Ariana Roviello joins us on the show today to talk about her experience building a laundromat in San Francisco and buying a second one. She has some hard-earned wisdom that she generously shares on building a laundromat from scratch, scaling into multiple laundromats, and running a successful business.
Ariana is also utilizing gig economy drivers to expand the radius of her laundromat business through offering pick-up and delivery through the DoorDash platform. To that effect, she is a panelist in a webinar hosted by Cents that is happening on August 24, 1pm pst/4pm est entitled Pickup & Delivery: The Truth About the Gig Economy. You can sign up to join that webinar here.
In today’s interview with Ariana, we discuss:
- Ariana’s background in fashion and marketing
- Building a laundromat from scratch in a major metropolitan
- Laundry as habit
- Advice for new construction of a laundromat
- Lease negotiations
- Why she bought a second laundromat
- Branding concepts for your laundromat
- Systems to help you manage your laundromat
- Promotions to drive traffic
- The power of networking
And so much more!
Listen To The Podcast Here
Watch The Podcast Here
Join Us For An Upcoming Event!
By Laundromat Owners.
For Laundromat Owners.
Today's Sponsors
AtmosphereTV– We’re brought to you today by my friends at AtmoshereTV! Now You may have heard my interview a few months back with Mike Kelly from AtmosphereTV where we talked about what a simple change in content on your TVs can do for your laundromat by getting depressing news stations OFF and something much more fun, entertaining, and family-friendly ON. Since then, Atmosphere has grown to 50+ channels included in their service with everything from Surfing Dogs to Extreme sports, hilarious fails, and jaw-dropping videos from all over the world built specifically for business use. Atmosphere can be used to supplement your cable or you can completely cut your expensive cable bill and use Atmosphere 100% FREE saving thousands a year! Use my code RESOURCE when you check out or click the link or image to have your setup fee waived or contact Mike.Kelly@Atmosphere.tv for more information!
Laundromat Resource Marketing– If you need help building or managing a website for your laundromats, let the experts at Laundromat Resource Marketing help you design and build a custom, professional website for you! As experts in the laundromat industry AND in web design and online marketing, we at Laundromat Resource Marketing are able to provide you with a professional website at an affordable price. We’re always transparent so there are no hidden fees. What we quote you is what you pay. Satisfaction and performance guaranteed! With no contracts to sign and guarantees like that, why not let us take care of your online presence while you focus on welcoming all of your new laundry customers? Click the logo or link above to find out more information.
Links from the show
- [WEBINAR] Pickup & Delivery: The Truth About the Gig Economy– August 24, 1pm pst/4pm est
- Laundré
Resources
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- Join Laundromat Resource
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- Laundromat Resource Blog
- Be a guest on the podcast!
- Sell your laundromat
- Laundromat Resource Coaching
Connect with Ariana
Website: https://laundre.co
Ariana's Bio
Ariana is a two store operator in San Francisco and has been in the industry for about 5 years. With her stores, she focuses on improving space, service and sustainability to help modernize the laundromat experience.
Join The Laundromat Resource Community!
Episode Transcript
hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
laundromat resource podcast this is show
67
and i’m pumped you’re here today because
today we’re going to talk with ariana
who owns a couple laundromats in the san
francisco bay area and this is a super
fun conversation and not only that but
she shares a ton of really great and
hard-earned wisdom that she has gained
over the last five years or so of owning
laundry masks this is an awesome awesome
conversation she has a lot of really
good input and a lot of really good
advice for
you know anyone looking to build a
laundromat from scratch anyone who
owns one or multiple
laundromats or anyone who’s looking to
buy their very first laundromat this
episode is going to have something
pretty much for everybody so
plus she’s a lot of fun to chat with
you’re going to really really enjoy it
so definitely tune in for this one a
couple quick things before we jump into
it with ariana is number one
uh she mentions at the end here that
there is a webinar next week that she’s
being a part of and actually i just got
asked to host this webinar super fun
it’s with sense and uh they are talking
about
uh the gig economy and how that is
influencing
our industry the laundromat industry
super fascinating conversation
interesting stuff happening in that
space uh
for us for the laundromat industry so
definitely join that webinar the link to
that webinar as well as the link to
everything else that we talk about in
the show today is going to be at the
show notes which is laundromat resource
dot com show 67 to show six seven um or
if you’re on youtube i’ll put all that
stuff down below in the description so
make sure you check that out um and uh
man join us for
the webinar it’s going to be a lot of
fun i think i’ll be talking to a couple
owners
about their experience um doing pick up
and delivery with uh doordash actually
which since just rolled out so it’s kind
of interesting
business model and i’m really really
curious to hear how their experience has
been so far uh using that could be
really cool thing for those of you want
to jump into the pickup and delivery
space but don’t want to necessarily jump
right into buying a truck and figuring
out the logistics and all that stuff so
fascinating even if you’re not uh
looking to go into that space it might
be a really interesting webinar to jump
into and join uh just to kind of hear
what’s going on in the industry and what
different people are doing to find
success so anyways that link will be in
the show notes lot of my resource.com
show 67 and also down below if you’re on
youtube so check that out uh a couple
quick
things well
here like last thing that i want to say
before we jump into with ariana i don’t
want to take too much time uh but i just
wanted to say a huge welcome to
everybody who’s been joining the
membership at laundromat resource.com
lately there is a ton of you guys like a
lot a lot have been joining lately and i
haven’t really taken the time to
just
take a second and welcome everybody uh
who’s joining over there make sure that
you go introduce yourself in the
new member introduction forums a lot of
cool introductions happening over there
and then jump into the laundromat forums
the commercial real estate or the repair
farm i mean there’s a lot of different
forums going on over there go join the
conversation with other owners i say
this all the time and i genuinely mean
it we are all better when we’re working
together helping each other out not only
are we going to reach higher heights of
success in our businesses but also we’re
going to do it a lot faster when we’re
working together so head over to the
forumslaughtermyresource.com forums
check those out uh and again a huge
welcome to all of you guys who have been
joining the membership over there um i
didn’t i forgot to check the number but
i mean it’s just been
a lot of people joining every day uh for
a while now so pretty cool uh pretty
cool community we got going on here and
just appreciative for all of you guys
who are part of it either as the
membership or just listening here on the
podcast or watching on youtube um
whatever the case may be all right let’s
jump into it with aureonic this is a
cool conversation right after this all
right guys today’s episode is brought to
you by atmosphere tv you may remember
back in episode 34 when atmosphere tv’s
mike kelly joined me on the podcast it
was an epic epic episode if you haven’t
listened to it show 34 lawnmower
resource.com show 34 go check it out
it’s incredible ton of value there one
of the things we talked about is just
the importance of creating a good
positive atmosphere in your laundromat
and i was just rereading the book by
simon sinek start with why
and one of the things that really stands
out to me is that people
don’t make purchase decisions based on
you know the logic of you know any
decision that they’re making to spend
their money it’s more based on a feeling
and an association and so it’s really
important to
create a positive feeling a positive
atmosphere no pun intended uh and you’re
a laundromat to help people associate
this chore that most people don’t like
doing with something positive atmosphere
tv is an incredible way to help improve
the atmosphere of your laundromat and
basically if you haven’t heard of it
what it is is it has
50 plus channels
created specifically for businesses with
everything from
sports clips hilarious fail videos draw
dropping videos from all over the world
there’s automobile channels there’s a
ton of stuff my kids love love love it
and my customers love it atmosphere tv
can be a great way to either supplement
your cable or a lot of us laundromat
owners are cutting our cable bill
completely and running atmosphere tv
they’re designed to be used with no
audio but they also do have an audio
option that way you can kind of design
the atmosphere of your laundromat the
way that you want it so get rid of cable
get rid of those news channels that are
bringing negativity into your laundromat
and fill your laundromat with positive
videos that bring positive vibes to your
customers with atmosphere tv and if you
use the code word the keyword the
promo code i don’t know resource promo
code resource then they’re going to
waive your setup fee and now everything
is going to be free there’s no monthly
fee for it
you can use it for free in your
laundromat and it’s going to survive to
your atmosphere so check out
atmosphere.tv i’ll put a link down in
the description on youtube or in the
show notes check it out there make sure
you use the keyword resource that way
you can get that thing for free
and or if you’d like email mike
mike.kelly
atmosphere.tv ariana thank you for
coming on the podcast how are you doing
i’m good how are you thanks for having
me yeah oh it’s my pleasure thanks for
being on i am doing well
although there’s construction going on
over here so hopefully it’ll be too loud
but we’re getting air conditioning into
our house finally that is excited about
that very important i’m happy for you
thank you thank you um all right so
listen
i am excited to hear about your
laundromat ownership experience i know
you own a couple and want to hear about
those but before we jump into them can
you tell us a little bit about you and
who you are and then i want to get into
how did you get into this random
business
yeah
yeah i know it does feel random at times
um
yeah
my name is ariana i live in san
francisco that’s where i have um both of
my stores um
have been
here for about 10 years but grew up in
the bay area so you know familiar
with the bay area generally um and i
moved here for college and you know
never left and
kind of
to kind of parlay that into how i got
into laundry was um kind of
strange um
i actually went to fashion school here
in the city and i studied like
retail um in branding
like like marketing within a retail
setting so it does apply sometimes it’s
still a retail space but um one of the
projects that we had to do is create
like a sustainable business model um
and for some for some reason i think
probably it was because like i started
using laundromats like when i moved to
san francisco so that was kind of like
top of mind and i figured kind of have
to wash your fashion so maybe there’s
something there and so um
i created just kind of this whole
business plan on how you could create
like a sustainable
um potentially like
have like
like a just like a modern version of
what
most people
kind of experience um and especially for
me like being catapulted into using
laundromats and generally it was like an
unclean unsafe
uh environment like a lot of machines
were not down it was unattended so i was
like how can like we make this better
um
and
i went like after school i went on to
like work in fashion for a bit but the
idea kind of kept tugging at me
and so i thought i’m just gonna
give it a try and so i quit my job and
then
i actually drove for lyft for like two
years while i like got the money
together and
built out the space and like all this
stuff um so our first location was in
the mission district of san francisco um
and what’s cool about that space is that
we were the first like brand new
laundromat from an infrastructure
perspective in san francisco in like 15
years which was really cool a lot of
people would like take over existing and
then um but we did everything from
scratch which was an incredibly
awesome learning experience i would
never do it again but
it was um
but it was great um so that one’s been
open about four years and then um we
just opened the one behind me
which is kind of in like the western
edition area of san francisco um last
october
um
and yeah i’m here
five years later like well seems like
100 years but here we are
it hasn’t aged you yet so you’re good
yeah
okay i mean okay very cool story so
first of all you’re you come out of the
fashion industry with marketing and
branding which is i mean there there’s
some over i mean you know i’m looking at
you now and zoom if you’re watching on
youtube you can see that’s actually one
of your stores right
yeah i’ll duck so you can see yeah get
out of there
that looks good
if you’re listening on the podcast it’s
it’s super fashionable
and then you were driving for a lift
right that’s
awesome
yeah it was great it like provided the
flexibility to be able to like meet with
people check out spaces work on my
business plan um i think
i started like i decided to start doing
this in 2014 and then the first location
opened in 2017. so it took me almost
like three years on the dot to like get
the information build a business plan
figure out how we were going to make it
different um and you know
but kind of the three core things that i
try to focus on is like how do you make
the space different how do you make the
service different and then how do you
make sus like the sustainable options
you know different um
that’s kind of how i tried to modernize
the experience as much as possible
yeah very cool well i want to get more
into that and how you did that in a
second
yeah i mean
the first thing that jumps out of me is
holy cow you built from scratch in san
francisco how did you
how did you decide to do that and then
how did you actually do that yeah
um
again not recommended
sometimes it’s kind of good to be naive
um and
well ultimately like
i needed the space to feel really
different like not like a laundromat and
so
that’s why i chose a space that wasn’t
um
and then
ultimately like
you know the whole process from start to
finish as far as like the build-out went
was like a year so it took a really long
time because permitting in san francisco
is a challenge we had to get upgraded
like gas service we had to get upgraded
water service all of which are like not
only time consuming but like very costly
so that’s like
again not recommended um but you know
with that i got to learn a ton my dad
was actually the gc on the project so
that was like actually a really kind of
special time we got to spend a whole
year like working on this thing together
um
and
and yeah i mean i could probably tell
you more about plumbing and gas lines
than i would ever care to know but um uh
but yeah it’s really cool and um i’m
definitely proud of it um that is not
what we did for the second one we
definitely took over in existing and
then cosmetically kind of upgraded what
needed to be upgraded
yeah we’ll give you uh an excuse for
being naive on the first one
[Music]
yeah as soon as you see like your bank
account hemorrhaging you’re like i’m not
going to do that again so
yeah exactly all right so what uh
i mean tell me about this
build out period how
like
what was going on during that time what
was getting the permits like what was
i mean
all that stuff is
incredibly difficult to navigate in any
city but when you get into a large metro
area that is
quite
you know quite the chore most often so
tell me a little bit about that
experience yeah it was definitely a
full-time job i
was down at city hall the building
planning department kind of
all the time
we didn’t have like
enough funds to like hire an expediter
or like do anything like that so
it became very familiar honestly
probably a lot of it i blacked out
because it was like so stressful but um
you know it you know for example like
the water meter it was interesting
actually because we were so new from an
infrastructure
yeah they
so
because we were so new um
like they didn’t know how to calculate
our water capacity the city didn’t like
the water department and because like
our machines were really efficient they
were like we’re not sure to give you
like a half an inch line an inch line a
two inch like so it was like this whole
back and forth and so
they finally settled on like a two inch
water meter line and like
the difference in an inch was something
like
35 000 or like something wild and i
remember being like oh like
wow like
that’s
that’s really expensive um and
we had to do it there wasn’t really an
option not to but like you know that
like that whole process took
probably five six months so from the
start of like application to like them
cutting up the street putting in like a
new meter um i have so many photos from
that day because i was just like
astounded that we had managed to make it
happen um
and
um yeah like again
costly time consuming then with our with
pg e which is what services are gas and
electric uh you know there’s so many
btus because we had like a lot of dryers
um
the existing meter would not hold that
capacity so then like pg e had to like
come and build us like a brand new like
meter that took like seven months so a
lot of the time you’re just waiting i’m
sure like the store could have opened a
lot sooner but you know you have to wait
on all these like public services to
like you know you’re just in line with
all the rest of them um
and then
yeah we had to do change of uses which
is a really big challenge in san
francisco um
community hearings it was like wild so
yeah i think
if there’s anything to say on that as
is if you’re just getting into like the
industry and and thinking of like doing
something from scratch like totally get
it i was there if you find like a really
cool space like
it can be a huge incentive and to do it
um just make sure you know like
what type of utilities you have and uh
how long the permit processing takes
or don’t know because if you know you
might not do it it’s true yeah yeah i
know sometimes it’s just good ignorance
is blessed honestly that’s right yeah
well until you’re in the middle of it
yeah
i just bought a 35 000
or more than that two inch water line so
now i’m kind of committed yeah yeah i’m
very committed yeah tell me i mean
this this year that all this was going
on and you’re seeing these numbers come
across for you know
how much it’s going to cost to put in
new meters and this is like before you
even buy machines and do the finish it
like all that like you see this stuff
kind of adding up and you’re seeing how
long it’s taken
tell me a little bit about like how are
you feeling throughout this process are
you
scared that you’re not gonna your
business is not gonna make enough money
or are you pretty confident about it
what are you where are you at in this
during this process like one out of ten
stress level was like 11 at all times um
i was very stressed out um
i kept thinking like and you know we
just had to make a lot of compromises
and like pivot and adjust and so like a
lot of the money went into the
infrastructure and then the utilities
and like i had to make a lot of
compromises on the finishes and how the
space looked and everything like that
and you know that’s just kind of how the
cookie crumbled so to speak and so i was
it was nice for my second one i had a
little bit more
flexibility with that since a we were
taking over an existing so we just
replaced the equipment and then like
added
like more cosmetic finishes so i just
was able to do a lot more like what i
wanted to do um
but
uh yeah no it was like there was
multiple times where i was like oh we’re
not gonna open like there’s no way like
we don’t we won’t have enough money and
i we obviously made it happen but it was
it was a long it was a long year
yeah i can imagine well and i know a lot
of times
so like uh so i have a um an investment
group and we partner with investors and
we’re buying laundromats in real estate
we were looking to build out a
store it was 3 500 square feet and we
got hit
just killed our deal dead in the water
but we got hit with an impact fee of 390
thousand dollars which just
is a fee to say
give you permission to connect to the
water in the sewers before you actually
bring in the big water lines and all
that stuff it’s just that we
say that so i know a lot of times
building from scratch whether it’s
different fees or having to do utility
upgrades or those kinds of things can be
very cost prohibitive which is probably
why they’re part of the reason why there
wasn’t too many new laundromats yeah
totally i know it’s like there’s
probably a reason for it i just decided
not to see that but there’s a reason
yeah but yeah i mean it’s it’s crazy and
it’s it’s a shame because
i know that like especially here in san
francisco there’s a lot of there are a
lot of laundromats that are being priced
out right and then no one wants to
build them because the city doesn’t
really give you an incentive but like
this is a service that’s
not a luxury it’s a necessity and so you
need
you need them and so
um i’m hoping that the city of san
francisco kind of
figures out how to drive people to open
more or to like keep the ones remaining
you know open or who knows
yeah yeah they
do not make it easy
no no the bigger the city the worse it
is that’s for sure
yeah that there’s a lot of wisdom in
that for sure
okay so you go through this year of
building your laundromat i mean all the
stress all the nerves all the doubts all
the money
going out and
you know you come time first of all like
when did you say okay this is actually
happening when did you believe it was it
before you were actually opening or was
it a day of opening you’re like this is
actually happening or did you was there
a point in time where you’re like okay
this is this is going down
yeah i think like
the last thing we needed to do i believe
well you need to get like your health
and fire
signed off
and so i was just like scrambling to
like get the inspection taken care of
um
and when we finally did it was like
there were probably still a lot of
things that needed to be done i’m sure
there were but again it was a while ago
and some things i’ve kind of just
decided not to remember but um
yeah
but
i just remember being like we just have
to open because we have to start making
money um
and and we did we opened i think on a
saturday i want to say um
and it was slow moving it took a while
to ramp up that was like also
kind of a surprise because it’s a really
you know that neighborhood specifically
was really dense and um
but i think what i’ve what i’ve learned
and
at least in my experience is that like
laundry is very habitual so like when
someone is going to a place to do their
laundry like sometimes changing that
habit to try something else can be like
intimidating or inconvenient even if
like the service or the experience is
better
and so you really have to work hard on
capturing
those new customers in like a lot of
creative ways um
which is a lot of trial and error
yeah yeah so we have a
little marketing company over here in
laundromat resource marketing and we’re
telling clients all the time like when
you’re trying to get new customers what
you’re trying to do is
break their habit of doing their laundry
wherever
they’re doing it now or however they’re
doing it now and get them to start a new
habit of doing it with you and that
is easier said than done like you said
it sometimes it doesn’t even matter if
your laundromat is
better than the one down the street or
or the one they go to currently or even
sometimes closer yeah i don’t still go
to the other one because that’s what
they’ve done forever right yeah and
they’re used to it
yeah so we talk about how you know you
have to do something dramatic
in order to get people to break those
habits right and so like
we had
you know luke luke williford who he
owned him and his brother lee own you
know around 40 laundromats
and they do
have a card system and they do a huge
promotion for like a month or maybe
longer even where you know they’ll
double your money whatever money you put
on the card they’ll double it um you
know dave laundromat millionaire men’s
he uh is getting ready to open a store
here pretty quick and he is gonna i
think he said he’s giving away a month
of free wash you know it’s just
something dramatic to snap people out of
those habits
so that they can experience your
score but
you’ve gotta i mean that’s gotta be in
your budget you’ve got to have that
planned out pretty well and there are
costs to something like that
but it’s tough like you said
yeah i mean the first we like when we
opened the second location we did like a
full weekend of free um we tried to
advertise that as much as possible and
we got a pretty good um
yeah like a pretty good outcome um
because you just really what you’re what
you’re asking for is just for people to
try you even if it’s at your cost it’s
like try us like if you don’t like it
and it’s free then like i gotta fix
something usually that’s not the case
but um
but
yeah just to get people here but i also
find that you know even if people know
that you’re around like
i have this problem too like uh
sometimes there’s like a restaurant in
my neighborhood that’s maybe been up in
like six eight months and i like you
know go a different way and see that
restaurant i’m like oh like is this new
and they’re like not really and you’re
like oh come on so you know um i have
tunnel vision sometimes and like i’m
sure that’s the case
for laundromats and you know the second
one is just under a year old and i think
it’s also been helpful now that like the
pandemic isn’t as intense um we
obviously still have problems but like
i see like a huge shift in like
uh revenue like once things kind of
opened up in like may june um
so hopefully hoping that continues
to be the the way it goes yeah i mean
that’s been a huge curveball for
everybody right not just laundromat
owners but like any business i mean
everybody really and so
everybody’s kind of trying to make
adjustments and figure out how to
you know either weather the storm or
even try to thrive in the midst of it
you know but yeah and we’re so lucky
that you know we’re you know laundromats
are deemed an essential business and we
got to stay open and everything but it’s
it’s still
super hard and you know a lot of i like
our commercial accounts like you know we
got hit there because they’re just not
operating and so it’s a trickle-down
effect and um
i’m grateful like i said that we we got
to remain open but now it’s kind of
rebuilding the business and getting
things back to where that where it was
yeah so okay so i mean you went through
this whole
process of building
this laundromat from scratch in a major
metro area and survived
okay so yeah
for me when i got into when i got my
first laundromat i had this horrible
experience lost a lot of money a lot of
heartache you know
stuff but learned a lot of really
important lessons and ultimately it’s
kind of what led me to
starting this podcast doing laundromat
resource all the stuff we’re doing over
there
so i’m curious
you have learned some hard earned
lessons through building you know your
first laundromat do you have any advice
for anybody who’s either going through
that process or who’s thinking about it
or who’s about to go through that
process of building a laundromat
yeah for sure i would say
i would say if you have the option to
maybe buy an existing do that first i
mean
for for comparison’s sake like first one
took a year second one took two and a
half months to flip so like
that’s
a huge delta of time that you’re saving
um
so
that and then if you do decide that you
want to build from scratch i would
really encourage you to make sure that
the utility capacity is there that’s
like what’s gonna suck up your money
like
a lot and then um also plumbing is very
expensive i don’t know how it is in in
other places but san francisco requires
you to use
copper for everything and then cast iron
for everything so you can’t use like
plastic anything so like the cost is
just
pretty astronomical um
and so
again all lessons that like were learned
like when you’re ready when it’s too
late um
yeah and then i mean i’m sure like i’m
not the first one to say this but just
make sure that you have a strong lease
and that your terms are
are good um
and
you know negotiate
you know negotiate as low of a rent as
you can because you know at least for us
like you know water is really expensive
in san francisco so like that’s a high
cost for us and you know depending like
whether you have attended or unattended
stores like obviously that affects like
what your labor is but like you know
there can be some like
good overhead in this business so you
just want to make sure you’re keeping it
as low as you possibly can which
you know easier said than done sometimes
but um yeah
yeah
can you
you don’t have to if you don’t want to
i’m kind of putting on a spot here but
you want can you talk about the lease a
little bit like how did you guys
negotiate that did they give you time to
build out or were you paying rent
yeah um
like for our most recent one
we asked for
i believe it was three months free rent
while we were doing the build out i was
hoping to like turn it around in like
two months and it i mean we were pretty
much right on schedule but i just didn’t
want to be obviously paying while we’re
fixing it up plus you’re adding value to
an exist to their building right like
you’re putting in money um so that
should kind of be a given but some
people
but that i mean it was a it was a
it took a long time to negotiate and
there was almost a time for the second
one where i kind of walked away because
i felt like
if i wasn’t gonna get the terms that i
thought were appropriate then like
it wouldn’t be worth the headache in the
future so
luckily like you know we came to a
mutually beneficial
agreement but um but i think the
negotiations themselves lasted like
two and a half months so it was a while
yeah about the amount of time is the
whole build out yeah exactly i’m like we
could have done this a lot sooner but um
but yeah i would i would just say and
then also like
please do have a lawyer review it like
don’t not pay for that because it’ll
it’ll save you money in the future for
sure
yeah what if there’s there’s a saying
about that it’s like i don’t
skip over dollars pick up pennies i
don’t know i can’t remember what the
saying is but yeah i mean it and i tell
people this all the time too i mean i
think that’s great advice right like
don’t skimp out a lawyer for the lease
you know if you’re if you’re planning on
spending
thousands tens of thousands hundreds of
thousands of dollars
don’t skimp out on the things that are
going to save you right so whether
that’s a lawyer
you know to look over a lease or a
purchase agreement or even a consultant
who can tell you hey it’s gonna be
really expensive to build out new
because you’re gonna have to get all new
utility things you know utility meters
and
copper piping throughout you know if you
have somebody to tell you that stuff up
front or hey watch out for these red
flags if you’re buying an existing store
from a seller or here’s some of the
tricks
that sellers try to do to inflate their
income or to hide expenses from you you
know those kinds of things like don’t
skimp out on those things that are
relatively inexpensive that can save you
thousands and thousands and sometimes
more dollars a hundred percent i mean
it’s so worth it and sometimes on the
occasion i do consult for some people
that are looking to kind of get into it
because they’re like okay let’s make
sure that we’re not making mistakes and
you know i hope i can
help people
not do some of the things that i did and
learn from what i learned and you know i
i found it really challenging to get um
information just like a baseline when i
when i was first interested in in the
industry to get a sense of like what
machines cost what like
baseline rents were like i just couldn’t
get a lot of information and it was a
challenge and i don’t really think that
should be the case because i it you know
i think the more people like get into
the industry the more of it it’s going
to evolve and like
get more modern and like have just more
at our fingertips and um and so yeah i’m
always
happy to help if i can
yeah i think that’s awesome and i love
hearing that i mean i know that about
you already because you’re on the
podcast you’re sharing about your
experience and stuff but i think there’s
been so long just a culture of not
sharing that information or not you know
being open about some of that stuff that
in our industry
that
you know it’s it’s always refreshing
when there’s people who are
you know in the industry you’re saying
hey here’s you know
here’s kind of what i’m looking at
baseline rent like you’re paying too
much or they’re asking way too much or
you know that’s a good deal
totally yeah no it’s important i mean if
you know work work together i mean
most of the time you know just it’s a
big country like you’re probably not in
direct competition with
you know i maybe i wouldn’t tell all my
secrets to like the person directly next
to me but you know there’s there’s some
wiggle room there and so uh
yeah happy to happy to share
i’m not wearing that awesome okay so uh
so you
bought or you built your first one you
said that was like
four or five years ago what was that uh
yeah we opened four years ago four years
ago
and
about a year ago you
open the second got your second one
what caused you to want to get second
one
[Music]
honestly i
drove by this laundromat and it had been
closed for like some time i think like a
couple of years
but i noticed there was a release
sign on it and it’s like four minute
drive from my house and there’s no other
laundromats in the vicinity
so i was just like i’m just gonna like
call and see like what the rent is like
i just wanted to like you know i
i was pretty sure i wasn’t gonna do it
and then um
alcoholic walking into a bomb pretty
sure i’m not gonna take it
or a tattoo somebody with tattoos
i’m not getting one yeah i just want to
check it out talk to my friends and yeah
yeah and so
i
i did that and then i think like pretty
soon after they i like went in
to check out the space and you know it
was definitely outdated but like well
kept up like you know i didn’t have to
do anything from an infrastructure
perspective which was
very nice um
and the rent was like very reasonable um
and i was the only i guess they had had
like a lot of applicants for like
different types of uses like cafe or
something like that but i was the only
like applicant that like wanted to like
keep it a laundromat and i think the
landlords like wanted to wanted to do
that if possible um
and so
yeah again after like two plus months of
negotiation it ended up working out um
and then
yeah we just you know kind of turned it
into a
turned it into a lingerie so we have
like you know card readers and we can go
into all of that stuff but like how we
kind of modernize
the the space a bit
yeah
yeah i do want to talk about that in a
second uh
your in your whole brand too that’s
pretty cool that’s your background too
so
all of that uh okay but real quick on
the second one
um
how
how big is it compared to your other one
is it smaller bigger comparable
um so ironically it was a bigger space
but i have less machines in the second
one um
you know a lot of learnings
from the first one so like the first
store for example we have five size five
different size washers and i felt like
there were like there’s a size in there
that’s like too close too similar to
like one of the other ones and so it was
like sort of underutilized and i think
honestly it was too many options for the
customer
um so i kind of decided to go like the
in and out route for this one where it
was like you get three options like
yeah small medium large um
and
so the way that that kind of
formulated it it just was less um i
think we have
21 washers at our second location and 23
at our at our first so not like a huge
difference um
and then
um
yeah i think like square footage wise
like the second one is definitely bigger
and this one has an office so i work out
of this one primarily um it’s just much
easier and
but
less per square foot which is
all right
yeah yeah yeah that’s awesome yeah so
that worked out
yeah and that’s that’s one of the
benefits of you know kind of getting
your foot in the door is you have a lot
more like you said baselines for things
because
you may not have known beforehand
that
pretty decent feel on rent because you
wouldn’t have had a baseline for it
having that
second one you’ve learned lessons you
learn you know put in
less options of machine i mean all that
stuff is you know and i think i talked
to a lot of people who are nervous to
get started because they want to make
all the right decisions
and uh
sometimes you just got to make the best
decisions you can get your foot in the
door and then then a lot of
opportunities open up for you for
learning and also just opportunities in
general
yeah the first one is by far the hardest
and i’m sure you can attest to that um
it’s yeah you just you don’t know what
you don’t know and then
you have to make the best decision with
the information that you have and hope
that it works and guess what a lot of
times it doesn’t and you just have to
pivot and
yeah kind of adjust
accordingly
yeah okay well can we talk for a second
about your brand i don’t know if you can
hear this i can hear a little bit yeah
it’s crazy loud it’s like right above me
we talked a little bit about your brand
he tells what it is and how it kind of
came about
yeah i mean it still kind of stemmed
from my school project uh the name
changed i think in school it was called
suds and buds so we kind of made a
departure from that name um but you know
i wanted it to kind of be like a simple
name to the
to the point i guess people ask me all
the time if it means like laundry and
french but it’s just a made-up word um
and
it’s lingerie right andre yeah yeah yeah
um
and
yeah accent mark over yeah like on the e
because i mean a lot of sophisticated
pinkies up a little bit
yeah
um but
yeah i mean ultimately because my
experience
at laundromats was subpar um
i thought there was a lot of room for
improvement it felt like the standard
was kind of mediocre and especially in a
city like
san francisco that’s like so innovative
i was actually surprised that there
wasn’t
something
better and so you know that was my goal
was just to like try to improve what the
model was or like what i had experienced
i know that’s not across the board but
um and so
you know
first of all like you go into some
laundromats um and
a lot of the times it’s just like not an
environment that you want to be in and
so i was like okay like how can i change
that and like i really love design i
love branding i love you know packaging
so i was like how can i apply those
things to like this and so
that’s kind of where i started um
and just kind of creating like what i
wanted
the space to feel like uh
clean and like bright and crisp and then
like sort of playful so like a lot of
our verbiage on like our signage or
um kind of on our website like i kind of
wanted to be like you know not so
serious at the end of the day you’re
doing laundry so it doesn’t need to be
like
uh
super serious business um
and so that was kind of step one and
like i said for the first one i had to
compromise a lot like aesthetically
because we just wasn’t in the budget and
this one i got to have more fun i think
like um for this one i don’t know you
can’t really tell but we got like this
really fun tile that like i’m pretty
obsessed with and um it just made the
space like kind of come a lot live it’s
like a blue tourette so it’s like kind
of fun and um but still has like
a calm essence about it so um that’s
where we started yeah with the space
that’s kind of like what i
wanted to do and then service wise like
both of our stores are fully attended um
you know we want to make sure like we
can like
kind of inform customers on like not
only how to use the machines or like
maybe what to do for a stain but just
like kind of be there as a point of
reference and i i do know that’s like a
huge reason why people come to us is
because like
you know they can
if they have a question or if something
goes wrong or whatever they can just
talk to someone that’s there um and i
think that the the people
like start to identify with like
the laundry attendants and like they
form a relationship and it can be really
fun um
so yeah both attended we do full fully
processing like we do wash and fold
orders and self-service um
and then third was like sustainability
um you know it’s it’s it’s a business
that uses a lot of things right like
huge amounts of water so
kind of first order of business was
finding
um washers that like used
the least amount of water um um so we
use electrolux and it’s been it’s been a
great brand for us the maintenance is
low which i appreciate um and
and um
has kind of the automatic weigh-in
system so it kind of saves us a bunch of
water which is great
um and then also we provide free soap
with every wash it’s like an
eco-friendly
powder detergent um
you know it encourages people to try
something like you know eco-friendly we
also know like what’s going into our
washers which is really helpful
um and then all like
the like we do like alternative bleaches
vinegar dryer balls we try to encourage
people to use that versus kind of the
more toxic um alternatives and you know
everyone has a way that they like to do
their laundry so not here to like
guilt or shame anybody but just kind of
show them an alternative if they’re
interested
is it uh are you giving them like a
baggie of powder is it automatically
uh we like powder right so yeah yeah
it’s powder so we
we pre-measured them out in like little
um jars based on what size washer you’re
using and then you just like go up to
the attendant and they’ll give it to you
um and then everything else we sell for
like a dollar like the the alternative
like bleach the oxygen brightener
um and like vinegar and stuff like that
yeah yeah you sound very san francisco
right now
i’m sure i’m sure
everybody in the midwest is like oh i
know they’re like but but tied
i’m down with it i’m down with it
uh yeah i know but seriously i think
that’s pretty awesome and i like you
know i think a lot of people not
everybody but a lot of people who are
owning laundromats are looking for
ways to
use their laundry mats for good right
and so whether that’s you know improving
it so the community has a better
experience in helping improve the
community or helping with the
environment or both ideally
you know so i i think that that is
a pretty cool way to use a very ordinary
chore right to tap into being able to do
something bigger than just your chore
right you’re
you know contributing to
you know being more environmentally
friendly and
educating people you know
so i really love that
um so okay so
lingerie i mean you know listen as
somebody who is pretty much overflowing
with class i’m gonna give that a thumbs
up
okay and you can tell i mean it’s yeah
it’s oozing it’s
hard not to see it it’s you can’t tell
right now but i’m like really
restraining myself from keeping that
pinkie up just it’s like it’s bad
just give it up
um
so pretty cool how are you
uh if you don’t mind me asking how are
you
kind of managing all of this are you
using i mean you said you’re doing like
a a drop off like fluff and fold service
are you using like a software are you
what’s the tell me about the logistics
of
how you’re putting all that stuff
together
yeah um
so when we opened the second store we
transitioned from our previous kind of
laundry pos system um to sense um
so
um
fairly new company uh but they are doing
really cool things um i think um and
especially
since kind of one of my top priorities
is like
you know keeping things as modern as
possible um that’s they’ve been really
helpful so like they are the they are
the pos that we use for all of our wash
and fold processing um
and um
and excitingly i mean you’re catching me
kind of right on the cusp of this but
they just kind of launched a
um a partnership with doordash so we can
now offer like on-demand pickup and
delivery which is like huge because we
just didn’t have the infrastructure to
you know we’re small like to do like
trucks and
and other drivers and the logistics of
that is like pretty crazy right and like
i applaud the operators that do that
because that is
a completely secondary type of job um
and so
so it’s been really great i mean it’s
just launched but we’ve seen some pretty
great feedback so far and have been able
to like you know sign additional
commercial accounts which is like really
awesome because that’s like revenue that
you can count on and it’s it’s repeat
business and so before we just didn’t
have the key there’s a barrier to entry
right like no commercial account is
going to want to like
do a lot of pickup and drop off um if
it’s super consistent so we weren’t
really able to get
as many as we would have liked so this
is going to be really helpful um but
yeah we used them and then um
yeah that sense
yeah no awesome i didn’t know that you
were actually using kind of the door
dash integration right started trying
that out so that’s pretty cool yeah i
think it’s an interesting uh an
interesting model especially for
i think it gives a lot of operators who
don’t want to enter into that logistics
business which is pick up and delivery
right yeah
it gives them a way to expand their
radius uh a little bit using
you know a third party driving
service for that pickup delivery so it
basically is still a fluff and fold
business for the owner um you’re just
able to expand your
your radio so that’s pretty pretty
interesting i’ll be interested to see
how it continues to play out because i
think
poor dash uber lit like all these
you know kind of gig economy
you know things are are kind of
penetrating in all kinds of different
places in our society right now so it’s
really interesting to see that um finger
kind of getting into our industry and
i’ll be interested to see where it goes
from here
i mean i’m so excited about it i
remember like years ago
chatting actually with someone at
doordash and being like oh you guys
should like get into laundry like i
would love that and it was just like a
very beautiful surprise that
sense
did that for us so i think it’s it’s
awesome
yeah that is pretty cool
um okay so
your lingerie
class full of style
right i mean right on par with me
side note nobody has ever called me
classy once
i’ll be the first
maybe i should go into your laundromat
one time and then see
the comparison
yeah yeah
you can kind of judge
using sense to manage that’s pretty cool
too
uh
talk to me a little bit about
what it’s like owning two stores mm-hmm
uh as you know i mean you went from
building one from scratch
to running one to now owning two have
there been any unique challenges has it
been pretty much the same
you know
what’s that been like
you know i mean there yeah there are
definitely like
more challenges it’s it’s more time
consuming in the sense that i have to
kind of bought back and forth um
versus just having to go to one employee
management can be a bit more challenging
because now you’re dealing with two
schedules two stores um
but there are pros right economies of
scale like you can buy more of one
product at a discount split it up like
stuff like that like our like our
supplies but um
you know so far so good um
yeah it’s it’s good i’m i’m happy to
have both like i feel i feel good about
the decision
um
but it’s just
yeah it’s just like double the work
yeah are there
i mean are there any plans to
you know
number three
like the place to go in san francisco or
the world yeah
um you know i it’s it’s funny i
i’m open to it for sure i think
uh like most of us like the last year 18
months has been like super wild i also
just had a baby so like that shifted my
focus a bit and boy or girl girl um yeah
yeah so she’s she’s still pretty little
so it’s like you know you got to kind of
reprioritize a little bit but
i’m open to it i’m really curious to see
like
what happens with our stores in like the
next year or two and then we’ll probably
make a decision based on that um but
i mean i yeah i would be open to it i
think that
san francisco could probably use a few
more if i were up for it
yeah i mean i definitely could use a
laundry mogul
and so
yeah let me know when you find one
i think i did i don’t know
i may be talking one right now and i
just want to ask like don’t don’t forget
us little people oh yes no never are you
kidding you’re what look at this
platform you got it going on oh my gosh
yeah great i mean
not not to simultaneously excite you and
depress you but this is probably the
pinnacle of your life
no i’ve peaked it’s very obvious so okay
yeah uh awesome okay well i mean this is
so cool to just kind of hear your story
and how you got in and
you know i want to hear a little bit in
just one second about your actual
businesses we have a section called down
to
[Applause]
to business
over and out
okay that’s where we just talk a little
bit about
the business um so you have
two locations right
how far how far from each other are they
it’s a good question maybe two miles
yeah so i’m talking like a 15 minute
drive that’s what i don’t know like an
hour commute
no no no
uh yeah it’s like a 15 minute drive it’s
not bad at all
and then i live in between them so it’s
like i can kind of
talk back and forth
just throwing this out there very san
francisco thing to do with free
for you to ride your bike to and from oh
yeah no i would not trust myself on a
bicycle in fact i’ve crashed almost
every single time so i stick to my
four wheeled vehicle
i crashed on my bike not that long ago
embarrassingly i was going straight
there’s nobody or nothing else around i
was on a paved road and i just went down
oh man that is brutal there’s nothing
like falling when like fully falling
when you’re an adult like it doesn’t
happen very often and it feels very
disorienting yeah you know what yeah and
there’s shame associated with that
100 i’m just gonna put it out there
there’s shame associated with that so
yeah yeah yeah so i’m still trying to
recover both physically and emotionally
well it’s good that you told everybody
about it i know it’s out there now and i
feel like that’s the best way to do it
right just put it out there
you know if you’re going to take your
cracks take your trash i’ll take my
knobs and then
somebody else will fall
yes
so if somebody out there could do me a
solid and fall that would be awesome
uh so all right so you’ve been in the
business for about
four years maybe a little bit more than
that
i’m gonna give you extra credit because
you’ve been in the business
that whole year for sure that you were
building
for sure yeah i like to say i’ve been in
it for
eternity was it like seven years because
that’s when i started and it was like
yeah you’re just learning i mean we
didn’t open until 2017 but before that
it was a lot of work for sure yeah i’m
gonna give you the full seven years
worth of credit thank you i appreciate
it yeah and uh
now you’ve learned a lot i feel like you
can’t really stop it too i mean i feel
like there’s probably things you need to
learn right now
and managing too but at some point
you’re going to get bored with you and
be like
easy i’m like
i don’t know what boredom feels like so
i’m excited yeah yeah it’s like too easy
so let me just get like eight more real
quick yeah yeah i mean two eight they’re
all the same it should be fine it’s like
kids you know i mean you just had is
this your first one that you just had
yeah just had the first one so i can’t
let me just tell you as a extremely
embarrassingly
experienced parent here uh
with two kids that i mean once
you know
once your kids like
year and a half it’s pretty much just
easy like just autopilot just like let
them go wild all right cool well i’m
excited i’m excited for that
so you might as well just i have
neighbors right
there that have 11 kids yeah it’s it’s
easy
11 is that real
yeah for real they have 11 kids they’re
awesome they do have eleven kids
bless them so someone shoot four eleven
quarter mats and eleven kids perfect
people can manage a laundromat so and
maybe that’ll work
you gotta have somebody to pass them on
to yeah family business so
you heard it here first arianna
coming your way which would also be an
awesome
title for a tv show reality show 11
laundromats eleven kids so yeah call it
my memoir it’s gonna it’s gonna get wild
locked in right now on both
all right
let’s see how it goes
uh good
i don’t know we’re like
evolving over here but in a really good
way a lot of fun business plans ahead
yeah uh talk to us a little bit like how
much does it cost to do laundry in san
francisco
guess that depends on where you go um
i think you go to the classy
the classiest place in town
um so
i’ll give you this store as an example
um we second one the one in the back my
second one yeah second one
um so we have three size washers we have
like an 18 pounder a 30 pounder and a 60
pounder um our
our
18 um is starts at 550 and then um
30 pound is 750 and then our 60 is 12.
um
and so
yeah i think uh it was interesting
similar prices at our other location as
well uh people were initially kind of
had like sticker shock um because i
don’t think that’s what they’re used to
they’re used to like the two three
dollar range for like let’s compare it
to like an 18
pounder but um
ultimately what like i tried to
it’s kind of like a sort of like a
re-education i guess and just like
letting them know like why it is that
the wash is this much but like guess
what your dry is going to be like
probably a third less than what you’re
used to as well
um you know
so kind of at the end of the day
you’re spending a comparable amount of
money
but hoping it’s a better experience for
you you know that’s also free um
detergent included in that price we
offer sanitizing free sanitizing on all
your washers before you use them so that
like making sure that the drum and the
dispensers are cleared out for you and
then
um
and yeah and yeah wi-fi we have
you know fun music
i’m talking about it’s all about the
vibe yeah we set up we try to set up a
good vibe actually i think our like
sandwich board sign
says something about good vibes so
there you go right on the money
look at that
good vibes all right yeah that’s pretty
uh yeah it sounds
pretty
like yeah you know for like a like a
good
experience
totally
um all right well so i’m assuming
because you have wash and fold and
you’re offering sanitizing all that
stuff are both of your laundry mats
fully attended yep
fully attended at all times
um from eight to ten every day
have you
has it been
like relatively easy making sure you
have employees and being able to keep
them have you had any struggles with
that i know that’s a lot of owners have
been having problems
fighting yeah and keeping employees
lately
has that been your experience or has
been pretty smooth
i mean
definitely yes i mean i think that’s
kind of a constant um you know this
industry can have some high turnover
for sure um
we try to you know i want people to
enjoy coming to work here and so
we
we try to like offer like small
incentives like monthly things or you
know we do pay
like above average um because i want to
like retain those employees um
and then
but yeah i mean i think it’s like
especially right now it’s like a hard
time for everyone like the work force is
just
weird and
and there’s just not a lot there’s just
like not a lot of candidates um
so yeah it’s definitely a struggle i
like
knock on wood like we have a pretty good
team right now and so i’m very grateful
um
but yeah for sure it’s it’s it’s
one of the top stressors as i’m sure it
is for other operators is like finding
and
keeping good employees
yeah yeah it’s yeah thing has definitely
been a problem and i think weird is a
good
word for yeah
has been really weird
yeah you start seeing like the major
fast food chains
having banners out in front they’re like
paying 20 an hour
totally i was at fedex the other day um
and they were saying that they were they
were hiring and that they were giving
people a thousand dollar sign and
sign-on bonus geez i was like oh should
i like go work for fedex no i think i’m
going to put in an application after we
get off of this yeah yeah yeah
yeah i just did yeah yeah everyone knows
now that fedex is hiring yeah yeah
exactly
uh fedex feel free to send your check
yeah yeah
we are supported by
this episode is sponsored by mcdonald’s
and fedex yeah unfortunately
yeah unfortunately we cannot offer that
but we tried to offer other good things
yeah totally and i think that’s what
it’s about like you offer what you can
offer and then just finding like
creative ways to have good vibes you
know it’s
a lot of people are
working for
a boss and not a specific amount right
so if you are able to run
well there’s a i was just reading this
on
reddit or linkedin or something like
that where you know they’re
saying that basically it’s like people
when people quit their job
almost always people quit
their bosses not the job not the job
itself putting their bosses so if you
can provide
a good working atmosphere you know
people are willing to
you know be able to make a little bit
less or not i’m not saying that you
should pay less than you can but you
know being able to get a higher quality
higher caliber employee
when you really focus on and really work
towards having a good working
environment yeah it’s important i i
really i really
i think that is something that we we do
well at is just making sure people feel
comfortable
and yeah like coming in and um
i you know i work really closely with
everyone that works here so like i i
want to have a nice relationship with
them too and so um makes makes my day
easier and my life easier and um yeah
right now we’re really lucky to have a
really solid team
yeah that’s awesome
so i think i see back there
a
card system is that true are you doing
card coin both hybrid uh we do both um
yeah we have fast card like cci um
card readers um
and we still offer chlorine at both
locations um
and we don’t have like a laundry card
system it’s just like use your card
directly on the um
on the reader
yeah have you ever timed
how long it takes to put 48 quarters in
that machine
i’m always like i’m always shocked when
people
do it i’m always like you know like you
could just
one swipe and you’re good to go but some
people prefer preferred the coin that’s
fine but yeah for the bigger machines
it’s pretty wild what you should do
as a promotion you should set up a
tournament
where people use your 60 pound washers
with quarters
and give the one who puts all the
quarters in the fastest a free wash
yeah now you’re getting people to use
your 60 pound washers
for only the cost of one wash i mean
that is genius wow
good job a bracket that goes like every
saturday the brackets get smaller
all right yeah
i have to i’ll have to see what we can
do with that
you might have to be like the mediator
though
i’ll do that too
with bruce buffer let’s get ready to
rumble yeah yeah we’ll take that yeah as
soon as you can come up here and do that
we will definitely do that tournament
100 in on that and i am not only do i
not live that far from you uh my family
all lives right around there so oh great
all right the jordan berry 60-pound
tournament tournament that’s what we’ll
call it
this oh you’re committed now you’re
committed i’m i’m 100 in i’m i’m gonna
make t-shirts for all of us all right
yeah i’m excited i’m excited
all right that turned that turned really
good really fast
uh so talk to me about
um
your specific involvement in the
business like
how much are you involved how much are
these running kind of on their own and
like maybe how many hours are you
spending
businesses or managing them
yeah um i mean it’s definitely
changed now i remember when we first
opened i was working like
i don’t know 16 hour days like every
single day
forever
um
and i’m glad to not have to do that
anymore um
i usually with the new baby right yeah
like at a certain point like you just
can’t you’re like i have a child to take
care of but um
i
yeah i so
uh i’m just kind of getting back into
the full swing of things after kind of
not really taking some time off because
you kind of can’t but like
taking a little bit of a step back and i
have an incredible manager so um she’s
been with me for a couple of years and
um was really helpful during during the
time i needed off um
so
really i i think i try to automate as
many things as i can um right like
there’s that’s what you want to use
technology for um and then
um but i would say
i don’t know it it fluctuates a little
bit right like some weeks are like
really wild and i’m like it’s all day
every day and other days
um other weeks it’s a little bit more
fluid but i would say maybe on average
like
what time is it 30 35
maybe um
but yeah it kind of yeah it ups and
flows we have like a lot of systems in
place now that have been really helpful
and then
again like um
yeah my manager has taken some off my
plate that so like i can kind of focus
on more stuff at home or maybe growing
the big the like the business big
picture and not having to do as much
day-to-day which is not my
forte so um
i’m a better big picture lady
you’re just trying to get out of mopping
i
[Music]
oh man
i’m a pretty good bathroom cleaner i’ll
tell you that much
i’ve got four over here
come on down yeah
awesome
uh larry we have another section that i
think
people who are listening to this have
got to be excited about this section if
they own a laundromat because you’re
doing some really interesting things you
have a really cool kind of business plan
that you’re worth working on right now
and like or working out like you’re
implemented
uh but this is called secret sauce
listen up it’s the secret sauce
and this is for current logger mat
owners do you have maybe something that
you’re doing that’s working really well
or or maybe just any tips for other
laundry bed owners that might help them
improve their business
yeah
um what’s worked really well for us is
so we do like a free dry wednesday every
day and that’s actually like one of our
busiest free dry wednesday every day
every week
every day is free dry wednesday yeah
every day every day is wednesday
might as well be i don’t know the days
of the week anymore um but uh yeah so we
do it every week and we’ve done that
from the beginning and then implemented
it at the second location too and it’s a
very popular day and so i would
encourage you and the reason i started
it is because traditionally wednesdays
are like not great um from a revenue
perspective for laundromat so
um it actually sometimes can beat our
sundays which is
great
yeah um and then on tuesdays and
thursdays we do like a discounted um
wash and fold rate um like a percentage
off and so
that’s been really
really great again like
traditionally can be slower days so it
makes sure that like our um
our laundry attendants are staying
active and busy and processing those
orders um
and so those kind of those two
promotions or yeah two promotions
we’ve done always consistently
never never skip it never stop it um and
so people just come to learn that that’s
that’s the case for those three days um
and so that’s been really helpful for us
for sure
i forgot to ask this earlier but do you
mind sharing how much it costs to do
drop uh fluff and fold drop off yeah um
for a 24 hour turnaround it’s an 180 a
pound okay yeah and then when you
discount it how much are you discounting
it’s 15
okay yeah
yeah
yeah awesome i mean i think that’s
awesome
awesome secret sauce uh you know thrown
in some
regular promotions
during the down times to get you know
more business going those days but also
create some buzz and you know yeah yeah
definitely word of mouth has been really
helpful with those and um yeah people we
get calls off the tape being like are
you guys the ones that do free dry on
wednesdays i’m like heck yeah like come
on over
yeah um so yeah that’s been actually
yeah more so than i kind of wouldn’t
have anticipated you know i kind of just
started it to like get some momentum and
just it yeah like never wanted to take
it away because it’s been it’s been
pretty good for us
can i see a quick
kind of logistical question about your
free dry wednesday yeah do your machines
allow you to program in like wednesday
midnight to
wednesday at 3 59 free or do you have to
manually do that with the machines
what’s the
we have to manually do it technically
like
there is a way to do it with electrolux
dryers and then in the fast card but
like
every time i’ve tried to sync it like
the the the card rear and the um
machine like it it doesn’t quite do it
and so
it’s probably something that i have to
look further into but it would be great
if like it would be great if like the
hardware would like automatically just
like talk to the machine and be like you
don’t have to do anything so yeah it’s
manual right now it just you know it’s
not the best it’s not the worst it’s
it’s fine yeah that’s just what you do
yeah part of the team
uh
this is a little bit i mean i’m kind of
pushing the bounds of secret sauce here
i don’t
do this but because your laundry mat
looks so awesome and you have like a
really cool brand you have any like
i don’t know i mean so we were talking
beforehand you were saying how a lot of
times
you know people will come in like maybe
owners like older owners who’ve owned
businesses for a long time would be like
why are you doing these things and you
know
can you talk to us a little bit about
you know
you’ve built it really nicely the
picture in the background looks really
nice
but traditionally our business and i
think this is changing pretty
dramatically right now but traditionally
our business people
you know have got brown tiles and
you know
wood paneling on the wall yeah yeah
flickering lights and stuff um but
i don’t i don’t know do you have any
like
design tips or or thing or not
necessarily design tips but like
atmosphere vibe
uh tips that
work well for you that you know maybe
can spruce up our laundromats
yeah um totally i think
first of all it doesn’t have to be this
like huge overhaul
um you can do a lot of cosmetic things
that like are lower cost and and not you
know
they’re not gonna
like hemorrhage from your like money’s
not gonna hammer from your bank account
so like that is what i try to go towards
honestly i think of like
and this is probably going to sound a
certain way but like i think of like
trying to do like a consistent color
story like kind of have like we like
we focus on a lot of blue if you can’t
tell and you know like the machines have
like the blue the floor like the tile
over here
and so like it’s all pretty consistent
in that way which i think is just really
helpful and then you know you can you
can play with that right you could do
like brighter colors to make it like
like a really fun environment you can do
calmer colors like we chose but i think
like consistency with colors is really
important um i also think that like
putting like plants or something that’s
like
i don’t know something like
alive can be like really helpful to just
do make it feel like yeah sorry sorry
guys i’m gonna take it off no no but
just like to make it more
i don’t know like homey and feel like a
little bit fresher
less sterile maybe that’s the way i’m
i’m
that’s the word i’m looking for do you
do
you do live plants or do fake plants
live plants this one
is a ficus but i killed that one so we
just got a new one this week and uh
i always try to put vicuses in my stores
i’m like oh they’re so beautiful but
like they don’t like
they need like a lot of light and
i finally learned my lesson so we got
like a
i want to say it’s like a fig tree or
it’s like a tall fig tree but that just
got planted this week so i’m pray for me
that i keep that one alive
is it in a pot
no we put like a um
uh it’s a
what do you call when you put a planter
it’s a planter box and there’s like a
gap in between like the 60 pounders and
the 30 pounders and it’s like sizable
and so we built like a proper planter
with like drainage and everything and so
that it’s in a it’s in a planter
you have an indoor planter yeah well it
feeds right into like you know the pipes
for the washers so all the water just
goes off the same same way that’s so
cool
you need a you know what you need you
need a skylight above it we do we have
one over
well it’s well it’s not above the tree
but it’s like right there somewhere oh
okay yeah oh no wrong side this one nope
nope
no it’s this way sorry it’s close
don’t pretend
we do have one uh awesome i mean i think
that’s
you know i think first of all you did
sound very fashion designery stay with
your color story yeah really just like
feel what you know feels good
but no i think that’s helpful and then
like with you know
you know tile like you can like for
instance the first location like i
really wanted tile but we couldn’t
afford tile so i got like a laminate
floor but like that was
i regret
now because it’s hard to clean
but like what i tried to do was create
like
something
that would yeah like emulate kind of the
same color story and all that stuff
which don’t do don’t do white
for for future reference try something
that has like a little bit of like color
in it but um
but yeah there are other materials that
you can use that are like more cost
effective and stuff like that and then
you know like these lights i got like a
pretty
decent price it’s just like you know
doing
doing the research and and you know
finding
maybe like not getting the designer
thing but getting something that’s
similar or something like that takes a
little bit of time but i mean i
personally enjoy doing it so it doesn’t
it doesn’t feel like work in that sense
but um
always yeah if anyone has any questions
i’m always happy to
help if you like don’t offer that unless
you mean it
we’ll do that and
people will
reach out to you yeah uh
the well there’s i was gonna say oh um
you know just in case you’re
you know
you’re not like ariana and i me and
ariana and me and you know obviously
we’re very stylish and
that i think you take the cake to be
honest well i mean listen it’s not fair
to completely make you uncomfortable
with the compliments but like smoke
i mean i do feel uncomfortable but i
understand where it’s coming from
but no but seriously like if you’re if
you’re not like
that’s not your thing necessarily you
can go online like adobe color there’s a
lot of places where you can go find
you know people like ariana who are very
good at this and put together like color
schemes
yeah together and they’ll be like three
four five colors together that are going
to look good together and you can go
find those and see what you what you
like and use those you don’t have to
come up with this on your own so
i also find that like uh you can’t
really see them because they’re far but
like the stickers that show you like the
instructions for like how to use the
machine are also kind of branded and
like
i it’s on the electrolux ones um
the directions are like they’re simple
and they’re there but even if you
recreated what they had and just put it
in a more vibrant color like it’s a it’s
a small thing it’s literally a sticker
that i ordered and i just put them on
there and it makes everything cohesive
same with the stickers on the um
on the soap dispenser so it tells you
like which goes and which but everything
is like consistent and and even that i
think can be can be helpful it’s just
like small small things that do not cost
a lot
yeah yeah those little details are
really kind of the
those are the pinky up things right yeah
it really takes you your pinky from here
to here yeah for sure detailed and
that’s what i try to focus on all the
time i i can tell for sure
pretty sure about the details
uh
that was a
dare i say an epic secret sauce segment
thank you and the bars set very high
for the next section which is pro tips
pro
tips
and pro tips is what advice do you have
somebody maybe who is either trying to
build or buy their very first
laundromat what tips do you have for
them don’t build got it yeah yeah
avoid at all cost
um
you know i think i mean honestly uh
i think this is such a great resource
for people and i wish i had had it when
i was when i was you know starting out
um but chat with some different
operators try to chat with them maybe
some in your town maybe some not in your
town but like
um
i think it’s helpful just to get other
people’s experiences to just get a
baseline and and then
ultimately
yeah i would say
um
find a place that has good utilities i
know it’s like not super sexy but like
it’s important and um
and like make sure that you’re like
really good about like negotiating with
your lease um
and then you know find equipment that
that you that you really like you’re
going to be with it for a long time and
i feel lucky in that regard i do i do
really like the brand that we chose um
especially from like a maintenance
perspective it’s been pretty good to us
um
but uh it does it does take some
homework for sure but i’m sure um
i’m sure jordan or i would be happy to
answer questions if anyone needs to i’m
by no means like an expert but like i’ve
learned a few things and i’m happy to
share that dare volunteer me you
jordan would be thrilled um his phone
number is
i was muted because there’s construction
and i was like
oh
no uh yeah no but seriously i mean i
think that’s good and super good advice
uh all the way around and you know that
the equipment stuff i mean it’s it’s
interesting because
there there are nuances
you know within the different equipment
so trying to figure out what it is that
you’re looking for what it is that you
need and what equipment is going to best
suit those needs is really important so
get a hold of ariana and
yeah
tell i’m basically your new distributor
hello
well listen ariana this has been
awesome this has been very very cool to
hear your story but also get all these
awesome tips and awesome advice thank
you so much for coming on i have one
more question okay
so there’s so much construction
happening right now
um
but before i have a question for you i
just want to let everybody know you’re
actually going to be on a webinar
next week which uh what is august 24th
right i think
yes next tuesday next tuesday which is
at
uh pacific time if you’re on
the beast coast that’s 4 p.m if you’re
somewhere in the middle you got to do
the math yourself
yeah no one knows yeah
but yeah 1 o’clock august 24th i’ll put
a link to it down below because uh can
you tell us just a little bit about what
you’re going to be talking about
yeah we’re going to be chatting about
like the gig economy within laundry and
kind of how that’s you know i think
revolutionizing like a lot of things for
operators um we you know touched on it a
little bit
during our conversation um but i think
it’s gonna be it’s really gonna help
like
kind of catapult the industry i think um
and then yeah it’ll be me along with um
waleed who who owns and operates um
in new york and yeah you’ll be
the host mediator
what would you call yourself
uh master of ceremonies yes i would
agree
accurate
um but yeah we’re really excited i’m
excited to chat and um i think it’ll be
cool so if yeah people are around and
would love to hear like we’ll be doing
that at
1pm on the 24th
24th which i just realized
coincidentally is my half birthday so
that’s a big deal it’s a perfect day
yeah all right we’ll have to do
something really special that day i mean
really special yeah
all right no but seriously i’m looking
forward to that it’s going to be a lot
of fun and i’m glad that we got to do
this podcast episode yeah thank you
which is so cool
plus now i know you a little bit so i
don’t have any qualms about throwing you
very difficult curveballs all right
great yeah come tuesday i’m really in
for it
ariana
no but seriously we’ll be talking about
you know gig economy and how that’s you
know
how that’s going to be influencing our
industry and you know how maybe some of
us can take advantage of it or look into
that at least so looking forward to that
august 24th one o’clock pacific time
best coast time
also known as and four o’clock biscuit
time
and again link it will be in the show
notes or down below if you’re on youtube
uh last question finally
uh for you if people really want to talk
to you about
equipment
and maybe whatever else too but no but
seriously if people want to get a hold
of you maybe ask you questions hear
about your experience a little bit more
uh you know come check out andre or
whatever what’s the best way to get a
hold of you
um so there i know this is gonna sound
like
i don’t know but it’s like too standard
but like i’m i read all of them but um
our website has like a contact form and
it’s directed to my email and and i i
respond
to those so yeah feel free
and i’ll again i’ll link that in the
show notes and on youtube i’ll link that
down below and basically what i’m taking
away from this is that you are kind of a
big deal
i don’t think proper channels you’re
missing
when you talk to people who are a big
deal um
laundromat mogul of san francisco
ariana thank you so so much for being a
great sport
but also just sharing your story and
sharing a lot of hard-earned wisdom
about this business really really
appreciate it i know i have a lot to
take away from personally and i know a
lot of other people will
and even if you guys don’t have
questions about machines
give her a call anyways and ask her
questions about machine learning
as many questions yeah thank you so much
uh thank you so much
yeah thank you uh this is great i’ll see
you next week all right that was an
awesome conversation with ariana we hung
up and i was like how do you feel about
it did you have some fun doing it and i
i think we both had a lot of fun doing
that interview hopefully that came
through but even more important than
that hopefully you gained a lot of
a lot of wisdom out of that a lot of new
knowledge
a different way of thinking about some
things uh and again i say this every
week but
none of that means anything unless you
start taking some action towards
something so this week as in every
previous week and every week going
forward pick one thing from this podcast
episode that you are going to put into
action so no matter where you’re at on
the journey uh just pick one thing and
put it into action that way
you know as we’re doing that every
single week we’re taking action and that
action is what leads us to success
learning is great and all hearing
people’s stories is great and all but
it’s only step one and the
the the next step which is taking that
action is the thing that really propels
us forward towards our goals so pick
something put it into action this week
maybe share about it on the forums
london resource dot com forums and let
us know what action you’re taking this
week for me personally one of the things
that i
loved talking about actually which is
kind of surprising to myself uh but one
of the things i love talking about was
just you know the aesthetics of her
laundromats and how she you know
designed it we talked a little bit about
that in the secret sauce
um and you know for me i i think i’m
going to next time i head over to my
laundromats i’m going to just kind of
take a couple minutes to step back and
re-uh analyze or re-not analyze but re i
don’t know look again at my laundromats
and see are there ways that i can
improve you know the look the feel and
the vibe of my laundromats um you know
by making some tweaks so that is my
action step what is your action step let
us know over on the forums and we will
see you again next week don’t forget
webinar net august 24th from at one
o’clock pacific time four o’clock
eastern time so make sure you join that
link is in the description down below if
you’re on youtube or at
montmartreresource.com show64 all right
let me
we’ll see you next week uh on the
podcast and until then we’ll see on the
forums or in a webinar or something
we’ll see you around alright peace
[Music]
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