Today’s guest, Nick Chapleau, takes a look at your business with fresh eyes and a new perspective on the Laundromat Resource Podcast, show 15! Not only is this show incredibly informative, it is also a really fun show, despite Nick being a former lawyer!
A first for the podcast, Nick does not own a laundromat and never has! He does, however, work with a lot of laundromat owners to help them grow their businesses through his company, Starchup. It is through that lens that Nick comes on the podcast and gives great advice and insight into your laundromat business.
Nick not only gives his input on what successful owners that he works with are doing, he also talks about where he sees the laundromat industry going and if he thinks there is a technology threatening the laundromat industry!
On top of all of the wisdom, advice, and fun that Nick brings to show 15, he also gives Laundromat Resource Podcast listeners an exclusive offer you can’t refuse! You do NOT want to miss this show!
Mention the Laundromat Resource Podcast when you connect with Starchup and get their brand new marketing e-book for FREE, plus, get 10% off of your purchase when you sign up with Starchup to let them help you jump-start your pick-up and delivery business!
Listen To The Podcast Here
Watch The Podcast Here
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Episode Transcript
all right what’s up guys this is jordan
with the laundromat resource podcast
this is show number 15 and i’m so
excited that you’re here today
because today is a first for us on the
laundromat resource podcast
today we’re having somebody on the show
who does not own a laundromat
he snuck on the show and i’ll be honest
with you i was a little bit
nervous about this um today we have on
the show
nick chapleau maybe you’ve seen him
around or heard about him he runs a
company called starch up
uh that focuses on pickup and delivery
and um and and providing software to
help you
run a pickup and delivery service in
your business
now hold on before you hit the stop
button
or skip to the next uh thing let me just
say that if you’re not interested in
adding pickup and delivery
to your laundromat or if you already
have pickup and delivery and you already
have a service that you use
let me just say that this wasn’t
actually an incredible episode
nick he he just came not to sell you
he came to bring you a ton of value and
he delivers i was a little bit nervous
about having someone on who has
something to sell to laundromat owners
um and especially it’s not a service
that i have personally used before
so we had some conversations beforehand
and i said you know what you’re going to
have
a great show if you can lead with value
and just come with a mindset of helping
out
laundromat owners whether they use your
service or even
they are participating in in pickup and
delivery or not
and he did that and not only that if you
are interested in pick up and delivery
stay to the very end for sure because
he’s giving out some freebies
uh and and some discounts on his
services so
definitely definitely uh if you’re
interested in pick up and delivery
stay to the end for that um but we’re
gonna jump into it here
in a second because he really does bring
i’m i’m like so excited i would not have
even aired this episode if i felt like
he was just trying to sell you
he has a unique perspective where he
talks to a lot of laundromat owners and
he kind of has that outside perspective
and he’s in an industry where he’s
trying to support laundromat owners so
he came with that perspective in mind
trying to help you here on this podcast
so it’s a really awesome episode
and i was really really excited to get
to know him and i was so happy at how
this turned out i know you will be too
so let’s get into it right now
you’re listening to the laundromat
resource podcast
the show by laundromat owners for
laundromat owners
with your hosts jordan barry
[Music]
all right before we bring nick on i want
to run through a couple of things
because today is a big milestone for the
laundromat resource podcast
today for this baby little podcast
we have uh we have
hit 90 days since we launched our first
podcast
and that’s a big deal uh because you
know 90 days is just a long time for me
to commit to anything
um so but we made it to 90 days
and i’m just i’m super excited about it
just a couple little highlights
uh for that 90 days of the podcast
we have um this is episode number 15. so
15 episodes
we’ve had over 3 500 downloads
uh which blows my mind i just man thank
you guys again for listening i know i’ve
been saying that lately but i’m just my
mind is blown
and i’ve had a uh just a great time
getting to know not only just a guest
but some of you guys who
have been listening to the podcast and
taken a ton of value
from these guests we’ve had on here so
i’ve i’ve been loving that
we again have been hurt on every
continent
except antarctica so somebody needs to
go to antarctica and
listen to this podcast and let me know
um
because i’m pretty sure there’s no
laundry mats on antarctica so
it’s it’s gonna be a tough one but i am
determined i will keep this podcast
going
until someone on antarctica listens to
this
um and if that’s you just you know let
me know because i’ll be
over the moon all right enough of that
um
and i i don’t know i just i’m i just i’m
excited for this journey
and what it’s been if or this 90 days i
can’t believe that it’s already been 90
days on the one hand and on the other
hand
man it feels like it’s been going for a
long time just because it just feels
uh it just feels good to be talking to
owners
and um and to getting to know you guys
so
thank you guys for that i wanted to just
take a second
our forums have been blowing up the last
week or so
and i was actually out of town and i was
not on the forums at all this week and i
popped on
today and there was a bunch of activity
going on so
first and foremost i wanted to welcome a
few
new members to the laundromat resource
website who introduced themselves
in the laundromat resource forum
introductions
so if you are new uh
go over there and get a shout out on the
podcast but more importantly
go over there and introduce yourself and
get to know some other owners that are
part of uh this little community that
we’re building here
and uh and just again we think
here at laundromat resource that all of
us are going to do a whole lot better
when we’re working together
and introducing yourself over there is a
great way to start to work together to
get to know other owners
and build those relationships so that
all of our businesses succeed more so i
wanted to
say welcome to caitlin norman who is
here from
georgia she introduced herself she has
six laundromats
and she’s building a seventh peanuts
laundry there
in in georgia so caitlyn welcome brian
adams in dallas dude thanks for
introducing yourself i can’t wait to get
to know you guys
and uh mitch brunette who you may
remember
last week uh got a little shout out for
getting his first laundromat
under contract so way to go mitch uh
keep plugging and so far so good over
there from what i
hear so welcome to you guys if you
haven’t introduced yourself yet
that’s an awesome place to go introduce
yourself and
not only that go over there and just say
welcome to the people who have been
introducing themselves
um ask them a question there remember
i’m brainwashing you guys
uh unapologetically every single week
go to the forums ask a question answer
questions start building those
relationships starting conversations
over there
um and a good place to do that is to go
just start a conversation with some of
these new members that are introducing
themselves
and go introduce yourself as well so a
lot of my resource dot com slash forums
i will put the link to this and
everything else that we talk about
in this uh today’s show in the show
notes
or if you’re on youtube down in the
descriptions um the show notes
will be on laundromat resource dot com
slash
show 15 show one five all one
kind of thing laundromat resource dot
com show 15
uh for all the links and a bunch of
other goodies over there so make sure
you check
that out and also again a lot the
the forums over there were blowing up so
there’s a ton of questions i
there’s no way i could highlight all of
them some of the themes that i saw
happening
uh over the last week is again owning at
a distance i think that’s a
an intriguing question that people are
really wondering about and exploring
about over there
and so if you got some something to say
about that go ahead over there
and add to that there’s some due
diligence questions for people who are
in the due diligence phase
trying to pick up their laundromat and
also i thought an intriguing question
was about
um uh somebody was interested in
in looking a little bit more into dry
cleaners and was wondering if any of you
guys
had any experience with dry cleaners so
if you do or you have a
uh an opinion on that head over to
laundromat resource dot com
forums and and weigh in on that dry
cleaners one
um it sounds like he’s got a whole uh
whole a
money burning a hole in his pocket he’s
really wanting to get a laundromat
and it’s not coming together at the
moment and he’s
thinking you know should i pivot into
dry cleaners he doesn’t know so
go go help these guys out over on the
forums
speaking of which speaking of helping
people out on the forums this week
i noticed that the laundromat
millionaire uh
show two guests uh superstar laundromat
owner dave menz was over there on the
forums
uh answering questions and helping
people out like he always does so
if you don’t know dave yet and you don’t
know laundromat millionaire
go to youtube search laundromat
millionaire
you want to check out his stuff that
he’s putting out this guy
is uh he’s the real deal not only does
he know his stuff but he’s a genuine
genuine guy and he is there to help you
out help people out and he’s teaching a
lot of stuff over there so check him out
laundry by millionaire dave
thanks for jumping on the forums this
week and helping some people out it’s
pretty cool
to see someone like you uh over there
just helping us
regular folk out so thanks man um
yeah so that’s what’s going on in the
forums i don’t want to beat that to
death
but i’m just excited about what’s going
there because i think that’s
you know just some of the building
blocks of the community that’s happening
uh over there on the forums um
all right well i don’t i mean i
i am genuinely i got goosebumps
after this interview with nick today so
i just want to kind of jump
into it because he really really really
adds a ton of stuff and not only that
but he’s just a ton of fun to talk to
this
interview is super fun um and super
informative
and he’s just a good guy and he’s given
a lot of stuff away so make sure
you listen to this thing all the way
through and the last thing that i’ll ask
before we
jump in with nick is if you haven’t yet
uh give us a subscribe if you’re on
youtube give us a like
if you’re listening on a podcast player
uh you know subscribe to the podcast so
you don’t miss any of these
interviews because they’re awesome and
also give us a little rating and review
let us know how you like it let us know
how we’re doing
and that just helps me to know uh how to
adjust the podcast so that i am you know
hitting
what you guys are looking for and not
only that but it helps other people find
us too so
if you could do that that’d be awesome
otherwise uh
let’s jump in with nick right after this
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[Music]
all right no further ado let’s do it
with nick chaplow from starch up right
now
all right hey what’s up nick how’s it
going going well jordan how you doing
today
i’m doing awesome thanks for coming on
the podcast i know this is a little bit
different of an episode that we’ve done
so far this is a first for us
because you actually don’t own a
laundromat do you
that’s right that’s right i do not own a
laundromat so uh
i don’t know how you weaseled your way
on here but hopefully you got something
good for us
we’ll see we’ll see well hey before we
jump into
who you know why you’re actually on this
podcast tell us a little bit about who
you
are and you know how you got here yeah
absolutely so uh
i guess i i can start at the beginning i
was born and raised in
south bend indiana
i’m a hoosier uh very proud of my
hometown
um kind of roundabout way uh
after that i went to college at miami of
ohio
then went to the university of chicago
for law school straight out of college
because uh
clearly i did not know what i wanted to
be when i grew up
uh at that point and uh
you know went through through law school
my dad was a lawyer so uh
there’s there’s some influence there
but basically went through law school at
that point and
came out became a commercial litigator
so representing clients
getting sued or suing uh people
um and and you know going to trial and
that sort of thing
um all very uh you know all very
interesting stuff interrupt you for a
second yeah of course
you ever get to say anything super cool
in the courtroom
like i don’t know like i just feel like
i’ve seen the movies like
litigation lawyers getting to say cool
things in the courtroom
like objection here’s like did you like
slam your fist and say objection ever
i i was very very far from anywhere that
anyone would hear me slam my fist
okay in the back doing the research but
yeah
i i think you know if i’d stuck with it
probably would have been there yeah okay
all right maybe at the end of this
episode you could just
just to fulfill that you know what i
mean exactly okay i like that i will do
that hopefully i’ll remember
go ahead sorry yeah no worries no
worries uh so
in those four years i basically you know
i started to learn that
i was really interested in the problems
that my clients had
as as businesses and less so interested
in the legal work that i was doing
and it began to dawn on me that you know
if i was gonna
you know find something that i was gonna
be passionate about i needed to get out
of what i was doing and jump into
something else and especially
you know at a younger age when i still
had time to to build a career somewhere
else
so uh my wife and i moved back to
chicago
and i i interviewed i started
interviewing at some management
consulting firms
and during that time one of my best
friends from law school
was also going through the same sort of
uh existential crisis at the time
leaving the law and his dad was
a uh head of operations for
uh a franchise of laundromats in in the
illinois uh area and he had the idea
um you know at this time uber was just
starting to really blow up
and uh he had the idea of sort of a grub
hub
style app for for laundry and dry
cleaning where
where customers would uh basically go on
the app
uh and choose a business that to work
with and they’d come pick up their
clothes and
either you know dry clean them or uh
wash them
wash and fold um and you know at the
time
there was uh there was a few different
uh like
laundry apps uber for laundry type apps
that were also coming out like wash i o
i don’t know if you remember them
um and some sort of similar ones rents
still around
um and as we were as i was kind of
putting together a business plan
reaching out to potential investors and
talking to customers
i started to to read you know i was
doing the research i read this
article in new york magazine about these
laundry apps
and just kind of the the uh
the attitude in that article from from
some of them that was like
you know we can come into this industry
and do what uber did to the taxi drivers
and kind of put them all out of business
and take over and it really like fired
me up
um you know because i think small
business uh small medium-sized
businesses
is really the backbone of this country
which is you know taking a beating
recently obviously but but seeing what
uber did to the taxi industry
and what these other apps were doing it
really fired me up to
to create something that could help
businesses basically provide that same
sort of customer experience
and use really good technology that you
know
you’d usually would have to pay millions
of dollars to have
um and kind of democratize that for them
um
and that you know became my passion at
that point
um we we raised a little bit of money
and we got our first few customers in
chicago
um and kind of went off to the races
there building
building it out um and originally it was
basically an
app for the customer to to sign up and
then a backend
uh delivery management system where you
could
optimize your route um you know
basically everything you would expect
from
like an uber type system um
plus the the front end you know customer
white label for the business
um since we we moved away from the uh
grub up model to that white label model
that we’re doing now
and uh you know kind of did that a few
years later built out a full point of
sale system
to to go along with that uh to sort of
be able to be
the a single system that that businesses
could use
for for their garment care needs um and
and that’s where we are today other than
that um
yeah i know i’m i’m married i got two uh
twin three-year-old daughters
um oh my gosh you may be hearing in the
background
i know mine are running around too i
don’t know if you can hear them but
i don’t have twin three-year-old
daughters though just waiting for them
to bust through this story
hey you know what that would be a lot of
fun for the people watching on youtube
absolutely yeah no i thought you know
startups are not hard enough why not
have uh twins
oh yeah yeah and man i don’t know
well you probably don’t know any
different because yours haven’t been in
school yet but
with everything going on in mind being
at home i just
my productivity is i’ve really got to
force it to get anything done because
it’s just tough with everybody at home
it is so hard and yeah no i mean i i
we’re lucky that we we don’t know the
the experience of having them in school
yet i mean they’re supposed to go in
august we’ll see um but
i mean friends who have older kids are
just yeah tearing their
hair out it’s it’s rough i feel i feel
bad for them yeah
it’s tough well hey i mean one of the
things that really just stuck out to me
uh about you um is it’s
really really hard to walk away from
a well-paying job and trying to figure
out a different direction to go
like props to you but like what gave you
the guts to do that i think
you know this is a little bit of a side
note from the laundry stuff but i think
a lot of people feel stuck and i think
actually that’s a huge reason why a lot
of people are interested in laundromats
it’s because they don’t like what
they’re doing
you know right now whatever their job is
or whatever however they’re spending
their time they don’t like it and they
want a little more
freedom and so they’re they’re
interested in laundromats for that
reason but what gave you
kind of the guts to to do that that’s
tough yeah no i appreciate that
um i i was very unhappy for one thing
in in what i was doing so it that made
it a little bit easier to
to make that switch but i mean i think
you know americans especially we have
a strong desire to
to own our our work and uh
do you know our own thing and and not be
well either not have a boss or just you
know do
build our own projects and and make them
into what you know
little pieces of ourselves i think
that’s that you know a big part of the
american dream and and again why small
and medium
sized businesses are so important um not
just
you know for the economy but just for
for people to be able to to live the
kind of lives they want
and i i think i had i have a
a strong entrepreneurial streak that i
never really got in touch with until
i realized how unhappy i was doing doing
what i was doing
um and you know once i kind of
dip my toe in the in the um
entrepreneurial water
it was like this is for me this is what
i need to be doing
yeah um but yeah it was hard i mean
telling your family that you’re not
going to be a lawyer anymore you’re
going to build
you know dry cleaning and laundry
software uh
not i mean i it made all this in the
world to me
i mean i get it but not everybody did
i can imagine those conversations yeah
exactly but you know it is what it is
yeah well i’m this is putting you a
little bit on the spot
and you know again this is my bad for
putting on the spot but i’m just curious
do you have any advice for anybody who’s
unhappy in their position and is you
know looking for a way out either
through laundromats or
or whatever yeah absolutely i mean you
know devote
some time to thinking you know some
legitimate time
not just daydreaming but like spend some
time researching
possible ideas that you have and uh you
know
how you can monetize that and make a
living for yourself i mean
yeah it’s i can’t imagine it’s been had
i spent the last
i guess 10 years in the being a lawyer
and being so
as unhappy as i was um
life’s too short i mean the the
the sacrifice they made on income uh
was so so well worth the increased
happiness
in life i mean it it’s kind of a
no-brainer looking back but i
you know at the time obviously it’s very
difficult to to make a decision like
that i mean i was
you know i i was getting married or
i guess i was married by the time but we
didn’t have kids so they’re just like i
it was easier for me to do it then i’m
sure a lot of people who have more
you know financial obligations but i
mean i encourage anyone to
to at least at least do the research on
on things that you can
you can do to break out of that yeah
yeah thanks for sharing that sorry again
to put you on the spot but i think
that’s really important because i do
think
that’s a huge thing that attracts a lot
of laundromat owners
or would-be laundromat owners to the
industry so
yeah thanks for sharing that absolutely
um
okay so you were a
lawyer turned software
developer slash startup
owner slash fundraiser all the hats you
gotta wear
to just start a business like this
um exactly can i ask what what attracted
you about
um the laundromat industry in particular
because i see a lot of um i see a lot of
like similar kinds of apps
for like car washes and i mean all kinds
of stuff so what
was there anything about the laundry
stuff in in particular
that did it or it was just that article
that you read that was really like okay
this is it let’s go yeah well i mean my
my co-founder
had the the industry experience through
his dad
um so he kind of grew up in it a bit um
and it it seemed to make sense there’s
there’s a market there
uh you know it’s it’s the kind of
service that can be done through
delivery
and um you know i think delivery is
uh a very you know good way to
to do this um if you have that asset and
i think that
um you know and it’s a it’s it is a
a common small business it’s something
that um
there are a lot of people out there that
have a need there is certainly a need
for better software when we
when we started i mean everyone said how
bad
even the the best software out there
everyone complained about
um so um
it just felt like there was a there’s a
need
i you know i started meeting laundromat
owners and they seemed like the kind of
people that
you know were my people so um
people that i could you know be
have as customers and and be happy with
that so
um it wasn’t any kind of one like oh
this is why i should do laundry other
than you know
my co-founder being from it but um
it just kind of it became a fit as as we
went on
for sure should we right now feel
insulted
that a lawyer said that laundromat
owners are your people
i’m just kidding i gotta throw in a
clear lawyer
uh all right sorry just kidding just
kidding
no it’s fine uh well hey what are the
lawyer jokes
yeah i’m sure i’m sure you miss them
uh yeah uh well i mean
one of the cool things about what you do
is that you do talk to
a lot of laundromat owners and you you
know
one of the i mean you you also see the
industry from an outside perspective you
know a lot of times when you’re in the
middle of something you own laundromats
you’re in
you know in the midst of the day-to-day
of all that even if you’re kind of just
in the industry having the conversations
as a laundromat owner
it can be difficult to see things and
and you’re in the industry but you’re
kind of a
support of the industry and not kind of
in the middle of it so i love that
you know you have a slightly different
perspective than
all the other guests we’ve had on the
show so far um
but just out of curiosity you know since
you’re talking to
laundromat owners uh you know from
from all around are are you seeing uh
anything that successful owners are
doing that maybe other owners aren’t
doing or
or anything that’s working particularly
well for laundromat owners
yeah i mean so obviously a heavy portion
of our customers
are very delivery focused um
and i think businesses that you know
especially with covid um
businesses that have adopted uh pickup
and delivery either
had already adopted it or were pushing
it or
have adopted since um are definitely
you know doing a lot better than than
those that that have not
um i think you know the the
covid pandemic is obviously terrible and
um
you know but it also presents
opportunity because it
is um it is accelerating some
of the wider economic kind of uh
shifts that were happening before it’s
just making it happen those happen
faster
and uh moving from from
uh uh you know going into retail stores
to doing
uh doing your your um daily chores
through
apps and through pickup and delivery um
that has been
i think you know we that’s that has been
one reason why a lot of our customers
have not
i think uh obviously they’re everyone’s
hurting but not as badly as
um maybe some that have not made that
that pivot or that transition
um that said i think you know
if you keep a clean mat and you uh make
it attractive to come into i mean i
think it’s
at least people that that i know like
they they’re more attracted somewhere
that is going to require masks
or um you know be very
seemingly proactive about
containing the spread of the the
pandemic
just because it gives peace of mind i
mean so i think
the more effort you can put into to
making your your laundromat
attractive to that that sort of uh
vibe i think you’re gonna you’re gonna
attract more people and
those that don’t are going to have are
going to struggle more yeah i think i
think that that shows
that tells customers like hey we care
about you we care
you know about your safety about your
health about your cleanliness
um but we care about you i think that’s
what that demonstrates
um so it’s kind of one of those almost
paradoxical things where by
putting more restraints on your
customers actually
is an attractive thing so because you’re
putting restraints on all the other
customers too so it’s
right yeah absolutely yeah man awesome
awesome uh tips for for owners there
um are you seeing uh just maybe from
your perspective i
you know obviously you’re coming from
like a pickup and delivery so feel free
to talk about that also because i think
that’s
probably gonna apply here too um but are
you seeing any
trends in the industry right now uh that
are
you know directions the industry is
moving
um i think uh you know obviously
pick up and deliver yeah we got into
that because we thought that was already
a trend that was going to be happening
and
i think it has been exacerbated um
so i would say that’s that’s definitely
trending i mean even if you’re
you know you’re just doing it to get
more revenue it’s not like a focus of
your business why not
use that extra capacity as long as you
can make it
make the margins work and you’re not you
can
you know target maybe the market for
your mat
is uh the locally is is maybe i don’t
know
lower income or something but you’re
you’re adjacent to a higher income
place do your delivery there um
and you’re gonna get higher margins from
those customers uh
and and bring it back to your store you
know in another area there’s and
and then you’re you’re increasing the
the capacity you’re getting more
more uh loads per day um
and you’re you’re making the most of
that asset so um and i think
yeah as far as to your question trends
that that is
one trend that i think is picking up as
especially as costs
of offering that service continue to
increase with better software better
operational methods and stuff
[Music]
as far as uh more in-store trends
i mean i’ve seen you know some some
things that stick out is
offering more of a kind of a cafe type
feel to the in
the inside of your your laundromat uh
you know maybe offering
that some of the wilder ones will have
an actual cafe in their laundromat
yeah offering you know like beer on tap
or something which
you know is it i think attractive if i’m
going to go hang out somewhere
why not have have them you know feed me
coffee or beer and
make me feel good my unattended
laundromat they’re drinking beer there
anyways
some splits in the back you know
[Laughter]
that’s funny so yeah i’ve been seeing
that a lot too
yeah i think anything anything that
makes it more attractive place to be is
going to
help help help you draw more people
there
yeah yeah i’ve seen that a lot too and
i’m seeing
a lot of trends towards um
bigger stores uh tend to you know new
builds tend to be bigger so at least
here
in l.a i think a lot of the metro areas
at least um
i’m not sure but i think even what do
you think the uh
the reason behind that is um
well i think there’s a few things behind
that i mean i think just
offering more you can offer more
machines
more options more services
you know more i mean there’s just more
benefits to the customers
you have you know a smaller store
maybe you can’t have an attendant there
24 7
whereas or can’t even be open 24 7
whereas a larger store can have be
attended they can offer kind of more
services more amenities they have more
space for like a
kids play area or a different
entertainment like a cafe type thing or
you know whatever the case may be
and i think that a big store that comes
in with all new equipment
and everything can really
draw a lot of customers from the smaller
stores that might be around the area
just because it’s bigger and better it’s
kind of like the walmart effect maybe i
don’t know
right yeah yeah that makes sense and
all the more reason for you know bigger
stores to to do to pick up and deliver
it otherwise you have those assets kind
of sitting
unless you’re open 24 hours i guess but
yeah
and even uh all the more reason for
smaller stores to do pick up and
delivery
because if you can’t compete necessarily
with the people in your neighborhood
anymore
as well as you used to be able to go get
some customers somewhere else so
that’s a very good point yeah yeah
that’s a good pivot
so yeah interesting trends happening
right now
um i’ll i’ll be uh curious to see
how that continues to develop in the
industry and kind of kind of on that
um you know let let me let me just
let’s get serious right now let’s get
real and let’s get candid and let’s get
serious
uh but in in all seriousness you know
you kind of mentioned
that um the article and how they were
um you know saying that their the apps
are gonna
kind of put modern match out of business
i mean do you see that happening uh you
know
similar to uber and the taxis and um
do you see that happening ever in the
future or is that you know is that
something that a lot of my owners should
be concerned about
um or or not
that’s a good question so you know
obviously when i first read the article
i’m
i was you know like i said i was fired
up i wanted to
come in and help now most of those
businesses that were in that article
are out of business um so you know it
kind of was a wave of
you know that they’re they’re
threatening the industry and now they’re
gone
i think that um
what what i what my concern now it would
be is that
uh you know people have learned the
lessons of that those first wave of
failures
um and and they’re starting to to adjust
uh there there are you know there’s
companies out there now that are either
um they’re they’re running a slightly
different model i mean rinse is still
going
they’re they’re you know still um i
think doing pretty well
uh and then there’s some you know
there’s 2u and some some others like
that
i think you know they they’re going to
do things a little differently um and
and they’ve already been i think more
successful because of that
um and you know who knows
who’s going to be you know winners and
losers out of that but i think that
there’s definitely a uh a possibility
that you know larger franchises
um are gonna start to um
knock the smaller uh sole operators out
um you know if they can offer bigger
stores cleaner facilities
more amenities um you know pickup and
delivery
that kind of thing um that that could
certainly be a real threat to
to the smaller operators um and i think
it’s
it’s very the the only way you know to
kind of fight back is to
to improve your branding improve your um
your facilities offer those amenities as
well to the extent that you’re you’re
able to
and um you know be the kind of place
that people want to go to
and i think most consumers would prefer
to use a small business to to a
franchise or a larger business
just out of you know community feel and
everything that goes into small business
but they also you know there’s there’s a
line there
if if they find an option that’s so much
better it’s going to be hard for them to
to support that small business if they
can’t compete
yeah yeah i think that that’s really
good
insight and i think that’s something
that you know we need to be aware of as
laundromat owners and why it’s so
important to
uh keep up your laundromat why it’s so
important to
you know be branding your laundromat by
uh why it’s so important to be
developing uh relationships with the
people in your community
and also and i think this is something
that laundromat owners
are very guilty of you know we get
complacent
in our business because it is a it is a
business that you can run
relatively hands off we can get
complacent but when you get complacent
and you’re not continually growing
and changing and evolving uh that’s when
you’re right for a competitor you know
it could be a laundromat down the street
but it also could be
an app you know service that comes in
and and
takes your business you know so you got
to be you can’t get
complacent yes it doesn’t have to be
super time intensive
um but you got to be thinking about this
stuff and you got to be continually
improving your business continually
getting better continually
evolving and um and listening to
your community and listening to what’s
going on in the industry
so i mean i think that’s awesome insight
man
yeah no i you’re exactly right and i
think you know it’s it’s
it might feel overwhelming but it should
be exciting i mean the reason that most
of us are doing
our own businesses is because we love
solving problems and you know we like to
to to do that and this is a an
opportunity
for um all of us to to
improve what we’re offering to consumers
and
and solve some problems here and there
and like you said it doesn’t have to you
know
most laundromat operators you know they
don’t want to spend
40 hours a week on this but you know you
spend some
time doing things that you enjoy solving
the problems that are
that are fun to solve and uh and i think
that
that you know that’s going to help you
uh keep going and
and moving forward and competing yeah i
gotta
i gotta just say before we hit record on
this
we were talking a lot about uh
self-development
and uh and nick was saying how
you know one of the cool things he’s
just been like learning and like getting
grasp on is that there are no problems
there are only
opportunities and i don’t know if you
just noticed if you didn’t go back and
rewind
but he started off with saying problems
and he
transitioned it into them being
opportunities so it’s already sinking in
exactly i mean it’s gonna be a running
theme through most of what i talk about
so i don’t need to beat it over your
head too much
no it’s good and and you know what i
think that that is a really good
perspective because
you know there when you when you own
your own business it doesn’t matter how
simple or complex it is
and and when you’re working with people
to any degree
you know they’re going to be problems
and you can either see them as problems
and get overwhelmed or
you can see them as opportunities and
look for ways to
not only solve the problem but to use
you know that adversity to
um you know to further your personal
growth and also to further your business
growth
so i think it’s awesome growth only
comes through adversity so
uh you know when when times are hard
it’s look at it as you know woe is me or
you can say
you know this is this is an opportunity
for me to grow yeah
absolutely i love it i just wanted to
point out that
it’s working man you’re killing it i
love it
um all right well hey you know i you
know
you you you know are running starch up
so i want to talk a little
bit about starch up so maybe you can
tell us a little bit about it and then
also um i want to hear i mean this again
this laundromat a podcast is
you know by laundromat owners for
laundromat owners so i i want you to
kind of tell us
you know the customers that you have
that own laundromats how are they using
starch up
you know to help grow their business and
and how are they using it to help them
you know be successful in what ways is
it helping them do that
yeah absolutely um so starch up uh you
know
we’re we’re a software program um we
don’t do any operations ourselves
uh we we we’re developers and marketers
that
work with the operators to you know help
them grow and and run more efficiently
um and you know i think that that is
obviously has some pros and cons so from
the beginning we weren’t operators so
it was a little you know we had to
talk to all of our customers and build
our system that way as opposed to say
you know i know
this is what i want here and this is
what i want here um
so so at the beginning it was a little
bit more difficult to
you know build that but i think now
where we are and with our customer base
and
you know we are constantly soliciting
feedback from from our customers and how
we can improve the product so
um while we aren’t operators that built
the product i i really truly believe
that our product was built
you know by input from our customers um
so uh so that uh that that’s kind of how
we’ve gotten
it to where it is now um it it consists
of a uh you know customer facing app
so it’s branded for your business um so
you know
uh jordan’s laundromat it would be in
the app store as jordan’s laundromat
it’s a ios android and web app uh so you
can go to jordan’s
laundromats website you can go to the
ios
app store download jordan’s laundromats
app
and uh also on android um so
uh that’s you know once one portion of
it
where customers go into that app they
can sign up
register with all their information and
their payment information everything
and then place orders for pickup and
delivery
those orders are then routed to your
point of sale system which works as both
an in-store point of sale for uh both
dry cleaning and laundry
so uh you know a lot of our even
laundromat owners
they they do uh outsource dry cleaning
to it
you know a dry cleaner and but they they
still need the
the point of sale to be able to record
those those transactions and everything
so
um our system works well for that uh and
dry cleaners use our system as well so
um
and so there’s the point of sale side uh
and then there’s the driver and delivery
management
so that includes a driver app all your
pickups and deliveries for the day
to guide the driver through with the
mapping technology
optimizate route optimization um and
uh you know text communication between
the customer
and the driver automated text that go
out you know hey your order’s been
picked up
or hey you’ve got to pick up tomorrow um
let us know if
uh if you don’t need us to come by and
we’ll skip you
that sort of thing so all those
automated notifications by email and
text message as well um
and so that system you know kind of
comes together to to improve efficiency
um
the point of sale site you know you can
track uh
what loads are going into what washers
and dryers
and you know track efficiency for
employees and
um which washers and dryers are you know
getting used more and
so you can space that out um and and
make sure you’re utilizing your assets
in
even way um reporting on all that
so you know see who the most efficient
employees are you know if you want to
compensate on commission you can you can
do that
and have all that there so a lot of
great in-store efficiencies that are
added
uh on the wash you know fluff and fold
wash dry fold wash and fold whatever
you’re gonna go by um and then
out the dry cleaning outsourcing as well
but the uh
i mean you know most of people come to
us for for the app
um because they want it they want to
grow their business
and uh the app has uh just i mean
it’s it’s crazy how how far it’s coming
six years but um
basically like i said the customer can
go in sign up
um based on where their address is and
where you’ve set up your route locations
you you
go into your point of sale draw maps
draw on a map
your your pick up and delivery locations
um
and then if i live within that i see
that the the times and days
offered to me for pickup and delivery
that you set up so you can completely
control
where you’re offering your service and
um
you know who who’s going to be served um
and then they have uh the ability to go
in schedule that pickup and delivery
they can track the uh the status of
their order throughout the process
it’s cleaning it’s you know getting
washed now nows
um it’s getting put back together etc
and they get notifications the entire
time um
that you know the status of their order
and session
so you know just giving that customer
the the full experience
um of of being able to place
uh an order on their phone and and see
what’s going on with it
um and then of course marketing it is
just it’s so much easier
to market uh to somebody on the internet
saying you know press a few buttons and
your your clothes are cleaned
as opposed to trying to get people to
come somewhere physically especially
these days
where nobody wants to you know a lot of
people don’t want to go anywhere
um and so you know you can mark it on
google or facebook or wherever and it’s
just a couple clicks
and and they’ve done their laundry more
or less you’re doing the rest for them
yeah so that’s great uh i mean i think
having the the ios and android apps are
very key especially to customer
retention um
you have that app now on your phone it’s
not a website that you have to go to
and log into um it’s just ready for you
and you can just
it’s a it’s a lot easier to to do and
you know everybody has apps on their
phones now
but you know going to websites it’s
great for
especially customer acquisition because
when customers are researching
uh what they’re going to do a lot of
times they’ll go on you know their
computer and google
but once they’ve picked somebody having
that app on their phone is key to
to keep to retaining that customer um
so and i can go on if you want about
all the different ways we add value uh
for for laundries and dry cleaners but
uh i mean i think having that app is is
awesome because
you know it’s once that app is on the
phone
i mean the phone obviously people are
looking at their phones all the time so
your friend of mine
you know once you’re on that on that
phone and even
you know sending people to a website
that’s good um and that will drive
business for sure
but you know especially for the i would
assume especially for the residential
customers
having that app is a huge
you know perk to a laundromat owner to
say hey
you know download download my app it’s
there all you got to do is hit the
button
and you know tell us a couple things and
you know we’ll come pick up your laundry
and it’ll be done
yeah i mean and i think about you know
like me and my me or my wife
you know if we when we need the the
service we might
we’re doing a million things i’ve got a
kid in one hand and i i just want to
press a couple buttons i don’t want to
have to type out my password and all
that stuff so
it is uh it is it does add an extra
layer of convenience there which is
which is key i think yeah i think for
you you’re probably going to need to add
like
voice activation because you have the
twins and so having it exactly
and you’re gonna have it’s on its way
it’s on its way hey siri
or you know do my laundry
that’s what you should put in there man
that would be awesome
agree oh gosh working on that one right
now um
i will yes that oh that would be so cool
well i mean this it sounds awesome and i
love
the um i mean i love the whole the whole
system behind it i’ve looked
you know i looked at it i’ve looked at a
couple of your case studies on your site
which
by the way i’ll put a link to um starch
up
just starch.com but i’ll put a link down
in the description below if you’re on
youtube or in the show notes
at laundromat resource dot com slash
show
15 all one word show 15.
um i’ll put that there so you can go
check out their website
and um is there i i should have asked
you this before
but is there a way to see like what the
app looks like
somehow some way for somebody oh yeah
absolutely
um you can uh you can go in the web
there’s a couple different ways you can
go in the app store now and just search
starch up
some of our earlier apps are still under
our name um
every app at this point now goes out
under the bus
not under our the app itself but the
developer uh
so it’ll come up in the search so you
can see a handful that way you can also
go on our site
and there is a section of our websites
we also
we build websites as well and you can
click on any of those websites and and
see what the web app looks like as well
cool awesome you know i’ll put a direct
link i’ll put a link to starch up but
i’ll put a direct link to that part of
your website too
but also you can go on the on the app
stores and look there if you’re
curious as to what the app looks like
some of some of our
uh some of our you know uh laundromat
you can look up bubbles and suds
uh bubbly the fold uh with an e at the
end
um family laundry wish wash uh
yeah there’s there’s a bunch in there um
customer shout outs and i know some of
those people
follow us on here so if that’s you man
look at that shout out right there
nick hooking it up for you guys for the
ones i haven’t mentioned
i apologize i wish i could just name
them all right now
yeah yeah well i i mean i think that’s
awesome
and definitely go check it out if that’s
something that you’re interested in
and you know to be honest with you you
know if you don’t have pickup and
delivery yet you should be at least
looking
into it um i think you know
kind of like nick was saying the trend
is going that way and
especially now with the way that the
world is um it’s just a
it’s a it’s a growth opportunity right
now not a problem
it’s an opportunity to grow your
your laundromat income and the services
you render and
not only that you know one of the things
that i like about the laundromat
industry
is that we are helping people solve
their problems you know
and and we’re serving those people by
providing them
the opportunity to come clean their
clothes quickly and efficiently
and uh safely and um
but by adding a pickup and delivery
service
you’re able to serve more people and you
know
for me obviously we’re business owners
and we want to make money
and you know that’s the point of having
a business
but at the same time you know i want to
be helping people i want to be serving
people
and the more people you know you can
help the better in my opinion
you know would you rather serve a few
people well or would you rather serve a
ton of people well and for me
you know i’m trying to expand the
a number of people that i’m trying to
you know help so
the more people you’re helping the more
free time they have to you know do
all the different things that people do
and make this world a better place so
yeah absolutely well cool um
i have another question for you we have
a little
uh section of our podcast that we call
pro tips
pro tips and pro tips is basically
what you know what do you have a piece
of advice for somebody maybe who’s
looking to get into the laundromat
industry as someone who’s not in it
yourself
but who talks to a lot of owners and who
has a
a unique perspective on the industry do
you have any advice for
for the newbies out there who are trying
to buy their first laundromat
yeah absolutely first and foremost uh
definitely go to the laundromat
resource um
oh my gosh you’re coming back on the
podcast i don’t know
he’s going to be on next week so
that’s yeah that’s where you go first i
mean i mean just
do do a lot of due diligence um
there there’s obviously you know plenty
of lemons out there
and unless you’re you’re ready to to do
a turnaround
uh make sure that you’ve uh
first of all learned about all the
potential pitfalls um
and and figured out figured out where
they may be and you’ve
kicked the tires on on the potential
locations that you’re looking at
whether it’s you know knowing what kind
of market is going to
uh best attract is going to be you know
most profitable
knowing about your machinery knowing
about you know the
construction plans the architecture
everything that you know
can can really uh cause problems
you know as you go as you move on uh i
think that
is the most by far the most important
thing you can do
and and the best way to do that is to
talk to people um
who who are in the industry and
obviously consult resources like uh lake
jordan
yeah i i think that’s awesome advice and
you know for all you guys out there who
are looking to get into your first
laundromat
you know i heed this advice because it
will save you a lot of time it’ll save
you a lot of money
save you a lot of heartache and you can
take it from me because
i wasted a lot of time i wasted a lot of
money and i experienced a lot of
heartache because i didn’t take that
advice so
uh man take it take it to heart and uh
you know run with it um get in the
industry but
you know just just do it wisely and
don’t do it on your own so
i think that’s good i think uh and then
for people that you know might be
looking to get into
to pick up and delivery you know take it
a step further
um make sure that you know you’re you’re
coming up with a plan for
really engaging and acquiring and
engaging your customers
you know it doesn’t have to necessarily
be an app i mean i think that obviously
starts up is the best way that you can
grow a delivery business
um but any way that you can find that is
going to
you know help you engage your customers
and keep them coming back because your
recurring customers are your most
valuable customers
um that that is probably the
the most important thing you can do
on that side i mean obviously there’s
operational things and and i did want to
mention that uh we are uh
we’re working with some of our customers
to put together in
a little operational uh and marketing
booklet
uh with some recommendations for for
first time uh
delivery uh operators um
so you know if you if uh you come to uh
our website and set up a demo um
and you mentioned the podcast uh you’ll
get the free booklet
uh and then we’ll also give you 10 off
if you do uh go on to purchase our
services
look at that laundromat resource
exclusive right there
absolutely let me just write that down
i’m going to put you on that one
no that’s awesome and you know if you’re
looking to get into the pickup and
delivery
you know business man at least go set up
that demo
with nick and let them walk you through
you know their stuff
and uh hey feel free
to name drop me just just name drop me
please do good things happen when you
i have important for a second and i’m
over it now um reality has come back to
me
um that’s awesome man thanks for thanks
for doing that
and i think that’s huge especially right
now because i think there is an
opportunity to grow that part of the
business for a lot of people
and it’s an opportunity to strike you
know while the iron’s hot
and and to launch that so i think that’s
cool
um do you have like one quick tip on uh
how to um how to acquire
like a pickup and delivery customer uh
maybe just like a one little like
negative yeah for for acquisition i
would say that
um probably your your best bang for your
buck is gonna be
google google adwords i mean having it
having a beautiful site with great seo
is important and you know come to us we
can we can help with that
um but you know as far as paid
advertisement
i think google adwords you get the most
pain because it’s people looking for
uh your service already uh if i see a
facebook ad for
uh you know pickup and delivery i might
not have any laundry at that time and
you know
maybe i remember it maybe i don’t but if
i’m actively
searching um for for laundry
services then i’m more likely to to
convert
so love that i love that thanks for
sharing that
absolutely um let me ask you
uh this question can we have this little
section uh of recommended resources
uh on on the podcast because i want
obviously we’re laundromat resource so
you know one of our goals is to put
resources in the hands of modern mad
owners that are going to help them grow
personally
and help their businesses grow so do you
have like maybe one or two
resources that you can share with us
that would either help us grow
personally or and or
our businesses yeah no that’s a that’s a
good question so
um
well i mentioned the our our operations
and marketing booklets so that
you know i would um
aside from that um i think uh
if you if you you know obviously the the
laundromat space is pretty well covered
with with jordan’s podcast but there’s a
lot of great
you know business podcasts out there um
that that are inspirational i would say
you know i
i actually just went through we were
talking earlier i went through a
coaching program this past weekend
and it was uh it was mind-blowing really
how
how helpful it was um so i would
recommend looking into something like
that mine was a
ipec um coaching program
that you can you can google um
and uh you know it i think
being able to kind of shift your your uh
approach to to problems and and to
business and and relationships even
uh it it’s been extreme just in a few
days since it’s been extremely helpful
so as far as a personal resource i think
that’s a good one yeah
awesome and i’ll just throw in two uh
you know
nick didn’t ask me to do this but as a
another former lawyer who has come to
the light
nick’s wife is uh is actually becoming a
a life coach a personal coach and so man
if that’s something that you’re
interested in
you can’t beat smart people who got even
smarter
and left being lawyers
and are coming to do good in this world
uh
yeah if you’re if you’re interested in a
professional coach uh
she she’d be happy to to chat with you
absolutely what’s her name
mariana mariana yeah so contact
nick and he’ll put you in contact with
marianna speaking of which
if people want to get a hold of you
either to ask you more about
um things that you know about you know
the laundromat industry
or best practices or you know more
likely if they’re interested
in uh learning more about starch up
uh how what’s the best way that they can
get in contact with you yeah absolutely
um
so you can reach out to me directly by
email nick starchup.com
or you can go on our website we have a
demo scheduling tool on there that’s
connected to my calendar so it’s uh
it’s easy to set up times the talk but
you know i’m if you send me an email
i’ll respond
you know most likely within a couple
hours um
and uh that’s probably the best way to
reach me yeah
awesome so nakedstartup.com or go check
out
startup.com again links are
in the show notes at laundromat
resource.com show15
all one word there and also in the
description if you’re watching this on
youtube
nick thank you so much for coming on you
brought like a
ton of value and so much of it
was not even related to what it is that
you do you’re just
offering you know your wisdom and your
experience and your advice
that you have developed by being a
part of this industry and trying to help
laundromat owners succeed
and that is exactly what i love about
you
and what you’re doing and that’s what
we’re all about here so thank you for
coming on man i really really appreciate
it hey jordan
i appreciate you having me um you know
what you do
is uh you’re doing god’s work on helping
helping people
uh you know in the in this industry as
well so uh
keep it up thanks man i appreciate that
we’ll talk to you again soon
and again if you are interested
in uh in checking out starchup go to
their website
and you know like nick said if you just
mentioned the the podcast here a lot of
my resource podcast
um you’ll get access to that booklet and
10
discount that is that’s money in the
bank right there for you look at that
all right man well thanks again and we
will talk to you soon all right man
appreciate it i i mean i hate to say it
but i told you so
i told you nick really brought a ton
of really valuable uh perspective and
insight and wisdom
for experienced owners for new owners
for those who are interested
and or doing uh pick up and delivery and
for those who
don’t even have any interest in that he
just brought a ton of value
i was blown away and from now on if
anybody
ever wants to come on this podcast who
does not own a laundromat
and who has something to sell i’m gonna
make them listen to nick first because
he really
set the bar super high so thank you
again nick for doing that
man i hope you guys pulled a lot out of
that i would love to hear
you know one thing that you got out of
this
that you’re gonna implement you know
every week i think you need to take at
least
one thing to take some action on
so if you’re on youtube leave a comment
down below tell me the one thing from
this episode that you are going to do
to implement from this podcast episode
to help you grow your business or
yourself personally
and if you are listening on the podcast
you know head over to laundromat
resource.com
show 15 leave a comment over there and
tell me one thing that you’re gonna do
to implement uh from this podcast
episode to help you grow your business
or and or yourself because i think that
that action step is so important don’t
get caught up
into hearing these awesome guests into
learning so much
but not doing anything with it we want
to develop the habit of learning and
then
doing all right so thank you again for
listening
to the laundromat resource podcast this
is jordan
show number 15. we will see you again
next week
with some more great great content for
you to help you grow yourself
and to help you grow your business and
find financial three freedom
through laundromat ownership alright
guys we’ll see you next week
[Music]
peace
[Music]
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