Originally posted – Nov issue/2012
New Entrepreneur Opens His First Self-Service Laundry in Upstate New York
At only 27, Scott Carey can already see his future – and it involves dirty laundry. Hopefully, lots and lots of dirty laundry.
After all, Carey is the owner of Timesaver Laundry, which opened this past July in Perinton, N.Y.
“As a person looking to build my career and future, I was looking for a business that I could build that would reflect my own approach, allow me to be in control of my own destiny, and provide financial stability and security, if I worked hard at it,” Carey explained. “My dad had a friend who was in the laundry business, and after several long discussions with this family friend, I decided this was an adventure I would like to begin.”
Working closely with his father, Dave, the new laundry owner did a significant amount of research and due diligence, which he used to develop his business and financial plan. In fact, Scott and his dad visited roughly 25 of the 35 existing stores in their local market.
“We researched and compared the equipment options,” he said. “We analyzed the design, installation, operation and maintenance support available from the distributors. We spoke with existing operators, studied national industry publications and, most importantly, analyzed the critical factors of success in other retail service industry business models.”
Based on this, Carey built his business plan and summarized it in a “pitch book,” which he used with a number of key constituents along the way to test and refine his ideas.
In choosing his location, Carey took into consideration a number of factors: demographics; retail space availability and affordability; customer traffic in the proximity; distance from alternative laundry facilities; utility rates; and the business philosophy of the property owners.
“Our store design and layout was developed based on a thorough study of our competition and the objective of creating an environment that was pleasant and friendly,” Carey noted. “We sought to create a contemporary look and feel following design trends in residential design. These design parameters coupled with work flows guided our store layout, coloration and fixture selections.”
The project was a new build in an existing building. In fact, Carey had originally pursued buying several existing stores in the area; however, after some research concluded that – while having an existing customer base is hugely beneficial – retrofitting an existing store, including the decommissioning and redesign, would be more challenging than starting with a “greenfield.”
Therefore, Timesaver Laundry is a brand new store, built in an existing shopping plaza in a suburban neighborhood. Working with the footprint of the building, Carey created a preliminary design himself, using a commercial design tool called Smart Draw.
“This allowed us to create floor plans, elevations and rendering incorporating all of the design features and aesthetic features we contemplated,” he said. “This approach also avoided costly architect and design fees. During this process we collaborated with the landlord, our local and national [equipment] partners, our local town officials, a building engineer, an architect and, most importantly, our general contractor and project manager, who brought in the leads from the various trades. Our approach was simple: ‘We can build this on paper four or more times, but we will only build it once physically.'”
By carefully thinking through the design and construction before he began the physical tasks, Carey knew he would save time and money overall. He spent the better part of three months doing all of the preparation, including legal structuring, lease negotiations, equipment procurement, information technology design, store design and permit preparation. And the actual construction, installation and testing took 12 weeks.
“We were fortunate in that we didn’t face any major obstacles in this process,” Carey explained. “We spent significant effort upfront developing a solid relationship with the landlord/developer and our general contractor. Our premise was that ‘unwanted surprises’ could be avoided if we did our homework upfront and aligned our goals with this of the landlord and general contractor. Their knowledge, expertise and relationships could enable the process, provided that we undertook the effort to figure out what was required from the utilities, building codes, ADA, water and sewer, signage, etc. – and incorporated these in our design, construction and inspection program.”
For Carey, utility costs were a major point of focus that influenced his site selection, store design and equipment selections. In fact, the site he chose is within a municipality that runs its own electric distribution utility and buys power at wholesale rates on the grid, which has been a major benefit to Timesaver Laundry.
“We also decided to air condition our store to further differentiate it from competitors in the market,” Carey said. “Our natural gas is purchased from a major combination power and gas utility here in the region. Also, our soft-mount washers coupled with our 45-pound stack dryers and the high-efficiency water heating and air conditioning equipment are performing remarkably well.
“To date our energy utilities have averaged 6 percent of revenue. We recognize that this is unusually low and acknowledge that it is materially influenced by the low kilowatt-hour rate that we enjoy from the municipal utility.”
Timesaver Laundry’s marketing strategy is based on a “branded and differentiated approach,” according to Carey.
“We designed a brand logo and have branded the store, many of the amenities in the store and all of our marketing collateral,” he explained. “Combining this with the a design theme that was based on a ‘super-sized home laundry,’ our unique store layout, key design elements, a card payment system and customer experience features – such as air conditioning, comfortable seating and an outdoor patio – creates the basis of a differentiated customer experience.”
The store’s aggressive marketing launch campaign consisted of a pre-store opening website launch (timesaverlaundryco.com), coupled with a Google AdWords campaign with links to a Facebook and Yelp; a grand opening event held in the parking lot of the store with customer giveaways; a direct mail campaign to 38,000 households in the immediate area; local newspaper print advertising; ad placement in a local movie and coupon magazine; handouts, street signage; non-paid advertising in local newspapers new business and entrepreneurial columns.
“We’re located in a suburban market that is surrounded by relatively large apartment complexes, occupied by younger professionals,” Carey noted. “In general, we find that customers are looking for service that is quick, clean and convenient. These service attributes hold true across the customer segments. In our market, we have customers that have a ‘full requirement’ to meet all of their laundry needs; the ‘specialty requirement,’ which is typically comforters, bedding or sleeping bags; the ‘traveler’ who is in town and staying at a local hotel; and the ‘home breakdown’ customer whose home equipment has broken down. In all cases, there is a negative stigma associated with laundromats that we have found is easy to change with our approach to the customer and business.”
To this end, Timesaver offers its customers a number of amenities, including: a coinless payment system; free WiFi; stainless steel work tables; laptop work space; comfortable seating; a 10-camera security surveillance system; an outdoor patio with seating; ample laundry carts with hangers; automatic door openers on all doors; a card-operated soap dispensing system; a customer wash-up sink and counter space; restrooms; a card-operated beverage dispenser; laundry-themed art; and contemporary lighting fixtures.
“Customers are reacting very positively to the overall ambiance in the store,” Carey said. “The cleanliness and the equipment with special cycles for comforters, sleeping bags and bath rugs are being very well received.”
The 3,200-square-foot store is open from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, and its new owner is on site for much of that time.
“I am the sole owner of the business,” Carey said. “I don’t have any financial or operational partners. In launching a new business, it is critical that I, as the owner, am there every day, assisting customers and maintaining the store to create the differentiated service experience that are business strategy is based on. We’re building a customer base, and word of mouth is the best advertising we can have. Therefore, personally insuring that that the experience is the best requires constant and personal attention.
Having a deep and thorough understanding of our customers’ needs and wants is really the most important principle,” he continued. “Using this understanding to develop a value proposition that maximizes the differentiation from the competition is essential. Once this is figured out, paying attention to the details and going the extra step for the customer to ensure that their experience is the very best is what we believe to be the most important. For us, this means, a perfectly clean store, all the equipment is working, and treating our customers in a way that makes them feel special and exceeds their expectations.”
Equipment Mix
Timesaver Laundry – Perinton, N.Y.
16 Electrolux 18-pound frontloaders, $2.75
12 Electrolux 45-pound frontloaders, $4.75
6 Electrolux 60-pound frontloaders, $6.75
4 Electrolux 75-pound frontloaders, $8.75
16 Electrolux 45-pound stack dryers, 25 cents for six minutes
1 Lochinvar water heating system
1 ESD Cyberwash card payment system
10 R&B Wire Products laundry carts
7 stainless steel folding tables
Allen & Roth indoor/outdoor cushioned patio furniture
Shaw commercial grade flooring
1 Vend-Rite Manufacturing soap vending machine, $1.00
1 card-operated beverage machine
Free WiFi
Video security, with real-time monitoring
Distributor: Upstate Laundry Equipment, Webster, N.Y., (585) 265-3010
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