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....

PlanetLaundry Podcast

Subscribe to Our Podcast

America’s #1 Resource for Vended Laundry News & Info

PlanetLaundry is the official publication of CLA and is trusted by thousands of laundry professionals to deliver the latest news and industry-specific topics.

The Top 40

Jan 23, 2015

Originally posted - Apr 23, 2013 Are you looking to save money? Attract more customers? Grow your market share? If you're a self-service laundry owner, you're no doubt always looking for new ideas. Ideas provide the fuel for you to create value and build success....

The Top 40

Jan 23, 2015

Originally posted - Apr 23, 2013 Are you looking to save money? Attract more customers? Grow your market share? If you're a self-service laundry owner, you're no doubt always looking for new ideas. Ideas provide the fuel for you to create value and build success....

Beyond Washers and Dryers

Jan 23, 2015

Originally posted - Jun 10, 2013 For the last 20 years, multi-store owner Bob Meuschke has averaged an additional 17 percent to 20 percent over and above his gross laundry sales, thanks to his operation's ancillary profit centers. "I am very much pro-ancillary profit...

Headlines

An Ounce of Prevention

Originally posted - March issue/2012 How to Keep Your IPSO Washer-Extractors Running Efficiently Your car always seems to run better when it's clean. The same holds true for your IPSO washer-extractors. A clean, well-maintained machine shows your customers that you...

Overcoming Complacency

Originally posted - May 22, 2012 Complacency may well be the number-one enemy for self-service laundry owners – and the easiest to overcome. As I review the performance of my laundries and talk to other operators, it seems that we have become convinced that three...

Decreasing Downtime

Orginally posted - Mar 18, 2013 Every laundromat owner has one thing in common – we all want to maximize the amount of turns per day on our equipment. To every customer, your laundromat never has enough machines for their needs, regardless of the size of the store,...

Round the Clock

Originally posted - Jun 14, 2012 A growing trend among self-service laundries is to stay open 'round the clock – 24/7. Personally, I have owned three laundromats – and two of the three were (and still are) open 24 hours. I also have built many, many more laundries for...

Decreasing Downtime

Orginally posted - Mar 18, 2013 Every laundromat owner has one thing in common – we all want to maximize the amount of turns per day on our equipment. To every customer, your laundromat never has enough machines for their needs, regardless of the size of the store,...

‘Fun’ for the Whole Family

Orginally posted - Oct 21, 2013 Ask most laundry owners about their landlords and you're likely to get more than a few responses that are less than suitable for a family publication such as ours. Not so with Kevin Moyle, who operates Loads of Fun in Houghton, Mich....

Learn From My Mistakes

Originally posted - Oct 09, 2014 When building my two self-service laundries, I really thought I had covered all my bases. I even shared my design with a paid consultant and a few veteran store owners to see what they thought. And yet I still overlooked several...

The Customer is Always Right Even When They’re Not

Originally posted - April issue/2012 An Interview with Pennsylvania Laundry Owner Jeryl Knechel Jeryl Knechel operates laundromats in Pennsylvania. He also is the treasurer of the Delaware Valley Coin Laundry Association. He recently took some time to talk with...

Leading the Way

Originally posted - Jan issue/2012 Kenny Wells has always been and entrepreneur to some degree. Before entering the coin laundry business, he was a real estate broker, primarily managing his own apartments and mobile homes as rental property. Along the way, he also...

‘Power’ Hitter

Originally posted - June issue 2012 Richard Costello is president of Acela Energy Group, an energy consulting group specializing in energy procurement and load management, as well as energy conservation training, auditing and on-site wind and solar generation...

Help Your Staff Help Your Business

Originally posted - Aug issue/2012 Winning customer service is your self-service laundry's best competitive advantage. It's the lifeblood of any business. In fact, you can offer promotions and slash vend prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless...

Branded!

Originally posted - April issue/2012 Building a Brand for Your Self-Service Laundry May Be the Smartest Business Move You Make All Year Think only those big corporate types need to bother with such frivolous, esoteric topics are branding? Think again. Your brand says...

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

Aaxon Names ‘Laundry Aesthetic Award’ Winner

Aaxon Laundry Systems recently presented Philip Kodroff - owner of Laundromart in Hollywood, Fla. - with the distributor's "Laundry Aesthetic Award." The award is presented to Aaxon laundry-owner customers in recognition of their dedication toward operating...

Statewide Wraps Up Fall Laundry Improvement Expos

Statewide Laundry Equipment - with offices in Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando and Miami - recently finished its three-day series of Laundry Improvement Expos, beginning in Kissimmee, Fla., on September 19 at the Radisson Resort Orlando and concluding at Statewide's...

LaundryCares Foundation to Implement Free Laundry Day Events This Fall

The LaundryCares Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity of the Coin Laundry Association, plans to execute three Free Laundry Day events in October and November of 2017. Free Laundry Days are LaundryCares' flagship community affairs which provide members of the local community...

Eastern Funding Gives Back with Habitat for Humanity Projects

Eastern Funding LLC recently joined forces with Habitat for Humanity New York City on projects to create affordable homes for families in need. On September 20-21, more than 50 Eastern Funding employees volunteered at Habitat for Humanity construction sites in Hollis,...

Detergent Solutions Hosts Service Seminar, Store Tour

Store owners and technicians from across lower Michigan recently attended a Dexter Laundry service seminar and toured a unique self-service laundry facility during an event hosted by distributor Detergent Solutions in the Detroit suburb of Utica. The two-part service...