Try to look at the laundry from the eyes of a first time customer. What looks good and what doesn’t? What could a coat of paint or a good scrubbing do to make your coin laundry more inviting?
Windows are the eyes into the soul of any laundry. Keep them uncluttered and easy to see through. Regular cleaning is essential. Don’t allow too many signs and posters to obscure the view into the laundry.
Floors need to shine and be swept clean of lint, dust, paper, etc. A bright shining floor gives the impression that this is a clean place in which to do laundry.
Check out interior instruction signs for whether or not they do the job of telling what services you offer. Even in a center where you have no responsibility for the parking lot, it’s appearance and condition can be very important to the success of your business. You may need to do some policing on your own to keep portions of the lot, where your customers park, clean and presentable.
Now that you’ve done the cleaning and tidying up that was needed, this is the time to start your planning process.
Bring in one or more outside experts.
We all know someone who knows laundries. A distributor, a broker or a successful laundry operator who has long time experience in the industry. Ask for help in deciding what should be done to improve your operation. Make a list of ideas and throw in a few of your own.
Take this list and break it down into steps. First, those things you’ll handle right away, at little cost. These could include touch up painting, cleaning, new decals on washers, new fronts, etc.
Next, those steps you will take over the near term requiring some cash outlay, such as relocating equipment, buying new tables, repainting the dryers, etc.
Finally, things that could take a year or two to finish because they require hiring contractors, permits and more time to complete. They will also take more cash and may require arranging of financing, such as for buying new equipment, and doing serious interior construction work in the laundry.
Each laundry location is different, so all individual long term steps can’t be outlined, in specific terms. But, there are certain things common to laundries, especially those that are over twenty years old.
Lighting.
Facilities built ten or more years ago had lights that are far less cost efficient than current lighting fixtures. The savings on a laundry’s electrical bill could pay for the replacement cost in less than three years, so it should be part of your long term plans to change the lighting in your laundry.
It could mean installing new ballasts and fluorescent tubes and keeping the existing fixtures and diffusers, or one could buy new fixtures. Using your own labor to update existing fixtures is less expensive. But in order to do that one needs confidence in their personal ability to do electrical work. If that’s you, give it a try.
Set switches so fixtures can be turned on or off from front to back as your laundry needs to be lighted during daylight hours. Additional lighting is often needed during the day to keep all parts of the laundry space inviting for clientele. Unnecessary lighting is wasteful and expensive
Another way to cut down lighting costs is to install skylights, or lighting tubes. That way the daytime costs to light is free, and that’s the best price break one can get on electric bills. The cost to put in skylights is higher, but pay off is fast. Of course it will be necessary to discuss installing skylights or lighting tubes with the landlord. Even if your premises lease allows you to do these thing, it’s always a good idea to let the property owners know what it is you are doing in advance of doing it.
Another factor to consider before installing a skylight is that certain designs could be used as an entry by burglars. Security first should always be a consideration when remodeling. For protection against burglary through a skylight, add motion detectors to your alarm system. That way, even if burglars just drop in through the sky light, their presence will be detected.
Painting and Decor
When selecting colors for the walls and ceiling, remember lighter colors reflect light better and therefore are preferable to darker colors that absorb light. The lighter the colors, the less electricity is needed to keep a laundry bright and inviting.
Decor is really a matter of personal taste. What do you like, and will your customer base like it as well as you do?
Whatever you choose, it should be easy on the eyes and simple to do from the remodeling point of view.
Doing laundry is not the most popular thing on the list of what people have to do. Anything that you can do to make the laundering chore more pleasant is going to attract more customers and will create more business, and therefore more profit. Making your laundry attractive is a wise investment.
Sign up, to end the confusion.
Too often coin laundry customers are left out of the information loop. They need to know things like your prices, your hours, how to use the washers and dryers and what they can and can not do in your place of business.
Imparting such information is usually done through owners posting informational instruction signs on the laundry walls or putting decals on the machines.
Attractive instruction signs really do add to the looks of a laundry, and can be a relatively inexpensive portion of the remodeling process. When signs are of a uniform appearance, a professional look is added to any coin laundry.
Distributors or manufacturers offer signs and decals for their brand of washer or dryer. Vend suppliers have general instruction signs available that have a professional look. Local sign men can make instruction signs to match your decor. It’s inexpensive to have them done, and will compliment your look.
Redoing your exterior signs is a more complicated process, although often not that much more expensive if you choose to do the job yourself. You will need to make a drawing of the kind of sign you want. Keep it simple. The fewer the words the more readable the sign. A plastics supplier will have letters of various sizes that you can glue on the sign.
Most shopping center business display signs face the street and are made on flat, translucent plastic framed by a sign can. Those who climb the ladder will find that these plastic faces slide in and out of the sign can from one end. Bolts or screws hold the end cap on.
Remove that end cap and take out the sign face. Measure that piece and go to the plastics supply to purchase and have cut to size a sheet of translucent plastic. You buy the letters too, and once back at the laundry you lay the new sign face out and place the letters on it, then glue the letters on. Be careful, as the types of glue on plastic you will be using are unforgiving if a mistake is made.
Place the face in the sign can and you have a new sign. While you’re up there, do a check on the fluorescent tubes and change them to energy efficient tubes.
Some cities and even many shopping centers have restrictions on what can be done with signs, so check on what they may be before you make the effort, or spend the money. It may be worth it as a newer looking, brighter sign goes a long way toward remodeling the public’s image of any coin laundry.
Dealing with contractors.
You have accomplished the early steps in your remodeling plan and are set to tackle the more difficult, expensive and time consuming jobs. These steps may require using licensed contractors to finish. By law, in most states, property owners and business owners can act as their own contractor.
As such, they can hire people to come in who do not hold a contractors license. They would be working as subcontractors for you as a business owner. It will still require getting the proper permits, having inspections done, etc. All you really save is the profit of the contractor, and it requires you taking a lot of personal time with the permit and inspection process. If it’s a big job, use a contractor. That way you have someone who is responsible.
Get bids from several different people.
Talk with each one to go over your plan and pick their brain as to the best way to accomplish the job. What will they do, and what is required of you. One of the most important things is to pin down the time it will take. Ask for discounts if the job isn’t done on time. Too often, other jobs will interfere with a contractor getting the work done in an expeditious manner.
Go with the bidder who gives you the most confidence. Only if there is a really substantial difference in the estimates should you ever think to deal with anyone you have less than full confidence in. The guy with the lowest bid may not be the guy you really want on the job and he may come back to ask for more money.
Panic if you are asked to pay a lot of money in advance. A reasonable down payment is like earnest money on a deal, and is to be expected, but not half, or more, down. If they say the big deposit is needed to buy materials, offer to go with them and buy it instead. Have it delivered directly to the laundry, so if the contractor fails to do the job, you at least have the material. All too often the deposit monies disappear along with the contractor, when you have given too substantial a deposit in advance.
Don’t just remodel, modernize.
Laundries that were designed and built -several years ago were not installed with the -mix of sizes and variety of washers found in new laundries now. If economics permit, don’t just simply replace the equipment, top loader by top loader. Install some larger capacity washers too. Add dryer pockets by replacing older units with stacked dryer units. You may want to look at installing even larger capacity dryers to work with the larger washer mix.
Remove old dark paneling with something brighter and more modern looking. Few things are as dated as dark paneling in a laundry. With the right kinds of primers, such as Kilz, paneling can be over painted with good results.
Resurface old folding tables with modern Formica patterns, and recover the plumbing bulkheads with something new. All this could help bring in new business by offering the laundry’s clientele something different to get excited about.
Your laundry’s appearance, it’s lighting and even the way it smells is something you are used to, being there every day. Over time the appearance doesn’t change for you, but it’s appearance is noticeable to new customers. That’s why each time there is a change for the better, business goes up. Get a better look and make more money.
Everything we have discussed takes time and planning, It also costs some money. Other things cost an arm and a leg, but will be worth it to your bottom line?
Being the owner of a bright, clean and modern place of business will help create, or re-create a feeling of personal pride in your laundry.
When you are proud of your business, it shows. Pride of ownership helps you bring in more customers. That pride you have in your laundry business can be displayed in many ways, but the most effective way is by personal interaction with customers. Your presence at your laundry, doing things to make the place look and perform better, is the best customer confidence builder there is.
