46. Distributor Secrets for Your Laundromat Success with Michael Ambrose

“Laundromat Mike” joins us on the show today to drop a boat load of laundromat wisdom! As a distributor and broker, Michael Ambrose knows this business forwards and backwards. He meets with owners and operators, tours laundromats, and goes the extra mile to ensure his clients have success, and today he wants to make sure you’re set up for success, too!

Michael leverages his knowledge, experience, and relationships to help you know what to look for in a distributor, how to best work with a distributor, and even gives his insight into what he sees successful owners consistently doing.

With a servant’s heart, humble attitude, and wise counsel, Michael is the kind of distributor you want in your corner!

In today’s show, Michael and I talk about:

The Laundromat Mike brand
What is a distributor
How to best work with a distributor
The process of getting his first laundromat
What successful owners do consistently
Commonalities among struggling owners
Due diligence
The importance of a good lease
What makes a good lease
Diligence Capital Investments
Passive laundromat investing

And WAY more!

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

Today's Sponsor

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Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the

laundromat resource podcast

i’m pumped you’re here today because

today i just can’t even say it with a

straight face anymore because you guys

make fun of me about it so much but i

am pumped today because today i have a

super good friend of mine on his name is

michael ambrose

and he is awesome like

he is one of the coolest guys that you

will ever meet

and in fact he’s so cool he and i have

partnered in some stuff together

and you’ll hear a little bit about it

today and hear how maybe you might be

able to get involved in what we’re doing

but not only am i pumped because he’s my

friend but he just brings

so much wisdom so much experience in

this business

and i i think you’re really gonna learn

a lot uh he comes at it from

the distributor side and the agent

broker side

and he’s gonna talk a lot about uh

distributor ships and how to work with a

good distributor and how to find a good

distributor

but he’s also going to share a lot of

wisdom that he’s gained

just from going through a ton

of different laundromats meeting a ton

of different laundromat owners probably

some of you guys who are listening right

now

if you know him you know he is just a

solid solid human being

and really knows his stuff in this

business so i know you’re gonna get a

ton out of this

i’m really excited for you guys to meet

him if you haven’t yet to hear what he

has to say because it’s

awesome uh all right so number two

the other reason i’m so pumped today

like incredibly pumped i don’t know if

you have tried

to go on londonmentresource.com over the

last like week or so

but it has been a nightmare over there

uh the website was off and on it was

glitching out like crazy sometimes you

couldn’t even get on it

it was slow as molasses even slower than

normal which has

been slow but i am so pumped

and genuinely excited to let you know

that

it is like lightning fast over there now

and everything should be good and taken

care of so

if you have been on the forums and it’s

just been too slow in fact i got an

from one of you uh which was uh part

uh compliment and part uh hey get your

act together which i really appreciated

both sides of

uh but one of you guys sent me an email

that said hey your site is the slowest

site that i’ll go visit

and i was like first of all thank you

for saying that second of all

we’re getting it fixed and we got it

fixed it’s like lightning over there now

uh super fast so if nothing else that

should make the forums

way way way more easy for you to

interact

and get to know each other so go check

out the forums on at resource.com

forums over there and go ask a question

answer question it’ll take

a third of the time it used to take you

and you’ll be really excited and again

we’re just we keep trying to do a little

bit better a little bit better

making it a little bit easier for you

guys to connect with each other

and to connect with us and what we’re

doing and

also to share wisdom with each other

whether that’s

you know on the podcast on the forums uh

in the blogs on the youtube wherever

that might be

we want you guys to connect with each

other and connect with the people in

this industry that are going to help you

succeed

and meet your goals financial freedom or

whatever it might be

so anyways so pumped so so relieved and

pumped is

so stressful for me uh having the sight

down and

and just causing so much trouble so

apologize for any of the inconveniences

but

we’re back up in online so go over to

londonmanresource.com check out what we

got going on we got webinars every

single week they’re free

on thursdays you can sign up at london

resource.com

go check out the forums everything else

we have going on over there it’s

awesome and we got a lot more in store

uh coming up super excited okay uh

the other thing i want to mention is

this gets alluded to

kind of throughout uh the the podcast

episode and we don’t really go into it

until the end so i just wanted to

briefly just fill you in on what we’re

talking about i’m not sure if it was

clear or not but i just want to make

sure it is clear

so michael and i and ross dodds who’s a

former guest of

the podcast have started a syndication

group

uh called diligent capital investments

and we are

um partnering with investors who

want to be a little bit more passive in

their laundromat investment or who may

want to

ease their way into laundromats and so

we’ve put together the syndication

in order to buy some laundromats and or

real estate together

and we talk about this at the very end

and how you can get involved but check

out diligentcapitalinvestments.com

link is in the description on youtube

the show notes

that link every other link of everything

we’re talking about including the forums

everything that gets mentioned in the

podcast episode

they will all be at

londonmightresource.com show 46

so check those out there without further

ado

and without any other interruptions

let’s get into it

with michael ambrose a good buddy of

mine a distributor

and just a solid solid human being

you’re gonna love it

let’s check it out michael what is up

man

i am so excited for you to finally

finally come on the podcast thanks for

coming on man how you doing

i am so excited to be here i’ve seen

like maybe 45 or 50 people before me

and i’m finally glad that i was able to

make my succession in this line

um i’m really really excited to be here

as well

yeah i like what you’re doing um

the platform that you’ve created is uh

helping people

you’ve had some incredible people on

i’ve watched a bunch of podcasts not all

of them

honestly and uh because i don’t have the

time

but uh let’s talk about who you hate and

haven’t watched their episodes

let’s name them by name there is no one

everyone you have on is very it’s very

educational

um and it’s something that i’ve i’ve

actually i’ll wake up early in the

morning and i’ll work out right

and i’ll have your podcast on while i’m

listening on speakers

in the garage yeah and i’ll listen to

that and think that it’s uh

that’s how that’s where i make the time

to do stuff like that and when i’m

driving too

yeah but um i’m learning a lot and i’m

learning a lot i’ve been in the business

for quite some time

and i can only imagine uh how everybody

else

what they’re getting out of it so thank

you for doing such a great job in the

industry

i really appreciate what you’re doing i

personally enjoy what you’re doing

as well i appreciate that and i can’t

think of anything

that would pump somebody up more to work

out in the morning than the podcast i

just i can’t think right

usually yeah and all of that like

yeah i mean laundromat can you please

say it for me i’m pumped oh i

am pumped dude here you go but i want to

hear

super pumped pup well you’ll hear you

have to listen to the intro because i

haven’t recorded it yet and i might just

be mega pumped i don’t know man

i just have to see where he goes well

hey man

uh you know i cannot say enough good

things about you

so i really am pumped that you’re here

uh on the show and i want

i know that you have a ton of things to

share with people that are really going

to help them out help them

either get into their first business or

to optimize you know their laundromat

business or maybe even to scale their

laundromat business those are kind of

the three

main things that that i’m trying to

focus on over here to help people

you know buy laundromat optimize the

laundromat and scale their laundry

business so

um dude before we get into any of this

vast knowledge and wisdom that you have

because you have been in the in the

industry

for a while now and in a few different

roles

before we get into that why don’t you

tell me

a little bit about you who is michael

ambrose

well first and foremost i i think i’m

the best at being a father

everything else after that i just work

really hard at

um you are a good dad background is

um background is i was born and raised

in um arizona

and i went to school in tucson i was

there for general business at the

university of arizona

and then um i did this careers project

you know when you do this careers

project or actually you know when you

take an elective right

you always do the easiest selective so

you can keep your gpa up right right

right so i do this uh it’s this careers

project and it should take it to

everyone in the class probably took an

hour and a half and aced it i sat there

for two days and i was like what in the

heck do i want to do with my life

general business where am i going with

that

and then so i took some time and i

figured out i like to travel

because i’m from yuma so i wanted to get

out there and just see things

and um and uh i didn’t really care if i

made a ton of money

but i wanted swift and you don’t have to

you know i didn’t i wanted to travel and

have fun and the hotel industry was

very sexy to me at that time so i pretty

much packed my bags left to university

arizona went to unlv

and finished hotel administration school

so uh

after i did that i um

boosted my career in the hotel business

with i worked for hyatt hotels

and i started off in monterey i was in

their management training

program i was in monterey and then moved

out to atlanta and then i was in

knoxville chicago and then i ended up

way back out here so at first i was

operations manager

as assistant levels director

housekeeping front office manager

there along when i was in atlanta i had

this uh

this room’s executive and she was just

like i think we’ve got this great

opportunity for you i

think and you we’ve all heard that

before in our lives yeah famous last

words there yeah

right and then i was like no way i’m not

going to laundry i am going to be the

youngest general manager

in this organization

mind the last i was 23 right and i’m 23

we all think we’re going to conquer the

world right

yeah so so um so she basically took me

by the ear

i said no thank you she said yes please

and grabbed me by the air

drove me in the office threw out all the

files and said

here’s your new job you’re the new

laundry manager right

that was 1999. i’ve been doing laundry

ever since

so then it was uh knoxville chicago back

out here

i worked for a chemical company after my

stint with the resorts and hotels for

about ten and a half years so that was

pretty cool because it was back in the

house operations

i was selling chemicals but then it was

an easier sale because i had been in

those positions

and i knew like the i knew that

the times that a director of

housekeeping goes through a laundry

manager so

i wasn’t this salesperson trying to sell

them chemicals i had been in their shoes

at 800 room hotels so it was a nice

little niche

um so i was there for about 10 and a

half years and then i got this

job with the distributorship here in

southern california

and so i’ve come full circle from

operations to chemicals consulting

now i sell equipment and then eventually

that evolutionized into real estate so

it’s uh

it’s come full circle you have been here

i am

all over well and here you are at the

pinnacle probably of your whole life i

would say

you know on the podcast i hope not i

hope there’s

where to go

this is like the pinnacle of life to

come on this podcast you’re about to be

a laundromat

superstar i mean where is there left to

um all right maybe you got plenty left

in the tank and there’s

plenty higher to get but uh one of the

things i love i mean thank you for that

background on who you are and where you

came from i think that

i didn’t know a lot of that stuff

actually and so i think that gives a lot

of context no i didn’t

um but one of the things that really

intrigues me

about you is you are

laundromat mike oh my gosh

can you tell me a little bit about

laundromat mike who is laundromat mike

and and what are you all about

well let’s see so

i i go into so in sales i go into

laundromats all day long

all day long resorts hotels and so forth

so i get to see

behind every closed door what nobody

else gets to see you know in regards to

the laundromats

um many owners they go out and they’ll

see their competition or

when they’re looking to buy their store

they’ll go out and check out 10 places

or 15 places or they’re really

aggressive guys will go out there and

see 20 places

and so so uh i was walking out of a

place one day and i’m like

you know what this is i’m blessed to be

able to go in

and hear all of the voices and

see all of the places look at all these

successes

learn from the failures learn from the

successes i’m talking to people who have

one store

talking to people have no stores who

want a store who’ve been searching for

five years

i’m talking to people who have ten

stores um

so it it resonated like well

you know i’m not more of a social media

guy but i become one to some extent

because

why not covet all of this that i’m

seeing

why don’t i just bring it out there and

so in laundromat mike it’s uh

try and put a little spin on it try to

make it personal basically it’s the life

of a guy

who sells laundry equipment for a living

who travels around and

tries to show you you know the

professional side of the business things

that are great things that

aren’t working great things that i see

are really sexy because

there’s one thing that we’re going to

get through this whole podcast jordan

laundry is sexy so yeah

so if i can bring that into the homes

and if i can show someone a bulkhead

that was just recently done or a store

that was recently done or

the before and after shots of of of a

retool

if that can get into someone’s home and

they can say you know i like that design

out there in southern california

i’m going to apply that out here or i’m

going to apply that with my own little

version

and that makes their laundromat great

then my job is done

it’s pretty cool so i have the ability

to do that

yeah what i love about that is i mean

that’s pretty similar to like

what i’m trying to do too right it’s

like we’re just trying to

take people behind the scenes and help

them learn

the best ways to to get in this business

and the best ways to run this business

when you’re in

and uh i mean i love you know and

oh we should mention that the the

meeting that you’re

posting this stuff on is on instagram

right yes

laundromat mike it’s on facebook too and

facebook i’m gonna link

i’m gonna link to those you guys need to

go follow laundromat mike

on instagram and on facebook i don’t

think i follow you on facebook

uh but i’ll i’ll go follow you on

facebook too i definitely follow you on

instagram and i always love seeing your

post so go follow along or matt mike

on on instagram too i’ll put a link in

the description if you’re on youtube or

in the show notes uh if you’re listening

on the podcast

thank you jordan yeah so what’s what i

mean have you gotten any feedback about

laundromat mike are you are you

interacting with people because of it

i’m assuming you are

it’s pretty cool it’s it’s it’s been

great it’s been something like coming

out of his shell like on this podcast

and

yeah it’s been tougher to sit here and

talk to i think you’re what like three

billion people

um are watching your podcast right now

at least yeah i thought it was like

you know twenty thousand and then when

you told me three billion i got a little

nervous

yeah but yeah um it’s third of the world

really yeah i felt like we were going i

felt like with the super bowl obviously

so i talked to people and i messaged

with people all over the country and and

some out of the country which has been

pretty cool to see

people see things resonate within people

and they actually reach out to you

um so it’s very difficult

to give opinions when i’m in southern

california

and this market here is on steroids

talking to someone

in you know florida or

somewhere in alabama or anywhere else

because

everything changes every quarter of a

mile in l.a

demographics change people change

competition change

and that’s one of the things that i

thrive on in this business i love it

um you wake up every day and nothing’s

the same

every single day you have the goals and

the visions of

what we know the fundamentals of this

business that everybody can focus on

and then outside the fundamentals and

different markets things

change um so i i really enjoy that about

um this business i was recently back in

um north carolina the wash house the

willaford family you um oh

luke williford who will eventually own

every laundromat in the world i’m

convinced

but yes their family is incredible i

went back out there with a partner of

mine and um

it was it was eye-opening um by the way

luke was a top ten just to let you know

i think i’m seven yeah

45th maybe you’re that 46 is what you’re

being yeah there i go there’s a silver

lining i thought it was 70.

no you’re good you’re you’re definitely

top 50. so

but i’ll link speaking of luke though

i’ll link to his podcast episode it’s

amazing you got to listen to it if you

haven’t but go ahead continue i watched

it before i went out there to meet the

family

and uh it was impressive um

back to saying that you know the

difference in ways changed

demographically

i went back there and um they owned 37

launch rates in north carolina

um it was an eye-opener because

everything out there was different

demographics were different

layouts of the facilities were different

the stores were

different we actually had a room where

in southern california everything’s

packed in like how

tight we pack this in and you know have

five foot

in between the aisles i remember post

speaking of laundry matt mike you posted

something

on uh on your instagram of

behind his dryers and how much room

there was and i didn’t really realize at

first that it was actually behind his

dryers because there’s like

you could probably fit three rows of

dryers behind the drive like there was

so much room back there it was crazy

so i got some comments there like oh why

are you doing that you can’t do that out

there well

they can do it back there and the thing

with that building well there was a

little thing they

they were there was a the building was

an awkward shape

so in order to make everything square in

the building

that side of the building behind the

dryers was a little bit larger than

usual

but point in case is there was room

and it’s important to have access yeah

yeah

but so so it’s back there and um

the layout the rents are different the

labor is different the competition is

different

um and then you go to and then here in

southern california

um like i said l.a is i like to market

on steroids um i live in ventura county

and ventura county has you know you have

um san valley is still l.a county which

um pretty heavily dense but in ventura

county you have like santa maria

and then oxnard which are the heavily

dense areas with laundromats

um oh that’s uh so so santa maria is in

santa barbara county and then you get up

into slo county

and it’s like a blast from the past

there’s nothing going on in slow area

like la oxnard um santa maria it’s just

completely different so going back to

the

i’ve been able to talk to people all

around the country and people have

um liked the personal touch and like the

business touch and every once in a while

i make fun of people in a very

lighthearted way

just to drive a point in to don’t do

this in your laundromat

but it’s been nice hearing from

everybody around and uh

being able to go around and see that

this is a

very very very unique business and uh

many times as a distributor people ask

me a lot of questions

how much is this door gonna make well

you know

i’ve got 20 questions for you to answer

that question do you know the answer to

those 20 questions

yeah well that i mean that leads us

right

into i mean you are a distributor and

you have been for a little while now

and i i mean i think i talk to people

all the time

about you know the importance of having

a good distributor i did not have a good

distributor getting in

uh people have been hearing me whine

about that for a while now uh

but uh there’s another dig we met a few

years ago right you bought

nothing from me yeah like i don’t even

think i got a follow-up call thanks for

driving all the way down here to l.a

and uh spending your time um like but

but it’s okay we’ll talk about that here

bro at that point in my life

i was bewildered i had no idea

what i was doing and i was just trying

to stop the bleeding so i apologize

but obviously i couldn’t help you at

that point but here’s

you know and we’ll talk about this a

little bit later on that was about five

years ago that was one of my first year

in the business we met

yeah and you had that laundromat which i

still think you have right i do

yeah that was that was an experience the

music and

the everything going on around your

laundromat

was was was entertaining and believe me

as a distributor

and as a salesperson it’s all about

telling people stories right yeah and so

your laundromat believe it or not for

that quick little stint that we met

had a lasting impression yeah well

probably

the car wash across the street called

the wet spot was probably remembered

more i wasn’t gonna say anything

no that’s yeah it that’s gone now but

that was uh that definitely brought a

little flavor to our little neck of the

woods over there

it was definitely a lot of added

enhanced flavor for that neighborhood

yeah but i do plan on making it up to

you and some and we’ll talk about this a

little bit at the end

but uh you know you and i have partnered

with ross dodds who have

also have been on the podcast and if you

haven’t listened to his story

you’ve got to listen to his story and

i’ll link to that too he’s got a crazy

entry

but you know we’re going out now and

we’re syndicating

laundromat deals and real estate deals

and we’re going to be buying equipment

i’m sure

you know we’ll probably probably use you

as our distributor i’m guessing may

don’t grind me

don’t mind me well i want to get into

that okay

so let’s talk about that what is this

right because i’m telling people you got

to have a good relationship with the

distributor right but

let’s talk about what a distributor is

and then i want to get into

how do you best work with the

distributor how do you find a good one

what is a good one supposed to be doing

all those questions so let’s talk about

what is a distributor so um this is one

of the questions that you gave me that

you were going to ask me

um i don’t think you’ve had a

distributor on yet have you i don’t

think i have no

date top 10 all of a sudden number one

number right

right i love it that’s right um so i

prepared a little bit so it’s a business

that works for a specific manufacturer

and distributes their product

okay um and there’s a distributor

does that for all brands for all

different things from payment systems to

equipment to

vending machines all of the above

so the sales reps are responsible for

the direction

of the sales sales path of the product

each path is different based on

customers experience and needs

so they provide information on the

product and competitive products

information on the industry they supply

demographics and give their opinions

on demographics

they work with you on the surrounding

competition

if you go into a situation where you

need to re-equip the store

it would be there to look at the

demographic surrounding competition

and help you discover your new equipment

mix

your washer and dryer ratios they’ll

give you

their uh their experience from

previous experiences based on the

demographics and competition

they help you order and receive um

they’re

a guide in the project they’re not doing

the project physically but they’re

associated with everybody

who’s working on your and their goals um

assistance in any obstacles jeez have

you had

any obstacles in development of your

businesses no not at all no

no i want to work with you

yeah right yeah no tons of obstacles all

along the way

wish i had somebody like you to help me

through them well

it happens no matter who you have it’s

just the nature of the beast nature of

the business and

when you’re doing big projects whether

it’s 50 000

or 650 000 things come up because you

got so many other people involved

um so so sales reps that work for

distributors help with the guidance of

the project and they’re there for you

as an expert to help guide the process

its concluding days which is grand

opening

um so they assist you with stuff like

that and then also you know it’s

it’s it’s interesting when when you’re

re-equipping a store

and going and you get this opportunity

to make it better to do different things

and you look at everything around you

um you’re able to help with the psyche

of the consumer

um there’s being the stone things being

the

the psyche of the the store owner or the

psyche of

the customer of the laundromat or both

the end user um

where do people go when they walk into a

place um

what do you want to see what impression

do you want to give them

um right when they immediately walk into

a store

um out of order you know it’s funny how

this isn’t all the time but a majority

of times you walk into a laundromat and

if there’s a

top pockets that’s out of order and a

stacked dryer

the five around it like nobody wants to

touch them like give me away

that’s out of order it’s sick it has the

big rhona virus you know

yeah there’s something wrong with that

dryer and

and it’s like guilty by association

because the other fire driers are

sitting around and going

use me use me

you can’t so stuff like that and then

walking into a place and

you know uh the big machines in the

front you like a lot of people want to

see big machines when they walk in

because the first impression is

wow this place i can wash

for my whole entire family in one load

or whatever it may be but

stuff like that they help you with the

psyche they help you with installation

um they’ll either have an installation

team

know of an installation team or guide

your installation team through the

project

and then you know they help maximize the

performance of the equipment

there’s a lot of networking systems out

there that allow you to

maximize the performance of your

equipment there’s a lot of

uh different things out there that you

can do during installation to give your

equipment ease and for the next 20 plus

years

be able to perform well so they help you

with that stuff too

they’re supposed to follow up on results

so that is part of the job description

of a sales rep

and good sales reps follow up and build

a partnership

because um we should be doing that

um and then continuing the relationship

with the customer um

you should be there before during and

after

and after after whether jordan you’re

buying one store or not

i should be checking up with you making

sure everything’s good and let you know

i still care

and uh hope one day that you uh

purchase another store or you sell your

store so i can help you sell it

but you keep the relationship going in a

good forthright and honest way

that’s it well thank you for kind of i

mean that’s a thorough breakdown of what

a distributor is and i think that’s

awesome because i think a lot of people

don’t really understand

i know i didn’t understand what a

distributor was i thought yeah i go to a

distributor because they’re the

gateway to equipment and

in you are right as a distributor you

are kind of the gateway to equipment

but you should be a lot you know all

these other things that you

described you know and for me you know

and you’ll hear people

uh some of like the top these top owners

top operators

the ones who’ve been on the podcast or

maybe see them in you know the forum

um or facebook groups or whatever um

people

you know top operators say hey have a

good working relationship

with a distributor a good distributor

who’s really going to take care of you

because they’re going to end up making

you money and you’ll make them money and

it’ll be a great you know relationship

and nobody nobody told me that and

the you know the distributors that i

have worked with in the past

are great people but they didn’t do

most of these things that you just

listed off and now

here i am i’m partnered with you and

with ross and

and we’re going out looking for pretty

big

laundromat deals now right and

we’re partnering with investors

nationwide to go out and buy a bunch of

laundromats and real estate and

guess who’s not going to be

making any money off of that the

distributors that i’ve worked with in

the past because they were not these

things that you’re

you know that you’re talking about um

you know and so

just good human practice is doing these

things good

sales practice is doing these things

that you talked about

and good business practice is doing

these things that you talked about

so so that’s what you know that’s what i

should be looking for and a good

distributor

right i i believe so and i

try to do all those points effectively

i can land probably 90 of them but um we

are

we are human we do get busy things

happen but yes that’s what you want in a

distributor you want someone

to carry you along the way and and it’s

it’s

it’s interesting because so this whole

stigma of a salesperson

it’s like i can’t tell you how many

times that i’ll walk into a place and

it’s like i’m walking

through or i’m walking into a wall of

ice because

it’s called an icebreaker for a reason

right you you i have to burn my way

through this ice because right when i

immediately walk in they’re like

sales guy sales guy

and then so you have to you have to

develop the relationship early in the

partnership early you have to get to

know them

um what is their background and

experience in a distributor plays

a big role if you jordan i just met for

the first time and

you were new and i’ve been where i am

now

um it would be a path that we would go

through that would help you along

more than if i was new um i’d have a lot

stories a lot more uh let’s say

projects under my belt that would help

us move forward

and and then through all of that i’ve

made a bunch of mistakes

that’s how you get to be better in

everyday job it’s called being human

so so if you get an experienced person

you’re stoked

but if you get a new person it’s darn

well just as good sometimes

um when i was brand new um

it’s so funny so ross right ross

reno ross he was the first

person that i did a deal with and i was

new

and he was new and i was just glad that

um he allowed me to move with him

through his first big project that

laundromat that burned down it

was rebuilt oh spoiler alert spoiler if

you haven’t listened oh yeah

yeah go listen to it

so um it was so so he took a chance at

someone who he

saw that wanted to learn um had some

fire in the belly

was transparent about i’m just in this

business i’m going to do my best i’m

going to do all the research i can to

make this happen for us so he he went on

a limb and

took me and here six years later um

we’re got a company that we’ve got

together

and then on the side like i i mean i

went to

him with north carolina last week and um

and then uh he’s got five laundromats

now and he’s sold one and i’ve been a

part of

all of those transactions well not all

of them he’s gone through

a couple different distributors early on

um but

um but i’ve been a part of that whole

thing and that’s

taking a chance with someone who has a

bunch of knowledge or taking a chance

with someone

who’s new they both can serve you well

but you just have to get to know them

ask questions be

transparent be kind um it’s funny when i

went into the industry

there’s a lot of uh the stigma of the

salesperson when i went into the

industry

there was a lot of older guys who’ve

been doing it for like 20 25 years and i

was like why are you all so crotchety

why are you all so mean why aren’t you

over did you do you know anything about

customer service

right and and then six years later i’m

ah wow people can be brutal

like like everyone thinks that sales

people are you know

sales people but the general public can

be just as brutal and salespeople

that um many times you know it forms the

salesperson to be a little bit

non-customer service oriented um

can you can you tell us a little bit

more like from the distributor

side about that because i think that’s

important to understand that side of it

for uh you know for how to work with

well with a distributor right we need to

understand what you guys go through

as sales people um you know can you take

us through maybe like

from that initial conversation and

through

you know your sales path a little bit

and what that’s like for you as a

distributor um

as far as how uh like what a distributor

looks for an

an individual no no just or no just like

along with a uh sales how to make the

best partnership

with the distributor well i i just want

you to talk a little bit about

i mean you said like it could be like

people can be brutal

like to you right so what do you mean by

that i guess

okay okay so a lot of times it’s just

the initial conversation it’s like

walking into the room all happy and

you’re excited to be there and

you want to make some money you want to

help people you want to

take on this new project which is going

to be different than the last 300 you

had

and you’re going to lose something from

this project and you immediately walk in

and it’s like

speak to the hands you know you have to

break the ice

um so you have to break the ice you have

to get to know them um

i think you can just feel that they

automatically think that you’re not

trustworthy a lot of times um so i

generally take the time to get to know

them a bit and that’s the sales person’s

job

um it’s not the customer’s job the

consumer’s job to

to try and get to know the sales person

many times in my belief i think it takes

two parties

but i try and get to know their long and

short-term goals so i can

help them with you know their future um

uh how and why they got into the

business

a little bit about their family

laundromat industry is a personal

business

it’s okay to know about people and not

be so corporate

in this personal business that we’re

doing so you know a lot of times you got

to break the ice but then after that

people get to know and see each other a

bit

um the trust and the credibility gets

starts to formulate

then um then bam there it is um

so so that’s that’s the goal is just to

get to know each other

know each other’s experience and know

each other’s directions and goals

and then availability i mean the

customer should always be like okay does

he answer his phone is he responsive

um is is he following up with what he

said or she said

um those are those are big big things um

follow-up is is key to a good

sales rep that works for a

distributorship um

it’s it’s funny though i was talking

about how how it can be

pretty tough i’ve had a um a few

circumstances where

you know you jump through hoops you’re

on fire you invest all your time put

hours of time

and then they like ghost you or do you

seriously i kid you not i spent so much

time

with this these wonderful people like i

i i kind of got personal i kind of had a

little heart for him you know and

i thought the deal was going to go

through and it was a couple store deal

and

and i like i went to their house i

traveled afar to see this place which

was

completely out of my jurisdiction right

and i got excited and that’s sometimes

what you know it’s the passion

that you want your distributor to have

and then

when it all came down to it they were

price driven and i got one of these

uh we’ve decided to go elsewhere like on

a text i was like next breakup

i got a text breakup i’ll never forget

that i still think about it all the time

it’s like uh

um and then i’ve called back several

times i’ve emailed

and nothing no nothing but a but it’s

okay

and um it’s it’s fine and i would

the moment that they called me up to do

business

i’m gonna be just as excited as um i was

upset that they didn’t call me and tell

me no

because we can take the answer no you

know

a lot of times in life you win by

default

um i’ll win by default you go with

someone else and they don’t do a good

job and you come back to me because of a

price now you know why

you know i had a great product and i

brought value to the table

um so so that’s that’s one of those

things at the end of the day just be

honest with your time

and their time um and remember the best

gift that you can give someone is what

jordan time man yeah so

so but there’s the other side too

well yeah and well before we get to the

other side i mean i i think it’s a good

point for us as owners to keep in mind

that

i mean it’s it’s like a real estate

agent right like you don’t get paid

you know unless you make a sale so if

you’re investing all this time

energy effort that’s time you could be

spending on something else

and you know if you break up with

a distributor who’s been pouring a lot

into you a lot of time energy effort

into you

and you break up over text and then

ghost them from there

like they get nothing out of that right

that’s

that’s tough i mean it’s not it’s not

something to base

your business decisions off of um but

uh you said something that was kind of

interesting to me and i um

there’s actually dave men’s has a really

good youtube video and all

if you don’t know dave mann’s laundry

matt miller the distributor guy right he

he says get good relationship with your

distributor right yeah he says have a

good relationship with your distributor

and he has a video that he says price

versus value and you mentioned that

they were price driven and not

value driven which i think is the

implication of what

you were going for there and i’ll link

to that video too because it’s a really

good one

but uh price price is

a significant factor obviously you know

when you’re

investing money in a business but it’s

not the only factor so there there’s

more to factor into that

and i would argue with somebody who was

price driven

in my first retool uh and

and got the best price that i could

and uh but that’s all i got

right like as soon as those machines

were in i

did not see at my distributor again i

didn’t get any help

from them and i needed it right because

i was

struggling after even after my retool so

uh yeah so i just wanted to point that

out that you know price is a huge factor

but it’s not

the only factor so but tell us about the

flip side i mean

i know you i’m sure you have plenty of

horror stories about you know customers

who’s

you know who’ve given you the shaft

people still say that

does it say that no it’s probably not

close i think it’s more of a

beer conversation with your buddies

conversation like when you say the shaft

okay you got that shaft yeah but anyways

uh so tell me about the flip side of

that are there some good

you know stories that you have go back

to the other side real quick so

um the true colors of someone always

shows up in

certain times and um i i would say

i said i’ve won by default quite a few

times

like i’ll lose a deal and then they’ll

go out there

and then they’ll come back like a year

later and be like hey you know i really

appreciate you following up for last

year and like you just sucked it up and

you’re like

oh yeah i can lose and this person was

great and i want to do business with

them down the road and

you put it to the side and you carry on

i don’t know if a lot of other sales

people do that i’ll continue to follow

up if i lose a deal

and um just if i see something in

someone that i i want to work with them

i will continue to do so and and so uh

it’s it’s

it’s an industry where you you have to

be able to forgive and not take things

personally

um and you don’t ever know what people

are going through so

or what other factors were considered in

that no

to you or that yes to you so you just

i mean at the end of the day you just

gotta shake it off

and um know that you would you

you you will do business with them again

because

that’s what we do and there’s a few

times that i’ve had

that come back to me and right now i’ve

got some amazing

partners that i work with that were

because of that story so you just

never say no be tenacious and and don’t

take anything personal and

when they come back just do a better job

so you they never go anywhere

else again yeah and i like that attitude

it kind of puts it

back on you right like you can’t control

what other people

do you can only control your own thing

and i i kind of have this funny

thing that uh you know if somebody like

forgets my name or something

you know i said hey you don’t feel bad

about forgetting my name like no big

deal it just means

i didn’t do anything memorable enough

remember my name right like

that’s on me not on you for not

remembering my name right but it’s kind

of a similar concept right where you’re

okay well i’m just gonna i’m gonna take

it up a level

you know if if they come back around and

you know it’s on me

they they make their own decisions but

all you can control is you and what you

do so

i like that absolutely get knocked down

get back up and be better

right and take accountability for

obviously i didn’t do

a good enough job to get their business

whether it was price or whether it was

whatever reason it was whatever yeah you

you take that back the next time and you

just do better

and and you know what i can’t wait that

they come back i’m gonna knock it out

apart that’s right

that’s right um the other side though i

mean

is uh people are cool people are great

people are nice people are kind um not

saying that what we were just talking

about they’re not

it’s just we’re talking about how oh

sales is tough

and you come across a lot of people and

you give your time and your efforts so

so uh i’ve got a customer that uh i

i swear i poured in probably more time

than

um than the last scenario i was telling

you about

and at the end of the deal i walked away

with uh

absolutely zero and this guy was just

like man we’ve done a lot of business

together you’ve helped me out a lot and

then um

i don’t know if i don’t know if i should

say this but

he delivered a kegerator to my house

that’s so awesome i was like what is

this about he’s just like you put in a

lot of work

you did a lot of time i see what you did

you didn’t get anything out of it i know

you like ipas

here’s a kegerator that’s a little

awesome

that’s so so awesome so and then my best

story is and

this has only happened once it will

probably only happen once in my lifetime

um i was i did another great partner

that i have it started off as business

and now we’re just friends and know each

other’s family and everything like that

he comes up to me one day he’s like

michael

how are you doing on this deal

what what do you mean how am i doing

we’re doing a great job that’s how we’re

doing

how did it become me instead of us right

and he’s just like are you getting paid

all right i’m like looking at him like i

have no idea where he’s going with this

i’m like yeah yeah i’m i’m okay

and then he goes i just want you to know

that

we’ve done a lot of work together and i

see how

what we’ve done together you’re gonna

you’ve just helped us make money for the

next 20 plus years

and i know that you get a one-time

commission

i just want to make sure that when you

walk away from this deal

that you’re happy and can’t wait to work

do business with us again

i’m like i’m not gonna

the deal doesn’t end we’ve gotta forever

deal with you like that like

like who does that and when does that

happen and and that’s kind of how they

run their whole life which is really

cool

and they are um uh super

successful at what they do and they’re a

it’s great to work with them so well

it’s one of those things where it’s like

uh you know are they like that because

they’re super successful

and people would say that right but

there’s probably a pretty good argument

that says no they’re super successful

because they’re like that

right like they take care of the people

and they see it as

they see the value in what you’re doing

and they view it as a

partnership right and they appreciate

that

you know not just in word but also

indeed and that’s

i would say that’s that’s pretty key to

success

my view i’ve told that story quite a bit

because it’s

a remarkable story and nobody has ever

been like yeah i have the same story

so so i think i found one in a million

human being who uh

who has that approach and that approach

isn’t with me it’s the way it approaches

everything which is pretty cool

yeah yeah pretty cool okay so

i mean thank you for walking us through

that too and like you know how to how to

think about your relationship with your

distributor how to work with the

distributor

um i think it’s super valuable you know

like you’ve been saying

like you know some of these other top

operators are saying like it’s really

important to

you know have a good relationship with

your distributor um

but we’ve never really at least on this

podcast never really broken down

what does that mean how do you how do

you even have a good relationship with

your broker

and how do you know if you’re working

with a good broker or not right and you

broke down those two things

beautifully but i got a question for you

uh because you’ve been in this game for

a little while and

as far as i know unless something’s

happened in the last few days

you don’t own a laundromat yourself so

what’s the deal dude

i mean your laundromat mike man you got

to get a laundromat here

well and aside from you know here’s the

thing like

i know we’re going out we’re putting

together deals right now for

you know our syndication and stuff like

that so i know that but i’m just curious

are you planning on getting any

yourself well let’s just say that i’ve

had a few

curveballs thrown at me over the years

and um

and i’m getting close it’s been on my

mind since day one

and i actually had a little deal just

fall out in a close by uh

area which is unfortunate um

but um yes it’s going to happen

i can’t wait for it to happen it’s got

to be the right deal the right location

the right lease the rights uh

the store like right now i can’t take on

3500 square foot store and manage it and

you know my job the best that i can and

do the real estate side i need something

a little bit smaller and that’s kind of

hard to find that’s within 30 minutes

with a good lease

in an area that i can manage from afar

so uh the time is closed i hope and

that’s one thing i would

love i mean just for everybody to

understand that you got to have patience

in this job

or not in this job but in this in this

field if you’re looking for a laundromat

sometimes it takes two or three years or

whatever it may be

and uh the other day i was talking about

so my cpa

um is started in laundry then became my

cpa now

it’s been a couple years that we’ve

known each other and called me the other

days like michael i still don’t have a

laundromat we do all this business we

talk all the time and i’m like

shaq let me tell you there’s got to be

the right laundromat for you you have

family you have a job you have all kinds

of things going on

i’m not going to just find you any

laundromat i’m going to find you a

laundromat that you can have life

balance

and still make some money however money

that is i don’t know because

how much time do you have to give as

often times

directs how much money you’re going to

make um to some degree unless you have

someone to manage that for you and if

you have someone to manage that for you

that cuts the profit

so anyways it it it takes time

to find the right place for you and i

would never just jump into something

like i’ve been around

six years looking for a laundromat most

of those years

i haven’t been able to do so but now i’m

able to do so

and i’ll spend another two finding the

right laundromat if that’s what it takes

to do something that accustoms my

lifestyle and allows me to be effective

at jobs number one and number two

and then um and jobs number one and

number two and number three

jumps one is be a good dad jobs two is

distributorship

and job three is the real estate so um

they have to six

it’s a sequential order and uh i’m not

gonna lose all or take away from the

other two

and not be successful for job number

four yeah

i like that and i like i mean kind of

what you’re saying is you gotta find

the laundromat that fits your situation

right whether it’s you your cpa somebody

listening right now who’s maybe looking

to buy

a laundromat you know you not all

laundromats fit

you know where you’re at in life either

location

or business model wise or

even even i mean there’s so many

variables right condition of the story

like there’s so many different variables

that you need to find the right fit

for your goal right and you’re going to

buy a different laundromat if your goal

is to

is to retire from your you know from the

rat race from your nine to five job

you know you’re probably gonna buy a

different laundromat than you would if

you had excess cash and you wanted to

you know just make some cash flow on the

side you know and if that’s the case for

you then you probably just want to

invest with us

right i don’t know um yeah

but were you placed into the laundromat

that balanced

that that was accustomed to your life or

were you placed into a laundromat

i was placed into a laundromat for sure

yeah that’s nine out of ten people

from my experience maybe eight out of

ten um

but so so that’s why you’re here though

which is the coolest thing ever

without that experience there would be

no laundromat resource

yeah yeah right so you’re here for a

reason and sometimes a lot of the

crossroads that we face in life which

are

the trials and tribulations of life mark

rocket us

into other aspects of our life that

benefit other people which is

the beautiful thing about this yeah okay

i’m done making fun of you for not

having a laundromat yet i just

needed to get a little jab jab in there

and

oh i was you just didn’t know it no i’m

just kidding

uh well i mean one of the things one of

the reasons i was really excited i mean

there’s a lot of reasons to be honest

that i’ve

been really excited to have you on on

the podcast but one of the big reasons

that i’ve been really excited to have

you on is because i know

you’re laundromat mike right like you’re

in all these laundromats you are talking

to all these different owners

and you’re seeing uh you’re seeing what

works

what doesn’t work what are successful

owners doing versus

owners that are struggling more and i’m

i’m curious if you would just give us a

little

maybe even as your as your secret sauce

maybe give us a little bit of what

you’re seeing what what are

successful owners doing consistently

that you know maybe struggling owners

aren’t doing

[Music]

great question um there’s quite a few

things and

and you’re right i get to see it and

years later there’s our consistencies

with

people who have done with i can take

the 10 most successful laundromat owners

that i know

and each one of the things that i’m

already saying it’s consistent within

all of them um maybe some are

stronger at other areas than others but

they’re they’re they’re all doing it

um one of the biggest thing is just

focus on the fundamentals

um that’s something that the willaford

family does really well in north

carolina they just keep everything so

simple

and you know why they have to it’s

because they have 37 lives

yeah you can’t make a complex and have

37 and manage them

effectively ross and i spent uh

uh a day with uh lee and luke and i

swear those guys answered their phone

maybe three times

yeah and spent ten minutes on the phone

out of an entire day

that ross and i were with them and that

just shows that a couple things that

they’re

effective owners and um

they’ve got everything aligned and

organized correctly

and it shows that they’re keeping it

simple

and focusing on the fundamentals um so

clean bright and safe everybody always

hears clean bright and safe

um a good friend of mine is always

says you know what i want my wife my

grandma and my kids to go there at nine

o’clock at night if the answer is yes

it’s clean bright and safe and you’re

comfortable having

your family go there in the evening so

if it’s not that way

try and do the best you can to make

people comfortable people want to go

where they’re

welcome where people know their names

people want to go

where um they feel safe so

focus on the fundamentals and keep it

simple you want to treat your place like

you want others to treat it and they

will do so

um my first year

in working for this distributor i uh i

evaluated over 400 laundromats in

southern california

um have them in a book a binder just

just i evaluated 400 laundromats

and one of the things that i saw is i

could go into some of the roughest areas

in southern california

and i could walk into a really nice

place

and everybody keeps it nice i can go

into

the bathroom of a really rough area in

southern california

and the ownership takes pride in keeping

everything immaculate

i walk into that bathroom and um

it’s pristine there’s no writing on the

wall there’s no junk there’s no trash

everybody’s throwing the trash in the

basket

um and going the opposite direction

i could walk into a place because i

cover uh santa barbara county too

so i could walk into like a place in

santa barbara i’m just pulling out out

of my head because everybody knows santa

barbara is absolutely gorgeous

i could go in a laundromat in santa

barbara yeah right it’s

so beautiful i know i could i could go

into a laundromat in santa barbara where

the owner

doesn’t see any of the things that i was

just talking about and what what

what’s going on there there’s writing on

the walls or spray paints there’s

etchings in the uh

in the mirror you know the owner’s not

even turning the water on

and then that’s true right because they

don’t want people to trash and take

basic showers

so how you manage that um

uh treats your place like you want

others to treat it and they will do so

um is that 100 of the time no

but don’t let those few people who don’t

do it ruin it for everybody it’s kind of

like the dog that uh

that uh poops in the park and this is

kind of a crazy

but but like i remember going to dog

parks all the time right

and then all of a sudden you couldn’t go

to dog parks because there’s three

people who

go there every day three times a day

that don’t pick up after their dog right

you can’t kill the dog park because

there’s three people

that abuse the the policy

terrible example however that’s the

first thing that popped in my mind

that terrible because i’ve had not dogs

but humans

do that in my laundromat so it’s a

relevant example

so what are you gonna do just just quit

your laundromat because someone pooped

on the floor

maybe i don’t know no no i mean you

you know he but it is difficult like i

will say

like you are absolutely right but

especially early on in

and i would say the key to that like to

you know if you take over a laundromat

that’s like that or if you let your

laundromat go and it gets like that to

where people are

abusing it basically i will say and i’ll

say this from experience that it

takes a long time of concerted

effort to turn that tide right you have

to stay on top of things

you have to you know be quick to

fix things be quick to clean up things

and even if you’ve let things go for a

little while it

is salvageable right but you have to

make that mental shift that you’re going

to be on top of things

um and you know when i’ve had problems

with

um like homeless people or things like

that

it’s the times where i’ve just been busy

or i’ve been tired or whatever and i

haven’t stayed on top of it right

but if you stay on top of those issues

that’s when you can jump into this

category where you’re

taking care of your place you’re

treating it the way you want others to

treat it

right and that message does come through

so when you’ve been consistent with that

and assertive

and making sure that you’re you’re doing

what we’re talking about

um how do things change for your

customers um did more people

come in do more kids come in um

yeah how’s that work yeah yeah that’s

exactly and people notice right people

notice

um pretty pretty quickly when

when the owner decides or a new owner

comes in or whatever

decides that you’re going to take care

of your store and that you’re going to

you know because the neighborhood talks

right and they you know they’re not dumb

they see when there’s homeless people

hanging out and they don’t want to be

there

like going back to the clean bright safe

that whole safety thing even if

you know even if somebody’s just kind of

dingy and just hanging out

and they’re not really a threat to

anybody you know people still don’t feel

safe there right and so you know as soon

as you’re on top of that

and uh people people know that you care

i mean first of all it shows people that

you care about their community

and their laundromat um as soon as they

know that you care

then not only will they come back and

start bringing kids and stuff but

they’ll also kind of rally to your aid

right and i’ve seen that a lot where you

know customers will

uh will will throw people out of

the laundromat you know if i’m not there

and they’re there and and somebody

like customers will throw them out

themselves because

you know you’ve been able to that’s

their space their place yeah

yeah and they want to keep it that way

so you’re right

do you have have you ever had someone

thank you

oh my yeah oh man well and

to be honest it wasn’t too difficult to

get that thinking coming from where it

was originally like it was

it was so bad dude it was so bad but

yeah absolutely absolutely and how cool

is that that just gives you like okay

i’m doing this and

that that’s really cool when you have

your customers come and thank you for

giving them security

a place to come and do their clothes all

over the above

so so but my next my next thing is um

with successful laundromators and the

consistency that i see

is there’s owners that truly enjoy

serving their communities um

[Music]

it’s it’s it’s evident it’s true it’s

there the people that care most about

their communities who have a laundromat

they actually excel it’s

how that works i don’t know uh but it

but it does

um you know i i have there’s there’s a

couple in la um and

what they’ll do is all day saturday

they’ll prepare um

a meal so like it’s i mean in this

laundromat’s like 7 000 square foot

in la and they’ll prepare a meal

have all the fixin’s good ends and the

all this all the spreads and every

sunday

it’s like this community barbecue well

it’s not a barbecue everything’s

prepared

so it’s this community brunch and um

this laundromat i wouldn’t say it was in

distress because of its location

it’s always going to do good i would

imagine but this owner came in and he

just said hey i want to take care of the

community

i want to serve people i want to make

people happy i want to make sure that

they come to a place where

they feel welcomed and the place is

booming

um not because of the brunch but because

of the heart behind the owner who

is serving the community and that’s one

thing that’s consistent i mean

there’s owners who come in on a hot day

and they’ll

hand out waters with their kids um

there’s owners that will come in and

go to the party city and then get a

bunch of helium and

go in there and you know do balloons for

the kids throughout the weekend

you have kids right i do how cool is a

balloon to a kid

it’s about the same as it is to me super

cool

me too

so diving into the community showing

that you

personally care um is one of the

consistencies

um so another thing is is

price leaders i had a customer the other

day call me talk to me about pricing

mike what are you talking about right

what do you think i should do

like well tell me once again it’s one of

those questions where i have

it’s a question and i answer it with ten

46. Distributor Secrets for Your Laundromat Success with Michael Ambrose

Published by Jordan Berry on March 9, 2021March 9, 2021

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