all the time. Right? Whenever you’re dealing with people or machines, you’re gonna have problems. And with laundromats, you got a whole bunch of both. So

Steve Andrews [01:25:26]:

That’s right.

Jordan Berry [01:25:27]:

Problems come up.

Steve Andrews [01:25:28]:

Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:25:30]:

Alright. Our last segment we have is called recommended resources. Do you have any resources that you recommend to help people either grow themselves personally or their businesses.

Steve Andrews [01:25:41]:

Yeah. So I’ll remind people of from the last one in case you didn’t do See that or forgot, but we talked about the book Good to Great, by Jim Collins. I love that book. Again, I wanna reiterate that one. But I think, even since then, I’ve learned more than anything else, the best resource as a laundry owner are other laundry owners. You know, I have, you know, I mentioned, all the laundromats that have opened in this market. I’m friends with a couple of the guys that have them in this market, and I talk to those guys on a regular basis. I mean, they are they are really good resources.

Steve Andrews [01:26:17]:

Even though they’ve been in the business shorter shorter time frame than I have, but they everyone has different experiences. Everyone has different on things. So I really think it’s good to kind of, you know, fill your mind with, with all there is from different levels of experience, people have been in for 30, people who’ve been in it for 30 days, all the way to people who have 1 laundromat to people who have 40 or 50. The more people you can talk to and the the greater network you can build, that’s the best resource you can have. If you’ve got a phone number that you can call or text within a second, get a good answer that you trust, there’s no better resource than that. So I I would say build a a network and a resource of laundry owners, and you’ll be set for a long time. Now be prepared to give back to that network because if you’re gonna take from it, you gotta give back too. So I think it goes both ways.

Jordan Berry [01:27:12]:

Love that, really, really great advice. Last thing I have for you before I wanna tell you one more time how awesome you are is if anybody has questions, or wants to talk more about, what you got going on or what they’ve got going on, what’s the best way they can get ahold of you?

Steve Andrews [01:27:33]:

Yeah. Sure. So you can reach me via email. My email is steve at all things ent.com. That’s short for all things enterprises. So it’s a l l t h I n g s, e as in elephant, n t. You can also I mean, we’re on, on Google, of course. We’re on Instagram and Facebook at washhouseclean.

Steve Andrews [01:28:00]:

Our go check out our website. We gotta do a few updates to that, but it’s, www.washhouseclean.com.

Jordan Berry [01:28:11]:

Yeah. We’ll have links to all of that in the show notes, for you. If you’re on YouTube, hit that subscribe. And then you can check down below in the description, for all the links to all that, Steve, you are awesome. Thank you for coming on the show, racing us with your presence, in that hair, of course, because you’re just sharing, man, just so much good solid information about, your story, but also what you’re doing and how it’s panning out so that we can have an idea of how we can improve our businesses, man. I think it’s, huge and a 100 episodes is way too long between episodes. So, you know, now that I know your plot to weasel your way back on, obviously, we, we’ll do it less than a 100 episodes from now for sure.

Steve Andrews [01:29:00]:

Yeah. Absolutely. Got 2.

Jordan Berry [01:29:02]:

Yeah. And, man, appreciate you taking the time to come on again, and share your wisdom and knowledge. And, looking forward to the next episode and, hopefully, other things between now and then too.

Steve Andrews [01:29:13]:

Awesome. Thanks, man.

Jordan Berry [01:29:15]:

You’re a rock star. Alright. Hope you loved that interview with Steve Andrews, out there in Nashville, Tennessee. Again, huge shout out. And thanks to Steve for coming on, sharing his wisdom and his story, the update from last time he was on the podcast. Dude, I love Steve. And Steve, you’re welcome on the podcast anytime you wanna come on. Such good stuff, and we have a really good time doing it.

Jordan Berry [01:29:38]:

But remember, none of this means thing unless you put it into action. So find something, one thing that you could put into action this week this week, if not today, that you can put into action. Those actions as we stack them up every week are what are gonna pave the path to success, to achieving your goals, to building the life you wanna build, whatever it is you’re after, it’s the action that’s gonna get you there. So for me, my big takeaway is sort of an action and sort of a mindset. I love I wrote this quote down. He said, I expect to do well. And for me, I it just clicked there, and I was like, yes. That is awesome.

Jordan Berry [01:30:21]:

That’s a great mindset to have whenever, you know, you you venture on a new, a new path, a new adventure, or as you are trying to go further down the path you’re already on. So that I expect to do well mindset is something that I’m gonna be, implementing and taking with me, from this interview. So huge shout out to Steve for that. What is your one thing that you’re gonna go put into action? Write it down. Tell a friend. Go to the forums, automat resource.com forums, and, you know, put it, share it there so that we can keep each other accountable. And listen. Let’s get after it.

Jordan Berry [01:31:00]:

Alright? 2024 is about to be here. Let’s get after it this year. Let’s make this year the year that you change your life. How about that? Alright. We’ll see you next week.