14. Multi-Laundromat Owner and Real Estate Investor at 29 Years Old

At 29 years old, Curtis Lyons is a multi-laundromat owner and real estate investor with aspirations of big growth going forward. In this episode of The Laundromat Resource Podcast Curtis tells us how he found himself owning multiple laundromats and rental real estate at such a young age.

Curtis is an inspiration to the many young investors and business owners out there because he has found success despite his young age. In this episode he shares his secrets to success and his simple, yet persistent ways that he continues to grow his businesses and his assets.

Also in this episode, Curtis talks about the value of community in his successful laundromat and real estate ventures. He has received knowledge and support from his family, his community, and the community of laundromat owners found online.

Join the Laundromat Resource community today and be a part of those of us finding financial freedom through laundromat ownership together!

Watch The Podcast Here

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Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

[Music]

you’re listening to the laundromat

resource

podcast the show by laundromat owners

for laundromat owners with your hosts

jordan barry

what’s up guys it’s jordan from the

laundromat resource podcast

this is show number 14. i’m super

excited that you’re here today today

we’re talking with

curtis lyons and he uh

is just blowing it out of the water he’s

out in birmingham

alabama he is 29 years old he’s a real

estate investor

he’s a multi laundromat owner and he’s

just plugging

away out there and he’s going to tell

you all about it today in today’s

podcast so i’m really excited for you

to get to know curtis a little bit more

maybe you’ve seen him around on some of

the uh

forums um or on facebook or something

but

he’s been around i’m super excited for

you to hear his story hear how he got

into uh laundromats and hear how he’s

doing it at such a young age a super

inspiring

story today so i’m i’m really excited uh

to get into that but before we do

there’s a couple of things

that we need to get through so number

one is i feel like

almost every episode we’re celebrating

something around here and today is no

exception

uh i’m so excited so next week

uh a week i think a week about a week

from when this

podcast is coming out uh will be

90 days since we launched the first

episode and

that’s a feat in and of itself that we

made it 90 days that’s

you know pretty much longer than i’ve

stuck with anything uh except for maybe

my wife

um but uh i’ve been enjoying it

thoroughly but something that just blows

my mind

about this 90-day milestone is that

you know we’re not even there yet and we

have already crossed uh

3 000 downloads 3 000 podcast downloads

and it just blows me out of the water

and i’m just so grateful to you guys i

never

expected um to have that kind of

traction

and you know i had i had a friend whose

wife was like

three million downloads and i was like

well no like three thousand i was like

really excited about

the 3000 until you said it like that

so a little bit of wind came out of my

sails from that but

i’m still seriously i’m blown away that

we have three thousand dollars i just

wanted to say a huge thank you to you

guys

and an even huger thank you to the

guests that have come on

the show uh man i’m just so grateful not

only that they

they took their time to come on the show

but just that they’ve shared so much

with me

with us with all of us um of just the

wisdom that they’ve gained from owning

their laundromats and

uh just everything that they’ve learned

man i have learned so much i hope you

guys have learned a ton

and i hope you continue to learn a ton

with me

uh through through these interviews um

today of course

uh but going forward and uh while we’re

kind of talking about that

if you’re someone who owns a laundromat

or maybe you own multiple laundromats or

even commercial real estate that has a

laundromat in it

um we would love to hear your story and

how you

kind of got into it and what you’ve

learned along the way so if that’s you

and you’re interested in coming on and

talking shop with me

i would love to do it uh well i promise

i’ll make it fun for us it’ll be low

pressure

and uh you know we’ll pull out all the

wisdom you got

right out of your brain and you can

share with everybody so that everyone

can be in awe

of you um if you’re interested in doing

that

check out laundromat resource dot com

slash

podcast guest excuse me laundromat

resource dot com slash podcast

guest all one word and uh there’s some

information on there and there’s a form

to fill out

that will start the sequence of uh

figuring out you know if it is something

that you want to do

and uh and if so then when we can uh get

it going so

check that out if that’s something that

interests you i really encourage you i

know some people

have said they feel like they uh they

aren’t doing well enough or they aren’t

good enough to be

on the podcast and i just want to just

take a second to debunk that

right away um because we all have

a story to tell and we all have lessons

that we’ve learned

and even if you feel like you’re not as

successful as maybe some of the other

podcast guests

uh that does not matter i know it can

easily be intimidated

by these owners who’ve owned like 30

plus laundromats or even two laundromats

um but if you’re just a single

laundromat owner

man come on and talk to us about your

your experience with that because that

is super valuable too and and very uh

just interesting for all of us so lot of

my resource dot com

slash podcast guest i will put that in

the show notes which you can find

today on show number 14 at

dot laundromat slash show 14 that’ll

have all the links that we talk about

today

uh you know in in the interview in this

whole episode

um you’ll see there’s a youtube video

embedded there the podcast audio will be

there

and more so go check it out um you’ll

learn a little bit more about who curtis

lyons is

and his story so laundromat resource.com

show 14. okay

uh there’s that i wanted to uh take a

second because

this is actually another milestone so

our uh our membership

at laundromat resource.com has been

growing by leaps and bounds

every day we’re getting a bunch of

people signing up that’s just blowing me

away also and i’m super excited we have

a free membership over there

go be a part of it if you haven’t a lot

of resource dot com and just

uh join us over there because again

i strongly believe we strongly believe

that all of us will do better in this uh

in this industry

if we work together if we help each

other um it’s just gonna elevate all of

us and that’s what i’m all about

elevating this industry and helping you

and and us helping each other find

financial freedom through laundromat

ownership

so come join us we’ve had a bunch of

people doing that and but

one of the milestones uh like a week i

think last week or maybe the week before

i i opened a new forum

on uh learning resource.com forums uh

and it’s for just new member

introductions we have all these members

coming in

and i really want us to get to know each

other and i really want you to go

introduce yourself over there

let people know who you are where you

are and you know what you’re up to

if you own laundromats if you are

looking to buy a laundromat

but big milestone and a huge

huge shout out to todd miles todd i hope

that you’re listening to this because

i appreciate you but also

more than that you will forever be

immortalized

by the first new member introduction in

that new member forum so thank you

todd is uh he’s a new investor

he does real estate investing and he’s

got a group of partners and they’re

looking to buy a laundromat

and wanted to introduce himself so go

meet todd

at lottermatresource.com forums again

link is in the show notes or in the

description

uh and and go say hi to todd and while

you’re there

uh go introduce yourself also and and

introduce yourself to the community

because

that’s when the networking will start to

happen and that is

when when you start networking with

people that’s when stuff starts to

happen for you so

go do that todd huge shout out i’m going

to be doing shout outs for a little

while so if you’re brand new

or even if you’ve been a member and you

haven’t introduced yourself yet

go over there to the new member

introductions forum

introduce yourself and i’ll be doing

shout outs on the podcast for the next

you know few weeks or so so go get in

there while you can

todd you’re the man looking forward to

getting to know you

and looking forward to having you on the

podcast after you get that first

laundromat alright man

uh so there’s that speaking of forums

laundromat resource.com

forums i want to remind you that i am

brainwashing you every single week to go

over there

and ask a question and answer a question

and i want to just say

particularly if you’re if you’re an

experienced owner

we got a lot of people coming over right

now who are

are asking questions because they’re new

investors

um they are you know they’re trying to

figure it out

and as you know if you own a laundromat

that is the most critical phase when

you’re trying to figure it out you’re

trying to get these questions

answered um and uh case in point

you know john wrote on the podcast i

mean on the

forums this week um he he was concerned

because he has a laundromat that he’s

got his eye on

and it’s sandwiched uh between two

competitors within a mile of his laundry

mat and he’s wondering

he says it’s uh it’s showing that it’s

making money on the pro forma but he’s

wondering if that’s

something he should be concerned about

now

that is something that a lot of you

experienced owners can really help john

out with

and there’s a lot of questions like that

on the forums right now and we’re really

lacking

um just some some solid uh

down to earth wisdom from the people who

have been there

who have done that maybe you’ve made the

mistakes

or maybe you’ve uh happened to do it

right and you know

the right ways to do some of these

things so go help john

out and also i just want to point out

that tracy is still waiting for someone

to talk them out of

buying a laundromat on the forums that

is the title

of the forum uh somebody talked me out

of buying

uh a laundromat so go do that

laundrymateresource.com

forums and go ask a question answer a

question do it every week

uh because again that community is where

stuff

happens now real quick before we jump

into it with curtis i want to just

throw a quick shout out you may have

listened to show number two with dave

mintz he’s come up a few times

since he’s been on the show and i know a

lot of you guys really resonated with

him

i just want to shout out real quick that

dave men’s

has a youtube channel called laundromat

millionaire and i want you guys to go

check it out because he’s bringing some

really really cool stuff

he has got a ton of experience a ton of

wisdom

and you will not fail to learn something

from his youtube channel again i’ll link

it in the show notes and in the

description

so go check it out or go to youtube and

search laundromat millionaire

check him out because he’s doing awesome

things for the industry

and it’s stuff that’s really going to

help you out

so good job dave looking forward to the

content that you’ve been putting out

and i’m really really excited about it

all right let’s jump into it with curtis

lyons in one second

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all right i had to jump in with one more

quick thing because i just found this

out and i wanted to throw a

quick congratulations out to mitch who

got his very first laundromat

under contract we’ve been talking for a

little while now he’s been super excited

he’s had some deals fall through

and he just got his first laundromat

under contract so congrats

mitch keep up the good work and make

sure you do your good due diligence

uh to make sure you got a good deal on

your hands all right man uh

keep at it and without further ado let’s

jump into it

with curtis lyons right now all right

what’s up we are here

with curtis curtis what’s going on man

melanie’s how you doing today i’m doing

good thanks for jumping on today and

sharing a little bit about your

experience with

laundromats uh dude i’m super pumped to

have you on

uh can before we kind of get into your

uh you know what you’re doing with your

laundry mats and stuff

can you just tell us a little bit about

yourself who you are and

and then maybe transition that into you

know

how did you get into the laundromat

industry it’s kind of random

yeah it’s very random but like you said

my name is curtis

i’m 29 in birmingham alabama

um been in the industry for

officially four years a little over four

years

but i actually got started in my mom’s

dad he like mom’s from miami

and her dad owns uh

kind of it’s not like a strip mall but a

good little piece of land

where he had like a bodega a hotel

and another part of it was a coin

laundry man so

my parents first got married that was

kind of like one of the things that they

always wanted to have

so about five years ago in birmingham we

met a guy

who didn’t have kids and had nobody to

pretty much pass it on to

it was kind of like just wanted to keep

that going

so he ended up purchasing the first one

from him

and the six months of just

working side by side with him learning

the ins and outs of the business

just pulled the trigger and been four

years since

dang that’s cool so you bought it when

you were 25 years old

yeah oh man that’s crazy how was that

it was definitely interesting definitely

a lifestyle change

yeah i wouldn’t take it back for nothing

yeah did you get comments from people i

mean i just i

remember back when i was 25 because i’m

super old now uh but when i was 25

and like i don’t know if i’m buying

businesses when i’m 25 i don’t know i

feel like i might have gotten comments

from my friends like what are you doing

yeah people just looked at it kind of

like strange but a lot of people was

happy for me just because they just saw

a young guy doing something positive

and making a change in the community

because the other guy he was kind of

like a quarter driver

like i ain’t going to do nothing all i

want to do is just collect all the

quarters and

yeah run up out of here but when i took

over

like this man didn’t even have air

conditioning with a tv

in it so yeah thing i did was i’m not

going to sit it gets real human in

birmingham so

not going to sit in there no summer with

no ac so i put some ac

or some ceiling fans in and just been

making slowly but steady improvements

ever since then

dang that’s awesome yeah i can’t even

imagine

you know with no error in there how

anybody ever even went to that

laundromat

unless they had no choice yeah how you

ended up

going to do laundry then you come out

needing to do the laundry that

that’s right he’s sweating while you’re

doing the laundry i know

ain’t no fun that is no fun man that’s

crazy

but that’s cool though that you got a

lot of support um

you know as a you know as a 25 year old

getting into business

uh man i love hearing that that people

were happy for you because sometimes

people aren’t happy

you know that younger people uh are

making positive steps like that but i

think it’s a big deal

[Music]

a lot of good community well cool okay

so did you grow up in birmingham

no i’m actually born and raised in

atlanta i’m going down

birmingham in 2005.

okay transferred us down here and

steal here yeah how do you like it there

i’ve been there i liked it

but it’s very different from los angeles

that’s for sure

but it’s very different from atlanta too

so yeah it’s like

it’s a whole lot slower but you still is

still at that southern charm to a good

folks and southern hospitality yeah a

little bit more than atlanta

it’s more so they don’t have as much to

do in birmingham

yeah more hospitable environments

yeah yeah it’s not as big of a not as

big of a place you got that good

southern food there too right

oh yeah that seems important plenty of

places to go eat some good southern

cooking around here

yeah all right so 25 years old you

bought your laundromat like how did that

go when you first take over

like what what did that feel like and

then what was your experience like

the first like year or so uh the first

year it was hot like i said we had no ac

so uh went through that first

year with just kept everything the same

just pretty much trying to see

and make sure what we were told what the

sales were to make sure that all that

equated and to see what the business was

about

yeah did it do it did it equate it okay

so that was that was a promise and then

just pretty much learning the day-to-day

hustle of having to run a laundromat

um because like i said about six months

we train with the other owner

but when you’re off on your own and you

guys are responsible for doing

everything to

get a little bit different yep that’s

right

um just in doing all that and um

trying to because he kind of pieced the

whole store together with this

old equipment he bought off different

laundry mats and just kind of stuck it

in here

so after we got some ac in here

you know did a whole retool on the store

and

just still play some steady learning to

this day yeah

yeah it had a lot of good support from

the community so that always made it

easier well i’m sure they really

appreciated

you know somebody who really cared about

the business coming in and

doing their best to improve it you know

even if it took a little bit of time to

get that ac

in there you know just the fact that you

guys were there and improving it that’s

that’s pretty good when you when you

retooled it

did that help business a lot yeah it

definitely did because

all he had was about 10 50 stack old

ebay stripes

so when we did a retool i added

[Music]

with eight 35 pound dryers and

four stacks of 45s and 275 pound dryer

and of course for the washers i added a

80 pound washer

i went with three new 55 pounders got

about

six new 40 pounders and about 20 new 20

pounders

so that definitely helped because

everybody wants something new versus

something old but you don’t know what

it’s going to do if it’s going to stop

so i know something new durable and

reliable

it’s definitely a plus for everybody put

everybody in a good space

yeah yeah that’s what i saw always you

know joke when i bought my first one

before i got the new machines in there

it was kind of like

uh playing like roulette like you just

don’t know you’re gonna put your

quarters in and

you don’t know if you’re gonna get your

clothes washed or not

could go either way and with the whole

washers he had it’s like

that first year you spend so much money

on parts like

yeah you know it’ll just be go ahead

easier just buy new equipment don’t have

to worry about it for seven years

yeah exactly exactly i get that question

all the time like doesn’t the equipment

overhead

just like kill you and i’m like well

yeah if your machines are like 30 years

old

you’re gonna break down every week so

yeah that’s cool so that’s probably a

good feeling when you got new machines

in there and

everybody’s excited about it and that

was a good week right there

yeah yeah all right so then

after you kind of retooled and you kind

of ran for a little bit you have another

one right yeah

how did that one come about how’d you

get into that one

um a distributor that i knew

he knew he had actually toured that

store before

so him and the owner still kept in

contact

and he uh she

previously told him that she was looking

to get out the business

and he knew i was looking for another

one or

wanted another one and so danielle

kind of talked about it and talked to

her about it

that was a little bit more shaky because

she wasn’t as

honored her employee

but it was a great move because now i

retooled that story and i

just put some new drives that one about

a month ago so

taking a lot of other people customers

in that area so

yeah they helped the business a lot put

the new machines in

oh yeah yeah i get that i get asked that

question a lot like

how do you know when you need to put new

machines in and how do you know that

you’re gonna

uh when you put new machines in like

that they’re obviously they’re

very expensive so how do you know that

it’s going to be worth the cost

you know to put new machines in but i

think hearing

you know from people like you who did it

and saw a bump in business

uh it just gives people more confidence

then if you really know your area if you

know what the other laundromats have to

offer

it kind of makes it easier for you

because the only thing that the second

story that i bought

was lacking with dryers but my first

bought it went

for washington you might have out of 20

washers you might have four

good ones guaranteed to work geez

so outside of that they have 10 30 pound

stacks of dryers

but they were hit and missed as far as

getting high

so when i just rolled around the area

looking at all the other laundry mats

i was really in competition but it was

about 10 15 miles down the road about

five miles down the road there was

another laundry mat that was

run down didn’t have ac and stuff like

that

so once i took that last step of putting

the dryer

i kind of took all his customers now

that i have reliable good driver

yeah man just hearing that you’re even

considering looking

at a laundromat 10 miles away as

competition is crazy to me because

there’s probably like 400 laundromats

between me and a laundromat that’s

10 miles away from me here in l.a it’s

crazy

yeah that’s great yeah that’s funny so

what was the

what was the purchase uh process like

for that second one

did you uh just kind of roll in

you know some of your profits from the

first one and and get in there how did

you get into that one

uh a couple of real estate deals helped

out with that one

and some savings nice like uh

are you like a real estate agent no

a real estate investor oh that’s what i

like to hear all right

all right cool so you got some real

estate investments and you kind of

leveraged them or sold them or something

yeah sold a couple properties and made

that deal happen get in there

is your is your cash flow better with

the laundromats

or with the real estate that you sold

uh i say they are equal

as long as i’m making money that’s right

what i’m doing

i don’t really put one more than the

other but real estate can hit that swing

at any point in time

yeah that’s more of a steady business it

grows but it doesn’t grow as much as a

real estate would

yeah as far as just a quick net profit

on the deal

yeah that’s why i like uh i like the

combination of having laundromats and

real estate

just for that very that very reason yeah

how’d you get it this is a little bit of

a side note but i’m i’m super intrigued

by this

how did you get into real estate

investing uh

my my grandfather and my father they

always had rental houses and stuff like

that

so growing up i used to always help them

collect rent and

paint houses and stuff like that so once

i finally got old enough

i just kind of i really just followed in

my father’s in my grandfather’s

footsteps and everything i do

that’s awesome role models and support

systems through everything

yeah yeah that’s awesome i think a lot

of people

you know who don’t come from families

like that struggle with like how to get

into their you know into like real

estate investing how to know what to do

but it just it’s you know

so i come from a family like that we

didn’t do any like investments or

business or anything like that

and kind of my philosophy going into it

was like hey i’m going to get in there

and i’m going to figure it out and it’s

probably going to be messy and i’m going

to make a ton of mistakes

but once i figure it out i can teach my

kids you know about it

and then they’re going to be you know

even better at it than i am and

hopefully it goes down the line like

that so

that’s cool i like that uh so let me ask

you what is like uh

what does like a typical work week look

like for you

now that you got two laundromats and

what do you what are you spending your

time doing and how much of that time are

you spending

well i’ve pretty much been i don’t know

it could be really flexible

um i’m more hands-on with it because

it’s

more it it

it isn’t self-operated as much as the

second one is

so the first one i actually work a

couple hours a day

in this one and i have somebody come in

and they keep it clean throughout the

middle of the day

and uh then i just come back at night

and close it up and

take care of that part but usually by

about 5 30 in the morning i’m

up and probably don’t go to bed it’s

about 12 just

running errands and paying this and that

and

supplies and stuff like that hustling

i like that how in the world did you

have time to buy another one when you’re

working like that

uh you just got to make the time to do

that’s what i wanted to hear yeah just

got to make the time

but the second one is a little bit

easier because it’s more of a

self-operated like in the in the first

one i actually have like a counter

where people come up and buy soap right

i also have like a drop-off service that

i offer at this one

so i have to have somebody here to do

drop-offs and stuff like that

versus the other one i just have like

bended

soap machines and all i have them do is

just clean up throughout

the day yeah to keep it clean the answer

any uh

customer questions yeah

do you see this is uh just out of

curiosity do you see

more sales with the counter

uh or the vending or are they about the

same

and you’re too much

you know well the

counter i would say i would say the

first one does more

because i actually have more people that

come

this store has a bigger uh customer base

versus the second one

okay okay yeah i guess i’ll probably

have to say the first one do more

because

the second one all i have is a little

box soaps

versus that the first one will actually

sell like big bottles of extra and gain

and stuff like that yeah yeah yeah i

just found that as soon as i put in

a store like that in mine like

my sales like skyrocketed

versus having the vending so i was just

curious if that was true for you too

yeah yeah cool all right so you’re

hustling pretty much all day

um are you doing like repairs on your

own or

are you hiring that out or what are you

doing oh

you might not have a lot because you

have pretty new machines

as far as repairs at the first one i

kind of have i

probably got about seven older machines

but even on like some of the new ones

if it’s something like that’s a quick

fix

i’ve i’ve learned to do it because one

of the guys

who still works here with me he used to

fix on all the machines

so i if i don’t know how to fix it i’ll

just ask them to but i’ll stand there

and watch them and do it with them

yeah and that’s pretty much every common

problem outside of putting bearings on

the washing machine i’ve done

i still had to do that

i’ve done that on the on the top loaders

i haven’t done a front loader i just

kind of refused to do it so

yeah but i think that’s good i mean

that’s a good tip for anybody right

there is

you know whenever you have repairs if

you can’t do it even if you hire a

repairman to come in

you know sit back there and watch them

because a lot of times they can fix them

real quick

and you know a lot of times it costs you

like 75 bucks just for them to come out

you know so if you save that 75 bucks

and a five-minute fix then yeah it’s

pretty good

pretty good money per hour oh yeah

yeah on down the line when it happened

two or three other times

yeah yeah well

man i so you have two now

have you thought much about and some

real estate investments

have you thought much about the future

and like what your goals are going

forward and you know it doesn’t have to

necessarily just be with laundromats but

have you thought about

like business and investing wise what

what your goals are going forward

yeah i’m actually looking at trying to

get a third laundromat are you

yeah i got a couple of them that i’m

eyeing right now

just waiting on the sellers to get ready

to want to sell it to me

yeah um i actually just met a guy

last week when i was going to pick up

something

and talk to him about it so another

owner

yeah another owner that was looking to

sell yeah so

i don’t want to talk to somebody gonna

sell it to me that’s right

it’s a numbers game for sure oh yeah

yeah

all three come throughs and we’ll figure

out how to get all three that’s what i’m

talking about

so you gonna stop at three are you gonna

keep going or do you know

i’m gonna keep going so i can’t go no

more all right

all right well i know for a fact because

we had luke williford on and he has like

37 or 38 or i don’t know maybe by now

a few weeks later he has like 50 i don’t

know but he has at least 37

so i know it’s possible to have at least

37 so oh yeah

yeah you know i met an older guy one

time he told me

uh he didn’t he wasn’t too

um ecstatic about me buying the second

one

because his philosophy would just take

the one and run it to the best of your

abilities

and then he said because you can’t focus

all your time on it

and the way i look at it is you can make

time for whatever you want

just prioritize and manage your day yeah

i like that i think that’s i think

that’s huge and i think

you know and there’s nothing wrong with

just getting one and i think that’s

fine for a lot of people but you know if

you

if your goal is to do more than one

it’s like you said if you can make time

for it

or you can you know find other people to

spend their time on it and

drop that let them do more and you drop

back more into a management role too

so there’s there’s definitely ways to do

that

cool so you’re just kind of rolling with

it and seeing

where it takes you and how many you end

up with i like that

oh yeah well this uh

this section of the podcast we like to

call it down to business

[Applause]

over and out and down to business is

just talking a little bit about the

details of your

businesses so you’re in you’re in

birmingham right

deep south down is birmingham’s deep

south right is that

considered deep south or no yeah

i guess before you get to florida we

right there with mississippi georgia so

that’s the real part of the south that’s

true all all right

in birmingham okay and you got two

laundromats and some real estate

and you’ve been in the business since

two uh two

four years is that you said 2016. okay

uh can you give us like a ballpark of

like what are your

what what do your vin prices look like

out there in birmingham

like a range of of how much it’s costing

for people to do

laundry there um

for 20 pound machines they

started they have two options you could

do a

regular watch which is two wide cycles

of rants and a spin

for three dollars or you could add an

extra wash cycle

or pre-wash we do that for 350

and we got a 40 pounders for 425

no 30 pounder for 425

we have a 40 pounder for 550

and with a pre-wash is 650

and for 55 pounders they’re

625 for regular watching 725

dad of pre-wash and on my 80 pounders

you’ve got a nine dollar regular watch

with a ten dollar pre-watch

uh are they attended or unattended

are you the farmer attended

one of them partially attended is open

from seven a.m to nine pm

but my attendance come in from 10 in the

morning to

seven at night okay

yeah yeah and then are you running

uh all coins or do you have any cards at

all

uh at the moment i’m running all coins

but

in the next couple of weeks i should be

getting some card systems

waiting on the order to come in nice you

already ordered them and you’re just

waiting for them to go

yeah so i’m really interested to see how

that’s going to work

yeah that’s awesome i i think uh it

there’s the card systems are so powerful

not just for you

as as an owner and like the management

of it but it you can really utilize them

to benefit the customers as well so i

think that’s awesome yeah

so i’ll be i’ll be one of the first ones

in birmingham well i will be the only

one in birmingham with it at both

locations so

definitely an advantage right there yeah

that’s pretty awesome

this section of the podcast we like to

call the secret sauce

listen up it’s the secret sauce

and the secret sauce is this what’s one

thing

that’s working well in your businesses

right now that other owners can utilize

uh to improve their businesses

with me i think it’s all about facetime

like i know a lot of people say you

can’t go into

major stores and see the owner but i

think for small businesses that face

time that you actually have with your

customers

means a lot to them and showing them

that you care

like i have a thing on saturdays and

sundays where

i bring in donuts in the morning and

during the real peak times of

saturday and sunday afternoons i’ll stop

by grab a couple pizzas bring them so

people

have something to eat while they wash

clothes and um

just interacting with the customers

knowing them by name and

whatever if some of them have like

little shirts they making or

other little projects they’re trying to

sell just you know

showing that patriotism back to them

being involved i like that

yeah i think that’s a huge you know a

huge perk that

you have in the way that you’re running

your business right now is that you do

get that face

time and the community does really uh

they really

appreciate that um and especially if

you’re supporting what they’re doing

that’s huge the next uh the next section

we like to call

pro tips pro tips pro tips

is for people who are looking to maybe

buy their first laundromat

and it’s this what’s one piece of advice

you’d give to a new investor who wants

to buy their first laundromat

talk to many people that in the industry

as you can and don’t be afraid

just learn everything you can from

whoever you’re buying it from or if

you’re building it pro

if you’re building it from scratch make

sure you find a good distributor that

answers the phone

every time you call and always has an

answer they don’t have the answer make

sure they get the answer back to you

in a reasonable amount of time

so talk to the many previous owners

or owners that you know that have been

around in the area

and you find a very good distributor

yeah

solid solid advice you know and i think

especially with the distributor

piece of it man they can really help you

or they can really hang out to dry if

they

if they don’t help you so i’m saying

about the quick buck and they actually

care about you

that’s what makes a difference that

makes a huge huge difference i think

that’s solid advice so if you’re new out

there and you’re looking to get in the

industry

and curtis knows what he’s talking about

so find yourself a really good

distributor to work with

and if a distributor is not the best to

work with find another one

you know don’t be don’t be afraid to do

that it’s business and that’s how

it should be they got to earn your

business oh yeah

i’ve had one of each i’ve had two bad

ones so

i’m still looking for a good one i know

i know some good ones too

here at laundromat resource we’re all

about you know helping each other out

helping each other find that

financial freedom through laundromat

ownership and one of the ways that

i like to do this on the podcast is

through

um asking guests if they have any

resources that they’d recommend

to help other people either grow their

businesses or just grow personally

in their own you know knowledge and

experience

[Music]

um like i said well a lot of stuff that

i if i don’t know

or if i just can’t if i need a quick

answer there’s a lot of groups on

facebook

where a lot of large fat owners are in

like i believe one of them’s called

laundromat how-to

it’s different laundromat owners from

across the world where they post stuff

about

quick questions and how to do this or

where to find this

at that’s a great resource and

your community like if there’s anything

because there’s a customer your

laundromat that knows something

probably about what you’re looking for

oh yeah

so being involved with the customers

again

that’ll definitely help you out yeah

that’s cool

we’ve never had anybody suggest that or

like uh

give that as a recommended resource but

that’s a pretty cool one because there

are

people in your community that have a ton

of different experiences and skills and

knowledge

you know that you don’t have that’s

genius i like that a lot

yeah yeah i think that’s one of the

benefits of running the laundry mat the

way that you’re doing it where you’re

there

a lot and you’re giving a lot of face

time is that you’re getting to know

those people and you’re getting to know

you know build building relationships

with them and so

you know you scratch their back they

scratch your back kind of thing that’s

pretty cool

oh yeah yeah that’s that’s solid advice

well cool man anything else you want to

share about your uh

your journey your experience in

laundromats or any other advice you want

to dole out

before we uh jump out of here

um no i believe they pretty much touched

on just about everything

awesome well curtis if somebody wants to

get a hold of you

is there a place they can find you um

that’s the best to kind of contact you

uh you can generally find me on facebook

at curtis lions

okay you can look up either one of my

laundromat pages

one’s five points highlander laundry the

other ones fairfield coin laundry

or you can visit us online at www.5

points highlanderlaundry.com

is it uh the number five or spelled out

five spelled out by okay

cool i’ll have those uh those links in

the

show notes um or if you’re on youtube

i’ll have them down in the description

in case you want to get in contact with

curtis who’s killing it

at 29 years old the ideal age

for anybody in the middle age which is

29 years old

but killing it with real estate

investments and with two laundromats

looking to buy a third and possibly a

fourth and fifth if they all just came

it came some of the better that’s right

and he’s hustling

and he is killing it so man if you have

questions about laundromats or if you’re

uh in his area hit him up because he’s a

cool guy and he’s

here uh answering questions that you

know not a lot

not a lot of people are answering and

he’s doing it right here for you guys to

help you out

so hit him up curtis thank you so much

for being on the podcast

uh it was truly a privilege and an honor

to hear your story

and your wisdom i thought you really

brought a really cool perspective so i

appreciate that man thanks for coming on

hey thanks for having me man i

appreciate it yeah all right we’ll have

you back on some time to

to get a uh um update all right i

definitely look forward to it

all right man we’ll talk to you later i

have a good one

how cool was that interview i mean

curtis is 29 years old he’s just he’s so

down to earth

and he’s just got it going he’s got two

laundromats now

he’s gonna just roll over and end up

with five in no time i just know it he’s

got real estate investments he’s doing

he is just killing it down there in

birmingham

and i’m super pumped about what he’s

doing

and i it was just seriously it was just

a huge honor to have him on

on the show and again curtis thank you

again for coming on

and just sharing your wisdom sharing

your experience

i know i learned a lot i want to

encourage you like i do every week or i

try to remember to every week

take one thing that you heard today and

put that into practice you know if you

remember back to luke williford’s

uh show which is um

lotimateresource.comshow10

uh his his quote that he shared with us

was

you know the biggest gap in the world is

the gap between knowing and doing

well curtis gave us some things to uh

you know to absorb in our minds now go

pick one of those things and

do something about it implement it

something into your personal life

something into your business

but take something from this podcast put

it into action

and also go to the forums laundromat

resource.com

forums and ask a question and answer a

question this week

thank you guys so much for joining us on

the laundromat resource podcast

show number 14. we will see you again

next week when we will

bring it i can’t wait to see you guys

and we will talk to you then all right

peace

[Music]

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