How to Earn a Laundry PHD

Being a smart and successful coin or card laundry operator really doesn''t necessarily have much to do with the amount of gray matter resting inside that ball of bone sitting on top of your shoulders. There are some laundry operators who can barely read and write, but they are able to run clean, well organized and profitable laundry businesses. Some are not fluent in English. and invested in the laundry industry because they feel they don''t have to be fluent in the language in order to succeed. And succeed they do, because they follow some basic rules of the business. It doesn''t matter whether or not you are an average person or a nerdy rocket scientist, you can make it in this industry if you know and follow the basic rules of the business! From the very beginnings of the laundry industry, there have been certain ideas which, if followed, have been said to assure success. Keep it clean, keep equipment in good working order, keep it well lit at night & you can not fail. This set of rules was for a time when one could put a coin laundry in anywhere and it would be a big success. Now the coin laundry industry must also talk about laundry location as being one of the most important factors to guarantee success. Rents today have gotten so out of hand, that it''s hardly possible to overcome having a bad location. Also, there are also so many more laundries now than there were in the past and competition is much tougher than it used to be in the ''good old days''. Everyone in our industry, especially the laundry owners, now have to be much better businessmen today. Anyone who has lasted in our business for any length of time knows all about keeping regular hours, having their coin laundry clean and well lit at night and keeping their equipment in good working order. There are still some who do not know now, and if they are to survive, they will have to learn, about keeping good records, and knowing what their costs really are. Some that are laundry owners now, won''t be for long unless they learn about keeping good records. How long can you last in this business charging 50? for a top load wash if your real costs for doing each load is 55?+? Not for very long! How do dummies like us learn what our per load costs really are? There certainly is a Rocket Science way of calculating our cost per load, but we''re not Rocket Scientists. There''s also a simple, quick and dirty way too, and here it is. 1. Collect the right way. If you are not already doing so, begin your collection of the coin boxes by machine type. Dryers in one receptacle, top loaders in one or two others and each type of front load washers by size of machine. You will still know what the gross total collections are by lumping everything together afterwards, but now you will also be able to learn the income amounts for dryers, front loads and the top loaders. Knowing this makes it easy to figure what percent of your laundry''s income comes out of each type of collection source. 2. Know your expenses, it''s vital. Carefully compile the actual expenses of your laundry. To find that, all you have to do is keep track of everything you spend. Don''t forget the out of pocket money you spend for laundry related items. Also include all those occasional expenses such as property tax bills, licenses and insurance. Basically you need to know the amount of cash you take in and a total of what you spend to know if you''re making money. Without that kind of information, you''re flying blind in a day and age where that can really be dangerous for any business person. It ain''t rocket science; it''s just plain old common sense. Let''s assume your laundry''s income is $108,000 per year. Coin box collections by machine type are: $53,000 top loads at $1 per load. $24,000 front loaders at $2 per load. $31,000 dryers-8 minutes for 25?. Soda, candy, and vending or other types of income are not considered in this example, nor are their expenses. Since we have assumed the income, let''s also assume expenses of $75,000. The gross profit of the laundry is about $33,000. You know that you want it to be $49,000, and try to figure a plan to raise income by that amount. The $53,000 that the top loaders took in represented 49% of the total the current wash and dry income you, as an owner collected. At $1 per wash, it took 53,000 loads to bring in $53,000. A fifty cent price hike raises the gross profit up by $26,500. Now your only problem is selling the increase to your clientele. You''ll lose a few but still be ahead. The ''Quick ''n Dirty'' description for this method is right. It''s not clean and neat. The traditional methods may be more precise, but the time required and number of calculations needed makes it harder to grasp. Knowing your income by machine type allows you to figure what percent of your laundry''s income comes from each of your profit centers. Combined with your laundry''s actual costs, it gives you the basic information needed to make it in this tough business climate. Now you''ve earned your Laundry PhD.