+I'll probably be the first any only person to talk about this subject from an actual owner/operator perspective rather than the "speculative assumption" perspective. I actually created and developed a fresh multi-unit brand (++www.DarciesLaundry.com++) here in the Seattle area several years ago.+
www.DarciesLaundry.com was my second successful multi-unit retail start-up. I experienced a successful exit strategy after working very hard on building the brand and the retail stores for almost 5-years. The brand is still alive and profitable for its new owners today.
I will start by saying..."proceed with caution". The laundromat industry and the dry cleaning industry are 2 separate consumer industries. There is an opportunity for overlap, but fundamentally a laundromat and dry cleaners have differentiating customer profiles.
Risk factors with laundromats:
*Increasing utility costs
*Ongoing maintenance costs
*Internal theft
*Internal property damage
*High store build out costs
*To "staff" or not to "staff" - the self-service risk!
*High lease costs for prime locations expressed as % revenues
Risk factors with dry cleaners:
*Increasingly difficult to find landlords that allow dry cleaning on site - due to EPA guidelines
*High labor costs - most items require individual preparation and hand finishing
*Risk level for item damages is high
That said...like any other retail business the "secret sauce" to this industry like any other retail business is the store location as well as the market size. Laundromat customers need longer opening hours, more adjacent parking and are price sensitive. Dry cleaning customers are service sensitive. I built the www.DarciesLaundry.com brand incorporating dry-cleaning into the laundry business model. I also differentiated the brand from competitors by building big, bright and beautiful stores in high traffic retail corridors, with trained and uniformed staff on site every hour the stores were open, as well as offering all customers a no-coin automated branded pre-paid card system.....all equipment was brand new commercial size for customer convenience and we offered free TV, spotless bathrooms. a Kid's corner. free internet and monthly customer promotions.
If done right, you should receive a potential 30% net profit on revenues and a potential positive exit strategy. Just today, I received a telephone call from one of my old store managers that purchased a store from me...after three years he has paid off his store and was offered $500K for his business by a local broker that has a buyer.
So please....do your homework....you could easily buy yourself a job....if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. Avoid all of the advice from the experts that have no experience or success in this field. You can do well, if you make the right decisions.
Regards,
Patrick Kane (www.patrick@peoplepawn.com)
