Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:
Hey, what’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Laundromat resource podcast. This is show 225 and you know it. I’m pumped that you’re here today because today we have a couple local legends on the show. Joe Dan and Kelly Reed. Jodan for the second time, Kelly premier time on the podcast, and these guys have built quite the empire out there in Kentucky. So I know you’re going to love this because they talk about way back in the very beginning when they first got into the industry, how they got in, and how they’ve grown to the big empire that they have now. Now where they’re running a bunch of laundromats and a pretty substantial pickup and delivery business. So if you’re interested in scaling your laundromats or you’re interested in growing a large pickup and delivery business, this is the episode for you, because these guys spill the beans on what it takes.

Jordan Berry [00:00:48]:
So without further ado, let’s jump into it with Joe Dan and Kelly Reed. The legendary Jodan and Kelly Reed. How are you guys doing today? Hey.

Kelli Reed [00:00:57]:
Hey, Jordan.

Joe Dan Reed [00:00:58]:
Good to see you, Jordan.

Jordan Berry [00:01:00]:
Good to see you guys. I’m doing excellent right now because I’m getting to. I was just telling you how selfishly I. I do this because I just want to hang out with you guys. So I’m doing excellent. I’m getting to do it. Well, it’s 40 degrees over there, you just said, so I think I’ll stay here in Hawaii. Okay.

Jordan Berry [00:01:18]:
So it warms up so I can come, like, midday. Well, what does warm up mean, though?

Kelli Reed [00:01:24]:
It’s. It’s weird. It’s. It’s up and down. Kind of like the stock market. Up and down.

Jordan Berry [00:01:28]:
That’s right.

Joe Dan Reed [00:01:30]:
I remember a few Christmases ago, it was 80 degrees, and then the next day it was like 30. So that’s. Welcome to Kentucky. You know, we’re in the middle of the jet stream, so it’ll go up and down, up and down. Summer stays pretty consistent. Very hot and humid. That’s the way I like it. But I’m already looking forward to spring.

Joe Dan Reed [00:01:52]:
This is depressing for me, personally.

Jordan Berry [00:01:55]:
I’m gonna. I’m gonna start sending you Zillow houses. Zillow links to houses out here in Hawaii with me, because you look at the weather app and it’s literally high of 83 and low of 77 every single day, give or take one degree all year round.

Kelli Reed [00:02:11]:
And those.

Jordan Berry [00:02:11]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kelli Reed [00:02:12]:
I’ll start sending my 300 square foot home in Hawaii.

Jordan Berry [00:02:18]:
Well, hey, listen, Jodan, you’ve been on the podcast. I mean, it’s been a long time. Way too long. So let’s not do. Let’s not make that episode 36. Yeah. So go back and check that out if you haven’t yet. It’s one of the genuinely.

Jordan Berry [00:02:32]:
It’s like one of the more popular ones, for sure. Kelly, you did not grace us with your presence last time, and I did not realize what I was missing out on at that point in time. So we had to make sure you were here today. So thank you for taking the time to. Come on, guys.

Kelli Reed [00:02:48]:
Appreciate it.

Jordan Berry [00:02:49]:
Yeah, so give us just a little bit of background to you guys and. And then maybe we just start talking about your business a little bit and what you guys got going on, because you got a pretty cool oper happening.

Joe Dan Reed [00:02:58]:
You want me to start?

Kelli Reed [00:02:59]:
Go ahead. Okay.

Joe Dan Reed [00:03:00]:
Well, about 25 years ago today, I met Kelly. And not.

Jordan Berry [00:03:08]:
But hold on, hold on, hold on.

Joe Dan Reed [00:03:09]:
Was it.

Jordan Berry [00:03:10]:
Was it 25 years ago today, or is it about 25 years ago today?

Kelli Reed [00:03:13]:
No, it was 25 years today.

Joe Dan Reed [00:03:15]:
She reminded me this morning. Hey, do you realize 25 years ago was our. Yeah, I met her at Keeneland race course. Keeneland horse racing. And. And then we went out that night. And then we’ve been together since.

Jordan Berry [00:03:31]:
It’s.

Joe Dan Reed [00:03:32]:
It’s. It’s been a. So.

Kelli Reed [00:03:35]:
So began the empire.

Joe Dan Reed [00:03:37]:
Yes. It seems like yesterday. And it was. It was less than nine months later. We started our business in janitorial. We. We started a cleaning company.

Kelli Reed [00:03:47]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:03:48]:
With fifteen hundred dollars in our pocket. And. And then I started going door to door. Next thing you know, we had to start hiring staff. And next thing you know, then we started doing carpet cleaning. Then we had 10 carpet cleaning vans. And then. And at the same time, they went in laundry service.

Joe Dan Reed [00:04:05]:
And before pickup delivery got popular, we were doing pickup and delivery. But it was like the wild west, right?

Kelli Reed [00:04:13]:
It was.

Joe Dan Reed [00:04:14]:
It was terrible.

Kelli Reed [00:04:15]:
Written by hand and, you know, trying to figure out. Going to Google Maps, trying to figure out, you know, what’s the best route.

Joe Dan Reed [00:04:21]:
To do was Google Maps around.

Jordan Berry [00:04:23]:
Well, we did Maps, a Thomas Guide or something.

Joe Dan Reed [00:04:28]:
Yeah, it was terrible because we would do a delivery, then we come back and wait, we’re going right back to the same area. Why did we do that? So, you know, there was no route software. There was nothing so easy. It’s not like, you know, like using the software we use today, like curbside or anything like that. So now, you know, fast forward. When we were doing that, we decided to get into the laundry business. Less than gosh. We were, we were together two years at the most, I believe.

Joe Dan Reed [00:04:57]:
And we got our first laundromat and then we’ve been. And we got married within two. I guess we knew when we knew. We, we got married pretty much immediately, I guess.

Kelli Reed [00:05:08]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:05:08]:
She put. She’s been putting up with me all these years.

Kelli Reed [00:05:11]:
What happened to me?

Joe Dan Reed [00:05:13]:
She fell and hit her head for sure.

Jordan Berry [00:05:15]:
And you took advantage. You’re like, hurry, slip a ring on it while she’s out. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:05:20]:
She was a registered nurse. She’s sitting there as a registered nurse. And, and here I am talking her into getting a cleaning company because she came in and said, these hospitals are so dirty. And I was like, well, let’s open up a cleaning service. And, and it’s just been, and we’ve never turned back. We, we’ve been working together over I guess 25 years and it’s just happened so quick. And, and, and, and then we got our first Laundromat and then we got another laundromat and another Laundromat. And then, and then a few years ago, what decided we were overwhelming all of our laundromats with pickup and delivery.

Joe Dan Reed [00:05:59]:
So we were taken away from the self serve customers. And Kelly goes, hey, Neil called us from what? Stockbroker from our real estate broker called us and said, hey, we have a opportunity for a property that’s not on the market. You want to take a look? We went in there. I was like, I’m not interested in this. It was a dump. I mean it was just.

Kelli Reed [00:06:21]:
But I was interested.

Joe Dan Reed [00:06:22]:
Yes. She’s always interested.

Kelli Reed [00:06:24]:
I like the dump.

Joe Dan Reed [00:06:26]:
Yes.

Jordan Berry [00:06:26]:
And Jodan, right? Come on. Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:06:31]:
So we put probably what was about $500,000 into the place after spending several million on it. But now it looks brand new. It’s a beautiful facility. And we had a vision. We put some washers and dryers in there. And then, and then, you know, springboard to. Now we have a folder in an ironer. And, and then we’re, we’re just.

Joe Dan Reed [00:06:54]:
But at first we were really nervous. We were like, are we gonna, you know, we have. It’s funny when you take nine locations and bring all the pickup and delivery to one location. Like the facility we had, it looked really small. We were like, we aren’t doing as much as we thought we were. Even though all the shells were filled up at the laundromats. But you know, you’re talking about two or three shelves at each Laundromat. And then when you do a commercial facility, 20,000 square feet and you’re like, these sales look bare.

Joe Dan Reed [00:07:24]:
What are we going to do? You know? So, so it’s like starting over again. We have to put our, our minds to work, start going out there, developing some relationships and letting people know what we do on the pickup and delivery aspect of things. And it’s, it’s come up, it’s, it’s doing pretty well. I’m happy, I’m pleased, it’s going really good.

Kelli Reed [00:07:43]:
And my advice to, to anyone that’s starting an OPL or a pickup and delivery or a laundromat, I always say Rome wasn’t built in a day. So it’s not going to happen overnight. Don’t get frustrated. You just got to keep on beating the, what do you call it, the pavement and just keep going on. I mean, it’s just not going to happen overnight. No matter what you see, what advertisements you see. It’s not passive. You can make it as passive as you possibly can.

Kelli Reed [00:08:13]:
But you know, I don’t know of a business that’s actually totally passive that I’ve.

Joe Dan Reed [00:08:17]:
Oh, it’s passive because I have her. I can just go sleep and everything gets done.

Jordan Berry [00:08:21]:
That’s the real secret to me. It passive.

Joe Dan Reed [00:08:24]:
But, but the f. But the funny part about that is I’m the impatient one. I’m very impatient and she’s patient. Like I need it now. Now, now. Let’s get it now. Let’s get it now. And just take a step back.

Kelli Reed [00:08:40]:
I think that’s all.

Jordan Berry [00:08:42]:
Yeah.

Kelli Reed [00:08:43]:
Male genders. Yeah, maybe that’s, I don’t know.

Jordan Berry [00:08:46]:
That’s me. So two for two here at least, if nothing else. Yes, yes. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I feel like we got the whole story and. Awesome episode and. No, I’m just kidding.

Joe Dan Reed [00:08:58]:
Okay, I’ll see you later, Jordan.

Kelli Reed [00:09:00]:
So that episode’s running window.

Jordan Berry [00:09:02]:
Yeah, exactly.

Joe Dan Reed [00:09:03]:
That’s called.

Jordan Berry [00:09:05]:
Yeah, exactly. I, I mean, I feel like all you just did there was like open up a thousand questions for me and give us like the overview that made me like need to know how, how you got, how you got here. So I’m really curious like on the. Well, first of all, before I say any of that, I want to say this. I’m very honored that you’re spending your 25 year meeting together anniversary with me and allowing me to be included in that. I’m very honored by that.

Kelli Reed [00:09:35]:
We’re glad to be here.

Jordan Berry [00:09:37]:
Yes.

Joe Dan Reed [00:09:37]:
We picked this day for you, Jordan.

Jordan Berry [00:09:40]:
I appreciate that. I, I now see that that’s the case.

Joe Dan Reed [00:09:43]:
Yeah, actually we, we just celebrate Our wedding. Universe. Universe. The wedd free for the most part. That’s all we really celebrate. But we just kind of. She recognized this day. I was like, do you realize what day? I was like, no, no.

Jordan Berry [00:09:57]:
This is the more important day. This is the more important day, and you’re spending it with me. That’s all that matters.

Joe Dan Reed [00:10:03]:
Absolutely.

Jordan Berry [00:10:05]:
Okay, so let’s go back now that that’s out of the way, how important I am in your life. Let’s go back to the, the janitorial company. I mean, like, I, I, I know and I knew, like, this is how you kind of foray into, into. But like starting a janitorial. Like, first of all, that’s like as random as starting a laundromat business or a laundry business. Janitorial. And you kind of like alluded to how it got started, but how did you decide to like, okay, this, we’re gonna like full throttle this thing and we’re gonna turn it into an actual business. Is it just because, Joe dan, you’re a 0 to 100 guy.

Jordan Berry [00:10:43]:
If you have an idea, you go for it? Or was this like a conscious decision, like, hey, we could build this into a big business. Let’s do it.

Joe Dan Reed [00:10:51]:
Get it right there.

Kelli Reed [00:10:52]:
Well, we, we knew. I didn’t realize at that moment we were going to parlay it into laundromats and then to an opl. But I did know. We just knew it would work. And you just have to. To beat the pavement. We started out, I think we made flyers. I think we spent 300 on flyers.

Kelli Reed [00:11:12]:
Maybe it was 500. I don’t remember exactly. And we just went to the neighborhoods and put them on the door and put them on the door. And soon our phones just started ringing. So it was pretty exciting.

Joe Dan Reed [00:11:23]:
And then we wrote. We got up to where we were cleaning around 4 to 500 houses a month. So we were just residential cleaning. Yeah. And then. Yeah. And that’s what prompt us, prompted us to get into the laundry business because all of our, all of our customers were asking us to leave the maids behind to do their laundry. And, and then Kelly came up with a bright idea.

Joe Dan Reed [00:11:46]:
Well, we need get a laundromat. We need to get a laundromat or we need to get a we. So we, what we did at our office, we put washers and dryers in our office, and that wasn’t working very well because all the laundry that was coming in, it wasn’t, you know, and then you’re trying to pick up delivery, so you’re around the Clock trying to do laundry and it just wouldn’t sustain. And then we, we were driving around one day and we found a laundromat that was closed down. It was completely empty. And I called the landlord and I said, hey, what about this place? I’d like to start this. And I didn’t know anything about distributors. I mean, think about the Internet back then, you know, 25 years ago, I mean, I couldn’t find anybody.

Joe Dan Reed [00:12:27]:
I didn’t know what a distributor was. So we’re going in this thing blind. But we ran it like a business the way we run our, our janitorial company. And you know, speaking of which, when I say we clean 500 houses a month and then we were cleaning 60 carpets a day, if we don’t do any residential cleaning at all now it’s all commercial cleaning. So our commercial cleaning is huge. But we completely, we do not do any residential cleaning. I mean, I can’t imagine all those keys we had to keep up with. I mean, I mean now everybody’s got a code to get in their house.

Joe Dan Reed [00:13:04]:
But could you imagine, imagine the walls of keys and then if the logistics, I mean, you missed a place, a key can’t find a key to pay to get their doors.

Kelli Reed [00:13:16]:
We did that once, so we had to repay, we had to pay to rekey everything, which we should have. You know, our employee lost the key. But yeah, and, and plus with commercial, you know, you have those three year, we do three year contract. So it’s a minimum of three years. So you know you’re going to have that work for three years. You don’t get that with a residential client. So they could be here tomorrow and gone the next.

Jordan Berry [00:13:40]:
Yeah. And if you were doing residential today, you’d for sure be doing short term rental cleaning, which is fast turnaround and short notice time a lot and all that too.

Kelli Reed [00:13:52]:
So it can be a pain. Definitely.

Jordan Berry [00:13:55]:
Yeah. Well, and you know what’s interesting about your story and you know, as you talking about building this, you know, janitorial business and having the patience and Rome’s not built in a day and watching your business evolve from growing to all these residential to now not having any residential and going to commercial. And then you talked about, you know, and just everybody’s on the same page. OPL’s on premise laundry. Right. It’s not open to the public, but going and buying that building and building that out, you know, and one thing that you were kind of saying there, I talk to people all the time. We’re trying to buy their first laundromat right. And it’s so nerve wracking and it’s so like, can be overwhelming and a lot of people can’t get over the hump to actually buy that business because there’s a lot of fear there and anxiety.

Jordan Berry [00:14:43]:
But I, I guess kind of what I was hearing and I felt this myself at least if, if it’s not what I, if I wasn’t hearing correctly. But like it doesn’t matter if it’s your first business or you’re trying to take your business to the next level. Like there’s that level of fear that you got to push through either way. So almost like.

Kelli Reed [00:15:00]:
Exactly.

Jordan Berry [00:15:01]:
Pushing through fear is almost like a skill that you have to develop by, by doing it right. Buy that first business, start that first business, put the flyers out, invest, you know, a third of your fifteen hundred dollars in flyers and try to like drum up business. Like it doesn’t go away even, even if you’re running successful operation and you still gotta go.

Kelli Reed [00:15:21]:
Also, I think sometimes fear can make you push harder and make you more successful.

Joe Dan Reed [00:15:27]:
Well, I, I think there’s two type, two types of people in this world. There’s thinkers and doers. I do it and then think about it. So you can sit. I mean I have people calling me all the time and, and calling her and hey, well, I’m thinking about getting the laundromat business. Or I found a, I found a laundromat and then they call me back six months later. Well, I haven’t done anything yet. I’m like, well, you know, you could have already been there, you know, eight months ago and, and been well on your way.

Joe Dan Reed [00:15:55]:
I mean I, I think a lot of you don’t believe everything you think, right? So I believe in taking big risks and I, I guess you can fail on some of those risks. I mean, we’ve opened several. I mean we’ve owned a thrift store. If you like to be stolen from, that’s a great business to be in because everybody’s gonna steal from you.

Jordan Berry [00:16:14]:
We’ve owned, I love to be stolen from personally.

Joe Dan Reed [00:16:18]:
Thrift store. We, we owned an aqua massage where you go in and these, these water, these big water beds and the people come in. Aqua massage. And we owned a fitness center. I mean so dealing with that, oh, that was the worst.

Kelli Reed [00:16:32]:
A lot of egos, A lot of.

Joe Dan Reed [00:16:34]:
Egos to deal with. And then, you know, we own Chalets and Gatlinburg and you know, in some Airbnbs, but those are the easiest because it’s all hands off because we have a management company take care of all that. But yeah, like, to. To allude to your last question, you know, just. Just going in and doing it. I mean, you. You. You can sit here and just think, think, think, think, think all day long and you’re never gonna.

Kelli Reed [00:17:02]:
You can.

Joe Dan Reed [00:17:03]:
Here’s. Here’s the funny part. You can think of everything that you think’s gonna come up. And then once you close, then you have a hundred more things to think about because it’s gonna hit you at once. I didn’t think about that. Oh, I didn’t think about that. Right. It’s kind of like.

Joe Dan Reed [00:17:17]:
And every time someone’s stealing from you, like in the laundromat, they’re thinking, okay, we have a card. Card, you know, now it’s all cards. Oh, they’re not gonna be able to steal from us. Oh, the. They’re thinking of another level.

Kelli Reed [00:17:30]:
Will, there’s a way. Trust me.

Joe Dan Reed [00:17:32]:
They have a card scam. There’s all kinds of ways. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:17:35]:
Yeah. I’ve. I’ve always felt like I’m playing a game of cat and mouse in my laundromat. Right? Like, oh, yeah. People think of a way to, like, ruin my business or steal from me or, you know, whatever. Even just like, charging the phone. And I’ll like, I’ll like, okay, I’ll solve that problem. Ok.

Jordan Berry [00:17:52]:
That’s not going to happen anymore. And then there’s some. There’s like something else, right. And some other creative way to, you know, make my life miserable sometimes. Right? Yeah, I know, man. It’s. It’s crazy. It’s crazy.

Jordan Berry [00:18:08]:
Okay, so I love that, too. And, you know, this is actually time. I’m. I’m really glad we’re having this conversation right now because just yesterday I was talking to my wife and I was like, just like, lamenting the fact that I don’t have the skill. I feel. I was telling her, I feel like people have the skill where they can sit down and make a plan and execute it and things go according to plan. And I was like, I think I just don’t have that skill set because I can try to think about stuff, but once I do it, I’m so far. Laundromat Resource is a great example.

Jordan Berry [00:18:41]:
I’m so far away from where I thought I was going with Laundromat Resource that there’s no way I could have sat down and. And plan this out. Right. Same with the laundromats, like, all that stuff. Right. It’s just. I was just telling her Like, I don’t have the skill set, but I love what you said is like, you know, do, do first. And I’ve, I’ve become like a very big proponent of learn while doing.

Jordan Berry [00:19:04]:
I used to be like, learn by doing, right? And now I’m like, learn while doing. Like, go do it. And then while you’re doing it, go watch Joe dan and Kelly’s YouTube channel and learn how they’re doing their business. Right. And like, implement those things because that’s how you really, if you want to supercharge your learning, you learn while doing. I think, for sure.

Joe Dan Reed [00:19:24]:
I totally agree. It’s like, I couldn’t tell you what a water. When, when I started in laundromats example, I couldn’t tell you what a water valve was. I remember I paid this guy 80 bucks. This was 20 years ago, $80 to come. And I had some kind of error code and it wouldn’t drain. And he came and opened up the drain valve and got a bra wire out. And I was like, that’s $80.

Joe Dan Reed [00:19:51]:
And so then, so then you want.

Kelli Reed [00:19:53]:
To learn real quick how to do.

Joe Dan Reed [00:19:54]:
The small, you better know, you better know how to do the small repairs because then they can add up quickly. And, and so you, and that can be another business within itself. You know, a service business. And, and so, you know, and you know, calling a distributor to get your, your machine service, it’s going to cost you a lot of money. So you need to come up with the correct resources in order to fix those machines. So, so you don’t break the bank. You know, you’re going to hurt the bottom line of your business.

Kelli Reed [00:20:26]:
And a lot of times they’re not near you, so you’re going to have to wait for them to come four hours away or two hours away. So then you’ve got that machine sitting idle. So every day it’s sitting idle, there goes money down the drain.

Joe Dan Reed [00:20:40]:
And reputation.

Kelli Reed [00:20:42]:
And your reputation. Yeah. People don’t want to come into a laundromat with out of service tags everywhere. They just don’t want to do it.

Joe Dan Reed [00:20:49]:
No matter how. You can have an old laundromat next door and everything working, and then you have a new laundromat next door. It’s beautiful. But half the machines are working. They’re gonna go to the old one because that guy looks like he cares more.

Jordan Berry [00:21:02]:
Yep, yep, yep. And I know that’s a, that’s a really common, you know, if you’re living specifically, like in the Midwest a lot like your, your distributor is not Necessarily on your back door. Right. In California, we’ve got distributors, like, living in our backyards, but we have the same problem. Not because. Yeah, not because it takes four hours for them to get there, but because they’ve got a backlog of, you know, 40 other laundromats they get to before years. So we still have machines that sit. So, you know that $80 that it took to remove the bra wire.

Jordan Berry [00:21:34]:
First of all, it’s not $80 for a visit anymore. It’s.

Kelli Reed [00:21:37]:
No.

Jordan Berry [00:21:38]:
Yeah, those prices get jacked up.

Kelli Reed [00:21:40]:
They’ll charge you, what, 225.

Joe Dan Reed [00:21:42]:
225 trick charge.

Kelli Reed [00:21:44]:
And.

Joe Dan Reed [00:21:45]:
Yeah, you know, and, you know, they.

Kelli Reed [00:21:47]:
Mark up all their. Their parts, you know, and they have to make money as well.

Jordan Berry [00:21:54]:
Totally, totally. But those hidden costs, Kelly, that you mentioned are. Those are real costs, right? Like the downtime where the machines aren’t turning, they’re not making you money. And then Joe didn’t do like that. Reputation there is. Your reputation is everything, right? Whether you’re creating content online or you’re running a janitorial business or a laundromat business or whatever. Like, that reputation is.

Kelli Reed [00:22:17]:
Is.

Jordan Berry [00:22:17]:
It’s worth real dollars to your pocket. Right. That’s why Google reviews are so important, because that’s reputation. And you start losing that reputation for keeping machines rolling. I mean, your. Your laundromat pretty quickly turns into a zombie mat there where people don’t want to clean.

Joe Dan Reed [00:22:37]:
I mean, you can’t make a first impression twice. So we’re. We’re of the thinking. I don’t know if these are regular customers. It doesn’t matter. You have to think about each customer. This is the first time they’re coming into your laundromat. And that’s the way we think.

Joe Dan Reed [00:22:51]:
Because if. If that their first impression is that half their machines are broken, they’re not coming back.

Kelli Reed [00:22:57]:
Right. And that’s like, one thing that we learned during COVID You know, it was six feet apart. For everything we’ve learned, even after Covid’s over, people still actually like to be six feet apart from. You know, so we’ve rearranged how our folding tables are our seating because people just like, away.

Joe Dan Reed [00:23:19]:
We even eliminated a bulkhead. We did, yes. Just to create more space. And for seating and folding, we had people thanking us, and our business rev. Our revenue went up because of that. It’s amazing.

Jordan Berry [00:23:31]:
Wow. Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:23:33]:
Yeah. Less is more. I mean.

Jordan Berry [00:23:35]:
Yeah, yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:23:37]:
Well.

Jordan Berry [00:23:37]:
And that is like, you know, paying attention to what your customers want and what they’re looking for in a Space and creating, creating a space for them. Right. Like stuff in your. And listen, I’m gonna just acknowledge, like some markets, like if you’re in New York or you’re in San Francisco or something, you’re probably just gonna have to stuff your store because your spaces tend to be smaller and stuff like that.

Kelli Reed [00:24:00]:
Right, right.

Jordan Berry [00:24:01]:
If you can, if you can create space for people, like, that feels a lot better. You know, that feeling that these customers get when they come to your store is what makes them come back or not come back. Right. If they feel like your store is dirty, they’re not coming back. They feel like they’re frustrated because they’re playing slots. When they put quarters in your machine and they’re not sure if it’s going to work or they swipe their card and they’re not sure if it’s going to work, they’re going to go somewhere else. Right. Like that’s, they will.

Jordan Berry [00:24:28]:
That’s what it’s all about.

Joe Dan Reed [00:24:29]:
Absolutely, absolutely. It’s a customer service driven industry, period. Yeah, yeah.

Kelli Reed [00:24:36]:
So go ahead, go ahead. No, go ahead.

Jordan Berry [00:24:40]:
I was, I was just gonna say it seems obvious, right? But that has not been how the industry is treated our business, you know, until I’d say recently. Like that is making a rise, like custom focus on customer service and customer experience is making a rise in our industry, which I think is a good thing all the way around. But you said it very casually. But it’s not a common practice. I would say even still, like there’s a lot more people doing it focusing on that now. But even still, I’d say it’s not common to focus on the customer experience in an intentional way.

Joe Dan Reed [00:25:13]:
Very true. And it’s amazing the changes we’ve seen in this industry just 10 years ago to now. And just from our podcast, 36 to now. I mean, it’s amazing just from five years ago to now. I mean, it’s the, the industry has changed so much, but I think most industries are changing. People are time poor people want, want their time. They want to outsource their laundry. You know, it’s kind of like they used to cut grass 20 years ago.

Joe Dan Reed [00:25:40]:
Nobody, everybody cut their own grass now everybody has a grass cutting surface. Well, we do. Yeah. I’m not gonna get out there on lawnmower. I mean, what’s my time? I mean, I value my time. And then why would we want to do five loads of laundry in our house when we can send it off? And you know, time is money. So I think people are looking at that. So I don’t know.

Kelli Reed [00:26:04]:
I think the average. Is. When I was doing some research, that the average family of four will spend about six hours a week doing laundry. Six to eight hours, and that’s your entire Saturday, your entire Sunday. So, I mean, it’s easy. Just put it on the porch, let us do it, or let, you know, pick up a delivery service, do it, and get your day back.

Joe Dan Reed [00:26:25]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:26:28]:
That’s. Yeah, that’s huge. I. I agree. I mean, I think we are going that way. I don’t. I think there’s. There’s people who don’t think that, but I do think we are going that way, so we’ll see.

Jordan Berry [00:26:38]:
Though it is interesting. I think there have been a lot of changes happening, you know, probably more in the last two years than the previous two decades combined, I would say.

Joe Dan Reed [00:26:48]:
Well, Jordan, have you ever gone to a. Have you ever gone to a movie? And. And it’s a terrible movie. I don’t want my money back. I want my time back.

Jordan Berry [00:26:57]:
Yeah, right.

Joe Dan Reed [00:26:58]:
I care less about the money out. Where’d my time go? Wasting two hours to watch this dog movie, you know? Terrible.

Jordan Berry [00:27:06]:
Yeah. I’m curious. I mean, since you brought it up, maybe we could dig into it just a little bit. Like, what changes have you seen in the last 10 years or the last five years?

Joe Dan Reed [00:27:16]:
Automation.

Jordan Berry [00:27:17]:
Which things are you seeing?

Joe Dan Reed [00:27:18]:
Yeah, well, automation, AI Card.

Kelli Reed [00:27:24]:
A lot of laundries are going to coinless laundries. There was a debate about that. Some people think, oh, no, all coin, all card. Some people think hybrid. So most.

Jordan Berry [00:27:37]:
What are you guys at on that? Yeah, where are you guys at? We.

Joe Dan Reed [00:27:41]:
I wish we were all card. We have two stores that do take quarters, but I let the quarters fill. Fill up so much. Kelly goes, are you ever gonna go and get those quarters? I say, I don’t care. Make them just get a card. Tell them to get a card. Tell them to get a card. So I.

Joe Dan Reed [00:27:55]:
I will go empty the quarters maybe once a month, and they’re so full that I can hardly get the box out. But I don’t care because I’m trying to push them to card. But I will. I will empty it, but I don’t like to. I could. You want to talk about a video? I could do. You could pull that thing out so full you can’t get it out of the box. But I could care less.

Joe Dan Reed [00:28:18]:
But most people, they. They appreciate the card. I mean, we can’t go to concerts now with cash. You can’t go to a football game with cash. I can’t go anywhere. It seems like. So what, what makes laundromats any different? People don’t want to get quarters. They really don’t.

Joe Dan Reed [00:28:33]:
So when, when like the old school people say, oh, you have to have quarters, you have to have quarters. I was thinking that for a minute and I was like, well, I don’t want to be an old school person. I want to be a forward thinker. I want to get on the cutting edge of technology. I want to be on the front end of everything that’s going. And that’s one reason why we try to hire a lot of youth. Because I don’t want to be complacent into what, in what we do. You know, we talk about what we’ve seen in the last 10 years.

Joe Dan Reed [00:28:57]:
I like to feel like we’re on the cutting edge of everything that’s been happening. Because if like even the machines to automation to, I don’t know, just, you name it, everything.

Jordan Berry [00:29:11]:
Yeah, well, even like curbside, like you’re not doing the written, handwritten tickets anymore, you’re not planning your own routes anymore.

Kelli Reed [00:29:20]:
It automatically runs the credit card. So I’m not, you know, going, oh my gosh, you know, I need to run this credit card or my staff. So it’s actually, you know, in the automation, you know, having, having a folder or having an ironer, it’s just allowed us to have less employees but we’re doing a, a better job because everything is uniform. So everything you put through the folder is folded the same way, is iron the same way. So everything is uniform. It’s kind of like if you go to McDonald’s and you order a Big Mac, whether it’s in Hawaii or Kentucky, they’re going to make it the same way.

Joe Dan Reed [00:29:55]:
Yes, exactly. And it’s like when we went to that clean show, we, we didn’t go there with an intention to buying anything. And then we walked by this ESP booth and we bought that spotter. Steam spot.

Jordan Berry [00:30:08]:
Yeah, yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:30:09]:
And so it’s, it’s not here yet. I guess they’re building it or it’s on the front end. But we said, well let’s get that immediately because that we could really utilize that because the spotter we have, I was get, I was getting ready to have to run air to it. I have to put a steam boiler on it. And, and then they had this just self contained and it would do any spot. And so we were like, we’re on that, let’s go ahead and get it. Then they had the robotic arms that are folding I want to fire myself. That’s the point.

Joe Dan Reed [00:30:39]:
You know, that’s.

Jordan Berry [00:30:40]:
That’s exactly the point. Sit back. Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:30:42]:
As much automation as I can possibly get, I’m all for. Right.

Kelli Reed [00:30:47]:
And we’re not. We’re not. I’m not wanting to replace employees. I’m wanting to make all of our jobs more efficient. He probably would. Well, you know, we love our team members.

Jordan Berry [00:30:59]:
Yeah, totally. And, you know, make them like, if you could do. If you could do 10 times the volume with the same number of employees because you’re utilizing folding robots and, you know, software and this, you know, the presto spotter and, you know, the. The ironer and the fold. Like. Like, if you didn’t have the ironer and the fold, which I want to talk about, by the way, but if you didn’t have those and your employees were having to do that by hand, you’d have to have a lot more employees and you’d be less productive, right?

Joe Dan Reed [00:31:28]:
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Jordan Berry [00:31:30]:
So it’s not. Yeah, yeah. So it’s not even about necessarily, like, replacing employees. Like, we’re probably always going to need, at least for a while here, going to need people doing the stuff, but if you can make them 10 times more productive by putting the right tools in their hands. And this is what. This is what humans have been doing forever. Right? Like, that’s right from. From the time we made the wheel or picked up a hammer or whatever.

Jordan Berry [00:31:51]:
Like, that’s the whole point of these tools is to make us more.

Kelli Reed [00:31:54]:
Right. And for employee retention. Yeah, you can retain your employees because it’s not, you know, it’s not putting wear and tear on their body every day. They’re not doing repetitive motions, you know, folding these big, heavy comforters or these big sheets or whatever. You know, it’s much easier on their body. So it’s enabled us to retain employees better.

Joe Dan Reed [00:32:16]:
And they love using the machines. They were intimidated.

Kelli Reed [00:32:18]:
They were intimidated at first. They all fight. I want that machine.

Jordan Berry [00:32:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay. So. So. So you had the janitorial business. You’re like, hey, we need to start doing laundry for people. You.

Jordan Berry [00:32:33]:
You found that vacant building and you. And you. That you kind of foray into laundry. Is that right?

Joe Dan Reed [00:32:40]:
No, no.

Kelli Reed [00:32:42]:
That’s how we to our. Into our opl. We already had nine.

Joe Dan Reed [00:32:47]:
The first launderman come with Queen laundry.

Kelli Reed [00:32:49]:
Oh, I’m sorry.

Joe Dan Reed [00:32:50]:
Yeah. Are you talking about like.

Jordan Berry [00:32:52]:
Yeah, the first, very first, very first.

Kelli Reed [00:32:54]:
Very first Laundromat that was actually in. We had bought an office building, and we actually put a small opl in the basement of our office, of our first office that we purchased, I think we had, what, washers.

Joe Dan Reed [00:33:09]:
Four washers and four drivers from HH Greg, because I didn’t know what a distributor was.

Jordan Berry [00:33:15]:
That’s awesome.

Joe Dan Reed [00:33:16]:
HH Greg. And then we. They’re not in business anymore either. Gosh. Shows you how old we are. And then. And then we were driving around one day, and we saw that empty laundromat. It was empty.

Joe Dan Reed [00:33:29]:
And. And then that was called Commonwealth Coin Laundry. Right. That’s what we named it.

Jordan Berry [00:33:34]:
And then.

Joe Dan Reed [00:33:35]:
Then soon after, we. We switched everything. Splash them out laundry, so.

Jordan Berry [00:33:39]:
Right. Yeah. Did. Was that. That one that you found? Was that one open to the public, like an actual laundromat, or did you just.

Kelli Reed [00:33:47]:
Okay, yes, it was open to the public.

Joe Dan Reed [00:33:49]:
Yes. Yeah, it was rocking.

Jordan Berry [00:33:52]:
Yes.

Kelli Reed [00:33:52]:
And then we. Yeah, we were able to sell that laundromat and parlay it into additional laundromats and gain more stores.

Joe Dan Reed [00:34:01]:
And they kept the name, come with Coin Laundry. We let them keep it. Tore us up. And Kelly goes, well, we have to come up with another name. Then we found another laundromat. We put half that money into redoing that one, and then we got another one with less than two months later. And it’s just been a cumulative snowball. Yes.

Jordan Berry [00:34:21]:
Yeah. Dang. That’s crazy.

Joe Dan Reed [00:34:23]:
Has it been.

Jordan Berry [00:34:24]:
Has it been challenging? Like, because you guys still have your janitorial business, right?

Kelli Reed [00:34:28]:
We do.

Jordan Berry [00:34:30]:
I mean, you’re running that. You’ve had all these other businesses. You’ve got Laundromat. Like, is that challenging being in multiple?

Kelli Reed [00:34:38]:
Actually, I would say the more employees we have, it actually makes it easier. We cross train our employees from our janitorial to the laundromats. So if any of our current employees want additional hours, and we need additional hours for large orders that we might get unexpectedly or simply if an employee calls in sick or you terminate someone or someone is, you know, quits. It just. It. It’s actually made our lives a lot. EAS Year.

Jordan Berry [00:35:09]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:35:09]:
And I’ve quit a few times.

Kelli Reed [00:35:11]:
Only about 15.

Joe Dan Reed [00:35:12]:
Oh, I’ve just tried. I said I’m done.

Kelli Reed [00:35:15]:
I quit.

Joe Dan Reed [00:35:15]:
And then I come back 15 minutes later. Okay, I’m back.

Jordan Berry [00:35:20]:
Ready to go. Kind of probably wish you quit.

Joe Dan Reed [00:35:23]:
Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:35:24]:
Just let me handle it, man. That’s funny.

Joe Dan Reed [00:35:27]:
And that’s. That’s a. That’s a great part. Because she takes care of most of personnel because, yeah, she’s a lot more patient than me. So. So it’s good. She’s got a. Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:35:38]:
It’s. Yeah, it’s good.

Kelli Reed [00:35:39]:
We would have employees if it were.

Joe Dan Reed [00:35:41]:
Well, because I’m there.

Kelli Reed [00:35:45]:
I’m just kidding.

Jordan Berry [00:35:45]:
Yeah, but. But I mean, like, you know, I know. I know you’re kind of kidding about that, but genuinely, like, you guys have, like, complimentary skill sets, right? I’m sure that has a ton to do with why you guys are as successful as you are, you know? And I was just talking with another couple who own Laundromats. I was doing an interview for the podcast with them, and they’ve like, he goes out, finds the deals, analyzes the deals. He comes up with the ideas. He’s the visionary. And then she kind of runs operations personnel, keeps everything organized, and is more of, like, the integrator stuff. We’re talking about, like, the book Rocket Fuel, which is basically like, hey, if you’re stuck because you have all these big ideas and you’re overwhelmed and stressed because you can’t get them done, you can’t retain employees or you can’t keep a consistent product or service because you get bored and you’re off to the new thing or whatever, you need a Kelly to come in and help, you know, integrate that.

Jordan Berry [00:36:40]:
And then when you get those two together, it’s like, you know, you’ve got the vision, and you’ve got somebody to bring the vision to life, and it’s like rocket fuel for your business. Now all of a sudden, you can own in multiple industries, you can own these massive, you know, cleaning companies, this massive opl, plus a bunch of Laundromats and a thrift store and aqua massage and yada, yada, yada, Airbnbs, right? You’d be all over the place because Joe Dan’s cooking up these crazy ideas, and Kelly’s like, all right, let’s make it happen. You know?

Joe Dan Reed [00:37:08]:
Well, yeah, it’s funny how when she sees a place or something, like, if we see a lot of mat or something shut down, like the building, I’m like, I don’t want anything to do with that. Because I’m thinking, what. What? Part of me says, you see, she wants it.

Jordan Berry [00:37:26]:
And we.

Joe Dan Reed [00:37:26]:
She’s vision how she wants everything, and guess who has to go do it.

Jordan Berry [00:37:30]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:37:31]:
Yeah, that’s. That’s one reason I was like, okay, work. Yes. I got these contracts.

Jordan Berry [00:37:36]:
You’re the muscle, man. You’re the muscle.

Joe Dan Reed [00:37:38]:
Yeah, yeah. But you know. And you know what? There’s. Speaking of Laundromats, I feel personally where people mess up is not becoming their own general contractor when they’re building these things out. If they hire a gc, they’re going everything through there. See. So that’s why I’ve, through the years have developed relationships with drywall people. I know plumbers, I know electricians.

Joe Dan Reed [00:38:05]:
And so if you can be your own GC, you’re going to save, you could save possibly 40% of the entire construction. Construction cost because of what the GC would charge you for every, for every trade that you need to build a laundromat, especially for the infrastructure, you know.

Jordan Berry [00:38:23]:
Yeah, that’s, that’s huge. That’s massive. It, it’s, it’s. Well, okay, let me back up. For, for your laundromats, have you, have you mostly like purchased them? Have you built any out? Have you? I mean other than like the opl, Are you like purchasing them? Turnkey. Are you purchasing them and redoing them? What’s kind of the mix been look like?

Joe Dan Reed [00:38:50]:
Well, how it’s been. We, we usually find them that’s dilapidated. That’s what we look for. Yeah. Shows, we call them S holes. That’s what we’ve always called them. So we’ve always called them shoals. So when we see a show we say, oh, that’s so beautiful.

Joe Dan Reed [00:39:06]:
And now everybody in the industry calls them zombie masks. But me and Kelly always called everything we see a show and she’ll call me, say, I see a beautiful show. I said, oh God, please, no, not horrible.

Kelli Reed [00:39:19]:
Horrible.

Joe Dan Reed [00:39:19]:
You want it horrible. And so for the most part, we’ve been lucky. We haven’t, we haven’t purchased any laundromats. We usually just have taken over like what people have just. And they basically almost abandoned them or they’re just just hanging on by the edge. You know, they’re just barely hanging on. And so I, I think it’s very important to talk to in a one bit of advice I can give everybody out there. So when someone’s saying they want $70,000 for a laundromat real quick, right, so I want $70,000 for this laundromat.

Joe Dan Reed [00:39:52]:
Well, make sure talk to the landlord first because they might not have a lease. They might have a 30 day notice to get out or a 60 day, they’re waiting for them to get out and they’re waiting to turn that into something else. So if you talk to the landlord first and explain to the landlord, hey, I’m willing to give you a 15 year lease with a 5 year option or 10 with 2 fives or whatever it is and then you can negotiate with them some of the construction costs that you’ll need to, to get in on your loi to get in. So I, I think that’s. And then like. So for the most part we did build out a brand new one. We, we built our, a big store on Reynolds Road. And I’ll never forget the, the distributor came in and said, oh, these numbers don’t look good.

Joe Dan Reed [00:40:44]:
What was it? The, the demographics don’t look good. I said, ah, don’t worry about demographics. I’m not worried about demographics. We’re gonna build the store out. It’s the top producing store we have because I believe, and Kelly believes we were, we were talking if you build a nice big store and have a lot of space, I think what is that store? 5000s feet, something like that. So we built. And then we have a thousand square feet in the back. I wish we had pushed all the way back, but we negotiated so well on the loi that it was minimal cost really.

Joe Dan Reed [00:41:19]:
If you, if you’re, if you’re smart enough and you can negotiate well enough, you can get, you build a brand new infrastructure with the, with the land landowners in their pot pocket for the most part. So, but for one reason is we saw the bathrooms had to be in the back of the building. Well, they weren’t in the back of the building, but we wanted them in the back of the building. So I’m going to give you a quick example. I said, yeah, yeah. So I said on my loi. I said, well, I want the bathrooms in the back of the building. I need you guys to build the bathrooms or at least plumb them.

Joe Dan Reed [00:41:56]:
And, but I knew that, that if they did that that would run the water lines all the way down the middle and then I could branch off to each bulkhead, you see. And so I think our plumbing only cost us out of pocket on that was what, about $24,000?

Kelli Reed [00:42:14]:
24.

Joe Dan Reed [00:42:14]:
When it would have cost probably $150,000 in plumbing alone. So it’s thinking about the. If you walk in a place, you really need to think it through before you write your loi. Because you can ask, ask for the moon. Somebody settle for things you’ll never. They settle for LED lights. They gave us gas lines. They gave us automatic door.

Joe Dan Reed [00:42:37]:
Automatic door. I mean we asked for things that we would never expect them to say yes.

Kelli Reed [00:42:41]:
They paid for the flooring.

Joe Dan Reed [00:42:43]:
They paid for the flooring. We asked for it. They just said okay because they saw that we were going to be there for 20 years.

Jordan Berry [00:42:50]:
And yeah, well, and, and if you think about it from like a landlord Perspective, right? It’s like, you know, if, you know, because people are like, what do you, what do you mean? Like, why would a landlord just give you that money? Right? But if you think about it from a landlord perspective, right? Commercial real estate, it’s, it’s valued based on a cap rate. And that cap rate is based on that, their net income, just like our businesses are valued on our net income, right? Well, if, if they’ve got a long term stable tenant coming in that’s going to produce, going to be paying rent, it actually drives up the value of their, their property really quickly, you know, and especially if it’s in like a good area and stuff, their cap rate’s pretty low. It’s a 5, 6, 7% cap rate or whatever. Even just, you know, a couple hundred dollars extra a month could be worth six figures to them. So if they say, hey, we’ll give you 200,000, 400,000, whatever, to, you know, to help you or do that much work for you to help started, you’re like, whoa, why would they do that? Well, it’s because on the back end, when you’re in there and you’re operating, you’re paying full rent and everything, they’re actually getting seven figures worth of value out of that, right? So that’s where it makes sense. And that’s why you can, that’s why you can ask for the moon. And sometimes you’ll get it, sometimes you won’t, but sometimes you’ll get it. So that’s smart.

Jordan Berry [00:44:19]:
That’s real smart.

Joe Dan Reed [00:44:20]:
It depends on, and it also depends on who you’re dealing with a lot of times, and which shopping center and who’s, who would like. They were really excited to have us in there. But, but it’s funny because when we went in there, we couldn’t get the lease at first because Joanne Fabrics was in there and they didn’t allow a laundromat in their shop in their lease. So we had to go to Joann’s. Well, the landlord did. They said, hey, we really want these guys in here. Can you guys release that? And so they signed off to let us in there. And of course, three years later, Joanne’s is out of business anyway.

Joe Dan Reed [00:44:53]:
But, but I can’t believe that. But now I don’t know. That’s, that’s crazy that somebody would have in their lease not to allow a laundromat.

Jordan Berry [00:45:02]:
We did that to ourselves. Yeah, go ahead.

Joe Dan Reed [00:45:05]:
Yeah, we did do that. Yes, yes. The industry did that to themselves. Yes. A lot of honor mats. Have a Very bad reputation. I mean, we’re big on lighting, security, and, you know, just customer service, period. Yeah, it could be.

Jordan Berry [00:45:20]:
I didn’t mean to cut you off, Kelly. Sorry, go ahead.

Kelli Reed [00:45:22]:
That’s okay. I was gonna say she’s used to me, in essence, what you all were gonna say, like.

Jordan Berry [00:45:27]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, it’s on us for having a battery. Right. And, like, I run across these, like, dilapidated laundromats or shut down laundromats a lot where the landlords won’t let somebody come in another laundromat because they don’t want a laundry anymore. Because the. The. Yeah, because the previous owner, like, let homeless people hang out, and it was like a headache for them. Right.

Jordan Berry [00:45:49]:
And their return on headache was a bad ratio for them. Right. It was affecting other tenants, which affects the value of their property. Right. So they’re like, no, we don’t want to deal with laundromats anymore. So you got to come in and sort of sell your vision of, like, I know what you’re thinking about when you think of laundromats, and I know what the last owner was like. Here’s our vision of what this is going to be like. And here’s especially for you guys.

Jordan Berry [00:46:13]:
Like, we’ve done this before. You know, look at what we’ve done. And this is what we want to do in your place.

Kelli Reed [00:46:19]:
Right? It has. It has. With our last store, you know, they. We didn’t even have to sell it to them. You know, they wanted us in there.

Joe Dan Reed [00:46:27]:
Regardless because they knew who. Who we were, and they. They knew what we’ve done in this community, and they wanted us there. That. That was. And then we have people calling us all the time, are you interested in opening in this shopping center? And I’m getting kind of tired. I don’t know if I want to continue to build Laundromats, but I mean, I will if the opportunity’s right. You know, we’re.

Joe Dan Reed [00:46:48]:
We’re a little bit picky now. We were going to build in Louisville, but the guy wouldn’t call us back because he didn’t want a laundromat. Just got down.

Kelli Reed [00:46:56]:
Right. And once again, they had done it to themselves. They. So they, you know, completely eliminated the laundry out of the shopping center.

Jordan Berry [00:47:05]:
Yep.

Joe Dan Reed [00:47:06]:
Yeah.

Kelli Reed [00:47:06]:
And that was a shame because, you know, the infrastructure was there, and it would have been a great opportunity for us to do that. But, you know, they wanted to go in a totally different direction. And I get.

Joe Dan Reed [00:47:17]:
Yeah, yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:47:18]:
Which you can’t blame them. I mean, you know, I don’t I don’t. I think our, our reputation is beginning to shift, like, as an industry. Right. It’s beginning to shift. We’re starting modernized. We’re starting to see that, oh, hey, we could reinvest in our businesses, and it’s going to cost us some money, but we’re going to make a boatload of money on the back end because customers are starved for a decent thing that’d be great, like a decent laundry experience. Right.

Jordan Berry [00:47:44]:
Like, they’ve been putting up with garbage for so long. And when people think of laundromats, they’re not thinking of splash them out laundry. They’re thinking of the flickering. The, the laundromats before you took them over. Right. That’s what they’re thinking.

Kelli Reed [00:47:56]:
Right. With the bars on the windows.

Jordan Berry [00:47:58]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:48:00]:
Flickery lights. Yeah.

Kelli Reed [00:48:03]:
A couple of mice in the corner.

Jordan Berry [00:48:05]:
You know, somebody’s sleeping in the back.

Joe Dan Reed [00:48:07]:
Yeah, yeah. It’s bad. Yeah, that’s, that’s. Isn’t that the truth? Yeah. And that’s, that’s the beautiful thing about what’s happened. I think I blame social media, too, because it’s like, okay, I have a channel. You have a channel. We’re constantly talking about laundromats, and we’re constantly talking bad, bad about the ones who are doing a crappy job.

Joe Dan Reed [00:48:30]:
You know, the, the, the shows out there, you know, we’re talking bad about them. And so they’re not going to start a channel or start displaying what they have. And so the people who are seeing what we’re doing, what you’re doing, what everybody else is doing, who’s. Who, who’s an influencer, they’re saying, hey, well, I’d love to have a laundromat. Because they’re not looking at what they used to be. They’re seeing what we’re doing now. And, and they want to be. We make it look fun.

Joe Dan Reed [00:49:00]:
It is fun, actually. I like it. If you’re not going to a dump every day, it can be fun, right?

Jordan Berry [00:49:07]:
Yeah, yeah, no, totally. And, you know, it’s. I think, you know, obviously, like, the social media thing comes with pros and cons, but I think right now, at least, the pros are massive for our business because there is a lot of pressure to, on our industry to raise our level here. And it’s because of, like, channels like yours where, you know, you guys are running awesome operations and then you’re just showing people, like, what you’re doing and.

Joe Dan Reed [00:49:35]:
Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:49:36]:
And then, you know, people coming on the podcast and saying, here’s how I run my business. Here’s the struggles I’ve had, but here’s, you know, the good, the bad, the ugly. I say the one downside, which I think you guys do a good job of avoiding. But the one downside is there’s. It’s really flashy to see, you know, quarters, buckets of quarters and wads of cash and, and, you know, for the message to come across that you’re just getting all this stuff. And it’s easy, right?

Joe Dan Reed [00:50:03]:
Yeah, yeah. Like my quarter collection today. And which, which is. It’s fun, it’s easy on their eyes to watch. But I think people, when you do.

Kelli Reed [00:50:11]:
That.

Joe Dan Reed [00:50:13]:
If you’re doing that show, show your numbers so people will really understand what you’re. What you’re doing and how you’re making what you’re making. But if you’re just going to show me that you’re dumping quarter long, that’s not really showing me what you’re, you know, what you’re making. I don’t know. Yeah, but there’s some.

Jordan Berry [00:50:31]:
What it takes and what it takes to get all those quarters too, right? Like, the quarters don’t just show up like, you had to go make a deal, you had to go take a laundromat that’s already failed and make it successful. Like, that’s not easy to do.

Kelli Reed [00:50:45]:
You’re going to change its reputation. Yeah, that doesn’t happen overnight. You know, we figure, what, six months, really start seeing a difference. It’s not going to happen overnight. And, you know, I’ve talked to some new laundromat owners that, you know, are really down and, you know, I try to explain to them it doesn’t happen overnight, so. And I, in their case, I wish they would have have seeked, you know, consulting or some type. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:51:14]:
With you.

Joe Dan Reed [00:51:15]:
Yeah. It’s like, yeah, it’s like they just don’t see. They just jump in. They think they’re going to make a million bucks because they’re watching all these channels, right?

Kelli Reed [00:51:25]:
And that’s like, I had a lady call me and she’s like, yeah, I see you have a dog wash, you know, attached to one of your stores. She’s like, I want to open a laundromat just so I can have a dog wash. I’m like, listen, your idea is probably not. Not a good idea that, you know, and I explained to her and she didn’t realize the equipment cost and, you know, all these things. And she’s like, equipment really costs that much?

Joe Dan Reed [00:51:50]:
I was like, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, you’re and it’s. It’s going up every day. It’s. It’s amazing. And don’t think you’re going to get such a great interest rate. And then, you know, some of these places, you’re prime plus one or two, so.

Jordan Berry [00:52:04]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [00:52:04]:
Yeah. Or two. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:52:05]:
No, it’s. Yeah. I mean, I think one of the big. One of the big beefs I have right now is that, you know, kind of everybody, like across the board, not just in our industry, but across the board, when Covid hit and we had like the supply. Supply issues and all that stuff, prices went up. But in our industry, when the supply issues were resolved, nothing came down.

Joe Dan Reed [00:52:27]:
Nothing came back down. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:52:28]:
Right.

Kelli Reed [00:52:30]:
Going up.

Jordan Berry [00:52:31]:
Yeah, it’s only been going up even since then. So we had this, like. I mean, it’s always been going up. Right. The steady rise. But then we had this big bump and then we’re back to the rise. But like that, that’s like the hidden killer of like those inflation years that we had. Right.

Jordan Berry [00:52:47]:
Where inflation was high. It’s not necessarily only that inflation was high for a, a couple years. Right. That hurts. But it’s then that. That’s the new baseline now. And so it just kind of compounds. We’re not, you know, we’re not going at 3% a year.

Jordan Berry [00:53:03]:
We’ve kicked it up to here, and now we’re going 3% or whatever the case is. Right. And the same thing with the prices in our industry, which is it’s, it’s tough. That’s. That’s one beef I have. I know costs have gone up for everybody, but that’s one beef I have right now.

Joe Dan Reed [00:53:16]:
Yeah, you have to think of it. So if you’re spending $1 million on a laundry man, don’t think you’re going to make a million dollars. You’re not. You’re just not. I mean, a good laundromat, you can maybe bring in $500,000 a year of gross, but, you know, but look at all the payments you’re going to have to make along the way. You might get a little bit, but we usually try to put it right back in. We’ve been in it for so long. We do okay, but I couldn’t imagine starting a brand new one right now, today, and, and spending.

Joe Dan Reed [00:53:50]:
I mean, I’ve seen people spend 2, 3 million dollars on a laundromat. And I mean, how long is it going to take to get, to get the return on your investments? What’s it, seven to ten years? And then. And then it’s Time to retool. It’s.

Jordan Berry [00:54:04]:
Yeah, it’s, it’s getting tougher. Like, you’re having to be, like, part of it is that there’s more savvy investors coming in.

Joe Dan Reed [00:54:12]:
Yes.

Jordan Berry [00:54:12]:
You know, people are starting to operate their businesses better and stuff, but you’re also kind of having to be more like. Like, if I was getting in now the way that I got in the first, I don’t think I could have recovered because I saw your story.

Joe Dan Reed [00:54:26]:
I don’t know if you could have.

Jordan Berry [00:54:28]:
Yeah, I don’t know if I could have.

Joe Dan Reed [00:54:29]:
And everything else.

Kelli Reed [00:54:30]:
Wasn’t that on Christmas?

Jordan Berry [00:54:32]:
That’s Christmas Eve. Yeah. So all kinds of. I’m sure you guys have a ton of these crazy stories, too. Oh, yeah. But it is getting tougher out there to, to make it. And I, you know, I barely hung on, but. Yeah, go ahead.

Joe Dan Reed [00:54:48]:
But, but I think at the end of the day, I, I think, I think if, if you, if you work your business and don’t let your business work you, I think you’ll do well. I, I, I truly do. And, and keep on having fun and having a smiling face, walking out the door. I don’t, I, I just say, you know, you might have a road bump or two. Speed, bumper, too, but who cares? Roll with it. Yeah, I do love the business. I think it’s fun. You know, Jordan, I’ll tell you another thing about this business.

Joe Dan Reed [00:55:19]:
I’ve met all my friends in this business. I don’t have any friends. But the laundry business is unreal. I mean, I’ve made so many friends and colleagues and people I respect in this business. It’s unreal. I mean, I mean, you know, there’s so many. I wish I had these resources today when we started.

Jordan Berry [00:55:39]:
Yes.

Joe Dan Reed [00:55:40]:
Yeah, I would have probably 80, 90, 100 laundromats if I started the way I did. Now I can’t imagine how much, how many laundromats we would have. But, you know, I’m, I’m content. And what we have, well, I’m never content. I’m just, you know, I’m happy with what we have. She’s always looking, she’s like, are you ready to do something else? I’m like, no, go.

Kelli Reed [00:56:06]:
Well, I just don’t think for me, I don’t want to get complacent. I’m always looking for that next opportunity. And that’s what, you know, I would say to any laundromat owner, don’t get complacent. Whether you have one store, five stores, 10 stores, do not get complacent. Keep your stores up. Put money back in your stores, or you’re not going to get the money back out of your stores when you are ready to sell and retire.

Joe Dan Reed [00:56:32]:
Yeah, and we’re painting them all right now. We’re doing. I mean, I was looking at bulkhead covers, and I. And I got kind of disgusted, and so she’s getting new bulkhead covers. I mean, we’re just constantly making sure the stores look nice. You can become complacent. You can easily. I mean.

Joe Dan Reed [00:56:51]:
I mean, we redid all our floors. It’s crazy. It’s fun stuff.

Kelli Reed [00:56:55]:
And you would, you know, just by redoing your floors, you know, it makes your entire store up to date. I mean, you walk in, you see these beautiful floors.

Joe Dan Reed [00:57:04]:
Well, floors make the beautiful building, and corners make the floor that’s clean. That’s what I always said in cleaning.

Jordan Berry [00:57:11]:
I like that.

Joe Dan Reed [00:57:12]:
That’s my cleaning thing. We walk in, I say, yeah, floor looks good. Floors make the building. But how these corners look so clean.

Jordan Berry [00:57:20]:
I like that.

Kelli Reed [00:57:21]:
That’s true.

Jordan Berry [00:57:21]:
Yeah. Well, I also want to say the opposite is true. Right. Like, I’ve seen people who’ve, like, retooled their stores, put paint on the walls, but didn’t do their floors. And it brings down the level of your Laundromat, too. It’s like both. It works both ways.

Kelli Reed [00:57:36]:
Y. And. And, you know, people, you know, drop their laundry on the floor, and they’re like. And then they look and they’re like, oh, my God, that’s gross. You know, who wants to drop their clean laundry on a dirty floor?

Joe Dan Reed [00:57:48]:
It’s gross.

Kelli Reed [00:57:49]:
And have plenty of carts for your customers so they can put their laundry in the.

Jordan Berry [00:57:54]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. If you’re out there and you’re about to drop half a million plus on new machines, do your floors at the same time. Otherwise, your floor, 100.

Joe Dan Reed [00:58:05]:
Yes, I agree. If you’re gonna spend that, spend an extra $10,000, whatever it is, $30,000. Get your nice floors. Yeah. Get them done. Get them done.

Kelli Reed [00:58:14]:
Absolutely.

Jordan Berry [00:58:15]:
Yeah. Well, I wanted to. I wanted to delve just a little bit into. I mean, when did you guys make the, you know, make the leap to get your folder and your iron? I mean, there’s not too many people who have operations big enough to have these. And if you haven’t seen these, you’re listening to this watches. You haven’t seen these folders before. And this iron ore. These are like.

Jordan Berry [00:58:35]:
These are like, serious pieces of equipment here that you’ve got Oper. It’s not something you’re dropping into your every. No everyday laundromat here. I’m probably taking the whole aisle of my first, you know, 1500 square foot laundromat be going the whole way.

Kelli Reed [00:58:49]:
But yeah, we actually decided to get our folder when we were building our opl even though we didn’t have as much business for it that we needed need it, we decided we were going to go into it and just do it all at once. And so that’s what we did. And we actually got the ironer what about a year later, Year, year and a half later so that we want it to grow into but with the folder we got it before we even were completed with our op.

Joe Dan Reed [00:59:20]:
Yes, yes. It’s worked out. It’s worked out nice. You know, if you people talk about space and when you’re talking about pickup and delivery, the most important part is storage. And that’s what people seem to. They look, okay, we need these washers, dryers, folders, irons. Well, where are you putting the product? Where you store the product. And so when you’re bringing in customers clothes or customers linens or whatever it may be, if you don’t have enough shelving or enough storage to put those items away, you may not be able to get an iron.

Joe Dan Reed [01:00:00]:
So you need a bigger facility. So we’re lucky we have a big enough facility that we have plenty of shelving, plenty of storage to you to be able to have an iron or a folder. Now we’re not, you know, it’s, it’s funny because you have these big plants with the tunnel washers, you know, like Centaurs Avant linen and all these places. And then, and then you have us and then there’s several people trying to do what we’re doing and they’re doing very well at it. And then you have the laundromats. So we’re kind of like in that little gray area where you know, where do you go for, for help? So it’s, it’s like when we first started our laundromat. Where do we go for help? There’s nowhere to go to help because I’m not going to go to the big tunnel washer guys because they look at us like now we’re doing £700,000 a week and, and if I do £50,000 a week. Week, yes.

Joe Dan Reed [01:00:57]:
I’m kicking butt. Right. We’re not chasing pennies, right? They’re, they’re, they’re at 40, 50 cents a pound where we’re going to stay true to our 219A pound no matter what or whatever it may be. And so that’s the difference. And so we’re kind of in that. I mean you know you have the laundromat and you have. And then you have the laundromat and opl and so then when you branch off from the laundromat and you only have the opl. So now you are a new within the business.

Joe Dan Reed [01:01:29]:
So there’s that, that little area. But you can do the same thing. I’ve seen a lot of people building laundromats and they have their commercial center in the back. And the biggest thing me and Kelly see in those those facilities is storage. Where are they putting all the linen? Where are they putting all the, all the customers customer owned goods? Where are they putting all these items to deliver back or to or to take in? And that’s when you have to get storage bins on the outside if you’re able to do so depending on where you’re located, can even get a storage bin.

Kelli Reed [01:02:01]:
True.

Joe Dan Reed [01:02:01]:
So those things you really need to think about before advancing to an iron or a folder. But, but the iron folder has been a godsend thanks to her. She made me get it. Well made me install it. Help install.

Jordan Berry [01:02:19]:
Carry it in on your back and then basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well it is interesting because you are kind of in that little sort of in between. In between area are your. Who’s like can you give, can you give me like an example of like who’s like a common customer? Like a genre of cut. Like is it hotels, restaurants, residential?

Joe Dan Reed [01:02:47]:
We not a large hotel.

Kelli Reed [01:02:49]:
Well we, we do like the smaller boutique hotels, you know, 30, 40, 50 rooms. We, we also do immers emergency work for the larger hotels that their machines go down whatnot. We’ve done that several times. But we do massage centers here in Kentucky. Horses as you know are very prominent. So we specialize in equine laundry. So we actually will go all over Kentucky with our box truck. We just picked up what 240 horse blankets.

Joe Dan Reed [01:03:25]:
Yes.

Kelli Reed [01:03:26]:
So we’ll launder those, we’ll waterproof them and then we also rent repair the horse blankets as well. So you get a big box truck of horse blankets. That adds up really quick. And our facility we’re fortunate enough to where we can separate all of our dirty laundry away from our clean laundry in a separate room so we don’t have to worry about cross contamination of whatever type of laundry is coming in that’s dirty. Yeah, but you know we, we do Everything from beauty salons. You know, I, I can tell you we really don’t turn much down. You know, there are some things we will turn down, but really we will try to make it work for the customer.

Joe Dan Reed [01:04:05]:
Yeah, yeah. It’s like we try to stay in around. We don’t want to commit to like a 200 room hotel. We could sustain it, but we don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket with one customer. And that can hurt you. We’ve done that in the janitorial company before where we had this huge customer. I’ll tell Toyota Manufacturing, for example, we were cleaning there and contracts up and we have all these employees nowhere to put them. But luckily we, we had so many different small accounts that we were able to place everybody and then we gained two or three more of those big accounts, you know, so.

Joe Dan Reed [01:04:48]:
Yep, yep. That’s how it works.

Jordan Berry [01:04:50]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [01:04:51]:
Years ago. 15. 15 years ago.

Jordan Berry [01:04:54]:
Right, yeah.

Kelli Reed [01:04:55]:
And that comes to, to same with laundry. If you are doing client for laundry, you really should have them sign a contract. Especially if you’re buying bins and you know, hiring extra labor. You just need them to stay with you for a certain period of time so you can make your money back from the items you purchase and keep your facility going.

Joe Dan Reed [01:05:18]:
Exactly. And yeah, and then when you’re concentrating on that one customer, you seem to just be concentrating on that one customer. And if that one customer leaves, then you, you’re like, oh, I’m still start over. Be careful. That’s the way we see it. So, so we do a lot of residential laundry, horse blankets, Airbnbs, gyms, spas, hospitality. Anything hospitality. And we’re getting some restaurants where we’re doing some tablecloths and napkins.

Kelli Reed [01:05:49]:
Yeah, just really anything that you can think of, we’ll, we’ll do within breeze. And we’ve had some strange requests before. I won’t say those on air, but.

Jordan Berry [01:06:02]:
I’m sure you have, I’m sure you have. No, I think that’s, I, I think the advice you just gave is like hard earned, super valuable advice. Right. Of like not relying. I’ve seen so many small businesses do this, not just in our industry but in others where they have one main client client. A lot of times that main client gets very demanding or neat because they, they just know they have leverage over you. And so now you’re focusing more and more attention on them. And like you were saying, if you’re not constantly building your pipeline and, and nurturing your pipeline of new clients coming in, doing your marketing, reaching out cold call whatever it is.

Jordan Berry [01:06:47]:
If that main client dries up. Like you said, you’re starting over, right. And it takes time. We’ve talked about this a couple of times already. Like, it takes time to ramp these things up. And so you can’t really afford to start and stop on, on that just like that.

Joe Dan Reed [01:07:04]:
Just like that. You can lose a client and then you’re scrambling. And I like to think that, well, we’ve learned our lesson from the past because we’ve done that. You know, we. And we’re like, we’re spending so much time with this one cl. And then they let you go and then we. You’re starting your business over again. Just starting over.

Kelli Reed [01:07:24]:
It’s.

Joe Dan Reed [01:07:25]:
It’s crazy. It’s crazy.

Kelli Reed [01:07:26]:
And, and, and you know, we’ve, we’ve actually let clients go before because sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, you know, I’ve done it myself. And, and they’ll still complain. You know, they’re just that particular client that’s always going to call and complain and just drain everything from you. So sometimes, you know, it is best to cut a client and just move.

Joe Dan Reed [01:07:48]:
On, in my opinion.

Jordan Berry [01:07:51]:
No, no, I, I think that that’s super wise and it could be really hard to do, especially if you’re starting out right. It’s like you just kind of take what you can get, but you.

Kelli Reed [01:07:59]:
Well, that’s true. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:08:01]:
You get to a point where, you know, I mean, you kind of talked about like your return on headache is not worth it or even just like the cost sometimes, you know, people are demanding things that just are not feasible at the price of point that offered them. Right. And so absolutely, I’d rather fire a bad customer who’s take, who’s causing 80% of my headaches and taking up, you know, 20% of my time, but is only, you know, 4% of my revenue. And go out and spend that time and, and money and effort and go find better clients that, that fit better. That’s really hard to do early on. For sure it is.

Kelli Reed [01:08:40]:
And you know, early on you’re excited, you know, and, and you know, I had one lady call and she’s like, you know, what are you charging for a towel service? And so we charge anywhere between $1.89 to 219 depending on their turnaround. And you know, this customer was trying to beat her down to 69 cents a pound. I said, you are not going to make, you’re going to pay them to do their laundry. And she had to kind of take a Step back. And she said, well, it’s 300 pounds. I said, you’re still going to pay them to do their laundry. And so she, she turned that client down and I said, do not budge. You know, figure out what price margin you can be at and don’t go below that.

Kelli Reed [01:09:21]:
I mean, you just can’t do that. You’re not the big box, you know, with the tunnel washers. You, you just can’t do it.

Jordan Berry [01:09:27]:
Yeah, yeah. And, and actually like, you know, if you’re, if you’re in the negative on something like that, you’re going to be like, literally the, the more pounds they have to do, the bigger that revenue number. But we all know it’s not the number of coins that are in the bucket, it’s not the number of bills that are in the coin changer. It’s what you’re putting in your pocket. Right? And so the more pounds they have, the more money it actually costs you, the more it takes out of your pocket. So.

Kelli Reed [01:09:55]:
Exactly.

Jordan Berry [01:09:56]:
Double, Double whammy there.

Joe Dan Reed [01:09:58]:
Exactly, exactly.

Jordan Berry [01:10:00]:
Good advice, Good advice. That’s, you know, it’s, you know what’s funny is that, that like a lot of this stuff that you guys are saying doesn’t sound like, doesn’t sound like these aha moments. But I just, knowing what I’ve gone through, like, I know this is like legit, hard earned wisdom that you’re sharing right now that is really easy to gloss over this stuff and be like, oh, yeah, whatever. But I know, I just, I know what’s behind these lessons that you’re sharing here. Of. We’ve learned these lessons, we’ve made this mistake, you know, and what it takes to rebound from that stuff. So kudos to you guys for, you know, building what you’ve built and because I know it’s not easy to do it. You guys make it look easy and fun.

Jordan Berry [01:10:47]:
You’re fun people and you’ve got a lot of experience behind you. But I know the, the fight it was to get to this point, for sure, it was, yeah, it’s been a.

Joe Dan Reed [01:10:58]:
It’S been a, it’s been a journey. But like you said, what we think is common sense today, we. It wasn’t common sense 20 years ago, 10 years ago, or even maybe five years ago. So it’s, we’re always evolving, trying to learn from our past. And it’s funny how much wisdom we have today day compared to. And you have to have a thick skin in this business, believe me, because you’re gonna have customers cussing you. You’re gonna have. Anything can happen, believe me.

Joe Dan Reed [01:11:35]:
But like, you can have a flood. What are you gonna do about it? You have to be ready for crisis at all times. It’s. You’re in crisis mode and it’s, it’s funny about. What was it? Somebody broke into laundromat. Kelly goes, police are on the phone. Jody, you gotta get over there.

Jordan Berry [01:11:54]:
Laundry man.

Joe Dan Reed [01:11:55]:
I was like, okay. Instead of getting all upset about it, it’s just like. Because there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s nothing you can do about it. Just don’t let your heart rate get up. Just, just go. And they go, oh, you’re so calm about it. Well, no, I’m not really calm about it.

Joe Dan Reed [01:12:13]:
I’m just, just. It’s just part of business, unfortunately. It’s an unfortunate part of business.

Jordan Berry [01:12:19]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [01:12:20]:
How you handle yourself, conduct yourself in front of others, that will really help, you know, if you, if you’re the calm guy in the room, it puts it ease everybody else around you, especially around your staff.

Jordan Berry [01:12:33]:
Yeah, well, and even, even just saying that, you know, it’s, it’s funny because, you know, I, I think I’ve talked about, talked about this like a long time ago, but like, there were things about running my business that stressed me to the max when I first bought that first business that now I look back on and I’m like, I don’t even know what I was worried about. Like, you know, like, even, even things, like, even things that are a big, like I had a, I had a period of time there where I was juggling bills, right? Like, do I pay the electric or do I pay the water this month for this laundromat because it’s losing money and I’m like, out, right? Like, just totally stressing me out. And you know, if that was the case today, obviously there’s like a lot of pressure that comes with that and stuff. But it’s like, okay, let’s, you know, let’s, let’s get on the phone with both of those companies and just say, hey, here’s the situation. Here’s how we’re going to remedy it. You know, electric company, you don’t have a ongoing interest rate, so I’m going to pay the water this month, keep my electricity on so I can keep paying, you get yours, whatever. Right? Like, yeah, there’s, but that’s, that’s, you know, what you said again, it sounds so, like logical and easy, but that’s hard earned wisdom of probably stressing out a thousand times about all these problems. That stack up on you when you own a business and then finally getting to a point where your skill set and your ability to deal with the problems that has.

Jordan Berry [01:14:03]:
Has grown over the years. And now these problems that used to be a big deal. You’re. You’re a bigger person now, so you can deal with bigger problems. You know what I mean?

Kelli Reed [01:14:14]:
Right? Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [01:14:15]:
I mean, it’s kind of like when the.

Kelli Reed [01:14:17]:
The.

Joe Dan Reed [01:14:20]:
Just the water line busted under the floor, and Kelly’s like, what are you gonna do? I was like, I’m gonna call a plumber. They’re gonna dig up the floor.

Kelli Reed [01:14:28]:
Our brand new floor.

Joe Dan Reed [01:14:29]:
Yeah, our brand new floor. She says, what do you do?

Kelli Reed [01:14:33]:
You have to fix it. So, I mean, you. You just have to find a way to move on.

Joe Dan Reed [01:14:38]:
But what she did was smart. She called the landlord and said, look, you know, we just put our new brand new floor down, and, you know, the plumber gave us a $7,000 quote just to dig this floor up and repair it, and we’re going to have to put it back together, and it’s going to cost us a fortune.

Kelli Reed [01:14:54]:
He.

Joe Dan Reed [01:14:55]:
He called her back and said, I’ll pay for it. It.

Jordan Berry [01:15:00]:
I don’t know who these landlords you got over there.

Joe Dan Reed [01:15:02]:
I don’t know. No, this guy, this guy. I. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe he did it. But I was like, are you kidding me? Well, so don’t be afraid to ask. Just because it’s not in your lease, don’t be afraid to ask. They might just value their.

Joe Dan Reed [01:15:18]:
You there so much. They don’t want you to. To leave and they don’t want you to look at it. Not they. They want you to stay there. And they, and they’re showing good faith to you as a. As well, hey, we fixed this for you. Now he’s going to come wanting something, I’m sure.

Joe Dan Reed [01:15:32]:
But still, that’s. That was. That was nice that he did that. He didn’t have to do that. Yeah, yeah, things happen, but for the most part, we don’t get that lucky. We didn’t get that lucky in Nicholsville when that happened. We didn’t get that lucky over. Yeah, we don’t get that lucky.

Joe Dan Reed [01:15:51]:
But. Yeah, you know, but that’s.

Jordan Berry [01:15:53]:
That’s being a business owner, right? Like being an entrepreneur. Being a business owner is like solving problems, right? Like, that’s what we do. That’s like, that’s what we do, right? We’re building businesses, and our businesses solve problems for other people. And then when problems come up for us, we solve our own problems because there’s no boss or corporation or anything behind us to solve the problem. For us, we solve problems like that’s what we do. And so flexing that muscle, developing that muscle, grows us as people to be able to say, okay, well, let’s call the landlord and see if the landlord will do anything. And if not, then we’re just going to dig up the floor and handle the problem, get back to business. Because that’s what we do.

Joe Dan Reed [01:16:31]:
Absolutely. That’s right. That’s right. But. But don’t be afraid to ask the landlord just because it’s not in your lease. Always ask. They can. They can always say no or they can say yes.

Joe Dan Reed [01:16:43]:
But it’s also good to let your landlord, if you have a landlord, make them be aware of what you’re putting back into the building. Always make them aware of that. And kind of document everything you do along the way. So if there is ever a major issue that comes up, like with their roof and their sl to fix it. Hey, look, man, I fixed the floor. You. You guys need to get on this roof now and fix this water leak. That’s your responsibility.

Joe Dan Reed [01:17:07]:
That’s in the lease. And you’re running my ceiling tiles up here and everything else, you know?

Kelli Reed [01:17:12]:
Yep.

Joe Dan Reed [01:17:13]:
And the lights.

Jordan Berry [01:17:16]:
Yeah. Dripping on my customers. Come on.

Kelli Reed [01:17:19]:
Yeah, I’m on the scene.

Jordan Berry [01:17:21]:
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. Here’s the bill. We had 50 grand.

Joe Dan Reed [01:17:25]:
Yeah, we had a lot of mat. We shut down because the whole back wall collapsed. Collapsed. Yeah. I was like. And we just put brand new equipment in there. We signed a 20 year lease, a 10 year lease.

Jordan Berry [01:17:39]:
And.

Joe Dan Reed [01:17:40]:
And I called him, I said, and I had six months after we, after we signed the lease, we had six months if we wanted to decide to leave. Well, we’re like, we’re not leaving. This is a great place. Next thing you know, the entire ceiling just collapsed. And. And I was like, we’re just gonna go ahead and get our stuff out of here. And we did. And we just got all the equipment.

Joe Dan Reed [01:18:02]:
Kelly goes. Now this equipment. Find another laundromat now. Hurry up. Yeah, that’s stressful. Yeah. Yeah, that was stressful that you’re not.

Kelli Reed [01:18:09]:
Making any money on.

Jordan Berry [01:18:10]:
Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [01:18:10]:
So we found a place for it.

Kelli Reed [01:18:12]:
And one thing’s for sure, if you’re in business for yourself, you never know what’s going to come through the door and what’s going to come out of you. So just be prepared and just roll with it the best way you can. And that’s what we do.

Joe Dan Reed [01:18:25]:
Yeah, we. And have fun along the way.

Jordan Berry [01:18:29]:
Yeah, that’s. I mean, I think that’s the best advice. Right? It’s like, stuff. Hat, like, I’m sure you got. We could probably swap stories back and forth all day long, like stuff that’s happened in our laundromats or cleaning business or whatever. And like, there’s no possible way to predict what’s gonna. What’s gonna happen on any given day. Right.

Jordan Berry [01:18:50]:
But if you could do it and have fun with it, like, life is just better, right?

Kelli Reed [01:18:55]:
It is. And, you know, people say. You know, I’ve heard people say, well, laundry is a boring business to me. It’s really not. I mean, we have fun. I mean, what. Just three weeks ago, a kid crawled up in our claw machine.

Joe Dan Reed [01:19:07]:
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He calls me, said, there’s the kid in the claw machine. And I was like, I’m done with claw machines. That’s the second time this happened over 20 years. No more claw machines. Got that damn claw machine.

Kelli Reed [01:19:20]:
We took them all out that week.

Jordan Berry [01:19:22]:
How much did it cost you to, like, actually climb and get him out of there?

Kelli Reed [01:19:26]:
He.

Joe Dan Reed [01:19:28]:
He was able to figure a way.

Kelli Reed [01:19:30]:
His mom coaxed him back through the.

Joe Dan Reed [01:19:32]:
Hole before I had to call the fire department. I was like, God, get this kid out of there. He got out of there. I take the machine out and plugged it, threw it in the back immediately. And I went to every store and.

Kelli Reed [01:19:43]:
Got a teeny hole. I. I’m still not sure how the kid did it. He was a good sized kid.

Joe Dan Reed [01:19:49]:
Yeah, well, he looked good size. He looked like a good sized prize when he got.

Jordan Berry [01:19:55]:
Like, sorry, mom, you gotta. You gotta pay to win them out. You know, you gotta.

Joe Dan Reed [01:19:59]:
Yeah, he’s playing with all the toys. He’s came out with all the toys.

Kelli Reed [01:20:04]:
I was like, just take them.

Jordan Berry [01:20:06]:
Just take them. Don’t sue us. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [01:20:09]:
Take craziness. You can take the claw machine with you.

Kelli Reed [01:20:12]:
Yeah. So be careful with those claw machines.

Joe Dan Reed [01:20:15]:
No more. No more claw machines. What’s. What’s the.

Jordan Berry [01:20:19]:
You guys have any. Like, you guys have plans going forward? Are you trying to buy some other weird businesses? You trying to buy more laundromats? You just kind of taking deals when they show up to you? What’s. What’s the plan here, Kelly? Joe Jodan’s looking at you. So what’s the plan?

Joe Dan Reed [01:20:34]:
No, there’s.

Kelli Reed [01:20:35]:
Well, we’re gonna start building a couple more chalets in Gatlinburg. We’ve got some lots there, so we’ll do that.

Joe Dan Reed [01:20:49]:
I’m not saying that I’m not turning down any opportunities. We actually run across them, but I’m pretty content where we are. What I really want to do is grow the OPL business more than anything. And I, that I do enjoy that because you can go out and develop more relationships with business owners. And that’s one thing I miss in the laundromat setting. You’re not getting business relationships. So now I can go out and I can speak to doctor’s offices or spawners and collaborate with them, have a conversation and hopefully get their laundry. So getting out in the community and that way is fun.

Joe Dan Reed [01:21:29]:
We’re looking to do a coat drive for, for in the laundromat and, and I’m trying to set up at our new store to get Santa Claus to come in and take pictures and put like our little splash mount logo at the end. And I want to give the. I want that to be free. I don’t want to charge the kids. You know, we’ve had, We’ve had that before. I can’t find that Santa Claus. I don’t know where he went. He disappeared.

Joe Dan Reed [01:21:55]:
But.

Kelli Reed [01:21:55]:
But bad Santa. I’m just kidding.

Joe Dan Reed [01:21:59]:
That’s a great idea. Maybe we should just do a bad Santa in there. That look like a guy holding a, A bottle. You know, let’s not do that.

Jordan Berry [01:22:08]:
Bourbon.

Joe Dan Reed [01:22:09]:
Yeah, free bourbon. Free bourbon for the parents.

Jordan Berry [01:22:12]:
Yeah, for the parents. Yeah.

Joe Dan Reed [01:22:15]:
But we’re always looking for opportunities. I’m not going to say that. Not looking necessarily, but we’ll take them if they. It’s funny, when I go prospecting for laundroma, we always find something. We always do. And sometimes we’ll get the bus to go out there and look. And we, we were negotiating one in Louisville, Kentucky, we said earlier, but. But that guy did not allow us to come in there.

Joe Dan Reed [01:22:45]:
He. He did not want the laundry. The, the, the laundry gave it such. The shopping center such a bad reputation that he didn’t want one back.

Kelli Reed [01:22:53]:
He just wanted it gone on.

Joe Dan Reed [01:22:55]:
Usually you can show them our website and what we do and, and tell him come to our locations, but that didn’t even work on that guy. So he’s just done. But yeah, we’re constantly looking for opportunities, I guess, for the most part.

Kelli Reed [01:23:09]:
And we’d like to expand. So now that we have two technicians working for us.

Joe Dan Reed [01:23:14]:
Oh, yes, we would.

Kelli Reed [01:23:15]:
You know, we’re going to expand our service.

Joe Dan Reed [01:23:18]:
Yes, the service is the biggest thing. So, so we’ve. We’ve got the technicians going and once they get Used to working on, on all of our equipment. We can branch out and, and fix others and, and that would help other laundry owners as well.

Jordan Berry [01:23:38]:
Yeah, huge. I mean there’s a huge shortage of technicians all over, everywhere. So that’s massive. I like that.

Joe Dan Reed [01:23:47]:
Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:23:48]:
Well, it’s funny, you know, I think, think, I think it at some point, like when you, when you get that first business off the ground, you find that first deal or whatever, it kind of opens your eyes to other deals. And you know, some people can look around all over the place, under every rock and up every tree and can’t find a deal for anything. And some people, it feels like deals just fall out of the sky. But kind of like everything else, man, like it’s, it’s kind of a skill that you develop like, you know, kind of what to look for. And you’re also getting connected with people. Right. And deals have everything to do with connections. And so that’s what I liked about what you’re saying about the OPL stuff is like getting back out there, talking to business owners, talking to people who are movers and shakers in the community, maybe grabbing some business, but who knows what other opportunities pop up because of it.

Jordan Berry [01:24:43]:
And that’s, you know, that’s what it’s about. Right. If you’re, if you’re somebody who’s wanting to pick up some assets, do some deals. Deals. That’s what it takes man, to get those, those rest.

Joe Dan Reed [01:24:54]:
Absolutely. You know where I said we’re like in the streamline here and then you have the big box stores up here and then the laundromats. Well, I’ve noticed by going out in the community, showing them what we do and they’re like saying, well, you know, like centiles won’t even talk to us, neither will Advantage Linen because we’re too small for them. And then we don’t want to take all this to a laundromat. It’s taking us all day long to wash these clothes. I said, well we have a solution for you. We can pick it up and deliver it back to you. And so you see that we’re in that gray area that could really help a lot of small businesses and customer owned goods like all their residential customers as well.

Joe Dan Reed [01:25:36]:
So you could.

Jordan Berry [01:25:37]:
Yeah.

Kelli Reed [01:25:38]:
And, and back to the point where laundromats had a bag, a bad stigma for a while. You know, now that the stigma is going away about laundromats, you know, I feel like that’s help the drop off service in store as well as the pickup and Delivery because you’re getting rid of that bad stigma.

Joe Dan Reed [01:25:56]:
Yes. Yes.

Jordan Berry [01:25:58]:
Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got two more questions for you. Number one is, you know, I did. I did a survey one time, just everybody that’s in, like, all my different audiences and stuff, and I was like, hey, what’s your goal with a laundromat? You want to own one or two? You want to own. Own like five or six. You want to own ten plus. Right.

Jordan Berry [01:26:21]:
And I forget the percentage. It was like a crazy, like 90 plus percent were like, I want to own 10 plus laundromats. Right. Like, everybody’s goal is to own all these laundromats and stuff. But I’m curious from you guys, you know, people who’ve owned multiple. Multiple businesses doing this, do you have any advice for maybe like the one to three store owner who. Who wants to scale? Like, what’s the difference between running one business or two versus running, you know, 10 or businesses in different industries and things like that?

Joe Dan Reed [01:26:57]:
What’s.

Jordan Berry [01:26:58]:
You got any advice for that? Like, to scale up?

Kelli Reed [01:27:02]:
Well, I think you have to do the first one really well and learn from it. In my opinion, sometimes the second one comes sooner than you expect. And of course, you can’t turn down the opportunity. But for me, I think the larger we’ve become, the easier. The easier it is for us to scale because the more people is more resources you have to run your business well.

Joe Dan Reed [01:27:32]:
Yeah. And I think being very opportunistic and like we said earlier, when you’re first starting, you don’t want to turn anything down. But at the time, same, same time, if you see an opportunity out there, you need to grab it regardless. Like it. Regardless of what it may be. Yeah. You might have to work a little bit harder right now, but you’re looking at the end game, so. But like Kelly said, it’s a lot easier from our perspective to run nine, nine or ten launder masks than it was to run one to three.

Joe Dan Reed [01:28:08]:
It really was.

Kelli Reed [01:28:10]:
And I would also say take your time when hiring your employees just because you might be three bodies short, don’t just hire that first person that comes through the door. Yes. You might have to work a double shift tomorrow or the next day or pay overtime. Trust me, it’s worth it. Take your time and find the correct person.

Joe Dan Reed [01:28:31]:
But, Jordan, I’ll tell you one thing. We did, and Kelly and I got together one day and we were like, what if we had zero employees and we had to open up all the stores? What would we do? Well, we took care of that. We put lockers in all of our laundromats. We put garage doors down when we have the card system, so we have it to where if it wanted to run without an attendant, it will. So that was huge. And everything. The doors open up automatically, the alarm system shuts off automatically, the lights come on. Well, we keep the lights on at all times.

Joe Dan Reed [01:29:07]:
That’s a big mistake I think laundry owners make as they turn off the lights at the end of the night, keep them on. You want it to stay in, turn off the open sign, but keep the lights on.

Kelli Reed [01:29:19]:
Sure.

Joe Dan Reed [01:29:19]:
But yeah, I don’t know if that’s enough advice for you, but.

Jordan Berry [01:29:23]:
Yeah, no, no, I think that’s great. I mean, the, the common theme, right, is, you know, to scale. I mean, it takes two, two main things. Right? Takes the right tools and resources, automation, that kind of stuff, and the right people. And the, the technology side of it is, is easy, Right. Like, if you’re looking for the right tech stack to scale your business, just shoot me an email or, you know, shoot Joe, Dan and Kelly an email. They can tell you the right tech stack. Right.

Jordan Berry [01:29:55]:
That’s easy. But it’s really the people. Right. So what it comes down to is. Yeah. You know, and like you said, like, it’s, it’s really hard when you’re feeling that pressure because you’re understaffed and you’re either having to put more on your employees or you’re having to pick up slack yourself and you don’t really have a whole lot to give. But, you know, I always think back to the employee that I hired because I needed help cleaning my laundromat. She was just supposed to be cleaning and I showed up at the Laundromat one day and she’s out front screaming in the face of one of her customers for I don’t even know why, or whatever.

Jordan Berry [01:30:30]:
Like I had to let her go right on the spotlight. Right. And yeah, a bad hire will cost you way more than waiting to hire the right person. You have that all day long.

Joe Dan Reed [01:30:45]:
Yes, yes. Being very careful with who you hire. Kelly’s right. You’re right. Yeah. That’s why I don’t do the hiring. That’s why.

Kelli Reed [01:30:54]:
So, you know, we do the, the two step hiring. You know, they come in for the first interview and then a second interview.

Joe Dan Reed [01:31:02]:
Yeah.

Kelli Reed [01:31:02]:
So that’s how we do it. We never hire on the spot.

Joe Dan Reed [01:31:05]:
Yes.

Jordan Berry [01:31:06]:
With you.

Kelli Reed [01:31:09]:
Well, the first time though, it’s usually with me at our corporate office. And the second time I will meet them at one of our stores and do the interview with them at one of the stores. That way they can see more of a hands on as to what position they’re going to be taking or in our OPL or wherever it is.

Joe Dan Reed [01:31:28]:
Yeah, she’s taken over the hiring process. We don’t buy her but her now. She enjoys doing it.

Kelli Reed [01:31:33]:
I love doing it. No, I really don’t. That’s my least favorite part of the job.

Joe Dan Reed [01:31:39]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:31:41]:
When it’s hard, right. It’s like there’s no science too. If it was easy, I mean could probably create a course exactly how to do it and sell it for a million bucks.

Joe Dan Reed [01:31:51]:
Yeah, like automation.

Jordan Berry [01:31:53]:
Yeah, that’s right.

Joe Dan Reed [01:31:53]:
I like robots and automation.

Jordan Berry [01:31:56]:
That’s right. You don’t have to deal with the people because that is, it is the hard part really. And like getting them trained and keeping them motivated and building that culture like all that stuff is. It’s difficult to do. But if you can get that formula right, your business becomes a lot easier. It, you know, like you said, you know, it’s easier now to run all these businesses than it was to one run one to three. Right. Your business could been easier, more profitable, more fun.

Jordan Berry [01:32:23]:
Jodan, like your common thing was like hey, have fun doing it. Right. Like it’s a lot more fun when everybody on the team is the right person in the right spot. They want to be there, they’re doing a good job. Makes everything a lot more fun.

Joe Dan Reed [01:32:35]:
Well, I have another, I have another one more piece of advice for someone getting into the business new. You know, I believe on, on your, on your resource website. Couldn’t they get in a massive masterminds group? If I got in a master, if I got in a masterminds group 25 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, I can’t imagine how much further I would be with all the advice of the like minded people who are in that group. It’s unreal. And the resources you have from one another. So I highly suggest you can start out with one or two people. Whatever it is. You go to Jordan, find out through Laundromat resource and find some people.

Joe Dan Reed [01:33:15]:
I don’t know but I think it’s, I think it’s huge. It’s, it’s kind of like that’s why we sit there and we’re always like trying to watch the YouTube but, but whenever I’m on a, when I’m on a, on a masterminds group call, it’s, it’s amazing the nuggets you pick up every time I’M in that call.

Jordan Berry [01:33:36]:
Yeah, yeah. And it really like ups your, ups your level. Right. It’s like it, it gives you different perspective on your business. You can learn, you know, all it takes is one little idea to, you.

Joe Dan Reed [01:33:48]:
Know, absolutely starting, revolutionize your business.

Jordan Berry [01:33:51]:
Right. Like you can really do that. And I mean it’s, I, I like invest a lot of money and time and effort into being in a couple different mastermind groups because when you’re hanging out with people who are doing big things, you know, it’s almost like that, making peer pressure work for you. Right. Like you’re gonna be doing bigger thing. You’re going to elevate your level too when you hang out with people doing bigger thing. So.

Joe Dan Reed [01:34:14]:
Absolutely.

Jordan Berry [01:34:15]:
I think that’s great advice. Great advice. Awesome. All right, last question I have for you guys before I let you wrap this up and you know, go spend the rest of your 25 year anniversary without.

Joe Dan Reed [01:34:29]:
We’re not celebrating that today.

Jordan Berry [01:34:33]:
Is if people, if people want to get more from you, if they want to see more about what you got going on, they want to check out your social media stuff like tell us, tell us where everybody can find you.

Joe Dan Reed [01:34:45]:
Splash them out laundry on YouTube. Splash them out on Insta, splash them out on Facebook.

Kelli Reed [01:34:54]:
And Jodan the laundry man.

Joe Dan Reed [01:34:58]:
Laundry man on Tick Tock. Jodan the laundry man on Tick Tock. And then if you want to find me personally on LinkedIn. Jodan Reed. LinkedIn. Kelly. Reed Kelly with an I.

Kelli Reed [01:35:09]:
And.

Joe Dan Reed [01:35:12]:
I’m, I’m easy to get. I’m easy to find. You can DM me. I will call you if you need anything. I’m here for, for anything. I’m, I enjoy this industry and I look forward to meeting many people and I want everyone to be successful and we’re here to try to help. And that’s why we have our channel. We just really, we, I report, you decide basically is what our channel and that’s probably what we should name the channels because we just basically we report what we do.

Joe Dan Reed [01:35:43]:
You can decide if you want to do it or not. I may have an opinion on one thing or another, but, but I don’t believe there’s any right way or wrong way to do this business. And I don’t think there’s a right way or a wrong way to, to get in the business. Everybody has their own little, their own lane, their own wheelhouse and the way they like to do things. So, so I believe there’s a lot of opportunity out here and, and don’t be a thinker, be A doer and then think.

Jordan Berry [01:36:14]:
Love it. I love it. Kelly, I’m just curious, do you. Do you also ascribe to that, that, that motto, that slogan, or are you more of a thinker? Just out of curiosity?

Kelli Reed [01:36:25]:
I would say, I think more honestly, sometimes he goes too fast, but I.

Joe Dan Reed [01:36:32]:
Put the cart ahead the horse and I try to catch up.

Jordan Berry [01:36:35]:
That’s what I do, too. That’s what I do, too. It’s good having somebody to balance you there. Really awesome, guys. Well, listen, I appreciate you guys taking the time, especially on this most special day of your relationship, even more special than your wedding anniversary and spending it with me. No, I do appreciate you guys coming on and doing this, and I genuinely, I mean this. I. I appreciate your guys channel and what you’re doing over there.

Jordan Berry [01:37:00]:
If you guys are not subscribed or following or whatever you do on all the different platforms, splash them out or Joe Dan the laundry man. Make sure you’re doing that. We’ll have links to everything in the show notes or you’re on YouTube. They’ll be down below, so you can just click right on over and check out their channel. Guys, you guys are rock stars. You’re all stars. Not only probably the most fashionable couple that I’ve had on the podcast, but just packed full of wisdom. And I appreciate you guys taking the time to share and hang out with me.

Kelli Reed [01:37:30]:
Well, we appreciate you.

Joe Dan Reed [01:37:31]:
We appreciate you having us, Jordan. It’s always a treat. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Kelli Reed [01:37:35]:
Let’s not.

Jordan Berry [01:37:35]:
Let’s not make it so long until the next time we. We do this or something.

Kelli Reed [01:37:39]:
Something like this.

Joe Dan Reed [01:37:40]:
Yes.

Jordan Berry [01:37:41]:
Awesome. Appreciate you guys.

Joe Dan Reed [01:37:42]:
Thank you.

Jordan Berry [01:37:43]:
Hope you love that episode with Jodan and Kelly. I know you did because they were a lot of fun and they gave a ton of great information. So listen, as cool as that was, it will have been a waste of your time if you don’t pick something. Put it into action this week. Take a little nugget. There’s tons of them all throughout there. Put it into action. Those actions are really going to help you accomplish your goals, whether that’s financial freedom or leaving your 9 to 5 or just building your cash flow or just building your empire, whatever your objective is.

Jordan Berry [01:38:18]:
Got to get out there and take some action. All right, so get out there and we’ll see you in the next interview. Peace.