This is a sponsored post by Cents. Find out what Cents can do for your laundry business here. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.
Laundromats are great businesses for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that they have the ability to be run small and relatively passively, or to scale and be a substantial business. And there are multiple ways to accomplish each of those business models. One of the best ways to scale a laundromat business is to implement a laundry pick-up and delivery service with your laundromat.
There are many great reasons that starting a laundry pick-up and delivery business with your laundromat is a great idea. Let’s look at 7 of the best reasons that starting a laundry pick-up and delivery service can double your revenue or more!
7 Reasons to Start a Laundry Pick-up and Delivery Business
I interviewed a laundromat owner who started a laundry pick-up and delivery service out of his laundromat. The business grew so much he ended up closing down his self-service laundry and focusing solely on his laundry pick-up and delivery business. You can watch that interview below.
Here are 7 convincing reasons to start your own laundry pick-up and delivery business out of your laundromat.
1. You Already Own the Equipment
When you own a laundromat, you own commercial washers and dryers. Most likely, they are not being utilized to their full capacity. Every machine is likely not being used every hour of every day. That means there is extra capacity for your laundromat to increase its performance and revenue.
Since you already own the most expensive equipment to start a laundry pick-up and delivery business, it allows you to utilize the equipment you already own for your self-service laundromat for a dual purpose. Owning the equipment dramatically reduces start-up costs and essentially allows you to start a scalable business for a fraction of the cost of starting other, similar businesses.
2. Your Laundromat’s Radius Expands Dramatically
Generally, a laundromat’s radius of influence is 1-3 miles, and sometimes even just half a mile in dense urban areas. Self-service customers generally don’t travel far and usually don’t pass other laundromats unless there is a very good reason to. Convenience is a huge deciding factor for self-service customers.
However, by adding a laundry pick-up and delivery service, a laundromat’s radius can dramatically expand to service customers in new areas. In addition, those customers tend to be a different demographic than self-service customers. Not only does your radius of potential business expand, your potential customer base expands, as well.
3. Utilize Your Employees Better
If you have employees working part-time or full-time at your laundromat, they likely have some downtime that could be leveraged into the beginnings of a pick-up and delivery business. Utilizing current employees of your self-serve laundromat further cuts down the costs required to start your new business venture by sharing staffing costs with your existing self-serve laundromat.
Even if your laundromat is currently unattended, you can leverage your current income to help cover the costs of employees while you scale up your pick-up and delivery service. This cross-utilization of assets and staff makes it easier to get your business started for less money up-front.
4. Great Margins
The laundry pick-up and delivery business can have great margins. The owner or manager does need to make sure systems are streamlined and, particularly, drivers and driver routes are utilized efficiently. But, when the system is in place the margins for laundry pick-up and delivery can be great.
5. Growing Demand
The demand for services to outsource America’s least favorite chore is at an all-time high and growing. Laundromat operators saw a dramatic increase in residential pick-up and delivery demand in 2020 and 2021, and expect that to continue going forward. America has been outsourcing chores at a growing rate, including grocery shopping, clothes shopping, house cleaning, grabbing take-out, and even driving themselves around town. Laundry is just the next chore to outsource to someone else.
6. Scales Quickly or Slowly
One unique aspect of growing a laundry pick-up and delivery business out of a laundromat is that you can scale at the rate you want to scale. The business can scale quickly by investing in a good software program, like Cents, a decent vehicle, and employees to wash, dry, fold, and drive. These relatively minor investments paired with a solid marketing plan can lead to rapid growth.
A software like Cents can also allow you to scale slowly. By sharing assets, such as machines and employees, with the self-service laundry and taking advantage of Cents’ integration with 3rd party courier services like DoorDash a laundromat owner can treat pick-up and delivery like a drop-off service. The DoorDash integration can allow an owner to start the business without the capital investment of a vehicle and driver on the front end.
7. Technology Makes It Easier Than Ever
Technology like the business-in-a-box solution that Cents offers makes starting a laundry pick-up and delivery business easier than it’s ever been before. With it’s intuitive and robust design to it’s convenient integrations, Cents makes starting a laundry pick-up and delivery business a relative snap.
