Columns
The Laundry Doctor
Growing Your Business by Serving Your Community
Seniors and Other Niche Market Segments May Be Perfect Opportunities to Build Your Wash-Dry-Fold Clientele In many ways, doing wash-dry-fold laundry for seniors in your community can almost be considered a public service commitment. At my store, I have about half a...
Minimizing Payroll, Maximizing Productivity
With Labor Costs on the Rise, Getting the Most Out of Your Staff is Critical to the Success of Your Wash-Dry-Fold and Commercial Laundry Business As a small-business owner, you’re very likely aware that there’s a movement in cities and states across the...
The Magic Number
When Processing Natural Fibers, It's Critical That Temperatures Remain Below 80 Degrees Temperature is a key component within the overall cleaning process. And one of the most important temperature thresholds with regard to cleaning is 80 degrees. What's so important...
Wash With Wally
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...
Wash with Wally: Licensed to Launder?
I offer a drop-off laundry service at my store, and I’ve been doing so for years. However, a local business inspector recently visited my laundromat and told me that I need a special license to provide this type of wash-dry-fold service. Do you know anything about...
The Business Mind
‘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...
What’s on My Bookshelf?
The ‘Best of the Best’ from the Author’s Own Personal Business Library I’ve had the same office in the same building for the last 15 years – from which my brother, Fred, and I run our laundry machinery distributorship. As with most repetitive actions, when I arrive to...
Viewpoint
By the Numbers
Five Keys to Measuring Your B2B Marketing StrategyOur world is run by numbers.We don't always see them though. In fact, we rarely ever see them, but they're there.They run our business. Power our homes.Our professional lives are inundated with finding a way to make...
The Art of Building a Brand
Here Are the Keys to Establishing and Growing Your Laundry Business' Brand IdentityWhat is a brand and why is it critical to the success of a business? What factors must be considered when establishing a brand and brand identity? How is your brand communicated?...
Out of Necessity
"Necessity is the mother of taking chances." – Mark TwainA recent visit to a laundromat in the Lower Price Hill enclave in Cincinnati got me thinking about our business and the nature of necessity. The aforementioned laundry is Washing Well community laundromat, a...
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...