Columns
The Laundry Doctor
Maximizing Your Wash Dry Fold Labor
How to Build Key Efficiencies into Your Full-Service Laundry Business In last month’s column, I wrote about the keys to partnering with your local drycleaner, which will be one of the educational topics discussed at Clean 2017 in Las Vegas. This month, I’d like to...
A Profitable Partnership
Teaming Up with Your Local Drycleaner May Be the Ideal Way to Grow Your Laundry Business. Find Out How at Clean 2017! The Clean Show is just around the corner. And the 2017 event – which will be held June 5-8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center – marks the first time...
Dirty Laundry Never Takes a Vacation
Summer Camps May Provide the Perfect Opportunity to Grow Your Laundry Business’ Wash-Dry-Fold Revenue Summer is just around the corner – which means that, for many kids, so is summer camp. And, while going to camp has been a rite of passage for so many...
Wash With Wally
Wash with Wally: Removing Permanent Marker Stains
How can I best remove black, permanent marker stains from a pair of heavy-duty, brown duck fabric coveralls? Any leads you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Admittedly, some black marker stains can be very difficult to remove, especially if the spots have been...
Wash with Wally: Increasing Labor Costs
I own three vended laundries, and I’m quite concerned about the $15 per hour minimum wage that’s being talked about more and more these days. I have three or four employees at each of my locations, and I’m paying those attendants $10 per hour. I don’t know how I would...
Wash with Wally: Installing an ATM
I just got into the laundromat business, and I’m considering installing an ATM in my store. My question is whether I’m better off buying a machine outright and installing it myself, or having an outside vendor own and install the ATM, with some type of commission...
The Business Mind
The Formula for Powerful Advertising
Don’t Overlook the Impact of Human Psychology on the Success of Your Promotional Campaigns I’m a firm believer that advertising is simply applied psychology using print, television, radio or any other media platform the advertiser so chooses. Given that, it stands to...
‘In the Middle of Every Difficulty Lies Opportunity’
How to Stay Wired to Successfully Deal with the COVID-19 Pandemic Can I be completely honest with you? I certainly don’t in any way mean to minimize the very real human toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacted. However, I’m finding this whole coronavirus mess to be...
Understanding Our Economic Behavior
How Our Psychological Makeup Impacts Our Financial Decisions I’ve consulted with a great many laundromat owners over the years. And nearly all of them have been preoccupied with their financial decisions – either those that had been made in the past or those that the...
Viewpoint
Partners in Laundry
To say the least, business partnerships of any kind are always going to be challenging. In fact, the majority of partnerships I've ever seen have failed, rather than succeeded. What's the problem? I believe the issue is that a business partnership is much like a...
A New Beginning
When my husband and I bought our first laundromat in June of 2016, I had been employed by Corporate America for more than 30 years. However, I was laid off just 21 days after that laundromat purchase.I had begun my professional career in 1983 as a designer for Bell...
Define Your Business
Of all the factors impacting the success of a laundromat, site selection is right up there with having sufficient capital to launch and operate a new business. Both affect a business' chances of succeeding to a larger degree than almost any other factors.With that...
Digital Marketing
Marketing Your Multi-Store Operation
To Grow Your Vended Laundry Business, Focus on Four Key Factors Here’s a fact that shouldn’t surprise you by now: More than half of all purchases are influenced by a digital presence. You, your neighbors and the strangers across town are all Googling (and maybe...
Marketing Trends to Adopt in 2019
These Four Growing Technologies and Promotional Methods Deserve Your Attention The marketing industry is relentless, and it likes to think big. Every year, new technologies and marketing methods emerge that seek to make it easier for businesses like yours win new...