Faced with bankruptcy and a clean slate, Jeffrey Sanchez buckled down to make some major changes in his life. In this show, Jeff shares his dream of leveraging laundromats to propel his financial destiny forward.
In addition to Jeff’s compelling story of his financial journey, today’s show also meets head on with the illusive hunt for the free laundromat. Jeff explains his experience and wisdom with finding free laundromats and shares what he’s learned from his boots on the ground search.
Whether you’re looking to buy your first laundromat (or get one for free!), or you’re a veteran owner, Jeff’s journey into bankruptcy and his perspective on this side it are sure to inspire you and stimulate your business creativity!
Listen To The Podcast Here
Watch The Podcast Here
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Links from the show
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- Coin Laundry Association
Connect with Jeff
Email: bluewhalewash@gmail.com
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Episode Transcript
[Music]
hey hey what’s up guys it’s
jordan with the laundromat resource
podcast this is show number 19
and i’m super pumped that you are here
today
because today is another special
episode uh we’re talking with jeff
sanchez and he’s bringing a
unique story to the podcast
uh he’s bringing a lot of unique things
to this podcast actually
uh things that we’ve never had on this
podcast and he’s sharing some raw
uh personal information in this show
personal financial information
and he he talks about how he’s trying to
use laundromats to claw his way
out of uh just a dark financial
situation that he found himself in
and so jeff again props to you for
sharing what you share on this on this
show and
uh man i’m super excited to see where
this journey takes you i’m super pumped
for you i’m super pumped for you guys
listening to this
who get to experience a little bit of it
with
him and uh man at the very
end after the interview i’m gonna share
some of my final takeaways
from this interview so make sure that
you stay tuned all the way to the end
for that um and you know if you’ve been
listening to this show at all
uh in the past you know that i’m all
about taking action
um so we’re going to talk about that a
little bit for this uh for this show
also at the end so make sure you stick
around for that
um real quick i just wanted to say a
huge thank you to you guys
uh we had our biggest podcast
download uh week that we’ve ever had
this past week
uh so thank you guys for checking out
the show hopefully you guys are finding
a ton of valuable stuff in there
for you personally and also for your
businesses
uh because that’s what we are all about
trying to provide resources
to help you guys grow uh personally and
help you grow your businesses
and to find financial freedom through
laundromat ownership
that is our goal that’s what we’re
trying to do here so hopefully it’s
helping you out
in those goals um so huge
and an extra special thank you to those
of you in atlanta georgia
all the way on the other side of the
country from
where i am but for whatever reason the
last few weeks
atlanta georgia has been showing up big
and downloading a lot of
uh episodes and listening to a lot of
them so what’s up out there in atlanta i
can’t wait to come out
that way again and uh hopefully i’ll get
to see some of you guys and maybe check
out some of your laundromats out there
that’d be awesome i would love that
so hit me up if you’re in atlanta come
say what’s up come say hi
uh in the forums or drop me an email or
whatever
speaking of forums i want to remind you
every week
get in those forums ask a question
answer a question because
that is where growth will happen for you
uh that’s where you’re gonna meet a lot
of other laundromat owners
uh help each other out get some help for
yourself so get in there
ask a question answer a question and
extra kudos to ron morris out there who
is uh man in there welcoming new people
in the introductions forum and
contributing to conversations and a
bunch of different topics in there
i just i wanted to just do an extra
special uh
shout out to ron who is uh man he’s
really helping a lot of people out in
there so way to go ron
uh awesome to see you in the forums hope
to see you some more and hope to see
more of you guys
in those forums um all right i
am i’m just excited for this uh this
talk with jeff
i know you guys are excited too so let’s
get into it right after
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[Music]
jeff how’s it going man thanks for
coming on the show hey thank you for
having me jordan i’m doing pretty well
how about yourself
i am doing awesome although here i’m in
uh you know la here and it is yesterday
was 111 degrees
inside i mean we pay
a lot of good money to not have to put
up with that so i don’t know what’s
going on
but well here in northern new jersey
today it’s cloudy and about
68 degrees are you serious yeah
oh yeah don’t don’t tell me that yeah is
that
august right now oh my god i know right
you wouldn’t think
what’s going on isn’t it supposed to be
sweltering there
it has been last couple of weeks has
been pretty bad yeah but
we have a little bit of a reprieve today
with the nice weather hey man enjoy it
and you know what i i know why that is i
don’t know if you find that why
i know why it is it’s because it’s your
birthday today
happy birthday man
[Laughter]
someone is looking out for you and
wanted to give you i know right
you know just nice weather for your for
your birthday so you can enjoy it thank
you thank you
yeah and double thanks for coming on on
your birthday that’s a big deal oh no
problem i just happened to have the
the day off today i took the day off and
i spent it scouting some stores
awesome so always working man always
working
yeah well let’s jump into that in a
second but first before we do why don’t
you tell us a little bit about who you
are and you know kind of what where
you’re coming from in life
uh well i i uh i just turned 45 today
uh i i work full-time
uh i work for a money transmitter
uh think of it as kind of like western
union i work in the legal compliance
department
i’ve been there about five years um i do
like my job
um but just like everybody else you know
you’re just trying to keep your head
above water
and uh excuse me and uh you know
no matter how hard you work for somebody
or how good your job is you’re always
gonna be making money
for someone else yeah and and i’m
looking to change that
i’m just an average guy i’m nobody
special um
hard worker um i enjoy a lot of things
i’m kind of a big geek
you know i like a lot of sci-fi i like
to read
i like to play chess i like all those
kinds of other kinds of games and
whatnot
hey we need to play chess sometime hey
all right
all right i
i mean that’s pretty much it um
as far as me i i don’t know what else to
say about me
i’m just your average kind of guy yeah
well awesome did you grow up in new
jersey i’ve lived in new jersey
my whole life in a small little town
called cliffside park
which is about three miles from the
george washington bridge
oh okay yeah so poor area
yeah yeah very populated a lot of
laundromats in this area
yeah yeah no kidding no kidding well
that sounds like opportunity
to me oh big time big time big time
well tell tell us now i mean speaking of
opportunity
tell us i mean you’re unique in uh
as far as guests have come on this show
um
so far in that you don’t own a
laundromat yet
right but you’re looking uh yeah i
i’m looking and i’ll give you a little
background story as to how i came about
uh
considering getting into the laundry
business yeah tell me
so late last year you know things
happened
my finances were a mess and uh i
i had no choice but to uh file for
bankruptcy
um you know like i said things happen
um i i just let things slide
and uh i had no choice but to do it but
once everything was said and done you
know i went to the meeting of the
trustees and everything was you know
expelled um i thought to myself what now
you know keep working for someone else
and then in five years fall again into
the same trap
i said no i can’t do that and the funny
thing is
that late last year um
we had bought a wide brand new washer
and dryer
and one day the washer actually
kind of died on us a new one
yeah yeah yeah and i was furious oh man
so upset over that
and that that night i actually had a
dream that i owned a laundromat
and then i woke up in the morning and i
said a laundromat
i would have never thought in a million
years to own a laundromat
but it stuck with me and i started doing
my research
and just kept researching and
researching and researching
and uh everything that i came across
said that you needed a tremendous amount
of cash
cash which i did not have
so instead of just giving up and saying
no i can’t
i just don’t have the cash do it i’m not
gonna bother i kept digging
and i kept digging and i kept digging
and
uh i came across this one guy on
youtube who has a whole bunch of videos
on there saying that
uh you don’t really have to pay for
these things
and i was like what
and he’s like yeah you don’t really have
to pay for these things so i said okay
i’m intrigued now so i kept watching
this video
started realizing that what he was
saying was making complete and utter
sense
total sense um his name is danny
d’angelo
and uh i continued to follow him
and he was selling a dvd with all of his
ideas and his whole process on how to
obtain these laundromats
um and i bit the bullet and i bought it
and it’s chock full of information
and i was completely sold on it
so since then i have been trying to
obtain
laundromat by essentially taking over
the leases
of failed or failing stores
uh so that’s what i’m trying to do right
now um like i said i live in northern
new jersey there’s no shortage of
laundromats here
waterman’s everywhere many there’s so
many
uh in my town alone there’s i believe
seven
you know and i’ve been to all of them um
scouting the stores is really my
strength
dealing with people face to face is my
strength
um i love going into these places
introducing myself
handing these owners my business card
um and and i was really shocked to see
how open these owners are to talk to you
and to answer your questions
it really has been a phenomenal
experience yeah maybe there are one or
two that have kind of chased me out
yeah yeah i was gonna say because that
sounds like an anomaly to me every time
i try to talk to an
owner in their store they’re like what
are you a laundromat owner get out of
here yeah yeah
yeah there’s been one or two cases where
i’ve just kind of been
chewed out nicely i have to say i wasn’t
like
kicked out but um
but yeah i mean they’re very open to
answer your questions
um you could pretty much ask them
everything
from you know how much do you pay for
rent how much is your water bill each
month
how much is your electric bill each
month hey that’s awesome very open
they’re very open to discussing this
um but uh
but yeah i’ve been uh i’ve been trying
to obtain
laundromat on my own
um trying to negotiate a lease on my own
and i realized that that’s my weakness
i don’t i’m not really familiar with the
commercial
leases i’m not familiar with dealing
with these folks
so uh when this covet 19
pandemic happened i knew that it was the
perfect opportunity
and i i took whatever money i did have
and i hired mr d’angelo to do that for
me
and it has been quite an experience
is he’s an interesting character
and uh as far as commercial leases go
and negotiating skills he’s an expert um
i i couldn’t do that on my own like i
had said my strength is going to these
stores scouting them out
talking to people face to face he’s the
negotiator
that’s why i hired him and uh you know
it’s been a process
we make our phone calls every week uh i
basically
feed him leads and he makes all those
phone calls for me every week
and uh it’s been an ongoing process and
he says it himself it’s a marathon
it’s not a sprint yeah you have to have
tremendous amount of patience
people think you know people hire him
and they think it’s going to happen
overnight
if you’re thinking about hiring danny
d’angelo the first thing you need to do
is get out of your mind that it’s going
to happen overnight because it’s not
going to happen overnight
yeah you have to have tremendous
patience to do this
you have to do the legwork you have to
get out there you have to you know put
boots on the ground
keep your eyes open for things i don’t
want to go into detail too much about
uh what to look for in a store and
whatnot because there really is a lot
um i mean that’s basically it that’s
where i am on my journey
right now yeah so how are you finding
stores to go
uh like get the boots on the ground are
you just driving around and when you see
a store you pop
in or well the ones in my town the ones
that are closest to me that’s what i do
i’ll pop in
yeah um but i’m also very familiar with
other
locations around uh first thing i’ll do
is i’ll go
on to for instance yelp or google
i’ll go on there i’ll look at pictures
see if the pictures are old
if they’re too old i’ll go over there
myself
uh i’ll go there myself and uh you know
talk to the
to the owner and whatnot i’ll also look
at their reviews
if they have poor reviews that sends up
red flags
so i will definitely check yelp and
google first
and uh driving around believe it or not
there have been a couple of times where
i was scouting one store and
came across one that i had no idea
existed
didn’t find anything on yelp or google
but i was like oh there it is
i didn’t know that that was there let me
check it out
so i mean that’s the process that i use
um
but rule of thumb is to check the ones
out in your neighborhood first
yeah yeah definitely i mean being closer
to home obviously is
has a huge huge advantage right right
right
yeah to that absolutely
so what’s it been like uh when you’re
talking with these owners
i mean you said most of them been
receiving you well and
right you a lot of information what are
you trying to
uh get with are you trying to are you
trying to ascertain whether they’re
you know getting out of the business or
what’s your goal when you talk to these
owners
uh my goal is to um to get an idea
as to what they pay as far as rent um
get
an idea as far as what they’re paying
each month for their utilities
because that’s an enormous cost that is
an enormous cost
i came across one um not that far for me
maybe 15
20 minutes for me that i did try to
obtain
which i really wanted badly because they
use well water
oh wow nice okay can you imagine not
having
a water bill yeah
uh um so you know you’ll find out little
things like that like i would have never
known that they were what they had well
water if i didn’t speak to the owner
yeah you know um
but yeah you definitely want to get a
feel if they’re going to stick around in
the business or not
yeah you want to get a feel as to
whether they’re interested in purchasing
new equipment or not
because again those are red flags um
customers want the new shiny equipment
yeah that’s just how it is yep um
and then you know you get a feel for it
if you feel that they’re not
looking to get out if you feel that they
are going to be getting equipment you
kind of just leave that alone
you know you just kind of walk away and
you just keep an eye out for it
right you see things change uh do you
see if like
six months to a year from now they don’t
have new equipment
you may want to jump on that one a
little bit yeah so you have to keep a
close eye on it
i mean that’s pretty much it i mean i
haven’t had a problem
uh with an owner not answering any of my
questions
some of them have an issue telling you
what exactly they’re paying as far as
rent
totally understandable yeah yeah totally
totally understandable
but yeah i mean that’s what and and
there’s also
um one owner that i i
spoke to in in the jersey city area we
actually still keep in touch
uh because i actually actually know a
guy a maintenance guy who comes and
fixes washers and stuff and even called
me and said
hey jeff you know do you still have that
guy’s number and i’m like yeah man you
know i
gave him his number he called me back he
said oh yeah you were right this guy’s
great this guy happened to fix one of my
washers once a long time ago
and i kept his number and he’s always
been very very receptive
he cut us a nice deal on you know the
parts and whatnot
so i always remembered him and i told
him i’m going to throw businesses away
so you know that owner and i you still
kind of keep in touch
yeah that’s awesome to keep in touch
yeah i think too like one of the very
underutilized ways of
finding a laundromat especially if
you’re looking for one that’s run down
is talking to mechanics
who are going out i mean who sees more
laundromats than mechanics other than
maybe brokers
right but you know the kind of
laundromat that you’re looking for
a broker is probably not going to be in
the picture because
you know they’re just not worth a lot
of money to sell right right right yeah
so
man so that’s cool so you have been out
there hustling how many laundry mats do
you think you’ve looked at so far
oh man i couldn’t even put a finger on
it
oh i would say uh maybe
50. yeah you’ve been out there yeah yeah
yeah you know i my full-time job
um i work 10 30 a.m to 7 p.m
okay so that gives me some time in the
mornings
before i get to work to you know scope
out a few
and then of course on the weekends when
i have my
free time i’ll definitely do a lot of uh
scoping
um my uh my fiance lives in uh
the city of bayonne new jersey okay so
i’ve done a lot of scouting there
as well there’s quite a few laundry mats
there as well
uh there’s a few in jersey city which is
close by also i’ve gone there
and i’ve gone all over the place in
north i’ve even gone as far as staten
island new york
because i got word on one that was there
and uh
i didn’t get it but that’s okay it’s
still there
and i’m that’s another one that i’m
keeping my eye out for
yeah yeah yeah and i think probably a
lot of this process for you will be
kind of keeping tabs on the ones that
you know have potential
for you uh and you know because they’re
not
probably going to develop right away
it’s going to take a little
time to develop
right yeah right just like i said it’s a
marathon not a sprint
it’s a marathon you’re right yeah
yeah yeah so
uh okay so you’re looking for kind of
rundown laundromats
that zombie mats yeah the zombie man
yeah that’s how they’re kind of known in
the industry so you’re looking for kind
of a zombie mat
right and you’re looking to you know
either take over a lease
or write a new lease if it’s already
shut down have you found any that are
shut down
at all i have found um two
actually that were already shut down all
the infrastructure
is in place um because jordan
what what this whole system is uh the
whole
danny d’angelo system it’s all about
existing infrastructure
right that’s what we’re really looking
for is just existing infrastructure
yeah i have found too that the
infrastructure was in place
but the fact is is that they’re too
small yeah
they were just too small uh one was
about 600 square feet
oh okay yeah it’s way too small
and the other one was about a thousand
square feet yeah
you just can’t make it work yeah
yeah and i no it’s okay and uh
yeah i think it’s not really more
work to have a larger store than to have
a smaller store
and since you have the same amount of
work man the amount of returns you can
get from
600 square feet is not it’s not high i
mean
it’s not there you know if you’re
getting it for free and
you know the time cost isn’t too much
then hey maybe it’s still worth it but
you know it’s still that’s that’s a
tough tough one to make work i think at
600
right and and both locations actually
had a competitor which was
maybe a block away yeah
shut down it’s not worth it you know i i
if that wasn’t there and if the space
was bigger i would have jumped on it
yeah but it’s just too many factors
yeah well i know you haven’t gotten
there yet but have you thought through
it all
you know so these these zombie mats uh
you know they’re that are run down that
business isn’t great
you know they are like that for a reason
and you know one of the reasons is
sometimes owners just don’t want to
reinvest in their business
right um and they just kind of want to
milk them milk them dry
but you know if business is not at its
full potential have you thought about
other than maybe putting in new
equipment how how would you get
new business in there because that’s a
big you know that’s a big
obstacle for laundromat owners who are
buying
laundromats that you know need
improvement
in order to increase customer base have
you thought about that at all
oh definitely definitely i think i think
it’s really all about
marketing um if you don’t market your
you know people think um oh it’s a
laundromat people are just gonna come
people are just gonna line up around the
corner on the grand opening
it doesn’t happen that way yeah you have
to you have to market that store and you
have to market it properly
yeah if you don’t you you’re gonna fall
right into the same trap
again you know it’s very important to
also have promotions
uh oh hey come on this day and bring
this flyer
with a coupon saying you know
uh free drive with your with your watch
you know and make the customer come in
with that coupon yeah let’s
show that they had it they got it they
got it on their doorstep on their car
whatever
uh marketed on facebook uh
marketed on google uh you know it’s free
to do these things
yeah uh and a lot of people just don’t
take advantage of it
uh i’ve been to a lot of stores that i
scouted
and i’m shocked that they have no
internet presence whatsoever
it’s really shocking like how did you
not facebook page you got to get on that
facebook page
page for that so i really think getting
customers in the door is really all
about marketing
yeah and like i said before customers
want the bright shiny new machines
got to have that in there totally yeah
yeah i think it’s good and i think that
a lot of
uh a lot of laundromat owners are not
great marketers and you can tell pretty
obviously
which ones are and which ones are not
right you know by how many people are in
their stores
and uh yeah so i mean i think that’s a
big deal
for sure absolutely it’s a big deal yeah
you know like i said you know these
folks they they think it’s a laundromat
they could just sit back and and do
nothing uh a big mistake that a lot of
owners do that that let these businesses
slide
is that they think that it’s turnkey
laundromats are about as
turnkey as you can get but there really
is no 100
turnkey business if there is please call
me let me know what that business is
yeah
yeah exactly yeah i mean you have to get
involved you have to be there
um there are certain times that you have
to be there you know
i i think you had said it once on one of
your episodes you know pipes are going
to break
floods are going to happen yes
you know as well as anybody oh yeah
fair share any owner yeah
uh you know a lot of these owners they
think that they can go on
you know they can go to hawaii for two
or three weeks and not worry about the
laundromat
it’s just not like that yeah you know
that’s why a lot of these places they
get run down
you know they don’t have bother with the
new equipment
so yeah i mean it’s really on them
yep yeah definitely how you manage it is
a big
big you know deal on how it you know how
it’s going to perform and how it’s going
to perform
over time you know i always tell people
uh
i think i mentioned this on on here
before but you know anytime you’re
dealing with business
you know you’re going to have problems
and anytime you’re dealing with
people anytime you’re dealing with the
public you’re gonna have problems to
deal with
and you got both in a laundromat and
like you said
they’re about as turnkey as you can get
in terms of a business
but they do require management and they
do require
time and effort and energy so
um i was gonna ask you i mean i think
i think one of the benefits of the way
that you have stuff set up with
uh with danny is that you know you have
these people skills you’re kind of
gathering information you’re doing all
that stuff
but it’s really hard to do that and be
the bad guy and you know the negotiator
the hard news
you know like you know and so
kind of almost playing like a good cop
bad cop you know and that’s where
it’s really helpful for i think most
people to have someone that they’re
working with
right to help and i think you know
brokers can play that role
or you know a consultant like a danny or
somebody can play that role
for you because it’s not a personal you
know thing
for them but with that said i wanted to
ask you because one of the big
uh i guess points of controversy with
danny’s whole system is you know
going behind you know current owners
backs and
you know trying to take that lease
through the landlord
um and so i was just going to ask you
like what are your thoughts on that
or how is that you know presented um
any any thoughts or on that well i’ll be
honest with you
at first uh it did seem that way
um it did seem
uh what’s the word i’m looking for
underhanded
i no longer see it that way um
if if sadly these guys these owners the
operators
um aren’t up keeping their spot their
space
up keeping their business and they don’t
upkeep
they don’t keep uh they don’t pay the
rent on time
you know legally the landlord can seek
someone else
to take over that lease if they’re more
than 10 days late on their rent
they can and will look for someone else
you know i i can’t i can’t really help
the fact that they’re not paying their
rent um the landlord
is there to make money as well yeah
absolutely yeah
i mean do i feel bad for these these
owners
yes of course you know i’m a human being
i i
but i also have the opportunity to take
this over
and make money for that landlord by
updating the equipment
updating the space and create that
business environment that
they’re so looking for what you want to
do is you want to create that
anchor tenant that most landlords crave
and sadly i don’t want to sound harsh
but if these guys aren’t getting it done
the landlord’s going to look somewhere
else yeah and and i hate to sound harsh
but um you know it’s just like like i
said if if
they’re not doing it the landlord can
look for someone else that will yeah
yeah and i think that’s kind of the
push-pull of his
system yeah is you know there’s
there’s kind of the both end argument i
mean it’s you know capitalism right
there you know with
right absolutely the landlord who’s
running their business
right their investment and who you know
wants to be
making their money uh and
you know it is kind of the push-pull of
his system and i think it’s a
fine line that yes you know
that he’s straddling but you can i think
you can do it well
um so talk to me uh about
this this plan that you have here so
you’re trying to find
a zombie mat that you can
take over uh what’s the plan let’s say
you get keys dropped in your hand
tomorrow
or you know with a little run-up time to
be able to prepare
what’s what’s the plan after you get
keys
oh man well um
my plan is my plan is to actually keep
my full-time job um one laundromat’s not
going to make us rich
it’s going to make us comfortable but
it’s not going to make us rich
um but yeah i mean if i had the keys in
my hand today the first thing i would do
is call every single distributor
in this area and say who’s gonna get me
machines
yeah you know and um
and yeah i mean that’s my thing and then
i’m not i don’t my intention is to not
stop at one
um i’d really like to get three
altogether
um so once i get one the plan is to not
stop at one to keep going
keep it rolling keep it rolling man yeah
yeah
keep it rolling there’s a lot of
locations that i’ve scouted and that
danny and i have called on
that could potentially be optimum
second third for its stores so we
definitely don’t want to drop
that so i guess to answer your question
uh if i had keys dropped in today to
work get that one up and running
and then move on to number two yeah and
then number two
happens get that up and running and on
to number three
keep it rolling keep it rolling good
so your plan is get on the phone with
distributors i love that
and i like that you said get on the
phone with all the distributors in your
area
every single one of them in this area is
going to get a phone call from me
yeah because those suckers will jack the
price up on you no offense to any
distributors listening
but yeah and then the key with the
distributors is oh so you’re gonna
you’re going to uh give me these
machines for
how much okay well this guy’s gonna give
it to me for this much
yeah let’s do it
yeah i’ve i’ve talked about this on the
podcast before
i think but i i did that accidentally
my first time around and ended up saving
40 grand
i was a i was a week from having
machines installed
and was about to sign the papers and
they changed the terms
and i just went to a couple other
distributors and handed them the paper
i’m like i don’t know here’s the quote i
got
and ended up the end of that passing it
around
you know 40 grand lighter on the on the
bill so
definitely call multiple distributors
oh no question about it no ques and
and you know danny danny uh ingrains
that into the heads of his students
yeah every single distributor in your
area call them
even call manufacturers directly call
dexter directly call speed queen
directly
yeah call them all directly get quotes
from every single one of them
yeah yeah i agree um okay so
so i’m assuming i mean here’s here’s
what happens right you put in brand new
machines
and you look around and you’re like well
shoot now that i have these shiny new
machines
my floor looks a little dingy and the
walls look a little
you know skiffy and you know the
signage looks a little dated so you know
obviously you’re gonna have to redo some
of that are are you
thinking i mean just personally i’m just
curious are you thinking maybe you’d do
some of that work or are you gonna hire
somebody to do it or have you thought
about that yet
um well the the thing is is that i’m
open to doing
some of that work but um one of the very
important things
is to put some of those things in your
lease and have the landlord do it
yeah yeah you know like i said it is his
anchor tenant
you want to aim to be his anchor he or
she’s anchor tenant
um it’s really in their best interest to
help you
fill some things up in that store like a
sign
or floor so you definitely want to put
that into your lease
you want to uh you want to as they say
include a lot of ti money in that lease
tenant improvements yeah you definitely
want that in there but certain things
i’m
more than happy to fix up um if it needs
a paint job
i’m more than happy to do that that’s
easy i can do that
oh man i hate painting why don’t you
come over here i just
moved uh this week so i need some
painting done so come on there you go
uh you know if it’s certain things like
if it needs new ceiling tiles
i can do that that’s not a problem big
stuff i want the landlord to do it
yeah yeah and it’s in their best
interest to do it
i like that i mean i i like you know
trying to get
that help wherever you can get it
because every
every buck you save is a bucket in your
pocket you know
right right right and you kind of you
kind of um
you kind of have an advantage over them
the landlords uh in this aspect because
you know you can always throw it at them
that okay
you can you can just vanilla the space
and turn it into a dentist’s office if
you want to spend
a hundred thousand dollars to rip out
all that infrastructure
yeah or you can give me a little bit of
money and you can help improve the
air conditioning units uh you can help
improve the floor
you have a nice anchor tenant for the
next 10 15
20 years it’s really in their best
interest to help you
yeah i mean it sounds like you’re ready
for the negotiations man
get in there man he’s the negotiator
that’s his
expertise man but yeah i mean i
to answer your question yeah i’m ready
i’ve been ready
uh but i’m patient i’m not going to jump
into just one
that’s not the good situation and he
wouldn’t let me do that
he won’t let me do that um it has to be
the right situation it has to be the
right lease terms
otherwise i can’t do anything with it
how long have you been yeah how long
have you been looking so far
how long has it been well let’s see um
maybe with danny with his system with
danny’s sister
i’ve been looking since about january
okay
and i hired him in april okay
so i had to go at it on my own for a
little while
um until i was dealing with a landlord
and he was incessantly yelling at me
over the phone
and i said uh yeah if he really acted
like a child
and uh i said you know what i i can’t do
it because i
i lost it too and and i yelled back and
that’s
not like me yeah um and i said i need
danny
and i think a week later i hired him
yeah
yeah it is nice to have that buffer and
you know oh yeah
getting you know if it’s not your
deal then you you don’t get as emotional
you know when somebody starts yelling at
you you just hang up your phone and call
them back later
you know like why don’t you cool down
and then we can talk business when
you’re right ready to be an adult
you know yeah yeah yeah yeah
so any danny actually ended up
uh maybe last month calling him again
and it was pretty much the same
situation and then you know we just
me and danny just kind of laughed it off
well
in a way that’s a good thing because you
don’t want to be stuck in a 30-year
lease with a landlord that’s going to be
yelling at you all back
here so you know if that’s how he’s
dealing with you on the phone
right now it’s gonna be it’s just how he
does things
and it’s just how he is right that’s
exactly man
i don’t know i don’t be dealing with
that for 30 years
i i wouldn’t deal with that for 30 years
one way or another
so right right yeah
well good okay so you have you’ve been
looking since april
it sounds like you have a plan in place
you know for when
when that opportunity pops and it does
pop i mean this
this is a you know this is not a a
secret technique in the industry plenty
of people know about it
and oh yeah i’ve done it and have done
well with it
um so you know it’s definitely uh
definitely a viable way as long as you
go about it the right way
absolutely um yeah so i had a curiosity
i mean you mentioned you wanted
three laundromats is there a reason
behind the
the three um
well let me let me ask you what i mean
because we’ve had you know luke
williford has been on this
uh this podcast i’ll link to his show
because it’s a killer show
he’s got like 37 i don’t know this was
like a few
this is like a month or two ago so he
might have like 40 by now i don’t know
he’s just yeah yeah i’m just curious as
to why he
chose why you chose three carolina king
of the uh of laundromat there
um three’s a nice round number i think i
i can
i can deal with three okay um i don’t
know about more than that if more
happens that’s fine but
uh three is the number that’s stuck in
my head right now yeah
three is manageable um i think of one of
your recent episodes which i thought was
a great episode you spoke about
um things to learn and things to do to
make money
while you’re running your laundromats
like i think you would mention bitcoin
when you talk like that um well i have
an interest in in forex
uh foreign currency exchange um you know
i run a
uh they call it a dummy account it’s
actually fake money
and uh i’ve been doing it for a little
while and i’ve made you know fake money
but i can see myself you know putting
aside a little bit of that
laundromat money and actually making
some serious moves with that
uh i’ve also uh kind of just now looking
into
real estate wholesaling that i find
interesting
um so that’s one of the things that i
want to do like in my spare time i think
more than three laundromats might
cut into that yeah um i don’t know but
i mean i may get to three and say no i
need another one i may get the four
now i need another one it might be like
a tattoo or you get one and then you
just can’t stop getting them
exactly exactly yeah but i mean and i
think it’s great to have
you know a goal i mean if it’s one thing
i’ve learned in life
uh it’s that you know you just
never know where life is going to take
you right yeah you know
you set your goals and you work towards
them and then when you get up
you may be in a situation where you’re
like well shoot man i want to
be forex trading full-time or you know i
you you might you know buy a grocery
store like who knows man it could be you
could be doing anything so
yeah i think it’s good to you know have
a goal of three because they get you
past the one
obviously you want to have the one but
you know you
want you want more than that you want
your vision is bigger than that
and my guess is that once you you know
start seeing realizing
you know some of these goals your vision
is just going to continue
to grow you know when you’re talking i
think before we started recording you
were saying hey i’m you know i’m just
here
and i want to grow and i want to learn
and i think
coming into it with that mindset it once
you get to
three i’m not saying you’re gonna get
more than that but i think your vision
is gonna expand um right whether that be
in the laundromat
arena or you know some other arena
because that’s just kind of how it works
i think yeah yeah
i agree i agree pretty crazy on my head
yeah read the number in my head we’ll
we’ll see what happens after three
yeah well i mean and i love i love like
i have so many different interests and
you know i love the you know that you’re
interested in
you know for i you know forex and i i
just love that you you have all these
different interests
and want to you know use laundromats to
help you
you know do some of this other stuff
that you’re interested in
you know wholesaling and doing forex and
you know um that’s that’s one of the
reasons i really love laundromats is
because it
gives you you know freedom to be able to
try some of this stuff and do some of
this stuff yeah
yeah absolutely absolutely and
also i forgot to mention that also like
to
start my own podcast as well which is
going to have
nothing to do with laundromats by the
way
so i’m not going to compete against you
you know what i would welcome it you
know my whole
i’m not trying to compete with anybody
right now my whole thing is
i just want more information about
laundromats and laundromat ownership out
there and that’s why i love what
you know dave mins is doing with his
laundromat millionaire go check him out
on youtube if you haven’t yet laundromat
millionaire
and he was a show two on the podcast
and you know i just all this i i love
just getting more of that information
out there helping people find that
freedom
through laundromat ownership to be able
to you know
if you want to quit your job down the
line or whatever
your goals are you know a lot of bats
can help you
help you get there and yeah absolutely
and be a jumping off spot so
what do you have any ideas what you want
your podcast to be about
um well it may sound like a little
strange but like i had mentioned that i
like science fiction
and horror movies and i’d like to do
like some type of sci-fi horror
paranormal ghost kind of podcast
even though there’s so many of them out
there it doesn’t matter
let’s do one that’s so cool yeah i gotta
i have a very serious question to ask
you right now sure
why haven’t you started it yet ah
no time in no time especially now
yeah you know i work full-time
and then when i’m not working full-time
i’m working to get a laundromat
i just don’t seem to have a time any
time
and and i don’t really have a quiet
space to do a podcast from right now
yeah i don’t know here i’ve been hearing
my kids yelling out the door
i hope you can’t hear it but sorry if
you can oh no i can’t hear them
yeah quiet space is definitely a
challenge yeah
yeah definitely i would like a quiet
space
well i i’m just you know i’m i’m all for
that i think
you know you’ll definitely have to let
me know when that comes out and i’ll
i’ll definitely check it out and i’ll
i’ll mention it for you to
pump you up for all the other laundromat
slash
sci-fi horror fans out there
uh listening to both but that would be
very cool and and i would say too
you know don’t wait too long to do it
yeah obviously
you’re working towards a specific goal
and i think it’s great you know stay
focused but
you know when when you when that time
does kind of come through
you know get on it and do it because
it’s a lot of fun man i i’ve been loving
this podcast and
you know just you know getting to talk
to people like you but also just hearing
from you know from other people their
kind of input
and it’s it’s pretty cool it’s pretty
cool
i’ve been told many times that i have a
great voice for
like radio podcasts i don’t know but
i’ve been told
yeah you do and i’ve never been told
about my voice
you can do it anyways actually yeah
yeah well very cool i mean i love i love
all these goals i love
you know your goal to get three
laundromats and
take a little bit of your income from
that and
you know do some speculative investing
in forex
yeah doing some doing some wholesaling
on the side
starting a sci-fi horror podcast i mean
all this stuff is
awesome i think it’s really cool uh you
know
directions to go and i love that you
want to use
uh laundromats to help you get there and
i love that you’re also putting your
money where your mouth
is um you know through hiring
danny and you know just getting out
there and checking out
50 plus laundromats and yeah and doing
the lego work man it sounds like
you know i you know i don’t wanna
obviously i’m not like promising
anything but it to me it sounds like
you know it’s inevitable you’re gonna
get it and it’s gonna go well because
you’re just doing the right
things and i think a lot of life is
about just doing
the right things consistently over time
and right now and danny has told me many
times
like you’re gonna get a store you’re
gonna get a story
it’s a matter of time uh you always tell
me just keep doing what you’re doing
um and you’re gonna get one
you’re gonna get one and i know i am i
know i am it’s just a matter of time
yeah and um you know there have been
moments where uh
there was ones that i thought i was
gonna get you know they were they seemed
to be prime
to be taken over and it just didn’t go
through
yeah and uh you know i try not to feel
discouraged
um you know maybe feel a little
discouraged for a day
but then i’m right back at it that’s
that’s what you have to do you know
danny always tells me you have the right
attitude
always have the right attitude and uh
we have a really great working
relationship he and i
uh we get along so well um
we have discussions on the phone that
don’t even have anything to do with
laundromats
but we’re always having discussions on
the phone he makes me laugh i make him
laugh
we have a great relationship
so you know i like working with him he
likes working with me
and uh you know i know that he’s he’s
going to bring me over the finish line
uh but it’s not just him it’s a lot of
it is me as well yep
you know and he acknowledges that as
well yeah uh
you know it’s like i think of it as a
car um
yes i have danny at my side but he can’t
replace me as the driver of that car
right you know um but yeah i
i i think it’s the best thing that i
ever did was was hiring
uh i know it’s gonna happen
one day it’s gonna happen it’s gonna
happen it’s gonna happen
well yeah and two you know just quick on
that
is i think it’s super important when you
are
you know trying to figure out who you
want to work with that it’s somebody
that you can
get along with that you can you know
just kind of connect with but who also
knows their stuff you know it’s got to
be a both
and you know type of situation in order
to
you know just have that optimal you know
result that you’re looking for so good i
i love hearing that you guys
you know have a good working
relationship and i love hearing that
you’re doing all the leg work because
man recipe for success absolutely
exciting when he
when he makes one of those videos about
you you’ll have to send the link over to
me and i’ll link it
definitely
well hey we have a section on the
podcast
called pro tips pro tips
and pro tips is uh basically you know
you’re looking for your first laundromat
do you have any advice for anyone else
who’s looking to buy their
first laundromat that might help them
get you know
make make the progress and get that
first laundromat
um yeah i would say um
you know it’s going back to you know
doing the legwork do the legwork
um get into these places uh speak to
owners
ask the questions go in there with no
fear
uh go in there like like almost like you
all in the place
yeah but don’t be you know overly
arrogant because that’s when you get
thrown out
yeah but definitely do the leg work
um do the research and uh
yeah i mean just just learn things just
always learn
you know go on to uh dexter’s website
go on to speed queen wasco matt’s uh
website
learn how their machines work uh
it’s very important there is one thing
that um
that danny says that i don’t necessarily
agree with him
he says that all machines seem to be the
same
i don’t agree with that um there are
certain
advantages to one machine over another
whether it be
you know energy efficiency uh water use
or whatnot
but there are differences do your
research it’s so important to just do
your research spend a lot of time
researching
and i can’t stress this enough when you
open one do
your marketing do your marketing that is
the biggest piece of advice i can give
you
uh once you open one up just don’t let
that fall to the wayside
yeah okay i mean that’s the best advice
i can give to somebody just do your
research
uh speak to people don’t be afraid the
first time i went into a laundromat to
scout it i was terrified
i don’t know why i walked out of there
and i said why was i so
nervous but yeah
i mean just don’t approach it with no
fear
the whole process whether you’re
actually going to shell out money
to buy a location just approach it with
no fear
yeah i love that because i found that
when you
get out there when you put yourself out
there when you start talking to people
that’s when opportunities happen you
know i think
so many times i know i’ve done this a
ton in the past and i hear this
all the time where people just sit and
wait for something to happen
and they wait for an opportunity to come
their way yeah
big mistake could happen but
it’s way way more likely to happen when
you put yourself out there you know i’ve
seen this
just from starting this podcast just
some of the opportunities that have come
my way just because i decided
you know what i’m just gonna put myself
out there
and start a podcast and start talking to
people and start interviewing people
and you know the same things happen to
me i’ve walked into laundromats talked
to owners
and you know and opportunities have come
opportunities to buy laundromats
opportunities to get laundromats for
free
just all kinds of crazy opportunities by
getting out there
talking to other laundromat owners i
would even say
hey you know go go to some you know real
estate investing meetups you know when
you can go to meetups again
and get together with people and talk to
real estate investors because those are
the landlords of the company
you know of the of the spots where you
can get laundromats and who knows what
opportunities come
through talking to these real estate
investors who have commercial units
that might have a space that’s perfect
for a laundromat
they might know somebody or you know
just opportunities happen when you get
out there
you start letting people know what it is
you’re looking for
and um and just you know networking and
building relationships and talking so
i love that advice i think it’s probably
the biggest
piece of advice that you can give to
somebody new who’s looking to buy their
first laundromat
is get out there do the legwork let
people know what you’re looking for
and exactly what opportunities come your
way
is that best piece of advice i can offer
you no question
like for instance where i live we’re
very populated
and uh i actually have to rent a parking
spot
across the street and build yeah it’s so
bad
and and the owner there um he and i get
along very
well and you know he owns a lot of
property and uh i asked him do you own
commercial property he said no i don’t
but i know people who do
he told him exactly what i was looking
for handed him my business card i said
if anything comes up
call me he hasn’t called me but but you
know that information is already out
there
yeah you know so it’s important just
just get out there
yeah and you talked about earlier how
you know it’s a numbers game
well the more people you’re talking to
the more things like that you’re doing
the more numbers that are getting out
there it’s compounding
you know on itself that way so you know
it’s
i mean you’re just you’re doing the
right stuff you’re giving the good
good advice to other new you know
would-be laundromat owners who are
trying to get their first one
and yeah solid solid advice
well jeff i mean it’s been awesome
having you
on i really appreciate i mean it’s you
know it could be a little intimidating
coming on a podcast in general
you know but coming on a podcast while
you’re still in the process of looking
for your first laundromat that’s
you know that could be scary so i
appreciate you coming on and just
sharing about your journey so far
uh i appreciate you having me on here
man you know i’m i’m no one special i
don’t own
ten laundromats but you still had me on
i really appreciate it yeah not yet
yeah i really appreciate you being on
here it’s been a blast being on here
yeah and likewise and i love you know
talking with you and getting to know you
a little bit and you know hopefully
we’ll stay
in contact too um but you know i i just
think that
no matter kind of where you’re at on
this journey you have something to offer
you know to to the rest of the
laundromat
community and you know even though you
don’t own one yet like your your pro
tips advice is just it’s solid advice
it’s really great advice for other
people who are trying to get in the
industry and you have
you know sharing your process that
you’re going through is a big
uh it’s a big deal so yeah um yeah
so thank you again for coming on let me
ask you this before i
let you go uh if if anybody wants to
reach out to you and connect with you
and maybe you know talk about you know
your journey a little bit more
uh is there a good way for them to get
in contact with you
absolutely um they can always email me
at bluewhalewash
gmail.com
i actually uh already have an llc
it’s called whale wash and dry yeah i’ll
tell you a little story about that as
well
i kind of uh named it blue whale
because um one of my favorite stories
in the bible is the book of jonah uh
so i named it you know blue whale
because of that
because it’s a constant reminder that
that you can’t escape your destiny
yeah so i decided to name it blue whale
wash and drop
yeah yeah you know what and it’s kind of
interesting that you put it that way
because i see
kind of some of the parallels actually
of like
you know i mean you were you were
essentially in the belly of the of the
whale of the fish right it’s like
you know you you had to file bankruptcy
it that’s pretty much like
yeah you know that’s not rock bottom
that’s like you’re in a whale
under the surface you know it’s like
that’s a hard hard place to be
and thank you for sharing that by the
way that’s a oh no problem
it’s a tough thing to share but you know
i you know i have to be honest with you
it
it really wasn’t that big of a deal yeah
a lot of people think
oh bankruptcy it’s terrible it’s tough
it’s really not that bad
yeah it’s really not that bad you know i
just needed a fresh start
yep um and i think um i don’t know the
powers that b
have given me a fresh start in more ways
than one
yeah yeah that’s awesome yeah it’s like
the whale coughing you up on shore right
yeah okay you got a fresh start here you
are
yeah what are you gonna do with it and
and it sounds like you’re you’re taking
steps to to do the right stuff with it
and to really change around you know
your
fortunes and stuff so absolutely um you
know i didn’t ask you this
and but i would i would i’m gonna ask
you
you may not have anything but uh do you
have any
uh resources that you would recommend to
to anyone else looking to get in the
industry
a book or any other kind of resource um
no other than your podcast no not really
but i would definitely recommend your
podcast thank you and your website and
your forums
it’s very helpful um no even though i
haven’t done it yet
um i do recommend once an owner gets on
their feet to join
the coin laundry association
i have a friend who’s also one of
danny’s students as well
uh she lives in new york city who i’ve
contacted
and we keep in touch we kind of like to
bounce ideas off of each other
and uh uh she recommends the cla
uh she says they have a lot of great
webinars uh that you can learn a lot of
stuff
um so i think that’s a huge resource for
anybody out there
awesome yeah and i’ll put a link to that
down
in the show notes too for anybody who
wants to go check the cla
out um jeff again awesome
awesome to have you on really appreciate
it
and after you get that first one we’re
gonna have you back on uh all right
about how the whole experience went and
what it’s like owning one now
and to talk about what you’re doing to
get your second one rolling no doubt
no doubt i’ll be happy to come back on
awesome awesome all right man well we
will talk to you
again soon thanks again for coming on
what a cool story man i mean it takes
guts to get on a podcast and share
some of these financial you know going
through a bankruptcy is tough enough but
to do it
in public and to you know kind of put
yourself out there too
while you’re in process of trying to
recover from this bankruptcy
by trying to get a laundromat double
super props to jeff for uh
man just letting us in on the journey
that’s what this is all about
and i love that we can have people
you know who own tons of laundromats on
this podcast and i
love that we can have people who don’t
yet even own a laundromat
and uh and we can learn from both of
these people
and everyone in between so man thank you
for everyone who’s come on the podcast
if you’re interested in coming on the
podcast sharing
your story it doesn’t matter uh where
you’re at in your journey if you only
own one
if you own multiple if you’re in process
you know
we have something to learn from from
each other so
check out laundromat podcast guest
all the links including that one will be
in the show notes in the descriptions
which you can find at laundromat
resource
dot com slash show 19
learnermatresource.com show19 so check
that out there
and i also just wanted to say a special
welcome to a couple people who introduce
themselves
in the new member introductions forum
this uh this week um and just i wanted
to shout a couple of them out
so cedric heinz welcome and andre debs
welcome super excited to have you guys
on board
if you uh have recently joined the free
membership
at laundromat resource dot com um man go
to those
new member introductions introduce
yourself if you’re lucky
ronald jump over there and welcome you
too because he is the man lately
uh and hopefully some other people will
welcome you too go get to know each
other
and if you uh if you’ve already done
that man get over there and go
just say welcome a huge welcome to some
of the other new members that have
introduced themselves over there
i mean that’s just an awesome
opportunity to get to know each other
and and to grow together so
that is uh man today’s show i wanted to
as always try to leave with a takeaway
for us
and maybe an action step and one of the
things that really struck me about
jeff is that he found himself in
difficult situation
and he has not given up
he is taking what he has
and he’s trying to make the most of it
and he’s working hard and he’s hustling
and i i want to encourage myself and
maybe some of you guys
find one thing in this show that you can
take away to help yourself grow to help
your business grow
and to help you move you towards
financial freedom
uh through laundromat ownership if
that’s something that you
are excited about doing for me
the the big takeaway that i got from
jeff and
just really inspiring for me was you
know just his attitude of
man okay i hit some hard times and now
i’m gonna hit the ground running
and just try to recover as best as i can
and he’s doing whatever he can to
recover and to try to bounce back from
that bankruptcy
uh through laundromat ownership so
i’m taking that away you know when i hit
those difficult patches
you know a lot of us are in those
difficult patches right now with
everything that’s going on in the world
man take take some uh inspiration from
jeff
and uh you know keep keep plugging
forward keep don’t ever give up
so that is show number
19. i’m again thank you guys for being
here
and i can’t wait to see you again we
have some awesome awesome interviews
lined up
in the next uh couple of shows you’re
gonna
love them i i promise you’re gonna love
what’s coming up too
so make sure you have subscribed if you
haven’t subscribed
and go leave us a rating review that
helps us to get better
and helps other people to find us all
right guys you
are awesome get out there and go find
financial freedom through laundromat
ownership
this week we’ll see you next week peace
[Music]
1 Comment
Magomed Aliiev · September 26, 2020 at 12:38 pm
Very informative podcast. I like it a lot.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
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