The second day of the Coin Laundry Association\u2019s educational program at Clean 2022 in Atlanta kicked off with a focus on prospective investors and aspiring laundromat owners.<\/p>\n
The morning\u2019s first session \u2013 \u201cEverything You Need to Know About Your First Laundromat\u201d \u2013 was a panel discussion moderated by multi-store owner Rob Maes of Express Laundry Texas. His panelists included Amy Doody, Amy\u2019s Laundry; Stephen Gramaglia, Clean Fresh Laundromat; and Omer Khan, Bustinsuds Laundromat.<\/p>\n
The experienced operators began by sharing their own unique paths for getting into the laundry business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had no choice,\u201d said Khan, a second-generation operator. \u201cI was 3 when my dad bought his first store, so growing up I developed a love of the business. And I have no regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gramaglia\u2019s journey to store ownership wound its way through industry finance company Eastern Funding, where he worked for 21 years \u2013 helping others get into the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI visited more than 1,000 stores,\u201d explained Gramaglia, who recently bought his second laundromat. \u201cI was ready for a change. I wanted to do something different, a new adventure. It\u2019s been a great experience.”<\/p>\n
As for Doody, she was a middle-school math teacher who wanted something different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018Oh I can do laundry!\u2019\u201d she laughed, adding that she was looking for a business where she could work with people and help the community as well.<\/p>\n
Maes left corporate America after 20 years, knowing nothing about the laundry industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to keep growing,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted a change, and this was a way to extend my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
With regard to paying for that initial laundromat investment, Gramaglia stressed the need to be on solid financial footing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout it, you\u2019ll have trouble,\u201d he said. \u201cBeyond your initial cash investment, you need working capital, closing costs and so on. Excess funds will be needed, because you\u2019re not going to break even on Day One.<\/p>\n
Kahn suggested the option of leveraging any existing banking relationships. \u201cYou may not have cash on hand, but you can use other assets or properties,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Much like financing a laundry venture, the panel pointed out that there are multiple paths to selecting a winning site.<\/p>\n
\u201cExplore them all \u2013 from brokers to local distributors,\u201d Gramaglia said. \u201cCanvas the area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahn suggest that attendees vet local distributors carefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho do you feel comfortable doing business with?\u201d he asked. \u201cHow much are they willing to help you? Having that relationship is a key, because that will lead to your final store location and so on. It all goes hand in hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kahn added that newcomers might be best off getting into an existing laundry business, even if it\u2019s a retool project, because at least it will have an existing customer base.<\/p>\n
For Maes, proximity to home is the most important factor in laundromat site selection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have four laundromats, and none of them are more than 15 miles apart,\u201d he said. \u201cKeep proximity in mind \u2013 it\u2019s number one for me.”<\/p>\n
Throughout the hour-long session, the four store owners shared the pros and cons of leasing a laundromat versus purchasing the business and its property, as well as the considerations of building a laundromat from the ground up, and some of the nuances of their own daily operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbove all, you should have a personal reason for getting into this business, as well as a financial one,\u201d Maes stated. \u201cWhy do you really want to do this? It has to be for something other than money. It\u2019s a way of life and should be your passion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The second day of the Coin Laundry Association\u2019s educational program at Clean 2022 in Atlanta kicked off with a focus on prospective investors and aspiring laundromat owners. The morning\u2019s first session \u2013 \u201cEverything You Need to Know About Your First Laundromat\u201d \u2013 was a panel discussion moderated by multi-store owner Rob Maes of Express Laundry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":11901,"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":[9351,56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-industry-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11900","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=11900"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11904,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11900\/revisions\/11904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}