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.

Laundry Leases: Exercising Your Option to Renew

Jan 22, 2015

The most important asset of your self-service laundry business is your lease. Washers and dryers produce little income in storage or in a parking lot. As you probably know, coin laundry operators are repeatedly advised to enter into long-term lease arrangements,...

When Colleges Offer Free Laundry

Jan 22, 2015

A laundry owner located near a state university recently posed an interesting legal question. It seems that the school has begun offering "free laundry" to students residing in its dormitories. And, in fact, this appears to be somewhat of a trend, as an increasing...

Can a Shareholder be Liable for Corporate Debt?

Jan 22, 2015

Although the personal liability of shareholders is generally limited to their investment in a corporation, there are circumstances under which corporate protection from personal liability can be set aside by the courts. The basis for setting aside such protection is...

Headlines

Beyond Washers and Dryers

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...

Cutting Costs….Without Cutting Corners

Originally posted - Mar 11, 2013 As a self-service laundry owner, you're no doubt always looking for new ways to bring in more business, to grow your market and to increase your profits. Of course, a great way to boost profits is by cutting expenses. After all, even...

Buyer Beware

Originally posted - Jan 25, 2013 George Morgan has seen it before. "A lot of people fall in love with the idea of being a laundry owner," said the president of Best Laundry Brokers, headquartered in Grass Valley, Calif. "They get so enamored with this feeling. They...

Cutting Costs….Without Cutting Corners

Originally posted - Mar 11, 2013 As a self-service laundry owner, you're no doubt always looking for new ways to bring in more business, to grow your market and to increase your profits. Of course, a great way to boost profits is by cutting expenses. After all, even...

You Need to Get Your Hands Dirty

Originally posted - Feb 21, 2013 The first thing most people notice when walking into Pokomoke Laundry are the dryers - or, more specifically, the area around and above the dryers. Instead of the usual painted drywall littered with the typical laundromat signage, this...

‘From Wall Street to Main Street’

Originally posted - Aug 06, 2013 At first glance, Bronxville, N.Y., is perhaps one of the last places one would even consider opening a coin laundry. According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, the median household income in Bronxville is $144,940, and the...

Lesson Learned

Originally posted - Aug 26, 2013 Before her retirement this past January, Colleen Unema had spent decades as a nationally certified high school science teacher in Bellingham, Wash. However, it was a self-imposed break from teaching that actually prepared Unema for her...

Small Package… Big Concept

Originally posted - Dec 18, 2012 Scott Moses had a leg up on his competition long before he entered the coin laundry business almost three years ago. As an economics major at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, Moses landed a position in the banking industry after...

I Educated Mysel

Originally posted - May 24, 2013 When it comes to a new business venture, Danny Delmarco is a big believer in doing one's homework. So, when he and his business partner, Lloyd Webb, decided to open a self-service laundry - in a building co-owned by Webb and Delmarco's...

People Need to Do Laundry

Originally posted - Jun 14, 2013 Mischelle Romesberg is accustomed to taking matters into her own hands. As director of plant operations for the personal care branch of Energizer Holdings, she's responsible for making sure some of today's leading over-the-counter...

Not Your Father’s Drycleaner

Originally posted - Apr 19, 2013 The Drycleaning & Laundry Institute has been the premier international trade association for garment care professionals since 1883. Representing retail drycleaning and laundry facilities in the United States and around the world,...

Buying Time?

Originally posted - Sep 06, 2013 Curtis Kroeker is group general manager for BizBuySell.com and BizQuest.com, the internet's largest and most heavily trafficked business-for-sale marketplaces. Since 1996, BizBuySell has offered tools that make it easy for business...

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

Continental Adds Customer Care Associate

Continental Girbau Inc. has named Eric Novak the company's new customer care associate. In this position, Novak will interface with Continental's customer care department to process and maintain in-house orders and shipping dates, handle warranty administration and...

Continental Honors Lavatec with Business Partner of the Year Award

Continental Girbau Inc. recently recognized Lavatec Laundry Technology Inc. with its 2016 Business Partner of the Year Award. The honor salutes Lavatec's superior business results while working in partnership with Continental and its customers. Lavatec President Mark...

Continental Names 2016 Distributors of the Year

Continental Girbau Inc. recently recognized Skyline Equipment Inc. with its 2016 Vended Laundry Distributor of the Year Award, an honor that distinguishes distributors for outstanding performance in the vended laundry market. Simultaneously, the Wisconsin-based...

CG West Adds Commercial Laundry Sales Specialist

Continental Girbau West - headquartered in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. - has named Jason McAninch its new commercial laundry sales specialist. In this position, McAninch will manage commercial vended and on-premises laundry sales and marketing efforts for the company....

Survey: Small Business Faces Major Workforce Issues

The National Small Business Association, in partnership with Cynthia Kay and Company Media Production, has released the 2017 Small Business Workforce and Labor Survey, which quantifies how workforce issues ranging from immigration to education to background checks...