Have you ever wondered if it is possible to manage a laundromat remotely while still benefitting from the incredible perks of this business? Or, do you just want more free time while still owning a thriving business? Well Thomas Landenberger has the answer for you!

Thomas owns several small laundries where he lives with his family in Italy. He also owns a laundromat in Florida with a partner, who lives in San Francisco! How do they do it? In today’s show Thomas lays out exactly how he’s able to own and operate a laundromat on the opposite side of the world from him.

He’s convinced that if he can do, so can you! And in this show Thomas shows you how! In this episode Thomas talks about:

  •  Italian laundromats!
  • How he found his Florida laundromat
  • How he manages his Florida laundromat from Italy
  • The benefits and downfalls of partnerships
  • How to get started with owning laundromats remotely
  • Books he has read that have helped him succeed in his laundromat businesses
  • How he supports veterans with his laundromat
  • And much more!

Thomas also shares his secret sauce to running a laundry business remotely and gives tips to new and first time investors on how to succeed in the laundromat industry.  In addition, Thomas shares specific books he recommends that you read to help you succeed in life and in business (Links below).

Don’t miss this potentially life-changing episode of the Laundromat Resource Podcast!

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

Today's Sponsor

Laundromat Resource Marketing If you need help building or managing a website for your laundromats, let the experts at Laundromat Resource Marketing help you design and build a custom, professional website for you! As experts in the laundromat industry AND in web design and online marketing, we at Laundromat Resource Marketing are able to provide you with a professional website at an affordable price. We’re always transparent so there are no hidden fees. What we quote you is what you pay. Satisfaction and performance guaranteed! With no contracts to sign and guarantees like that, why not let us take care of your online presence while you focus on welcoming all of your new laundry customers? Click the logo or link above to find out more information. 

Thomas's Recommended Resources

Connect with Thomas

Email: [email protected]
Social Media: @vetscoinlaundry
Tuscan Short Term Rental: mytuscanrental.com

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    Episode Transcript

    hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
    laundromat resource
    podcast this is show number 26 and i am
    pumped that you’re here today
    because today we are not only going
    international but we are going remote
    laundromat
    ownership with thomas i this is
    something that i’ve been looking forward
    to
    for a long time i needed some answers
    and thomas delivered he more than
    delivered i think you’re gonna love
    love love this episode super cool guy
    doing some super cool stuff and he tells
    you exactly how he’s doing it
    uh you are going to be pumped so
    i don’t want to take too much time shout
    out to dan on youtube who does not like
    the little intro part uh but
    uh i i just i did want to highlight one
    thing on the forum
    joe uh over there is i had a question on
    the forums about how to
    find um hire and manage employees he’s
    taken over a laundromat he needs to
    completely uh switch out his
    employees and wanted some tips on how to
    do that well
    and how to manage those employees well
    so if you’ve got some tips for them head
    over to londonmyresource.com
    forums and help joe out again every week
    go over there ask a question
    answer question and real quick i did
    also want to say that we
    have been having all kinds of website
    problems this week so if you
    have tried to sign up on the buyers list
    this last week
    i know we were having problems with that
    those should be fixed now so go
    uh re-sign up if you need to on that
    and we had to kind of put up a temporary
    home page i mean we had all kinds of
    problems things were running slow
    i get it we’re working on it sorry about
    that if you have been
    on there and been frustrated with our
    website
    we’re in the same boat join the club uh
    we’ve been frustrated too but we’re
    getting things fixed and hopefully it’ll
    all be squared away so make sure you
    come join us
    laudermintresource.com join come be a
    part of the community
    super cool stuff happening over there
    there’s there’s a lot of us over there
    right now
    uh it’s been very very cool to see that
    so come join us and i don’t i mean
    there’s a ton of stuff we can talk about
    but because of dan we’re gonna just jump
    right into it today
    dan enjoy man uh brief brief ad
    uh for the marketing and then we’re
    going to jump
    into it with thomas who is coming to us
    from
    italy and owns a laundromat in florida
    blows my mind and he’s going to tell you
    all about it
    get excited we’ll see on the other side
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    [Music]
    thomas hey how is it going man thank you
    for coming on the show
    no thanks for the invite jordan uh yeah
    i didn’t uh didn’t imagine that i’d be
    on a podcast for laundromat resource
    yeah especially a world famous
    outside of antarctica podcast i mean
    this is it’s crazy yeah
    still working on antarctica still
    working on an article yeah you’ll get
    there you’ll get there yeah maybe there
    might be
    some scientists that might you know be
    listening you know you never know
    we’re we’re a weird niche people i mean
    we we are a very unique people that’s
    a good point that’s funny well hey man i
    am super super excited about today uh
    you got a very very
    unique and very cool thing going on and
    i want to hear
    all about it but before we get into it
    tell us a little bit about you and who
    you are and
    and a little bit about your background
    hey uh
    name’s tom landenberger um what else i’m
    48 years old you know
    married three kids uh live in italy at
    the moment
    i’ve been here about 20 years i was in
    the uh
    marine corps reserves from 91 to 98
    and uh you know when you’re in the
    recruiter’s office the
    recruiter promises to show you the world
    and what you know the marine corps
    showed me the hottest deserts in
    california in the coldest winters in
    wisconsin so
    after what left it so in august of 98 i
    decided that i uh you know i think i’ve
    had enough
    strapped on a backpack and traveled
    around the world for about three and a
    half years
    just backpacking throughout europe
    western europe
    eastern europe uh the middle east and
    then
    south pacific you know new zealand
    australia south pacific islands samoa
    cook islands what have you so and then
    in 99 i think it ended up i think i need
    to stop the interview now like i’m just
    the envy is just rising up in me right
    now
    i don’t know if i can handle i think i
    just need to cut this off i can’t
    because i know it only gets better from
    there so
    all right sorry yeah it gets better yeah
    no worries yeah so ended up meeting an
    italian girl when i was working at an
    italian restaurant
    in greece in 90 well i was there and i
    worked in 98 and in 2000
    so uh 2001 i can’t remember the dates
    anymore too long ago i’m getting old
    but uh anyway i thought i was forever
    going to be a bachelor
    hop skipping around the globe chasing
    summer and uh
    ended up putting the roots firmly down
    here in italy
    marrying an italian having kids and uh
    starting off with businesses here
    uh yeah started off initially with uh
    a pastry shop like the local starbucks
    type deal you know and uh
    in a decent area and ended up
    they have a great saying here in italy
    it’s uh
    partnerships are better in
    odd numbers and three is too many
    meaning that i had a uh i had a business
    partner that was pocketing money so i
    decided it’s better to go on
    just doing stuff by myself oh man that’s
    a really funny saying
    and it rings really true it should be a
    saying everywhere
    yeah it is but i mean i’m lucky enough
    to with my laundromat in in
    the state side i do have a partner and i
    mean the laundry is
    the same partner but then but we’ve been
    on we’ve been good friends since college
    so
    that makes a big it’s who you can trust
    so yeah
    uh yeah so what else after the pastry
    shop sold the pastry shop
    my half um bought a dilapidated old
    tuscan farmhouse
    uh without a roof or windows uh anything
    like that and
    made that into a uh i don’t know if
    you’ve read the book under the tuscan
    sun that’s kind of what or seen the
    movie that’s kind of what i
    did so with an old tuscan farmhouse
    remodeled it and
    put it into uh two apartments to rent
    out and our home
    so and uh so you’re living in
    how do i countries yeah
    that’s that that’s yeah i live in the
    tuscan countryside so but i mean it’s
    not
    all it’s not all bells and whistles
    either you know
    it’s fun when you see a country through
    the uh tourist sunglasses
    but uh once you pick a country just put
    your feet down
    you know there’s always going to be
    pluses and minuses of wherever you live
    so for sure yeah for sure
    wow so yeah it’s uh yeah i’m a busy guy
    in the uh i have what i’ve called uh
    i have shiny object syndrome so you know
    once yeah
    once i started so after this after i got
    done with the project of the uh
    you know remodeling this old tuscan
    farmhouse i did all the demolition
    myself and designed it myself and what
    have you had you know obviously had
    masons because i’m not a bricklayer by
    any means
    but uh had people to help me out with
    that
    um so after it was done and up and
    running it was probably 2012
    and 2012 2013. and started looking for
    more shiny objects and i would take my
    oldest daughter to school you know every
    morning
    and pick her up and what have you and i
    would drive by in
    an empty storefront and i was sitting
    there
    looking at this empty storefront it’s
    like what can i do with this storefront
    and when i had the pastry shop i had met
    a
    uh an american who came over here for uh
    college needed a laundromat didn’t find
    one so
    he became a speed queen and the only
    speed queen importer
    in italy and he opened up launch mat
    chain so when i saw that empty
    storefront
    i thought about hey i gotta go find that
    guy
    you know found him and that’s uh that’s
    what got me on the path of uh
    laundromats wow wow
    it’s just it’s so crazy like where life
    takes you
    oh it is yeah it’s um but it’s it’s i
    mean i can
    well it’s okay it’s that empty
    storefront that i saw that i decided to
    put a launch right in there but what
    gave me the idea to put the lawn right
    in there is uh
    i mean reading a little purple books
    called rich dad poor dad i don’t know if
    you’ve read it i don’t know
    a lot of people yeah so it’s just
    one of those things and what i took away
    from that
    is uh everyone’s got ideas
    and we all have these uh at least goals
    and what have you but
    sometimes they stay as dreams but i mean
    there’s like one word and that’s
    there’s only one word that’s that that
    you need to uh act on and that is
    action if you don’t put anything into
    action these things will just stay as
    dreams and goals
    and and and it’s like someone keeps
    moving the goal line
    as life continues you still think of
    that dream
    but uh yeah if you don’t work if you
    don’t act on it
    it just doesn’t happen yeah i love love
    love that
    that’s i mean because that is the key
    and it’s so easy to get
    you know just caught up in the research
    and the learning
    and the idea of creation and i i love
    like i’m an idea guy
    you know putting my nose to the
    grindstone and and grinding things out
    is not
    easy for me i love people with ideas but
    like you said they don’t get you
    anywhere if you don’t take action on
    them
    and so yeah i love you exactly i love
    that
    i’m i’m definitely an idea guy too i
    mean often times well even the uh
    you just sometimes i sleep with a
    notebook next to me so like when i wake
    up in the middle of the night
    i’m like the next morning after like
    what did i write here and i got these
    chicken scratches but you know that’s
    but that’s how my laundromat was born in
    in the u.s
    it’s uh i went to u.s after
    we had two laundromats here we were
    looking for a third
    location here um didn’t quite find
    anything
    i was getting it was a cold winter what
    have you so i decided i told my wife i’m
    like hey
    listen you need to authorize me
    gotta ask the wife you need to authorize
    me for a one month trip i’m going to
    florida i’m going to see if i can find
    something to do there
    and i thought it was going to be maybe
    investing in a small
    fourplex or you know small multi-family
    something like that
    because i didn’t know maybe my daughters
    want to go to a university
    in the states and you know just thought
    it’d be good to get a foot on that side
    to uh hedge my bets i got all my eggs in
    one basket here in italy if the euro
    were to you know fall apart if the
    european union were to
    you know break up with you know brexit
    has now happened i didn’t even think
    about that you know
    five years ago of course um yeah so
    these type of things and i was there
    and so like i said looking for small
    multi-family property
    uh when i would see a laundromat i would
    stop look you know
    usually in a strip mall stop the rental
    car get out
    go inside have a look and you know maybe
    take an idea back here to where i had
    laundromats
    and i came across one in uh you know
    it’s in mayport florida it’s a
    jacksonville beach so it’s right on
    right off the on the intercoastal side
    you know on the
    beach side and uh went to open the door
    and it was locked and
    in the bottom corner of the door i kid
    you not was a three by five note card i
    mean this is and it said four lease
    yeah i mean i mean a three by five note
    card wasn’t that aggressive
    exactly so yeah so anyway
    the laundry had been closed for about
    six years maybe seven yeah from what
    they told me
    and uh yeah it was just a zombie map
    just just sitting there with all the old
    top loaders and
    the old everything was there and i
    kind of thought i’m like you know what i
    think i just found my
    you know the diamond in the rough here
    uh i don’t need to recreate the wheel i
    know what i’m doing with laundromats
    why don’t i open up a laundromat here in
    the states and that was it
    full speed ahead shiny object found and
    you know just needed to polish it up
    pursued
    exactly well that’s i mean that’s a wild
    story because
    i can see like an average person
    maybe you own i want to get i want to go
    back in a second
    because we’ve got to talk about
    laundromats in italy but i can see
    somebody in your shoes owns a couple
    laundromats
    comes out to the states looking for
    their next shiny object
    finds a laundromat says yep this is an
    awesome shiny object
    and that’s where it stops because
    there’s a lot of obstacles that you had
    to overcome
    you know i mean yeah including an ocean
    right like you’ve got
    some big obstacles to make that happen
    so i want to go back and get into that
    and how you kind of started to overcome
    those obstacles
    in a second there’s a little teaser if i
    had a commercial to put in i put it in
    right here
    um you need a sponsor i need a sponsor
    yeah veterans coin laundry mate board
    but i want to go back so okay so
    you own laundromats also in italy so
    you’re you’re an
    international laundromat owner incorrect
    i just let’s just call it like it is
    international laundromat owner i don’t
    know if there are too many of those
    out there yeah ma’am maybe not yeah i
    like it
    i’m a pretty unique person yeah
    okay so oh go ahead yeah the
    so the launch mats here um so after
    seeing that empty storefront
    decided to open up the launch right
    there and a laundromat here is i mean
    one two i don’t know what is it one a
    quarter of the size of a small
    laundromat in the u.s i mean
    my first laundromat had four washers so
    two
    20 pounders and two 40 pounders speed
    cleans
    and two stack dryers a 30 pounder and a
    45 pounder stack
    so that’s it you know four washers and
    four dryers
    change machine yeah which is here
    there’s it’s a cash point really so you
    uh
    i like this system here it works out
    really well people it’s just one
    cash point and they put they press the
    number of the machine that their clothes
    are in and the machine starts
    so it’s uh but you can the maximum you
    can have 12 machines so
    yeah yeah so but
    uh yeah so then the second one was uh we
    thought was going to be maybe a year
    later and it ended up being two years
    practically because uh
    the we couldn’t find for the second
    location we were looking for another
    place to rent and we just couldn’t find
    a place to rent
    because it’s kind of difficult here with
    the i mean
    if you’ve ever been to europe you know
    most of the
    town centers they’re in very old cities
    so it’s not it’s not like you can just
    vent 20 dryers
    outside of a building you know just like
    the normal drive yeah so
    they all go into one chimney and then
    the chimney
    you know has to per italian law has to
    exhaust at the top of the roof so
    we could not find a place to rent in the
    different this town that we were looking
    in and i
    ended up just happening to see a uh a
    closed garage door
    would you know i knew there was must
    have been a store there at one point
    because on the outside of it i saw there
    was a small
    chimney that was coming out so they must
    have had a wood-burning stove or
    something in there at one point
    so we’re talking maybe a six-inch pipe
    that was going up to the roof
    but i knew with that it was
    grandfathered in and then i could make
    it
    i could get it authorized to get
    expanded into a bigger one
    and that’s a one foot so yeah that’s so
    and then we ended up buying that
    building because the guy did not want to
    rent it out anymore he was elderly he
    said no
    i will uh i just want to sell it so gave
    him a lowball offer
    and he took it and he he’s still to this
    day if i see him on the
    face when i see him on the streets he’s
    like you really low-balled me
    like you didn’t have to accept
    so that’s funny so yeah and so that
    second year was
    we bought the building and then it took
    us another you know a couple months to
    get the financing to
    put the machines into that one yeah so
    do you own two
    in italy uh you own that was two and
    then we opened up the third one
    uh in the perfect timing of covid you
    know march of this year
    we uh got a third location under our
    belt yeah
    literally perfect timing oh yeah i mean
    you want to talk about a slow summer
    wow okay oh my gosh i mean it’s seasonal
    as
    it is we’re here in italy it’s very
    seasonal
    um because i mean it’s so hot in the
    summer that people
    just you know if you throw some sheets
    outside they’re drying literally and
    it’s put them away and that’s it so yeah
    it’s mainly a winter
    winter activity which is fine because
    with my holiday rental uh apartments
    here at my home um that’s only busy in
    summer so i
    with two businesses i kind of created
    one job
    really yeah i mean it’s kind of nice i
    always say there’s a lot of
    uh synergy between real estate and
    and laundromats and that’s that can be
    one of the ways that
    there’s some synergy there so that’s
    pretty cool yeah yeah yeah it works out
    really well
    yeah so three locations in italy
    correct and so well tell tell us just a
    little bit about like how
    how big are each of these so square
    footage
    well a square meters wise they’re about
    40 square meters so
    um i think there’s like nine square feet
    in one square meter so 350 square feet
    maybe
    gee so that’s what they are i mean the
    third location that we just bought is
    much larger
    but because i it was the only place i
    found right that i could get the
    authorization to put the chimney in or
    what have you and
    it’s big enough to where i can have an
    office now and
    make a happy wife happy life so she can
    have her dining table
    back you know dining room table where i
    usually have all my my laptop and
    piles and piles of paper yeah so
    so yeah the the newer location we just
    started small i
    found a uh about all used machines that
    i found a woman up in milan
    that had been open maybe three years and
    she just didn’t want to do it anymore
    what she said so i picked up
    three-year-old dexter equipment and
    threw it in there the other the other
    two laundromats are speed queen
    so but uh both both great brands
    can’t cannot complain and i mean with
    the the usage that they get over here
    is not the usage that they get in the
    states so i mean these are like lifetime
    purchases i mean there’s
    very rarely there might be what is going
    wrong
    practically nothing knock on wood here
    for one second you know right
    but yeah exactly you know a little
    thermostat here or
    whatever but nothing major yeah
    man that’s uh yeah that’s
    really awesome and it’s it it gets more
    and more exotic sounding too you’re like
    yeah i’m in the tuscan
    countryside i bought some washing
    machines from lady and milan
    and they’re just rubbing it in right now
    well that’s what you got to do you got
    to be hungry i mean yeah i knew
    that to open the third location i knew
    that i didn’t
    want to go all new machines anymore
    you know i’m just like you know that’s
    just such a big hit
    over here because uh they’re expensive
    there’s the import fees and not because
    they’re all
    made in the usa you know and if you’re
    the export
    import fees and what have you so i
    decided that it would have been better
    just to pick up something that was
    already here
    so let’s see myself like again saved a
    ton of money on that which allowed
    more for the build out and the you know
    leaving room for
    expansion and then more machines in that
    third launch map
    so it’s uh but we’ll see i mean it’s
    just starting to take off now
    it’s been october’s like when we start
    to pick up here so
    which is good how many machines did you
    end up putting in
    that third location i just have a
    20 pounder 30 pounder and a 40 pound
    washer
    okay and i have two 30 pound
    dryers single pockets and a stack 50
    pound
    so
    that’s cool sorry okay that’s okay i
    mean it’s just so crazy
    how different like i the trend that i
    see here at least here in l.a and a lot
    of the larger metros at least is these
    you know six 8 000 square foot
    laundromats going in and they’re
    stuffing them to the gills with
    equipment and you’re over here with like
    yeah i have like three washers in mine
    yeah that’s a crazy different business
    model
    it is yeah but yeah but for me to i mean
    we always said that we needed my
    business partner tonight he’s my friend
    of mine he lives in
    san francisco here at bay area and uh
    to make it i mean they’re not like huge
    money earners you know
    we don’t pay off the debt and then you
    know after the death paid off then you
    start
    cash one decent but uh you know what we
    we just always when we get to that point
    we then we go to another location and
    then we get to that point and then we
    open up another location so we’re always
    yeah which is fine you know and
    because once you get like i said if we
    get the 10 of these little ones over
    here
    then that’s gonna be great yeah oh yeah
    yeah and
    i mean i think that’s i think having
    that mindset i mean going back to kind
    of rich dad poor dad but having that
    mindset where you’re collecting those
    assets like if you don’t need that cash
    flow right now
    and roll them back in and have
    you know you got leverage working for
    you you got compounding working for you
    and
    you have businesses working for you
    other people’s money working for you so
    i mean you just have a lot of things you
    know working together
    to really you know compile wealth
    relatively quickly
    by doing it that way yeah that’s exactly
    i mean i had a australian uh tourist
    that came here a couple years ago
    and his situation was the same as mine
    and he said it perfectly he goes yes i’m
    asked it rich and cash poor
    i’m like yeah that’s exactly me i just
    every time i get cash i put it into
    another asset
    so i mean if you look at my pockets i
    got nothing but
    i i get the satisfaction i mean there’s
    nothing i don’t know how it is for you
    but i love
    collecting you know i love collection
    day love opening up that cash
    and going gosh look at all of this money
    i mean when i was a little kid
    and one of my grandma’s you know and
    after church on sundays we would go to
    the bakery the italian bakery actually
    and we got out of the car and i found i
    opened the door
    looked down on the ground and i find an
    1888
    organ silver dollar on the ground you
    know
    and ever since that day i’ve just been
    addicted to like coin collecting and
    you know anything to do with anything
    numismatically coins what have you and
    i mean i love collecting back back to
    the state side at the laundry right
    there because that’s all
    dollar coins and quarters you know so
    here it’s a bit
    less it’s all bills over here which is
    which is fine but
    yeah it’s just another it just makes you
    feel like a kid
    i mean it just puts me back to being
    seven years old finding that coin on the
    ground
    is what i feel like every time that i go
    and empty out my cash routines so yeah
    yeah so cool i have a little box right
    behind me
    kind of here on youtube it’s right here
    and in that box i put
    all the interesting like coins i get all
    the silver quarters i get
    and all the yep you know whatever kind
    of comes through i have you know coins
    from all over the world that
    are quarter-ish size that ended up in my
    machines and
    just sure i mean it’s just kind of cool
    to you know to see what comes through
    and
    uh yeah pretty cool yeah i do the same
    thing
    yeah do the same thing i mean
    unfortunately there’s no silver coinage
    over here that would work
    yeah just once they change the euro and
    that’s not going to happen though i do
    get excited every time i find a silver
    quarter back home though
    not often enough well okay so i mean
    pretty cool you have these
    you know smaller locations and you’re
    starting to stack them on top of each
    other
    and uh you know in italy and
    how how far apart are they by the way
    like distance wise um
    about three miles apart each one oh
    two to two to three miles so pretty
    close so my house is like more or less
    in the middle then i have one up a hill
    and then one down the hill and then
    another about two miles away from that
    one
    so uh and all in little town little
    towns yeah so yeah
    easy i mean that’s what i think uh that
    i do have one
    competitor um in between
    my laundromats and uh but it’s not like
    i want to put them out of business by no
    means but
    it’s just that my service i think coming
    over here with an
    american attitude and work ethic towards
    service
    yeah uh in italy services sometimes left
    by the wayside so
    i mean as soon as someone calls me i’m
    i’m like okay i’ll be there in five
    minutes
    more or less you know i’m free enough
    being self-employed that
    if something happens i just drop what
    i’m doing and go and uh that
    wins me over a lot of customers yeah so
    yeah
    my my experiences in italy is you know
    it’s just a different kind of pace of
    life and different
    priorities you know it’s not you know
    here especially here in california but i
    think
    in the states in general i mean you know
    it’s
    a now me now culture and you know there
    like you go out to eat and you just kind
    of hang out
    for a while until you get your food and
    then expect you to keep
    hanging out while you’re eating and
    after you’re eating yeah yeah
    no one’s going to kick you up off the
    table yeah exactly just stay as long as
    you want
    right so yeah yeah i can see where
    coming in with a
    hey i’ll be right there to help you out
    would be appealing
    you know in a culture where you know you
    could make that call and somebody get
    there in an hour
    or two or next week
    i think that’s cool cool little
    competitive advantage
    um so but you should probably look at
    you know picking that
    that location that competitor’s location
    up to and just oh
    i i i have i believe yeah i mean and
    at the moment the the building that
    because the my competitor is
    leasing you know the space and the the
    four walls are for sale
    the owner wants too much so i thought
    that would have been a nice thing
    becoming the landlord of your competitor
    check out that rent until he leaves i
    foresee
    a rent increase yes that’s what i was
    forcing
    [Laughter]
    i love that that’s pretty funny you will
    have to we’ll see if that ends up
    happening because i will
    yeah i’m gonna try well i’m actually
    gonna approach him um
    i think at the end of this win the end
    of this year and because he’s he’s
    getting
    elder and he’s up there now too so just
    going to just try and see if he wants to
    sell
    yeah and he has another location a bit
    farther away
    which would be fine that would be jump
    jump us to four and five right away
    yeah yeah cool yeah okay
    well i mean very cool to get
    you know just a little snippet of you
    know what it’s like to
    own laundromats in italy i mean that’s
    that’s pretty cool i had i have never
    talked to anybody else who’s owned
    a lot of mats and it is pretty cool and
    as far as day to day i mean really i
    mean
    could i could just go you know once a
    week to collect
    you know but i you know i drive by one
    on my way to bring my daughters to the
    train station so they can go to school
    in
    florence so then i stopped by and you
    know clean it
    before covid hit in march i did have a
    guy that would do the cleaning and
    closing but just because you know with
    uh
    it being illegal for you know the
    lockdown i mean
    italy was very strict at the beginning
    so it was essentially
    i mean laundromats over here were deemed
    essential
    but you didn’t have any customers
    because it was illegal for people to
    leave their homes
    right so yeah so i did so i
    had set up all these systems because for
    me i’m a system guy
    as i had the first when i opened that
    first launch mat here
    i did we opened it i think march and
    i opened opened cleaned and closed it
    because i think
    any business owner should be the jack of
    all trades you should know how to do
    everything from a to z and whatever
    business that you are
    going to be doing so i did that for six
    months
    i opened it and cleaned it
    for like three months i said man i don’t
    want to be going down there
    twice a day and got to close it at 11
    p.m so
    i said they call the security company
    got them to close it
    and then uh so my wife says well you’re
    so lazy it’s just it’s you have one
    laundromat and it’s just down the hill
    why don’t you just go every night and
    close it i’m like well because
    when i have 10 laundromats i’m not going
    to be able to be in 10 places at the
    same time i got to put a system into
    place
    and then september came along and i’m
    like you know what it’s been six months
    and i’m cleaning that freaking place and
    opening it so called the guy and said
    hey
    hired a guy that would go and open it
    clean it
    and that was it so i pulled the plug and
    that was i would go once a month or i’m
    sorry once a week and just collect
    and uh then when the second location
    came on you know the gentleman said yeah
    i would like to do the second location
    when the third location came on he said
    yeah i want to do that
    but because of covet i ended up taking
    all the duties back
    and when you know i think probably at
    the end of this year once
    if we can ever get out of this mess that
    we’re in yeah then i’ll just
    plug him back in and plug and play and
    then that’s it i pulled himself out of
    the equation again
    so very important to get those systems
    into place i agree i agree and
    especially
    you know i think when you’re you know
    you’ve got some remote businesses too so
    let’s chat about that
    i mean i think a lot of people well i’ll
    just speak for myself i’m really curious
    as to
    you know how this all played out from
    that three by five card taped in the
    bottom of the window to you
    now and now you’re looking at
    potentially maybe a second location
    you know remotely so talk to me about
    that
    okay so after the three by five card in
    the jacksonville
    um took about nine ten months with lease
    negotiations with the landlord so that
    it took a while
    yeah which was fine it was in no rush i
    mean if it happened it happened if it
    didn’t hey
    okay levy uh we
    uh when we got the financing we went
    with dexter because uh
    that’s i don’t know just who we got
    financing approved by
    put in all new machines total renew
    build out
    um i did end up going back for that i
    was back about three months
    doing i did a lot of the stuff myself
    obviously the uh
    the mounting of the machines what have
    you that was the distributorship laundry
    pro of florida who uh had a great great
    uh relationship with carlos and ron
    the owner um can can’t say uh
    a bad word about it can really help me
    out
    and it was even they they were part of
    the plan with me you know being the
    remote you know they gave me ideas on
    you know how to set it up if we were
    going to go with the card store if we
    weren’t
    you know i wanted to do card store
    because i figured that would just take
    out all the uh
    the problems with cash and collections
    and what have you
    but as we were sitting in you know the
    area that my laundry mat is in
    you know i’m sitting with the the
    distributor and
    he says to me uh you start looking at
    people just in the strip mall he’s like
    think that person has a credit card i’m
    like um no
    think that person has a credit card i
    said probably not and he said
    you think you want to go all card that’s
    like no
    so and at that point we went with uh i’m
    in x drops
    with the dollar and quarter acceptance
    just for the fact that uh
    with with today’s big machines now so
    you get the 60 pounders that are costing
    eight bucks you know people don’t want
    to be chucking 32 quarters into
    a lot of corners so it’s a lot it really
    is a lot of quarters
    so yeah we went with the dual coin drops
    um dexter has a app
    so now we are able to take credit card
    payments that they rolled out i don’t
    know if you know about it dexter pay
    yeah which worked out it was really easy
    for us to jump on board with that
    to the fact that we got all that and
    without without the
    40 grand invested into uh credit card
    readers
    yeah and like i said with that
    with learning about putting systems into
    place with the three little laundromats
    over here
    i mean my business partner and i knew we
    were gonna have to put some serious
    systems
    for uh for jacksonville um
    and while doing we uh you know we just
    needed to find a
    honest person money manager so we do
    have a manager over there
    we started out with uh just going
    we were open uh typical i think what
    seven until 10 p.m because when you
    spend 300 grand
    it’s you know we the idea was to go 24
    hours but when you really put that kind
    of money into it and you’re like
    do i really just want to leave the door
    open on
    300k you know it just doesn’t make sense
    so
    it took us uh probably a good six months
    i was backing i think yeah it was six
    months after we opened i was probably
    there in september of
    2018 and uh
    i just called my business partner up i
    said listen i think we should do 24
    hours i sound like
    the machines they’re six months old you
    know the the
    a bit of a lure has worn off i’m like
    when i go home
    tomorrow flying back family i’m just
    gonna leave the door open
    and that’s it we’re doing 24 hours so we
    set it up with the you know people what
    have you
    but yeah and since then it’s been
    phenomenal
    i mean that i cut out the guy that had
    to be there twice a day to open it and
    to close it and so
    all these little things that we learned
    here we had to put in the place there
    yeah yeah is it uh is it an unintended
    store or
    partially attended um we i mean we tried
    well it was unattended at the beginning
    after six months
    i said okay let’s get there i built out
    a corner of the store for
    wash dry fold okay um we had
    attendance for oh i’d say about a year
    but
    with they weren’t very proactive
    um i don’t know it’s it’s a work ethic
    i don’t know what it is but it just was
    a difficult situation
    it was costing us so much in payroll
    that we weren’t even be able to cover
    the payroll with the service that they
    were doing
    and at the end of it because you
    you really need to be on top of uh your
    wash rifle
    employees i mean there’s just too many
    opportunities for money to go missing
    so yeah yeah so at the end pulled the
    plug on the employees
    found a woman who wanted to run her own
    business out of there because that’s
    what i was looking for at that point he
    said listen i don’t care
    i don’t want to deal with it it’s not
    that much income i don’t that we’re
    gonna be
    missing so on a woman
    she did that for about nine months she
    just left last month
    um so now we are unattended again but
    just gonna
    do that same that same system need to
    find an
    entrepreneurial minded person to do
    their wash dry fold in there they don’t
    paint well their rent is
    cleaning the machines you know that’s it
    right yeah so yeah
    yeah it’s a good deal for somebody who’s
    interested in doing
    something like that exactly you need to
    find yeah
    go ahead how’d you find her out of
    curiosity uh
    just i think uh word of mouth from
    the guy who’s uh my manager though
    i don’t know if it was from someone that
    he knew in their church or whatever so
    yeah okay
    cool and you’re i mean you’ve mentioned
    your business partner a couple of times
    and
    it sounds like a really good partnership
    is he is that the one that’s in san
    francisco area
    yeah he’s uh he’s in the
    assuming he was there at the location
    and you were no no no no
    okay yeah so how did you find this man i
    mean because the key to your whole
    operation is having a good manager right
    because you guys can
    absolutely so how do you find a good
    manager tell us the secret
    oh the secret there um that is just fate
    i mean literally fate found a
    an extremely honest guy but
    entrepreneurial minded
    likes you know we just clicked yeah i
    met him
    uh when i was back at the laundromat in
    florida
    for whatever a week or whatever you know
    checking out because i would fly back
    every once every two months
    just to double check on things and uh
    now with covet i haven’t been back since
    february but uh
    the met him he was just you know a
    student that was
    living in an apartment near the
    laundromat uh he was getting his
    master’s degree
    in marketing her business no business
    degree business
    this is master’s degree thinking
    marketing actually and uh
    we got chatting what have you and then
    uh ended up
    didn’t think about approaching him as
    being a manager by no means
    and uh ended up running into him at the
    supermarket the next day
    and we were chatting again more and
    asked him and he’s like well how about
    me you know i asked if he knew anyone
    you know
    he said i said sounds like a plan and
    that was it
    so he’s been fantastic yeah i hope he
    you know i mean
    we’re just his side hustle you know but
    yeah
    yeah and that’s really cool so okay so
    you
    just kind of it was just kind of fake
    you didn’t you know you were just kind
    of putting the word out there
    and seeing exactly i mean which is key i
    mean that’s
    that’s really what it comes down to most
    times you gotta let people know what you
    want
    otherwise how are they gonna know what
    you want right so
    yeah exactly yeah so that’s good okay so
    what what exactly is he doing for you is
    he the one
    kind of cleaning or is he hiring
    somebody to clean is
    um well we had when i had the wash dry
    full
    woman there she would do the cleaning he
    was just you know
    any kind of maybe customer problems
    refunds you know bigger
    anything he would go do the you know
    deposits at the bank
    he does you know the coin boxes
    collections um
    any of that kind of stuff but uh just
    recently
    he’s uh because i can’t get back i’ve
    uh expanded his uh role i mean
    with his request also i mean so what
    he’s ended up doing is now
    uh he’s created his own business uh for
    like
    he does all the accounting now so
    they’re taking care of
    and he’s also taking care of the
    cleaning so not himself
    but that’s part of his services are
    providing accounting services
    and the cleaning janitorial services so
    he finds a guy who’s
    cleaning which is which is great for me
    because i
    i couldn’t be bothered with that i mean
    it was so difficult to have to find
    someone and then
    go you know just yeah so now that’s off
    my plate
    yeah i pay him more he’s hey if we can
    all make money i’m happy
    you know i love that because it you know
    not only is that helping you you know
    obviously
    you know run a business remotely i mean
    which is huge
    but the way that you set it up either on
    purpose or an accident or however it
    worked out
    you know it’s allowing him to you know
    explore
    his entrepreneurship also and create
    businesses that hopefully he’ll be able
    to you know utilize with other
    other owners so if you’re in jackson
    exactly hey exactly i’m well i’m i’m
    yeah i’m thinking you know if the second
    location maybe he’s gonna be a partner
    into that one you never know i mean
    for this uh i mean he asked me if he
    could put a uh
    a vending machine so that’s his side
    hustle now he’s got
    so he took on the the the accounting
    services for this
    and you know i let him have a vending
    machine
    selling uh you know just snacks and
    drinks and what have you right
    and you know for he deducts a couple
    hundred bucks off of the uh
    the invoice for the rent for the machine
    and what have you so yeah so that’s his
    side hustles now he’s you know that
    entrepreneurial mind you know he’s like
    hey i noticed you don’t have a vending
    machine in there can i put it i’m like
    yeah i don’t i can’t have one
    if i’m in my if i lived back in florida
    okay i might have a vending machine
    because then i would stock it
    you know but i can’t be bothered with
    that so yeah it’s just too hard to
    you don’t want to fly i can’t even
    imagine stocking
    yeah exactly yeah just let me just take
    that you know fifteen hundred dollar
    flight back to me yeah
    well that’s cool well okay but i mean
    here’s
    here’s the question that it begs in in
    my view right okay so you have this
    manager
    he has a lot of control over a lot of
    your
    business right your success largely
    depends on you and we’ve already talked
    systems so
    yeah talk to me i mean i guess
    specifically the one that jumps out of
    me the most is
    you know collections how how are you
    kind of monitoring that are you able to
    monitor that at all
    um yeah down down to literally the
    quarter
    okay well tell me about that yeah um
    with the new machines i mean speed queen
    or dexter
    they all have the capabilities now so i
    just pop on the app
    look on you know dexter live i know
    exactly how much has come in that week
    um i can do an audit on the
    when we put the changer in i had the
    the company and it’s american changer i
    had them put a
    board in there that i can access
    remotely so i know exactly how much
    money is in my change machine at any one
    time
    i know how much money came in i know how
    much money
    he collected if it’s off i would say but
    it’s always spot on
    so it just takes you know it’s once a
    week
    when i know that they’ve deposited i get
    sent they they deposit it i look
    what it is and that’s it and i mean sure
    it might be you know
    is there a little bit of a difference of
    course because maybe you know i’m
    looking at it
    at 12 o’clock and at noon and maybe they
    did the collections at 10 so from 10 a.m
    to noon
    but come on where it’s minimal so yeah
    yeah well i mean i think that’s i think
    that’s huge because that really is the
    key and i think that’s been
    one of the big obstacles to doing some
    something like this
    for laundromat owners for a really long
    time is
    you know how do you how can you manage
    it remotely and
    give up control over part of the
    business that frankly
    launder my owners are reluctant for good
    reason to to give over to someone else
    but also have not really been able to do
    that with
    any kind of certainty that somebody’s
    not ripping them off right
    and because it’s just yeah sure exactly
    yeah
    so i’m sure the temptation is there you
    know but i mean i
    he even sees it you know as the stepping
    stone
    you know this opportunity that has
    presented him with you know
    essentially being a business owner he’s
    getting all the experience
    life experiences of being a business
    owner without any risk
    yeah and yeah so well it’s huge and that
    would
    yeah finding somebody with that kind of
    mindset is
    rare you know for one i think you know
    a lot of people you know they just want
    to be handed
    you know something yeah they want a
    consistent thing they don’t necessarily
    want to build something of their own or
    they don’t
    know how but i mean you found a guy who
    is not only ambitious but he is also
    you know entrepreneur he’s using his
    creative mind he’s thinking
    about how he can turn you know this
    opportunity that you guys gave him into
    an opportunity that’s even bigger for
    himself so
    very cool exactly very cool to have that
    well it’s about i mean
    i think we were when we were at the
    supermarket or maybe at the laundromat
    but maybe we were talking about you know
    the entrepreneurial ship and what have
    you so i mean
    if if you are willing to talk about the
    things that you’re interested in
    you can see that spark in other people
    when you’re
    and that you’re talking about it and
    then they they like that idea so it’s
    easy to find those people i mean
    you know what is the oh what’s the call
    you know you just surround yourself with
    five important people so you become the
    sixth and fourth yeah so i mean that’s
    it so i don’t know if he thought that i
    was that person or if i thought that he
    was that you know whatever but you know
    it’s just a good symbiotic relationship
    yeah i mean that’s it’s awesome and i
    think that’s
    uh you know i think that’s for
    fortuitous for both of you guys to
    find yourselves in that situation so
    yeah well
    talk to me about uh you know
    okay so i mean we kind of started this
    whole thing off with
    you know odd number of partners is is
    the best and three’s too many yes
    right okay so yeah we talked about that
    and then you come back and tell me well
    hey i have a business partner
    and and you know you said who knows
    maybe
    you know maybe this manager that you
    have might be a partner in your next one
    so
    you’re breaking your own rule that you
    talked about so talk to me about that
    i’m breaking i’m breaking the italian
    italian insane
    exactly so okay so
    we’re talking about that because first
    business partner wasn’t italian so yeah
    i don’t know i’m just sticking with
    my clothes you know yeah but
    but honestly i mean uh partnerships can
    be really really great and really
    powerful
    or they can be disaster and it sounds
    like you’ve experienced both sides of
    that coin
    yeah so yeah so talk to me a little bit
    about what’s what’s making this
    partnership work
    for you um you know with your partner
    partnership with my friend i mean dr
    danke is this word that
    uh we’re just on the same mindset same
    wavelength we even
    for even for the second location i mean
    if we do the second location in jack and
    you know
    jacksonville or wherever and somewhere
    near florida
    um it’s going to be a larger laundromat
    maybe you know i’m looking at
    where our industry is going today is i
    mean it’s not just wash dry fold
    it’s now pick up and delivery service so
    i mean i’m thinking that
    is where you know and if that that next
    location is going to have to have the
    space available
    you know to you know to do that also
    because i think that’s where
    the you know yeah self-service laundry
    will always be
    needed but i mean if you’re gonna do a
    you know five thousand square foot
    building
    maybe you put 1500 dedicated 1500 square
    feet to a self-serve laundry and then
    maybe the other 3 500 is going to be
    machines in the back and
    in the loading dock for you know drop
    off you know pick up and delivery
    so it’s just but that’s a much bigger
    investment
    so
    exactly yes exactly so we were just
    talking on the phone with that this
    morning
    so about you know the kind of capital
    that it’s going to take and
    and what have you and even i
    asked him like well do we need to maybe
    look into getting
    other partners and he said to me he’s
    like but you and i we work so well
    together because we’re on the same
    wavelength
    it’s that type of you know and maybe
    you know obviously we would use the same
    manager in this you know would he want
    to pick up another
    location for sure under his belt you
    know that’s
    i think we got something that’s working
    you know until it you know until
    something were to show up and we would
    say okay if something
    went wrong we need to you know work on
    what the problem is it’s but it’s
    working
    so we just need to double down
    yeah yeah well and that’s i mean i think
    that’s a good thing i mean like
    when you have something that’s working
    you can double down you can
    expand you can grow it you can’t take
    advantage of that
    uh once you kind of know okay we’re on
    the same wavelength we have the same
    goals we’re moving in the same direction
    let’s put the pedal down and see how far
    we can get
    yeah exactly i mean and and if okay if
    if it were to go um well that’s not
    going to say that but
    if if it were to go bad there
    what would i do i would just you know
    jump on a plane i’d be over there
    and that’s it yeah okay so being
    self-employed that’s it
    um i would be over there for you know
    whatever a month two
    three whatever it takes to to to right
    to the ship and get it going again in
    the right direction
    so it’s just one of those things yeah um
    yeah you just got to be willing you need
    to be willing to take the risks
    and you know what the risks are um
    everything that we’ve you know i don’t
    know every entrepreneur even yourself i
    mean
    you bought your first laundromat yeah i
    don’t know how much you knew about it
    but i didn’t know much
    yes yeah yeah exactly i didn’t work out
    as well as years though
    well mine was small so my risk was very
    small you know i mean
    four washers four dryers what can go
    wrong you know 40 grand
    okay so that’s it
    but yeah yeah so
    do you i mean do you have any advice for
    anybody who’s maybe thinking about
    partnering
    with somebody uh i mean you have that
    because i mean
    on both sides yeah i mean so i guess
    my uh original partner at the pastry
    shop here
    um he you know wasn’t the lifelong
    friend but maybe sometimes you can’t use
    lifelong friends i mean
    wealth is a team-building sport i mean
    you just you gotta put yourself
    or you need to go to networking uh
    [Music]
    uh um word i’m looking for situations
    network networking functions
    to get yours to surround yourself by
    people that are
    thinking about the same things as you um
    it’s there where you’re able to you know
    spark up conversations and
    i mean it yeah how do you find the right
    partner
    um i guess i got lucky
    but i mean with my you know my partner
    we had said
    since the you know early 90s
    you know maybe someday someday we should
    do something together someday we should
    do something together and it wasn’t
    until 2012 2013 that we actually
    pulled the trigger you know i called him
    up and said hey remember how we always
    used to say we should do something
    together
    i think i have this idea and i said you
    know it’s a laundromat blah blah blah
    blah blah
    and he’s like yeah let’s do that so
    i mean you the timing has to be right
    the i mean you definitely you should
    know the person um
    yeah that’s a good question i don’t know
    i think i just got i don’t want to say i
    just got lucky because
    no no yeah what i’m hearing is that
    you you found somebody that you align
    with you found somebody
    who you know your your goals were the
    same
    your ambitions were the same your
    mindsets were the same
    and aligned and there was trust built up
    between you guys for
    a long time before you really pulled the
    trigger on it i think those are
    you know some of the some of the things
    that happen and you know there probably
    is
    some amount of luck to it because you
    you know you just never really know
    you know i hear about family all the
    time who get in business together and
    things go bad so
    i mean it can happen yeah sure
    yeah those are some of the things that
    kind of aligned for you guys that made
    it
    you know such a such a good good thing
    and making money together never never
    hurts so
    yeah exactly i mean we’re cash flowing
    but we i mean that’s the other thing we
    neither of us have ever taken money out
    of any businesses that we we just keep
    rolling it over and rolling it over you
    know i mean yeah the idea is to get out
    of the rat race at some point right are
    we all looking for that
    you know that fabulous mailbox money
    that on the first of every month all of
    a sudden you got 10 grand and bang
    you know whatever you know whatever it
    is and there’s a lot of different ways
    to do it
    but that’s just yeah it’s the holy grail
    exactly well i
    i don’t want to like skip over uh
    anything else any
    any other parts that you want to share
    about either experience in italy or
    being remote here
    in this in the states well it’s so with
    with the laundromat back in the states
    um it’s called veterans coin laundry and
    i remember when i said that uh
    i sleep with a notepad next to my bed
    you know and so i woke up you know i was
    at the hotel
    after seeing that three by five note
    card and then and
    that name just popped in there we got
    one because i’m a veteran i was in the
    marine corps
    it’s uh it’s about a mile away from the
    the
    navy air for navy naval air space at
    mayport
    so there’s a big you know military
    presence there so i just always
    and then once you get an idea like that
    and it just starts snowballing and then
    so the next location i mean reading
    books on
    um like how to start your corporation
    how to run your corporation by like uh
    garrett sutton and tax books by you know
    wheel right and what have you there’s
    all this reading of books
    is it expands your mind to where you
    know i mean every
    i mean i’m always reading a book about
    what i have next to me right now i have
    a book called
    execution the discipline of getting
    things done you know i mean
    it always be reading at least one
    non-fiction if you want to read a
    fiction book
    you know to go to sleep or whatever do
    that but at least you know 10 pages a
    day of some
    non-fiction whatever you’re liking
    so reading books getting these things
    and
    after so after reading these books
    veterans coin laundry
    was born and uh there’s another
    laundromat owner
    named uh ken barrett don’t know if you
    know who he is
    but yeah yeah of course so yeah and
    he uh when he trademarked his
    law you know his first laundromat he you
    know whatever it’s the washington coin
    launch or whatever but
    so then i was like hey that’s a good
    idea you know create that llc
    that’s gonna own that and then just you
    know so now we’re gonna have veterans
    coin laundry
    mayport and then i’m gonna i wanna have
    a veterans coin laundry you know
    pinco something else you know and then
    another one but always keeping that
    to you know and that’s those are things
    that i think that you need to think
    about
    even at your first laundromat you know
    how
    structuring the business is it going to
    be an llc is
    are you going to have a you know one llc
    that
    owns other each one separately and what
    so yeah it’s all about you know how
    you’re going to structure that
    and that’s all about reading a book and
    so we opened up the first one and we
    we knew what we were going to do with
    that going forward
    and they’re all structured properly yeah
    so
    that’s uh so yeah what i mean what my
    advice is
    you know get yourself some good business
    boring you know
    non-fiction but i mean i love it i just
    love
    learning new stuff and then how i can
    incorporate what i’m reading into my
    real
    world situation that’s where the thing
    gets exciting it’s where the rubber
    meets the road
    yep and you know circling right back
    around to that action right
    learning and then putting it into action
    learning into action and that’s the
    cycle that spirals you up
    to success yeah i’m going to ask you
    in a few minutes for some specific book
    recommendations that you would recommend
    in a second but before we get there we
    have a little section we call
    secret sauce listen up it’s the secret
    sauce
    [Music]
    and today’s secret sauce i want to just
    adapt it just a little
    bit it’s normally like hey what’s
    something that’s working well in your
    business that’ll help
    other owners but i’m wondering if you
    have one piece of it okay so like
    just speak to me right so one of my
    goals someday
    is i’m in california in southern
    california i’d love to own
    a laundromat in hawaii one day just so i
    can
    head over to hawaii and yeah you know
    business expense yeah exactly yeah yeah
    no
    when i go back to the states now it’s a
    it’s a business account absolutely yeah
    totally
    yeah so okay so you know
    so for someone like me who maybe wants a
    remote location i get asked this
    question
    all the time in coaching calls and stuff
    like i can’t find anything near me
    can i do this you know a couple hours
    away can i do this the next day it over
    can i do this wherever
    as someone who’s done that do you have
    maybe one piece of advice for someone
    who is thinking about maybe you want to
    to run a laundromat remotely to run
    along
    remotely well i did cut my teeth
    with local laundromats so and small
    local laundromats so i did have those
    few years of experience five years of
    experience under my belt
    to where i did have you know i don’t
    want to say i was cheating
    by you know opening up the one remotely
    but it was that experience that allowed
    me to say okay yeah i can do it as far
    as your first laundromat
    if you’re gonna go remotely that could
    be difficult but i mean
    you could do it i mean you already have
    two laundromats yourself so why can’t
    you
    already know what how to put you have
    systems yourself i’m certain of it we
    all do
    whether some are you know how we we
    adapt our systems to our
    situation personal situations so can you
    do it absolutely
    how do you do it you know the first
    thing is you take the flight and you go
    to hawaii no that’s a good first step i
    can
    that’s a that’s a step i can get on
    board with okay yeah you can
    say now you got the first step actually
    is get the permission from the wife to
    go for a month
    yeah yeah she’ll she’ll probably want to
    come with me but that’s fine
    i’m fine with that so yeah the the the
    secret sauce as far as for
    opening up a remote laundromat
    as your first laundromat i would
    i don’t think there’s any secret sauce
    there you yeah
    that i mean sorry to no deflate your
    balloon but i mean
    you better get your eyes dotted and t’s
    crossed and
    get a little uh experience under your
    belt yeah and learn the business i mean
    that is
    that is secret sauce right because i get
    asked this all the time by new people
    who
    you know because the industry i mean
    the business is relatively simple as far
    as businesses go right and so people
    mistake
    that for easy and so
    easy and simple yeah yeah two different
    things they’re different
    they’re different right yes they are
    yeah you know because it’s a simple
    business
    you know why can’t i run a laundromat in
    you know texas
    if i’m in iowa or wherever you know yeah
    and
    sure and it’s not easy and it does i
    mean like you said it
    you flew out here for a month and you
    spent nine or ten months of negotiation
    you know for a lease you had to find a
    manager yeah there’s a lot of obstacles
    you have to overcome
    to be able to do something like you’re
    doing and
    like you said not saying that you can’t
    do it but
    it takes work and it takes commitment to
    do it so i mean i think that is
    secret sauce okay
    it seems i mean it seems obvious but you
    know i
    i think it’s good for people to hear it
    from you because
    you’ve done it and you know yeah and i
    and i wouldn’t want to
    you know sell myself as you know saying
    it’s so simple that you know oh hey just
    go i mean
    i i don’t want to you know put anyone in
    a bad position to do that you know i
    mean really
    make sure you know what you’re doing
    when you know you get them
    get on board with an idea good just cut
    your teeth a little bit
    and small yep start small cut your teeth
    oh yes small local
    and then go to hawaii there you go
    why is so expensive cost of living
    there’s a killer though man yeah
    that’s true that’s true but you know and
    yeah worth it all right
    all right we have another little section
    we like to call pro tips
    and pro tips is just hey do you have any
    advice for the new i mean we kind of
    talked about that a little bit but just
    in general for
    you know somebody looking maybe to buy
    their first laundromat
    um any any big tips with them get
    started
    a lot of the questions that i see up on
    the forums now it’s like
    uh how do i
    you know what should i how do i control
    the p
    l of the laundromat that’s for sale and
    what have you and
    and i’m like i said i mean i had really
    good
    uh relationship with the distributor so
    i think what your
    key number one thing you need to do is
    get a relay a working relationship with
    a distributor that you feel comfortable
    with you like the machines i mean
    i mean the majority of the machines
    nowadays the big five i mean they’re
    i mean all the big four or five
    manufacturers out there
    they’re all about the same quality so
    find someone that you enjoy working with
    set up that relationship and then use
    their experience to your advantage i
    mean
    get the carlos the guy who said he’s
    been in this he’s been in the industry
    for
    30 years maybe more i mean i was able to
    you know find a guy who had 30 years
    experience which was 25 more than me
    and you know had laundromats he’s been
    selling equipment and
    that’s what i needed and that’s what i
    found but i found it
    you know by putting myself in the right
    position at the
    right place at the right time so yeah
    the
    definitely the new guy don’t
    don’t believe everything that the seller
    or the
    listing agent is saying dot your eyes
    cross your keys and get someone
    in your corner that can help you with
    some experience oh
    i i mean i think it’s just that is
    probably
    the best advice you give to somebody new
    and it’s come up here a couple different
    times on the podcast but i mean it’s
    just so
    you know you don’t know what you don’t
    know and in this industry there can be a
    lot of little gotchas
    that you may not know about and so
    having that
    30-year experience guy on your team you
    know
    helping you think through it crucial
    yeah
    exactly i mean even the the my you know
    my friend that’s the
    speed queen well not anymore but the
    distributor here that was in italy
    you know the you know what’s the word
    the pro forma
    you know that he you know gave me told
    you know oh you know industry is you
    know
    four turns per day you know for i’m like
    okay yeah so yeah in the u.s maybe it’s
    four turns per day in italy it’s not
    but you know so that first year was like
    hey wait a minute here
    these things aren’t turning as often as
    i was promised so that was you know
    the second one is he’s like hey you’re
    gonna need this amount of machines i’m
    like
    no i’m not i’m gonna you know we’re
    gonna need this amount
    but the space can fit it yeah well we
    can work on that later
    you know so just those type of things
    just always you know
    got your eyes crossed your teeth double
    checked you know as my grandfather said
    measure
    twice and cut once at once yeah exactly
    yeah
    yeah solid solid advice um yeah
    okay i want to i want to circle back
    around to those books
    um and this doesn’t have to be books
    necessarily but i would be curious for
    you know a book or two or five or
    whatever that you
    think are most influential or and who
    might help people either grow their
    business or grow personally but what
    resources do you recommend to people
    oh well then laundromat resource of
    course
    beforehand come on down to southern
    california you can stay in my house
    anytime yeah the forums are really good
    i mean
    launch my owner’s showcase launch my
    resource um
    the cla i’m a member of the cla
    obviously
    there’s a lot of you know talk pro and
    on about every form and what have you
    but um
    there’s a lot of info out there i mean a
    ton of info
    it’s uh as far as as far as the you know
    laundromat specific kind of information
    um as far as books i mean yeah
    how to start your own corporation run
    your own corporation these are by
    garrett
    sutton i believe um rich dad poor dad
    that’s the thing that got me
    thinking outside of my outside the box
    you know about what
    what what what is your financial
    statement
    assets income liabilities these are
    types of things that
    people need to understand i mean credit
    and
    other people’s money and though all
    these type of things are all things that
    i’ve just picked up by reading books i
    mean
    like execution that’s something of
    getting things done these are i mean
    that’s action
    action action i mean
    how to use credit to your advantage i
    mean i mean what’s the
    even uh the situation of the the
    the economy now i mean the dollar and
    you know there’s so many things that you
    can learn about and read about
    that i mean i saw a what was it a
    quote or something recently that most
    college graduates
    once they graduate from college i think
    some ungodly
    like 70 percent don’t ever pick up books
    again
    to read you know so that that’s
    phenomenal
    that is i mean you need to pick up books
    and read we mean
    we’re i mean you’re either growing or
    you’re dying i mean as a plant the plant
    is either growing or it’s dying
    there’s no in between so to keep growing
    i mean
    as a human you just need to keep
    expanding your learning
    yeah i i was going to let you keep going
    man because i i think that was awesome
    no i mean honestly like i think that
    there’s a lot of truth to that and i
    also think that their
    that self-education you know aspect of
    of what you’re talking about is probably
    the most important
    education that you can get and reading
    books like the ones that you mentioned
    i’ll put links to all those by the way
    if you’re interested in
    you know picking one of those books up
    i’ll just link them in the description
    or the show notes
    um anybody’s getting those yeah
    unfortunately i didn’t i just put away
    all my books because i’m
    in the process of moving all of my uh
    all my books to my
    office at the new laundromat so
    otherwise i would have just read down
    the books you know i mean
    yeah but there’s the one thing by gary
    keller i love that
    i mean there’s the go-getter is it the
    go-getter
    yeah i mean i don’t know even if you’re
    if you’re in trouble at the moment go
    go the the dave ramsey route get
    yourself out of debt i mean there’s i
    mean
    there’s so many things and it depends
    where you are in your life
    that which book you need that will
    resonate the most with you you know
    so yeah huge huge and and like
    like you’re saying i think that
    self-education aspect of it
    is so key and there’s a lot to learn
    about and you can i tell this to my kids
    all the time right i kind of use a
    little reverse psychology on them
    you know they’re trying to keep them
    engaged in reading and you know
    sometimes it could be like pulling teeth
    with them but
    i i tell them hey look i don’t want you
    to get too good at reading
    because as soon as you’re really good at
    reading you can learn about
    anything in the world that you want to
    learn about right i tell them they get
    all excited
    about raucous you can read about rockets
    you know whatever
    you know but it’s true it’s i like
    really believe that like
    you can learn about anything that you
    want to learn about so whether that’s
    you know economics whether that’s
    building a business whether that’s
    you know some hobby or crap like it you
    should be
    learning you should be growing um you
    know to
    like you said you’re either you’re
    either growing and living or dying
    and yeah exactly so huge huge huge
    awesome i’ll link to all those books
    that you mentioned there’s a ton
    have you ever real quick have you ever
    read uh four disciplines of execution
    no it’s a good one i’d i would
    definitely recommend
    uh that one i’d probably read that one
    at least once a year
    uh super good really yeah okay good
    um okay well hey this has been
    incredible i’ve i’ve like thoroughly
    enjoyed every single second
    not just to hear your story and how
    you’re doing stuff but i love hearing
    just the way that you’re thinking about
    things the way you’re thinking through
    things
    it’s super inspiring to me to hear
    uh just the process that you have gone
    through to get to where you’re going and
    you know your your goals your
    aspirations to
    you know continue on that path and you
    know you’re looking to maybe pick up a
    second location in florida you’re
    wanting to get 10 locations in
    uh you know in in italy there you got
    some rental stuff going on i mean you
    got a lot of stuff going on and a lot
    that you’re trying to build off of
    and it’s just it’s really inspiring to
    me so man i really
    really appreciate you coming on um real
    quick
    anybody wants to just shoot you an email
    and thank you for coming on the
    on the show or contact you it doesn’t
    have to be email but or contact you and
    just sure say thanks or ask you a quick
    question is there a good way for them to
    get in contact with you
    um email for uh it’s info
    at veterans coin laundry or you can you
    know
    facebook or instagram what all
    vets coin laundry um if you’re looking
    for uh
    get away for a holiday coming over to
    tuscany um my tuscanrental.com
    awesome yeah but yeah so
    yeah you got to have a lot of a lot of
    irons in the fire so
    especially when you’re an entrepreneur
    because yeah you never know
    you got to be true yeah that’s true
    exactly
    i mean if if this year’s taught us
    anything it’s that you never know
    yes exactly that is so true yeah
    well hey man this has been incredible i
    really appreciate taking time out of
    your day to come on
    i know that people are going to really
    love
    every second of this and really resonate
    with you so i appreciate you coming on
    man
    hey thanks for the invite jordan it was
    a pleasure anytime you’re welcome here
    any anytime you want and if you’re ever
    in socal
    let me know man well i i will be because
    i have this dream you know i i
    woke up just really quick here i want to
    ride the transamerica trail so the next
    time i go back to the uh
    states i’m probably gonna buy a kawasaki
    klr 650 and drive it from you know one
    coast to the other coast so
    i might be passing through california oh
    my gosh that sounds incredible
    now you’re yeah you started off rubbing
    things in and now you’re just really
    grinding it in there we have laundromats
    because
    you don’t have to be there it’s it’s
    that system’s in the place and go and
    enjoy life
    i love that and that’s so true man and i
    love that you’re
    you’re utilizing what you got to be able
    to do you know live life to the fullest
    that’s what we want right we don’t want
    to
    you know be grinding away our whole
    lives and that’s why we’re trying to
    build something for ourselves so
    thank you for being an inspiration for
    that not just through
    your business ownership but also the way
    that you’re living your life and
    you know and spending time with your
    kids and i mean all that stuff
    very cool very inspiring so thank you
    man appreciate that a lot all right
    thanks jordan all right we’ll talk to
    you soon man thomas is
    so so cool i mean i love what he’s doing
    starting out with these tiny laundromats
    in italy and
    you know and now being stateside owning
    one in florida
    with his partner who is in san francisco
    and looking for another one
    super super cool what he is doing how
    he’s doing
    it and i learned a ton i hope you took
    good notes uh i know
    that i did i have a page full of them uh
    literally right here
    page full of notes and uh again every
    week i want to encourage you
    find one thing that you can take away
    from this podcast episode and implement
    it into your business
    or into your personal life he drops some
    incredible incredible resources
    that he recommends for you pick up one
    of those books
    i’ll link to all of them in the show
    notes or down below
    um if you’re on youtube and you can go
    pick up
    one of those books there uh incredible
    stuff
    i’ve read almost all of them and they
    are
    that’s so good you’re going to grow a
    ton so go check out one of those books
    find something that you can do to
    implement from today’s podcast and
    again head over to the forums
    lottermyresource.com forums
    ask a question answer question come be a
    part of the community and what’s
    happening over there
    love it thank you guys for being here we
    will see you
    next week this is jordan with the
    laundromat resource
    podcast peace
    [Music]
    [Music]
    [Applause]

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