The King of Pick-up and Delivery, Rick Rome, holds nothing back in this information packed show. Rick found a unique path in the laundromat industry, one that led him to eventually close down his laundromat to the public. His store focuses solely on pick-up and delivery, and he does a TON of it!

In this show, Rick shares why he changed his business model and what that experience was like. He talks about how other laundromat owners in the area responded to his decision to close to the public. Rick also shares some of the struggles he has had along the way to building a massive pick-up and delivery business.

You can’t miss this episode! Rick shares the secret sauce to getting ahead in today’s laundromat business and where the industry is going. He also has surprising advice for anyone looking to get into the laundromat business in today’s Pro Tips!

Finally, Rick talks briefly about his POS system that helps him manage such a large business. It also helps many other laundromat owners run their businesses as well. Wash Club Trak can help you run your business, as well! See the link below for more information.

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

Jump To These Show Segments

Interview Starts: 10:24

Down To Business: 48:05

Secret Sauce: 1:05:01

Pro Tips: 1:12:04

Recommended Resources: 1:17:30

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    Episode Transcript

    hey guys this is jordan here and i’m
    happy that you’re here listening
    but i wanted to give you a warning today
    just in case i know some of you listen
    with little ones
    in the car with you but there is
    a little bit of language in this episode
    and i wanted to just warn you ahead of
    time and just in case you have little
    ones in the car
    that you didn’t want to hear that
    language it’s not too much but there are
    a couple of
    words that are used in this episode in
    particular
    uh that you may not want your little
    ones to hear
    so plan accordingly all right let’s get
    into it
    all right what’s up guys this is jordan
    from the laundromat
    resource podcast this is show number 18
    and i’m so excited for today because
    today we have
    the king of pickup and delivery service
    rick
    rome on the show today and this
    interview is jam packed full of wisdom
    so if you’re at all interested in the
    pick up and delivery side
    or if you’re interested in the future of
    the industry
    or you know what if you are just
    interested in laundromats in general he
    is dropping wisdom
    all throughout this entire uh entire
    interview
    uh this is definitely an instant classic
    and you are not going to want to miss it
    that’s for sure so we’re going to get
    into that in a second but i wanted to
    welcome
    all the new members over at the
    laundromat resource dot com
    uh and uh you know if you’re interested
    in joining it’s free
    laundromat resource dot com slash join
    i’ll put the
    um the link down in the description
    uh uh and in the show notes so if you’re
    interested uh go ahead and click on that
    and uh in fact all the show notes will
    be there um show notes for today
    are at laundromat resource dot com slash
    show 18 so check that out
    okay um man i want to say uh
    particular welcome to a couple of
    members over
    from the new member introductions forum
    at laundromat resource.com
    forums uh so big big welcome
    to paul mccary uh who’s with cci
    and a card system so go network
    network with him he is uh excited to get
    to know you
    and see if you can help your business
    out and also
    big welcome and to brian
    rumi brian i apologize i know that i’m
    butchering your name there’s just so
    many vowels r
    h e a u m e
    room uh you know what brian welcome
    but you’re gonna have to book a coaching
    call just so i can learn to say your
    name
    uh but anyways welcome thanks for
    introducing yours
    yourself if you haven’t yet go over to
    laundromat resource.com
    forums and go introduce yourself in the
    new member introductions forum
    uh start getting to know some people and
    again i say it all the time but together
    we are better off and that’s a great way
    to start to get to know people or to get
    to know more people in this industry
    to help you grow and help your business
    grow that’s what we’re all about so
    um go join and go introduce yourself in
    those forums and then go welcome someone
    else who’s already introduced themselves
    uh yeah super pumped speaking of forums
    stanley over on the forum had a question
    i wanted to
    highlight today because it’s a doozy
    and i get it all the time i’m sure a lot
    of you guys
    have heard this um but he wants to know
    stanley wants to know is there really
    such a thing
    as free laundromats
    now i know that this is a very
    controversial topic i know that
    this topic probably interests more
    people in this industry than anyone else
    and some people are just very
    opinionated on it so i thought i’d throw
    it out there because
    that conversation is waiting to be had
    over on the forums
    laundromat resource.com forums uh go
    let stanley know what you think about
    free laundromats is it possible
    is it not possible is it a gimmick is it
    legit
    uh you’ve probably seen some of the
    youtube videos out there on it
    and uh yeah go go have a conversation
    about it because i think that’s a topic
    worth discussing
    so go help stanley out and uh
    yeah i’ll say it all the time again but
    head over to the forums
    while you’re listening to this or when
    you get home or whatever
    and go ask a question go answer a
    question
    and start engaging in that community the
    forums are uh
    just they’re hot right now lots of
    people on there
    interacting with one another so go be a
    part of that
    um man i’m i just i think i’m done for
    now uh
    i am excited to get rick on
    the show here and to let you hear this
    interview
    and all the crazy things he has to say
    and we’re gonna get to it right after
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    [Music]
    all right without further ado let’s
    bring in the king of
    laundry pickup and delivery rick romer
    all right rick how is it going man
    thanks for coming on today
    yeah hey barry it’s my pleasure and i
    really appreciate uh you spending some
    time with me
    yeah no fantastic likewise i’m really
    excited about it and i know you’re an
    awesome guy and you got a lot of wisdom
    behind you and i can’t wait to hear it
    but also i’m sure you got a lot of
    stories but before we get into all of
    that
    tell us about who you are and give us a
    little background on
    on on youtube absolutely no problem so
    uh you know i started wash club
    uh new york city about 11 years ago now
    um what i quickly learned is that
    there’s
    very very limited um
    uh what’s right here um customer loyalty
    when it comes to the self-serve business
    that type of customer is very
    financially dependent on
    on lower pricing um and what i
    didn’t like was the fact that i’m doing
    all these things to keep these customers
    but if someone was a nickel less across
    the street
    um they would go there and if i was a
    nickel less than them they’d come back
    so i didn’t like the fact that there was
    limited customer loyalty
    so i tried to figure out a way to
    increase
    uh customer loyalty uh and basically
    that’s where pickup and delivery came in
    and uh you know i’ve started with myself
    and my honda crv and and two other
    employees
    uh about nine years ago doing pickup and
    delivery and
    fast forward today i’m at 24 trucks 60
    employees
    process close to 25 000 pounds a day in
    laundry
    oh my goodness oh my god well i want to
    get into all of that but
    let’s just back up for a second how in
    the world did you get into the laundry
    business i get asked this all the time
    people are like so random how’d you get
    in
    yeah well after i was a wall street guy
    for many years
    the institutional market maker at morgan
    stanley and when i
    retired from the what we call you know
    wall street of the street
    um i was looking for things to get
    involved with and um
    one thing that i did it was hard money
    loans
    and when i was doing hard money loans i
    i believed in the philosophy of sort of
    say being on the street to get the deal
    i call it street businesses and one i
    constantly saw
    all the time that looked pretty good was
    laundry
    right um so when push came to shove
    in uh 09 when uh the world was the first
    time the world was coming to an end
    uh during a financial crisis yeah
    especially on wall street there
    yeah right um i jumped on the
    opportunity
    i jumped on the opportunity and um
    long story short uh people were yield
    hungry
    this had a good return it was consistent
    it was real uh
    reliable and that’s how i got into it
    but
    you know i worked 191 days in a row no
    less than 15 hours a day
    learning the business uh about fixing
    equipment
    and dealing with the customers and all
    those things and
    um it was a challenge for sure no doubt
    uh but the one thing like i alluded to
    in the beginning
    is that i i didn’t like the residual
    portion of the i like residuals i just
    didn’t like that this was a
    um like an annuity right
    basically yeah i would raise my prices
    and if you know electricity and gas went
    higher labor costs went higher which
    they all have
    it would kind of wipe out any sort of
    skate games there there was no organic
    growth
    so i wanted to start to you know you
    never want to buy the nicest house in in
    the shittiest area you want to buy the
    shittiest house in the nicest area yeah
    right because that’s how you build
    equity
    and um that’s what i set out to do in
    the pickup in
    in the delivery and uh sorry about that
    i had a call come in
    and um
    yeah that’s that’s that’s what that’s
    what got me going on pickup and delivery
    yeah i i mean kudos to you for having
    that
    site to you know see a business that
    is a solid business and and then going
    after it
    and i see a lot you know i’ve been doing
    you know interviewing
    different owners uh both here on the
    podcast but also just i’ve been talking
    a lot through coaching and
    just through networking and stuff and
    i’m seeing a lot of common themes of the
    the people who seem to be finding a lot
    of success
    extraordinary success in the industry
    who early on
    put in those long hard hours to really
    learn the business and build that
    business up
    and you know you’re no exception sounds
    like so
    well i’ll tell you a quick story my
    mentor in this business his name is
    david amarendo and he’s a blind man
    and he’s been in the laundry brokerage
    laundry business for
    a while i i might be short when i say
    30 40 35 plus years it could be 45
    frankly
    and basically i used to you know
    complain to him saying like i can’t get
    above this
    i know i’m always stuck here what do i
    got to do yeah what i got to do and then
    i started doing pick-up and delivery and
    that started to grow a bit
    and then it started to plateau again the
    same thing after six months and
    and i complained to him and finally he
    just kind of smacked me in the head and
    said
    listen man i’m blind and look what i’ve
    done
    you can see what you’re doing so you
    just stay the course
    and keep chopping wood and chopped wood
    and
    you’ll see the fruits from your heart
    efforts yeah and he nailed it i mean
    i every about six months i hit a plateau
    i get just i get disgruntled i get angry
    like
    why um and then for whatever reasons i
    figure some things out
    i do something a little bit better or
    combination of the both
    and um i go up to that next that leg up
    again
    excellent um which is which is which is
    obviously great so
    i’d say to everybody don’t be
    disgruntled
    uh too much um you know you’re gonna get
    a lot of no’s in this world
    a lot more of those than you do yeses
    yeah
    yeah absolutely and you know sometimes
    we all need a good slap in the head
    to you know to get us moving again so
    you know it’s awesome to have somebody
    uh you know to do that for you for sure
    for sure and the fact that uh he’s
    impaired
    uh even had that better of a value to me
    stronger value to me which is like come
    on man look what this guy’s doing it’s
    incredible
    and and you can do better and he told me
    i could do better
    and uh he was right and uh i thank him
    to this day
    i call him all the time um he’s
    he’s a bit sick right now so i hope he
    makes it through it but uh
    other than that uh he’s been phenomenal
    and
    yes i’m very fortunate but you know what
    great guys like you these podcasts
    they’re totally helpful
    uh so thank you really thank you for
    this sort of stuff
    hey appreciate it appreciate it and
    thanks for coming on again uh but
    hey before you know we get too far down
    that alley just
    patting each other’s backs um you know
    one of the things that you said which i
    think is
    so true and it’s one of the things that
    i love and i hate about laundromats is
    that
    it’s you know there is a
    cap at some point to the amount of
    business you can do with a self-serve
    laundromat and that makes it you know it
    that can make it a solid and consistent
    business
    but if you’re ambitious and you want to
    grow
    you know your only options are to either
    go buy more or find another way
    to utilize the assets that you have with
    your business
    in order to grow to new and higher
    levels and expand
    your influence there it is it is
    definitely a capex heavy business
    if you’re going to go the route of what
    what we commonly call a roll-up strategy
    right so you know i i had the choice
    i still have the choice uh to either
    invest in laundries
    or invest in my in my business uh which
    is now pickup and delivery
    um we were speaking prior to starting
    i don’t have self-service anymore i
    don’t allow people in
    my laundries to do self-service work um
    i chose that
    because it became a tipping point where
    either you’re gonna
    mess up your your customers pick up and
    delivery orders
    because the self-serve customer is
    either leaving their laundry in there
    for 10 hours
    and you need the equipment or they grab
    the wrong card and
    things get mixed up and you know blah
    blah blah right all these things that
    can happen so
    i made a uh i made a business decision
    executive decision back uh
    so i’ve been five six years now um to
    not allow any self-service in my
    launches
    and it’s been tremendous um
    and it was the right thing uh for me to
    do
    yeah it i want to talk all about that
    because that’s
    craziness uh for one you know people
    people don’t
    think you know i’m just gonna close you
    know my
    business essentially i mean that’s like
    what you got into right you got into the
    self-service laundry
    industry and it’s completely morphed
    into something
    different and and closed down that part
    of your business so that’s
    that’s pretty crazy can you can you talk
    to me about
    you know i i mean i can see right away a
    ton of perks
    of doing that because any time you’re
    working with the public anytime you’re
    working with people
    uh you know and they’re coming in
    they’re using your stuff i mean they’re
    abusing your stuff
    you know you’re gonna have vandalism
    you’re gonna i mean just
    it’s a rental car right what do we do
    with a rental car we beat the heck out
    of it we drive it like a ferrari
    yeah and uh i take it out of the fields
    do donuts and you know
    it’s a chevy malibu you know and you’re
    revving the damn thing
    up doing peel outs and whatnot and who
    knows and because
    you don’t own it and it’s a rental
    that’s what it’s for right at the end of
    the day
    yeah so yes i mean i will tell you
    the i’ll tell you the cons let’s start
    with the cons right what did i lose out
    on i lost out on
    face-to-face interaction pressing palms
    with
    people um which i think has a a big
    to do um you know you can diffuse
    customer service issues
    quicker because you are face to face
    with somebody versus
    uh on online type of thing no doubt
    um those are and obviously you know
    having the cash in hand uh is always
    you know is always great not enough to
    pay credit card fees
    um and things like that um but
    the pros i mean they totally outweigh
    in my opinion the cons right so
    you know the same way you don’t have to
    when you’re doing customer service you
    know you know hold on let me
    go back one second following the trend
    of
    what’s happening in society in culture
    is is critical
    right so you know the same way we used
    to have a telephone that was hardwired
    um and and what you know commonly
    referred to as a landline or
    it no longer exists right um
    people walk around with computers in
    their in in
    that in their hands that can take
    pictures and call
    indonesia and um do all sorts of movies
    and all you know all sorts of
    gaming things whatever and this little
    contraption called a cell phone
    right our smartphone um so what i’m
    getting is that
    societal norms and cultural norms in
    terms of
    shopping and living have completely
    changed
    right i know everyone wants to get
    dollars
    or quarters uh all the time right but
    the reality is is more and more
    consumers
    we’re becoming more of a cashless
    society
    for a number of reasons right because
    it’s it’s safer it’s easier
    um it reduces disease right risk of
    spreading things right all those things
    um
    are are all there so the truth be told
    is
    you you need to follow all the trends
    that are happening not just the fact
    that more and more people use credit
    cards to buy
    things but also more and more people go
    online
    to figure things out um they
    don’t necessarily you can they’re okay
    with communicating via email
    or text messaging is huge right i mean i
    not to say like oh wow what an epiphany
    text messaging is huge i get it
    but the point of the matter is is i’ll
    tell you i used to laugh
    when i would read people would send you
    an email and it would you know instead
    of writing out
    p-l-e-a-s-e or
    t-h-a-n-k-space y-o-u right
    now it’s pls and it’s thk and it’s all
    things
    and guess what i am guilty yeah i am
    totally guilty of that
    and i used to laugh at those we’ll call
    them young
    you know younger folks well what i’m
    hearing is you’re turning into a
    pre-teen
    girl yeah from like the 90s
    yeah maybe yeah maybe but those are the
    those are the consumers
    yeah those are the that’s where the
    consumer is so totally you know you you
    you have to be
    omni channel is is really boiled downs
    right because
    some people don’t ever want to see your
    face
    some people only want to see your face
    um
    some people it’s a hybrid yeah right
    some people will call you some people
    text you some people
    email you most people will use an app
    right
    so if you’re not omni channel and what
    your business offerings are
    i’m not saying you’re going to go out of
    business but what i will say is that
    you’re
    you’re missing out on a lot of business
    opportunities
    and that is worse to me
    than anything else right missed business
    opportunities
    is is my biggest pet peeve yeah right
    it it drives me bonkers
    at at the nth degree so i don’t ever
    want to be in a position where
    i can’t handle you know joanna the the
    22 year old recent college grad
    to fill up the uh 35 year old
    bachelor or mrs mrs
    regina who’s 82 years old and only
    knows how to use a telephone and has no
    idea how to order online
    right so they’re all good customers they
    all pay
    um they all just need different um they
    all have different needs of
    communication
    and as a full suite business
    and you want to be a growing business
    right you need to be able to communicate
    in all those languages
    plain and simple yep i love that and and
    what i love is uh
    our our you know i’m i’m just i’m
    getting really excited just hearing you
    talk because
    our industry is notorious
    for not adapting for not changing for
    not following the trends you know we
    are a get in your rut and stay there
    kind of industry and that’s changing a
    little bit there’s more and more people
    i think
    like you who are starting to think a
    little bit differently about the
    industry
    and part of that is right now especially
    you know
    life is just forcing us to think a
    little bit differently
    which i think is good for our industry
    but i love what you’re talking about
    because
    it’s you know it’s all about change
    which when you can’t change anymore
    uh your business when you can’t grow
    when you can’t adapt when you can’t
    you know start texting like a teenage
    girl
    uh you know as a as a man you know like
    yeah when you can’t communicate in
    different ways when you can’t offer
    different things you you stop growing
    and
    you start the process of dying and i’ve
    seen that
    not just in our industry but i’ve seen
    that all over the place
    many all absolutely it’s men used to
    only
    shake hands now men can hug each other
    right yeah
    well not now well right but yeah
    but right all i’m getting is that
    culturally speaking
    things change and if you want to be
    a in my opinion a better well-rounded
    individual
    i’m not saying you got to love hugging
    somebody
    but if you you know if that’s your thing
    um or that’s their thing
    it’s not it is what it is right yeah
    so at the end of the day i think that
    the the wider your eyes are
    about all the different um languages
    communication languages i call them that
    you can communicate with
    um i definitely agree the more
    successful you will be
    and uh the the the more you’ll grow
    as a business uh
    point point blank yeah well i love that
    i mean i think you’re
    you’re dead on your spot on and i think
    that those of us listening to you right
    now need to
    you know learn that lesson and continue
    to learn that lesson because it’s a
    continual
    learning of that lesson well let me know
    i mean right you’re not i’m not the most
    religious guy in the world but i never
    frown
    upon anybody else’s beliefs or
    disbeliefs
    uh towards using religion as an example
    right i mean i think michael jordan was
    the best basketball player
    ever to play the game somebody in
    cleveland might say you’re full of it
    lebron james is right or los angeles now
    might say that right
    but you know and i would never say oh
    you’re but yeah it’s okay
    there’s definitely another one and you
    know the the
    reality is they’re all awesome yeah and
    they’re all a privilege to watch
    and joyful to watch um but they all have
    their different
    ways of getting there totally that’s all
    and that they’re all acceptable in my
    book
    yeah totally and i love that let me take
    you back
    uh to okay you have a self-serve
    laundry at some point yeah in time and
    you’re starting your pickup and delivery
    service because you’re wanting to grow
    and you want to expand tell me a little
    bit about that experience how did you
    start that how what was that like when
    you first started did things just take
    off was it slow going
    you know just tell me a little bit about
    that experience sure sure
    so i i had one of the largest laundries
    in brooklyn uh it’s about 6 500 square
    feet
    parking for 13 cars which may seem like
    nothing where everyone else lives but
    in new york city new york um i could get
    600 i could get 600
    a month per each parking spot if i
    wanted to
    right so that should just give you a
    small idea of the value of that
    yeah um so that was uh that was that and
    i was doing about 45 000 a month in coin
    right self-serve business so it wasn’t
    like i wasn’t making
    you know pretty good money i mean it was
    that’s a lot of money that’s a lot in my
    beliefs it is to me
    yeah so um what i got what i got
    sort of say i moved to a neighborhood in
    brooklyn that was
    up and coming and they were just
    starting to build um
    you know luxury residential buildings
    and
    you know what i felt that a lot of these
    people were
    service starved and i said you know what
    i start here every day
    i finish here every day why not go to a
    couple of the dormant buildings and say
    hey
    this is my card or this is my business
    you know if anyone wants laundry or in
    this i was doing dry cleaning i do dry
    cleaning as well
    you know here’s no here’s the phone
    number there was no
    there was no website yet um
    there’s there was a website i think but
    maybe no shopping cart
    if i recall correctly so definitely no
    text messaging
    so um i i i did that and
    and after about three four five months
    it started it was it was growing okay
    you got to think of laundry
    laundry’s cut is not you know when when
    it came out they called it was on demand
    right when people say on demand what
    does really on demand mean
    right on demand to some people mean i
    want to
    i want you to come now right or maybe
    it’s i want to be able to order now
    maybe it’s a combination of the two but
    at the end of the day
    laundry and dry cleaning is not an
    on-demand true on-demand product like
    let’s say
    eating or transportation right
    so we eat three four times a day right
    your stomach
    says oh i’m hungry um feed me so i can
    stop
    grumbling right and and the food comes
    within an hour or whatever right
    uh you’re you’re at work and you need to
    catch a flight to the you know you’re
    like you got to catch a flight in a few
    hours so
    you get a car to pick you up and take
    you to the airport right so
    there’s instant satisfaction or
    gratification you need
    laundry is similar to like food shopping
    right you open your refrigerator and you
    know what there’s there’s there’s a loaf
    of bread there’s a
    there’s some butter and there’s some
    water okay
    and and you go on and and and yeah it’s
    not
    the best meal but at the end of the day
    you can survive because the only
    available pickup
    or drop-off i should say for the food
    supermarket was tomorrow
    so yeah okay i can survive i’ll eat this
    and i’ll get the food tomorrow
    laundry’s similar right we got a
    thousand pairs of socks a thousand pairs
    of underwear
    thousand pairs of jeans and t-shirts and
    you you have enough to last you
    weeks generally speaking right without
    having to do it
    like that now there are consumers
    who need instant gratification i get it
    okay and frankly those who want that
    instant gratification
    should pay a premium for that meaning
    same-day service
    right i have no problems doing that if
    not here’s the regular price
    done so laundry is not in my book a true
    on-demand product whatsoever
    and i i think it’s more about service
    and convenience
    at the end of the day pick up and
    delivery that is
    so um i started to grow the business
    and i hit a certain level and i still
    i was stuck there for months months
    and i was pulling my hair out i was like
    i don’t understand i went from
    you know zero to 50 in no time
    and now i’ve been at 50 for three four
    months and i’m like what the heck is
    going on
    right and i think that every
    business every everything in life has a
    cycle or has a as a
    has a um what’s the right way
    uh you have to cool down right because
    if you’re running your car
    at 85 miles per hour yeah it’ll last the
    first you know
    you know 30 40 days let’s say but after
    the 40 50 days
    you’re starting to notice that things
    start to break down philosophically
    speaking a business is no different
    right
    you may say well well what would break
    down if people are ordering well maybe
    it’s the person who’s taking the order
    or maybe it’s the van that’s going to
    pick up the laundry
    or maybe it’s the internet in that guy’s
    house is not good or
    in your business it’s not it’s slow for
    whatever reasons
    um i mean i had a sinkhole actually
    i had a sinkhole it was the largest
    sinkhole ever recorded in new york city
    it happened literally across the street
    from my facility
    it closed the street down for two years
    oh my gosh so imagine if i had an
    account on
    walk-in business i’ve been out of
    business yeah
    right and what was nice is since the
    street was closed
    i had ample parking for my trucks
    so it was made it even better so
    you know through the you know through
    adversity comes success
    and being able to be quickly and and
    fine-tune
    and navigate those channels and see
    those channels
    um and take a risk on what you’re what
    you believe to be the case
    right since we’re all entrepreneurs um
    you know you got to seize that moment
    and and and that’s what i did that’s
    what i did
    and i think i don’t um i think you know
    the amazons of the world frankly right
    because
    amazon my biggest problem from a pickup
    and delivery perspective
    was the fact that people couldn’t
    believe they could order their laundry
    online the same way they can order a
    pizza
    yeah right they just couldn’t believe it
    so
    when when this all started to come and
    remind you this was
    eight years ago things started to
    articulate go up
    up and then boom right now you have apps
    and everything is done online
    and uh people hardly want to talk to you
    i mean
    older people yes but younger kids no
    yeah they just want their stuff they’re
    busy doing their work or chasing boys
    and girls yeah exactly what do i know
    and um i always laugh because i do a lot
    of
    i do handle customer service i enjoy
    that to a certain degree
    oops and um i always laugh when
    someone says you know for i get
    recognized
    at times and they’re like rick the owner
    and and and i’m like yeah that’s me
    they’re like yeah sure
    rick rick the owner of washcloth is
    answering the customer service lines
    that’s a total joke and it’s like uh no
    no it’s not a trouble i do do that i
    drive truck you know this is how i do
    quality control
    checks right to see what’s going on um
    so those are some of the things
    that you should understand and that it
    it isn’t like a fire hydrant where you
    just turn it on and it just comes out
    like crazy
    all right it takes time just like
    anything else yeah you got to put effort
    and you’re going to have setbacks and
    the question is do you do you brush
    yourself
    up off and get back up and and get on
    that horse
    or you just stay down and and take your
    ball and go home
    right i don’t take my ball and go home
    i’m very very competitive
    highly highly competitive um can’t stand
    losing
    and uh i i i fight tooth and nail for
    every inch i get
    that’s awesome i mean i see that
    mentality
    throughout you know the successful
    people i’ve talked with also
    that streak kind of runs through it’s a
    thread that that
    goes through all of you know everybody
    so that’s something that
    you know if you don’t have that you need
    to develop it because that
    is i think one of the big keys to
    success not just in this industry but
    in general i think well our
    collaboration too i mean listen
    i wasn’t a lot of people say well that
    type of guy or that type of mentality
    doesn’t play nice in the sandbox
    and i agree that that used to be uh very
    common
    but now you you it’s it’s collaborative
    thinking
    right i mean you have to understand that
    there are people
    from all over the world all over the
    country coming in and out
    uh doing different things and and with
    with this
    you know with the power of the internet
    you can you touch
    you can touch them all right in theory
    you can touch them all now obviously i
    can’t service someone
    who came from japan and is in los
    angeles
    but maybe they’re going to come to new
    york or maybe next trip they’re going to
    come to new york and they found
    us some way and boom right or maybe they
    stayed in a hotel that we service a lot
    of their guests for
    and and boom right so yeah it goes back
    to that omni channel stuff and
    being able to offer um
    all those different channels to
    communicate with people yeah i
    i mean i think that’s awesome and i love
    love love that
    so uh in those early days i mean were
    you
    how are you getting the word out were
    you
    uh you know doing it man were you taking
    flyers around were you taking out ads in
    the newspaper were you
    you know what were you doing yeah back
    in the early days it was a lot of flyers
    definitely um i used to pay my my
    drivers
    any any employee that got us
    a customer pick up and delivery customer
    which is really the drivers
    uh would earn a 20 referral bonus
    oh that’s for each one right so when
    they would
    you know in new york where i don’t know
    if the right word is fortunate or
    unfortunate
    but there’s many uh six seven-story
    buildings
    so if someone was up on the fifth floor
    of the walk-up and they had to go up
    there to get
    the laundry well on the way up the
    flights of stairs
    they would shove a flyer under every
    door yeah
    right so you know flyers aren’t the best
    uh they hit you know less than one
    percent but it’s
    it’s a you know you can buy 10 000 of
    them for i don’t know 500 bucks or
    whatever it is
    so you know it’s just a numbers game
    yeah at the end of the day so
    those are things i’m i’m a i used to own
    some billboards
    so i believed in what’s called out of
    home media um
    but primarily digital media
    uh what is what i do now only
    uh back then i have branded trucks
    um word of mouth you know i was not
    shy to promote self-promote um
    i i used to have my kids uh they were
    back then were in first grade i had them
    um i have these t-shirts they say
    on the back that say smell me right
    so and it says you know watch club
    laundry or whatever and people
    exactly got a good kick that’s pretty
    funny i like that
    so uh you know we we did i gave out
    t-shirts and things like that
    um um you know i have one other one that
    says give the gift of time
    give laundry something like this um
    so those the traditional
    advertising means is how i got going um
    and what was nice is that my drop off
    customers from my laundry
    man i don’t know how many of them said
    they’re so proud to know me
    because they saw when i started and they
    saw how hard i worked and i was there
    every day and i remembered their names
    and always made them feel welcome
    all those good things and those people
    were great mouthpieces for me
    whether i knew it or not oh a friend i
    told you i’d ask someone how did you
    hear about it so a friend
    told me right or i saw your truck
    driving around
    or or trucks now um driving around right
    so
    um all those things are good but if if i
    was to start
    today 000 digital media
    all the way you can forget about flyers
    you could forget about
    um billboards forget about radio
    newspaper i don’t think it exists it’s
    like a fax machine
    um i would not touch any of those now
    somewhere in um you know in the heart of
    tennessee let’s say
    where you know half the population
    has spotty internet okay maybe
    um doing something with the pta or the
    school
    uh or a church organization or a
    religious organization
    something like that where you do a
    fundraising
    one that i love is um i did once
    a local craft show i got a booth at the
    local craft show you know i didn’t have
    any crafts to sell
    i i got a booth but everybody there was
    local
    yeah and everyone’s got dirty underwear
    totally right so
    that one worked out pretty good you know
    350 bucks for a booth i think it was and
    i probably end up getting like 20 25 uh
    customers out of it which is pretty
    awesome yeah that’s awesome
    that was pretty good so um yeah those
    are some of the things that i
    did then and and and you know i didn’t
    mention everything i do now but
    uh from a marketing perspective but i
    again slow and steady wins the race
    you know try and keep your chin up
    you’re gonna you’re gonna come across
    plenty of setbacks and that’s what’s
    nice you know like like i said i get a
    lot of calls from people all over the
    place
    and at the end of the day i have 10
    years of experience
    about pickup and delivery and i built
    well
    we didn’t get into it yet i guess but i
    have built software pos pickup and
    delivery software that’ll allow you to
    scale
    and that software is a direct reflection
    of all the
    failures frankly i had
    and then i took those failures and i
    made them iron clad
    so when let’s say you start tomorrow
    you’re not starting like i did 10 years
    ago you’re starting
    in today’s time and in today’s world
    yeah
    yeah so i love that and you know i want
    to get into your
    your pos system here in a second um but
    you know just another thing i don’t know
    i’m just
    i’m listening to you talk and i’m just
    seeing the things
    in you that have got you the point that
    you’re at and i just i love your
    creativity
    in your marketing in the way that you’re
    drumming up business
    you know you’re you just off the top of
    your head i was just writing them down
    and you just you listed off like
    12 different things that you did to
    advertise to
    drum up business you know in those early
    days and
    you know now you know and most of them
    failed by the way
    most of them failed right i mean
    that’s advertising it’s it’s it’s trying
    to pull that rabbit out of the hat and
    it’s like is it in there well i know
    what’s in there but when’s it coming out
    so
    it’s your best you have to advertise
    guys it’s so i mean yeah we all drink
    coca-cola but what do you
    do did they stop advertising no they got
    a multi-billion dollar budget
    even though everyone in the world knows
    coca-cola it doesn’t matter
    you have to advertise at least i
    strongly strongly recommend
    you do it and if you don’t do it and
    you’re successful
    god bless you yeah hey good for you
    gamble and it paid off yeah it is a
    gamble if you don’t you
    i mean that’s the reality of it i agree
    yeah so are you doing like google ads
    facebook ads what do you
    what do you do yeah i do from a digital
    perspective
    my biggest spend is uh
    search and email marketing
    and oh nice i am implementing
    some uh ai automation into the software
    um and i’ll get into that in a second
    text messaging
    um i’m not a facebook
    i haven’t mastered facebook in terms of
    advertising
    i think in my opinion facebook is uh
    it’s a phenomenon for sure but when
    you’re doing laundry you need to be
    super hyper local
    and facebook is not it it can be
    hyper local but the problem is is that
    it reduces
    your your number and it’s purely a
    numbers game so from a branding
    perspective
    for me to advertise it’s just i’m just
    going to use new york for me to
    advertise new york
    you know the cpm right cost per thousand
    on
    uh advertising with facebook is cheap
    it’s
    you know one two three cents tops per
    thousand
    impressions right so i’ll spend 100
    bucks a month
    purely on branding right just on
    facebook yeah that’s just
    just you know people it’ll follow you
    around it’ll cook you and follow you
    around
    and and things like that and you know in
    i don’t i don’t see many people on
    facebook being in the right
    mind at the right you know in the set of
    oh i’m looking to do laundry right now
    right
    as opposed to search it’s very you go to
    search because you want to do that
    then right so search is really important
    but here’s how i view it
    advertising it’s a basket right you need
    to you need a diversity of different
    avenues to reach different people so
    you go to work and you’re talking
    sorry you’re going to work and you go
    to um the water cooler
    and you’re talking to your buddy and
    you’re like yeah i got a hot i got a hot
    date tonight with tiffany and
    uh but god damn i got so much laundry to
    do i don’t have anything to wear
    right or i have it tomorrow night with
    tiffany or whatever
    and uh your buddy joe says oh
    check out wash club right so joe goes on
    to wash club
    you know he’s at work he’s like checks
    out he says oh that’s cool and then his
    boss calls him in and for whatever
    reason doesn’t order
    but then when he gets home or when he’s
    on his phone um
    he gets an email from us that says hey
    you didn’t
    you know you have any problems or you
    forgot to finish your order or whatever
    it is
    then he he gets the website and he goes
    on our banner ad there on the top of the
    website and says download the app for
    free
    and he likes to use the apps fine clicks
    the app
    downloads it places the order right
    so who gets the credit is it his friend
    he told him at the water cooler
    is it uh the email is it when he was
    walking home i didn’t mention it but he
    also saw the truck
    across the street from his neighbor’s
    house yeah you know
    the answer is they all get credits yeah
    it’s yes
    they all they’ll yeah yeah they all they
    all get credit so
    with that being said you have to be
    found again going back i know it’s like
    third or fourth time i said it
    you got to go back to omni channel you
    have to be found so
    when someone tells you that it’s all
    web-based it’s not all web-based
    it’s phone it’s text it’s uh it’s
    it’s uh app you know it’s huge all that
    the app is
    app is huge it saw 60 70 of my sales
    come through
    an app not a website not a website on
    your phone
    okay not a call-in but i do get people
    who order on the website i do get people
    who call in
    no doubt um
    those are some things that we do but
    another thing we’re going to do
    right and i learned this in my sales
    days in wall street
    is that your best customer are your
    existing customers
    okay because the acquisition cost is is
    obviously
    zero um pretty much so
    we we we’ve built and we’re gonna launch
    it probably in the next
    hopefully 30 days or less where
    let’s just say i hadn’t seen you in 30
    in 40 days 30 days whatever you haven’t
    ordered
    and now you’re going to get a text from
    us because we’re in your neighborhood
    and it’s going to say hey we’re going to
    be in your neighborhood
    do you want to pick up you want to pick
    up tonight press one tomorrow press two
    uh you know no thank you press three
    right so you press
    uh number one which means tonight so
    then you get another
    text from us that says do you want um
    you know press one for for wash and fold
    press two for dry cleaning press three
    for washer full and dry cleaning
    boom they press number one let’s say
    great
    that will automatically trigger our
    system
    to create an order and then you’ll get
    an email as a customer letting you know
    the first available pickup for well the
    pickup is based on the day you
    you requested and based on the products
    that you offer which is a 24-hour
    turnaround for us
    um you’ll get it back tomorrow and no
    human interaction
    zero yeah right it’s awesome
    to me is awesome yeah right that’s
    awesome so
    now i’m getting more potentially more
    out of my existing customer base
    right um i’m continuing to hammer away
    at potential new customers
    right and some of these new customers
    are people i’m going after also
    maybe they’re business owners maybe they
    work at a business that needs our
    services
    right i mean it’s it’s incredible how
    this thing uh
    facil uh what’s the right word here uh
    master size is going yeah it’s amazing
    right yeah
    anyone who knows anything about finance
    what’s the biggest most powerful thing
    you can do
    compound interest yeah right it’s the
    best thing you can do
    for any portfolio uh in in
    any time any place in the history of
    time so this is just
    other ways to do it and that’s what we
    do at wash club we
    we we offer this to our
    our customers and then we we test it we
    make it
    stronger and make it work right and then
    we we give it out to our licensees
    who can use it for those purposes
    if they choose to or not yeah man i love
    that i love
    you know just the ability and again it
    goes back to you know changing and
    adapting and growing continually
    and you know and doing that with your
    software system is you know it’s just
    going to ensure that your business
    continues to grow and not only that but
    the people who are using your
    your system what’s it called by the way
    watch club track
    tra k and it’s a full full-blown
    pos uh pickup and delivery commercial
    platform
    um billing i mean ordering
    processing facility management um
    uh all built into one one
    one place in the cloud yeah
    that’s awesome that’s awesome and you
    know at the end of the show
    you know i’ll ask you where people can
    find out more about it um
    so we’ll get there uh no problem yeah
    so i mean and you said you’re doing what
    do you do 25 000 pounds a day is that
    what you said
    yeah roughly that’s i mean it’s it’s
    it’s a bit lighter now because of covid
    yeah uh but you know it is what it is so
    half my business roughly is commercial
    and half as
    um what i call retail pick up from
    people’s homes
    yeah are are you seeing uh
    increases or decreases in in either one
    of those categories separately are they
    both
    up are they both down from colbit yeah
    right now yeah from kovid my pickup and
    delivery is through the roof
    okay by retail my commercial is uh
    just a step above the toilet yeah that’s
    what i’m hearing a lot of
    yeah you know the gyms are closed uh
    hair salons just i mean again it depends
    on where you live
    um hair salons opened up in new york
    again
    um um you know like spas and things
    opened up again
    but the gyms are closed um corporate
    gyms are closed
    all that stuff is closed right now so
    it’s a lot of it’s a bit
    that part stinks yeah a lot of
    businesses are
    you know closed or even if they’re open
    they’re down and
    you know maybe can’t afford some of this
    service so
    that’s what i’m hearing a lot of right
    now of you know residential being up and
    commercial being down
    yeah well at the end of the day it’s
    just they have to
    it’s what’s the value of your time and
    you got to get high level
    right i mean it i get it that these are
    all everyone’s baby
    i i mean it was hard for me to
    relinquish so to say authority to do
    things
    but by doing that okay
    that allows me to focus on the high you
    know high level stuff
    that really can drive additional
    revenues
    uh into your business right and it’s not
    always perfect i mean i’ve had i right
    now have
    the best general manager in the world
    wendy i love you
    um she’s the best shout out yeah wendy
    totally she’s the best um and
    she is it took me six or seven
    tries to find a gm over about a five
    year period
    and one of them one time i had a
    business partner
    at one point and i ended up buying them
    out um
    it you know she’s the best and and that
    has allowed me to focus on
    cool in in addition to the software like
    the the the automated you know the ai
    ordering yeah right um and focusing on
    uh adding other types of great stuff for
    the software so uh and going after big
    business accounts like uh amazon for
    instance right
    so i i all those things have a lot of
    all that time
    has allotted me this now other folks may
    say hey you know what i uh
    good for you rick but you know what i
    enjoy uh
    going for long walks on the beach with
    my wife i want to play golf
    uh twice a week um i only want to go to
    the laundry
    for uh three three minutes on
    on saturday uh to get my money
    um and get the time clock stamps or
    something whatever right
    so from that perspective to each their
    own um
    but i have a strong feeling that many
    many many more people
    many more uh sophisticated
    um driven individuals are getting into
    our space
    which you know i believe that high you
    know high tide
    rises raises all boats yeah right and
    i think like you said back in the time
    there’s a lot of
    uh uh
    [Music]
    lethargic uh operators
    um who think such a thing and i i have a
    friend at eastern funding
    uh who calls it the zombie mats right
    and they don’t put any love into it
    and um there is a difference i mean
    think about it do you want to wash your
    clothes in a dirty filthy laundry it’s
    like going to eat a
    filthy dirty restaurant yeah why in the
    world did you want to do that
    yeah it’s worse than that’s like cooking
    your food in a dirty filthy kitchen
    you know yes yeah totally yes
    totally and that’s how a lot of
    laundromats are still to this day i mean
    it’s changing more and more
    like you said i think more sophisticated
    people are coming into the industry
    and realizing it it can be a legitimate
    business where it’s been run i think
    traditionally more as like a mom-and-pop
    uh type thing so i well i also think
    that
    with the inventions of different
    softwares right
    you like you know a pos for instance
    right
    um or a card system in the laundry
    right whatever using you you should
    embrace technology
    right just like you should embrace uh
    marketing
    right it’s it’s an it’s a if you think
    of it as evil fine
    but it’s a necessity it’s a necessity
    it’s a necessary evil it is at the end
    of the day
    and i don’t think it is as evil i think
    as a as a
    as you know who’s my you know who my
    best salesman is
    it’s this guy named google okay
    he’s my best salesman and and and and
    he does a bang-bang job and he’s and he
    works
    24 7 365 and never complains
    yeah well you know what makes marketing
    evil is when
    you’re saying things that that aren’t
    true
    when you’re deceiving people because if
    you have a service that’s helping people
    and you want them to know about it
    there’s nothing evil about that
    right it’s when you’re taking advantage
    of people it’s when you’re not offering
    good service and you’re manipulating
    people or you’re tricking people into
    giving you money for something they’re
    not going to receive and that’s what
    makes it evil
    but it’s a tool like anything else right
    marketing is just
    a tool it’s not good or bad it’s how you
    use it
    and you know if you’re providing a great
    service
    you’re doing 25 000 pounds of laundry
    for people who otherwise
    you know wouldn’t be able to do it or
    would have to figure out a different way
    to do
    it we just don’t want to do it yeah we
    just don’t
    want to do it right i mean we all have
    we all have lawn mowers
    we all have coffee makers in our house
    but we have someone cut our grass and we
    go to starbucks for our coffee
    yeah right i mean i i i can tell you in
    new york
    we don’t order domino’s pizza well we
    don’t even have donalds i don’t think in
    new york but
    you don’t order domino’s pizza because
    it’s good you order it because it’s
    convenient
    yeah right i mean guys mcdonald’s is
    doing
    deliveries now yeah mcdonald’s
    yeah starbucks i mean that’s what i’m
    trying to explain
    guys the writing is so clear on the wall
    it’s like you have to cater to your
    customers
    needs and again i know there’s going to
    be people and be like
    well screw them i’m going to do it my
    way and this is how i want to do it
    and i don’t i don’t do it no problem
    that’s fine
    but if you’re wondering why your
    business doesn’t grow
    out you know and raising your prices is
    not a growth
    right that’s that’s that’s not that’s
    that’s incremental growth it’s not
    organic growth right
    true growth is organic meaning you get
    new customers coming
    from somewhere else and i think you said
    it earlier in the cast saying
    like you know you can you can only
    attract so many people from in a four
    block radius
    right there’s they’re not going to be
    able to build anymore there
    at the end of the day so if you think
    that the guy on the other side of town
    is going to pass
    seven laundry before he gets to yours
    and not stop at those because
    you have air conditioning or yours is
    the cleanest or you’re of the highest
    price
    or whatever it is you’re you’re
    which is yiddish for crazy okay it’s
    just not gonna happen
    so how do you get that person on the
    other side of town
    hook up and delivery and i’ll say t and
    i’ll say to you
    you better not buy another store until
    you’re looking to pick up and delivery
    okay don’t risk that much money try it
    out
    yes it has different challenges just
    like anything else
    okay but at the end of the day your roi
    will be if if you’re if you’re a winner
    right if you work hard
    if you think like oh i’m gonna just buy
    this you know it’s like buying excel
    and being like oh great now all my
    problems are solved i have excel
    yeah no right no
    you gotta you actually use it and you
    have to create these formulas
    and and at the end of the day it’s just
    a tool it’s a crotch to help you get
    stronger
    or more importantly really release time
    back
    to you so you can take that and focus on
    getting new business
    or if you want to work on your golf game
    work on your golf game
    but at the end of the day you got to be
    proactive
    you can’t sit on your hands um
    it’s just it’s it’s just not gonna work
    and it you know
    and i learned that i used to have
    numerous businesses and
    when you focus you know if you’ve got
    four businesses and you focus 25
    of your time on each one well what do
    you think is going to happen
    not much not much but when you give 100
    of your effort towards one of those
    businesses watch how much it will grow
    yeah yeah i love that and i i think
    that’s
    that’s super wise uh you know they it
    made me think how much time do you spend
    on your business
    you kind of mentioned the time a lot i
    mean
    i mean back in the day it was a lot
    uh excuse me i still spend a lot of time
    on my business
    it’s just i don’t spend so much time
    inside my
    facilities anymore because well one
    because i can do things remotely
    right here we are having an interview i
    believe you’re you’re in southern
    california i’m in new jersey
    yeah so uh you know you can do more so i
    utilize
    technology to allow me to do more
    things and windy and well
    no doubt i mean i got i got a i got a
    couple wendy’s over there
    would thank god they’re all awesome
    um but at the end of the day
    those folks allow me to
    go after those high level things and do
    interviews like this or or whatever it
    may be
    so in essence i am uh i am
    i every day every day
    uh i i i eat breathe and
    whatever else you want to say there uh
    laundry
    okay uh in my business because i i
    really enjoy it and more importantly
    i think everyone can do it i mean
    i’m not like i’m not that smart i’m not
    i’m not smart i laugh when people call
    me an expert on things i kind of laugh
    sometimes
    and i’m like are you talking to me or
    the guy behind me right now he’s looking
    over my
    shoulder um but
    this such is the reality but i’m very
    uh i’m fortunate right because i built
    something from the ground up
    i truly love and cherish it and i think
    that
    i want to spread that uh opportunity to
    everybody and
    you know i think i don’t know if he was
    your first podcast but ross dodds in los
    angeles
    is one of those guys um who
    really took my advice and and and used
    it and then when he ran into a couple
    brick walls here and there he asked me
    for support
    our advice and that’s exactly what we do
    and uh i’m proud i’m super proud of all
    my guys
    and girls frankly yeah
    i i love that i’ll link to uh i’ll link
    to jo
    to ross’s uh podcast too if you haven’t
    heard that one yet
    you have got to hear it uh because his
    story
    is insane and what i love about it is
    that he
    i mean basically worst case scenario
    when he bought his first laundromat
    and now you know if you looked at him
    now you would never know that that
    happened to him because he
    is uh he’s just killing it right now
    he’s doing awesome i went out
    a couple weeks ago to his new location
    and he’s getting ready to open up uh
    here pretty quick
    it’s amazing and it’s just gonna be
    incredible in fact we built a website
    um you know for him and in that location
    and
    it’s man it’s awesome and so yeah i
    i yeah his perseverance is amazing oh my
    gosh
    and it’s a testament to him and and what
    he’s gone through
    and how he continues to to go higher um
    and and we love all those stories we
    love all and every guy and girl
    listening or or interested you can do it
    you totally can do it you just
    you know you gotta focus and and accept
    uh problems when they arise and and and
    brush yourself off and get back up
    you know yep love that well hey we have
    a segment
    that we like to call secret sauce listen
    up it’s the secret sauce
    [Music]
    here and uh it’s basically you know
    what’s what’s one thing
    that’s working well in your business
    right now that other owners can utilize
    to help improve their business and
    specifically i guess for you
    in this uh you know this interview
    what’s what’s something that’s working
    well with your pickup and delivery that
    other owners can implement
    um
    i would say i mean
    technology is the easiest lowest hanging
    fruit
    that you guys anyone can can get
    involved with
    okay i mean
    i don’t know what else i can tell you
    about the fact that being able to
    know what you did today or what you did
    last week or what you did a year ago and
    and
    you know and a snap of a finger to help
    you pro
    forecast what you’re gonna do or what
    your goals are yeah
    um is it it’s it’s i i can’t imagine
    any i can’t imagine not doing it right
    so i’ll give you a for example
    when i built my first version of my
    software
    um it used to take us about four hours
    to write down the orders because we had
    it on a spreadsheet we write it down we
    print it
    we had to call them to remind them that
    we were coming
    a race they’re not answering this
    when we got our first version of
    software which allowed us to
    take all the orders in the dashboard
    this is about eight nine years ago
    take all the orders in the dashboard and
    basically hit the print button
    and it would come out i mean that saved
    us four hours of time
    slightly crazy yeah i mean and i know it
    wasn’t like
    i invented something that was incredible
    it was just like
    i just organized it i guess better
    whatever i don’t know how you want to
    say it but
    um those efficiencies and what you
    do with those efficiencies
    right so if you’re a golfer and you want
    to buy four more hours of golf i
    guarantee you
    you’re gonna get better at golf right i
    guarantee it so
    just like if you’re selling um
    you would you know it’s four more hours
    so to say of selling
    it gives you another opportunity yep
    right so
    i would say that’s uh that would be
    i don’t know if that’s a secret uh but
    that’s something
    uh i absolutely would tell anybody to
    get into the you know get back get into
    the 21st century
    well you know what sometimes i feel like
    in our industry that is a secret
    you know to utilize technology to
    you know run our businesses because i
    think a lot of people are just not
    utilizing
    technology in their businesses to any
    degree other than having
    a coin-operated machine in their
    laundromat so
    i do think that that’s the secret so and
    i think it’s
    i think it’s great too because again you
    know propelling towards the future
    is um you know if if you can get on that
    train
    now you know because our in our industry
    is
    slow moving and it’s slow to get there
    and so if you can get on it now which is
    still you know surprisingly it’s still
    early for us
    you know early on way
    early i mean guys it’s like being on a
    freight train right
    a freight train moves slow but
    eventually will get you to where you’re
    going
    yeah right and it can move perhaps
    faster
    if you start to um utilize it properly
    right so if you just sit in the freight
    train and wait
    you know 32 hours till you end up
    wherever you’re gonna end up
    fine so be it but as you start doing
    that more and more often you’ll learn
    that there’s other trains that might get
    you there faster or
    in this case other vehicles yeah whether
    maybe a car or a bus or a plane that
    might get you there
    much quicker jet right so it’s it’s that
    simple
    it’s really that simple so i i
    totally hope that everybody um can start
    to to do that because
    that that’s like a no-brainer
    you know and i get it guys don’t want to
    maybe report all their
    cash that they take i i get it
    but that’s their business i i i
    i don’t i don’t do that so i don’t know
    what it’s like i think it’s
    it’s silly because you’re being a
    pennywise to be a dollar foolish
    exactly exactly and i think that nailed
    it right on the head
    yeah right you’re missing so many other
    opportunities that you can be getting
    involved with
    but you don’t realize it because you’re
    you’re
    you’re you’re bogged down in that other
    garbage yeah
    yeah so yeah i kind of see it like uh
    almost like utility bills for a
    laundromat you know it’s like
    you don’t want high utility bills but
    you kind of want high utility bills
    because if you have high utility bills
    it means you’re doing a lot of laundry
    you’re doing a lot of business and
    you’re making more
    money and you know if your goal is to
    minimize utility bills well you might be
    able to do that
    but you’re going to lose out on business
    you know because you’re not doing as
    much laundry
    funny you should say that because i’ve
    always said that laundry guys
    you know i get it focus on the bottom
    line that’s important
    but if you raise the top line the bottom
    line will move up too
    yeah yeah so it’s not
    just the top line i guess and it’s not
    just the bottom line
    it’s a combination of the two but most
    laundry guys
    are so fixated on just you know
    cutting out this that or whatever and
    in essence it’s actually not it’s not a
    good idea
    yeah you can never downsize your way to
    wealth
    right you you have to increase your
    capacity
    to grow your wealth and you know that’s
    a big mindset shift for a lot of people
    i know it was for me
    um you know so we have another section
    we call pro tips pro tips
    and pro tips is directed towards new
    newbies people who are maybe looking to
    buy their first laundromat you have any
    tips for them
    uh to get them started in the right
    direction
    on the laundry business on the
    self-serve laundry business
    i would say don’t think of it as a
    passive investment
    okay you can and many do okay
    but this is a multi-multi multi-billion
    dollar industry
    and in my opinion you you got into this
    because you’re tired of working
    you know for for the boss you want to be
    your boss you’re right
    so if if if you’re thinking that
    i’m going to do this as a passive
    investment i would tell you that it’s
    probably better to buy real estate
    okay that’s what i would tell you um but
    from that perspective
    i would say you know
    be a sponge talk to people i will say
    that people here
    are super duper friendly they’re open to
    talk about
    almost at least i am uh and it seems
    like you are as well to talk about
    really anything because um
    you know we all know how to make
    hamburgers right
    but the good chefs the good barbecue
    pit masters they know exactly how much
    salt exactly how much pepper
    how much uh i don’t know how long to
    grill it on each side and so on and so
    forth right so
    you know you may take a whole handful
    and i might take two handfuls
    but the guy who knows takes it’s two
    pinches
    not the whole thing right so i would say
    the same in the laundry business
    there’s lots of competition nobody is
    your customer
    okay you don’t own any customer you can
    think you own a customer
    but at the end of the day with all the
    email lists all the text message lists
    all these different ways of finding uh
    people on lists
    they’ll end up on a list no if ands or
    doubts about it
    so what i would tell you is you know
    be there focus on that grow your
    business from that perspective
    work hard be honest okay and if you can
    do it full time
    um from the beginning not much better
    because you’ll see that improvement
    um and you’re you’re risking a nice
    chunk of change at the end of the day
    so understand that time is money also
    so make the best use of your time just
    like i tell people who wants to do
    laundry
    you know like you can give it to me and
    pay me forty dollars
    or you can do it your and it takes you
    one minute
    or you can do it yourself it’ll cost you
    20 bucks but four hours of time
    so the net net is uh 20
    in your pocket but four hours of time
    lost
    so if your time is worth five bucks an
    hour i have a broom you can push
    all day all night in any of my
    facilities yeah yeah seriously
    yeah right so know the value of your
    time and
    and and make it make it happen yep
    i love that great advice hey real quick
    i forgot to ask you this but
    it made me think of it what does it cost
    to do a pound of laundry in
    in new york sure on our software we have
    tiered pricing so it depends on where
    you live
    but um it’s ironically you would think
    it’d be
    super expensive uh because it’s new york
    city
    we probably actually have some of the
    lowest prices in the country
    um uh it ranges
    from a dollar 23 a pound to a dollar 63.
    okay yeah that is pretty low yeah you
    know
    so it’s it’s it’s just there’s so many i
    mean
    that’s the other thing i mean there’s a
    laundry in new york
    not manhattan everywhere but in the
    boroughs
    i mean there’s one i’m on 63rd
    and and 5th avenue in brooklyn and
    there’s
    between 63rd and 60th street and 5th
    avenue which is three blocks which is
    basically once around the track okay
    uh there is one two three four launders
    of course smile man plus mine oh gosh
    so five i mean i’m not a self-serve
    laundry so when i closed down the
    self-serve they were so happy with me oh
    yeah they love me
    they they were carrying me on their
    shoulders around the neighborhood yeah
    it was great
    you know thank you thank you how’d it
    get popular in the long run industry
    yeah right um so from that perspective
    um yeah what that’s that
    yeah and it makes a lot of sense too
    because there’s a lot of competition i
    think people are surprised by
    um a lot of the eleven prices a lot of
    times people in the midwest who are
    charging like two
    three times more than what we can charge
    here but there’s just a lot more
    competition so it drives that pricing
    down for sure
    well you also you guys build out we
    build
    up yeah you guys go up i know right and
    you go out
    so you know you still have some you know
    considerable travel time
    uh potentially to get to where you’re
    going and and
    it’s pretty dense i mean california is
    40 million people it’s an incredible
    economy
    i believe it’s like the fourth or fifth
    largest economy in the world
    yeah i know okay um i mean that that’s a
    pickup in delivery heaven
    california are you kidding me oh it’s a
    heaven for pick-up and delivery
    so um you know places like that and
    and listen we even have places uh we
    have
    an operator up in lehigh valley which is
    basically allentown pennsylvania
    it’s uh the poconos mountains which is
    you know about an hour and a half west
    of new york city
    there’s no train lines um and it’s you
    know
    about maybe 50 000 people spread out
    over god only knows how many miles
    um and he’s he’s one of our best
    operators actually for pickup and
    delivery
    he he kills it he kills it that’s
    awesome yeah
    yeah and that i mean that goes to show
    you can kind of do it
    anywhere too you know so who likes them
    who likes doing laundry
    nobody nobody exactly you know and those
    that hate unfolding
    yeah you know the only thing that i wish
    that that you would do and other pickup
    and delivery do is come put it away also
    after they
    wash it dry it fold it you know
    i will tell you that that has a
    liability risk out the wazoo oh yeah
    pass on that
    yeah any day believe me we
    we get people who want us to go inside
    the apartment i tell all my drivers that
    don’t you step
    a single foot inside any apartment
    that’s the last thing we need
    yeah so uh yeah yeah i hear you no that
    would be nice and
    uh yeah i just you know i i hope guys
    and girls
    read the trends and and it’s not just
    the trend in the laundry business it’s
    also the trends in
    society that’s happening you know
    realize that you use your phone
    a lot to do certain things many many
    many things it’s like
    again you’re probably much younger than
    me but when i used to go on road trips
    with my family
    you know we’d have the atlas i mean i
    could read a map right yeah thomas
    which which road do you travel i used to
    measure out how many miles it is i take
    the ruler on the map and the car
    and you know the whole nine yards i
    figured which truck stop we’re gonna
    stop at
    and all that jazz right and and and now
    shit you just get throw your your bag
    you know throw your stuff in a duffel
    bag jump
    in your car type in uh los angeles
    and it gives you their mind it gives you
    all the way there yeah all the way there
    yeah right so uh that stuff is
    is that’s that’s technology i mean
    remember mapquest
    mapquest used to go online then you
    could print it out and then that was
    your
    guide instead of having to carry that
    you know this book that’s this big
    and and and that long right and so
    it’s just natural guys it’s like a pay
    phone you see payphones
    where do you see a payphone no
    superman’s extinct man he can’t change
    clothes anymore that’s right he’s he’s
    he’s in a world of trouble
    so all those things they happen in
    right in front of you yeah they’re
    they’re happening
    every day in front of you right i mean
    when you used to get an apartment
    you know when i was just got out of i
    didn’t have internet when i was in
    college but when i first got out of
    college i had dial up
    and one of the things we would ask is do
    you have
    you know are you wired for dial-up right
    or
    or ethernet or whatever it was right and
    you know
    ten years before that it was like do you
    have a garage door opener to open the
    garage right
    you know why washing your dishes versus
    a dishwasher
    right hanging your clothes outside on
    the going full silver here
    on a clothesline versus putting it in
    the drive right
    all those inventions all those things
    save you time
    yeah and technology
    pos my pos in my opinion
    um will help you do all of those things
    what you do with that time is up to you
    love that
    what a great sales pitch and great tag
    line too you need to put that all over
    your website
    i got one more question for you before
    we wrap it up um sure
    do you have any uh you have any resource
    recommendation i mean we are a
    laundromat resource over here and we
    like putting resources in people’s hands
    you have any resource
    recommendations maybe a book
    recommendation or any other kind of
    resource that
    um that might benefit other owners
    either personally or in their business
    uh this podcast would be great number
    one look at you
    okay now i mean i’m shameless
    i love that i knew that’s why you were
    one of my favorites
    [Laughter]
    um there’s no specific
    book um i that i know of
    you know there’s some out there there’s
    some videos out there
    all that jazz um i would tell you
    the the best advice i would tell you is
    do you know do what mom and dad taught
    you say please
    say thank you um try and be kind to your
    neighbors
    um all those things and it’s not easy
    because customers you know the worst
    part of our business is customers
    oh yeah right i mean it’s the worst but
    we we all
    we we we all stand on that same ledge
    thinking about
    i hate them but we need them you know
    um so i would tell you the best thing to
    do in that regard is just
    you know always take a deep breath think
    about that they do
    serve your purposes but if they come out
    right at you like
    well i’m the customer
    know i you know i’m sorry i’ll give you
    this note i had a great
    two i had a two great customers today
    uh two different problems well yeah
    one was a customer has been me for you
    know a year or year and a half he’s
    spent
    a lot of money with me um he
    he he basically he’s an older gentleman
    he canceled or changed his delivery
    order and it was by mistake
    but he said oh i didn’t touch it i
    didn’t do it it’s the system
    and you know i kind of nodding my head
    yes yes sir
    sure sure and then i explained to him
    and then
    he got to the point where he’s like i’m
    sorry i’m a little stressed out we have
    such a great relationship
    my daughter’s sick and blah blah blah
    and in the hospital i said
    i understand don’t worry sir we’ll take
    care of our stuff you just go do what
    you got to do with your family
    right versus i had another lady first
    time customer
    spent 500 and twenty dollars
    she had 270 pounds of laundry right i
    mean
    i don’t even know how in the world you
    get to 270 pounds of laundry
    but nonetheless or something yeah maybe
    right
    nonetheless um we told you know
    she starts complaining about how we
    don’t call or how come no one
    uh told us how much it was gonna cost
    and then i said well ma’am
    we don’t know how much it costs until we
    get it back to our place to weigh it
    so how would we possibly know and we
    have over 90
    000 customers in new york city alone we
    don’t have the time to call each guy and
    girl to say hey
    your laundry weight this much do you
    want me to charge it
    we can’t do that it’s just not good for
    our business well i don’t care about
    your business
    i’m the customer blah blah blah blah i
    said okay well
    i think this will probably be the last
    time you’re going to be a customer
    and that’s fine just get your credit
    card
    updated and we’ll charge it and we’ll
    make the delivery on time if you do it
    by three o’clock today
    if not then you know we’ll wait till you
    do that right and i’m sure they’re gonna
    dispute it and all those other things
    yeah that that people do uh because
    they take it personally yeah and it’s
    not a personal attack on
    on anybody it’s just these are our rules
    this is how we do it right
    you don’t go to your favorite restaurant
    to eat dinner at three o’clock if they
    don’t open till five and then complain
    to them why are you close right yeah
    i mean my hours are five to ten not some
    people do
    yeah right but yes yes
    yes they do and it’s like what do you
    want me to do for you yeah
    so i would say uh
    those types of things happen they happen
    to everybody yeah okay
    and it’s just part of the business yeah
    well can i just say nobody has ever
    recommended as a resource to be kind
    but i love that because i mean like you
    said
    this is a people business you know the
    customers are the worst part of the
    business but i would also say the
    customers are the best part of the
    business
    because the majority of the customers at
    least that i interact with i’m in rough
    neighborhoods
    the majority of them are great people
    you know and the
    worst parts customers are yes it’s
    a few it’s a relative few and
    but i love the be kind thing because you
    know when you’re kind to people it makes
    them want to do business with you
    and that’s right great great recommended
    resource even though it’s not a
    traditional resource
    well it’s not and i’m sorry i don’t have
    that book or
    anything to point to but that’s just
    it’s just common to me to be like this
    and um
    and um and guys i’m not always this way
    believe me
    uh you can you know there’s been plenty
    of times where i
    made mistakes like before yelp became
    yelp
    i used to i wouldn’t care about it i
    could care less i’d scream at people
    and yelp started to gain popularity back
    in the day and you can see some of my
    reviews are because of it
    and it’s because of me at the end of the
    day so i need to i need to keep my uh
    my lids shut sometimes because i do take
    it personally when i shouldn’t
    take it personally yeah and the thing
    that blows my mind even
    even more is that it’s a new yorker that
    had to come out with be kind to other
    people
    wait rick you know it’s been awesome to
    have you on
    seriously incredible stuff i’ve been
    eating up every single word i know that
    people are gonna grab
    a lot of uh just a lot of wisdom from
    what you had to say and you had great
    perspectives
    um on everything that you talked about
    especially especially
    your number one resource recommendation
    of the podcast
    um that was probably the best part by
    far
    no but i seriously appreciate you coming
    on and sharing this and
    uh just you know loved everything you
    had to say
    if people want to get in contact with
    you either just to ask you about how
    you’re doing stuff or to ask you about
    your pos system
    what’s the best way they can do that uh
    they can send me an email at
    rick rick at wash
    club track w-a-s-h-c-l-u-b-t-r-a-k
    dot com uh we’re happy to talk about the
    pos
    we’re certified google adwords experts
    we’re email marketing experts
    so um you know we’re happy to help you
    guys you don’t have to use our software
    for us to do the marketing for you
    either um so
    we’re just there to build relationships
    like you’re doing now
    and uh hopefully we can um make those
    materialize into bigger better things
    that’s that’s what we’re here to do and
    everyone can do it everyone can do it
    awesome and you guys have a website for
    washcloth track
    yeah uh watch it’s washclothtrack.com
    okay
    yep and uh it’s no problem yeah and i’ll
    put the link to
    that and also the email address in the
    show notes in the description
    um so you know if you’re listening to
    this and you want to get in contact with
    rick talking about his pos system
    um or uh you know just talk to him about
    the way he’s doing business he’s doing
    some pretty cool stuff
    um yeah the the email address and the
    link
    to his website will be in the
    description show notes
    rick thank you so much again for coming
    on appreciate it thank you for having me
    i appreciate you have a great day enjoy
    the rest of your tuesday okay
    yeah thank you appreciate it you too
    take care bye-bye
    man how cool was that episode i mean
    rick just brought
    so much wisdom he brought so much
    passion he brought so much uh
    just enthusiasm for the industry and he
    just he gave a lot
    i know i learned a ton i took a lot away
    and
    i want to encourage you as i do every
    week to pick
    one thing that rick talked about and
    figure out a way to actually implement
    that
    in your existing business or in the
    process
    of uh getting your first laundromat
    wherever you’re at in this in the
    process
    go implement one thing and if you can’t
    think of anything
    hey you know what a good place to start
    would be just
    go be kind i loved that advice
    uh of his recommended resources just be
    kind to people
    i love it so go out there and be kind
    this week
    and uh man grow your business do awesome
    thrive
    and take those steps toward your
    financial freedom through laundromat
    ownership
    i am looking forward to seeing you again
    next week come hang out with us on the
    forums
    and man come be a part of what we’re
    doing all right
    we’ll talk to you next week peace
    [Music]

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