8. What To Do When Your Business Is Down

Host Jordan takes the mic today to address a huge issue plaguing laundromat owners throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Business is down significantly for many laundromats and many owners are at a loss for what to do to stay afloat and recover.

Today’s show is meant to serve as a perspective shifter. As laundromat owners we have two potential responses:

We can play defense and hope to ride things out.
We can take some initiative and be proactive in our approach to this new shift in our world.

Jordan talks through some practical ways that we can be proactive during these tough times to not only improve our businesses now, but also to position our laundromats to thrive when the economy recovers.

If you’re a laundromat owner or if you’re someone who wants to buy a laundromat, this episode might just be the perspective shift you need to get your business moving in the right direction again!

Watch The Podcast Here

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Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

you’re listening to the laundromat

resource podcast the show by laundromat

owners for laundromat owners with your

hosts Jordan Barry hey guys what is up

its Jordan the laundromat resource

podcast this is show number eight and I

I just need to take a second because I

read a stat somewhere I don’t know where

and I don’t know how legitimate it is

but I read somewhere that most podcasts

don’t make it past eight episodes in

today is episode number eight for the

laundromat resource podcast and all we

have to do is put one more out after

this one and we’re gonna be cruising

right past most podcasts in in terms of

you know success so I’m pretty excited

about it maybe next week we will

celebrate and I know barring some

catastrophe there’s gonna be another

episode in fact I’ve already recorded

three the next three episodes and you

know their killer episode you’re gonna

definitely want to tune in to them

the owners that I interview for the next

three episodes have insane stories I

know you’re gonna pull a ton of value

out of them I know I did already and I

don’t want to spoil any of it for you

cuz these these owners are and they’re

they’re incredible so make sure that

you’re subscribed to this podcast if

you’re watching on youtube subscribe

here we’re on all the platforms for

podcasts so make sure you subscribe and

whichever one that you use because

you’re not just please trust me you’re

not gonna want to miss the next few

episodes that’s for sure

this one you can give it take it or

leave it no I’m just kidding but hey

next week we’re gonna celebrate getting

over the 8th episode hump but today this

episode we need to celebrate something

else and it’s this officially the

laundromat resource podcast has been

downloaded and listened to on six of the

seven continents and man it’s just it’s

a crazy time where

you know this little podcast can be put

out and you listen to all over the world

except for Antarctica and so now my goal

is somebody on Antarctica has got to

need some information about laundromats

and I want to get in front of them I’m

pretty sure there’s no laundromats on

Antarctica so I’m not really sure how

exactly that’s gonna happen but if any

of you are traveling to Antarctica do me

a huge favor and go and download an

episode and listen to it in Antarctica

so we can knock off the entire world

global domination I will shower you with

love and affection and gifts so just

kidding but no but seriously I will so

do it

in fact go plan a trip right now to

Antarctica and let’s just take over the

world

all right enough celebrating and enough

of that it’s time to shame you a little

bit that’s right I said shame you and

here’s why is because last week was an

incredible episode it’s one of our most

downloaded episodes with Brandon under

salt for good reason he really brought

it has a ton of wisdom that he brought

so if you haven’t listened to show

number 7 yet go back and download it

listen to it because Brandon really

brings the heat and it was an awesome

episode I had a ton of fun with Brandon

so I definitely go do that but in the

beginning of that episode I I challenged

everybody to go and go to the forums

lauter Matt resource calm slash forums

and ask a question and answer a question

and the reason I did that the reason

before I start shaming you because I’m

going to you brace yourself the reason I

asked you to do that is because I

genuinely want you to succeed I want us

all to succeed I want you to find

financial freedom with laundromats if

that’s something that you want to do if

you own laundromats

I really want to see your business

continue to grow and your vision

continue to grow and and that’s why I’m

doing what I’m doing it’s why I’m

putting out all this information and I

genuinely believe that the best shot we

have of doing that is if we do it

together and if we help each other along

the way so that’s why I challenged you

go to laundromat resource that coms for

or forum either one they go to the same

place and and go ask a question and

answer a question and a few of you did

that and kudos to you guys you guys are

my heroes

you guys are all-stars and I’m pumped

about it in fact you have a special

place in my heart that no one else can

occupy you’re in there you locked your

there for good however for the rest of

you I know for a fact I get the numbers

hundreds of people downloaded the last

episode hundreds and we only had a few

that went to the forums and asked a

question and answered a question so

shame on you

and this week you have a chance at

redemption I don’t know there’s still

room in my heart and you have a chance

to get in there so go to loggernet

resource calm this week slash forum go

in there ask a question and answer a

question contribute be a part of the

community be a part of helping yourself

and the other people in the community to

achieve success in this business because

again I think we’re all better together

so let’s do it a lot of my resource calm

/ forum I’ll put a link in the

description I’ll put a link on the show

notes page which will be laundrymat

resource calm / show 8 show 8 all one

thing all one word no underscores your

spaces a lot of my research comps I show

8 there’s a link in the description

there’ll be links there go do it ask a

question answer a question in the forums

this week let’s let’s just do this thing

together all right I’m done shaming you

and I still love you and you know

sometimes you just need to bring a

little tough love and that’s what I was

bringing today ok enough celebrating

enough anticipating next week’s

celebration where we get over that 8

episode huh and enough shaming you real

quick I want to highlight a couple of

questions that did come up in the forums

this week because I think they’re good

ones the first one is from Jeffrey and

Jeffrey wants to know whether he should

buy new or used equipment to

but in his store now I have an opinion

on this I bet a lot of you guys have an

opinion on this but I think a lot of you

guys could help Jeffrey sort of sort out

some of the pros and cons of this this

topic because I think there are pros and

cons to both and I think a lot of you

guys can really answer that better even

than I can so go help Jeffrey with that

on the forums figure out if you should

get new or use the equipment to put in a

store and the second one that I want to

highlight I actually think is a really

really great question it’s one that I’m

not sure that I have a great answer to

but I’m confident that there are people

listening to this who really really

could could answer this question while

it’s from Corey so go help Corey out

because Corey wants to know how how do

you determine whether you should buy new

equipment to put in your store or not

how do you determine if it’s worth it if

the investment is worth it and I think

that’s a really great question and again

I know that some of you guys listen to

this can really actually shed some

valuable light for Corey and for me and

for everybody else on this question so a

lot of my research that comp slash forum

go help Corey and Jeffery out with those

questions go ask a question go answer a

question and let’s get into this episode

and real quick before we do quick

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description alright let’s get into this

episode because today we’re gonna talk

about something that I think is really

important and the reason I think it’s

important is because I have been getting

slammed with coaching calls laundromat

resource comm slash coaching if you’re

interested from owners who have just

been struggling we’re in you know right

now we’re we’re kind of in the middle of

this kovat 19 pandemic thing now

hopefully on the tail end of it because

I know a lot of places are starting to

open back up more but a lot of owners

have really been struggling and so I’ve

been talking with a lot of you guys and

and other owners who you know whose

businesses are down 30 40 50 % and and

are just worried about if their business

is even gonna survive and man I I you

know I felt that and I empathize and I

sympathize with those feelings because

you know my businesses were down too and

I so I get it and I I just wanted to

take this episode to just talk a little

bit about it laundromat owner –

laundromat owners and and just have a

little pep talk here because I think

that you know there there’s a couple of

different ways that you can react to all

this and the first way is just kind of

turtle up and to protect yourself and

just kind of hope you know stick your

head in the sand and hope everything

works out and that is one way to

approach it and

good or bad I won’t say but it’s you

know it’s it’s one way to approach it

and hopefully everything will just be

fine and will turn out a ok I prefer a

little bit more of a proactive approach

and the problem with the proactive

approach is you got to know what actions

to take in a proactive approach and it’s

not really clear-cut nobody’s really

ever gone through something like this

before and so it’s hard to know exactly

what it is that we should do when the

economy is just crickets it’s you know

it’s just so slow but I think we can

learn a lot of lessons from this and I

think that there are some things that we

can do so I just wanted to address that

a little bit today let’s get into it and

hopefully you find some value in this

hopefully you find some you know hope in

this and some motivation if you’re

needing that but you know hopefully this

is just an opportunity for us to all

come together right now and just

empathize with each other and support

each other maybe go over to the forums

lotterman research comm slash forums and

chat about it a little bit share your

ideas about what you’ve been doing to

kind of keep your business afloat and

keep things rolling and keep them moving

I you know I think that everybody would

benefit from that so you know if you

have to go over to the forums this week

and ask a question and answer a question

that’s a really good one to go there’s a

softball I just lobbed it up for you and

then I don’t have to shame you next week

so no more shaming no more shaving but

hey let’s talk about it over there but

anyways uh okay so let’s talk about this

proactive approach what does that mean

and yeah I have three kind of main

topics that I think that we can talk

about things that we can continue to do

right now or start doing right now that

will help our businesses now and in the

future but also I think just taken from

lessons that I’ve learned from you know

the last couple of months and how things

have gone and maybe ways that I should

have been thinking and things I should

have been doing anyways before that so

let’s talk about that so the first thing

I think that we can do

is doubled down and that’s really scary

okay so when business is down and when

things are hard and you’re feeling the

pressure and your bills are loading up

and you’re not sure if you can pee more

you’re pretty sure you can’t pay them

and everybody’s kind of breathing down

your neck I have been there I’ve felt

that pressure it is a horrible feeling

and the last thing that I would want to

hear feeling that and the last thing I

want to hear right now feeling that is

somebody to say hey you got a double

down but let’s talk about that a little

bit and and let me tell you what I mean

by that and you know go over to the

forums and just blast me if you think

I’m being unreasonable but here’s three

ways that I think you can double down

during this downtime right now or during

any time really the first way to double

down is with your time now I know a lot

of us the reason myself included one of

the big reasons that we got into this

industry is because laundromats can be a

relatively hands-off business a

relatively time independent especially

for a business it doesn’t get a whole

lot less hands-on than laundromat if

that’s the way you want to run it

however you know during tough times it

requires you to do something different

if you want to have different results so

you can either go the way of the economy

and just let your business fall the way

that the rest of businesses are falling

and you know just hope that you can hold

on long enough to where things rebound

and you’re still okay or you can kind of

double down you can dig deep and you can

double down on your time that you invest

in in your laundromat whether that’s

being at your laundromat or whether that

is you know investing time in thinking

about and planning you what you’re gonna

be doing in whatever that might be

spending your time investing in your

laundromat so you know that is one way

that you can double down and a lot of us

have the time you know even if you have

a full time job right now a lot of us

are working from home some of us

unfortunately you know

Furlow or got laid off so the time is

there for a lot of us so double down on

that time and really go invest it into

your laundromat invest that time in

there whether that’s you know I have

things at this laundromat that I’m at

right now I’m recording this from my

laundromat and I have things here like

little projects patch ups and stuff like

that that I’ve been meaning to do

forever and I haven’t done them even

though now is the time to double down

and to get in here and just polish up

this place make it make it look new

again make you know make everything

shiny and patch up the little dings that

are here and they’re all that stuff so

double down your time is one thing that

you can be doing right now get in that

laundromat go figure out ways that you

can improve your business to keep

customers coming back but also to set

yourself up for when things do rebound

and people do start coming back and they

can come back and say hey I can tell the

owners spend a lot of time here you know

while I’ve been in my pajamas not

changing my clothes for two months and

didn’t need to do any laundry so double

down that time here’s us another a

second way that you can double down and

it’s double down your investment now

don’t freak out so I you know I know

this you know one of my laundromats was

down like 40 percent for a while it’s

it’s rebounding now it’s not quite back

up to where it was pre kovat 19 but it’s

it’s coming back and I know that at the

heart of that when I was down 40 percent

and I was like oh my gosh the last thing

I want to be here is hey go spend more

money on your laundromat and I just want

to be clear I’m not necessarily saying

the investment has to be a financial

investment it might be it might be a

great time for you to put in new

machines it might be a great time for

you to have your floors redone maybe

they’re starting to look old and dingy

it might be a great time to put a coat

of paint on and freshen things up might

be a great time to invest in your

laundromat in the

his ways where you’re investing money

but there are other ways to invest in

your laundromat business that you don’t

necessarily have to fork out a ton of

money for so for example you know if

there are things that you you could have

in your laundromat that could be revenue

generating maybe now’s the time to do it

now we have a free value-add checklist

that you can download for free and it

just it has some ideas of things ways

that you can improve improve the income

of your laundromat and I just man go get

it in fact I made a YouTube video about

it and there’s a special link that was

only for those people who watched that

YouTube video but I’m gonna just share

it with you here I’ll put a link in the

description just because I think this is

so relevant to what we’re talking about

today if you own a laundromat or even if

you’re thinking about buying one this is

an awesome thing to have so you can you

know take a look around at these

laundromats and see hey here’s some

places where I could actually improve

the income and therefore improve the

value the equity in my laundromat so

here’s the link from the YouTube video

it’s a lot about resource calm slash and

more money and I’ll put links again in

the description and on the show notes

page laundromat resource calm slash show

8 so go download that that’s for free

you don’t need to even give an email

address for it you can just download it

for free so go do that those are ways

that you can invest in your laundromat

and and some of them require some

monetary investment and some of them

don’t so double down on your investment

your laundromat is an asset that you

have so utilize it to its fullest to its

maximum that you can utilize it because

because you have it already so why not

do that so that’s the second way you can

double down the third way that you can

double down is to double down on the

value that you’re offering your

customers now you know Dave mins and

show too I’ll put a link if you have a

listen to that one that one is that

episode Dave is easy

he’s a rock star and you have to listen

to episode to show to a lot of my

resource at comps last show – if you

haven’t yet but he talks a lot about

value and offering your customers value

and that doesn’t mean having the

cheapest prices in town in fact dave

says he offers a ton of value and he’s

one of the most expensive laundromats in

his area and so that doesn’t mean that

but it does mean hey you know make sure

you’re having conversations with your

attendants about the experience your

customers have when they walk in their

laundromat are they greeted with a smile

are your attendants helping bring in

laundry are they helping carry laundry

out you know is the store spic and span

when customers come in you know find

ways to add value to customers that make

them want to keep coming back and I

think that you’ll find the more value

you add the more loyalty you breed and

the more that customers want to support

you in what you’re doing

I just I’m like I’m recording this at my

laundromat after I closed it’s just when

I had time to do it and I was just

talking to a lady that was here

finishing up and she said that the

reason that she’s here is because her

husband met me and he just really wanted

to support what I’m doing because he

loves what I’m doing in the community

that is it when you provide value for

the community they’re going to want to

support you in what you’re doing even

when the economy so so look for ways to

double down on the value that you

provide the customers go the extra mile

encourage your employees to go the extra

mile take the next step double down

double down on your time

double down on your investment and

double down on the value that you’re

providing with your laundromat all right

so that’s one kind of category I wanted

to hit there’s two more and you know I

just again I I know the feeling of

feeling so frustrated a feeling so

hopeless of not knowing what to do so

I’m trying to put some tools in your

hands just to kind of get the brain

started again get things moving and if

you need some help there if you need

some inspiration hopefully

here so here’s the second thing is you

know when business is down think

short-term now here’s here’s a few ways

that I think that you can think

short-term number one is you need to

look at your expenses you need to kind

of be ruthless when business is down

it’s really hard to do because again

this is like a community thing that

we’re you know we’re building here you

know if you have employees they become

like family but you need to this is a

business too you know so you need to be

ruthless and here’s what I mean by that

you need to look at all your expenses

and cut all the expenses that aren’t

necessary for the short term it doesn’t

mean you need to cut them completely

forever but you know if business is down

40% you need to look at ways to cut some

costs sometimes that means cutting hours

sometimes that means you know if

furloughing people or letting people go

temporarily so you can rehire them those

are difficult difficult decisions but a

lot of times the decision is between

doing that or losing the business and if

it’s between those two you need to

preserve the business so that you have

an opportunity to bring those people

back after you know all of this is over

with and things are back to normal

because if you lose your business

they’re gonna lose their job anyways and

there’s nothing for them to come back to

so sometimes you need to make hard

decisions when it comes to employees

when it comes to ours those kinds of

things but there are other costs that

you can cut first so look at all of

those expenses you know maybe you need

to cut that cable bill for a little bit

and just buy some antennas you know HD

antennas and stick them on top of the TV

and you know watch some PBS for a while

or whatever you know there’s there’s

things that you can do so look at all

your expenses figure out what’s not

absolutely necessary cut those costs and

then don’t be afraid to make hard

decisions when you’re thinking short

term and a second thing we’re thinking

short term

is look for needs that you can meet and

here’s what I mean by that you know

there are different different needs that

you can meet for the customers that are

coming in or for your customers when

they do come in so look for other

opportunities to meet different needs

that they have maybe they need you know

alterations or maybe they need just

snacks and having different snack

varieties there for them to you know

munch on while they’re there and you can

make a little bit of revenue back that

way so look for whatever needs you can

find and and look for ways to meet those

needs because it’s when you meet needs

that you’re creating value and when you

create value that is when customers will

trade that value for money and that’s

what we’re trying to do here so look for

ways to meet needs and to create value

that way in the short term and it might

be things that you continue on once

things recover but it might not be it

might be things that are just for this

time right now so be creative there and

look for ways to meet needs okay so

number one double down your time your

investment and your value number two

think short term and you know cut those

costs wherever you can and meet needs so

number three the third kind of category

of things that you can be doing a while

while business is down is think long

term now this is the hard one because

long term things don’t necessarily

contribute right now they’re not the

things that are gonna keep your business

afloat

right now necessarily however we have an

opportunity right now to take a look at

our businesses while everybody’s kind of

suffering together take a look at your

businesses and think okay this is not

gonna be like this forever so when

things come back when business is back

how can I set myself up to be ahead of

everyone else what are the things that I

can be doing right now to be ahead of

the game

and to be able to shoot out of that gate

you know at lightning speed and I think

that question is a huge question and

it’s one that we don’t often have a lot

of time to just kind of stop the

whirlwind of all the things that need to

be done to run our business and to try

to recoup money that we’re losing and in

you know get out from under the stress

and just think long term a little bit

but I think that the dividends that that

pays right now will be huge huge for you

huge for your business so take that time

let’s talk a little bit about some ways

to do that now one thing that you one

question that you can ask yourself is

what is my community going to look like

the community my laundromats in what’s

it gonna look like in one year from now

or in five years from now or in ten

years from now how are things going to

change what are the implications of the

way things are now versus the way things

are gonna be then and how can I kind of

try to get ahead of that now those are

tough questions to ask and tough

questions to answer because nobody

obviously has a crystal ball but you

know those are the kinds of questions

that you can be asking now here’s

another one what’s the laundromat

industry gonna be like five years from

now ten years from now I’ve kind of

talked a little bit about how I think

laundromats are moving more and more

towards a pickup and delivery you know

pick up a delivery service kind of model

a fluff and fold obviously those things

have been going for a long time but just

I think that pickup and delivery in

particular is going to continue to grow

more and more and more every year so

maybe you’re thinking long term okay how

can I begin to implement this maybe I’m

not launching a full on pickup and

delivery service but maybe I can go get

a couple of clients and and do that or

maybe I can just start laying groundwork

for that whatever that might look like

maybe that’s you know adding a payment

system that’s easy to use for attendance

to do laundry maybe a card system on

even just a few machines or or whatever

that might look like laying the

groundwork for that

you know another question you can ask is

how can I get in front of more people

and how can I get my business in my

laundromat in front of more people right

now and so maybe that is hey you know I

don’t have a website for my laundromat

if that’s you you have got to go to the

laundromat resource com such good online

and you know man get online you have to

be online you need to have a website you

need to have a Google my business

account you need to be on Google Maps

Apple maps you do you need to have that

presence so if you don’t have that let

us help you do it we do it for for our

businesses we’ve helped a lot of other

people do it for their businesses you

know our my you know my log about

website is ranked number one on Google

and it’s on you know Google Maps on

Apple mat all that stuff so we know what

we’re doing we know marketing we know

laundromats so we can help you out there

but you know maybe you already have a

web presence and your website but now is

a good time to really refresh that and

really take a look at that and say okay

well it’s just been sitting there how

can I be a little more proactive about

driving people to that website so that

they know that I’m there so maybe you

need to start making some youtube videos

and getting out there maybe you need to

you know up your Instagram game or your

Facebook game or you know whatever the

case may be but how can you lay that

groundwork where you can start getting

in front of more people so that you know

that’s another question that you can ask

another question to ask is how can i

reinforce customer loyalty right now are

there things that you can be doing right

now to just really make your current

customers be like I can’t believe they

did that during that time I know I had

to have been hard for them you know

during that time and yet they still

thought of me in this way what can you

do to reinforce customer loyalty so

those are just a few ideas I wanted to

go over I don’t want to talk your ear

off forever I’ve already been talking

for way too long and I appreciate you

listening this long hopefully you found

something valuable in that but hey you

know what I know times are tough right

now

but let’s just pull together you know

let’s help each other out let’s help

each other through this time and let’s

you know let’s be a little proactive

right now – I know I’m doing that with

my businesses and I you know I encourage

you to keep doing that with your

businesses also so let’s you know let’s

just keep on trucking but let’s keep

doing it in a smart way where we’re

being proactive and we’re looking for

ways to improve our businesses even now

even when it’s tough even when business

is down all right thank you guys I am so

pumped that we are here doing this thing

together I love every second of it and

make sure that you subscribe because the

net believe me the next few weeks of

episodes will blow your mind you will

get tons and tons of value I promise I’m

not gonna talk at you for any amount of

time hardly at all I’m gonna let these

other guys do all the talking because

they have got some incredible things

going on and some incredible things to

share with you so we will see you next

Tuesday for the ninth episode

celebration it’s gonna be a party so be

there we’ll see you next week

[Music]

Links from the Show

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