You've Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Taken from a Live Q&A that Dave and I do monthly, this episode is packed full of practical advice and tips for newbies and seasoned investors alike!

We answer a TON of questions, including:

  • How to not get ripped off when buying a laundromat
  • What to know when opening your first laundromat
  • Can you downsize your water heater when you have o-zone
  • How much capital you need to start
  • Should you buy an existing store or partner with a franchise
  • Best practices to use with dry cleaning
  • Dealing with equipment delays
  • Is self serve dying and wash and fold and pick-up & delivery the wave of the future
  • Card, coin, or app payment systems
  • Marketing techniques with proven success
  • Email marketing ideas
  • Monthly laundry subscriptions
  • Price per bag or per pound for pick-up & delivery
  • When should you find a laundromat mentor
  • How often should you replace machines
  • What are the margins on pick-up & delivery
  • Good laundry lenders
  • Average pounds per order for pick-up & delivery
  • Are distributors price gouging
  • Can you own a laundromat remotely

And much more!

Listen To The Podcast Here

Watch The Podcast Here

Join Us For An Upcoming Event!

By Laundromat Owners.
For Laundromat Owners.

Today's Sponsors

AtmosphereTV We’re brought to you today by my friends at AtmoshereTV! Now You may have heard my interview a few months back with Mike Kelly from AtmosphereTV where we talked about what a simple change in content on your TVs can do for your laundromat by getting depressing news stations OFF and something much more fun, entertaining, and family-friendly ON.  Since then, Atmosphere has grown to 50+ channels included in their service with everything from Surfing Dogs to Extreme sports, hilarious fails, and jaw-dropping videos from all over the world built specifically for business use. Atmosphere can be used to supplement your cable or you can completely cut your expensive cable bill and use Atmosphere 100% FREE saving thousands a year! Use my code RESOURCE when you check out or click the link or image to have your setup fee waived or contact Mike.Kelly@Atmosphere.tv for more information!

Laundromat Resource Marketing If you need help building or managing a website for your laundromats, let the experts at Laundromat Resource Marketing help you design and build a custom, professional website for you! As experts in the laundromat industry AND in web design and online marketing, we at Laundromat Resource Marketing are able to provide you with a professional website at an affordable price. We’re always transparent so there are no hidden fees. What we quote you is what you pay. Satisfaction and performance guaranteed! With no contracts to sign and guarantees like that, why not let us take care of your online presence while you focus on welcoming all of your new laundry customers? Click the logo or link above to find out more information. 

Join The Laundromat Resource Community!

    I want to buy my first laundromat
    I own 1 laundromat
    I own multiple laundromats
    Upload
    Remove

    Episode Transcript

    good to see you everyone i know
    uh
    we’re live
    katherine oh
    tammy
    and john are on catherine’s youtube
    that’s confusing
    uh welcome guys hey super excited live q
    and a and i cannot wait
    to do it
    how are you doing man i couldn’t be any
    better if i was i’d be twins man i’m
    killing it i’m exhausted i’m not gonna
    lie i’m guessing you are too because
    we’re pushing we’re pushing that’s how
    we grow people that’s how we grow
    jordan’s got his own
    i got my liquid energy i’ve got my
    propel which doesn’t give me any energy
    but it’s uh it’s much needed it’s much
    needed
    so please what’s up
    we appreciate you guys being here
    tonight this is gonna be awesome
    we are pumped and i want uh no um
    what’s the word i’m looking for i’m
    missing the word
    no pressure
    no pressure guys but last month was our
    best one yet oh and i’m not saying that
    because it was on my channel i’m saying
    it because you guys which i’m guessing
    almost all of you were there
    you guys killed it last month it was
    phenomenal i think we had maybe close to
    200 people i didn’t count but uh it was
    a lot
    we got an outlaw with us i’m not sure
    what to make of that but that’s okay
    welcome out loud
    and kevin’s here all right kevin and
    matt what’s up matt
    kevin says it’s just finally made one
    i’m taking i’m taking it that means he’s
    the first this is his first one i’m
    guessing
    so welcome kevin i see uh see your name
    all the time on facebook and stuff so
    glad you guys are here feel free to
    start austin texas very nice very nice
    welcome
    coast to coast over here hey get these
    questions in if you have some questions
    let’s get them in while we’re welcoming
    people and catching up we haven’t really
    chatted we had some technical
    difficulties we made it
    just right
    like we always do that’s how we roll
    that just in time learning is
    beautiful no pressure you have one
    minute until you go live no problem
    dave’s not showing up
    uh man well hey listen i am excited
    about talking laundromats real quick
    quick update
    oh no matt wants us to guess what what
    is laundromat’s gonna be named all right
    everybody jump in the comment section
    matt wants everybody to guess what he’s
    gonna name his laundry mat matt you
    gotta give us some kind of a clue dude
    you can’t just give us how about i’ve
    got it how about
    whatever street coin laundry
    uh i like to drink it it’s soapy senior
    reader because that’s the one i wanted
    to go with and somebody can retake it
    yeah that would have probably worked
    pretty well in your market wouldn’t it
    yeah yeah i don’t think so
    or it would be offensive i’m not sure it
    could go either way maybe
    uh
    yeah
    is that a man everything’s offensive i
    can’t do this i can’t do this offensive
    stuff
    yeah everything’s offensive everything
    is offensive
    uh hey i have real quick before we jump
    into question speaking of which hey guys
    i mean this will be a lot more fun if we
    don’t have to just listen to dave drone
    on and on for like an hour now if you
    make the best way to do that is to give
    me ammo to interrupt them with in the
    form of questions that’s right i’m just
    kidding hey get those questions in i’m
    going to be writing them down as we go
    along and we’ll be tackling them
    as we go but real quick while questions
    are rolling in and people are
    laundering that
    nice
    that’s what man i love that yes that’s
    good very good uh
    that is dude today is uh an exciting day
    over here uh what’s up finally after
    like a year
    uh i have got some equipment that i’ve
    ordered that has come in so very very
    excited did you order it three years ago
    as i have a lot of consulting clients
    that are like should i be tool right
    away or should i do it in like six
    months and i’m like well i guess you
    should do it now so you can retool in
    six months if you’re lucky
    if you’re lucky everybody i talk to is
    like yeah they say uh they say six
    months and then that’s gonna turn into a
    year and
    uh i wait i don’t know maybe it was last
    month on the youtube uh somebody had
    told me that i think it was on there
    maybe it’s on facebook
    somebody had said something about uh
    they were stopped they won’t even take
    an order for the touch stuff now like
    they just yeah you can’t put in an order
    you can order other stuff because they
    don’t know when it’s to be available
    yeah i don’t remember where it is
    yeah yeah
    that’s what i heard matt’s matt is one
    of the votes
    yeah
    oh
    matt’s matt that’s pretty that’s pretty
    clever that is pretty good
    uh i’m missing i’m missing stuff over
    here uh okay let me
    let me run back up all right guys well
    hey this is a q a we are here just to
    let you know who we are i’m jordan with
    laundromat resource
    jordan mary
    jordan barry
    what’s up guys i’m pumped you’re here uh
    it’s funny i’ll answer the phone that
    way sometimes people will be like wow
    that’s crazy
    up guys
    uh and the laundromat millionaire dave
    mends uh
    the one and only person the only one and
    only person bold enough to call himself
    the loaner my millionaire
    not that not that i get away with it but
    anyway
    yeah hey we are we are pumped
    we are pumped you guys are here and we
    are getting the questions rolling in
    george lisa welcome
    i tell you what we’re already getting
    pretty good uh participation this is uh
    this is good stuff good stuff yeah
    and hey just i mean we’re gonna start
    tackling questions right now but while
    you’re uh while you’re bringing
    questions in while you’re listening to
    dave ramble on and on
    instead of nodding off and ignoring him
    uh don’t do that make sure your gym
    make sure you’re jumping in the chats uh
    you know having conversations with each
    other too i mean half
    probably let’s be honest more than half
    of the benefit of these things is that
    you guys can help answer each other’s
    questions and also just kind of get
    networking getting to know each other so
    make sure you’re doing that in
    the comment section over there and uh
    and and also you know dave and maybe a
    little bit of me will be you know
    offering some stuff along the way so
    since it’s jordan’s channel i’ll give
    him 10 minutes this month
    10 minutes that’s
    more than last month
    10 times when i get more on your channel
    uh all right so
    well let’s start yeah let’s start with
    this one let’s come in a couple times
    let’s just start with this one how do
    you make sure you don’t get ripped off
    when you buy a laundromat i mean listen
    that is
    a big question
    because number one uh you know i shared
    my story and i feel like i kind of got
    ripped off and you know i take
    responsibility for that but a big part
    of why i do what i do i know part of
    what why you do what you do
    is because you know we’ve learned some
    very valuable and very expensive lessons
    along the way we want to make sure other
    people don’t have to learn them the way
    that we learn them and uh
    uh
    man i mean getting ripped off is is
    scary and a lot of people are putting a
    lot of their
    hard-earned money into these things
    they’re not cheap even the cheap ones
    quote unquote are not cheap
    and uh man i don’t know you got any tips
    on how to not get ripped off as i catch
    up with the questions here well to be
    honest with you the fact that you’re
    asking that question is uh i’m
    optimistic for you because that
    insinuates that you are aware you could
    get ripped off because i think a lot of
    people enter this industry
    and it’s it’s i’m not picking on them i
    mean it but they enter this industry
    very haphazardly uh because i always say
    you know 75 percent of the information
    out there
    on laundromats you know the free
    information especially is pretty much
    complete garbage and so the good news is
    that means 25 percent of the information
    out there is pretty solid
    so what i tell people is if you stick to
    these three platforms meaning the
    laundromat millionaire laundromat
    resource and the cla uh you’re gonna get
    pretty solid information does that mean
    everything any guest on my podcast uh
    says is you know is golden inaccurate
    well no of course not um our podcast
    guests have their own opinions uh but we
    like to believe you know me and jordan
    and the cla we try to do a pretty good
    job of putting out solid information
    that’s credible and reputable um and so
    that’s a that’s a good place to start um
    you know there’s there’s a million
    things i could go into i always point
    out the book that the cla sells
    um
    which is uh they changed the name of it
    today’s law i think it’s just today’s
    laundromat um it’s on the cla store it’s
    a it’s a great resource that i bought 12
    years ago now and it’s phenomenal
    jordan has all kinds of templates on his
    website um he has a forum on there where
    you can connect with people laundromat
    resource.com
    um you know jordan’s pushing pushing a
    hundred episodes on the podcast there
    you know i think he’s over 70 if i
    remember right um
    yeah i tell people when it comes to free
    content start with number one and just
    start rolling he’s on he only says that
    because he’s number two though well i’m
    not gonna tell him to start at 70 it’ll
    take forever to get to my episode
    after you listen to number one there’s
    some guy rambling on number one once you
    get through number one on the laundromat
    resource podcast number two is my
    favorite episode i recommend listening
    to it a few times
    but that’s a good starting point but the
    reality is um you know you can never
    stop learning we can never stop learning
    because the industry is always changing
    so i think that’s a really good starting
    point uh the last thing i’ll say too is
    just take your time and i know this is
    kind of like a common sense quite answer
    take your time
    um you know
    it’s it’s kind of becoming sort of a
    coin phrase in the industry nowadays but
    spend a few thousand dollars on your
    education before you spend a few hundred
    thousand dollars um i’ve had clients
    come to me and i know jordan has too
    i’ve had coaching clients come to me
    that have you know basically just lost
    four hundred thousand dollars um you
    know i had somebody a while back that
    contacted me about coaching they had
    bought a 650 000 laundromat
    but it was probably worth proper
    valuation two hundred thousand two
    hundred fifty thousand
    and if he had called me six weeks
    earlier he had closed five weeks before
    that if he had closed six weeks or
    called me six weeks earlier you know he
    would have saved four thousand dollars
    so i’m not here to you know promote my
    coaching services or anything like that
    which are actually that’s a different
    conversation but actually they’re i’m
    packed i’m packed right now so i’m not
    taking any new clients so you’re gonna
    have to call jordan uh but those are
    some good places to start find a good
    mentor if you can find a rockstar
    distributor
    find them work with them utilize their
    resources their energy there’s a lot of
    good information out there but you do
    have to separate the wheat from the
    chaff
    on the internet because free you know a
    lot of times that’s not good information
    what do you think jordan
    yeah i mean
    hey number one not to just promote my
    own stuff but
    tomorrow
    we have i’m doing a free live webinar on
    how to analyze a laundromat deal and we
    go it’s like there you go
    drinking through a fire hose it’s a it’s
    it’s it’s a lot of good information i
    don’t say that because it’s i’m given
    the information i’m trying to to my own
    horn i’m saying that because i’ve been
    doing free coaching calls and free live
    webinars for a couple of years now and
    i’ve been taking notes on questions
    people have and i’m answering those
    questions in that webinar so
    uh man that’s a great place to start uh
    and you know i i think being involved in
    in a community of other owners other
    people who have experience
    and this is another huge uh thing that i
    was missing when i bought my first
    laundromat it ended up costing me tens
    of thousands of dollars
    uh but can be a huge resource for you
    and there’s a lot of great places to do
    that now like uh the landmark resource
    forums like laundromat millionaire
    facebook group there’s some other
    facebook groups out there that are
    pretty good and uh you know start
    getting to know people and
    you know when you have questions that
    pop up you need some timely answers
    again you have to
    you know use a little discernment uh you
    know when taking advice from strangers
    on the internet but
    uh you can use that discernment and you
    know verify that with other people and
    what you’re learning and
    uh man that’s a good
    place to start in terms of you know not
    getting ripped off and i would say too
    hey
    you know
    go go with a consultant if you can do it
    a consultant is somebody who’s third
    party and somebody who can give you an
    unbiased
    opinion i just talked to one of my
    clients out of buying a deal because we
    found out
    that a brand new
    mega nice laundromat was opening up
    three quarters of a mile away less than
    three quarters of a mile away
    in san jose
    and
    they ended up walking from that deal but
    the broker didn’t even mention that
    because the broker only gets paid
    you know when the deal goes through
    how did they find that how’d they find
    that out
    uh just
    word of mouth
    driving oh you’re on the streets oh
    you’re just driving up and down you look
    and you’re like oh they’re building my
    watermelon yeah they had a client
    i i always say hey go check the county
    that’s what it’s gonna be
    for a new laundromat build
    um and
    just make a grid on a map and drive up
    and down every single street and go
    check any construction that’s going on
    any vacant
    uh commercial
    spaces and you know just do a visual
    check because i mean they were gonna buy
    an 850 000
    laundromat that was immediately going to
    be worth
    probably less than 400 000 you know as
    soon as that other one opened so dr big
    bullet there
    but having a consultant even if you have
    to pay them a little bit can save you a
    lot of money so
    the likelihood if you pay let’s say
    hypothetically you pay a consultant ten
    thousand dollars over the course of 12
    months
    you’re going to get that money back in
    those 12 months if you if you buy a
    laundromat
    i i mean it
    i tell people all the time i mean in the
    laundromat industry it’s so capital
    intensive i mean we can roll out a bed
    and burn 50 000
    without even trying even if you kind of
    know what you’re doing i know people
    that know what they’re doing a little
    bit and have been in the industry a year
    or two and they still
    you know buy that 300 000 loaner mat for
    400 thousand dollars um thinking that
    they know what they’re doing because
    they’ve been in the business for a year
    or two well you maybe bought the right
    with the first one right just by mistake
    so like i said it goes back to spend a
    few thousand dollars on your education
    or in this case a mentor or a coach uh
    before before you spend a few hundred
    thousand dollars or more
    um you know i’m a big fan of diligence
    so i’m a big fan of being proactive
    rather than a reactive that makes sense
    yeah and i mean i think that’s a huge
    point and it’s it’s hard
    it’s hard sometimes to
    see the value in that like i have
    another
    client of mine who
    you know we found out during due
    diligence that there was a 700 a month
    sewer bill that
    the owner wasn’t trying to hide but
    didn’t even know about the sewer bill
    went to the landlord and the landlord
    never passed it on and we found out
    about it
    and
    our offer went down from 235 000 to 170
    000 because of that and it’s you know a
    tough break for the owners but put
    yourself in the buyer’s shoes if they
    had bought that laundromat without doing
    the due diligence and finding out about
    the sewer bill
    then i mean that’s a lot of like you
    said you can lose 50 grand like nothing
    you know and that would have been 50
    grand down for them
    in that scenario so
    you know
    i you know i know it’s easy it’s easy
    for me to say because i remember a time
    when 10 grand was a ton of money to me
    and don’t get me wrong it still is
    but it’s easy for me to say spend 10
    grand but i tell you what wouldn’t you
    rather spend 10 grand and just have the
    peace of mind
    that
    that you’re getting in the business the
    right way once again this is a
    hypothetical number it’s a random number
    but would you rather spend ten thousand
    dollars and be like you know what i’m
    working with a professional let’s assume
    you hire a good coach because there’s
    bad ones out there um or consultant but
    uh wouldn’t you really spend 10 grand
    and be like you know what i’m going to
    closing a 100 as close to 100 as we can
    be confident that i’m buying the right
    location i’ve done my homework i mean
    this business isn’t rocket science um so
    if you find somebody that knows what
    they’re doing i mean the industry
    doesn’t change quickly it does change
    but it doesn’t change quickly and so if
    you find somebody that knows a little
    something about the business then that
    that’s going to be even if even if you
    would have done it either way i’d still
    rather spend the ten thousand dollars
    and have that peace of mind but that’s
    just me and there was a time when i
    didn’t have that 10 grand so i i
    understand that too and i’m not trying
    to make light of that because a lot of
    people are in that situation and even
    going back to that if i had that to do
    over again because i had a great mentor
    if you don’t have the 10 grand you’re
    probably in less of a situation to take
    that risk to be honest with you than
    somebody that 10 grand really isn’t that
    much money to so i don’t know if that
    answers your question there’s really not
    an answer to your question there’s a
    whole bunch of answers proceed with
    caution find a good mentor get in some
    good networking groups and if you can
    get yourself a coach
    yeah awesome
    awesome awesome uh
    answer to that question i mean i think
    there’s a lot of really good stuff in
    there for anybody who’s looking to buy
    that first one did we
    i’m still trying to catch up here did we
    ever find out what matt’s laundromat is
    it going to be laundromat i don’t know
    hey jason jason dodge joined us welcome
    bud hey jason all right
    matt if you did tell the name and if it
    was matt’s matt then
    i like it he says i like matt’s matt too
    so maybe he’s not so sold on his own
    kevin cook says zero experience here
    reading and listening good for you
    that is a great place to start just
    consume consume
    if you have a good head on your
    shoulders which i’m sure you do if
    you’re here um you know consume enough
    information you’re going to hear all the
    commonalities in the industry if you
    just talk to five people i mean you’re
    gonna get five probably different
    opinions because not everybody knows
    this business as well as they think they
    do um
    and and and i’ll just leave it at that
    but consume consume consume and
    eventually you’re going to see a lot of
    uh commonalities in the information
    you’re consuming and that’s when your
    education starts to rise and that’s when
    the red flags are going to start to kind
    of jump out at you like this doesn’t
    make sense
    so i don’t know if that helps matt if
    you do have a name let us know what it
    is my friend everybody’s dying
    you’re the talk of the show
    that’s right uh
    all right so ooh nice a lot of uh
    all right andrew cunningham all right
    hey andrew cunningham and i are doing a
    webinar in
    uh i don’t know a few weeks you can
    check it out at london resource.com
    events which will be really good so okay
    so uh
    we got how not to get ripped off hey
    first of all there’s a quite a few
    people in here who are opening their
    first mat i saw that kevin
    is has a new build out uh that is
    opening this week that’s huge
    congratulations to kevin uh that’s a
    really big deal those build-outs can
    take a long time and it’s
    very financially and emotionally
    draining to go through a build out so
    huge celebration but let me just
    encourage you kevin
    that
    the work is not over when you open the
    doors that’s when the work just starts
    so don’t let off the pedal right off the
    bat you gotta get those people in there
    and you gotta get them to develop the
    habit of coming to your laundromat
    that’s what it’s all about right so
    building out a laundromat awesome first
    step it feels like a huge first step
    because you it’s like a monumental
    effort to get there but don’t let off
    the pedal i just wanted to
    give you a little you know pump talk on
    that because uh man
    i know it can be emotionally and
    financially draining to get to that
    point but keep going man keep going
    opening opening the doors on a retool a
    remodel
    a new build that’s not the finish line
    folks that’s a starting line
    and that’s not really information that
    uh
    it’s not something everyone wants to
    hear
    it’s not it’s not a fun to hear it
    necessarily because you’re pretty
    exhausted a lot of times by the time you
    get to that point but
    you got to push forward that’s when the
    fun begins and my mentor told me that
    early on i left the closing to buy my
    first store which wasn’t a build but it
    was run down
    i left the closing and i i called him i
    said it’s official i own the store i’ll
    meet you there we had already made
    arrangements for him to meet me there
    the day of and he said i’ll see you in a
    little bit he walked in the door shook
    my hand said congratulations and said
    be under no illusion that you’ve done
    anything
    now it’s time to work
    and i had worked i had worked i worked
    hard to get that thing across the fetish
    line and it was a little bit
    demoralizing but it was also kind of a
    pub talk that that i needed uh because i
    was i was exhausted so that’s a that’s a
    great point for sure
    yeah a lot a lot of talk about andrew
    cunningham in here and and i’m just
    going to throw it out there i’ve i’ve
    never met andrew personally but i know
    he’s been on a couple of your podcasts
    at least two
    um that i know of for sure so guys you
    know a lot of talk about andrew i know
    jordan has great things to say about him
    um i’ve watched the podcast clearly
    knows the industry been in the industry
    a long time so
    if you’re
    i mean if you’re just wanting to learn
    more about the industry go check out
    those podcasts he gives a lot of good
    information in those podcasts and then
    if if he is someone that you’re you know
    you want to contact about consulting i
    guess i guess he does that kind of stuff
    um so a little bit a little bit of buzz
    for andrew there yeah his his uh contact
    information is on the show notes page of
    those uh laundromats or does he have a
    website like a consulting website or he
    does i want to say it’s
    laundromats
    dot com
    i’ll put that in the chat actually that
    way you guys can okay
    but i’m not positive i’m pretty sure
    that’s it
    yeah while you’re doing that i’m going
    to jump at one that somebody addressed
    to me um i’m not finding it but i know
    it’s here somewhere they uh
    oh there it is mike posted it
    he said
    he said dave now that you have had ozone
    in your store for a while and your
    customers are on board if you had to
    update your water heater would you
    downsize it
    you know
    mike i you know i’m probably the best
    person to ask about that because i’m a
    big fan of the macro rather than the
    micro not that the micro isn’t important
    but i don’t get too worked up over
    you know whether i heat a few extra
    gallons of water every day or something
    like that i tend to spend we i believe
    we all have kind of limited mental
    capacity
    and so i said i tend to spend my time on
    the bigger things that being said if i
    were replacing the water heater anyways
    would i do the calculations to see if i
    can get away with something smaller i
    would
    um but that being said just from
    personal observation having ozone in
    your store
    is is definitely a great thing to have
    from a marketing standpoint
    it definitely does a great job of
    cleaning the clothes and things like
    that but
    it’s i mean you’re really fighting an
    uphill battle if the reason the singular
    reason you’re putting ozone in is to
    reduce your water heater
    or your water heater usage
    is it going to happen naturally a little
    bit yeah but you could sit there and
    spend a half an hour talking to every
    customer about ozone and explaining how
    great it is and why they don’t need to
    use hot water they need to go use cold
    water
    and you’re still not going to convince a
    good portion of your clientele so i’m
    not sure that i would do that
    i mean if i had a two or three year
    track record and put in ozone two or
    three years ago and happen to need to
    replace my water heater now would i look
    at that consumption rate and say is
    there a drastic difference can i get
    away with something smaller yeah but i
    wouldn’t spend a whole lot of time on it
    um that’s just my my my personal
    philosophy on business
    uh but it is i mean i don’t mean to make
    light of it because it is true that
    having ozone um actually cleans your
    clothes better in cold water than in hot
    water the problem is you’re not going to
    convince your customers of that
    so it’s kind of an uphill battle so take
    it for what it’s worth it is one of the
    benefits of having ozone but i don’t
    know that it’s something that really get
    worth getting too worked up over
    at least my opinion now that in other
    markets that are a little bit more
    sensitive to gas usage and environmental
    things
    maybe it’s maybe it’s a bigger issue
    there would you have any comments on
    that like in your market jordan or
    uh no i mean i think you’re right i
    don’t know that you’re gonna save enough
    to go downsize
    you know the cost of just downsizing in
    general
    uh
    yeah i mean
    they’re just numbers though so you you
    should be able to figure that out and
    you know you know figure out how
    much of the hot water it’s going to save
    you and
    you know make do the math you know but
    you know if i was just gonna go with
    kind of gut
    feeling i mean i think even even being a
    little more environmental
    if that’s your main
    stick for your laundromat then maybe yes
    but uh
    yeah i don’t i don’t think it’s enough
    to
    yeah
    to go about doing the downsizing there
    um okay so
    uh somebody was asking too about you
    when are you doing your next update for
    your build
    i’m curious about that too if that’s not
    charles measly then i’m gonna be
    surprised but it doesn’t say his name
    he’s been he’s been he’s a friend of
    mine he’s been sending me text messages
    yeah i’m going to actually do something
    uh probably this week i don’t know if
    it’ll be out this week the video um and
    and i’ll just go and throw it out there
    the reason why we haven’t is because
    while we’ve been making a lot of
    progress it’s not a lot of visual
    progress
    and if you built a laundromat you know
    what i’m talking about um the last four
    to six weeks has been a lot of
    engineering documents and uh applying
    for permits and they’re dragging their
    toes a little bit on that and some
    architecture work and a lot of this was
    done beforehand but we didn’t do a
    hundred percent of it because the couple
    weeks before we closed on this property
    there was a chance that it was going to
    fall through
    um and so we kind of just pushed pause i
    was like well maybe i just won’t do
    anything until it actually closes
    um and it closed put us a few weeks
    behind which is not the end of the world
    uh that being said we actually had the
    parking lot which is this is just for
    those of you that don’t know i’m
    building a new laundromat uh but the
    building is existing it’s a former
    laundromat we gutted it down to the
    studs and we’re basically building a
    brand new laundry mat
    but the parking lot was in terrible
    shape we’ve painted the building
    we actually had the parking lot resealed
    and striped today
    we’ve got about probably 60 percent of
    our equipment has been delivered it’s
    not been installed but it’s been
    delivered our bulkheads from highmark
    have been have been delivered our drain
    troughs from hm company
    drain troughs.com um
    have been delivered so we’re making a
    lot of progress but when you like walk
    in the building and look at it there’s
    not a ton to look at so i kind of felt
    like it would be sort of a lame video if
    i did one
    um
    you strike the parking lot right like
    what’s more exciting right well there’s
    a funny thing the funny thing is i drove
    by today and i was like holy cause it
    looked bad before but yeah it’s an
    asphalt parking lot and they hadn’t done
    any maintenance no sealing no striping
    no not even cleaning out the weeds from
    the crocs nothing in probably 25 years
    and so it was rough and i mean it looks
    as far as a parking lot can look it
    looks amazing
    [Laughter]
    so anyway so yes i will be doing a video
    shortly and there will be quite a bit of
    stuff to cover but when you look in the
    inside of the building it doesn’t look
    drastically different than it did five
    or six weeks ago
    so but thanks for following along
    because the good news is
    now that we’re kind of seeing the finish
    line and getting the zoning people out
    of our way and stuff
    all my contractors and me i mean we’re
    chomping at the bit so i’m gonna have
    some yeah i’m gonna have some really
    cool videos on a probably weekly basis
    where we’re just really hammering it so
    we’re hoping to be open uh sometime in
    mid-november
    so we’ll see if uh
    we’ll see if that happens six weeks or
    so yeah that’s right so we’ll see but
    thanks for asking and i appreciate you
    following along
    um for sure
    yeah i know how that goes you know doing
    house remodel and stuff my wife was kind
    of following along on instagram posting
    stuff and then it was just like nothing
    was being posted we were like what
    happened and
    she’s like well they’re like wiring
    stuff and
    running plumbing and
    you can’t really even tell anything
    that’s different just like the
    construction’s in it
    uh yeah okay so somebody asked uh how
    much capital does it take to start how
    much should you have
    in order to start
    in the laundromat it doesn’t take
    doesn’t take any capital it’s free guys
    free it’s free you don’t need any money
    it’s totally free cool all right well
    the next question next question
    [Laughter]
    now the answer the answer is it depends
    i’m sorry it depends i’m sorry to say
    that but you can get into the industry
    uh jordan has a couple great videos i
    don’t think they’re podcasts i think
    they’re just videos of him but they’re
    on his podcast or maybe they’re just on
    his youtube channel he’s a couple good
    videos on kind of getting into the
    industry
    on the lower end of things as far as
    capital so i mean i’m an example of
    someone that got into the industry i had
    thirty thousand dollars in cash and it
    had taken me five years to save that up
    um
    to to get into the business and i bought
    a really dumpy laundromat for like 85
    grand and borrowed 70 of it uh put 15
    down and then put the other 15 and
    improvements to the store and
    leverage myself to the hilt so that’s
    that’s my story so the answer is you can
    get into the industry pretty
    inexpensively but you’re really buying a
    project you’re buying something that’s
    going to have to have
    um you know it’s going to have a lot of
    deferred maintenance it could possibly
    be losing money which mine was when i
    bought it my first one um
    and so you can get into the lower and
    lower in the industry just put be
    prepared to either borrow a lot of money
    spend a lot of your own money or put a
    lot of a lot of sweat equity in and
    likely all three um of those things
    because this is a capital intensive
    business and then on the higher side of
    the business i mean there’s two three
    million dollar laundromats out there um
    so if you figure
    30 to 40 percent down
    in the total project if you’re a newbie
    which is pretty common uh especially 30
    then do the math you know on a million
    bucks you’re looking at three to four
    hundred thousand dollars on two million
    you’re looking to double that so that’s
    on the higher end and that’s when you’re
    kind of building sort of the taj mahal
    of laundromats um but it’s it it it
    feels a little bit like a cop out to say
    that but the range is really that wide
    it’s really just a matter of your market
    finding the right opportunities
    doing your homework things like that
    what are your thoughts on that
    yeah i mean like you said it’s the
    biggest it depends in the world and it
    really depends on how you get into the
    business and you know
    to a degree i think you’re right there’s
    all all of those things you’re going to
    be spending a lot of money and a lot of
    sweat equity and all that stuff
    depending on how you get in but i found
    that there’s kind of this inverse
    relationship with how much money you
    have
    versus how much time and sweat equity
    you need to put in
    right so if you have definitely if
    you’re if you’re uh you know plastic
    surgeon in beverly hills and you have a
    bunch of money you’re just trying to put
    it in to a business you know to get some
    cash flow on it and you don’t really
    even need it to make you a ton of money
    you know well you can buy that million
    dollar laundromat and it’s gonna be
    probably relatively turnkey and it’s
    probably going to have relatively new
    equipment so it’s going to be relatively
    low maintenance there will still be
    things you need to put in so there still
    is some kind of time commitment there
    but relatively little but if you’re on
    the other end of the spectrum and you
    don’t have very much money
    then
    you just need to anticipate you’re going
    to be putting more time and more of your
    own sweat equity into
    that business
    to get it going i think you’re a perfect
    example of that
    where you
    relative i mean you have 30 let’s just
    say it first thirty thousand dollars
    still a lot of money
    but you you scrounged up thirty thousand
    dollars which is relatively little
    amount of money
    and you
    you know you you talk about it all the
    time you went before work you worked
    your nine to five job uh nine to five
    job and then you went
    and sometimes longer and then you went
    after work and you did that for a lot
    like years like not like
    four years yeah 90 to 100 hours a week
    yeah for five years four years so
    a little bit of money
    a lot of sweat equity and and now
    probably knowing what you know now there
    may be some ways where you could shorten
    that timeline
    some of the stuff you and that’s kind of
    what we’re talking about with the
    you know consultant or mentor track two
    collapsing timelines and reaching levels
    of success that you’re trying to get to
    much quicker
    but if you just want to go at your own
    you know just know there’s an inverse
    relationship if you’re planning on
    you know leaving the rat race leaving
    the nine to five but you really don’t
    have any money right now that’s fine you
    can do that and laundromats are a
    vehicle where you can do that
    you just need to know you’re gonna have
    to work a lot harder than other people
    who have more money on the front end to
    get to that point and it might take a
    little bit longer that makes sense yeah
    i think most of these conversations are
    either and either or propositions so
    like in my example i hate fixing things
    like i hate i didn’t i knew i could but
    i didn’t want to learn how to fix my own
    equipment i wanted to be in a financial
    position where i didn’t ever need to i
    could always afford to pay someone to
    fix my equipment so i would rather stay
    at my job that i didn’t hate i didn’t
    love but i didn’t hate i’d rather stay
    in my job an extra year 18 months build
    up some more cash increase revenue a
    little bit more have a little bit
    healthier business and so it was an
    either or proposition could i have left
    my job earlier and taken money out of
    the business i could have but it would
    occur it would have required me to work
    in my business
    which i didn’t want to do now there’s
    many many people i mean i was already
    doing it but i didn’t want to do any
    more than i already was
    i liked my job but there’s many people
    that don’t have another job or maybe
    they got laid off and so they need to
    work in their business and so every
    situation is unique and different how
    you get there is really just determined
    by numbers and i mean a perfect example
    too is if i was a single guy who was 22
    and living with six roommates and my
    rent was 100 bucks a month because we
    divided it six ways i wouldn’t have
    needed much to live on but i was married
    and i had a family of three i had a
    newborn at home when i bought my first
    laundromat and a toddler and a 10 year
    old and so um you know we did cut our
    living expenses a little bit to help out
    but we weren’t willing to just sell
    everything and live in a box
    we had a lifestyle that we were trying
    to maintain we didn’t need to grow it
    but we were trying to maintain it and so
    that’s part of the factors it’s part of
    the it depends is how much are you
    willing to sacrifice what are you
    willing to do how long are you willing
    to do it you said it a minute ago i
    think it was with the water heater
    comment it’s just math
    well i mean business is just math even
    your personal expenses is just math and
    you can manipulate those things on both
    ends of the
    of the spectrum it’s just a matter of do
    you want to you want to work more or
    sacrifice less do you want to sacrifice
    more or work less you know that there is
    no right answer the answer is it depends
    and that’s why we keep going back to
    that
    um but yeah we’re getting some awesome
    comments uh hey joe dan good to see you
    buddy
    joining us this month he hasn’t been
    with us for a while
    i know it’s awesome yeah jason dodge
    says and i i’m gonna take a little
    liberty here i know jason recently built
    a laundromat that’s a beautiful laundry
    map
    and uh he mentions credit cards 401k
    owner financing line of credit on the
    house i’m guessing i don’t know maybe
    you do i think you’re a little closer
    with jason than i am i’m guessing that
    he’s saying he did all of those things
    to get his new store open yeah
    that’s not uncommon yeah if if you’re
    interested in how to get into a business
    when you’re in a tight situation you
    need to go listen to jason’s episode on
    the podcast i can’t remember up top in
    my head what number it is i don’t know
    jason if you remember but
    uh man his episode is awesome and he i
    mean he made it happen
    that’s like the epitome of making it
    happen
    uh so yeah
    really really good
    uh there’s one for you here’s one for
    you jordan yeah stacy uh stacey ron
    fuller says are you guys finding that
    the sales price on mats are inflated
    right now to go along with the longer
    order times and increase prices on new
    equipment yeah
    yes absolutely and i and i so i’m in i’m
    doing so many like too many consulting
    calls right now every single week
    and
    all over i’m looking all over the
    country urban areas suburban areas rural
    areas
    east coast west coast best coast
    middle where nobody really pays any
    attention to
    where nobody lives yeah
    uh yeah but uh man everywhere i’m seeing
    inflated prices and i and i think a big
    part of the reason a couple things
    number one is
    you know when people looked around
    during covet business clothes business
    clothes business clothes laundromat open
    intriguing uh so i think that’s a big
    part of it i think genuinely and i’m not
    just saying this but genuinely i think
    you know having people like dave who’s
    giving a lot of exposure to our industry
    outside of our industry
    is peaking a lot of interest i know he
    went on the bigger pockets business
    podcast which is a big deal that was a
    little while ago
    uh it’s now defunct and i can’t help but
    wonder if there’s some
    you know relationship there of
    why it’s not going anymore well me and
    you launched our podcasts and then they
    went under that’s what happened that
    might be
    the timeline is right jordan i’m just
    saying okay well i didn’t know if it was
    that or maybe
    you know i broke them yeah i broke them
    they can’t my numbers just went through
    the roof and they handle you yeah
    but i do think that’s part of it too and
    and i also think there’s just a lack of
    inventory uh for
    whatever reason you know i don’t know if
    people are just not wanting to sell you
    know a lot of people took a little bit
    of a hit during coven in terms of
    numbers and so not wanting to sell
    with those lower numbers
    and so they’re hanging on longer or i’m
    not sure what the deal is but there just
    has not been a lot on the market so
    definitely
    you said it’s all you said it’s all over
    the country so you’re not just talking
    about la what are you seeing are you
    seeing instead of a three to five x
    you’re seeing four to seven x or what
    what are you i mean that people are
    asking i’m not saying they’re getting it
    but
    yeah no i mean i’m seeing asking prices
    uh you know yeah four well maybe even
    like four and a half to six and a half
    is what i’m seeing kind of what i’ve
    seen yep and depending on who’s asking
    there’s some particular
    uh
    brokers or you know people who are
    always at the higher end of that
    which is fine um
    and you know and i tell people all the
    time hey i
    i literally i’m gonna do this webinar
    tomorrow during the analysis webinar i’m
    doing tomorrow free live webinar
    i will say
    you can ignore the asking price just
    ignore it it’s irrelevant it means
    absolutely nothing and usually it’s just
    a negotiation technique right so
    whatever that asking price multiple is
    the real question is what returns are
    you willing to live with
    right and if you’re willing to live with
    the returns you can get at a six times
    multiplier then you can pay a six times
    multiplier if you need twenty percent
    return on your money then you can’t go
    higher than a five times multiplier
    that’s just
    what it is and you just have to find a
    deal that’s going to fit that so
    uh but yeah i’m seeing four and a half
    to
    to six and a half uh
    most of the even like
    you know older machines and and all that
    will be
    in that four and a half to do you know
    if they’re getting that
    usually
    well it depends
    and i mean kind of stole my answer
    yeah always always it depends but i mean
    going back to do you have somebody
    helping you out who knows something
    about the business and if you’re going
    at it a lot i see this a lot where
    people
    you know just
    and i’m not blaming anybody because i
    did exactly this but when you just kind
    of go along with what the broker says
    you’re gonna pay top dollar nine times
    out of ten
    uh unless you happen to get a good
    broker who has a
    bigger
    term vision of your relationship with
    them that’s really what you want to look
    for but
    yeah i mean i’m seeing some people
    paying
    you know upwards of that and uh
    you know hey if you can sell your long
    enough for that
    more power to you
    you know i tell people when the
    environment we’re in right now and we
    don’t know if it’ll last forever but i
    think kova definitely impacted it um and
    i think people like me and you not just
    me and you but people like me and you
    bringing a visibility to the industry of
    how great of a business this can be if
    done the right way i think that
    increases the value of our businesses
    um and so i do think there’s a
    correlation there i’m not giving any one
    person credit i’m just saying that the
    information as a whole or the industry
    as a whole we’re sharing information
    more and i’d like to think that you and
    i are at least in fact i know we’re a
    little bit of a part of that um and so
    i’m not gonna not gonna shy away from
    that and us trying to encourage
    networking in the chats networking on
    facebook groups on the laundromat
    resource forum
    just jordan having laundromat
    resource.com website that didn’t exist a
    couple years ago
    him doing free webinars people’s
    education level is increasing i’m not
    saying everyone’s is but the awareness
    to the industry is increasing um and so
    those those all factor in if you’re
    looking to buy a laundromat you might
    have to pay a little bit more for it and
    take a little bit less as a of an roi on
    your investment but the good news is i
    still think it’s good for the industry
    for us to be collectively as an industry
    be elevating our industry
    i i don’t think we can lose in that
    scenario
    yeah uh okay there’s i mean there’s a
    lot of questions coming in yeah so we
    talked about that it depends we talked
    about that it depends oh somebody had
    asked
    is it better to buy an existing
    laundromat and either run it or retool
    or whatever or to partner with speed
    queen
    and
    go
    that route
    you got anything to say about that
    you know i don’t want to speak
    specifically to speed queen because i
    don’t pretend to be a speed queen
    franchise expert um but there’s like
    nine or ten franchises out there
    nowadays i’m guessing that’s what
    they’re asking us about the franchise
    my opinion of it is there’s nothing
    wrong with a franchise i think franchise
    models
    in business across all industries are a
    good thing in a lot of cases uh my
    personal opinion knowing what i know now
    about the industry and the people in the
    industry and
    uh the elevation of of knowledge and uh
    let’s call it business acumen among us
    laundromat owners and how it’s
    increasing um i think that they’re the
    value i always go to value you know me i
    always go to value and the reality is
    that i just don’t see it um i actually
    just did a podcast the other day i think
    it was number 19
    um
    and it was brian riseland and he is a
    former microsoft exec if you’re not
    aware i have a podcast laundry matt
    millionaire show
    it’s on all the podcasting platforms
    it’s on c-suite tv um it’s on my youtube
    channel you can check out those podcasts
    and video form uh go check out i think
    it’s episode 19 but just look for brian
    riseland uh he’s a former microsoft exec
    that got in the laundromat industry
    and he did we talked for quite a while
    about him researching the industry and
    he was really close to going with a
    franchise and then he started to figure
    out the numbers and the the uh the
    franchise fee and the royalties in
    perpetuity and things like that and he
    started to realize well geez over a
    10-year period of time if i achieve my
    goals in this business i’m going to pay
    them a million dollars
    and he said okay in those 10 years are
    they going to give me a million dollars
    or in this case more we would need uh in
    in value and the answer was it wasn’t
    even close and this is his answer not
    mine so this is someone that went pretty
    deep and heavy-hitted uh heavy-headed
    down to the industry and he looked into
    the franchising and he he said it wasn’t
    for him that being said there’s nothing
    wrong with a franchise he’s a he’s a
    sharp guy he has a lot of business
    experience
    creating operational processes and
    procedures he didn’t feel was quite as
    valuable to him because that’s something
    he has a he has a business acumen for
    but if that’s something you would really
    struggle with and you might get a lot
    more value out of that business in a box
    uh type of mentality so i’m not here to
    say anything bad about any franchises
    speed queen or otherwise all i tell
    people is just look at the numbers just
    like brian did make your own decision
    for yourself i think in some cases cases
    franchises make sense in my opinion in
    most cases in this industry i can’t
    imagine that they would make much sense
    um just my two cents worth knowing
    knowing what i know about the industry
    what’s your what’s your opinion on that
    uh
    i don’t know if we have enough time to
    go into it but i mean i think you’re i
    think you’re right i think your time’s
    up sorry okay
    so the next question
    uh no i mean
    the only
    scenario that i can think of where i
    would say
    okay do the franchise model is
    if it’s the only way you feel like you
    can make yourself take the first step
    if you are like overcome with fear or
    anxiety about buying your first
    laundromat and you feel like you need
    some kind
    of safety net even though it’s not
    really
    a safety net but you know if you
    if you feel like it’s going to help you
    take the action that you need to take to
    get your foot in the game
    that’s the only scenario that i can see
    having a franchise
    maybe be worth it
    uh you know in terms of the speed queen
    in particular i mean joe dan reed said i
    have a hitch uh i have a hip store and
    speed queen distributor opened the speed
    queen of hips for both alliance
    opened a store a mile away and we’re
    starting to see more and more of that
    and
    uh you know i personally i have some
    concerns with
    alliance and their business model and
    what they’re doing in our industry right
    now
    i have an episode about that on the
    podcast you can go check that out if
    you’re interested in my
    opinions on that uh
    so yeah i would i would say hey you know
    what
    i don’t know where the value is either
    other than if you’re too scared to do it
    on your own and you can’t do it with a
    consultant you can’t do it with
    a team of people around you
    okay like if that’s the only way you’re
    going to take some action
    go that route if not
    i don’t really see the value in it
    either
    million dollars
    million dollars
    that’s a lot of value
    it’s a lot of value somebody’s going to
    have to bring
    i mean we just talked about 10k for a
    pretty good mentor right
    and once again i’m using an arbitrary
    number but let’s multiply that by five
    5k or i mean 50k uh in brian’s case and
    i’m he wasn’t speed queen but i’m not
    going to you know get into it but the
    the uh the franchise that he was talking
    to
    i’m guessing he talked to more than one
    but the franchise fee was the fee alone
    just to get started was 50k to get on
    the waitlist to 50k just to get on the
    list that’s right then the rest of the
    950 was going to be what he would pay in
    royalties and things like that
    so once again you can probably hire
    yourself two or three rock star
    coaches and mentors in the industry and
    take your time for five or six months
    and
    i i mean
    i don’t know what else to say other than
    that like i think you’re going to be way
    ahead of the game uh but just take the
    important thing to know is regardless of
    what route you go take your time
    take your time work on your education
    because it’s amazing what you can learn
    this business is not that complicated
    it’s not easy but it is simple
    and if you just take your time and work
    with people and really network hard and
    get involved in groups like this and
    take advantage of resources like the
    laundromat resource podcast and things
    like that you’d be amazed what you can
    learn in six months without spending
    very little money but if you’re willing
    to spend ten fifteen twenty thousand
    dollars um i mean you’re
    you’re going to be really far ahead of
    the game in my opinion
    yeah
    yeah thanks for sharing all that i mean
    i think i get that question all the time
    so i mean i think that’s
    a great
    primer for anybody kind of thinking
    through that and where that might be
    worth it there may be other scenarios
    that i’m not aware of where it’s worth
    it but i just
    i don’t know
    uh okay so
    somebody was asking about um doing
    pick-up and delivery and
    they want to
    offer dry cleaning but they don’t want
    to actually own
    a dry cleaners and so
    what do you have any
    advice for somebody wanting to offer dry
    cleaning pick up delivery how do you
    partner with the dry cleaner is there
    an arrangement you need to have do you
    have a contract
    what can you tell us about that
    yeah i do that personally i’ve been
    doing that for about three years um and
    once again not rocket science but the
    key to the whole thing is having the
    right partner just like people that
    trash partnerships and say they’re
    terrible well they probably had the
    wrong partner i know people that and i’m
    not a partnership guy myself but i know
    people that get in partnerships with the
    right partners and they love it they
    love everything about it because they
    can leverage and scale themselves and
    their partnership um so there’s good and
    bad and everything but um yeah i think
    it all comes down to you know you what
    you’re going to do is you’re going to
    find a local host or a local dry cleaner
    first of all that’s willing to wholesale
    because a lot of them are not a lot of
    them want that full retail margin and
    they think that if they do wholesale
    work for you that they’re now doing
    wholesale work rather than retail
    because they think that you’re taking
    money out of their pocket that’s
    business that
    maybe not would have but could have went
    to them so the first thing to understand
    and every market’s unique and different
    but the first thing to understand is
    that a lot of dry cleaners aren’t even
    interested in doing wholesale work they
    want that full margin business they want
    the retail business themselves
    so that’s the first thing is just
    finding somebody that will do wholesale
    work the next one is finding someone
    that does it well which is a very
    difficult thing to do
    um
    you find somebody that that actually
    it’s important to them because if you
    take the first two things and you take
    them off the table and you find a dry
    cleaner that wants to do wholesale work
    and will do it it’s still going to be
    their least priority meaning that
    they’re going to rush you’re not going
    to get the quality so it’s a lot you
    know it’s really easy for somebody to
    jump on here and say just find a local
    dry cleaner wholesale it out to them and
    don’t do any of the work and collect all
    your profits and uh in in a perfect
    world it would be that easy but it’s not
    and the last thing i’ll say is if you
    find that person you got to manage that
    relationship you have to let them know
    that you appreciate that partnership you
    have to let them know that they’re the
    value they bring to their your
    partnership is important to you
    and it can be little things and big
    things like taking them out to dinner
    and stopping by and seeing how they’re
    doing and um things like that but it’s
    really it’s really all predicated on
    finding them you ask about contracts i
    don’t have a contract we have a pricing
    agreement but we don’t have a contract
    before between me and the distributor or
    between me and the dry cleaner i’m sure
    most people do but i found a perfect dry
    cleaner and we have a relationship and
    agreement i would say that works for us
    um and it’s a perfect situation and i’ll
    share it
    they do our wholesale work at 50 margins
    and so i told them i said whatever your
    retail price is because they also do
    retail work um i said whatever your
    retail price is i need your wholesale
    price to be half of that and i’m going
    to charge the same retail prices as you
    and my point within that was i’m not
    going to beat you up on price
    i want you to make money um but i’m also
    not going to undercut you so if i can
    get you know a
    perfect example in investing in that
    relationship is we’re in the same market
    we’re both in cincinnati
    and i do pick up and delivery so we
    cover pretty much all of cincinnati with
    pickup and delivery and i could very
    easily say well they’re doing it for 50
    um you know i can mark it up 25 and
    still undercut them by 25
    well how long do you think that
    relationship’s going to work out
    so i mean you got to be a little bit
    smart about your partnerships because if
    you build a i don’t know substantial the
    right word dry cleaning is kind of a
    dying industry but
    if you build a substantial relationship
    with a wholesaler knowing that how the
    things i just talked about how hard it
    is to find and build that relationship
    and all of a sudden they drop you like a
    hot rock
    what are you going to do you don’t want
    me dry cleaning equipment
    so it’s not easy to find but when you do
    find it treat them right appreciate them
    for the value they bring to you
    and it can be a great thing it’s been
    fantastic for me in fact i don’t
    remember what episode but if you go to
    the laundromat millionaire show which is
    my podcast
    i did an episode with my dry cleaner
    which they wholesale to us and we talk
    about our relationship um i think the
    episode is called thriving and dry
    cleaning just like the tagline uh but if
    you just go look up the laundromat
    millionaire show on any podcast platform
    or on my youtube channel you can find
    that episode there and we talk about our
    our uh
    wholesale relationship a decent amount
    what do you have any thoughts on that i
    know you don’t you don’t do direct
    cleaning right
    no i don’t
    yeah
    yeah i don’t have you interviewed anyone
    on the podcast that does it well and got
    into that much or not really uh
    i can’t think of any that you have
    no i mean can’t kent wales but he he
    does his own yeah uh
    so yeah not really actually i haven’t
    really touched
    uh touched on it too much um
    but i mean everything you’re saying i
    could not agree with more which
    you know is
    you know
    do good business right and like treat
    don’t don’t beat people up
    and don’t take advantage of them like if
    you’re trying to
    you know outsource
    dry cleaning
    you know you need to be don’t you know
    don’t be undercutting them that
    relationship’s not going to last but on
    the flip side of that you also need to
    make sure they’re doing
    you know they’re
    they’re representing your business when
    you partner with somebody like that
    they
    you know the quality of their work is
    going to reflect on your business more
    than it reflects on their business
    because the customer doesn’t see your
    relationship with that dry cleaner so
    yes treat them correctly but also hold
    them to a standard and make sure that
    they are
    delivering the
    you know the value that you
    at the standard that you want to hold
    um as part of your business so it kind
    of goes both ways
    uh for that
    yep no i totally agree that’s episode 11
    on the laundromat millionaires looking
    that up real quick oh that’s 11 on the
    london millionaire the dry-cleaning one
    yeah yeah the drink awesome thank you
    well listen man if i can interrupt your
    program for a minute here i have an
    announcement
    okay
    if i made an announcement on your your
    channel dude yes especially since it
    involves you man
    so guys october 5th
    hopefully i got everyone’s attention for
    a second here a little intrigue
    so october 5th which is next tuesday
    my book comes out it’s the pre-sale so
    it’s a pre-order
    this is not going to be on amazon and
    it’s not going to be in bookstores yet
    i’m only making this announcement to my
    what i call my tribe so we’re not doing
    marketing yet for the book
    the the people that are hearing me now
    or will hear me in the future on my
    podcast whatever
    i wouldn’t say it’s a secret because
    anybody can go buy the book starting
    october 5th
    um but it’s not it’s a pre-sale and so
    it’s it’s pre-launch
    and you can you can buy my book laundry
    matt millionaire which is my life story
    and the reason that i wrote the book is
    i’m not trying to be a hero
    what i’m trying to do so i’m not what i
    mean by that is i’m not trying to brag
    instead of trying to be a hero through
    my book what i’m trying to do is be a
    guide
    so i’m trying to guide you i want you to
    learn from my experiences good bad and
    ugly and i want you to get value so we
    just talked about all the things that
    um
    having a good mentoring coach i had an
    amazing mentor
    he was my equipment distributor still is
    to this day steve millman of hm company
    phenomenal human being one of my very
    good friends and i talk about that
    relationship and the value but i also
    talk about how i found him and i talk
    about my journey of we talked about the
    four to five years um of blood sweat and
    tears working 9 200 hours a week how i
    turned 30k into multi-millionaire status
    and all the things in between it’s my
    life story it’s my journey um and so i’m
    i’m excited to share that with you all
    and the reason i am is because i know it
    will help you if you’re a veteran
    laundromat owner i’m confident it will
    help you if you’re new to the industry
    i’m confident it will help you
    and that’s really what i want to do is
    just promote that message that me and
    jordan are all about which is just
    bettering the industry sharing
    information tips tricks and ideas with
    each other so that we all can be
    stronger
    so i’m really excited
    we’re going to actually have a live
    stream at 1 pm eastern time
    on tuesday it’s going to be on all of my
    channels so you can go to my youtube
    channel you can go to my linkedin page
    you can go to my facebook page any of
    those things and the live stream will be
    happening on all those channels other
    than instagram
    and the coolest part is i have this
    super sweet guest that’s joining me on
    the live stream uh because i’m kind of
    i’m not a real good looking guy and i
    need some eye candy on there so i’m
    having this guy from california uh
    jordan barry if you ever heard of him i
    will be sure
    he’s gonna oh my goodness it’s gonna be
    a gun show and everything too much candy
    but jordan is gonna be joining me and
    part of the reason is just because
    jordan is a great friend and an
    amazing friend and a supporter of mine
    um for sure along this journey and i’m
    honored to have him on there but part of
    the reason that i’m gonna have jordan on
    the show the live stream uh for an hour
    is because jordan got an advanced
    manuscript he got an advanced copy of my
    book so jordan has already read my book
    in full
    and me and jordan are going to be
    talking about the book and how he sees
    it and whether he feels that it will
    help other people and jordan is a
    veteran of the laundromat industry he
    knows his stuff
    and i’m hoping that maybe he picked up a
    few things uh from reading it now he’s
    heard me talk for you know ad nauseam
    for over a year now uh what do we got
    here oh look at that he’s just showing
    he’s just showing off that he’s also
    remarkable so he’s that’s remarkable uh
    but so anyways we are uh we’re gonna
    pick jordan’s brain a little bit and for
    those of you that love my amazing wife
    carla is going to be on the live stream
    with me and jordan too
    and she’s a rock star in her own right
    she has obviously read the book but
    she’s also lived the book with me
    because it’s my life so anyways i’m
    honored to be able to tell you guys
    about that i did make an announcement
    that we were going to have uh the
    pre-sale on october 5th a couple weeks
    ago on social media uh but i you are the
    first ones to know on this right now uh
    you’re the first ones to know about the
    live stream that jordan will be joining
    me and that we’ll be spending an hour
    kind of talking about the book and
    jordan and carla have read it and
    talking about my journey um and then the
    last thing is if you buy it that day on
    october 5th
    we’re going to have a bunch of bonuses
    and so you’re going to get a bunch of
    stuff for free and if you buy the book
    if you order the book on october 5th
    which is next tuesday
    everyone that buys it that day gets an
    autographed copy
    of the book from me personally
    and so i hope that you guys will you
    know not only support me but i really
    believe that it will help you all and i
    would love it if you would tell other
    people about it because this is kind of
    just an industry thing it’s eventually
    going to end up in bookstores and
    airports and stuff like that down the
    road but i really want you know i’m
    grateful to the industry for all their
    support to me over the years and i want
    you all to kind of have that first uh
    first crack at it and uh so i appreciate
    you all so i just wanted to make that
    announcement on here so thanks for uh
    giving me a couple minutes there jordan
    yeah and it is awesome i mean i have
    read it looking forward to chatting with
    you about it and uh
    that live stream is gonna be a lot of
    fun man i think we’re gonna have a good
    time i know this is kind of the
    you know beginning of
    all of this hard work that you’ve been
    putting into this book and not just the
    book but your
    your business and your life for the last
    10 plus years
    you know it’s all kind of coming to
    fruition and starting
    october 5th and then you know obviously
    as it as it continues to roll out so
    super excited super fun super good book
    you should definitely put it on your
    calendar to join that live stream it’s
    going to be a lot of fun last thing i’m
    going to tease you guys with in addition
    to the book in addition to the freebies
    the autographs
    i’m going to make another announcement
    that has nothing to do with the book
    on the live stream with jordan and with
    carla so if you want to find out what
    that is you’ve got to come check out the
    live stream 1pm eastern time what is
    that over there on the west coast 10 a.m
    or something like that 10 o’clock best
    coast time i’m gonna wake up jordan a
    little bit early out there um and so if
    you want to know what that announcement
    is you got to come check out the live
    stream guys
    so anyway thanks bud appreciate you
    giving me a second yeah
    all right let’s help some more people
    before we run out of time here we still
    got 25 minutes all right good because we
    got some more questions to get to uh
    first of all
    real quick eric congrats just bought
    your second laundromat and nice cleaner
    so dude celebrating with you
    right congratulations huge
    accomplishment ready to go love that uh
    can we talk i mean we’ve kind of already
    talked about this somebody was asking
    about the the delays in production and
    you know just is what it is i think i
    saw somebody say that dexter’s backed up
    till may right now
    and that may
    turn
    into something later than may also as it
    kind of goes along so
    if you’re thinking about buying a
    laundromat that needs to be retooled
    talk to someone sooner rather than later
    if you’re
    getting new equipment in talk to someone
    sooner rather than later because this is
    one of those times where
    you just kind of have to plan ahead a
    little bit because
    well the other thing as fellow
    laundromat owners the other thing i’ll
    throw out there with you is we’re in a
    unique situation and what i mean by that
    is
    a lot of times because this is actually
    a pro this is a good thing so i like to
    look for the silver linings
    so because equipment is in so demand and
    the
    supply is so short
    if you are in a situation where you’re
    retooling or buying a new store and you
    think you want to buy new equipment or
    whatever go ahead and put your order in
    your distributor will put that order in
    for you because they have really no risk
    to order and i actually have a couple
    coaching clients i gave this advice to
    and they are very grateful that we went
    this route it’s worked out amazing for
    them because what happens is the
    distributor orders the equipment
    worst case scenario the deal falls
    through you don’t end up closing
    you know i don’t know whatever happens
    and you don’t need the equipment that
    distributor will happily take that
    equipment because they can sell it
    because the laws of supply and demand
    are so tipped away
    from them that having
    let’s say hypothetically 10 60 pound
    washers in their warehouse that you
    ordered that you wanted and all of a
    sudden now you don’t want them anymore
    they can sell those in five minutes and
    make some pretty happy customers right
    now and so you know whenever there’s
    pros to anything in life there’s cons
    too so let’s look at it through that
    lens um i do i do know several people
    that are equipment distributors and i
    mentioned one of my good friends um so i
    will tell you that when it comes to
    anything computerized like the touch
    screens and all that stuff that’s all a
    computer chip issue and they don’t know
    when that’s going to be solved
    so if you want touch equipment for
    example from any manufacturer if you
    want touch equipment just know that they
    don’t know when that problem is going to
    be solved it could literally be years
    from now if it’s worth waiting that
    could be an endless endless waiting game
    but the flip side is there are there is
    still a pretty good amount of equipment
    out there that’s made that doesn’t
    require whatever chips are in shortage
    at least this is what i’m being told
    um
    and it tends to be the larger chassis
    machines now because the demand is so
    high for what they can manufacture
    the loss of supply and demand are now
    tipping in that way because if i would
    have ordered touch equipment and then i
    say well never mind i’ll go with the
    non-touch equipment just so i can get
    what i want and build my laundry mat
    well that’s increasing uh or that’s
    degrading the supply and increasing the
    demand for that equipment where it
    wouldn’t necessarily be as high normally
    so you just have to play these things
    it’s part of being in business um and
    usually we don’t you know in america we
    don’t usually have supply chain issues
    like we do right now but we do and
    they’re probably not going to be solved
    anytime soon so
    my two my two cents worth on that my
    friend look at the silver lining i like
    your positivity you know like i’m just
    vibing off your positivity right now you
    know the funny thing is the funny thing
    is i i you know i mean i think i am an
    optimist i think that’s fair to say
    but what it really is for me is it i i
    used to
    you know i grew up once again get my
    book you know check out my story but
    you know i grew up in a pretty pretty
    rough environment and experienced a lot
    of tragedy in my life
    and
    one of the things i kind of learned from
    that was
    you know you can you can waller in your
    own misery
    or you can look for the silva linings
    and um there’s always silver linings
    they may not be as big as the negatives
    but the negatives you’re going through
    you can’t change anyway so you might as
    well just look for the positives i
    remember someone i don’t remember who
    this
    who said this but during 9 11 there was
    a quote during that crazy crazy time in
    downtown new york city and stuff
    and someone said you know look for the
    heroes look for the look for the here as
    bad as that situation is look for the
    heroes look for people doing good things
    in times of tragedy and this might not
    be a good parallel but the reality is
    like i mean we’re going through what
    we’re going through guys and equipment
    is a situation it’s in
    let’s look for the positives because we
    can’t really change the negatives
    anyways so
    it’s kind of something i had to train
    myself to do i don’t think it’s a
    natural thing
    but it’s just how i choose to kind of
    look at life
    i guess you go through enough adversity
    you’re like you know what if i’m gonna
    go through this anyways i’m gonna learn
    some stuff let’s let’s try to look for
    the things i could learn and mine’s not
    mine might as well not be miserable do
    it too yeah yeah absolutely and you know
    what i know you know this jordan that’s
    a decision we make
    and we got to take accountability for
    that we got to take responsibility and
    say
    you know what i’m just going to look at
    it through a different lens it doesn’t
    mean we bear head in the sands doesn’t
    mean we don’t acknowledge the
    tragedy or whatever is happening in the
    world
    it just means that we chose to focus on
    something other so i don’t know if that
    helps at all this is just laundry
    equipment i’m not you know
    not necessarily life-changing things but
    uh maybe that maybe that helps people a
    little bit
    we’re being accused of stealing from mr
    rogers right now so
    mr rogers is it stacy i don’t know did
    he say that okay it sounds like
    something you should say yeah real quick
    okay
    real quick on the lender question i’m
    not going to give out any names or
    specific people i mean eastern was
    thrown out there they can be a good
    option
    i always encourage people hey if you’re
    interested in laundromat specific lender
    shoot me an email because i have a
    couple of guys
    that are really good
    that i don’t get anything for this but i
    get a lot of leverage over these guys
    because i send them a lot of referrals
    and so they are always
    sure to take care of the people that i
    send them because they want me to
    continue sending uh sending people to
    them so
    if you’re interested in laundromat
    specific lender just shoot me an email
    and let me do an email introduction i’ll
    put my email in the
    uh in the chat here and i’ll do an email
    introduction to you just to make sure
    they take care of you and again i don’t
    get anything for that maybe i should but
    i don’t
    um
    hey somebody said uh dave
    they’ve they their impression is that
    self-serve laundry is on the decline in
    wash and fold and pick up and delivery
    laundry is on the incline
    i don’t have any
    stats to back that up one way or another
    do you have any sense of that if that’s
    true or or false
    i mean i don’t have any
    i don’t have any data to back this up
    other than just a lot of conversations
    that i have which you you have a lot too
    i don’t think that’s true i don’t think
    they i don’t think they’re really
    related at all um just my opinion and i
    will say that i’m referring to the top
    of the industry
    um i think there’s way way way more
    laundry in the world
    than a drop-off laundry a pick-up and
    delivery and even a high-end
    uh modernized laundromat can handle
    because there’s so many terrible laundry
    mats and terrible apartment laundry
    rooms and you know so many residential
    washers in their homes and dryers that
    are just quite frankly residential
    washers and dryers are just i mean the
    day you buy them they’re complete crap
    anymore the way they’re manufactured is
    just garbage and so they’re unreliable
    um so
    i mean do i think that drop off or let’s
    just call it wash dry fold and put them
    in one category do i think that’s
    growing
    absolutely i think it’s exploding and i
    think i think us laundromat owners
    stepping up our game which correlates
    back to stepping up the education
    process and us sharing information with
    each other
    i think these are all directly
    correlated to us laundromat owners
    operating better and when we increase
    our value proposition then people are
    more likely to use our service whether
    it’s drop-off
    doordash through sense
    pickup and delivery of your own vans
    whatever that looks like
    there’s no doubt about it that the
    having your laundry done
    by a laundry service of any kind is
    absolutely exploding
    that’s not even debatable
    to my knowledge the information that i
    have the self-serve segment that
    industry is not shrinking that that
    industry is growing too
    so i don’t think there’s any correlation
    there and i would argue that the
    self-serve declining
    i don’t know that that’s true i’m pretty
    confident it’s not
    are there less and this may be what
    you’re getting at that i do believe that
    the number of laundromats in the country
    are shrinking
    um but those aren’t also correlated the
    country 40 50 years ago laundromats that
    were built were primarily smaller with
    small footprints and of course served a
    small area
    nowadays the modernized laundry mats
    tend to be anywhere from 3 500 up to 6 7
    8 000 square feet and sometimes bigger
    and so they can serve a better area a
    better area
    and then the modernization of equipment
    we can get them in get them over and get
    them out quicker which means we can
    increase our turns per day and still
    keep our customer satisfaction
    at a high rate so when you take all
    those things into account
    i don’t think they’re correlated at all
    i think that was ultimately the question
    that they asked and i don’t i don’t
    think self-serve is dying at all i think
    the bad self-serve laundromat operator
    is dying as they should so let’s kill
    them
    not literally that guy i got a graphic
    man
    lynch mob love it i’ll get my [ __ ] for
    it uh no but i think you’re right and uh
    and i would say maybe not the bad
    laundromat owner is dying but the bad
    laundromats are going out of business
    yes owners may or may not be alive i
    don’t know well i didn’t mean literally
    meant that you seem to say really the
    business
    uh yeah no i know
    uh keisha i just want to let you know i
    saw your issues with a lot of that
    resource and you’re having problems uh
    resetting your password so i will check
    in on that for you i just want to let
    you know uh
    card coin app was the best payment type
    oh geez
    you’re just you’re just picking a fight
    aren’t you
    the answer is it depends guys
    every time why don’t you come to this
    whatever questions you have just put it
    depends on there it depends i’m gonna go
    have dinner have a good night guys
    yeah i mean it really does depend and
    the reason i what i tell people and this
    is my recommendation is
    i think your market matters so i’m not
    i’m a midwest guy but i have a ton of
    conversations with people all over the
    country and have for 12 years so i’m
    aware that not everybody has this
    midwest mentality but let’s not also
    pretend that everybody has that new york
    city l.a mentality
    where they want everything on their
    phone five years ago because they’re
    they’re i mean the country you know
    i always refer to our industry i’m
    talking about self-serve now because
    we’re talking about payment systems but
    i always refer to it as submarkets and i
    know you do too jordan and in la i know
    you refer to like a sub market as like a
    half mile sometimes even less than a
    half a mile but in some markets a sub
    market could be 10 or 15 miles if you’re
    kind of in a rural area
    and so those things factor in but what i
    tell people is that this is just a very
    general rule of thumb
    is when if you’re doing gross self-serve
    revenue of zero to four thousand dollars
    a week then you there’s probably no
    reason to be anything other than coin
    now when i say coin i personally am not
    a fan of quarters if you’re using
    quarters right now there’s nothing wrong
    with that but i would be looking for a
    new solution
    and if you’re just talking staying coin
    then probably just want to evolve to
    dollar coin and just make sure that you
    can get them from your bank because it’s
    a very easy solution dollar coin is a
    true win-win for the custom compared to
    quarters
    dollar coin is a true win-win between
    the consumer and the business owner you
    both win
    um that’s the real quick answer on that
    prepaid cards there are many many
    systems what they call loyalty cards
    there are many operators out there in
    the country that will swear by them and
    there’s a reason for that because there
    are ways to run those systems in a very
    efficient way things like luke williford
    does the half you know by half or what
    what is it he calls it he’s got a name
    for it’s the uh i don’t know double your
    phone
    where like he’ll open a new store with
    his card store or whatever and you know
    you know if you put 20 on a card it
    gives you 40 he’ll do that temporarily
    to get people used to using the card
    system so my point is there’s promotions
    and ways that you can kind of i don’t
    know if manipulate is the right word
    yeah incentivize thank you incentivize
    people to use a card system um and that
    can be very useful
    and then there’s phone pay and the same
    thing there you can incentivize people
    by giving them incentives to buy extra
    credits on their
    on their phone app and then obviously
    there’s hybrid systems out there so what
    my general rule of thumb is zero to four
    thousand dollars a week in gross revenue
    you should probably get away with you
    can probably get away with being coined
    uh anywhere from four to ten thousand
    you probably need to be hybrid in most
    situations and i recommend
    a dollar coin hybrid with a card system
    and most card systems nowadays also have
    you know phone pay apps and things like
    that so you kind of get all three worlds
    if i had a store that’s over 10 000 a
    week in self-serve revenue which i don’t
    if i did i would be coinless there is no
    way that i would do any coin including
    dollar coin if i were doing volumes like
    that um i don’t think it’s sustainable i
    don’t think it’s practical so those are
    general rules of thumb that doesn’t mean
    that you’re the terrible operator if
    you’re at 11 000 a week and doing hybrid
    or whatever these are just general rules
    of thumb so maybe maybe that helps you
    out a little bit
    all right
    no i mean i’m i’m right right with you i
    might uh you know just for fun argue
    with you on the dollar coin versus
    quarter but you know ultimately you’re
    probably right so uh i’m gonna shift us
    into i’m always right what are you
    talking about
    almost now i’m gonna shift this into uh
    in the
    rapid fire round rapid fire we got 10
    minutes guys i got a bunch of questions
    here that we haven’t touched yet
    so keep them short keep them snappy keep
    them valuable
    here are some quick answer questions for
    you okay
    oh my gosh
    quick quick what are some marketing
    techniques that have proven success
    do some digital marketing and you go
    check out i don’t know what happened to
    my camera just got older yeah
    go check out i’m better looking blurry
    anyways everybody else especially my mom
    look at that uh man you are a better
    looking board uh
    go watch this
    no it won’t focus on me
    he’ll watch dave’s video on using a
    professional marketing company uh but
    digital marketing seems to be the best
    in terms of those uh you know facebook
    tends to be pretty good google can be
    good especially with uh you’re still
    worried pick up a delivery or uh
    or watch drive fold um google could be
    good and i’ve heard a couple people now
    say they’re having really good success
    with instagram which is really just
    facebook marketing but
    um dave’s gone oh now you’re real good
    looking dave that’s the best you’ve ever
    looked to be honest
    uh
    bam oh he’s back reset the camera uh
    yeah so and i saw there’s a lot of stuff
    going on in the chat there so go check
    on that
    that’s uh marketing guy which i still
    uh i still think that email marketing is
    by far the least utilized
    biggest upside marketing potential for
    laundromat owners especially if you’re
    doing a drop-off service or pick up a
    delivery but even if you’re just doing
    self-serve i think email marketing can
    be a great opportunity
    but it does take a little bit of work
    and you can automate a lot of it but it
    takes some work on the front end to get
    it set up and get it set up correctly
    uh so something worth an example of that
    what’s an example of that
    using
    because you’re talking about like
    self-serve drop-off pickup and delivery
    whatever
    yeah so yeah so i mean
    first of all you got to collect email
    addresses to build a list and actually i
    was looking at a laundromat
    just today with a consulting client who
    the the laundromat is actually coming
    with a list of 4 000
    customers
    and so there’s a lot of different things
    you can do with that number one just
    being in their inbox and reminding them
    hey especially their pickup delivery or
    something like that hey we have
    you know don’t forget you know it’s
    mother’s day coming up
    give your mom the gift of free laundry
    here’s a you know
    a double your money for the whatever
    your promotion is you know that you can
    do for that
    um just reminding people that you’re
    around if there’s even i mean you can
    even get as general as hey this has
    happened in the community don’t miss out
    we’re going to be there or
    you know
    that kind of thing but really you can
    uh do promotions that way you can
    offer
    uh you can offer things that way you can
    even sell
    through your email marketing if you have
    things
    to sell so i mean i think
    this is rapid fire around so i don’t
    want to get too much into the details
    but you know i maybe we should maybe i
    should or you should or we should we
    should find somebody to make some
    content on that because i do think that
    that’s a huge opportunity that we’re
    missing out on
    as an industry
    yeah i agree we should talk about that
    uh all right what about a monthly
    subscription model for
    doing laundry that work
    you know i don’t know anybody that’s had
    success with it i know a handful of
    people that have tried and i have my
    hypothesis on it
    my hypothesis is actually
    you didn’t mention if it’s self-serve
    but i’m assuming that’s what you’re
    referring to
    my hypothesis is actually the same as
    like a buy-the-bag subscription for
    pick-up and delivery
    and what i always say is this is just my
    opinion so don’t attack me guys uh my
    opinion is that i i believe in value
    proposition and i believe a win-win
    relationship between the business owner
    and the consumer we both want to win we
    want to make money they want to get
    their product done but they also don’t
    want to pay for more than they use
    um and and i’m not a fan of that in our
    industry and the reason why is whether
    it’s uh you know using a large machine
    versus a small machine in a self-serve
    environment or doing drop off laundry we
    have a lot of questions by the bag sorry
    um you know what it boils down to is if
    you if you do a subscription service
    somebody’s getting ripped off
    if you if you do fill a big halfway and
    you pay 50 for it then the business
    owner is getting ripped off if you fill
    it up with 80 pounds of laundry and
    you’re paying 20 cents a pound um or i
    had that backwards the consumer is being
    ripped off if the bag isn’t filled up
    and so it’s not a win-win it’s not a
    true uh exchange of value so i’m not a
    fan is what it boils down to
    somebody has to lose yeah i don’t like
    win-lose situations especially in a
    business relationship
    but even in like a negotiation i don’t
    really like that
    uh somebody asked about pbi laundry
    consulting i know those guys personally
    so shoot me an email if that was you
    jordan atlanta my resource.com i would
    love to tell you about those guys
    uh
    you just talked about price per bag
    uh when’s a good time to find a mentor
    when in the process of buying a lot of
    that’s a good time to find a mentor what
    do you think
    um i think the easy thing to say is
    today but since we’re doing quick
    answers um you know what i would tell
    people is that a minimum
    45 to 60 days before you close on a
    laundromat i mean what i always tell
    coaching clients is you can do an awful
    lot of research and a lot of homework
    and a lot of reading and diligence as
    long as you don’t sign anything you
    don’t take action you don’t close on
    something or put a deposit down
    then you can’t really do yourself much
    damage other than just wasting a little
    bit of time
    but when you start making definitive
    decisions like putting offers in or god
    forbid closing on a laundromat without
    having
    the knowledge base either paying for it
    or having it yourself then that’s a
    dangerous thing so somewhere in that
    somewhere in that window uh between when
    you decide to do something and when you
    actually do something somewhere in that
    window
    yeah and real quick for me i would say
    after you’ve done some homework you
    can’t hire a consultant expecting them
    to
    educate it’s gonna it’s not gonna be
    cost effective for you if you expect
    them to educate you along the process of
    do your own education and when you’re
    ready to take action that’s when you
    bring somebody on board so similar to
    what you said
    uh
    our pickup and delivery margins 40 to 50
    percent is that what you should be
    looking at um
    no i mean once again every situation is
    different if you’re just what i call
    dinking and dunking if you’re just doing
    uh pick up and delivery you got one van
    and you know maybe you’re in la and you
    do it two miles from your store you’re
    not in other words you’re not trying to
    grow this robust business um yeah you
    could probably get away with margin
    something like that but i’d say that’s
    definitely the uh the exception rather
    than the rule typically it’s about 30 to
    35 if you’re like in a route based
    business
    and by the way in the first year or two
    you can pretty much expect expect to uh
    either break even or lose money so don’t
    expect to just buy a van go out pick up
    100 pounds of laundry and have a 30 35
    margin you gotta scale
    you gotta scale so don’t let anybody
    tell you
    hey you’re going to do 500 pounds a
    month within month one and you’re going
    to be 30 percent margins because they’re
    just lying to you folks they’re using
    you um and you have to scale the
    business to get to those margins
    uh you’ve answered this before on other
    q and a’s and i’ve answered it before
    too how can should you change machines
    since we’re rapid fire i recommend 12 to
    15 years but it also depends on your
    volume if you’re doing two to three
    turns per day you can get away with a
    high quality laundry mat operation um
    that’s a little bit further let’s you
    know once again depends on the equipment
    i mean this is a rapid fire question so
    12 to 15 years is a pretty good rule of
    thumb we’re taking dave way out of his
    comfort zone you’re killing me man he
    just wants to go for days too much good
    knowledge in there uh okay
    uh
    i saw a few different answers on the
    average pounds of pickup and delivery
    order do you have anything to say on
    that
    average pounds per customer yeah
    um i think that’s also going to vary a
    lot i know stacey mentioned in here that
    she’s 20 something but she’s in florida
    i thought that was a fantastic point uh
    the weather does matter we all know that
    i mean in the midwest in the winter we
    go up 10 15 percent in the summer we
    drop 10 or 15
    so there’s a 30 swing there just between
    having cold weather clothes and warm
    weather clothes so if you’re always in a
    warm weather environment yeah i think
    that i think that does calculate in uh
    i think i checked on this about a year
    ago and i do been doing pick up and
    delivery for about five years and our
    average pounds per pickup was like 48
    pounds it was like 67
    and that was probably before i raised my
    prices so it’s probably closer to 80 now
    but yeah 40 40 to 45 but stacy is an
    example of a cold market or a warm
    market we’re probably going to be closer
    to 30. yeah bikinis and speedos are
    pretty late so they are
    it also depends on your customers if
    you’re doing my laundry heavy if you’re
    doing jordan’s a little bit lighter
    they’re a lot
    lighter plus he doesn’t wear a shirt so
    yeah especially since i’m sure it was
    half the time uh okay so
    uh
    what do you do when distributors are
    price gouging you and you don’t have any
    other options because the distributor is
    gouging and they’re just representing
    all the manufacturers
    i don’t know what you do in that
    situation
    you know i mean if that’s literally a
    true situation and there’s i’m not going
    to say it doesn’t exist because if you
    say it doesn’t it does
    but if it’s true literally that
    situation i personally i i and i
    i don’t say this i don’t say this
    lightly at all i would report them and
    i’m not kidding um and i don’t don’t say
    that lightly if that were really
    happening i think that as a general rule
    as consumers just generally speaking we
    tend to jump to this price gouging
    conclusion when it’s usually not not a
    true uh fair assessment but i’m not
    saying that in this case uh but i mean
    we all know like if you truly have a
    distributor the services like cincinnati
    where i live for example and they
    absolutely have a distributorship over
    every let’s say the seven major major
    manufacturers
    uh that situation could exist and that
    is what i would do
    all right we have we have one zero
    minutes and two minutes left
    should we all just rip off the band-aid
    get rid of our top loaders now or should
    we write them out until
    they’re it’s time to replace them and
    replace them with something else
    that’s why you said rapid fire right
    rapid fire we have zero minutes two
    questions this is one no we should no we
    should not all do that the answer is it
    depends and everybody should make
    decisions based on their education their
    market their consumers uh but to assume
    that all top loader or all laundromats
    should have top loaders in them is is
    equally as flawed of a mental exercise
    how about that yeah i agree and i think
    make a good business decision yeah
    the numbers and
    make a good business decision if you
    need help with that find a good
    consultant or another owner or a
    facebook group or something like that
    someone to help you make a good business
    decision yeah don’t ever let somebody
    from some
    north carolina tell you in
    north dakota
    that you should never have a top letter
    in your store i mean in a facebook group
    and then just and that be the be all end
    all and that’s how you make decisions
    guys we got to be better than that
    yeah all right we have negative one
    minute last question
    remote ownership should you do it should
    you not do it
    holy moly you’re killing me over here uh
    it depends
    let’s end it on that we’ve answered that
    question in almost every single live q a
    so go uh check that out um it’s possible
    it’s difficult
    maybe not recommended unless you’re in
    certain situations where you have an on
    the grounds partner or something like
    that
    you gotta have a solid operating partner
    guys this has been awesome you guys have
    been awesome awesome uh man thank you so
    much not just for your questions but
    thank you guys for engaging again i say
    this all the time that’s my favorite
    part uh you know you guys conversation
    over there and helping each other out
    super super cool so thank you guys again
    for joining us hopefully you found some
    good value in there dave as always you
    are an all-star appreciate you man and
    all the information and insight that you
    bring and a lot of fun as always thanks
    thank you bud i appreciate you having me
    here and guys we will do this again next
    month on my channel laundromat resource
    channel and uh in the meantime i hope to
    see you guys at our live event because
    we’re going to be giving away some cool
    stuff uh october 5th at 1 p.m eastern
    time and if you don’t come to see me
    come to see jordan berry because he’s
    going to be there i appreciate you guys
    and the last thing i’m going to throw
    out there what’s that
    shirtless whatever dude both of us right
    no nobody will see that nobody including
    me i have and it’s it’s ugly uh now and
    the last thing i’m going to add guys is
    we hope you will come back and do this
    with again again next month because we
    love doing this but tell other people i
    know every single one of you know
    laundromat owners and we’re not here to
    sell anything we don’t have any ulterior
    motives we’re just here trying to
    elevate the industry help you guys and
    help you help each other in the comments
    section so please do me a favor do us a
    favor tell your friends that are in the
    industry people that are interested in
    the industry
    put it in your facebook groups or
    whatever chats you’re in or if you talk
    to people offline if you have lunch with
    people in your market or whatever all
    these things happen in our industry do
    us a favor and tell people about this
    because we don’t have an ulterior motive
    here we just want to help people the
    more people we can get in these groups
    the more we can help each other and
    that’s really what about elevating the
    industry is all about so yeah thank you
    so much last thing i’m going to leave
    you with is go take some action this
    week i say this all the time but you’re
    never going to achieve whatever goals
    you have unless you take some action so
    you’re doing the learning here keep
    learning keep researching
    and then go take some action on it so
    find something in here that you can take
    some action on big or small and go take
    some action this week get closer to your
    goals all right guys absolutely we will
    see you next month for our 12th
    live q a that’s like a full year we’ve
    been doing this starting next month that
    is that’s kind of crazy kind of crazy
    thank you guys appreciate you being here
    jason said we’re not wearing pants right
    now
    maybe now you’ll never know jason we’ll
    leave you with that
    bye guys see ya take care guys