Daryl Zeiner has been through the ringer. From bleeding money before his laundromat even opened to having literally ZERO customers on his second day being open, you’ll feel anxious for him as he tells his story. And yet, just a few months from opening his first laundromat he’s looking for his second!

Why?? What happened between buying his first laundromat and the turmoil of losing money with no customers in sight, and today, just a few months after opening??

Daryl gives a very transparent account of his incredible journey toward laundromat ownership with a TON of valuable lessons for all of us weaved throughout his story.

In today’s episode, Daryl and I talk about:

  • Why he chose laundromats
  • How he bought his first laundromat
  • Remote laundromat ownership
  • Buying a fixer-upper laundromat remotely
  • Covid’s impact on his laundromat opening
  • What it was like to finally open the doors of his laundromat business
  • The initial community response to opening (hint: there wasn’t much of one at first)
  • How he and his partners handled adversity
  • Working with partners
  • His future plans
  • Customer service tips and ideas
  • Due diligence
  • Knowing how to get a good lease
  • Resources to help you succeed in your business

And so much more!

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

Today's Sponsor

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Links from the show

Connect with Daryl

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.palmbeachlakeslaundry.com

Social media: @palmbeachlakeslaundry

Daryl on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/daryl-zeiner-061177b/

Daryl's Bio

My name is Daryl and I live 50 miles outside of Philadelphia PA. I started my journey working the trades, and quickly realized I didn’t want to be doing that at the age of 60, which led me into a career in sales, and ultimately sales management.  Along the way I dabbled in stocks, real estate, flipping houses and had a few rentals. I’ve had a residential painting business, landscape business, paper routes as a kid, whatever I could to earn a dollar. I have always been a student of success and personal development and firmly believe that when preparedness and opportunity meet, there, is success. I’ve suffered many setbacks along the way but never lost that spark to be a business owner. In every adversity lies the seeds to an equal or greater benefit.I try to be a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as I can. Every person is your superior in some way, it’s up to us to figure out where, or how, and learn from them. I have two partners in our laundromat, my brother in law, who suggested the idea on a family vacation, and his brother in law. We each bring a unique skill set to the partnership.  I’ve had partnerships in the past and know how difficult they can be, but we maintain open, honest communication. This is our 1st laundromat, coin and offer W/D/F. We will most likely be adding Dexter pay in the very near future. I negotiated a 1 year free lease and we needed 15, lol. We plan on opening 9 more by 2030. We’re excited to give back to the community.  I have an amazing wife and am incredibly blessed with an awesome step-daughter. I’m honored to be a part of your podcast and if one word I speak helps someone else, it’s worth it.

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    Episode Transcript

    hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
    laundromat resource
    podcast this is show number 40 and you
    know it i
    am pumped that you are here today
    because today we have
    daryl zeiner on the podcast and i gotta
    tell you man
    literally as he’s talking i’m just my
    palms are sweating
    this is like an intense intense story of
    his laundromat
    journey so far and he’s pretty young
    into it uh you’re gonna
    love it i think and he’s you know he’s
    just a great guy also super easy to talk
    to pretty funny
    and even though he is from the east
    coast i still think that he’s pretty
    awesome
    i’m just kidding that’ll make sense when
    we get into it but uh
    you know i i am just excited about
    today’s episode
    i know that you’re gonna love it so make
    sure you take some good notes uh before
    we get there i wanted to just take a
    second i haven’t done this in a while
    and there’s a long list of new people
    uh new members on laundromat
    resource.com
    and i just want to welcome some of the
    more recent ones so
    hey what’s up uh you know oh man there’s
    a lot of them richard frankie tim anna
    calvin
    tom there i mean there’s like a lot of
    people that are there so just
    welcome to you guys and if you haven’t
    yet
    go over to the forums click on the new
    member introduction form and number one
    just go introduce yourself there so that
    people can start to get to know you and
    then go welcome the newbies
    uh that have have come more recently and
    say what’s up to them and make them feel
    right at home
    speaking of forums jump on the forums
    there’s a lot of action going on over
    there a lot of great questions
    we won’t go through them today because
    today we have a lot to
    to get through with daryl and i don’t
    want to take up too much time
    but head over there there’s a lot of
    action happening over there some great
    great questions and some great
    conversations again
    when we’re doing this stuff together
    that is when
    we all get better faster so if you want
    to get big results and you want to do it
    quicker
    man start networking and i say this a
    lot but when you work with the best
    you become the best so get over there
    and start to meet the best
    who are hanging out there on the forums
    answering questions
    asking questions you should be doing
    that every single week if not every
    single
    day jeez man i said it uh yeah
    anyways um one more quick thing about
    the website i know a lot of you guys who
    are members already some of you received
    a spam message i received it too i just
    wanted to let
    let you know that i apologize for that
    um if you received
    that message and uh what happened to a
    user’s account got hacked
    and somebody used that hacked account to
    message some other member so
    my apologies we’re doing the best that
    we can to kind of keep that under
    control and hopefully that won’t happen
    again
    but i just want to let you know what
    happened um
    now i want to take a second to i i’m
    like very excited about this so
    from the beginning i’ve had this idea of
    laundromat resource being by laundromat
    owners for laundromat owners and
    that has manifested in number one me
    kind of creating content because i’m a
    laundromat owner
    but also having you guys on the podcast
    fellow laundromat
    owners sharing your stories your wisdom
    your advice your experience all that
    stuff and that’s been
    awesome but i also recognize that
    the podcast episode may not be the best
    uh medium for you and i know some of you
    guys really love to
    write or you love to make video content
    and i wanted to put it out there that
    uh i want laundromat resource to be uh a
    place
    by laundromat owners for laundromat
    owners and that doesn’t just mean the
    podcast
    so if you are interested in writing
    uh for uh you know writing content for
    other laundromat owners
    and you’d like to use laundromat
    resource to post your
    your blog posts or your video content
    any of that stuff
    you know obviously we want to make sure
    it’s really good content but
    assuming and knowing you guys it’s of
    course it’s going to be
    great content if that’s something that
    you want to do but
    shoot me an email jordan laundromat
    resource.com just put in the subject
    line
    uh you know something obvious
    like i want to help or let me in or
    something i don’t know just
    i don’t you don’t put whatever you want
    in the subject line actually i open all
    my emails so
    uh but anyways email me jordan at
    laundromat resources.com and let’s chat
    about uh different ways that you can
    contribute and start making
    a name for yourself and having a voice
    for yourself in this industry i think
    that there is
    a ton a ton of room for more voices in
    this industry
    and i think yours could be one of them
    so if you’re interested in writing i
    know some of you guys have talked to me
    about wanting to do
    uh like you’re doing new builds and you
    want to
    you know document that and and try to
    figure out how a lot of my resource can
    help get those document documentaries
    documentaries
    yeah out there um so that’s one idea
    some of you guys just want to write
    about maybe your experience some things
    that you’ve learned
    you know some of you guys may have just
    some incredible wisdom and insight that
    you just
    want to share so again shoot me an email
    jordan at laundromat resource.com i’ll
    probably
    figure out a better way to do that so um
    so you can submit stuff but we’ll um
    we’ll chat and we’ll
    get that stuff going because i would
    love love love for more of you guys to
    have a bigger voice
    in this industry i think it’s what our
    industry needs and i think
    you need to be a part of it um so shoot
    me an email i know some of you guys are
    going to be interested in all over this
    if writing is your thing if video is
    your thing
    and also not again to be a tease
    but there are some other opportunities
    big opportunities coming
    soon very soon and i can’t quite
    i can’t quite put them all out there yet
    but i’m close
    and some of you guys are really going to
    want to be a part of this so
    enough of that let’s get to this
    interview with daryl
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    darryl what is going on man thank you
    for coming on the show how are you doing
    i’m doing great man thank you for having
    me yeah oh man thank you for being here
    i could not be more excited
    uh to get to chat with you and you know
    over here
    on the best coast west coast uh you know
    east coast east coast
    sorry beast coast east coast let’s get
    that straight
    come on come on well
    i mean i cracked up you you brought that
    in we did that uh
    live q a with dave mends and uh cls
    brian wallace and you brought that beast
    coast east coast
    i was i was literally dying of laughter
    at that and a quick little shout out to
    brian henderson who gave it a good go
    the essential central time
    i thought it was adorable i don’t know i
    don’t know it’s cute it was cute
    hey daryl i am super excited to hear
    your story
    um and and in particular i was just
    telling you how i keep saying that and i
    can’t say it so
    but specifically i want to hear about
    your laundromat stuff but before we get
    to that
    who are you like tell us a little bit
    about who you are and uh
    and then i want to get into how you got
    into laundromat sure
    sure i uh early on in my lifetime
    uh i was really into the trades
    and uh just decided at an early age 1819
    after
    you know doing it for a couple years
    that i didn’t see myself
    wanting to be at 60 years old not that
    there’s anything wrong with it i love
    the trades um
    i currently am still employed in the
    trades just in a different
    uh not as a physical labor anymore um
    and from there just kind of transgressed
    into
    sales sales management along the way i
    own different businesses
    um painting business landscape business
    you know when i was younger in my teens
    i did paper routes
    anything i could shoveling snow whatever
    i could to make a dollar you know it
    didn’t matter
    i’d always had a dream and an aspiration
    to be self-employed
    um and dabbled in real estate over the
    years um
    flipped houses uh had some rental
    apartments and
    things of that nature but uh nothing
    ever just satisfied
    that burning desire in me for my own
    business
    so wow it’s kind of good yeah now this
    is kind of
    what has brought me to this point you
    know in life it’s accumulation of
    multiple things and
    lessons learned along the way yeah well
    it’s funny
    that you say that because i was just
    thinking about that you know myself
    and just you know i’ve been reflecting a
    lot start of the year here
    in 2021 and i’ve been thinking about
    like laundromat resource and thinking
    about all that stuff and i was like man
    you know what it’s so crazy
    um because there’s like a lot of things
    that i’ve learned along the way
    just doing random stuff like i learned
    how to build a website like way back
    when
    and in it you know now i built a website
    and you know i learned
    how to do some audio stuff just
    recording kids
    you know singing songs and and now
    there’s you know i’m doing audio stuff
    and video stuff like
    so it’s just funny how all these kind of
    skills kind of
    compile together and lead you and
    present opportunities for you so that’s
    kind of cool that you
    did that but you had this entrepreneur
    blood in you
    from from way back when right oh
    absolutely absolutely yeah
    okay so you you i mean you’ve dabbled in
    a lot of stuff
    and i mean it just begs the big question
    is
    why laundromats i mean i get asked that
    all the time i don’t know about you but
    like why law yeah
    absolutely it’s you know it’s something
    that never was on my radar
    um i’ve been to a laundromat a couple
    times
    growing up at different circumstances
    you know whether i had to wash
    my own clothes or you know dog bed or
    whatever the case may be
    never looked at it as a business or
    business model that i was interested in
    um was on vacation uh back in 2018
    with my family and my brother-in-law
    came up and said
    we need to open a laundromat and i just
    kind of looked at him like huh
    and uh he has a friend of his who has
    two laundry mats
    and was telling him how great the
    business is his friend had grown up in
    the business
    kind of gotten away from it and then
    opened up another one
    years later um and he has been
    the one thing i love about this business
    the more i learned the more people i get
    to know
    the willingness to help truly help
    somebody else
    and not stand behind a veil and
    just give bits and pieces but to open
    the veil
    so that you get a full view of what to
    expect and what you need to do to be
    successful
    um i’ve never had that before really in
    a business
    so that’s been one of the biggest things
    but going back to
    2018 uh
    it’s it’s kind of a unique blend between
    myself and my partners because
    we each bring a different skill set and
    we i’m the one that’s very skeptical
    and i’m gonna you know do research
    until it paralyzes me unfortunately you
    know and he’s kind of the one that all
    right we’re going to jump we’re going to
    jump we’re going to jump so it’s it’s a
    nice blend
    of uh personalities and then the other
    pardon that we have
    he is kind of in between both of us so
    he kind of
    is the teeter to balance both of us out
    and he brings a whole different skill
    set so uh it’s just that’s that’s how we
    ended up
    in the laundromat business well that
    middle ground i could imagine is kind of
    nice to have actually because if you’re
    like ah
    let’s i don’t know and he’s like let’s
    just do it and just having that third
    party that’s kind of in the middle
    to say actually in this instance it
    makes sense let’s hold off or in this
    instance
    look daryl we gotta jump you know like
    it’s kind of nice to have
    yes to have that uh yeah okay well
    i’m gonna ask you a little bit later
    about partnerships
    and um and how that’s been and your
    experience with that
    um but tell me
    about your foray into the business now
    so you have a couple partners
    how did you how did you go from hey we
    should get a laundromat to
    okay yeah one now sure so when
    after we discussed it i was skeptical
    because
    i’d never really considered the business
    as one
    viable for myself so i started doing a
    lot of research
    lots of research and paralysis by
    analysis became my
    motive i figured i have to learn
    everything before i can do anything
    uh wait for all the lights to turn green
    before you exactly yeah
    exactly meanwhile they had already
    located a facility
    they had already been in contact with
    the landlord they had already been in
    contact with
    a distributor um it was a facility that
    was closed
    for three years uh the gentleman that
    this is kind of ironic i’m in outside of
    philadelphia
    there in florida the previous owner of
    this laundromat
    literally grew up 15 minutes from where
    my brother-in-law and i
    grew up no way yeah he moved down there
    in 1960
    opened this laundry mat or 60 or 70 open
    this laundromat
    and then had a dispute with a lease
    where he didn’t want to pay an increase
    so he just locked the doors and walked
    away from it
    so the equipment was ancient
    it was a more than run-down
    laundromat but uh and uh he found it
    um we started negotiations on it
    and we acquired it
    wow we required we signed a new lease i
    should say and then we had the
    the privilege of gutting the entire
    place and starting from scratch
    which was a whole another learning curve
    on many different levels
    oh my gosh yeah okay wait so let’s back
    up for a second
    okay so you’re you’re in
    pennsylvania correct and your
    laundromats in florida is that what you
    said
    right that is correct yes okay all right
    so we need to
    we need to kind of just back the train
    up a little bit
    and i need to ask you why did you do
    that
    and how did you do that uh i mean one of
    the big questions i get asked all the
    time it’s like hey do i have to buy my
    own backyard
    or are there ways to do it you know
    more remotely you know we had thomas
    landenberger who lives in italy
    and has one in florida also so i mean
    i’d love to hear first of all like why
    you know why did you
    buy a laundromat so far away from where
    you live
    yeah have you ever been there oh yeah
    absolutely i’ve
    actually helped in the build out and i
    actually was there on opening
    day so uh then that covered well i’ll
    explain that a little bit but um
    so part of my
    angst and always looking at businesses
    was i never wanted to start something
    and not be able to if it i’ve always
    wanted to keep working my job
    and the business at the same time so
    that i would be able to build a cushion
    and keep reinvesting
    to make it grow exponentially um
    when my brother-in-law uh approached me
    with the opportunity and the idea
    we talked about it i had partners in the
    past so i know some of the nightmare
    stories that that can be
    um and i learned from it which is the
    thing you know
    it’s okay like my mom used to say daryl
    it’s okay to make mistakes you just
    don’t have to make them all yourself
    so i finally learned that and i learned
    from other people’s mistakes now
    as much as i can and we discussed
    different ideas and one of the appeals
    now we all work full-time yet
    so you know it’s this is a labor of love
    on many different levels um they worked
    out
    with their schedules that they can
    operate it so it’s a fully attended map
    which was not the initial plan going in
    we were originally going to open up a
    unattended map
    and then through education and and
    research
    decided that attended was the way that
    we should go
    um
    hence that’s why the business partners
    because they i
    i did not have the time to devote with
    my schedule
    to a another full-time position you know
    as far as
    getting it off the ground and everything
    else so i was able i’ve been blessed
    enough to be able to throw some finances
    at it
    and they had the time to put the work in
    so it was just a good blend for
    everybody
    yeah i mean i think that that is awesome
    i think it’s an awesome lesson
    you know there’s people you know who ask
    me all the time
    like hey uh you know i have uh
    i don’t have a lot of money but i want
    to get into this business
    um you know and i tell them hey look you
    know i think
    i want to say i heard this on the bigger
    pockets podcast or that
    i think somewhere someone somewhere
    somewhere smarter than me said
    this um but basically you have uh
    you know you got money you have time and
    you have knowledge
    and you need all three to make a
    business
    you know get off the ground and if
    you’re missing
    one or two of those go
    go find the other ones right and so if
    you have money
    and you need you don’t have time and and
    or knowledge
    you know go find somebody who has the
    time and the knowledge and partner with
    them um
    exactly because you got to have all
    three so i love that you did that i love
    that they did that with you
    and uh and it makes you know potentially
    for a good partnership
    i don’t know we haven’t gotten to that
    yet if it’s a good partnership or not so
    um okay so how did you being so far away
    um how did you being so far away
    and also being pretty conservative by
    nature
    how how did you say okay we’re gonna buy
    this beat up
    run down laundromat so far away and i’m
    gonna be okay with that
    i spent about a year um honestly a year
    figuring out and studying the business
    learning doing everything i could every
    research that i could find
    um anything that i could read on it
    joined the cla
    looked at the forums every day just did
    everything that i could to satisfy
    number one my belief in the validity of
    the business
    i did market research in the area
    demographics
    i went in really feeling as comfortable
    as you can
    opening a business i went in with that
    level of comfort
    like i felt that i had done my due
    diligence and i felt that i knew what i
    was getting into
    um from an investment standpoint so
    um that was what really if i didn’t have
    that time to do that research
    i may not have made the investment
    you know i i had to be comfortable with
    it first
    so right yeah okay so
    you did all your research you you know
    you pushed down your little voice that
    said
    hey big big voice
    so you put them in the closet taped them
    up you know
    i did shackle them out of sight out of
    mine okay
    so then what did how did you how did you
    proceed from there did you did you go to
    florida to to do it and you rely on your
    partners to
    close this deal how did that happen so
    at that time
    um we had found the location um
    i got in touch with the landlord
    actually my partner got in touch with
    the landlord
    i got a copy of the lease that they were
    proposing
    um i went into go negotiations with the
    company
    the landlord um negotiated a one-year
    free
    lease essentially on the business
    nice um it needed to be 15 to 18 months
    but i got a year so
    um we put a lot of money into the
    business we like i said we totally
    gutted the place
    um we’ve ripped everything out of there
    we have brand new electrical service
    brand new water
    trough system um the
    air makeup system that blows my mind
    what you need for air makeup
    on dryers but and
    worked with the lease got that
    negotiated
    and then we started demolition and
    permitting
    and with an architect and everything
    else so
    probably should have had an architect
    involved earlier on
    probably should have vetted the
    architect better
    we ran into some issues with the
    architect and the
    building codes and getting approvals
    because
    the architect was not um
    he was not responding the way that the
    city wanted to
    for the uh comments so it drove the
    process on for months and months and
    months unfortunately until we even got
    our permitting
    in place for everything oh geez yeah
    yeah so i mean that’s a huge i was just
    talking to somebody
    uh just earlier today who
    you know was having city permitting
    problems and
    um you know so you know if anybody out
    there
    knows how to navigate that that city
    permitting process
    you know smoothly you need to come on
    the show because i just think there’s
    any time you start doing big projects
    like that you need to do city permitting
    you know it it can open a can of worms
    and
    it can be very inefficient time
    consuming which means costly
    absolutely multiple fronts so absolutely
    yeah well okay well sorry to hear about
    your
    your architect that is a bummer what
    would you have done differently veteran
    architects
    um i probably would have gone to the
    city and i may have gotten
    recommendations from the city of who
    works with them and who they like the
    most
    um who’s the quickest in getting those
    processes approved um coming back you’re
    always going to have comments
    you know that you’re that you’re going
    to have to go back and forth and and get
    corrected but
    um i think the city probably could have
    recommended somebody that they work with
    on a more regular basis yeah and had and
    had a relationship with because a lot of
    times when you
    anytime in business if you have that
    personal relationship it can really help
    in on any level it can really help ease
    processes
    you know and speed things up so it’s
    probably what i would have done
    differently
    yeah that’s a couple of really great
    tips you know when you’re i mean it’s
    it’s kind of like the whole
    it reminds me it’s like really nothing
    like this but it reminds me of
    you know the the whole tax system where
    you know if you do what the government
    wants you to do you’re going to get
    tax breaks right it’s going to be easier
    to work with the government you know
    they want you to invest in real estate
    they want you to invest in businesses
    and when you do that you get tax
    advantages right
    and what you’re suggesting is hey i’m
    going to go to the city who has to
    approve all this stuff anyways and say
    hey
    who’s going to help me get this approved
    right and when you do
    kind of what they want you to do it can
    kind of it can
    grease the grease the wheels for you and
    get things moving a little quicker so
    yeah i’m sorry go ahead you go ahead i
    was gonna say
    the other thing i probably would have
    done is i probably would have gone to
    city management and told them about our
    vision
    because we were taking over something
    that was closed down
    something that was really an eyesore and
    not it was a detriment to the community
    and we’re going to make it an asset to
    the community and i probably would have
    shared my vision
    early on with somebody in leadership in
    the government as well
    that’s the other thing i would have done
    differently yeah that i mean
    i think those are super good tips the
    hey you know asking
    the city’s advice for who’s going to
    help you get things done
    i think the relationship part of uh of
    what you’re saying
    is huge too because when you you know
    when you walk in and you can greet
    you know the people who are making the
    calls by name and they and they know who
    you are
    in a good way not in a great comes again
    here comes daryl
    but in a good way you know and when you
    say hey
    we’re just here trying to make community
    better right we’re trying to make the
    city better
    and this is what we want to do and you
    know
    how can you help us get that done i mean
    it’s just it seems very common sense but
    until you’ve gone through it and even
    sometimes when you’re going through it
    there’s there can be things that are
    just so frustrating
    that you can lose sight of that stuff
    but it’s that whole
    you know honey catches more flies than
    i don’t know the saying actually
    absolutely absolutely yep then oil but
    uh yeah there you go yeah
    and the other thing too is i uh what i
    eventually what happened was i started
    looking at the comments i got onto the
    logon and i start following the the
    resubmittals
    and we actually ended up firing that
    architect and going with somebody else
    to finish it out
    um because we just weren’t getting the
    response that we needed after
    multiple multiple months yeah so yeah
    yeah i mean that’s you you got to do
    that right it can be really hard
    you built this relationship you’ve made
    this investment with somebody the same
    same goes with like an employee right
    like you have a relationship with these
    you know an employee but they’re just
    not getting the job done you’re not
    getting the response you need
    from them you know it’s at some point
    you gotta
    kind of cut ties and and go in a
    different direction and that’s hard to
    do but i think that that
    is key to be able to make those
    decisions when they need to be made so
    yeah good for you
    yeah yeah okay so
    how long did it take to get all of it
    from the time that we signed the lease
    engage the architect at the same time
    until we
    opened the door was 15 months
    15 months yep okay i mean you’re you’re
    sitting right on that whole
    you know new build timeline you know and
    i mean it’s essentially what you did
    yes right it is what we did yeah um
    it’s just naturally i want it done
    quicker
    and i think we could have got it no
    quicker i really do um
    my partners they worked unbelievable
    hours gutting the place
    and getting everything ready and then
    bringing on a contractor and working
    with the trades and doing everything
    because
    because they did a lot not a lot as far
    as the electrical and the plumbing
    but they did a lot of the grunt work to
    bring the trades in so that our
    costs were reduced on the build-out so
    they beared a lot of that burden
    um and were really hands-on throughout
    the entire process
    you know of construction which was
    essential i could not have done that
    i would have made the investment from
    where i’m at if i wasn’t
    if i didn’t have that confidence level
    and have my partners there
    you know every day so yeah awesome
    awesome well i mean that is that’s super
    helpful you know just not just cutting
    costs but also
    you know you you want to keep an eye on
    your asset as it’s being built as it’s
    being
    you know formed you know it i’ve seen
    people who just you know turn basically
    turn over responsibility to
    you know contractors or even a gc and
    stuff just doesn’t get done the way you
    want it or it takes a lot longer than
    you expect or it costs a lot more money
    than you expect
    and you got to keep an eye so having
    those people on the ground is
    crucial yeah absolutely okay so
    uh 15 months later you’re ready to fling
    open the doors yes did you go
    down there what what happened tell me
    about that well 15 months later
    was in the middle of covet
    so we were we we thought we were going
    to be able to open
    february of 2020 then we got pushed back
    to march
    then covet really hit and we couldn’t
    get inspectors to come out
    because they weren’t working or if they
    were working you couldn’t have an
    employee or
    any of the trades that we’re trying to
    work around to get our final approvals
    done
    the trades didn’t want to show up
    because they were concerned so
    from that point it took us an additional
    three months
    to get to get our final
    approvals that we could actually open
    the door um
    which was just frustrating frustrating
    okay and uh so what month did you
    actually open
    june of 2020. so you’re supposed to open
    in february
    you think you could have gotten it
    before that i think yes
    but you were supposed to open in
    february got pushed back to march and
    you ended up opening in june correct
    february was february was pretty much
    when the
    lease payment the the 12-month free
    lease stopped
    so the lease payment started then the
    security deposits for all the utilities
    you know everything just mounts that a
    lot of expenses
    yeah didn’t quite work out as we as i
    had planned or had hoped anyway but
    that’s you know that’s part of business
    it’s part of life
    yeah so well and it was pretty
    unprecedented period of time i mean
    you you you snuck right if you would
    have got in in february
    it would have been a different story but
    because it got pushed back to march
    it’s like you’re like you’re open now
    you know like absolutely you’re right
    and and honestly because we’re in
    florida florida was a lot more relaxed
    than a lot of the other country um
    right or wrong um it was just from a
    business perspective
    it was a little easier than if we would
    have been in a pennsylvania for example
    you know where there was a lot of you
    know shutdowns and everything else now
    from the laundry business thank god the
    cla really
    uh was an advocate and we were deemed
    essential
    you know in industry but could have been
    a lot worse
    so yeah definitely yeah okay
    so you didn’t open in february you
    didn’t open in march what
    what was the i don’t for some reason
    everything you’re telling me just keeps
    bringing different analogies but it does
    remind me
    of when uh when we were
    my wife and i well i guess my wife when
    my wife was pregnant with
    our first our son and you know it says
    like last
    few weeks that feel like an eternity and
    she was like a week late and that like
    last week it just feels like
    it’s forever long and it’s uncomfortable
    and you’re like just i want to birth
    this baby i want to birth this business
    already i know
    i’m just imagining it being like that
    especially being so far away
    what was it like thank god my wife
    is forgiving because i was a bear to
    deal with
    um many many many sleepless nights um we
    had
    you know some with our we did all new
    equipment
    so we had the financing that was kicking
    in as well
    um it was interest only thank god it
    didn’t start but then
    the whole payment was supposed to start
    was supposed to be three months interest
    only and then the payment
    thank god they worked with us and they
    gave us six months
    interest only um just for cash flow it
    was it was the same
    there were so many blessings that came
    looking back but at the time when you’re
    living it
    you’re just you’re worried you know it
    was it was scary times
    scary times um
    i’m sorry i kind of no that that’s
    exactly what i’m talking about like the
    feeling of
    hey we’re supposed to be open i’m
    bleeding money left and right i got
    rent kicking in i got you know equipment
    loans kicking in i got utility deposits
    kicking in and it’s a whole lot of money
    going out
    and nothing coming in and you don’t know
    when stuff’s going to start
    coming in because you’re exactly you’re
    waiting on the city which
    you know right depending on your city or
    maybe even not depending on your city
    right
    right every city could be it could be
    and that’s
    you know not only is the strain on your
    personal relationship it’s a strain on
    your business relationship
    oh you know and you got it and you got
    to navigate through that as well and
    work through it and realize that
    you know we’re all on the same page
    we’re not our enemies you know
    how was that those those months with
    your partners
    it’s it’s challenging you know it’s
    they’re as frustrated as i am
    you know um so and it’s trying to
    decide collectively
    what is our best way to move forward you
    know we didn’t always agree we’re never
    going to always agree
    you know no partnership even you know if
    your spouse you don’t always agree
    but you come to a place of
    commonality and you just agree to
    disagree and what’s going to be best
    moving forward
    so yeah yeah okay so we made it to june
    and the doors are actually flinging open
    right thank god
    okay yes yes i happen to be there early
    so did you go down there tell me about
    that i went down
    to help finish we were we were basically
    we had to get a final permit yet we had
    to get a final inspection
    uh we had to get the flooring done so i
    went down
    and within a week’s time we got all
    those things accomplished
    uh we opened the doors the second to
    last day that i was down there
    so i got to see meet the first customer
    uh
    in the door and uh the second customer
    in the door
    who is still a loyal customer every week
    i see her
    we have security cameras up then i look
    you know i watch him
    frequently and i see her there all the
    time and she
    her name’s jeanette and she is the most
    sweetest sweetest kind of soul
    it was great it was like a culmination
    after all those struggles to have
    someone there she had been come to this
    laundromat
    for over 45 years when she was a child
    she was coming and she’s
    maintained it and then it closed and she
    was just so grateful
    that the community had this to offer
    again
    that’s another thing that i really love
    about this business my partners
    are phenomenal in dealing with the
    people um
    because they become family you know and
    it
    it it’s it’s a business it’s a business
    that yes you want to make money in
    but it’s so much more than that because
    the need that you’re giving the
    community
    and and the memories that these people
    have that you don’t even like we weren’t
    even aware of
    and we didn’t even think of when we
    picked this
    you know laundromat out you know if you
    want to call it a zombie mat
    i guess it has to be open i guess to be
    a zombie man i’m not sure
    it was dead yeah exactly but um it’s
    it’s just
    they’re so it’s so rewarding it’s just
    so rewarding yeah that’s huge and it
    reminds me of you know last week’s
    episode
    elizabeth brick and wilson who was an
    awesome episode if you haven’t listened
    to that one go listen
    to it um but you know one of the things
    she said that just
    really it i was like man i’ve never
    thought of it like that but she one of
    the things she said was that
    your laundromat is an extension of
    people’s homes
    and i was like it is an extension of
    people’s homes that’s
    totally a great way to think about it
    and i think that’s exactly
    the sentiment that you’re expressing
    right now where absolutely all this
    almost man i’m going straight back to
    the
    pregnancy analogy but like all these
    birthing pains right
    and finally you see like
    not just your business being born but
    you see what what it means
    right for this community and what it
    means for the people
    and like you had no idea that you were
    tapping into these deep roots and these
    um you know these memories that go back
    you know since you were a kid you know
    or before
    even exactly so exactly pretty pretty
    cool so
    you got to be there i did the first like
    day or two
    yeah and uh what was the community’s
    response to it
    did you get a sense of that well while
    the build-out was going on my partners
    would say that there’s always people
    knocking on the door they can’t wait to
    oil they can’t wait to work when
    gateways were open
    and we were hoping that that would
    spread like wildfire throughout the
    community
    you know word of mouth is always your
    best form of advertisement
    we opened the doors and the first two
    weeks were
    slow would be an understatement
    but we did have customers on the first
    day i don’t think we had any on the
    second day
    yeah and i had done some advertising
    leading up to it on facebook and things
    like that
    um that was an area that we didn’t agree
    on partnership wise
    i felt that advertising was going to be
    crucial to our success and
    my partners didn’t necessarily see that
    so we didn’t do a whole lot of
    advertising growing
    up moving into the opening
    one of the comments that i put on early
    on on facebook
    was about the laundromat and its
    location and i had
    the naysayer oh good luck with that you
    know like just
    and i stuck in my crawl to this day it
    still sticks in my crow like i’m gonna
    prove you wrong i don’t know who you are
    i’ll never meet you
    i’m gonna prove you wrong you know
    and uh so we opened up and
    uh the first month was dismal the second
    month
    was nowhere near what we needed it to be
    just even cover the rent so
    i’m in panic mode
    i talked to my partners we started doing
    some advertising um i started doing some
    google
    got the website i don’t remember when i
    put the website up but um did put the
    website together
    and uh finally we started to see some
    turn around some results um five months
    in
    we were breaking even we were paying all
    our bills um
    so and it’s been growing ever since then
    oh
    gosh me so i i’m so glad you just said
    that because
    i’m just like having flashbacks to my
    early days in my life
    yeah i know you went through a tough
    time from what from what i’ve heard
    anyway and what i’ve listened to
    oh that i can’t even imagine what you
    went through well i mean
    [Music]
    what you’ve gone through has been plenty
    too so i mean it’s just
    it’s it’s tough though man when you’re
    in the middle of it and you don’t know
    like it’s your first one right you don’t
    know
    especially you know day two you have no
    customer like that’s
    not that no
    yeah yeah because you just invested a
    lot of money and a lot of
    time and man you got bills coming in so
    absolutely that’s super stressful well
    okay
    thank you for relieving some of that
    tension in me and letting me know that
    at least
    you’ve hitting that breakeven point and
    you’re you got an upward trajectory
    you know i think part of it too is just
    when you opened
    yeah that’s it’s you were in the middle
    of covid
    and also the middle of summer which
    you know florida like california you
    know people are
    we’re not wearing a whole lot of clothes
    in the summer you know i’m showing off
    my six-pack
    everywhere and there’s no shirts sun’s
    out guns out man that’s right man
    so uh uh yeah so i mean it’s just a
    you know business drops here in the
    summer months
    for you know for most of us um unless
    you’re in a real touristy area
    and so it’s just a rough time to be you
    know
    launching a laundromat business um right
    so okay so you started doing some google
    ads you did some
    facebook ads did you guys do anything um
    low-tech did you flyers or anything like
    that or no
    we did nurse no we didn’t we um
    my partners built some signs and
    creative advertising i guess and they
    would park they still have them
    they both have pickups trucks and it’s a
    basically a moving billboard
    with our name our address uh
    and wherever they drive around they park
    in a spot that everyone can see
    when they’re at the laundromat they park
    it right on the road we’re at a we’re at
    a busy intersection of two major roads
    um so there’s a lot of traffic there um
    that was kind of the marketing that we
    did
    um unfortunately the the budget that we
    had
    our plan was to open why we still had
    free rent we were hoping we could get
    open with a month two three months left
    of no rent
    and no equipment payment or at least
    just interest only equipment payment
    of course that didn’t work out like that
    but so our budget
    definitely changed to accommodate
    the demands at the time of bills coming
    in so
    yeah kind of multifaceted
    on why we went the route that we did
    yeah well
    oh good yeah i was gonna say but at the
    same time you got to spend money
    to make money to draw the people you
    want to get people in there as quick as
    possible so if i could go back and do
    something different
    i would spend money early on it’s kind
    of like you see that coming soon sign
    well we did have that on our building
    but
    people don’t need to know exactly when
    you’re coming just so you’re coming soon
    to draw that interest you know yeah yeah
    yeah well i i love the um
    i love the creativity right like you you
    got to do
    you know i don’t say that as like an
    insult but i mean like
    genuinely like there’s you know when you
    get hit
    it’s like you got punched in the face
    right like you had all these bills
    coming in you weren’t even open yet you
    got punched in the face and you got
    a couple of options you can you can lay
    down and not get back up
    or you can make signs and hang them on
    your truck and park in front of the
    laundromat and
    you know just like do what you can do to
    get people in there and that was all my
    partners
    yeah that was all them yeah and that’s
    the scrappy
    kind of determinism that you just got to
    have sometimes when
    when things don’t go according to plan
    and
    i think that’s where a lot of
    entrepreneurs fail
    when you know when when stuff’s not
    going we we all have great plans right
    like
    yeah who’s it like mike tyson or
    something yeah i’m like
    horrible today i don’t know maybe it’s
    every day actually
    but like you know everybody’s got a plan
    to get hit in the face and you got hit
    in the face right
    and so you gotta you gotta adapt that
    plan and
    you know i think it’s that kind of grit
    and that kind of
    um you know creativity that
    going to continue to make you guys
    successful and
    continue to grow your business uh you
    know going forward too
    you know especially as we hopefully are
    coming out of this
    pandemic definitely yeah you know
    something i’ve always gotten through me
    or just gotten me through in life and
    every adversity lies the seeds of an
    equal or greater benefit
    and it really forced us to really hone
    in on our
    business model and where we wanted to go
    and how we could bring in more revenue
    drove us more towards wash drive fold
    you know in working out the details
    there which are working on
    growing that business so yeah it was
    struggles
    but those struggles challenged us to
    really look at our business
    and and figure out how we can maximize
    the space that we have
    you know so it was bad at the time but
    it’s going to be
    a blessing years down the road so yeah
    absolutely absolutely um okay so
    man i’m like i have like
    my palms are sweat like i’m so i have so
    much anxiety right now just for
    no it’s i mean it’s good it’s good
    um okay so you fly open the doors
    you you got met with crickets and
    uh you you kind of just adapted
    and rolled how how did you
    just you personally how did you
    how did you make it you know like i mean
    you’re losing money
    you’re you’re kind of the money guy
    right and so
    you know and you and you’re just
    watching that money go out
    and and not knowing if money’s coming
    back in like how did you
    how did you stomach that um
    i believed in the business i believed in
    my partners
    i believed that i had done the due
    diligence and i knew and i i just had a
    confident
    feeling that i did everything that i
    could possibly do
    a lot of prayer my wife and i live well
    below our means
    so that was part of the goal to oh i
    i’ve always lived below my needs because
    i always wanted to be able to not
    operate when opportunity
    and preparedness meet then success can
    happen
    so i always wanted to put myself in a
    position of success when that
    opportunity presented itself
    and i’ve lived my life that way for
    years and years and years
    you know i’ve had failures in businesses
    back in my 20s and i learned from that
    you know as long as you’re learning if
    you if you’re learning from your
    mistakes
    you’re going to succeed the biggest
    successes are the biggest failures
    so yeah i just relied on faith
    you know yeah i think that’s good and
    the reason i ask you that question is
    because
    you know i talk to in coaching calls and
    stuff i talked to owners
    a lot who you know expected one thing
    and
    and didn’t get what they expected you
    know and and i can empathize with that
    and so i just think it’s good for
    for those people to hear okay look
    there’s ways
    out of it and and there’s ways to kind
    of just
    cope with it but i think it’s also good
    for the people who
    aren’t in that phase anymore to either
    remember that phase or just to
    acknowledge like hey you know plans
    don’t always go
    according to plan and you know you just
    got to be
    willing to be a little bit gritty
    sometimes
    and you know i think a lot of
    a lot of us as laundromat owners but
    especially
    a lot of these other small businesses
    have
    come up against that over this last year
    or so
    [Music]
    and and so i think hearing how people
    deal with that adversity
    is just it’s helpful for me and i think
    it’s helpful for
    for all of us i appreciate you sharing
    sharing all that
    i think it made i think it made us all
    more aggressive
    the three of us you know my two partners
    on a daily basis
    asking people for reviews you know hey
    please go on google go on yelp going
    wherever
    give us a review you know if it’s not a
    five-star review what can we do
    differently
    you know to help that and that
    perpetuated itself to draw more people
    in because now there’s people looking at
    google and
    we’re they’re seeing our reviews and
    they’re coming in and they’re checking
    it out and they’re
    like wow we didn’t even know this was
    here again you know so
    double down i guess you know yeah yeah
    i that’s awesome and and i i like
    man i just like the image of
    you guys being more aggressive right and
    it’s kind of it kind of goes back to the
    like hey you can either lay down or
    you can get more aggressive right like
    how do you
    how do you deal with the bully well you
    either give him what he wants
    or you getting his friends right
    yeah
    and and those are your options and i
    think
    in order to make it you you did the
    right thing right like you you got more
    aggressive
    definitely and we’re all three all three
    of us are natured that way
    you know we just we’ve all had our ups
    and downs and lives
    and uh we we are going to succeed one
    way or another we are going to succeed
    yeah well i mean that that’s a good
    opportunity you know to to shift a
    little bit and just talk about
    partnerships in general and maybe yours
    a little bit maybe you can tell us a
    little bit about
    you know this partnership and how you
    guys got together
    and how how you guys work together and
    you know what you’ve learned about
    partnerships either from this one or
    other ones
    that’s a lot of things i just threw at
    you but tell us a little bit about you
    guys
    yeah um i i had the privilege of knowing
    my one partner growing up he was a year
    ahead of me in school
    um he and i were both um i would say
    kind of like-minded
    where we like to push the limits of the
    rules
    let’s just say um so he moved away
    he moved to florida 19 20 years old i
    guess i don’t know so i hadn’t seen him
    in
    25 years um i ended up
    marrying his sister years later and
    getting to you know to get catch up with
    him so i already had some familiarity
    with him
    and then his brother-in-law is the other
    partner
    and one of the things that
    family is very very important
    one of the things that we tried not to
    do is discuss
    sensitive business where it’s emotional
    business with the spouses
    because we need to keep business
    separate from family
    which is probably the biggest struggle
    because when you’re upset
    and you’re at home you want to vent a
    little
    but you really you can’t you know or you
    you have to try not to
    or you need to put it into perspective
    so that’s probably the hardest thing
    um with the partnership that we have one
    of the best things about the partnership
    is all three of us complement each other
    and make us stronger together
    my brother-in-law’s brother is fluent in
    spanish
    he’s from colombia so he has a different
    perspective
    into the culture and he speaks the
    language fluently
    i do not um my brother-in-law
    and and the other partner is incredibly
    talented when it comes to
    uh mechanical things and electronics um
    so
    be very handy so the build out process
    they
    they handled without any problems
    whatsoever they knew exactly what they
    were doing they knew exactly what to
    watch for
    what you know what to correct what to
    call the uh
    the gcf and say hey we got a problem
    here this isn’t right
    you know so and the personality-wise my
    brother-in-law
    is a firecracker the
    next the only person that he doesn’t
    know and isn’t a friend yet
    he hasn’t met next person he meets will
    be his friend he just has the gift of
    gab
    he loves talking he loves communicating
    with people and
    i guess because i do it all day long for
    a living i want to shut down
    i just want to be like i’ve had enough
    yeah so i don’t want to answer my phone
    anymore i don’t want to answer another
    email
    you know so it’s it’s a blend of
    personalities and
    and really the blend of different
    strengths so
    my greatest weaknesses are some of their
    greatest strengths
    and vice versa you know i’m more
    analytical than i think
    than either one of them would probably
    say that they are
    you know i like the details i like
    diving in and figuring out you know
    the demographics and the terms per day
    and what we need then price and
    everything else like that and how to
    maximize the analytics which is why i
    finally hired somebody to do
    the uh our ads for us because
    i couldn’t figure out the algorithms it
    was driving me crazy i want to be on
    that first page of google
    yeah so yeah yeah well i mean i think
    that’s awesome and i think a lot of
    people when they get into
    partnerships it you tend to uh partner
    with people that are
    like you and that have similar skill
    sets to you and i think
    you run into trouble that way i mean
    there’s a lot let’s just be honest i
    mean there’s a lot of ways to run into
    trouble definitely you know with
    partnerships
    and um and i think it is a big concern
    some people will say
    hey never partner with anybody some
    people say hey never partner with family
    absolutely and and for good reasons like
    families have been
    you know torn apart but exactly but you
    did so
    why why did you partner with family out
    of curiosity
    um a rising tide raises all ships
    and if i can help not only myself out
    but other families out especially my own
    family i wanted to take that chance
    to me that was more important than me
    investing my money
    um into stocks or into something that
    yeah i’m going to get personal gain out
    of it but if i can change
    three families lives or we can change
    three families lives
    i want to take that chance to me it’s
    worth that chance they have
    young kids
    and i just want to try and make that
    impact you know in everyone’s life
    not just my own i love that yeah i love
    that and i mean that’s coming from
    someone over here who
    you know my brother and i are running a
    lot of my resource marketing
    together and you know we’re building
    tons of websites right now
    and doing some ad stuff and uh man it’s
    just a lot of fun a big part of the
    reason i did it is
    yeah i mean we want to help each other
    out and we want
    you know you know we’re sitting on the
    beach i don’t want to be sitting on the
    beach by myself i want him to be there
    and he want you know
    that’s exactly right i got a video from
    them today they’re
    they’re down in florida and the water is
    crystal clear blue and they’re videoing
    man it’s
    it’s december it’s january it’s 75
    degrees
    where are you at
    um to go back to your question before i
    think
    from the partnerships what i’ve learned
    is and i have a good friend of mine matt
    mchale he has been a mentor to me and
    one of my best friends for
    30 years he has had partnerships
    i’ve talked to him extensively and i’ve
    learned from him i’ve learned from my
    own partnerships
    open honest communication about
    everything
    is paramount um
    and our distributor in florida we kind
    of put it in a different way which
    really made sense to me too
    you know we have uh dexter machines so
    we have dexter live
    so that i can keep track of the finances
    and everything else and
    one of the things he said is trust but
    verify
    you never want to go into something
    blind with blind faith and blind trust
    you still have to you know protect
    yourself regardless of the situation
    which is
    hard to say with family but in a
    partnership regardless of who it is you
    have to do that
    and i have to be held accountable you
    know to them
    so yeah and i think that that’s
    important
    too because i mean look life if we’ve
    if we’ve all learned anything over this
    last year it’s like life can throw you
    curveballs right it can throw our whole
    society curveballs but it
    it throws us personally curveballs
    sometimes too and it’s very
    tempting when you’re in a
    a situation that is a difficult
    situation
    and maybe even embarrassing to talk
    about or you need help and you don’t
    really want to ask because it’s
    embarrassing or whatever it’s really
    easy to say hey i’ll borrow a little
    money from the company
    i’ll pay it back you know and really
    mean that
    um but you know the situation maybe
    doesn’t get better i mean it just
    happens
    so often right so i mean i think you
    know
    the open honest communication and the
    trust but verify i think those are
    awesome awesome tips and you know in
    in partnering with people who you feel
    like you can actually do that with and
    who will
    actually communicate like that um with
    you
    um is it i think that that’s crucial
    you know to having a partnership so
    [Music]
    awesome
    i would say the other thing the other
    thing too is bridling your tongue
    never speak out of anger which is
    hard especially for me hard to do but i
    think said than done yeah
    much easier said than done but i think
    that’s
    paramount to success in a partnership
    yeah okay so you
    you’re you’re on the mend things are you
    know trending in the right direction now
    you’re feeling good better i don’t know
    how good you’re feeling but you’re
    feeling better at least it’s worth
    maybe this is too soon to even ask but
    do you do you guys have
    goals aspirations to buy more
    to expand into different areas like what
    what do you
    what are you guys doing are you just
    gonna get this one going and
    and then not out or what no we have we
    have a plan to have nine more by the end
    of the decade
    nice so we’re we’re already looking for
    our second location
    um we have two possibly
    picked out um we’ll see how quickly that
    with my one partner i’m sure he’s ready
    to jump
    but we have to get some other things in
    it’s place balance you know and then we
    want to buy real estate too you know
    ultimately
    you know because that’s to me that’s
    building long-term success and i think
    i don’t remember what podcast it was
    that you did but you did one where it
    explained
    um the compounding impact
    of being able to leverage yourself once
    you have real estate tied in with
    your business and everything else which
    was phenomenal because i listened to it
    several times because i got to get this
    i got to get this
    yeah yeah one thing i’ve always
    struggled with in my life is being able
    to leverage
    myself um because i’m conservative
    nature i’m i’m hesitant to do it
    you know but i think it’s key to
    business growth
    yeah and all um you know for anybody
    who’s interested i’ll link to that
    um what what daryl’s referencing just in
    case you want to go
    check that out too because it is super
    powerful
    uh concept and if you can get it and
    figure out a way to put it into action
    it i mean you really have a shot to
    accelerate your wealth pretty
    pretty rapidly that way um you know but
    honestly for you
    i feel like 10 by the end of the decade
    is a good goal to have but i think that
    that is
    i think you’re gonna blow by that real
    fast to be honest if
    i just especially if you’re already
    looking for number two and you just got
    done
    you know having your first baby and
    you’re already trying for number two
    you’re you know i got some neighbors who
    have 11 kids right next door and you’re
    on their path laundromat wise so well
    i don’t ever want to get comfortable
    yeah i love that
    i love that uh so i mean being far away
    uh how how much time do you spend
    on this business i probably spend well
    if you’re gonna include research and
    following things
    it’s probably 15 to 20 hours a week um
    but that’s it doesn’t have to be that
    for me
    i choose that because i want to learn
    i’m a sponge i’m going to learn as much
    as i can as quickly as i can i want to
    flatten that learning curve
    um as fast as i can you know
    so awesome uh and again i mean
    look i know you just got through
    you know running through the gauntlet
    you know but just all these little
    things that you keep saying first of all
    it just it really shows that you have
    done a lot of research that you are
    you know analytical like you said it i
    mean it shows that you
    i just i hear you saying a lot of the
    right things
    to have you know to just take off right
    like you’re like you’re spending a lot
    of time
    researching you’re analytical you’re
    partnering with people who don’t have
    the same
    strengths as you who complement your
    strengths you know you’re
    you know you’re investing down in
    florida so when you’re an old geezer you
    can retire down
    there exactly i hate winter i hate
    winter
    yeah well you know i always say man as
    soon as
    as soon as we kiss 50 in the 50s
    in here i’m like ah man like i gotta
    move to hawaii because i just can’t
    handle this cold weather
    here yeah and i’m not really a joke or
    something
    that’s that’s legit i don’t know how
    you live in snow i don’t know i don’t
    either i’m still trying to figure out
    how i’ve lived here this
    my whole life yeah i don’t get it i
    don’t know why you would
    you know there’s there’s better places
    yeah like i come from a family lord
    fairly large family
    and uh i have a wonderful stepdaughter
    and she’s probably gonna have kids soon
    so it’s gonna be hard to pry my wife
    away but i keep saying it’s only a two
    and a half hour flight it’s only two and
    a half hours
    yeah well you know what you need is you
    need you know
    you need laundromats that will just you
    know pay for those flights
    like once a month you know and exactly
    be like look the cost is nothing i’ll
    fly you first class
    this laundromat over here it’s got you
    covered so
    absolutely yep you’ll be warm all year
    long
    um all right well we have a
    section of the podcast called down to
    business
    uh let’s get down to business
    over and out and that’s where we just
    want to talk a little bit about the
    details of your
    business so you know tell me once again
    where
    where in florida is your laundromat
    located we are in uh west palm beach
    nice oh man you’re like you’re like in
    the gym well your partners are living
    they’re living in a dream
    yeah i’m living vicariously through them
    exactly that’s funny uh okay and
    and you have one laundromat do you have
    any real estate out of curiosity i know
    you said do you not
    not down there not down there i do have
    a rental unit
    um in my area but not down there yeah
    cool
    cool um i mean you mentioned wanting to
    start getting some real estate are you
    wanting to buy it down
    there or okay yeah down there yeah cool
    uh and you’ve been i mean i
    i try to ask people how long you’ve been
    in the business that’s kind of a
    complicated question for you
    yeah i mean it’s a couple years or a
    couple years on yeah it depends on how
    you want to look at it exactly yeah yeah
    yeah yeah both yeah exactly
    yeah so cool well tell me what does it
    cost to do laundry in west palm beach
    uh we have 20 40s 60s and 80s
    and we’re at three five seven and nine
    dollars just before that like that
    yeah that we’re preparing ourselves for
    our next store which will be a dollar
    store
    coin yeah uh good and
    i mean if you don’t mind sharing i mean
    i know you’re you’re still early on
    you’re still
    you know building that business but can
    you give us like an idea of
    like what kind of turns per day you guys
    are doing sure just
    just in walk-in customers not in wash
    dry fold uh we’re over three turns a day
    nice so we’re we’re getting to where i
    want to be we’re not there yet but
    we’ll get there yeah well hey i mean
    oh i mean i’m glad you said that too i
    just
    you know i just there’s just so much
    anxiety in this
    episode of just like feeling the pain
    that you’re going through
    and you know to hear that you’re up over
    three i’m feeling a little better
    yeah right now and so are you doing a
    lot of
    uh like drop off stuff right now uh you
    know it’s it’s building
    it’s really building we’re starting to
    do more commercial
    we’re getting commercial drop-offs and
    uh we have a steady clientele of uh
    people and it’s it’s funny because they
    each have their clientele my partners
    um some people drop off only when one’s
    working someone drop them only when the
    other one’s working and they’re like
    if you drop and if they switch shifts
    they’re like no
    i want you know the other one to do the
    laundry
    it cracks me up but they build those
    relationships even in the in the
    drop-off
    you know so beautiful yeah so it’s grown
    yeah so what can you i mean this isn’t
    really part of the down to business but
    i
    you know what i can do what i want right
    so
    and you guys will all listen to it
    because i’m curious
    man i’m a dictator over here today uh
    what’s uh how have you been growing the
    the drop-off service because i mean
    you’re growing from scratch right
    because
    it’s been closed forever correct and so
    how how did you get that started
    i was doing a lot of targeted google ads
    specifically for drop-off and i think
    that’s the thing which i know it’s been
    mentioned numerous times on your podcast
    the two businesses are unique from each
    other
    you don’t advertise for one because the
    emotions the ones and the needs and the
    desires are different for one versus the
    other
    so it’s two different marketing
    campaigns that i run um
    specifically design one for wash dry
    fold one for drop off
    i’m using one sorry one for coin laundry
    um
    and then there’s also another segment
    for specifically for
    commercial wash dry fold
    so so are you running are you running
    targeted ads for residential
    and commercial and are you doing them
    separately or do you have a run
    okay separate separate awesome yep
    so most of your businesses come through
    google ads yes
    yeah we have uh my one uh partner is
    dogmatic he had he set a goal that he
    was gonna get
    so many reviews by christmas
    and the last week i was dogging him i’m
    like you’re going to come up short
    you’re going to come up short
    and he pulled through and he got that
    number so
    uh yeah but
    the majority of what we’re getting down
    there is definitely google google driven
    yelp i spent a fair amount of money on
    yelp early on i did not see the results
    i didn’t like it
    facebook ads i i did a fair amount with
    facebook ads and i
    um i used to sing in a band i used to
    promote our band through
    facebook so i’m pretty i know how to
    target the market
    and just didn’t get the response that i
    was looking for as far as my return on
    the investment um
    google has definitely been the best for
    us
    at this point awesome awesome yeah i was
    just curious because
    you know i think a lot of people are you
    know are kicking around the idea of
    starting
    drop off services starting pick up and
    delivery services and
    it can be a little bit daunting trying
    to start that from scratch
    so it is we’re refining our processes
    um we’re going to be looking at adding a
    system in place
    you know to help us track better to help
    accountability
    [Music]
    give a better perception to the customer
    so there’s things in the works but
    we want to build up to that so yeah
    awesome
    okay um all right man okay i’m glad
    you’re over three turns per day we got
    that
    um are are your partners
    you said they have jobs right are they
    they do so they’re working
    at the laundromats and they’re working
    their jobs
    they are putting in sweat equity and
    what we want to do is we want to get
    them to the point where
    the business allows them to take a step
    back
    we can hire employees and then they can
    work on building the business instead of
    working the business
    so that’s that’s the goal in the next
    several months
    so are they doing like split shifts are
    they working mornings even well how is
    that working out logistically
    it all depends on their schedules um
    their schedule they each have different
    schedules
    and it’s thank we’ve been blessed where
    it’s worked out for them to this point
    for us to this point um there has been
    occasions where somebody hasn’t been
    able to cover and we’d have to bring in
    somebody else
    um you know to fill in for a couple
    hours
    but um so far it’s it’s working now
    that’s a short term solution it’s not a
    long-term solution it’s just what
    what was dictated to us with covid and
    with
    business um the growth of where we’re at
    right now right yeah so
    i mean that’s that’s you’re good i’m
    sorry no no that’s that’s why we’re
    really focusing on wash dry fold
    because that’s going to give us the
    ability to pay for those attendants
    without affecting anything else and then
    we’ll still have the store maintained
    and manned
    or attended the whole time we’re open
    yeah so yeah i mean that’s that kind of
    that creativity that grit that we were
    talking about earlier right like
    just got to do what you got to do when
    you get when you get punched
    exactly yeah all right so you referenced
    dollar coin earlier but are you
    a coin we’re quarter right now
    um we are going to probably start with
    dexter pay
    in the very near future um i did a lot
    of research on it
    um some people it seems had a bad
    experience just if you go on on google
    reviews
    but i think after talking to numerous
    people i think what that really was is
    maybe they were unattended stores and
    people weren’t educating the people on
    how to use the app properly
    so they walked away with a bad taste in
    their mouth i’ve looked at the product
    it’s
    it gives you a lot of flexibility uh
    without adding the cost of a card reader
    so we already paid for the system yeah
    but there’s a trash
    sure there’s a transaction fee but we
    don’t have to reinvent the wheel
    so right yeah cool
    i like that uh and i know that there’s
    uh you know more and more people using
    dexter pay so that’s awesome
    uh and i already where i mean i already
    asked you how much time you spend on
    how much time do you think your partners
    are spending on the business
    gosh a lot time yeah too much
    too much at this point yeah you know we
    all want to get we need to get them out
    of there as quickly as possible which is
    why we’re focusing on getting our
    you know the washed rifle built up as
    quickly as possible so that they can
    number one have a life not be a
    detriment to their families
    and be able to build on the business
    growing the business not working in the
    business so
    yeah yeah i think yeah that’s huge
    all right we got another section called
    secret sauce
    listen up it’s the secret sauce
    what is something that’s working for you
    right now in your business that you
    think maybe other owners could implement
    into their businesses to help their
    businesses grow
    i would say for anyone that’s attended
    number one
    i know there’s pros and cons to
    unattended versus attended
    um for us attended makes sense that’s
    the business model that
    we’re going to pursue customer service
    doing the little things getting to know
    the people’s names opening doors for
    them if you see them walking in
    carrying a wash basket out you know
    anything that you can do to make their
    life getting in and out and then
    inside the mat any easier you do it you
    know if they
    leave um this may be controversial but
    if they leave a lot of times my partners
    will take their laundry
    they’ll put it in the dryer and they’ll
    dry it for them so that when they come
    back that way
    the machine isn’t tied up but yet they
    can get back
    their washer or their clothes are dry
    and they just pay us for the drive
    you know so maybe charge a little extra
    if they want to give a tip or something
    they do
    you know but it’s the little things that
    really knowing the customers
    knowing how you can serve them better um
    i think is key
    i think that’s i honestly believe that
    is the number one key
    to our success at this point because
    word is spreading like wildfire now that
    we have a clientele base
    yeah that customer service i mean it is
    key
    you know just and it kind of goes back
    to that whole
    you know it’s an extension of of their
    home right
    is you just wanted to feel comfortable
    and wanting to feel
    known want them to feel cared about and
    you know that’s that’s what customer
    service is right it’s just making people
    feel
    known and cared about and wanted you
    know
    and here’s a little tip too that my
    partner came up with because when we
    were looking at the foot of the foot
    store the foot this
    the square footage of the store is only
    about 1800 square feet we were trying
    we minimized machines we had it
    jam-packed
    we were like this isn’t going to work we
    need you know we need folding tables we
    need
    you know different things so we backed
    off the number of machines
    um and we were like what are we going to
    do with seating
    we have folding seats
    instead of taking a hard plastic mount
    that’s going to take up a fixed space
    we put folding tables all around those
    and the customers love it because they
    can take the seat
    they can put it right in front of their
    washer their dryer and they can just sit
    there
    and do whatever right in front of it it
    works out great and i would have never
    thought of it my partner was like
    simple solution and it’s been phenomenal
    that’s something i would have never
    thought of
    yeah just like folding chairs or folding
    chairs so it’s like picturing something
    like mounted to the wall that folds down
    or something but oh no no no
    fold grab a folding chair and plop it
    where you want to pop it just stay out
    of this way yeah exactly easy to wipe
    down afterwards right now with covid
    you know when they leave we’re cleaning
    the store constantly you know so
    but it it just another way to utilize
    space
    in an effective manner yeah so that’s an
    awesome tip i like that especially for
    those smaller laundromats that
    you know i mean again that’s more of
    like an attended
    you know store without a doubt i’ve had
    full-on
    benches bolted to the ground literally
    that somehow
    walked off uh i don’t know man people
    are
    creative and the poor gumball machine
    yeah oh
    gosh man the poor my poor son
    he’s been a little gun shy to get back
    into the government business
    but understandable uh okay well hey man
    awesome awesome secret sauce and i think
    that those are things that everybody can
    utilize and even if you
    are an unattended store you can still
    focus on customer service it may not be
    direct face-to-face customer service but
    thinking of little things that you can
    do to make the customer experience
    better to make things easier for the
    customer
    you know to keep things cleaner to keep
    things safer
    all of those things i would say fall
    into that category of customer service
    so even if you’re not
    you know an attendant store you can
    still think about customer service and
    making your customers have a good
    experience at your laundromat
    so awesome secret sauce we got another
    section called
    pro tips pro tips what’s
    one piece of advice you’d give to
    somebody who
    is not not too far behind you maybe um
    who’s looking to buy their first
    laundromat what advice would you give
    them to buy their first
    i would say due diligence and vet people
    out
    what do you mean vet people out like i
    mentioned if you’re gonna ha if you’re
    doing a new build
    make sure that you understand exactly
    who you’re hiring um
    get references and check the references
    don’t don’t get lazy in your due
    diligence you know
    and don’t make assumptions yeah
    yeah i think the checking references is
    kind of a funny thing because i
    i feel like a lot of jobs that i applied
    for kind of along the way
    i’d give references and i’m like do
    people just want to know that i have
    references
    uh because i’ll you know i’d ask people
    like did they ever call you in the bag
    no nobody ever called me like all right
    probably better but for them you know
    yeah awesome i mean i think the due
    diligence piece is huge obviously
    you know you want to know what you’re
    getting into and you want to know that
    it’s a good fit for you and you want to
    know that it’s going to be what you
    think it’s going to be
    and you know it probably never will be
    exactly what you think it’s going to be
    as you found out
    a fun way but you know having a good
    understanding and i think your research
    probably allowed you
    to pivot and to endure you know when
    things didn’t go the right way
    definitely and the other thing too
    naturally is the lease i mean that’s
    the cornerstone of your business if you
    don’t have a good lease
    you’re done you know yeah so
    how do you have any tips for how does
    somebody who’s new know whether they
    have a good lease or not
    uh i would probably go to i mean i know
    through my research i found out that
    there’s different people especially if
    you’re going to do financing the quality
    financing people
    will want to see your lease ahead of
    time before you sign it
    they have experience with seeing it
    reading it knowing the legal
    verbage that’s in it and helping you to
    avoid some of those pitfalls
    or find somebody have a lawyer review it
    whatever the case may be but make sure
    it’s one that understands
    not just commercial property but laundry
    mats in general
    because of the long-term nature of the
    lease and the commitment that you’re
    making
    in the equipment
    yeah i think that’s good advice and i
    think it’s tough to
    find a lawyer who’s got that experience
    actually if anybody knows of a lawyer
    that you’ve used maybe who
    understands not just commercial leases
    but also
    uh the laundromat business hey maybe
    shoot me an email introduction jordan
    my resource.com and uh you know it’d be
    a good
    good kind of resource for people to have
    and so when that question comes up i’ll
    have somebody to
    to send them to so let me know uh
    awesome awesome pro tips our last
    section
    of the podcast we call recommended
    resources
    and we are laundromat resource so do you
    have
    any resources that maybe you’d recommend
    to help people
    either get into the business or to grow
    their business or themselves personally
    absolutely i think with with today’s
    technology you’re at a far more
    advantage than you were 20 years ago
    because of podcasts like yours and other
    people out there ken barrett has youtube
    videos that i read or that i looked at
    dave mentz has his thing um cla make
    sure your member is cla
    there’s just so many different things if
    you want to get educated there’s so many
    opportunities to be able to do that
    if you’re going to will be willing to
    invest the time some of the books that
    i’ve read
    rich dad poor dad by robert kiyosaki
    was phenomenal phenomenal book that
    really helped me change my mindset on a
    lot of things
    peak to peak principle by robert
    schuller it’s interesting because
    it talks about a mountain you get to the
    top of the mountain you see the peak
    of the next peak but you still got to go
    through the valley and you’re constantly
    growing
    i’ve read so many different books you
    know over my lifetime for
    self-improvement i think any
    any quality book that you can get to
    read to work on yourself and invest in
    yourself
    will pay dividends throughout your
    lifetime i would highly recommend
    becoming a reader and i hated reading
    when i was younger so yeah
    i couldn’t i couldn’t agree more and
    i’ll i’ll uh i’ll actually link
    all those ken barrett to youtube i’ll
    link um
    dave laundromat millionaire men’s is
    youtube and
    cla and i’ll put links also in case
    you’re interested if you haven’t read
    rich dad poor dad you just have to
    like love it or hate it like it has just
    shaped
    so many investors and business owners
    and their way of thinking
    that you you just can’t ignore it right
    and there’s you know there’s naysayers
    and haters out there
    and that’s fine but sure you just can’t
    ignore
    the impact that it’s had on so many
    people so if you haven’t read it
    read it i’ll put a link below just in
    case you could probably find it
    pdfs floating around for free too if you
    need to
    think and grow rich by napoleon hill
    there’s another one yeah
    i have never read peak to peak so i’m
    gonna put that one on my list i do a lot
    of reading too i’m another one who did
    not like reading in fact
    i don’t this is not an exaggeration it’s
    kind of embarrassing but i don’t think i
    read
    an entire book until like late into
    college
    um i did not read an entire book all
    through high school
    i i just got really good at getting the
    gist of it
    and being able to kind of and really
    embarrassing but now i read like 50 to
    60 books i tried to cut back last year
    and i still
    i look back and i read 40 so i did but
    i don’t think i read a book in high
    school i didn’t go to college so i know
    i didn’t read one there
    it was in my early 20s when i started
    reading self-improvement books so
    yeah so i mean i’ve read a lot but i’ve
    never read peak to peak so
    i’m going to check that one out looking
    forward to it thanks for that
    recommendation
    a lot of good recommendations actually
    um well i got one more question for you
    if people want to get in contact with
    you maybe
    uh ask you some questions hear a little
    bit more about your story thank you for
    coming on the podcast whatever you know
    prank call you
    i don’t know whatever what’s the best
    way they can get
    in contact with you they can email me at
    uh
    palm beach lakes laundry at
    gmail.com they can check me out on
    facebook
    on my facebook profile linkedin those
    are probably the easiest ways to get a
    hold of me
    cool and i’ll put links to all those
    things in
    the description if you’re on youtube or
    in the show notes
    uh if you are listening to the podcast
    daryl you sir i have i just have a lot
    of respect for you
    and we’ve never talked before this i
    mean we’ve you know we’ve chatted back
    and forth a little bit about
    best coast beast coast and we shot a
    couple emails back and forth but
    uh this has been truly an honor and a
    privilege
    to have you on to hear your story thank
    you so much for sharing i think it just
    it speaks so much when someone’s willing
    to
    stand up and share their real story
    right
    the story with you know with the pain
    with the ugliness with the
    financial stresses and and also
    you know some of the victories and some
    of the lessons learned and all of that
    and
    you know you’re just you’re a super
    genuine guy this was a ton of fun
    i learned a ton i have like a whole page
    of notes
    and i just you know i learned a lot and
    i know a lot of people really gonna love
    this so thank you so much
    for coming on this podcast thank you for
    having me and thank you for the
    opportunity
    like i said if i can help one person
    with one idea
    it’s all worth it yeah well i i know
    you’re gonna help
    a lot more than that uh and so really
    you know
    appreciate it appreciate you and looking
    forward to uh
    hearing about you know your next 10 that
    you’ll probably have in the next three
    years not 10 years
    thank you all right we’ll talk to you
    soon all right i don’t know about you
    but i i mean
    legitimately i had like anxiety issues
    during this episode i was just really
    feeling daryl’s pain
    as he was going through this process of
    not
    shelling money out and not only not
    seeing any money come in
    but even after he flung open the doors
    there was no money coming in i just
    man it’s like a kick to the gut and i
    was feeling his pain
    uh but i’m glad that things have turned
    around he’s doing better and he’s
    already looking for his next laundromat
    deal
    and man what a trooper uh awesome
    awesome
    ton a ton of wisdom again every week i
    encourage you pick one thing
    that you can put into action into your
    life
    this week and when we start stacking
    those on each other
    watch how far we go i mean i don’t know
    about you but i’ve been trying to put
    stuff into action
    and i just i feel like i’m making leaps
    and bounds in my business
    in my laundromats and in just my
    personal life too
    so for me one takeaway that i took away
    there’s a ton of stuff to take away but
    one thing that i took away
    was this quote i wrote down he said
    every adversity holds the seed to an
    equal or greater
    opportunity and i know so
    often for me it’s really easy when
    things do not go
    uh the way that i want them to go
    according to plan it’s easy to focus on
    that adversity and not see the
    opportunity
    in that adversity so for me my
    my go-to thing this week is going to be
    look for opportunities in
    all the adversities i come across this
    week i don’t know what it is for you
    but hey pick something and put it into
    action this week
    that is how you were gonna yeah i say
    this all the time
    action paves the way to success so put
    it into action
    and you know let’s let’s skip down that
    yellow brick road to success by paving
    the way with
    action all right enough of that i don’t
    even know what i’m talking about anymore
    i cannot wait until next week’s episode
    we will see you guys then
    [Music]
    peace
    [Music]

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