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 pharmaceutical brands – such as Schick, Edge and Hawaiian Tropic – get out the door and into the marketplace in a timely fashion.
So, when not one of the big-screen televisions at her newly built self-service laundry in South Daytona, Fla., was working, she just had to step in.
“That was completely irritating,” Romesberg said. “We had the cable fished through the ceiling to connect the control boxes that are in the attendants’ area. My beautiful, new 46-inch TVs did not work. I called DirecTV and even the Best Buy Geek Squad. Everyone told me that all of the brand new televisions must be bad, or that the cables needed boosters, or that…
“Basically, they really had no idea,” she continued. “Well, that was not right. So, I just went to Google and looked up potential issues with the cords. I found a customer who shared his findings that the cables are directional. Neither the installers nor the Geek Squad had a clue, but good ol’ Google did. We re-ran the cables and – presto! Everything worked. I guess the moral of the story is that simple things can become complicated and time consuming, so you’ve got to be persistent.”
Such persistence has paid off for Romesberg during her “day job,” and she’s quite sure it will be equally helpful during her new role as the operator of Wash Up! laundromat.
“There are always things that do not go as planned,” explained Romesberg, who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, as well as an MBA. “I have been in manufacturing for more than 20 years. The life of discover issue/solve issue/move to the next issue is what I have been doing. I can’t imagine any other small-business owner not doing the same thing.”
Romesberg made the decision to become a small-business owner herself after having her two sons later in life.
“Some people are asking why I would even want to own a small business,” she said. “But I’m in the situation where I’m going to try to retire and have two boys in college at the same time. So, do the math. The laundry really is an investment for my sons’ college fund.”
Romesberg looked closely at a number of options, but finally settled on the self-service laundry business for her investment – due to the reasonable investment entry into the market, the industry’s relative recession resistance and the potential for long-term profit, according to the first-time laundry owner.
“It was within the range of investment I was targeting,” noted Romesberg, who admitted that Wash Up! is her first serious attempt at owning a small business. “People need to do laundry.”
Mischelle chose a site about 15 miles from her home to take her first entrepreneurial plunge.
“The original plan was to open a store closer to home, making it easier to manage,” she said. “However, the demographics there simply wouldn’t support a profitable laundromat.
“Fortunately, my distributors – Ron Jansen and Carlos Noriega of Laundry Pro of Florida – worked with me to help find just the right location. It took a long time to find a location at the right price, but with help, we found an excellent location – the demographics are fantastic.
“It’s an apartment haven, and because we are located near Daytona Beach, we have a population of seniors who come and go seasonally. Plus, there are some 55-plus communities close by as well. Mobile home parks and apartments are all around us.”
The space itself was a brand new, empty, 3,000-square-foot storefront within a strip center, which also features an auto shop, as well as nail and tanning salons.
“Basically, we built the laundromat from the ground up,” Romesberg said. “There was concrete on the floor and cinder block walls, and that was it.
“There are always surprises in any construction project, so I tried to be prepared. I joined the Coin Laundry Association right away. I also started reading all of the material about designing, building, opening and operating a laundromat that I could find – including the CLA’s ‘Gold Book,’ which I probably read about three times. And I was very fortunate to find an experienced, extremely helpful distributor.”
However, even with all of their due diligence and preparation, Romesberg still ran into a few issues during the build-out phase.
According to Mischelle, the biggest delay involved having the dryer exhausts connected to triple wyes – which she had specially designed and fabricated – to reduce the number of roof penetrations.
“A local contractor committed to doing it and didn’t even come close to meeting the time commitment,” she explained. “Something so simple delayed the opening by three weeks. There was also an error by the architect that was not caught during the drawing review, so some clever engineering had to be done to make everything work the way it needed to. I certainly learned that you need to review every detail.”
All in all, from concept to store opening, the entire process took 18 months, at a cost of approximately $450,000. And, this past spring, Wash Up! opened for business.
As one of seven laundries within a five-mile radius, Romesberg knew she would have to promote her new store if she hoped to garner her fair share of local marketplace.
The store features a strong online presence, including a professional-looking website (washupsolutions.com) and a Facebook page, along with listings at Yelp and Google Places.
“I used a local discount newspaper to promote the store’s grand opening,” Romesberg added. “And we use e-mails received from the grand opening sweepstakes forms and loyalty card customers to conduct our e-mail marketing.”
Store promotions have included specials on wash-dry-fold pricing and comforter cleaning, as well as discounts on some of the laundry’s larger washers. What’s more, Wash Up!’s loyalty card promotions include bonus points simply for doing laundry and for referring new customers to the store.
And the loyalty card program even features one of Romesberg’s dogs as its mascot – “Louie Laundry.”
Beyond having its very own canine mascot, Wash Up! sets itself apart from the other stores in the neighborhood with brand new, high-extraction washers and by being the only card-option laundry in town.
“We are the only card-option laundromat in the Daytona Beach area,” noted Romesberg, who employs three part-time attendants and one full-time store manager. “Our card system allows for coins, credit cards, debit cards or loyalty cards. Our clients love the options. They can still use cash to load their loyalty cards and eliminate the need to put in all those quarters; however, even when using quarters, they can receive bonus points and then free washer or dryer use.”
Currently, about one-third of the store’s customers use loyalty cards to start the washers.
In addition to their wash-dry-fold service, Romesberg’s business plan also includes seeking out commercial accounts. “We are going after salons, restaurants, assisted-living facilities and the City of South Daytona Fire Department,” Mischelle said. “At this point, commercial accounts represent less than 1 percent of our total business.”
Wash Up! – which is open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily – also features a 10 percent discount for military veterans, a children’s play area, WiFi access and free coffee every day.
And don’t forget about those big-screen TVs… which (thanks in part to Google) are now working like a charm!
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