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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