Leveling the Playing Field

John Um wanted to make sure small business owners could get fair pricing and access to reliable suppliers without needing to have significant buying power. As a leader whose career spanned several major retail and e-commerce companies, he had seen firsthand how hard...

Staying Fierce: Haley Gould Finds Perfect Fit in Vended Laundry

Haley Gould is the Director of Partner Success for HappyNest. She manages an internal team while leading more than 100 partners across the United States building a successful pickup and delivery operation in addition to running their laundromat business. A consummate...

Metrics That Matter

Profit, Performance, and Planning in Vended Laundry The laundromat business is like most businesses in that you need to do a lot of things right to be successful. But how do you know if it’s working? According to successful owners, you just need to look at the...

Startup to Scale

How Western State Design Has Been Helping Laundry Businesses Thrive for More Than 50 Years For more than five decades, Western State Design has been a leading provider of turnkey laundry solutions across the vended, on-premises, and commercial/industrial markets....

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Team Building

Jan 29, 2015

Originally posted - Jan 29, 2014 As gloomy national headlines continue to herald the huge numbers of unemployed, laundry owners are provided with a large pool from which to obtain prospective workers. If you're in need of an employee or two, there are many ways to get...

Keep the Change

Jan 29, 2015

Originally posted - Apr 27, 2012 Changer maintenance is extremely important for today's self-service laundries. Unfortunately, many laundry owners simply dump in the quarters, pull out the bills and never give a second thought to any routine maintenance of these...

The Anatomy of a 504 Loan

Jan 29, 2015

Originally posted - Oct 01, 2013 Growing up, did you ever have someone make you toe the line in a certain way and all you could do was gripe about it, and it was only later that you realized they were doing you a huge favor? That's how I feel about my local bank. They...

Headlines

Excellence in Laundry: Silent Auction

The 2016 Excellence in Laundry Conference, to be held at the Ojai Valley Inn & Spa in southern California, will feature a silent auction from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on May 18. This auction will serve to benefit the Coin Laundry Association's LaundryCares...

Excellence in Laundry: The Speakers Speak Out

In advance of this year's Excellence in Laundry Conference, PlanetLaundry has interviewed all three of the event's business presenters. Here are a few excerpts from those past interviews, as well as perhaps a look at what the future may hold for today's self-service...

Unlocking Doors of Opportunity

CLA Hosts Third Excellence in Laundry Conference in Southern California In 2012, the Coin Laundry Association hosted the first-ever Excellence in Laundry Conference. It was a unique event that brought some of the self-service laundry industry's most successful...

KeeWes Named Speed Queen Distributor of the Year

Speed Queen recently named KeeWes Equipment Co., Inc. its 2015 Distributor of the Year. "KeeWes' impressive sales performance and customer service have earned them the title of 2015 Distributor of the Year," said Jim Rosenthal, Speed Queen's North American sales...

Whirlpool Bolsters Commercial Laundry Division

Whirlpool's Commercial Laundry Division recently added three new team members - Trey Northrup, general manager; Chad Lange, director of sales, service and parts; and Matthew Conn, senior manager of product development and marketing. "Trey, Chad and Matt bring not only...

‘Wow!’ Your Customers

16 Ways to Improve Your Laundry Business – And, More Importantly, Your Customers' Perceptions of It When was the last time a customer actually blurted out "Wow!" when he or she walked into your laundry for the very first time? My guess is that this probably doesn't...

In the Service of Others

As we wind down the selection process for the Coin Laundry Association's 2017 Board of Directors, I'm reminded of the many directors who have donated their time and talents to this organization over the years. Our Board does so much more than just oversee the...

Wash with Wally: Removing Food Oil Stains, Dealing with Smoke Odors and More…

I have a great drop-off laundry business. Up until recently, I had no problems with stain removal. However, last month, I picked up a restaurant account and now wash a great deal of their linen. My problem is that I can't seem to remove the food oil stains from the...

How’s Business?

Owners Discuss the Current State of Their Laundry Operations, While Sharing the Specific Indicators They Use to Gauge Success The small-business half of the economy seems to have clawed its way back to a somewhat normal level of economic activity. According to the...

You Become Part of the Fabric of the Community

Philadelphia Laundry Owners Are Changing Lives in the Neighborhoods They Serve The Laundry Café is the creative vision of owners Brian Holland and Tyrone Akins – two former Big Pharma executives who grew up in the inner city and share a commitment of providing an...

Get the Conversation Started

3 Customer-Engagement Tips Designed to Boost Your Store's Digital Marketing Success Economies rise and fall – and, thus, businesses have to weather the good and the bad. At this point, the most recent economic downturn is a few years behind us, but that period brought...

Risky Business

Unless You Regularly Tackle Tough Commercial Laundry Stains, Chlorine Bleach Most Likely is an Unnecessary Risk to Your Wash-Dry-Fold Service I recently received a phone call from a CLA member who had just ruined a wash-dry-fold order. As it turned out, one of her...

This Month's Issue

Green is Good Business: Green Operations Increasingly Important to Feed Consumer Demand
Women In Laundry: Lee Ann Geurts Loves a Challenge
Store Profile: Kings Laundry Kicking it in Los Angeles
Untapped Growth Opportunities
And More…

THE LATEST ON LAUNDROMATS

Industry News

CSC ServiceWorks Adds Hawkinson, Graf to Board of Directors

CSC ServiceWorks, Inc. has appointed two new members to the company’s Board of Directors. They are Alex Hawkinson, founder and former CEO of SmartThings, the largest consumer Internet of Things platform in the world; and Rick Graf, president and CEO of Pinnacle, one...

Dexter Laundry Salutes Top-Producing Distributor

Western State Design, headquartered in Hayward, Calif., recently received Dexter Laundry’s 2018 “#1 in Dexter Sales Worldwide" Award at the manufacturer’s annual conference in Waikiki, Hawaii. It marked the 12th consecutive year that WSD has achieved this honor. The...

Laundrylux Acquires Automated Laundry Systems

Laundrylux recently acquired Automated Laundry Systems, based in Jacksonville, Fla. The distributorship is led by Don and Kristen Packard. “We are delighted to partner with Don and Kristen, who are sophisticated business leaders aligned with our strategic vision,"...

CG West, Elite Business Investments to Host Pre-Clean Open House

Continental Girbau West and Elite Business Investments will co-host a Pre-Clean Preview Open House on Saturday, May 4, at CG West’s headquarters in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. The event – scheduled for 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. – is open to all southern California vended...

Low Cost Manufacturing Names New VP

Low Cost Manufacturing Inc. has named Ken MacKay as the company’s new vice president of parts, sales and distribution. Prior to joining LCM, MacKay spent 12 years overseeing the parts department for a major machinery dealer in the laundry industry. He was responsible...