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. 

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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
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    basically if you haven’t heard of it
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    your cable or a lot of us laundromat
    owners are cutting our cable bill
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    the atmosphere of your laundromat the
    way that you want it so get rid of cable
    get rid of those news channels that are
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    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