Level Up Your Laundry Empire
If you’re starting from the bottom and hoping to build a thriving business, Mark has the roadmap. If you’re a laundromat or laundry service owner hoping to take your business to the next level, Mark has the roadmap.
Mark started in the laundry business with no laundromat and began offering a laundry pick-up & delivery (PUD) service to customers. He and his partners quickly scaled that business up and now do thousands of pounds of laundry every day and are soon-to-be closing on their third laundromat location and counting.
Not only is his business thriving, but he’s also on a mission to continue to expand and to pull the whole industry along with him. Creative thinking, testing, and innovating, he’s also giving back to help others benefit from the hard-earned lessons he’s learned.
Join Mark and Jordan, along with a couple of other top laundry pick-up & delivery operators for a free webinar on November 11, 2021, on How to Start and Scale a Laundry Pick-up & Delivery Business!
In today’s episode, Mark and Jordan talk about;
- Mark’s journey from zero business to a thriving business
- How he has scaled up his business enterprise
- SEO, paid advertising, and van wraps
- How to manage a business with slim margins
- Tips on getting more financing
- The differences between a PUD with a laundromat location vs. without owning a laundromat location
- The differences of managing a PUD business vs. a self-serve business
- The future of PUD
- We play a game!!
- Finding good content to help you on your journey
- Delegating
And a whole lot 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
- FREE WEBINAR– How to Start and Scale a Pick-up & Delivery Business
- Live Q&A with Dave “Laundromat Millionaire” Menz
Resources
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Episode Transcript
hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
laundromat resource podcast this is show
77 and i am pumped that you are here
today because today we have back on the
show mark vlaskamp who came on and who
gets referenced all the time from the
last time that he was on he is the guy i
think in episode 20 if you want to go
back and check that out i’ll put a link
in the show notes or if you’re on
youtube down below in the description
you can find the show notes with that
link and all the other links by the way
at laundromat resource.com show77
uh you can find the show notes there
with all the links so make sure you
check that out
but he was there and he is the guy who
started a laundry pickup and delivery
business without a laundromat and is
uh well as you’ll see in today’s episode
has gone ballistic he was on like a year
and a half ago here and
at that point he
his pickup and delivery was growing but
he did not have a location yet he’s
getting ready to close on his third
you’ll hear more all about that and and
they’re huge huge plans that they have
to move forward in this industry tons of
really good information but not only
that one of the things that i am super
pumped about is that mark along with a
few other owners are going to join me
this thursday that’s november 11th 2021
if you’re listening to this when it
comes out
uh you they’re going to join me and
all of them are doing awesome they’re
top performers and pick up and delivery
from all over the country doing slightly
different things
and we’re doing a webinar together got
some all-stars here
on how to start and scale your pick up
and delivery
business so whether you are interested
in starting a pick of a delivery
business or if you have one and you’re
ready to take it up to the next level uh
these are some serious players uh just
in all seriousness these guys are
uh they’re they’re doing it they’re
doing it big and they’re doing it right
and you will be able to level up your
business joining us over there so the
link to that will be uh
again on the show notes a lot of my
resource dot com show 77 if you’re on
youtube they’re down below in the
description or if you just want to go to
laundromat resource dot com slash events
and sign up for this webinar and any
others we do a live free webinar every
single thursday so come join us at one
of those um
and uh let’s yeah dude
so much good stuff okay but i’m i’m like
extra excited about this week’s uh
webinar so make sure you sign up for
that
uh and come join us learn about pick up
and delivery or learn how to take your
pickup and delivery to the next level
there will be some questions and answers
and i promise i will not do a whole lot
of talking i’m gonna do more hosting and
less talking because these guys serious
their their serious business all right
so
uh just come join us learn from i say
this all the time right like work with
the best learn from the best become the
best uh this is a class a opportunity to
do that okay so
there’s that i also want to encourage
you hey the more you’re networking in
this business the more we’re learning
from each other we’re helping each other
out we’re asking each other questions
we’re answering each other’s questions i
bet you know where i’m going with this
the better we’re all going to be in this
business we’re going to make more money
we’re going to serve more people and
we’re going to do it faster and better
uh the best way i don’t know if it’s the
best but one of the best ways to be
doing that is to head over to the
laundromat resource forums go introduce
yourself on the new member forums go uh
ask a question answer a question over
there and let’s you know continue to
interact lots of really great stuff
happening over there there’s i just
peeked over there right before i
recorded this and there’s some uh fun
conversations happening on looking for
brokers in different areas uh somebody
asked about financing options in
australia which is uh man i never
saw that conversation
coming a mile away you know when i
started the forum so pretty cool and
obviously welcome to all the new members
who’ve gone over to the new member
introduction forums and introduce
yourselves over there go meet them go
welcome them again being a part of the
community is really going to accelerate
your growth whether you’re just getting
started or you’re a veteran in the
business
and uh you know looking to continue to
improve and let’s be honest if you’re
not looking to continue to improve your
business
then your business is probably dying so
let’s keep up the good work let’s keep
propelling each other to new heights and
uh and all that good stuff okay i don’t
wanna uh i don’t wanna pound that any
harder uh but i do wanna mention real
quick last just a few days ago actually
i released a podcast episode 76
where i announced uh laundromat
marketplace i almost said a lot of my
resources
laundretmarketplace.com and that’s a
place where uh agents or just owners can
go and list their uh laundromats for
sale for free go listed over there for
free and again a ton of traffic coming
through laundromat resource from all the
various channels from the website
podcast youtube email list buyer’s email
list instagram we got people coming from
all over the place
that are interested in buying
laundromats and uh this is going to be
the place that i send them so tons of
free good traffic if you’re an agent out
there or if you know an agent out there
pass this along to them because i think
it’s going to be a huge resource for the
great agents
to be able to connect up uh with you
guys who are buying laundromats and i
right now i am all about
connecting laundromat owners and people
who want to buy laundromats with
the best people that uh that they can
work with in their area so i want to
find those agents get them on that site
and get you guys connected with them so
if you could do me one favor i don’t ask
for a lot
but if you could do me one favor
if you know of any agents or
distributors who sell
laundromats if you could just mention to
them hey you know if you have listings
throw them up on this website because
not only are you going to get a lot of
very targeted traffic uh coming and
looking at your laundromats but it’s
also a great place for those guys to get
connected with potential buyers and
potential sellers awesome uh just real
quick too one of the cool things was we
had uh one laundromat that was listed on
there when i launched the podcast that
uh within a day
uh went
from uh being on sale or being for sale
to not on sale for sale being for sale
to pending uh within a day very very
cool and again just there’s a lot of
targeted traffic going there so uh if
you’re an owner who’s looking to
sell your laundromat you just want to do
it on your own you can list there too
but specifically agents and distributors
or whoever else is selling laundromats
that is
a an awesome place to go and again i’m
gonna be sending people there uh
especially the more uh lauter maps we
get for sale listed on there and there’s
a lot more perks coming uh i can’t
mention them yet because they’re all in
the works but there are perks for both
buyers and sellers coming who list and
who buy through that website so
i just i’m super excited about it so get
excited with me and again it’s good for
the industry i think that’s the main
reason i did it all right uh with all
that said let’s get into it with mark
vlascamp again a super cool episode and
you’re gonna want to join our webinar uh
that we’re doing with a couple other
owners uh on thursday november 11th
that’s this coming thursday from when
this is coming out all right uh i’ll see
you on the other side of this with mark
and it’s gonna be uh it’s gonna be a
doozy you’re gonna enjoy it 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
landmark resource.com show
go check it out it’s incredible a 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 in your
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
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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
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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 mark i am so pumped that
you are back on the show welcome and
thanks for coming back on how you doing
hey good thanks for having me i’m
excited it’s been uh it’s been fun
keeping up with all of this oh let’s get
into it yeah yeah likewise man and i
know that we’ve been kind of chatting
every now and then and getting some
updates and that’s why i wanted to have
you back on the show to get some more
updates but just in case uh people don’t
know i sure i probably should have
looked this up beforehand so while
you’re chatting i’m gonna look this up
on what episode you were on before i
don’t know if you know do you know
i don’t feel like it’s the highlight of
your life it was feel like it was a long
time ago a long time ago it was a long
time i’m gonna look it up in a second uh
but you you were on the show and in fact
i i end up referencing your podcast
almost maybe one definitely one of the
most of all the podcast episodes if not
maybe the most and one of the big
reasons for that is because
you kind of started in this business
backwards you started with a pickup and
delivery service you didn’t have a
laundromat you partnered with a
laundromat and i get a lot of questions
about that specific topic and i’m like
you want to talk to somebody who’s
killing it with this you know go check
out this episode reach out to mark he’s
killing it so
i thought it’d be cool to get you back
on the show just to kind of get an
update on
did you go bankrupt what you know what
happened starting backwards and working
up
and uh where things been going so why
don’t you try to catch us up a little
bit maybe maybe like a brief brief uh
background on how you got into the
business but you know if you want more
i’m gonna tell you what episode to go
look up in a second but uh maybe a brief
background how you got in and then what
business has been looking like lately
yeah absolutely so not not bankrupt but
it sure felt like it for a while doing
all that laundry without a laundromat uh
certainly better margins when you are
vertically integrated into the actual uh
facility
uh we get that question quite a bit too
and and uh probably a lot of a lot of
that from your podcast and i i
i recommend it with extreme caution that
you really have to know what you’re
getting into that is very low margin to
do the delivery without the laundromat
um but certainly can be done and i think
with the popularity of delivery there’s
our there are people um taking that on
and some some smart folks we’ve talked
to
um i’m very happy to have the
laundromats now though so i think last
we talked uh we had a booming pickup and
delivery business that we partnered with
laundromats to use their facilities
during off hours to produce all of our
laundry
um we ended up uh purchasing uh the
laundromat the our flagship store in
austin is uh it’s about 5 000 square
feet of laundromat and almost 3 000
square feet of warehouse so
big big big facility uh almost 200
machines that are just spinning 24 7. we
have
day shift we have swing shifts and we
have third shift and we are
holding laundry like a warehouse uh
operating as a traditional laundromat by
day
trying to take up you know a third or a
half of the facility leaving a third two
thirds or a half for retail customers
and then at night we close the door to
the public and we that’s when all the
thoroughbreds come in and we really uh
crank out some laundry
seven days a week 365 days a year
we’re flirting with 70 plus folks on
staff now so it’s it’s a much more of a
logistics and a warehousing business
than you think your traditional coin op
laundry mat operates like
um
luckily i think we were forged in the
fire doing this without the laundry mat
so that was you know that was like
batting practice for this is that we’re
cruising now uh owning the laundry mats
makes it significantly easier
yeah holy cow man that’s crazy and you
know it’s pretty funny because i don’t
know maybe like a year ago or i don’t
know something like a year ago you sent
me a you texted me a video
and it was of this laundromat and there
you were just kind of walking through
the laundromat there was laundry
everywhere like on top of all the
bulkheads there were shelves that were
packed there was stuff
lined up on the like the end caps there
was
you know literally bags and bags of
laundry out on the sidewalk and
you just had so much laundry going on i
was like holy cow these guys have got to
get a
location
for themselves sounds like you got a
doozy of a location with like almost 8
000 total square feet of of space there
that’s
that’s significant that’s big real big
yeah yeah that’s kind of the you know
now that we are we’re
able to fill up laundry mats quickly uh
we we feel like we’re really comfortable
with the playbook of turning demand on
and off and when we go into a territory
we can
we can generate demand and fill that up
fast um so now when we’re looking to
acquire laundromats we’re
knock on wood we’re hoping to close on
one in houston
uh towards the end of this month
and uh we in in the search for that
we’re not even looking for anything
smaller than five thousand square feet
that it has to be big it has to be
bright clean safe and we have to be able
to fill it you know with with
7 000 pounds of laundry every night
yeah how are you
i mean how are you doing so much how did
you get to that point so i know i mean
you kind of started from scratch
like we said with no laundromat how did
you get to a point where you
aren’t even looking at a space that’s
under 5 000 square feet because you’re
so confident
that you
can fill that up and need that space in
order to operate
in a new location
yeah so um i think my thesis on the
market um
on a macro level is that laundromats are
trending bigger i think their owners are
becoming better capitalized the business
itself can be much more than a single
revenue stream business
when you add in the full service laundry
whether it’s over the counter or
delivery
um and so our thesis on the actual
locations is that
they’re they’re not trending smaller
they’re trending bigger so we’re just
trying to get ahead of that uh made the
mistake a time or two in the past of
getting one that’s too small and you
know the acquisition headaches are the
same whether you’re buying a thousand
square foot laundry mat with 10 machines
or a 6 000 square foot laundry mat with
200 machines
so that’s i think that’s just the
general approach that we take is that
bigger uh is better and if you build it
you know like that they will come
on the the playbook side um it’s you
know we were looked at funny by
operators here when we said we wanted to
do pickup and delivery now you know six
years ago or something like that um
that was yeah great place right time you
know we were right on that trend i still
get people in my comments section and on
twitter saying that
uh you know delivery is a phase and that
you know a lot of old old-school folks
like to say that coin off is going to
last forever and delivery is soon to go
away um
we think we have the playbook for
acquiring customers figured out fairly
well as long as that phase lasts and i
think i think it’s much more than a
phase um and it’s it’s been a lot of um
seo you know we we have a strong digital
team that can uh we we rank highly we
have really targeted paid ads and we
have the vans driving around uh they can
spur up demand uh fairly quickly
uh
we think i think it’s a supply problem
and i know other operators that i’ve
talked to doing high amounts across the
us
it’s not a demand problem once once you
figure out the demand it’s it totally is
the fly problem you need space you need
machines you need employees
that most the folks i’ve talked to
especially in october is one of the
better months of the year for when we’re
recording this for delivery service uh
most folks are turning ads off raising
prices and trying to scare customers
away that uh that you need machines you
need space and you need
the people to fulfill those orders
yeah and i i just comment on that last
little section there i mean i found that
one of the big keys to success is if
everybody’s doing something especially
if everybody’s at a time where they’re
taking their foot off the pedal that’s
the time to put your foot on the pedal
and i know a lot you know it’s the
holidays kind of approach here
a lot like you said a lot of people are
doing things that
you know
seem you know in theory like maybe good
ideas but it’s really the time to go
hard because you can really
you know
use those time i mean generally speaking
especially in warmer clients these are
the months that are the big months for
you know for us as
lot of mad owners is pick up and
delivery because people are wearing
heavier clothes they’re wearing more
clothes kids are in school the filthy
filthy children are getting dirty all
the time right and and that’s the time
to push push the pedal down and keep
going and i know a lot of times our
tendency is hey it’s the holidays i want
to take it easy but if you want to take
it easy
go get a job and don’t own a business
that’s my that’s my view on that
i agree yeah this is uh i hate holidays
the holidays of the laundromat operator
and an owner are tough because the
business doesn’t stop um we’re cleaning
clothes 365
days a year
um
but yeah certainly certainly uh good
october man i love it lots of towels
lots of blankets jeans jackets
everything is is uh
considerably
easier to fold and then weighs more and
fills more we do flat right back so it
fills more space in the bag
yeah
okay so well take us back because last
time we talked
you didn’t own
a location a lot of my location and now
you do so how did you get from
you know and you mentioned also earlier
uh that you know margins are slim it’s
tough to do this business without your
own location uh because your costs are a
lot higher than if you own your own
location so how did you manage that
phase of things and how did you get from
that into
your first location
yeah so um
we
found ourselves growing like crazy and
with the operation as it was originally
set up without a laundromat we were
paying a lot to use someone else’s
machines and then it’s a vicious cycle
of as you grow you’re actually straining
cash flow much much much more than you
otherwise would have if you didn’t grow
so on one side we had
a lot of the traditional lenders saying
um
hey you need to be more profitable but b
you also need to grow and we’re trying
to point out in the model like you get
to choose one or the other
um so we found uh with our unique
approach to it it made sense for a bit
of a unique uh funding round to kind of
get on the right side of things some
folks that saw could understand the
position uh maybe we’re a little more a
little less risk-averse than a
traditional commercial banker so uh we
piled some of our own money in and
actually partnered up with some uh some
really smart uh folks that sell the
value and adding a technology and a
service side to a traditionally uh
unsexy and absentee business
so a lot of our investors have
experience and
self-storage car washes mobile home
parks things like that that you wouldn’t
think make great businesses and you
could probably lump laundry maps into
that adding a layer of technology adding
a layer of service and then
continuing on a roll-up plan
yeah i think that’s i think that’s huge
and uh
i mean the the dilemma is real right
when especially coming from the angle i
know we talked a little bit when you
were trying to figure out the running
piece of it because
you know the dilemma is is real when you
have a lot of income coming in but your
expenses are going up
almost faster than your income because
of the business model because you’re
stuck where you don’t have
your own equipment and you can’t get the
efficiencies of of owning your own
you know equipment and your own assets
and so trying to find that
financing is difficult do you have any
tips for anyone who
you know is in a situation like that who
maybe has
you know a solid business but
you know maybe doesn’t look that way to
a lender at first or something like that
on how to get financing to take your
business to the next level which is what
you did
yeah
yeah absolutely so i think the first
thing to uh to consider here is
even every month we get further away
from covid and more into the future i
think pickup and delivery is gaining
credibility as a real business a real
income stream and something that’s
sustainable
the times we were looking um for that we
knew that we knew that we can you could
walk into it every night and know that
it wasn’t going away right that’s
tactical to the roof um aka not a fan i
think a lot of that
right i think a lot of the
i think a lot of the traditional lenders
and
lenders in general even even equity
investors they
were hesitant i think the further we get
away from that uh
pickup and delivery and full service and
in any consideration is is getting more
credibility as a as an asset class
on your on your books and
i would imagine that um there’s a couple
companies now that that had to get
rejected get rejected get rejected and
prove everybody else uh wrong
ourselves included i think uh from what
we’re hearing that pickup and delivery
volume is getting more and more
considered into that so i would hope
that anybody in our situation has a much
easier time now i think
us and a few others have kind of broken
down that wall
but um
one thing i learned through the process
is is
money is out there if you’re building
something cool
you just have to be creative with how
you get it i
um
having only experienced bootstrapping i
thought everything came through a bank
that there was a gatekeeper and we’ve
certainly partnered with great lenders
that operate as traditional banks and
lending institutions
but if you are in a business that might
be viewed as a little risky and can’t
get through there there is money out
there uh through other
avenues and that was a big step for us
is
we kind of made the transition from
laundromat owners
to business owners when we realized that
in that okay i can teach folks how to
run a laundromat but i also need to
teach myself and we need to teach
ourselves how to
get financing and then plan for growth
and if we’re going to be doing this
thing with a scarlet letter on it that’s
marked as risky for the rest of our
lives uh we’re gonna have to get
creative at these these creative
financing options
yeah i mean you said something that
first of all really strikes home with me
but i mean it’s just so true money is
out there when you’re building something
cool you know when you got something
that you’re building something you
believe in something uh you know that
that you know you’re just committed to a
hundred percent
you know and people see that and they
see the potential in that the money is
out there and you may need to get
creative especially if you’re kind of
trailblazing like you guys did
uh with sort of you know i mean it’s not
you knew but it’s
it’s relatively new uh you know branch
of our industry
you know then i i think that
i mean i just love
first of all
listen i’m just gonna give you a lot of
credit here for a second
the tenacity that you guys had
in the beginning
to start this business number one i mean
i i can’t tell you how many people i
talk to in my coaching who
just have trouble getting started and
understandably so it’s a tough step to
take it’s scary
all that right so that already
you know
puts you in the top
top percentage of of entrepreneurs of
business owners just getting started you
know and then having that tenacity to
run your business and scale it on such
slim margins and stay alive
huge most people aren’t willing to do it
can’t do it
won’t do it right and then having the
tenacity to
chase down money i mean that’s not an
easy thing and to be told no and to be
told what you’re doing will never work
and to be told that you know you’re
wasting your time and
in all those negative messages like that
stops
the majority of the people who made it
to that point you know again in and
pushing through that and getting to that
next level like
huge huge props um to you guys for
for doing that
and uh can you talk a little bit about
what’s it been like having a location
versus before you had a location what
are what are some of the differences or
maybe similarities i don’t know
yeah
thank you for the compliments i remember
now why i enjoy the first time so much
it’s just me getting gassed up for an
hour so we’re gonna have to do this more
often yeah
man yeah
thank you yeah the tenacity is something
that uh it’s definitely a it stuck as a
core value here uh it’s awesome to see
it we’ve got a full staff of uh middle
managers so it’s it’s not us operating
anymore we’ve got five six seven guys
full-time salary that uh if they’ve
learned anything in getting set up is
that uh don’t back down from a fight
like you’re gonna get punched in the
nose every day and that’s just something
we do here there’s there’s no playbook
for this we’re building the playbook
that other people are gonna copy yeah um
before and after man i think the last
time we talked you were like yeah you
figured out the hard part of the
business the laundromat will be easy
man i
said we closed on one we closed on one
and i was like you know jordan said
jordan said it’d be easy and i spent 24
hours that weekend just cleaning
everything myself because we didn’t know
how to do any of it running back and
forth to lows totally unprepared washers
were breaking everything was going wrong
that could um it’s been really enjoyable
uh there’s a certain element of pride
that we’ve always had for our customers
in our business we haven’t had that for
the facility until we started moving
into them
acquiring them
and now we can put that uh that level of
pride in the actual facility it’s really
enjoyable um
you can feel it you can touch it it’s
not just the customer relationship that
you don’t see them at the door um so
it’s been a lot of fun
learning the hard parts of it um
certainly some staffing positions in the
org chart that we didn’t have before
that we now need to have
maintenance being a big one of them
uh janitorials and other um but uh but
yeah we’re learning it’s awesome i uh
i think a lot of people look at delivery
um and when they talk to us we primarily
get asked about the delivery side of the
business
and rightfully so um it’s it’s the sexy
part of the business it’s a fun business
to talk about
um the one we’re probably better known
for but i think at our core we’re we’re
rolling up laundry mats and we’re
layering in the delivery that the
laundry mats come first and there’s a
uh
that’s a massive massive part of our
business
yeah well that i mean that is kind of
interesting first of all sorry for lying
straight to your face on the podcast
which was episode 20 by the way uh so if
you want to go listen actually you just
you know just either stop this one now
and go listen to episode 20 and then
come back or after this one go listen to
episode 20 because it’s
killer
um and and also i just want to say i
don’t hype anyone up ever who who
doesn’t deserve it’s genuine genuine
hype so uh
the uh it’s i mean it’s interesting that
you say that
uh
because uh i mean like you said you are
known for the pickup and delivery side
of your stuff and i think that’s what
gets highlighted a lot it kind of
reminds me a little bit and
you know this is this is going to be a
flattering example i think but it kind
of reminds me a little bit of mcdonald’s
right where mcdonald’s is known for
their burgers or whatever right and then
you know most of us who
have read about mcdonald’s or maybe
watch the uh i forget the
super side yeah the founder right the
founder yeah i think the super sleuths
the other the bad one uh the founder
right and you know we know that
mcdonald’s is a is a real estate company
right and it kind of reminds me of that
like they’re known for the burgers
but they’re you know they’re really
doing something bigger underneath um or
at least as big you know underneath that
business and it feels a little bit
similar to what you guys are doing where
you’re known for your pickup and
delivery
you know if you follow these guys you
know the fold i’ll put links to
everything in the show notes and if
you’re on youtube down below the fold on
on like social stuff and and stuff you
know like they they just kill it with
pick up and delivery
um
but it’s interesting that you say you’re
rolling up laundromats and uh and
creating you know that that business
there and and pairing it up with the
pick up delivery and care at least as
much
and are putting at least as much effort
into those if not if not more
um i did not know that how many how many
laundry mats do you have
uh working on three uh this
week this month and oh got a lot of
perform leads uh
now that we have money this is getting
fun yeah well that’s what happens right
like you get
you get the bug you get the one you get
the bug and then because laundromats can
be so lucrative especially when you’re
running them efficiently you got your
good systems down you’ve got your team
in place
you can start rolling them up real quick
and i i tell new people this all the
time
once you get your first one
like a lot of doors open up to you
financing options open up to you like
now people are going to be more likely
to lend to you
not only because you own other physical
locations
um but also that the physical location
is going to kind of underpin
the business you know the the pickup and
delivery business too um a lot of times
that that self-serve side can
you know can kind of take care of a lot
of the bills and all that stuff and then
you know you’re just staffing at that
point for your pick of the delivery
um so it’s i wanna yeah closing closing
on three i don’t wanna be deceptive i
think i answered that quickly so hoping
for three i know deals can fall through
i don’t want uh
well let’s count it before we get it and
then i think the plan is yeah i think we
can continue to add you know two or
three a year uh we’ve seen really good
operators i mean ross luke you guys know
who they are that that you see the
downhill snowball that they can add in
just acquiring these facilities uh
that’s that’s the race we’re running
i think
laundromats are certainly having um
their moment in the sun right now i read
of times where you could get them for
one to three times uh ebitda
um we’re not seeing that i i think
realistically we’re seeing a lot of
three to five out there right now um
we paid 8.1 for one in austin
uh or one we’re looking at now is around
five point something five and change so
um laundromats are having their moment
in the sun i think pandemic was good to
launder match that is causing a price
increase
i think
smarter smarter better capitalized uh
acquirers are are
causing a price increase and then you
can’t go on twitter or facebook or
youtube you know thanks to folks like
jordan you cody sanchez is on twitter
there’s all sorts of people talking
about them
i think that’s driving multiples up
um so it’s interesting to see how the
pricing is changing in a post-pandemic
world uh curious to see if that level’s
out or it’s for they’re just a more
expensive asset class from here on out
but uh certainly having the delivery
gives us and roths as well it gives you
an advantage to
offer a higher multiple knowing you can
fill it up and keep the thing moving
as compared to a multiple that maybe
another
person bidding on the laundromat might
not be able to go that high because they
they are relying on the base business uh
we’re going based business plus
yeah yeah and it’s an inves it’s an
interesting investment strategy too uh
and
i
well
okay real quick i want to just kind of
wrap up sort of what you’re doing with
your business can you talk to me i mean
you mentioned you want to you know roll
up two or three
a year uh you know going forward
potentially
i mean what’s what’s the
what’s the what’s the goal do you have a
goal do you have like an end game in
mind or
or a
certain time horizon goal that you’re
shooting for
yeah we do um
i think i think
we can keep going until we get to 50.
i won’t i won’t limit ourselves on a
time horizon and i know our discussions
go back and forth on how many win and
how fast and what’s the model i think
there’s interesting models in
um
going to a private warehouses which i’m
sure we’ll get into i think pickup and
delivery the future
uh might not totally all be hinged in
laundry maps i think we’re early in it
but if you were asking us you know as we
see the model today if we aggressively
uh pursued our plan i think we uh i
think we’re north star is pointing
towards 50 pending model changes as
technology and
demand on the laundry side changes
yeah i mean i think that’s i think
that’s cool and i think you know again
this is obviously this is just a
snapshot right i know if there’s one
thing i know about owning businesses
building businesses it’s that you know
those goals those marks are always
evolving always changing you know you
could get your fifth one and be like
actually
we can network these now and blow it up
way bigger than if we had 50 long or you
know there’s things that happen right
you learn more you grow more so
exactly yeah the big the writing on the
wall we’ve got them posted around here
and our middle managers get them drilled
in every day is like we’re we are
building the playbook towards 50. so so
that’s that’s the goal here i i
fundamentally believe it’s a supply
problem
it’s not a demand problem um the demand
is organically growing
uh the more people not not just with us
the more operators that offer delivery
educate a customer base
just like the first bozo that tried to
offer pizza delivery right like now it’s
everywhere that we are so early in this
that the more operators they get in on
it the more customers that know it
exists
that the demand is going to continue to
grow there and that means if you don’t
have to worry about demand it means you
really really really have to worry about
supply
um that if everybody in the city wants
laundry delivery we can’t help them uh
we need a whole mess more laundry maps
and and we
quite frankly need a whole lot of other
competitors in town offering good
products as well
yeah well i mean that’s a
that’s like a that feels like a very
mature business
thing to say that you need more
competitive they’ll
they’ll mess up eventually and we’ll get
them yeah yeah you need them to to
drive the demand and educate people so
that you can win them over and it just
makes it cheaper right you’re for you to
win new customers i like that i like
that that’s no i say that i say that
jokingly but it is i mean just in the
last couple years you’re seeing it pop
up everywhere i’m happy that it’s
staying in laundromats
i know a couple venture capitals taking
a couple cracks at this and they’re
continuing to pop up especially in
austin where it’s
a peer-to-peer laundry through a
marketplace there’s
here you know b2c
marketplace apps out there there’s a lot
of marketplace apps going on and i think
um
sustainability on those is questionable
i love the asset light model in siri i
don’t know how execution goes um
but again more more awareness to laundry
delivery helps but the the more mature
the delivery side of it gets
uh
the more i appreciate that it’s staying
in laundromat operators hands for the
lion’s share of it which is really good
to see
yeah yeah and i mentioned uh you know in
in some other things like webinars and
live q and a’s and stuff that you know
it’s
it’s interesting to see how this thing
is evolving and how different people are
trying to
figure out different ways to solve the
laundry problem
so and you’ve kind of alluded to this a
few times so maybe we can jump into you
know what what do you see as the future
of
laundromats like where do you see us
going
um
not laundromat specifically but more
pickup and delivery in that what do you
see as a as the future of pick up and
delivery
yeah that’s um
that’s a lot of what i think about um i
think
if you can agree with me that demand is
gonna continue and demand is going to
grow
and we’re focusing on the supply side of
the equation figuring out what what’s
going to be the supply to fill that
demand
that’s what that’s what i like to think
about a lot i think laundromats are a
great way to do it i think we’re seeing
a heyday in delivery right now um i’m
just so impressed with a lot of the
operators you see online
that turned that turned it on like we
did from zero to nothing to now you know
it’s a big business now
um
i’m curious where it goes in the future
um you know the more money that comes
into an industry the more demand that
comes into the industry the better
capitalized the investors come and you
know i think there’s going to be a lot
of asset light models
that come up the silicon valley types i
think there’s going to be a lot of old
school industrial build a bunch of
laundromats that you know kind of where
we see ourselves
i hear operators talking about
private facilities uh closer to an
altsco um
also they’re national i believe the big
commercial
linen and um
owls rags i’m facing on the name of
their business anyways where they
operate in uh cintos where they operate
in private facilities and they drive big
box trucks around there’s no customers
coming to do laundry because all the
machines all the stations all the
employees it runs like a pure warehouse
so i think we’re in a weird middle
ground now where there’s too much demand
for laundry mats to operate as a
laundromat so a lot of the laundry mat
operators are starting to adopt software
and configure their laundry map to look
more like a warehouse you can still get
it done in the same facility right
that’s what we’re doing yep
but as you get more and more demand
i wonder how much of a warehouse you
need to turn it into to operate and if
that is too much for laundromats
if it helps to have a couple production
facilities and a couple laundromats is
there a sweet spot where a laundromat
can only take so much laundry um
and then on the on the
competition side of this is something is
this something that gets consolidated
um right now there’s you know
every laundromat in town is is starting
to offer delivery so that makes for what
maybe fifties high but something around
their options for delivery uh does that
consolidate and the one or two
fake the lines share or do does there
always stay 50 um it’s interesting to
think about because we are so new in it
this isn’t like dental practices that we
own where you you get a playbook you
hire a consultant and you know what
you’re going to do you can
you can budget out your next five years
earnings and you know exactly what’s
going to happen i think
it’s exciting to daydream and think
about what all these options are because
no one knows
how the supply side is going to get
filled
yeah it’s interesting because dave and i
dave mens and i we do live q a every
single month we were talking about this
before we hit record and somebody had
asked kind of the future of pickup
delivery
and
you know i’ll link to that in case
anybody wants to go watch that and i
think the um that particular
conversation about that the future of
pick up and delivery i think was towards
the very end of that if you want to skip
ahead to
that part of the conversation but um
the the interesting
conversation that we had is i think dave
is
more on the side of he thinks
laundromats are gonna own
pick up and delivery long term and i
wonder
kind of similar i think to the lines
that you’re thinking i wonder if
like you said more people
are going to start realizing this is a
huge business this is not a phase like
you know and i know that you know this
but like when people say that it’s
it just
feels like there’s blinders on because
it’s it’s not just our industry right
it’s everywhere now like you know
pizza’s been doing it forever right but
i mean this is you know uber eats is for
every restaurant i mean there’s ghost
restaurants now that don’t even have
physical locations that are operating
straight off of you know doordash and
ubereats or whatever right i mean
it’s it’s everywhere now and people are
starting to realize hey my time
is worth more than
you know
then the little bit of money it cost me
to have somebody else do this for me in
a lot of different areas and
just the rapid growth of pickup and
delivery in my mind is like
i mean listen if i’m if i’m you know if
i got my my target goal is 30 million
bucks right if i have it right now
my ears are perking up and saying man
there’s a lot of money to be had here
because i think i mentioned this on that
live q a or maybe some other places um
like i had a conversation with my
neighbor like right like laundromats i
do launder mats i talk about laundry
mats all the time i talk about laundry
all the time right my neighbor
who you know asked me about the podcast
and all that stuff all the time she was
like
uh i had mentioned pick up and delivery
to her and she was like oh i didn’t even
know that was available
same with my tax guy i was telling him
about pick up a delivery and he was like
i didn’t even know you could do that and
i’m like there’s so many people
who st and this is like the hub this is
we’re in la in orange county here like
it’s like the hub of laundry and there’s
so many people who’ve never even heard
of it still
that the demand like you said the the
demand is there and growing and having
those competitors
there just raises awareness and i’m
wondering if that’s going to consolidate
down at some point to a few bigger
players that maybe operate in a
warehouse type of thing
uh and they’re just churning out pick up
delivery laundry all day long all night
long
on on huge scales
curious i agree yeah
i’m happy that it’s in the laundromat
operator’s hands now and i don’t think
they that we can’t hang on to it as
operators
um i think that is gonna take
an elevation of the industry uh not just
steal uh dave’s day’s mantra but i do
believe that
more competition is going to come in
it’s going to be better capitalized and
maybe we’re not saying i i see dave’s
point and i enjoyed that segment of the
last q a that uh
hopefully it stays in laundromat owner’s
hands and i think the asterisks there
that might be the bridge between
our thought process and dave’s is
you’re going to have to that that
traditional laundromat owner archetype
is going to have to change if you’re
going to keep that in your court it is a
big business it is a logistics and
warehousing business and is high touch
high management
uh it is not
absentee coin laundry
but laundromat owners have a heck of a
head start
you have the facilities you know the
processes um
if you can get
moving in that direction you have a hell
of a head start against these people who
might be better capitalized uh um
who i think are soon to come in and play
yeah i i could not agree more and like i
said i’m not sure what direct or which
kind of way it’s going to fall and i
think that we as laundromat owners
i say i wonder all that stuff allowed
because i think we need to decide
do we want to be the ones
to own this business
or are we going to give it up to someone
else and if we’re going to be the ones
who own it we need to start thinking
more along the lines of how you guys are
thinking
where you’re thinking hey we need lots
of space we need some warehousing space
we need to be running 24 7. we need to
be doing high volume stuff we can’t
dilly dally and try to you know
bootstrap for very long i mean you can
bootstrap for a while to get yourself
going but you can’t bootstrap forever
you’re gonna need to spend on paid
advertising you’re gonna need to invest
in
vehicles and in staff and in space and
in
equipment
because that’s what it’s going to take
for us as laundromat owners to own
the pickup and delivery business which i
think is
may if not already is turning into it’s
transitioning into its own
kind of industry in and of itself yes
laundromat owners are doing it we’re
utilizing the same assets but i been
saying this forever it’s a different
business than the coin laundry
self-serve business we’re just using the
same
assets
totally agree and that’s part of our
initial struggle is that the
the business model we had was much more
in line with a coin laundry i i still
think we skew very very very heavily
that way
you just had to kind of squint and turn
your head to see it and now that we’re
getting able to prove it out i think we
have a really sweet
hybrid model between the two
but that’s that’s evolving um that’s
evolving every month that’s evolving
every day as we as we
um
add more warehousing add more space add
more operating procedures uh
so yeah i enjoyed the conversation you
and dave had i think uh
you know what what better folks to talk
about i think dave dave is
um probably one of the few uh him and i
are probably one of the few that can
empathize about the amount of volume and
the amount of uh logistics and
warehousing that
that this is turning into so i’m curious
to see what the big players as they are
now do moving forward uh we’re certainly
going to be rolling the dice and
throwing a bunch of spaghetti at the
wall to see what sticks because
we know something will but no one knows
what’s going to right now
yeah so okay
i i wanna just real quick because i know
we didn’t really get into the weeds of
how you’ve really built this business
and i really want to
let some people know like how
you built this business but the cool
thing about this is we’re going to be
doing a webinar
on
next thursday which is the 11th november
11 2021 we’re doing a live webinar it’s
free it’s for anybody we’re going to be
talking about how to start and scale
your pick up a delivery service and you
know you’re going to be there and we’re
also going to have a couple of other
you know uh top
pickup and delivery
operators
you know along with nick shaplow from
starch up who you use starch up for your
software right
that’s right yeah yeah so nick’s gonna
be there and then a few other a couple
other top operators who are doing pickup
delivery we really want to just pack
that sucker with some really great
information so whether you’re getting
ready to start pick up and delivery
yourself or maybe you’ve started and you
want to take it to the next level or
maybe you’re at the next level and you
really want to start scaling it like
these are the people who
have been doing it they know it they’re
in the weeds they’ve done it themselves
and they’re pushing the boundaries i
think you know my big one take away from
just talking to you today on this
podcast is that
i love
like love the mindset that you have of
we’re just pushing boundaries we’re
gonna throw stuff against the wall and
see what sticks because
you know you’re looking out you’re not
you’re not you’re making the play but
you said this a couple times right
you’re making you’re creating the
playbook for this industry right now
you’re on the front edge and uh with
with a very select few other people
around the country that are doing this
on the same type of level
and uh i
just i’m like first of all thank you for
for doing a webinar with us uh and
second of all uh man if you have any
interest whatsoever in a
starting or scaling a pickup and
delivery business or b
uh if you’re just interested in this
industry and where it’s heading uh in
general just sign up for this webinar
the link is in the show notes which is
at uh lottermatresource.com
show 77
if you’re on youtube you can get it down
below again it’s live it’s free
and even if you can’t make it to the
live go sign up for that webinar and um
you’ll get a replay of it if you for
whatever reason you can’t make it live
and there’ll be some opportunities to
ask some questions too if you are there
live so
i can’t wait for that make sure you sign
up for that and you know mark obviously
thanks for agreeing to do that i think
it’s going to be a lot of value
for people there appreciate it yeah i’m
excited uh we’ve spent a lot of time
today talking about
space to do the laundry and warehousing
and staff to do the laundry i think one
thing that
uh
maybe intentionally we haven’t talked
about today because we’re going to be
covering it on what next thursday is the
software
um
we get a lot of questions how do you do
all that laundry how do you keep track
of it what do you do
software is a massive part of it and i
think
laundromat operators a lot of them think
you know i’m just a lowly laundromat
operator i don’t need massive software i
can use post-it notes i can use excel
sheets i can use the basic offering um
software is just as important as
everything else in the facility the
washers the folders the loaders the vans
the warehousing
that uh i think that is one part of
growth uh whether you’re new
um
or you’re beyond that beginner level uh
that it gets overlooked a lot of times
and i’m excited to talk about that side
of it because if uh
sometimes when you go to look at demos
they all kind of look the same
um and i think uh i think having the
operator’s point of view and and me and
a couple of
a couple of other folks on the panel’s
point of views will really show you the
difference in how
this little bitty change saves me 30
hours of payroll every well every pay
period right this little bitty tweak
here saves a mile of back and forth
walking in our facility uh software i
think
with the newness of all of this
doesn’t get the credit it deserves uh
and people kind of
you know they want the cheapest or the
most simple option maybe the one that
has the most talking about it online i
don’t know what goes into considering
this but i think if you’re really
looking to scale the webinar on thursday
will be really interesting because
software will make or break your
business when you pile enough laundry
into it
yeah and actually it brings up a really
good point uh to
something that i
am an idea i’m trying to push is that i
think we’re also in the middle of a
little bit of a revolution in our
industry right now too where we’re
it’s it’s a it’s a professionalize your
business or die
time right now and i think if you’re
running your laundromat with post-it
notes or even notepad and paper
um
you know i think you could probably
still to a certain degree manage on
spreadsheets but even that’s really
pushing it i mean i think that if you’re
not thinking of
bringing not just your
equipment and like paint and flooring
and stuff up to modern times if you’re
not thinking about
your business practices
and bringing those up uh the
professionalism of them up
a notch then you’re
you’re tomorrow’s zombie mats uh i mean
because right now
the the laundromats that are killing it
are the ones who are running it
professionally you know and part of that
is the software but part of that also is
the mindset and i think a lot of that
mindset came through you today mark uh
just through kind of your conversation
so i’m just
i think yeah i could not be more excited
about the webinar genuinely uh i’m i’m
really excited for it so
uh me too yeah and i and for those folks
that are doing it on pen and paper it’s
great acquisition targets right like
it’s not adapt or die it’s adapt and
sell it up five times multiple like it’s
a good time to be a laundromat owner um
uh it’s it’s not uh it’s not all doom
and gloom um that i think that that
technology leap and that
professionalization leap is a big leap
um and and i think we’re seeing
operators um
with us personally we’re seeing
operators that are
intimidated by that leap and are still
making a good amount of money on a great
business that they’ve built and then can
can sell uh you know
four to six times multiple these days
right
yeah yeah killer
uh all right so you mentioned to me
and i’m a little uh a little bit excited
a little bit nervous about this you
mentioned to me before we jumped on that
you want to play a little game and i
have never
played a game on the podcast before so
yeah so we’re talking about all this
laundry delivery it sounds really fun
and exciting and you’re rolling around
in profits and everything goes great i
wanna i wanna have you guess uh real or
fake
real or fake these are customer support
headlines the interesting thing about
all of that uh volume of laundry is that
it comes with the people that own the
clothes mistakes happen and there is a
bit of management of customers and
handling of customer support so i’m
going to read off some some customer
support headlines that come through our
our database and i want you to guess if
they are real or fake
oh i love this okay
let’s hear them first one i have for you
is
i have a four-year-old who’s still
learning to wipe after number two
[Music]
that’s the headline that’s just we’re
talking like
like basically like the subject of an
email based equivalent
equivalent to a subject line in an email
right
i would hope this
i’m gonna say that’s fake because i
really hope that’s not the subject line
of a customer that’s real that’s a real
one
that’s real
yep so it’s not all it’s not all good
news you know someone had to pull that
out of the bag and wash it that is the
real headline
we try to push those away but uh every
once they are our guys pass around these
headlines that are handling and support
and you can’t help but laugh
okay
okay
number two my dead grandmother could do
laundry better than you
my dead grandmother
that’s
i mean i want to say that’s fake because
i just wanted i want that to be fake
i’ve that’s real that’s real
holy cow
all right number three for you uh
subject line is i’m covered in rashes
i’m covered in rashes oh no please tell
me that one’s fake
that’s real
yeah don’t don’t mix up your scented and
unscented detergents that was uh that
was our mistake there oh what what what
happens in that scenario if that happens
we have protocols um just like your
protocols to watch the laundry we have
protocols and you know uh preset replies
and expectations and everything that go
out you know when we mess up we’re more
than happy to to get it handled uh
customers tend to come in pretty
agitated um but uh you know it’s
they understand it’s a service business
and service businesses make mistakes
we’re happy to get it retreated or
refunded
that’s possible
but it makes for some good headlines man
that’s a that’s a crazy
that’s a scary one to get to like i’m
covered in rashes you’re like oh geez
yeah yeah i if i remember that correctly
the uh the body of the note was a lot
softer than the subject line but that’s
saved in our gallery of subject line oh
yeah jeez
okay you ready for four yeah you got
another one for me let’s hear it yep
last one last one last one pick up your
effing phone
i mean i gotta say it’s real because
they’ve all been real but
uh dude that’s real yeah welcome to
laundry delivery so anybody thinking
that they’re uh eight that uh
warehousing logistics and and and can
capitalize can be capitalized enough to
finance the whole thing
you add on another layer of it is direct
b2c um business and you’re gonna be
you’re gonna have to have a csr and some
protocols to do that as well but it’s
exciting challenges it’s fun to poke
light at it i think it’s something along
with software that doesn’t get talked
about enough as a massive challenge as
you scale this thing so if anybody’s
considering hopping in software
certainly helps
patients certainly helps but you’re
going to have to come up with some
protocols for all those too
yeah and a little a little built-in tact
on how to respond to something like that
um yeah
and i i love first of all i love playing
the game that’s really fun uh we should
we should figure out how to do that more
often on this podcast that’s that’s a
good time but also i love that it’s a
fun way to kind of communicate like hey
this business is not
easy like and i you know i mentioned to
people you know this is a business
yes a laundromat can be a relatively
simple business if you’re doing a
self-serving it can be relatively simple
but you’re still dealing with machines
and you’re dealing with people and
anytime you’re dealing with machines
they’re going to break down anytime
you’re dealing with people you’re going
to have
conflict and issues that come up
and so having protocols in place to be
able to
deal with stuff when it happens is huge
how did you guys
build your
protocol database basically
along the way just trial and error
trial and error we got sick of answering
the same questions over and over um
and i’m really thankful we did our our
standard operating procedures is all
online it’s digital so when we hire at
any position you get access to that and
then
as much as we are creating the playbook
every day we have most of it documented
so
um customers clothes are mixed up if
there’s a protocol um customer
is unhappy with folding there’s a
protocol everything like that so
if you’re getting into a document
everything you do you will do it again
this is the history repeats itself um
and software certainly helps that uh
sure we’ll get to on thursday
yeah we’ll definitely talk about that on
thursday uh i want to leave it with a
couple of things so i mean you have
you’ve gone to the school of hard knocks
right you started
from scratch no location no laundromat
and you’ve you know
you’ve kicked your way and punched your
way and scratched your way and clawed
your way to
a pretty booming business with some
pretty lofty goals now and and it’s
pretty substantial so i was wondering so
we have pro tips pro
tips
which you gave uh in the last you know
that was like 50
57 episodes ago now so it was over a
year ago uh
this is just what piece of it because i
talked to a lot of people who
are interested in maybe getting in the
way that you did without a location
what
can you can you give like one piece of
advice for somebody who’s maybe thinking
about getting in that way
yeah um absolutely uh this is a great
opportunity to plug ourselves too so um
my pro tip would be that the content is
out there um jordan you’re doing a great
job at pumping content out uh
dave is doing a great job at pumping uh
videos out um there’s some blogs that i
find really interesting uh
we just launched a operator sub domain
on our website so you can now go to
operator.default.com
and we have our our crew putting
articles and blogs up that tend to gear
towards operators who are beyond
beginner so you’ve gotten the content
from people who are
putting it out how to get started and
now you need help learning how to scale
so
because we found that we were getting
asked so many questions about how do you
do this uh why not put it together in
kind of a long form database for uh it’s
not for everybody it’s long and it’s
dense um but if you are one of the few
really trying to push forward with this
i strongly believe
and our mission here is to make laundry
day easy um that started as a mission to
help our customers but i think now it’s
starting to help laundry mat operators
it’s starting to help everybody in the
industry that uh there is there are
resources out there uh content is coming
from all directions um
guys at curbside have great youtube
videos uh dave i mentioned following
luke on facebook right there’s content
everywhere and if you’re looking to get
in any of this don’t do it how everybody
else had to do it by trying it
themselves first and failing the info is
out there
um to learn from their mistakes and that
would be my my pro tip i remember being
relatively uh flat-footed when you asked
me this last podcast and i can’t say i
did much better this time but uh the
content content content is what i’ve
been preaching to uh to folks in my
circles recently
well dude i mean you basically just said
hey learn from other people’s mistakes
and hard-earned wisdom and i don’t know
that there
is better
a better pro tip for getting started
than that you know that’s a shortcut to
success and you know kind of another way
of saying that too is
hey model after what successful people
are already doing right like mark’s
sitting here saying hey we’re pushing
the boundaries
and writing the playbook well the
playbook isn’t for them they already
know
you know they already know the playbook
the playbook is you know they’re
creating the content which by the way
i’ll have a link to operator.thefoul.com
so anybody can click on that on the show
notes again learn my resource.com show
77 or if you’re on youtube down below in
the description i’ll have a link there
to that too um so you can go check out
the stuff they’re cranking especially if
you’re already running to pick up and
deliver you’re getting ready to start uh
that’d be a good place to go kind of get
some information so that’s an awesome
pro tip
not flat-footed at all listen up it’s
the secret sauce
we also have secret sauce and i’m just
wondering do you have one tip for maybe
somebody who’s already going that you
know something maybe that’s working well
for you guys that you would recommend
hey if you’re if you’re doing pick up
and delivery you want to step your game
up a notch here’s here’s one tip for you
delegate
delegate everything
um something that i’ve struggled with
and uh you reach scale where you can’t
do everything you reach a scale where
now the leadership team can’t do
everything the management team has to
take it and they’re pushing things down
to the staff supervisors and they’re
pushing things down to the uh hourly
workers so um
i think this applies across all
businesses is more of a realization for
me in the last 12 months is that most of
our problems have been caused by me
being in the way
so uh next chapter of the business for
us is me uh getting out of the way and
letting all the folks that we’ve hired
do their job
i love that and what what i really like
about that too is that you know as
somebody who
you know
says that you’re you’re thinking about
hey where are we going with picking
delivery how are we getting to 50
you know 50 locations and scaling all
that out
that by delegating allows you to
tinker with those ideas and to ruminate
on those ideas and to research on those
ideas
uh and and that in turn will get you to
those goals much much faster than if
you’re cleaning up your laundromat
or you know yeah absolutely
we’d like to let let everyone kind of
if you look at what we’re doing is just
a big big way to gather data on what’s
working and not working is that the
folks interpreting the data have to be
out of the data we have to let them go
let them do everything and then we’re
going to step back and analyze what’s
working it’s uh
it’s counterintuitive to how we got here
but it’s it’s been critical in the last
12 months and then the really the
traction we’ve been gaining uh since
then
dude well i that’s great
incredible secret sauce uh i was gonna
ask you recommended resources but let’s
just call your recommended resources go
into your
uh go into your site and checking that
out checking out the content that’s
coming out over there
uh any other resources you want to
recommend
no that would be great weird this is um
this is uh you know paul’s in the
passion project category for us i really
really like seeing these operators jump
from the um you know the beginner stages
of the pandemic to to running some
really massive businesses um
and having this as a resource that we
can um shoot them a quick link and have
everything that we’ve learned at their
fingertips maybe not everything but most
of it uh
it’s been really fun uh it’s not
monetized there’s no catch um this has
strictly been um
kind of a passing project for us and
we’re getting a lot of good feedback
it’s it’s really exciting so
if nothing else uh give it a couple
clicks it’s operator.thefold.com
and i really appreciate that
yeah and also you know again i’ll have
the links in the show notes and in the
description on youtube
so mark uh this
has been awesome i am super pumped to
hang out with you again on the webinar
on november 11th four o’clock pacific
seven o’clock eastern you can sign up
for that on learnresource.com right at
the top of the homepage or go to the
events page laundryresource.com events
or the the direct link to the sign in
will be in the show notes or in the
description for on youtube so you can
click on that there’s a whole bunch of
ways to get to it
but it is going to be
awesome i cannot wait
you are the man what is the best way for
people to get a hold of you if they want
to hear about what you got going on
uh twitter actually i’ve uh i’ve gotten
into twitter twitter changed my life
recently twitter is where i think i
think the the movers and shakers of the
small and medium-sized business world
are and i’ve been lucky to be opened
with open arms to a lot of those circles
so a lot of cool behind the scenes on
twitter for for me personally uh it’s
just my name mark last camp the fold
does some sweet stuff on twitter too
uh but other than that i’m feel free to
uh you know contact form on our site on
the operator site we’ll bring you to our
management team happy to get in touch
i really enjoy talking to other
operators see how this thing plays on a
national level so um feel free to reach
out either way
sweet all right so i’ll have the twitter
handles i think you’re the first one
who’s come on to say hey if you want to
find me you come to twitter uh so i’ll
tell you what it is a wild wild wild
place i’ll have to tell you more about
my experiences offline but uh yeah a
couple tweets changed my life and i’m on
twitter now come find me oh snap i’m
gonna have to go find you on twitter i’m
i’m not super active on twitter so maybe
i might need to
maybe i might need to jump in there and
uh
jump on board so cool all right guys uh
hey mark this was awesome again cannot
wait for the webinar and thank you for
the update and can’t wait to hear maybe
we’ll have you back on when you hit your
like 20th
uh 20th location or something like a
halfway point ish
i can’t wait
all right man we’ll talk to you soon
all right see you thursday bye-bye
all right i hope you enjoyed that
episode super cool mark is just a super
cool guy but
even more than that he’s doing awesome
things with his laundromats and his pick
up and delivery business and
has some huge aspirations so
just the same as every single week i
want to encourage you pick one thing to
put into action it’s the action that’s
going to get you to whatever your goals
are
so make sure you’re putting something
into action from every single episode
you listen to so for me
it’s an easy one obviously
uh i am going to be at that webinar and
i don’t say that as my action set
because i need to be at the webinar
because i’m hosting the webinar and i’m
you know it’s my
my platform’s webinar yes that is true
however i am just continually trying to
get
the presence and hear more from high
achievers people who are are just
killing it and whatever it is that
they’re doing because i want to learn
from them not only
what it is that they do but more
importantly how it is that they do it
and how they think about it and how they
approach whatever it is that they do
because i want to adopt those mindsets
if not also those actions so for me go
to the webinar no brainer uh
not just because i’m hosting it but also
because i want to i want to hear from
these guys who are uh top notch
operators in the pickup and delivery
service business so
hope you’ll join me there and also pick
something maybe that’s your action step
maybe there’s something else from the
episode but pick something put it into
action we’ll see you here again next
week on the laundromat resource podcast
and again show notes are at
laundermatresources.comshow77
[Music]
peace
