Jacob Workman swore he would never own a laundromat. Today, he’s a distinguished guest on the Laundromat Resource Podcast as a laundromat owner and laundromat youtuber. He loves the business and will tell you all about it!

Jacob’s road to laundromat ownership was a wild and winding one. He spins the tale while packing in practical lessons he has learned, sharing his wisdom, and inspiring action! He’s an open book as he shares his experience here on the podcast, and there are many lessons to be learned because of it.

Some of the things we talk about in this episode are:

  • Jacob’s parents moving out of state & leaving him behind in high school
  • Jacob’s parents’ laundromat
  • Jacob’s entrepreneurial journey before his laundromat
  • Jet ski flipping (!!)
  • Why he bought a laundromat after saying he would never own one
  • Free laundromats
  • Facebook marketplace and Craigslist
  • Location importance
  • What to do when you first take over
  • Advertising your laundromat
  • Can you get into the business without working on machines?
  • Jacob’s future goals
  • YouTubing his laundromat experiences
  • Business details
  • Raising vend prices

And much more!

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

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Links from the show

Connect with Jacob

There, I Fixed It YouTube Channel

Jacob's Bio

My name is Jacob Workman.  I’ve been married to my beautiful wife for 7 years and we are expecting our first child in February.  Currently we own 1 laundromat and are actively looking to expand.  Our laundromat is the only active investment that we own as of now.  In the past we’ve owned rental properties, a custom t-shirt business, and a residential contracting company.  During the time of owning our contracting company our main focus was building and selling spec homes.  I currently work a full time job, but always have had an entrepreneurial spirit.  Mostly, I spend my time working, furthering my skill sets, and working on my youtube channel. I decided to start my youtube channel on a whim.  I was constantly doing things at our laundromat and just thought one day that I should start recording and see where this goes.  The name for my channel, There I Fixed It, came from my personality of being willing to tackle anything and my love of fixing things that are broken.  When I say my willingness to tackle anything means, anything. If I had to cut drain lines in my floor for new hardmounts, I’d be there with bells on my toes.  

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    Episode Transcript

    hey i want to jump in real quick before
    we get started on today’s podcast
    episode just to tell you that if you’re
    listening to this
    when this episode comes out then you are
    in store for a huge treat because
    this thursday january 14th
    6 p.m eastern time 3 p.m pacific
    i’m going live on my youtube channel to
    do a live q a
    with dave laundromat millionaire men’s
    and also
    super special guest probably the most
    influential person
    in the laundromat industry right now the
    president and ceo of the coin laundry
    association
    brian wallace will be joining us
    answering your questions
    helping you succeed in your laundromat
    business so whether you own laundromats
    now or you’re looking to buy your first
    one you cannot miss
    this live q a it’s going to be on my
    youtube
    thursday january 14th
    6 p.m eastern time 3 p.m pacific time
    and you can ask your questions there my
    youtube is youtube.com
    laundromat resource make sure you head
    over there subscribe
    hit that notification bell so you’ll be
    notified when we’re live
    and come ask your questions to two of
    the greatest
    minds in the industry and i’ll be there
    too
    all right we’ll see you guys there let’s
    jump into this podcast episode because
    it’s a winner
    hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
    laundromat resource podcast
    this is show number 38 and i’m pumped
    that you’re here because today we have
    an
    awesome guest his name is jacob workman
    and you may have seen him around
    on youtube he’s got the youtube channel
    there i fixed it
    he talks a lot about his laundromat on
    that channel he’s
    showing uh you the the real true
    life of a laundromat owner so if you
    haven’t checked it out yet
    go over to youtube and and search there
    i fixed it
    i’ll definitely have a link to this and
    everything else that we talk about in
    this episode
    in the description down below if you’re
    on youtube or
    uh or on the podcast description or you
    can check
    all of this out at uh laundromat
    resource resource.com
    show 38 jacob workman today
    and i cannot wait for you to hear this
    interview it’s awesome
    he’s got a lot of really really great
    stuff to tell you and his story is very
    cool
    and his youtube channel also very cool
    you gotta check
    it out okay uh success
    tip i have a success tip for you and
    it’s this
    it’s gonna sound like something that i
    always say
    and it is something that i always say
    but you need to get on the forums
    head over to laundromat resource.com
    forums there’s a lot of activity
    happening
    over there in fact uh this week it was
    pretty cool well there’s a lot of stuff
    going on over there
    this week there’s a lot of posts that
    were posted a lot of questions that are
    being asked a lot of discussions being
    had so don’t get left out be on
    uh go go get involved in those
    discussions it’s how you learn it’s how
    you grow and it’s also how you give back
    and i want to say well also i mean we
    had
    brandon understall who is guest
    on show number seven i’ll link that one
    too because it was killer show it gets
    referenced
    all the time and in fact he got brought
    up on the forums and brandon made
    an appearance over there this week and
    not only did he
    help out with the question but he
    dropped his phone number right in
    the forum post so man get a hold of
    brandon pick his brain he dropped his
    phone number in the forum so at least
    you know give him a prank call at three
    in the morning or something what’s up
    brandon
    just kidding don’t do that uh but
    seriously awesome dude
    he knows this business inside and out
    he’s second generation there so go pick
    his brain
    a lot of cool stuff happening so make
    sure every week you’re at least going
    over there and asking one question
    answering one question getting involved
    in the discussion
    introducing yourself on the introduction
    form all that okay
    but i i want to say you need to be
    involved
    over there and especially if you’re a
    current owner
    it’s going to benefit you to be involved
    helping
    out other owners and people who are
    trying to buy their first laundromat
    and it’s not i said this already but
    it’s not my nature to be cryptic
    but i can’t really talk about it more
    and i can’t really talk about why
    but but seriously last week i think i
    said
    get on the email list you’re going to
    want to be on the email list and it was
    a little bit cryptic
    this week i’m saying get involved in the
    forums especially if you’re already
    a current laundromat owner it’s going to
    benefit you
    there’s some very cool things kind of
    coming up
    down the coming up down the pipeline
    coming down the pipeline
    and it’s just man just take my word for
    it you don’t want to be left behind
    you’re going to want to jump on this
    train it’s going to be very very cool
    so get over there and get involved in
    the community if you haven’t yet if you
    have
    awesome it’s been very very cool to see
    everything going on over there on the
    forum so okay
    enough of that uh i really want to jump
    into it
    uh with jacob today because it’s an
    awesome interview
    you’re gonna love it make sure you grab
    a paper and a pen or your favorite
    note-taking app and let’s jump into it
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    well hey jacob thank you for coming on
    the show i’ve been super excited
    to have you on because i’ve been
    watching you on your youtube channel
    we’ll get to that in a little bit but
    man
    it’s it’s an honor to have you on i’m
    really excited can’t wait to hear your
    story so thanks for coming on man how
    you doing
    i’m good thanks for having me yeah no
    problem no problem like i said i’ve been
    watching you for a while so it’s pretty
    cool to
    uh you know be able to interact we’re
    still on a screen obviously but
    it’s cool to interact with you this time
    yeah so it’s finally nice to have the
    camera talking back to me so
    yeah i bet i bet uh well cool i mean
    i can’t wait to hear about your
    experience with your laundromat and also
    your experience on youtube but
    before we get into that why don’t you
    tell us a little bit about who you are
    and uh and then we’ll get into how you
    got into this crazy
    industry uh my name is jacob
    i’m from uh east tennessee um
    not too far from knoxville about
    northeast knoxville um
    i’m married i got a child on the way
    fixing them i
    have it here and i think february all
    right um
    so we’re pretty excited about that i
    have it on good authority that february
    babies are the best babies
    oh yeah hopefully hopefully she’ll be
    interested in the laundry right and i’m
    having a little helper later on in the
    future that’s what i’m hoping
    that’s right um
    but you know i got one i’ve been in
    laundromat industry for 13 years
    owned one for three years so yeah
    just going with the flow um just this
    past year i decided
    after you know just fixing things all
    the time
    i got this bad habit i love love to buy
    broke stuff and fix it
    i didn’t realize i had this problem
    until someone pointed it out to me but
    now i’ve embraced it so i decided to
    start a youtube channel
    and uh just just put everything out
    there laundromats so
    yeah well it’s cool i it’s it’s a really
    cool channel it’s
    what i would probably term as
    infotainment uh because it’s
    entertaining just to kind of see
    you doing your thing at the laundromat
    but i also learn a lot just from
    watching
    you know your channel and watching what
    you’re doing with the channel and it’s
    you know some of the stuff that happens
    is like oh my gosh and
    uh you know i i relate to a lot uh
    there and i’m sure a lot of people will
    relate to this oh yeah
    we’ll definitely uh we’ll talk a little
    bit more about the channel here in a
    little bit and we’ll
    we’re going to link that channel so you
    know in the show notes so if you’re on
    youtube
    in the description uh make sure you go
    check out the channel and subscribe to
    it and hit that bell for him
    uh because this channel is getting some
    traction and deservedly so so
    all right so okay you intrigued me you
    said you’ve been in the laundromat
    industry for
    13 years and you’ve owned one for three
    years
    what’s going on those 10 years before
    you owned one
    well those 10 years i was uh i guess i
    was
    just still in high school i was uh i was
    in my senior year in high school
    my parents found a deal we were in west
    virginia at the time they found a deal
    on tennessee
    decided to move down here chase after
    that deal
    turns out it was a zombie map and i
    think it was uh
    a zombie map before the term was corn
    coined
    um but yeah i think out of 16 dryers
    only one worked
    so we dove in head first just you know
    fixing everything
    and when i say dryers i’m talking 40
    year old dryers
    so we really got our hands dirty and i
    helped him ever since and still helping
    him to this day
    and and then just recently yeah well
    three years ago
    um i happened up on this swore i’d never
    get into laundromats
    after you know seeing those things that
    you talk about on my youtube channel
    but i guess the bug bit me there and
    i’ve been in it and trying to expand as
    quick as i can
    yeah oh man you got bit all right
    there’s a lot to unpack in there so
    let’s go back to hold on did your
    parents move
    states to buy a laundromat a zombie
    laundromat
    is that oh yeah yeah they they moved
    states and left me behind
    i don’t know it was fortunate i lived my
    senior year by myself
    i’d come down here on the weekends help
    them with the laundromat back
    back up there oh yeah what’s happening
    my parents trusted me so oh man okay
    this is the story just keeps getting
    better okay so your parents
    how did they find this laundromat out of
    state
    we’ve uh they’ve had property down here
    forever
    um i believe my uncle was down here and
    he happened on it for sale
    he told them they were already looking
    at they were actually looking at a
    restaurant at the time
    back home and i’m so glad that they did
    not go that route
    uh hey i don’t want to deal with
    restaurants and b
    whoever who knows i might not be in the
    laundry industry now and
    you know my youtube channel could be
    about something completely different
    yeah no kidding huh okay so your uncle
    found it
    told your parents about it they said you
    know what we’re gonna abandon jacob
    and we’re gonna move out of state and
    buy a
    zombie laundromat how did you feel about
    that as a senior
    with your parents abandoning you
    stoked oh you’re excited of course i was
    excited
    plus there was all kinds of broke stuff
    for me to fix i mean i’ve been doing
    this since i was a little kid i just
    realized i had a problem the past couple
    years
    it’s kind of like a fish realizing it’s
    in water you just exactly yeah
    you’ve been living that life and didn’t
    even realize it didn’t even realize it
    yeah okay so they bought this zombie
    laundromat i don’t know how much of the
    details you know but i’d love to hear a
    little bit more about it
    did they get in there and
    you know work with the existing
    equipment or did they put new equipment
    in what did they do
    yeah honestly uh i couldn’t tell you i
    know
    we visited the laundromat way back in
    the day before it ever moved then it
    moved
    uh so it’s got near new infrastructure
    well then near new infrastructure
    same old 40 year old machines um they
    started taking it over
    the dryers they kept forever just
    because
    they’re well built they’re tanks
    the only thing is like they got so hot
    that there was almost multiple fires
    there was no kind of temperature control
    on them whatsoever so
    we finally got them replaced for them uh
    but yeah they just been slowly adding
    new equipment slowly you know
    if they finally got rid of the older
    wasco mats i introduced them to speed
    queen
    you know you know you had the old timer
    systems
    you know because you know they’re old
    tommy yeah um
    they like the old equipment and i’m like
    hey you ever heard of a computer
    here you go so they love it
    i’m i’m the one that has to go up there
    and program everything for him and
    set it all up and well that’s right
    what’s this oh it’s my fault yeah
    it’s so you know it’s so much easier oh
    my gosh yeah yeah yeah
    okay time out because this story just
    keeps getting crazier and crazier are
    you trying to tell me that they
    moved the laundromat at some point or
    like no no
    they took over they didn’t move it the
    previous owner had just moved it
    probably
    maybe a year ago or a year prior to
    combine it
    and then um something happened with him
    and he decided he wanted to sell it so
    it’s like i said it’s you know 13 year
    old infrastructure 14 year old
    infrastructure but
    still same old 40 machines when they
    took it over
    holy cow okay so the previous owner
    i mean it’s not easy and it’s not cheap
    to move a laundromat but not only did
    they
    move it but they moved this super old
    equipment and just threw it in
    a new location yeah i couldn’t tell you
    why
    i mean i knew the guy personally but i
    could not tell you why
    and now at the old place there’s a
    there’s a drugstore so
    i’m not entirely sure why they moved it
    and
    it’s maybe got a thousand more square
    feet a little bit better place
    but overall i don’t know if it had been
    worth his money
    but you never know he was also the mayor
    of the town so
    that helps with you know little things
    utility stuff
    but especially a small town of like
    three thousand people yeah
    yeah yeah yeah well maybe he had a lease
    issue too i don’t know yeah
    it might be maybe it was closer to his
    house he just wanted to roll out of bed
    and well he got about a half he got
    about a half mile closer
    yeah all right well okay so
    let me just recap where we’re at so far
    your uncle tells your parents about a
    laundromat for sale
    they decide we’re gonna abandon jacob in
    his senior year of high school
    and go take over this zombie laundromat
    with old equipment
    we’re gonna uproot ourselves you finish
    your senior year of high school
    on your own basically living living on
    your own
    then what happened uh the day after high
    school
    like literally the morning after i
    graduated i packed up the u-haul and we
    left i’ve been in tennessee ever since
    um and then from there we just you know
    i worked i helped them with the
    laundromat um
    really didn’t do much with the laundry
    mount they did they had a small
    wash dry fold i’d help them on sunday
    mornings
    uh with that um and that’s
    that’s one of the things that really
    said i’ve net i’ve never touched a
    laundry mat
    i had this one customer that i’d always
    sit in the office and he’d roll around
    and he would lay on his horn
    until i came out to get his clothes
    and uh or deliver us close to him
    whichever one
    and that was one of the boxes that was
    ticked that’s i said i’ve never
    uh i never owned wonderback but you
    see where i’m at now yeah well i mean
    again
    let’s just be blunt about it it was your
    fault for saying you’d never own a
    laundromat i mean you never say
    i’ll never do something because that’s
    what you’re gonna end up doing so
    again your fault for doing that okay so
    you uproot the day after high school
    and you’re you’re you’re living in
    tennessee now
    and kind of helping the family a little
    bit but
    but not wanting a whole lot to do with
    the business exactly right okay
    so what did you do if you weren’t if you
    were at the laundromat full-time did you
    get a job did you go to school what did
    you do well i got a job
    you know because that’s what any any
    high or any teenager does but uh
    i’ve always been an entrepreneur it goes
    back to when i was a little kid still
    i was making money in grade school got
    in trouble for by the principal but
    that’s enough about school
    but uh we uh me and my dad i’ve always
    helped him build houses
    and stuff uh any project they were doing
    i was right in there with them so uh
    i ended up uh going i we purchased a lot
    and me and my dad went in on halfs on a
    bid
    on a general contracting business um i
    purchased a lot i got my contractor’s
    license uh
    from there we built spec homes we uh
    we’ve been up
    built about three before our market kind
    of
    ceased off and uh my last house sat on
    the market for two years before
    me and my wife uh moved into it
    and then it kind of things kind of just
    fizzled out i mean i gained a rental
    from uh
    rental property that we or the the home
    we were living in and we moved to it we
    gained a rental property
    and from there i just got a different
    job in the uh
    in the trucking industry and just kind
    of put on cruise control for a little
    bit you know
    figuring life out yeah man
    crazy okay i mean that that’s pretty
    cool i love that you had
    sort of this entrepreneurship inside of
    you and that you just kind of
    went for it and now you know any any
    entrepreneur journeys got those ups and
    downs and all arounds and
    never ever have i heard of a straight
    line
    entrepreneurship journey so it sounds
    like this is no
    exception uh okay so
    did you do that for how long how long
    were you doing that
    uh that lasted about three years uh what
    we didn’t what we would do was we’d buy
    the property
    it takes about six months to build the
    house take us anywhere from just a month
    to three months to sell the house
    and then repeat the process um
    like i said it went great until our
    third house and it fizzled out and
    it was one of those areas it was in it
    just um the area was great
    and then for some reason it went south
    and so um but fortunately i’m now out
    under that house
    uh when me and my wife built our current
    one we live in
    um that one sold within 24 hours
    of listing it so that was a godsend
    yeah should ask for more money oh yeah
    yeah my realtors you know she was
    adamant about waiting but i accepted the
    first offer i got because
    just kidding yeah two years was enough
    for me hey man i
    feel you on that one so no i’m i’m with
    you
    okay so after that what did you end up
    doing
    did you get a job at that point or oh
    yeah i had uh
    i’ve gotten into the trucking industry
    but in the meantime i still did stuff on
    the side
    a lot of times i would buy cars and i’d
    flip them
    i think by the time i was 23 i owned
    33 or 35 cars whoa i had
    i had bought and flipped and then i got
    into jet skis
    i started buying them parting them out
    um
    very lucrative market right there
    you wouldn’t imagine what people pay for
    a
    23 year old part i mean it’s it’s
    astronomical but
    uh it seems like everybody called on to
    that trend and
    craigslist kind of fizzled out you had
    all this facebook marketplace stuff and
    they still ain’t got their stuff all
    together yet
    right so i i kind of went out of that i
    continued
    with my job i wasn’t at that point i
    didn’t know if i wanted to make a career
    out of my job
    or if i wanted to work for myself
    um still i’m still at that job today
    uh it’s it’s a great job uh what’s the
    trick on what
    the trucking company okay i’m able to
    work a week on week off so
    it works out great um but uh
    like i said uh three years ago we
    decided to get in laundromat and
    that’s what we’ve been doing ever since
    yeah
    awesome all right so let’s talk about
    that
    laundromat how okay i mean
    what what convinced you like
    after your experience with laundromats
    that you actually were gonna go buy a
    laundromat despite
    the quote that i wrote down that said
    and i quote
    i’ll never own a laundromat so what
    convinced you
    to buy one i i skipped a part it
    involves my parents again
    well okay like i said you know i flipped
    jet skis i flipped cars
    so that meant i’m all the time on
    craigslist facebook
    offer up everything else looking for
    deals
    i ran across the laundromat not 20 miles
    from their house
    that they wanted ten thousand dollars
    for so i was like i sent that to them
    they went and looked at it they bought
    that one
    so i’ve helped with that one um
    same thing with this one down here i was
    on i was in the market
    in the marketplace looking around found
    a laundromat
    just you know again 20 miles from them
    or from us and um this time around
    i thought about buying it or i i thought
    i sent it to them you know
    say y’all buy this it’d be a great
    investment for you
    they toyed around the idea they didn’t
    you know really want to take on a third
    laundromat um so we ended up partnering
    with somebody
    uh we got an investor to come in i don’t
    know if you’ve seen my
    free laundromat video because the free
    laundry mat is going wild rampant
    and this one truly um me and my wife
    completely own it holy um we’re just
    basically
    paying back our our debtor there uh but
    they fronted every bit of the cash uh
    did not need a dime out of our pocket
    and we uh we acquired us a laundromat
    that’s awesome did you yeah uh i mean
    i’m gonna link to that particular video
    also because i know that people will go
    watch
    that one because you know with my
    coaching calls and stuff one of the
    biggest questions i get
    and on my youtube channel one of the
    biggest questions i get is
    you know about the free laundromat so um
    there needs to be a little asterisk
    there it’s never free
    yeah that’s right it’s going to cost you
    somewhere whether it’s work ethic or
    you know later on down the road some
    money it’s it’s not really that free
    yeah well i yeah and i think you know go
    check out
    this video because i think it will be
    informative if you’re if you’re someone
    who’s looking for
    a free laundromat but let’s talk about
    this investor that you brought in i
    think that’s like the uh
    you know everybody’s looking for that
    fabled investor that’s going to come
    front the money for
    a laundromat so was that somebody that
    you knew already
    like a family friend or somebody in the
    family or something or
    somebody somebody we’ve known for a
    while
    it was really i guess they was looking
    for something to invest in and
    it was just two people met at a at a
    great time
    i know it’s one of those those very
    sought after things that you never heard
    and hear of but grace of god it you know
    we got us a 100 percent investor and
    i mean they like i said they’ve fronted
    all the money they
    they know the good they knew the game
    plan they knew what we had planned and
    um it was really they knew we were going
    to be able to make money
    from the way it had been running so
    that’s what helped us out a lot
    yeah so can i ask you how did
    how did you guys make that connection
    that hey i have money
    and hey i have this laundromat deal and
    and some experience in this industry
    let’s
    put our resources together and and make
    this deal happen how did that
    connection happen uh
    honestly it’s just one of those things
    you know that i mentioned the idea
    and um yeah i guess
    they just trusted me enough and we we
    were able to sit down and
    show them our plan everything like that
    and just basically asking
    you know we asked and they said let’s do
    it
    yeah ever oh good sorry this never hurts
    to ask
    never a stupid question yeah and i think
    i think
    what you just said is the key
    is you need to let people know
    what you’re looking for and what you
    know what what you have planned and what
    you’re looking for what you need to make
    it happen because i think
    you know a lot of times we get caught up
    with like ah man it feels weird
    asking for money and it does feel weird
    asking for money
    but that’s not really what you did what
    you did was you said hey i have this
    opportunity
    it’s an opportunity for me and it’s an
    opportunity for someone else
    who has money to make put their money to
    work for them
    right right and that’s what you
    basically
    did right is present an opportunity for
    them
    and for the people who who ask me all
    the time like how do i find somebody who
    wants to
    you know invest in in me and
    and you know in in my laundromat deal
    well
    kind of the key to it is for one have a
    plan
    going into it and for two you gotta let
    people know that’s what you’re doing
    right exactly yeah i’m sure you’ve seen
    this through your youtube channel i know
    i’ve seen it through my youtube channel
    through my podcast but just kind of
    putting myself
    out there that’s when you start to find
    you know opportunities because people
    know what you’re doing and want to be a
    part of it
    right so yeah pretty cool that’s that’s
    that’s the the one thing
    is you know if you’re going to do
    something make sure you have your plan
    put together
    um just like this house we just built we
    built it two years ago
    when i walked in the bank just to talk
    to them i already had
    you know my house plans drone out
    i had my material list how much it was
    going to cost me
    how much you know um i
    overflow i might have um and when we sat
    down to the bank
    the both the bankers were just amazed
    and
    that right there started a great
    relationship with him and now he’s the
    vice president
    of the bank so you know last time i was
    in there he uh
    he sought me out in the crowd and come
    out and chit-chatted so
    i might have me a potential you know a
    little bit of money right there if i
    ever need it
    yep uh you always you know have a good
    relationship with your
    banks that’s gonna that’s really gonna
    help you out
    yeah absolutely and and that’s the same
    that means the same concept
    right like you have you you put yourself
    out there
    and you built a relationship with this
    bank
    and and there’s the opportunity again
    and who knows
    where that’s going to lead down the line
    because that seems like a pretty good
    person to
    have a good role exactly networking is
    where it’s at yep
    yep and it’s mutually beneficial right
    that bank
    you know benefits from you when in your
    wisdom your experience in running
    businesses
    you know then they’re going to benefit
    from it because when they lend you money
    they’re going to make money too
    so exactly that’s awesome as long as
    everybody makes money
    you you you’ll be uh in a good good
    place yeah everybody’s happy
    right okay so how did you
    this particular laundromat okay i mean
    jeez man you’re just throwing all this
    stuff at me okay
    so you’re finding like laundromats for
    sale in like the facebook marketplace is
    that what you said
    oh yeah yeah i still to this day every
    day on facebook
    craigslist everything looking at
    laundromats um
    and going and driving for laundromats uh
    yeah i don’t know if you’ve ever heard
    for driving for dollars for real estate
    you can apply that same thing to
    laundromats
    [Music]
    yeah absolutely and i tell people that
    all the time like hey drive around and
    look at
    look at laundromats and look at laundry
    mats that are run down go talk to those
    owners go let them know what you’re
    looking for because that’s where the
    opportunities come
    yeah you don’t know you don’t know why
    somebody’s going to get out i mean
    i know there’s somebody made a a
    10-point list
    i think it might have been dave men’s
    don’t quote me on that
    um but you know these people
    they got in over their head they had the
    opportunity to snatch it up for dirt
    cheap
    uh they weren’t checking out it was
    running an unattended still ran
    unattended
    um but they weren’t checking on it for
    weeks at a time
    like literally there was a gap a weak
    gap
    that they did not go and clean this
    place take money out or anything like
    that
    oh yeah oh yes yeah
    i do not want to go into a laundromat
    that hasn’t been cleaned in a week i’ll
    tell you that right now
    you talk about getting over a reputation
    yeah we
    fought two tooth and toenail on that one
    yeah no kidding man sometimes i’m
    nervous to go into my laundry mat when
    it hasn’t been cleaned in
    eight hours a week jeez man
    yeah i just did that today yeah i
    cleaned it at like 4 30 this morning i
    had to stop by
    and uh get something and of course
    there’s customers there you’re not gonna
    walk into your laundromat and
    not try to do something to make it look
    a little bit better so
    yeah jeez crazy okay
    so you’re i mean dude i love this you’re
    on
    facebook marketplace you’re on
    craigslist you’re driving driving for
    i was trying to think of a clever saying
    but i guess you’re just driving for
    laundromats there
    you could say driving for coins driving
    for quarters i love it
    there you go so i’m talking about good
    we worked that one out nice that’s a
    thing now driving for quarters
    driving for quarters yeah we’ll make it
    famous like bigger pockets me driving
    for dollars
    exactly yeah yeah okay so i mean
    i love this i love what you’re doing you
    know i again
    my coaching calls and stuff i talk to
    people all the time who want to get in
    the business
    and i think that a lot of people have
    this
    like assumption that you know deals
    should just fall in their lap once they
    kind of know they want a laundromat it
    should just kind of show up
    and and be a good deal and yeah it
    should be easy
    and it’s not easy um or at least you
    shouldn’t
    anticipate it being easy if it is
    awesome bonus
    cherry on top there but it’s not easy
    and to find the really good deals
    this is the kind of stuff you need to be
    doing you’d be talking to owners you
    need to be searching on
    facebook and craigslist and i didn’t
    even know facebook
    had laundromats for sale on it so kudos
    to you yeah
    it’s it’s very hard to find laundromats
    if you’re searching for laundromats on
    uh
    on facebook um especially in a
    marketplace where my like
    mine you know all our laundry mats are
    spread out i have to search you know
    it’s not a very good algorithm so you
    kind of have to you have to spell it
    wrong
    you have to spell it weird right um you
    have to do just
    everything and then uh you have to take
    out all that little
    stuff that’ll ship to you because it’s
    going to show you all all kinds of stuff
    for
    your home your home washer and dryer
    that you don’t want to see but
    right you know every now and then you’ll
    find a gym but most time it’s
    craigslist or or a lot of time it’s off
    market
    yeah yeah all right cool what i mean
    awesome awesome tips on how to find a
    laundromat for sale
    uh man killer i’m just gonna
    record this or like take this little
    clip and just send it to people when
    they ask me
    just just watch this this is how you go
    find one all right cool so
    you found this laundromat and uh
    what what was it about this particular
    one that that made you think okay
    let’s do it uh location
    you know like i said i’d already been
    involved in my parents
    so i already knew what to kind of look
    for
    but really had no idea how to run the
    business so um
    just location uh and the town that’s
    growing the town it’s in it it’s just
    rampantly growing uh the manufacturing
    jobs are just i mean
    booming uh it it’s it’s pretty much
    boomed throughout the pandemic
    uh like i said i work at the truck
    industry i work at one of the largest
    facilities for the the second largest
    ltl carrier so i mean
    we said we see eight eight million
    pounds of freight
    a day come through there and a good
    million of it comes from my area so
    okay so what what was it about the
    location that
    was attractive for you or like what
    should other people be looking
    for in a good location for me i like
    shopping centers
    um i think the only reason i’d ever like
    a standalone
    is if it ever flooded i could just say
    screw it
    and you know i didn’t have to rush down
    there but
    in my old current laundromat and when it
    floods i’ve got neighbors
    instantly calling you know saying hey
    our carpet’s wet
    which i went around trying to you know
    fix that i wish they
    when they had built the laundry mat they
    had done that but i think i’ve got the
    property
    problem remedy that if i couldn’t get
    down there quick enough that it might
    flow out the front door
    they never put drains in the floor or
    anything like that
    they had some sump pumps rigged up but
    it’s not going to do anything um but
    that
    i’ve always looked for shopping centers
    um
    but never really i don’t personally i
    wouldn’t ever go for a standalone
    uh because your custom
    customers are there to do their laundry
    they’re not there to have fun
    um they’re already there doing a task
    they don’t most like most likely don’t
    like so i mean if you’ve got a dollar
    general next door
    walmart anything like that they can you
    know put their clothes in they can go do
    some shopping
    you know that’s going to get you some
    volume in your store yeah and you’re not
    you’re not having to be the sole reason
    people are coming to
    you know that i have one in a shopping
    center and one standalone
    the standalone one works because it’s in
    like the community
    um but you know we have to generate that
    traffic there’s nobody
    no other stores you know generating
    traffic
    for us we got to generate it all
    ourselves so for sure yeah
    and something that’s worked out for this
    location that i never you know dreamed
    of
    uh there’s a pet clinic next door that’s
    an emergency pet clinic
    so they’re only open on nights and
    weekends um
    so and now since covet is hit they don’t
    let anyone in
    they have been having people park in
    front of their business and in front of
    my laundromat
    doesn’t affect my parking because they
    have separate parking that just you know
    makes things easier for them
    but it’s pretty much having a non-paid
    security guard in front of my laundromat
    you know somebody sitting out in their
    car just letting it idle uh
    only the crackheads that broke in a
    couple of uh
    weeks ago was gonna try something like
    that
    right yeah i am surprised sometimes that
    how bold some of these guys are
    oh yeah yeah yeah you’re talking this
    these did it at 10 30 in the morning
    yeah in front of a ups man yeah yeah so
    i’ve definitely had people trying to
    bust into coin boxes and stuff with
    customers there and people just kind of
    like
    stare at them like hmm that’s my
    favorite thing er
    our vending machine it was one of the
    ones that got broke into we had a
    gentleman come in open it up take the
    soap out he needed
    and then leave the money inside of it
    and shut it back never once called me
    and my number’s like postured right
    there so
    that’s crazy that’s crazy okay so
    that’s what makes a good location that’s
    uh yeah
    okay so you i mean you mentioned that
    you
    feel like you don’t really know or you
    didn’t really know
    how to run a laundromat um so so what’d
    you do when you
    you got the keys for the first time what
    was that like and and would you
    would you start with i just ran through
    and started cleaning
    cleaning and decluttering um something
    you’ll notice when you buy if you ever
    get to purchase the laundry mat or if
    you have a laundromat
    it starts getting cluttered with stuff
    over time i’m gonna have to de-junk mine
    pretty soon
    uh but uh we just started de-junking
    um we started these little homemade
    signs
    they had we got rid of those you know
    try making things more professional
    looking
    uh just really things if you went in a
    laundromat you’d want to see
    we tried to do um absolutely hated the
    floors but there wasn’t nothing we could
    do about that for now or at that point
    in time
    um just we just started cleaning up
    making things look nicer
    the main thing was keep it clean because
    it had such a terrible respirator
    reputation um and now i clean it not
    just so i’m not in anyone its way
    because our volume has picked up
    and it has a bowling alley store so i
    can easily get in someone’s way
    but then we’d go you know try to clean
    it during the day that way we could talk
    to our customers you know let them know
    that we were the new owners
    it was under new management you know
    things were going to be different and
    just you know slowly showed our
    uh slowly showed our customers that
    we cared about the business we were
    going to do something about the business
    and that’s that’s how you keep your
    customers happy
    uh just keep improving your business
    yeah did you do anything to get new
    customers in did you do any marketing
    efforts or did you do any promotions or
    anything like that or just
    yeah word of mouth um mostly word of
    mouth but we also did several facebook
    facebook ads like i said i was new in
    the business so
    you know i didn’t think anything about
    direct marketing anything like that
    a lot of people knew it was there and a
    lot of people knew it was
    it was a dirty place so um
    just once we started painting paint goes
    a long
    way these people had painted it when
    they took it over
    but they painted the most terrible color
    it was already a terrible color but they
    painted even more terrible color
    so we went with white walls or blue you
    know accents
    just white always screams clean that’s
    why hospitals paint their walls white
    it’s easy to touch up um you don’t have
    to get the exact brand and stuff so
    but we started painting and just did it
    from there
    just started making little changes and
    uh biggest thing is also
    make sure all your machines are work
    working
    yeah yeah huge huge especially if you
    have a store that
    where they haven’t worked for a really
    long time exactly
    just keeping them working is is solid
    but it you know it can also be easier
    said than done
    sometimes especially if you have older
    machines they tend to break down a lot
    are you the one working on machines i am
    that’s uh
    i if i’m can’t do something by myself
    i’ll holler at my dad but most time it’s
    it’s only me that’s uh that’s tackling
    everything uh
    from anything from bearing jobs to
    getting up on the roof and cleaning out
    the ducts with you know
    uh i’ve also got another bad habit if i
    don’t have the tool i’ll buy it
    having the laundromat has uh has
    afforded me that and
    uh it’s also you know i deducted on
    taxes sometimes
    so uh yeah anything from
    like i said baron and baron jobs to if i
    needed to go in tomorrow and uh
    rip up the floor uh i’d be all for it
    yeah yeah yeah i watched your bearing
    job video that’s like one of your more
    popular videos actually i think
    uh people are always looking to figure
    out how to do that so how did you learn
    how to
    work on the equipment or just because
    you’re you’ve just been watching things
    i can fix some things and and we got
    thrown like i said i got thrown into it
    when i was a senior in high school
    you know 16 dryers and only one working
    that doesn’t make
    good for a good combination and then
    these are the old dryers that have the
    chain mechanisms i mean
    you know you’re talking real technical
    stuff
    uh but and really i’ve been blessed with
    this ability that i can just look at
    something and figure out how it works
    uh so and that’s that’s carried me a
    long way
    oh yeah i’m sure i could definitely see
    how you know having that propensity
    would definitely benefit
    someone who you know wants to get in
    this business and fix their own machines
    do you think
    out of curiosity do you think someone
    needs to know how to fix machines or
    needs to at least be willing to learn
    how to fix machines to get in this
    business what can you do without doing
    that
    you can do it without it’s going to cost
    you um
    but if you can figure out how to do the
    simple things it’ll save you a
    maintenance call it’ll save you somebody
    coming out to do it
    it’ll save you quite a bit of money most
    likely i’ve never had to have a
    service person out but i could just
    imagine what it costs
    if you can figure out how to do your
    belts
    simple computer swaps and just
    be able to learn how to troubleshoot and
    program your machines
    that goes a long ways i see some people
    that they call the technician out to
    program their machines and it’s i for me
    that’s something simple to learn that
    would save you quite a bit of money
    yeah it’s definitely expensive having
    people even just come out
    to look at your stuff let alone do the
    work so yeah
    definitely definitely yeah all right
    i’m sorry i was just going to say i’ve
    got a water heater i’ve got to install
    well
    i don’t get to install it because the
    city i’m in requires license plumber
    i’m not a licensed plumber so
    unfortunately i’m not going to get to do
    that job but
    i kind of ain’t upset because it’s like
    a 600 pound
    uh water heater that needs lifted over a
    trough so
    oh come on you just throw that thing on
    your back and you’re good yeah yeah i’m
    not too terribly upset
    yeah yeah let him deal with it
    that’s good and you can watch it and you
    can you’ll you’ll learn how to do it
    from watching them i’m sure that’s how i
    learned a lot of my stuff yeah
    if you do have technicians make sure you
    watch them ask them questions pick their
    brains so that’s
    if you’re you’re already paying for it
    you might as well get a little extra out
    of it
    yeah i agree and especially when it’s a
    simple task like changing a belt
    changing out a
    pump you know uh any of those like
    simple fixes swapping out a computer
    board if you watch them how to
    you know how to do it then a lot of
    times you can you can pick it up and
    it’s a quick quick fix you know it might
    be worth it for you to do it
    but some people prefer to just pay for
    it to be done yeah some people prefer
    the only thing we can’t get back is time
    so that’s it yeah that’s it uh
    all right cool well tell me how
    how many hours are you spending at your
    your laundromat now
    uh honestly probably about 10 to 15 a
    week
    um i would say four to five of that
    is just doing little projects um i do
    like to go down there and project it
    late at night and
    you know try to improve on things uh i
    just uh
    just recently bought a new vending
    machine so i’ve been going down there
    and
    trying to work on it because i’ve got to
    cut some stuff and
    you know make it work for me and i don’t
    want to cut around customers so
    yeah so obviously you bought one that
    you needed to fix right
    yeah yeah of course of course yeah
    yeah that’s what makes your your youtube
    channel
    name perfect uh well
    i want to talk about the youtube channel
    in just a second but before we get to
    that i wanted to ask
    what do you have any goals for your
    laundromat or do you want to get more
    laundromats or
    do you want to do some other things what
    what what’s your
    what’s the future looking like for you
    thought much about that
    um i’ve been actively looking for
    laundry mats for the past
    year um what i want what my plan is and
    planning and doing two different things
    uh
    i planned on a totally different setup
    for my my podcast today and all
    every bit of that fell through three
    hours of planning fell through but
    um what we’d like to do is you know
    get us some more laundromats uh really
    build that out
    um i’ve tried buying my parents laundry
    mats they won’t sell them to me
    uh but uh we want to build that out get
    back into real estate once the market
    calms down
    uh right now it’s it’s too hot
    um at least out at least in my neck of
    the woods
    house is going way uh way higher than
    they should
    but that just makes my house more
    valuable so i’m not going to complain
    about that but
    i’ve been actively looking exactly uh
    i’ve been uh i’ve been actively looking
    almost every day uh
    for laundromats um we probably about
    three months ago we’re working on a deal
    on a closed laundromat
    bank owned it um somebody you know
    the way we had it structured the way the
    broker had it structured is
    we were going to come in bought zero
    percent out of our our pocket
    they were going to give us an
    interest-free loan for 10 years
    it was just you know once a bank holds
    on to something so long they’re ready to
    get rid of it
    and they just so happen to have a cash
    buyer come in
    and bought it cash for i think 50 some
    thousand less than what we were going to
    give them
    well geez yeah and i
    did this yesterday i was supposed to
    meet with an owner of two laundromats
    which i’ve been working on this guy for
    i would say a year and a half now
    uh just calling them i started in six
    month intervals
    um then i dropped it down to three month
    intervals
    uh because at first he kind of seemed
    annoyed with me
    and just don’t let that phase you just
    keep on powering keep on powering
    through it
    perseverance um exactly uh but uh
    then i dropped it down to um i think
    monthly and now we’re on weekly uh he
    said he’d been sick and couldn’t do it
    but uh
    uh the last time i called him before
    this before yesterday he said
    you know because i asked him i said have
    you thought about anything are you ready
    to sell he’s like you know
    i’m not he said i actually i’ll tell you
    what
    i and he actually gave me a prize for
    the building of one
    and two laundromats so
    i think he’s he’s getting motivated i i
    just drive by sometimes and you can see
    those little post-it notes on the
    on the machines that say how to order
    you you don’t even have to go in the
    place and see how many machines are out
    so yeah he’s he’s starting to get
    frustrated with it and i think he’s
    ready to retire so
    hopefully uh hopefully that’ll that’ll
    go through
    time to time to up it to daily calls now
    and work that price down
    uh yeah that’s awesome all right so
    you’re trying to get some more you want
    to get some real estate too
    and and kind of expand your portfolio
    that’s awesome
    uh all right well i mean i’m curious i
    don’t know if anybody else is curious
    but i’m curious tell me about this
    youtube channel what made you
    start it and yeah well let’s start there
    what made you start it
    um just i guess a year ago i guess
    roughly a year ago rather yet
    i started i was fixing everything uh
    and i just started thinking you know
    well maybe i could put a camera on me
    while i’m doing this stuff
    and some people might be interested in
    seeing it and uh some of the things i
    started doing was quarter collections
    um i’ve seen brandon from investment joy
    doing that
    i calm down on the i think i calm down
    on the the quarter
    quarter collections uh it’s very hard to
    keep a conversation going with yourself
    while you collect quarters
    but uh i just i wanted to be able to
    show people you know some of those are
    easy fixes
    and some of the hard fixes uh which now
    i wouldn’t call a baron java a hard fix
    it’s just a little time consuming
    but i just wanted to it’s never been
    about hey i’d like to become a famous
    youtube star
    um because just like the just like this
    the laundromat forums and stuff
    there’s a uh there’s a a community there
    on youtube i mean i’ve got people i’ve
    got people that off youtube
    are from youtube that know my general
    area
    and they see a laundromat deal and
    they’ll email me so
    that’s awesome i mean yeah yeah that’s
    awesome and i bet
    i bet there’s just going to be more and
    more opportunities coming your way from
    doing that because you’re i don’t know i
    think you’re
    providing uh not just well like i said
    it’s infotainment
    not it’s not just entertaining content
    although it is entertaining content but
    there’s also a lot of really good
    information in there
    i think people really appreciate people
    who do that who are trying to help other
    people out
    and do it in a way that’s easy to watch
    it’s entertaining so
    i bet you’ll get a lot of opportunities
    coming your way
    have you enjoyed it oh yeah yeah it’s
    no it’s it’s no cakewalk uh keeping up
    and trying to get a video
    out every week um there’s been a couple
    weeks that i missed it you think it’d be
    just turning the camera on and
    and go but it’s not that easy um
    i thought when i started i thought it’d
    be super simple
    just turn the camera on and fry you know
    but uh i finally got got halfway decent
    equipment so you know you can’t hear me
    and can’t see me halfway decent
    yeah no it’s it’s a lot more work than i
    think
    most people think if you’ve never like
    may
    even you know if you’ve never made a
    video or i
    even the podcast you know just it takes
    so much
    effort and so many hours and it’s just
    an audio mostly like
    it goes on youtube but i don’t do a
    whole lot of video editing with it
    that video editing can take a long time
    so oh yeah for sure
    and then you’re putting yourself out
    there for people to i mean they judge
    you they uh
    they leave the main the mean comments
    yeah you know
    i think for four or five videos i did
    videos with a missing tooth and i mean
    it was one of my front teeth it was
    obvious is all that all get out
    [Music]
    did you get comments about that one i
    don’t know if i did or not i
    think i did but every time my wife would
    watch my videos she she’d make a comment
    about my missing tooth
    i’m gonna go back and comment on one of
    your videos about your teeth
    oh yeah that’s funny uh yeah cool all
    right so yeah i mean you’ve been doing
    the youtube stuff
    and uh and kind of growing your
    community over there again i’m gonna
    link to
    his youtube channel it’s called there i
    fixed it um that way you can go check it
    out because he’s got a lot of cool
    laundromat related things and also
    i will say if you’re looking for a
    little bit of behind the scenes on what
    it’s like to own
    a laundromat you get some of that too
    with his videos
    which is pretty yeah that’s pretty cool
    that’s one thing i wanted to show
    is you know i didn’t want to hide the
    parts that are
    are just you know beyond you um there
    was one day i come in and i had horse
    hair
    someone had come in and washed like four
    loads of horse hair or horse blankets
    and literally there was horse hair all
    over the floors
    like it changed the color of my floors
    so
    i mean there’s just you name it it’s
    happened
    i’ve seen it happen just you know
    but i i love the laundry industry okay
    it’s
    one of those things you take with it but
    i wanted to be able to show that real
    side of things
    yeah just well yeah i
    which i think i mean i i love that and i
    appreciate that because
    again we kind of mentioned this already
    but i think a lot of people get into
    this thing think it’s going to be a
    cakewalk and it’s
    you know and relatively speaking it’s
    not
    crazy difficult but man stuff happens
    and
    the stuff that’s happened in my
    laundromats i’m sure in your laundromat
    i’m sure and everybody’s laundered about
    who owns one
    like some of that stuff you just can’t
    make it up and
    i’ve had people tell me multiple times
    like man you got to make a show like a
    tv show about this because it’s
    like just the craziest stuff that
    happens so yeah i don’t see how there’s
    not a reality show yet
    there’s i’m right now i’m dealing with
    somebody that keeps coming in and
    stealing my soap so
    yeah that’s just it happens
    it yeah i’ve i’ve been there man i feel
    i feel your pain i feel your pain uh
    well cool
    so i want to get into uh a little bit
    about your
    business we have a little section called
    down to
    let’s get business to business over and
    out
    and that’s just where we talk about some
    of the details of your business so
    tell us again where is your laundromat
    located
    uh we’re about an hour from knoxville
    northeast
    knoxville tennessee cool and i got
    i got tons of family back there in
    knoxville and then back up in the hills
    up there so
    i’m familiar with that area a little bit
    so
    pretty cool um all right and you have
    one laundry mat do you have any real
    estate now like rental real estate or
    have you gotten no uh i lit a bad tenant
    or i let a tenant leave a bad taste in
    my mouth and just decided you know
    we were going to sell that particular
    property uh regret it ever since
    but fortunately it went to someone that
    i i know very well and
    they’re great people and they got it on
    a great deal so
    but uh we’ll eventually get back into
    real estate
    yeah i think that’s a pretty common
    story with rental real estate you know
    you get a bad tenant and
    man just that frustration that you can
    feel
    and that it causes in you
    man it can it can really put a sour
    taste in your mouth uh
    but yeah you know at some point you got
    to get back on the horse right if you
    want to
    you want to after building well after
    going laundromats for three years
    uh i mean it’s yeah you’re basically
    renting out your washers and dryers so
    it ends up being the same thing you know
    i think i’ve built my tolerance up a
    little bit better yeah you know what
    and that’s actually a really good and
    really interesting point just to keep it
    on like a serious note actually is
    i mean one of the one of the big things
    that i’ve taken away from owning
    laundromats is i have a much
    higher tolerance for things like from
    everything from early on
    you know i had never missed like a
    a bill payment before and early on when
    i was bleeding money left and right
    sometimes i’d have like a water bill
    come through and i was like i don’t
    there’s like no money to pay it so i’m
    just like i can’t
    i’m gonna have to pay it when i can and
    you know it was i was like
    freaking out that i was like missing a
    water bill
    you know i was gonna be like five days
    late or whatever
    and now i’m like well you know they can
    they’ll be fine you know
    like i’ll pay them when i compare them
    and they’ll be okay you know yeah that’s
    i i hate i hate being late i like things
    to be
    on time no matter what um so i always
    find a way somehow
    my wife she does all the bills so she’s
    a little bit more laid back than i am so
    i stress a little bit over that but she
    always
    comes through yeah yeah i me too man i’m
    always on auto pays
    as often as i can for everything and
    mostly that’s just because i’m lazy but
    uh but even like things like i’ll have
    you know somebody would like graffiti on
    my folding table or something and i
    would just be like so
    stressed out about it now i’m like no
    big deal i’ll go get some of that
    graffiti remover it’ll come right off no
    big deal like
    my tolerance has grown tremendously
    yeah now mine is when i walk in and see
    something out like that i just pull out
    the camera and say hey guys look at this
    yeah you know you’re gonna enjoy this
    one yeah
    basically that’s kind of what i thought
    the other day when i got broke into i
    was like oh there’s me some content but
    it’s actually excuse to
    buy me a new vending machine yeah yeah
    exactly
    yeah you kind of want things to go south
    now uh no just kidding
    all right uh so we already talked about
    this but you’ve been in the business
    basically 13 years and you’ve owned your
    own laundromat for three right
    yeah all right well can you tell us
    about give us ballpark maybe what does
    it cost to
    do loads of laundry where you’re at
    right now um our biggest machine which
    is a 60 pounder is
    650 you step down to our 40 pounders i
    think we’re doing
    450 on those um i just
    raised my horizons to three dollars and
    i had i made an entire video about
    that um i’m right i only have four of
    them
    and i’m not the biggest fan of them uh
    never really have been but uh i just
    they’re so easy to over soap and i’m not
    there to tell people to
    calm down on the soap so i thought you
    know let’s make it worth my time
    i’m going to raise the raise the price
    by 75 cents
    if they continue to use it you know at
    least i’ll benefit from it
    and honestly i think the usage went up
    oh really
    yeah yeah well that’s on top of my top
    loaders at 225
    um i like to when i raise my prices
    i like to try to do something like my
    vending process have been signed the
    same forever
    but when i got the new venom venom
    machine you know it was an excuse for me
    to raise my process
    um so you know up next is i need to
    touch up some paint
    but i’m going to redo the bathroom i
    absolutely hate that bathroom
    um but i’m going to redo the bathroom
    solid tile you know make it real nice
    uh kind of the match the outside of
    laundromat um
    at least i think my laundry mat is nice
    it’s kind of like an ugly kid
    somebody out there loves it but uh
    you know i think when i do that then
    that’ll be an excuse to raise my
    top loaders the only real reason that i
    don’t want to raise any of the other
    prices right now
    is uh we’re still coin only
    so we’re looking at some other options
    to get in there that way you know
    you’re not having to put seven dollars
    eight dollars worth of quarters and a
    machine
    mm-hmm it’s a lot of quarters yeah oh
    yeah
    yeah what you took took that question
    right out of my mouth
    your coin only are you uh are you
    attended
    or i mean i’m assuming you’re unattended
    and you’re
    you’re doing the the cleaning and
    everything right yeah
    yeah we’re completely unattended and the
    reason why we started unattended um
    it was something me and my wife
    discussed um
    we always like we don’t like to be
    bothered
    when we go to the store we use
    self-checkout
    we do you know everything ourselves that
    we can
    yeah i wouldn’t even say that we’re
    introverts
    we just you know and i kind of thought
    that the same way you know i didn’t want
    someone in there
    to bug i didn’t want to be there she
    didn’t want to be there bugging our
    attendants and i wouldn’t say that
    or not bugging our attendants but
    bugging our customers and i wouldn’t say
    that attendance bug customers
    but you know most the machines are
    self-explanatory
    and that’s the that’s mostly the
    customers i want is you know customers
    that know
    how to come in you know read the
    instructions on the machine
    use the machine and you know
    yeah and not put soap in every available
    compartment of those horizons and clog
    everything up yeah
    yeah my favorite is they put soap in a
    machine that they’re
    uh they never even put any clothes in
    and then just
    go on about the business yeah yeah i
    also love when they put the tide pods
    in those little pullout drawers and
    you’re like or
    anything but i always get them in the
    top of my soap boxes i hate toppings
    yeah right i know
    i i had thought about putting them in
    the vending machines and i just thought
    that’s a terrible idea yeah i know
    exactly what i’m gonna have to deal with
    exactly yeah i know yeah and even those
    horizons sometimes they get
    like the the plastic like the stuff gets
    stuck in the
    door seal thing yeah gooey and you gotta
    like scoop it out it’s gross
    well i had one where um see anytime i
    have like a water leak or anything i’ll
    go back and look on my cameras because
    i’m able to see the entire laundry mat
    and see kind of what
    caused the problem uh i had a mess in
    front of my horizons like it went all
    the way across the store
    and i looked back on it and they had
    started to load and there was a
    waterfall coming out of the soap tray
    and i guess they had put that todd pot
    in there just in the moat
    the perfect spot to where it wouldn’t
    let any water drain into that machine
    yeah so oh man the stories the stories
    we could probably go on forever yeah
    well how many how many hours do you say
    you
    spend at your laundry matter working on
    your laundromat
    roughly 10 to 15. it just depends on
    what’s going on and
    what i have to do yeah yeah that’s not
    too bad
    i mean i’m good i’ve tried to buy stuff
    to you know make my job easier
    um you know like mopping uh
    you’re already pushing around a dirty
    mop so
    i ended up buying me a forest rubber and
    that was probably one of the best
    decisions i’d made
    i can clean the entire laundromat within
    about five to eight minutes
    with one gallon yeah with one gallon of
    water
    and just maybe a cup of a cup of soap so
    that really saved me time what did that
    cost you
    uh it cost me by the time it was all
    said and done i bought it for 200
    used and broke of course naturally um
    it was used and broke it had a broke
    wheel broke off and then i fixed it
    and i had to buy two marine batteries
    which was like 150 bucks so
    about 400 all together okay that’s not
    bad man to
    especially to get get the whole store
    you know mopped up cleaned up in less
    than 10 minutes man that’s awesome
    yeah yeah it’s that’s it saves time so
    that’s that’s the thing that was most
    important yeah that’s huge
    i’m gonna have to look into that it’s a
    good tip what are your floors
    what what kind of floors do you have uh
    they’re uh
    flaked epoxy okay yeah they had uh we
    had originally had tile in there
    um and i don’t know they
    had carpet glue down before they never
    took the carpet glue up
    they grouted over it and put tile down
    um and literally i had a
    i used to have maytag neptunes in there
    i had one spinning out
    and i had two tiles just pop up into a t
    or into an angle um and then from there
    we just decided to redo it and it
    honestly took us
    no more than an hour maybe an hour and a
    half
    to rip the entire laundry mat up of all
    the tile
    that was supposedly you know grouted
    down yeah
    oh yeah it was terrible and where there
    had been so many floods there was
    mildew under it it was the reason why it
    smelled so bad in there but
    we did the epoxy and which we did it
    ourselves of course
    um but that’s probably one of the best
    decisions we’ve done
    my wife hates it but she don’t clean it
    all the time
    yeah does she help out at all or is it
    just you doing stuff
    she was helping out um and then she got
    you know we got pregnant
    uh and then cove would have or you know
    well code would happen she got pregnant
    so
    i forced her to stay home that way you
    know she wasn’t
    she wasn’t exposed but she ended up
    getting it anyway somehow
    oh geez she okay yeah yeah yeah we’re
    both we both went through it and had it
    already and
    moved on with our lives so oh yeah you
    have a video about that so yeah
    yeah yeah i had to that’s right i had to
    call a friend of mine and i said uh hey
    i’ve got covered you uh come get the
    keys and
    take care of the laundry mat for me and
    sure enough you know he come through
    uh and that that’s another thing uh and
    it pays to have somebody that’s already
    familiar with your business
    uh he was uh he had already took care of
    us before when we went on vacation so
    it was a great resource because i had
    my wife had it my parents had it and
    everyone around us
    that we knew had it so it was one of
    those things
    yeah well it’s a good thing you had you
    had that friend uh serious question
    do you think your wife got pregnant just
    to get out of cleaning the laundromat
    i think so yeah i would i would think so
    yeah
    she likes those midnight you know or 3
    a.m phone calls you know hey i lost 25
    cents
    yeah yeah will you come down here and
    give me right anyway well who doesn’t
    like those yeah
    exactly i look forward to those every
    night the nights i don’t get those
    i’m disappointed you think something’s
    wrong yeah right
    uh that’s funny all right we have a
    section
    called secret sauce listen up it’s the
    secret sauce
    secret sauce is just hey do you have any
    tips something maybe that’s working for
    your business that other laundromat
    owners can implement into their
    businesses to help them
    find greater success the number one
    easiest and free completely free thing
    to do
    is keep it clean no matter you know
    that’s if you’ve got top load motors
    they get
    nasty little spots in them keep them
    clean keep your shop trays clean
    just keep the overall laundry mat super
    clean
    and even if you have old equipment
    people’s going to want to go to the
    place that’s clean
    and another one is use all this
    technology out there to your advantage
    um just recently i purchased two cameras
    that have two-way communication they
    have 355 degree
    field of motion 110 up to up and down so
    you know use all that technology out
    there that’s available to you
    and you can you can take a you can take
    an older machine and make it into a new
    one
    that was something we found out quick is
    uh
    we were getting those phone calls hey uh
    you know
    this cycle has been going through for
    like an hour now and there’s no water
    filling up and of course it’s that raw
    underwire brawl um so i went through
    yeah exactly
    i went through and put uh put relays on
    them that way
    or installed relays in them that way i
    could just click it off from my house
    and you know they could just switch
    their clothes over we can send them a
    refund out
    we sent them a refund out for their you
    know wash and their original wash
    that way we you know that customer feels
    like we
    took care of them so do you have a video
    on putting those relays in
    i feel like people would watch that
    video i don’t know
    i’ve still got one machine
    [Music]
    i’ve still got one machine to do i was
    doing it in the middle of the day
    and i didn’t turn the electric off
    always turn your power off
    i didn’t turn the electric off and i
    sent 220 all the way through a circuit
    board and fried the board
    yikes and so yeah i i’ve not got around
    to finishing that but
    that’s a good idea for a video i might
    finish that one up because
    i was saying that the other day you know
    hey i really need to fix that machine
    because that’s going to be the machine
    that messes up
    yep yeah so if for nothing else you got
    to subscribe
    to his youtube channel so you can learn
    how to put relays in
    in on your machine so you can shut them
    off for customers windows pesky bra
    underwires the bane of my existence in
    the automats
    uh you know it’s going to happen it’s
    going to happen
    and it’s probably going to happen often
    i don’t know
    yeah yeah i had i had two of them doing
    the same night so
    oh gosh it’s gonna happen yeah
    definitely
    uh awesome awesome secret sauce uh next
    section is called pro tips
    pro tips pro tips is for the people who
    are trying to buy their first laundromat
    what tips do you have for them
    uh stop thinking about it and just do it
    and then another one is
    don’t convince yourself that a bad deal
    is a good deal
    because in the end a bad deal is still a
    bad deal
    you’re gonna you’re gonna regret it and
    it might not be something you uh
    you come out floating on so
    that is a huge huge pro tip right there
    and i see this
    all the time where people get stuck on a
    deal
    and you know i’ll i’ll watch people
    find a deal they they for whatever
    reason have fallen in love with it
    they’ve convinced themselves it’s got a
    lot of potential or somebody has
    convinced them it’s got a lot of
    potential
    they’ll ask around people who are in the
    industry people who’ve been there who’ve
    done that
    and when they get advice that hey maybe
    this is one to pass on
    or you know maybe you need to structure
    this deal a different way because it’s
    not what you think it is
    and they explain it away in their own
    minds and go through with it anyways
    it’s a recipe for pain
    i’ll i’ll tell you that from experience
    my first line oh yeah
    the recipe for pain yeah i argue with
    myself a lot when i convince myself i
    want to buy something or
    that’s going to be right for me and i
    finally you know
    i always talk it over with my wife and
    she’s usually my
    my weight that keeps me down so uh it
    keeps me level-headed
    so if it’s a bad deal usually she can
    pinpoint that for me
    yeah it’s nice to have that kind of
    one-two teamwork
    there yeah two perspectives don’t don’t
    let yourself just make the decision at
    least get someone else involved
    to look at it because sometimes the
    heart heart wants
    what it wants but it ain’t right man
    that was that was deep right there
    that was real deep and let’s just let
    that sink in for a second
    there you go yeah that’s one of them
    quotes you put on a shirt that’s right
    that’s what i’m talking about
    uh all right uh hey do you have any
    resources you would recommend
    for you know anyone in the industry or
    getting in to help them improve their
    business or to improve personally
    uh get on the facebook forums
    they’re really good they’re they’re full
    of chock full of information uh
    someone’s almost but by now already
    asked a question that you’ve
    you’re going to ask um just recently
    with the
    the whole people breaking into our
    vending machines
    this dude that’s probably well he’s in
    knoxville uh
    he joined one of the facebook’s groups
    started sharing about it and i was like
    okay that’s the same people that you
    know
    robbed us and we were able to get
    together they’ve already found out this
    woman’s name
    whole nine yards so i mean yeah
    definitely on the forums
    uh you’ve really got a good thing going
    with laundromat resource the podcast
    forms
    um just the forms forms is free
    information pretty much
    because there’s a lot of there’s a lot
    of people with uh
    really really talented people uh
    really high up in the uh industry well
    you know
    you’re talking multiple store owners
    luke’s on there
    he’s got 37 what is it 38 stores now
    38 i don’t know just and
    you ask these you ask these people
    questions and i mean you’re getting
    hundreds of responses sometimes so yeah
    yeah and and not only that but you know
    the answer is some of these questions
    they’re they’re worth like tangible
    dollars right like these people
    have learned how to make these
    businesses legit
    and so man tap into
    tap into their experience and their
    wisdom uh and benefit from it
    and let your customers benefit from it
    too you know exactly
    yeah yeah if you’ve got a problem i mean
    most time you post it up there
    you can either especially like if it’s a
    physical problem somebody’s bound to
    send you a video of
    how to fix it so yeah a lot of awesome
    people helping out there very cool
    awesome recommended resources i have a
    just one other question uh that’s
    unrelated to pretty much anything else
    do you have a favorite one of your own
    youtube videos like if if somebody was
    like hey i want to watch i have time to
    watch
    one of your videos which is the one you
    think they should watch
    oh that’s a tough one uh one my memory
    is terrible
    that’s that’s why i have to whenever i
    edit my videos together i have to watch
    the whole thing
    i have to watch every clip um
    but let’s see here i really did enjoy
    the my vending one last time
    just recently um but
    yeah i’d probably go with my vending one
    or uh
    the one about me having covered i
    thought it did pretty well
    awesome i’m gonna link to both of those
    so if anybody only has time to watch one
    video for the rest of your life i don’t
    know maybe on your deathbed
    watch one of these two i’ll link it
    below the vending machine one and the
    quarantine one
    uh and jacob this has been awesome
    uh not just to hear your story and to
    hear all your wisdom
    but in some ways i kind of feel like i’m
    chatting with the star here
    and i appreciate you taking the time and
    coming on
    and and sharing your uh sharing your
    story and wisdom here but also for doing
    that for
    for everyone on your youtube channel so
    thanks man really appreciate it oh yeah
    i appreciate you having me on here yeah
    and we’ll chat again
    yeah we’ll chat again soon and maybe we
    should uh do some kind of collab on
    youtube one of these days and
    and uh and make it fun for everybody
    exactly yeah let’s do it
    all right sounds good man all right
    we’ll talk to you soon oh man that was
    such a cool
    episode i loved talking with jacob i
    love what he’s doing not just with his
    laundromat but also with his youtube
    channel
    somebody who’s on youtube myself i just
    i love to see other people doing it and
    he’s doing a little bit different than
    me and he’s got more of that
    you know that infotainment than i have
    and i love that
    i love getting the sneak peek inside his
    laundromat
    so cool definitely uh subscribe to him
    if you haven’t yet link again is down in
    the description or in the in the podcast
    description
    or on the show notes at
    laundryresource.com show
    38 so make sure you do that every week i
    want all of us myself included to take
    away
    one thing that we are going to implement
    this week because when we start stacking
    those things on each other
    we get better and better so my one
    takeaway i want you to choose one for
    you steal mine
    take your own whatever it is put it into
    action
    my one takeaway i loved what he said
    in the pro tip he said stop thinking
    about it
    and do it and i loved
    that stop thinking about it and do it
    and for me it’s not about buying my
    first laundromat obviously but for me
    i’m thinking about all the things i’m in
    my life and
    with laundromat resource and all this
    stuff that i want to do
    and i just you know it was an awesome
    reminder for me stop thinking about it
    so hard and just do it you know get your
    plan in place
    and then do it take the action take the
    scary step
    even though it’s super scary even though
    you don’t really know
    what the path is gonna be down the rest
    of the way
    you don’t know what’s around that first
    bend uh just take the step
    and do it and uh man again
    i say it all the time action paves the
    way to success so this week make sure
    you take some action wherever you’re at
    on your
    journey you’re trying to buy your first
    laundromat take some action
    if you already own one laundromat take
    some action if you own multiple
    laundromats
    take some action and we’ll see you again
    next week all right
    [Music]

    1 Comment

    Jim Morgan's Cleaners · January 27, 2021 at 6:33 pm

    Thanks for the knowledgeable article. I appreciate your suggestions and tips which you have mention.Keep writing informative articles.

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