The key for us is to manage to the most relevant expense items in the business, other than rent \u2013 that would be utilities and labor\/payroll. In other words, \u201cmajor in the majors,\u201d and the rest will follow. Focus on how revenue is linked and varies to expenses, and then manage to optimize there.<\/p>\n

Manage major expense KPIs and focus on the customer experience \u2013 and, as a result, revenue and profit will grow.<\/p>\n

The two largest non-lease expense items are utilities and payroll\/manpower. If we can keep those two KPIs in line, managed against revenue, everything else with the business seems to take care of itself.<\/p>\n

At Owasso Express Laundry, we collect and record those numbers daily. We review key stats weekly and monthly. And we manage and adjust our operations quarterly.<\/p>\n

No doubt, technology has help in this process. Our payment system and point-of-sale software provide us with great reporting detail \u2013 it\u2019s extremely accurate and easy to obtain.<\/p>\n

We record our revenue daily into a spreadsheet that tracks and graphs our critical metrics \u2013 daily, weekly, monthly and annually. Without our payment and POS systems\u2019 reporting features, doing the analysis would be a huge chore and, therefore, probably not get done on a consistent basis.<\/p>\n

We adjust our staff\u2019s hourly pay and head count to a large extent based on our wash-dry-fold production. All of our employees know this, and that\u2019s the key. That alignment keeps our wash-dry-fold quality high and mistakes to a minimum. We\u2019ve raised our WDF pricing to keep this business segment\u2019s top-line revenue in sync with our payroll. Of course, this strategy has worked both ways \u2013 we\u2019ve also added staff and given raises when our wash-dry-fold revenue has increased. Post-pandemic, especially in 2021, our wash-dry-fold business has really taken off.<\/p>\n

Our self-service washer and dryer vend pricing is also linked to our monthly utility costs. After all, it\u2019s much easier to justify a vend price increase tied to utility costs, simply because our customers are experiencing the exact same price hikes at home.<\/p>\n

Personally, we don\u2019t track turns per day operationally, because the TPD stat isn\u2019t linked to an actual expense. It simply calculates the average number of times each washing machine is used every day. I believe that TPD estimates can be helpful in creating an income pro forma, which bankers like to see, or in determining an equipment mix during a laundromat planning phase. However, tracking turns per day operationally provides little relevant insight when compared to the major-expense-versus-revenue KPIs. These numbers would be of help if considering remixing your washer size during a laundromat makeover and retool.<\/p>\n

Again, the key for our laundry business is to manage the most relevant financial\/expense KPIs in the business, other than rent. And those are utilities and manpower\/payroll. Focus on how revenue is linked and varies with key expense changes, and then manage to optimize from there.<\/p>\n

Above all, keep it simple. Manage key expense KPIs (utilities and manpower\/payroll) to revenue, focus hard on the customer experience, and revenue and profit will grow.<\/p>\n

Art Jaeger<\/strong>
\nSanta Clarita Laundry<\/strong>
\nSanta Clarita, Calif.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Information, observation and action are the keys to success in any small business. Without good information, you are flying blind, guessing, praying and gambling.<\/p>\n

With that said, just because you have information doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to help. After all, the wrong information \u2013 or too much information \u2013 very likely can be more destructive than having none at all.<\/p>\n

So what numbers, statistics and key performance indicators are important to help maximize the growth of your laundromat business? Perhaps obviously, it\u2019s only the information you\u2019re going to use to make a decision, to take an action, or to review or measure a result.<\/p>\n

With quality software and current bookkeeping, you can run comparative reports and analysis on a timely basis, while you still have sufficient time to make meaningful changes during the year.<\/p>\n

Specifically, here\u2019s what I regularly track at my laundry business:<\/p>\n

\n
• Detailed weekly turns per day by equipment size, with accompanying monthly and annual summaries.<\/li>\n
• Detailed monthly utility summaries with all key statistics noted from the invoices, as well as cost per unit of measure \u2013 such as therms, watts, etc. \u2013 and usage\/dollars per day calculated.<\/li>\n
• Detailed service logs, for each individual piece of equipment.<\/li>\n
• Monthly tracking of wash-dry-fold productivity by employee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Collecting the right information all begins with a proper foundation. Learning to keep and maintain your own current books and records is well worth it. Your chart of accounts needs to be detailed enough to be useful, but also general enough not to become a burden.<\/p>\n

  Next time, some of the industry\u2019s leading providers of payment systems, POS software and pickup-and-delivery solutions will weigh in on the topic of KPIs for laundromat success.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A Look at Some of the Operational Metrics and Key Data Owners Should Be Monitoring to Keep Their Laundromats on Track for Success [This is the second in a multi-part series on some of the key performance indicators laundromat owners should monitor regularly. You can read Part One here.] In Part One of this series, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":11017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98,243,244,245,9351],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-articles","category-feature-1","category-feature-2","category-feature-3","category-highlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11016"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11180,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11016\/revisions\/11180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}