Make a Bundle Without Having to Spend a Bundle

As rents increase, along with minimum wage and utility costs, many laundry operators look for other sources of income to keep themselves and their laundries in the black. Some look to increasing machine vend prices, while others look into adding more vending machines, water sales or even tanning beds. Most laundry owners feel more comfortable with adding fluff & fold services to their list of services offered. It''s more naturally part of the industry they understand, and the investment required is much smaller, especially if they are already an attended business. In that case they will not have additional wages to pay. Space for the service can be a problem, but it can be easy for those who already have the space. Most laundries were built with some kind of office or back room already there and easy to modify. Others can add space simply by re-arranging placement or eliminating some of their equipment. Going into any expansion of services takes some careful thought and planning. In the case of fluff & fold, the first thing an owner should do is research whether or not his area can and will support it. Lets face it, not every laundry location is in an area where there is enough discretionary income to support the service. Ask your existing customers if they could possibly use a drop office service. Check the laundry''s service area for businesses that could use some kind of laundry service - beauty shops, doctors, dentists, eateries, etc. Once one becomes interested in adding a Fluff & Fold operation in their coin laundry, it looks easy because they already have the necessary washer and dryer capacity on site. But to succeed they will need more than just the laundering machines. Most states, and many cities have regulations that require the presence and use of an accurate scale to weigh the clothing to be done. Since laundry bundles are usually charged for by the pound, the public will want that as well. Most of the entities that regulate scales require that they actually be ''Certifiable'' by the regulating agency. In other words, they come in to your place of business, at least once, check the scale, test weigh and certify it. There is usually a testing fee and an annual charge to the regulating agency. Typically it''s a small amount. Scales will range in price from a low of $200 for a used one to $800 - $1,200 for one which accommodates a substantial load of laundry and meets the certifiable requirement. Just because a scale is accurate does not mean that it is certifiable. Most spring operated scales don''t fit into the category. Electronic scales usually do fit. In purchasing a scale, buy with the assurance that it can be certified for use in trade, or don''t buy. To help owners keep records, they should first purchase books of numbered tickets that are sequentially numbered. To augment the numbers, they should also have a note book and sequentially number the pages. The notebook''s pages should be the type that can''t be torn out, and therefore difficult to replace. The drill is to record sequentially numbered orders onto the sequentially numbered note book pages. This gives the owner a double check on orders. Each order is entered, first on the ticket and then into the notebook. The information in the book should include the date in, the date picked up, the weight of the order, the amount charged and the name of the person who took in the order. The tickets usually come in three parts, white for the permanent record, yellow to -follow the bundle through the process and pink as the customer''s copy. In theory, the customer returns with the pink to pick up and pay. The yellow is stacked or spindled in the order it is received. With this process, any order in can be followed by either ticket or notebook. It is all part of your helping employees to stay honest. Good record keeping helps honest people stay honest. By the way, the tickets can be found at almost any dry cleaning or laundry supplier. There is other equipment that may or may not be necessary, but certainly useful in conducting a fluff & fold. You could use one or more good, commercial grade staplers to attach tickets to the bundles. There are also bundle guides which make wrapping in paper or plastic much easier. For paper, you should have a sizeable flat surface to wrap on. If the business includes doing shirts on hangers, a bag stand and a roller for the plastic is very helpful. Those who choose to use paper will find it helpful to have a roller with a cutter attached to cut the paper to the proper size for the laundry bundle. It is vital that fluff & fold customers receive their laundry bundles back in a professional looking bundle, so use a quality wrapping material such as blue or tan paper, which has been the traditional colors in the laundry business. If paper is not your thing, there are plastic bags available that come preprinted with advertisements designed to bring back customers to your business. The best sources for these papers, plastic and hangers are laundry & dry cleaning supply houses. To recap, you will need a scale, paper roller with cutter, plastic rolls with a roller stand, tickets and hangers. At that point, it''s time for you and or your attendants to turn on the personality and sell the service. It usually takes time to build up a fluff & fold business. Plan to spend at least six months to a year to see good results. One fairly easy step to augment that end of your business is to consider adding drop off dry cleaning. All it really takes is enough space in your laundry to hang orders. Having drop off dry cleaning together with a fluff & fold service in a laundry is that it makes your place of business a one stop, full service operation. You want your customer to think of you anytime they have something to do with their clothing. You are offering the full bundle of services for the customer without having to spend a big bundle of money. Only the time and energy of you and your attendants will determine if you will also make a bundle.