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Running a Coin-Operated Laundry
Like many coin-operated business ventures,
coin operated laundries offer ongoing cash
flow with limited demands on your time. You
can operate your business in one of three
ways: you can operate a laundry room within
an apartment building or complex, have your
own facility, or both. By operating a laundry
room, you have a ready-made clientele, do
not have to worry about finding a good street
location, and have some measure of security;
however, laundry rooms also are generally
restricted to the tenants and thus this approach
caps your potential client base, and you
will probably have to share a portion of
your profit or pay a set monthly fee to the
building owner. Having your own facility
makes you responsible for location related
issues as well as attracting a customer base.
Because of the "public access"
nature of these businesses, you will likely
need to pay for an attendant for daily cleaning,
assisting customers who run into difficulties
with the machinery, and as a security measure
to discourage vandalism and theft.
Getting started means finding
a location
and acquiring the laundry equipment.
- choose a location based on current and anticipated
demand. Since your customer base primarily
will be people who do not have laundry machines
of their own, look for large groups of apartment
dwellers or renters in duplex homes. If a
significant segment of your customer base
will drive to the laundry, adequate parking
is also necessary. Then, try to judge the
local competitive landscape: if a rival coin
laundry opens nearby (e.g., in a large apartment
building that previously did not house one),
your customer base can erode overnight.
- commercial laundry equipment can be very
expensive and thus require
a large investment
upfront. In addition, plan
for significant
repair costs. If you buy an
existing laundry,
with older equipment, this
maintenance cost
is likely to be higher than
for one with
newer machines.
You can save substantial money if you repair
your own machines. This requires an additional
time commitment and a desire to work with
machinery, but it does not require a lot
of knowledge.
Finally, because operating coin laundries
is a popular business venture, a lot of information
to help you get started is available. You
may find it a good investment to learn from
others' experiences before you start, even
it it ends up persuading you that this is
not the right business for you. |
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