18. Running a Business That Does 30,000 Pounds of Laundry a Day With the King of Pick-up and Delivery, Rick Rome

The King of Pick-up and Delivery, Rick Rome, holds nothing back in this information packed show. Rick found a unique path in the laundromat industry, one that led him to eventually close down his laundromat to the public. His store focuses solely on pick-up and delivery, and he does a TON of it!

In this show, Rick shares why he changed his business model and what that experience was like. He talks about how other laundromat owners in the area responded to his decision to close to the public. Rick also shares some of the struggles he has had along the way to building a massive pick-up and delivery business.

You can’t miss this episode! Rick shares the secret sauce to getting ahead in today’s laundromat business and where the industry is going. He also has surprising advice for anyone looking to get into the laundromat business in today’s Pro Tips!

Finally, Rick talks briefly about his POS system that helps him manage such a large business. It also helps many other laundromat owners run their businesses as well. Wash Club Trak can help you run your business, as well! See the link below for more information.

Watch The Podcast Here

TODAY'S SPONSORS

AtmosphereTV– We’re brought to you today by my friends at AtmosphereTV! Now You may have heard my interview a few months back with Mike Kelly from AtmosphereTV where we talked about what a simple change in content on your TVs can do for your laundromat by getting depressing news stations OFF and something much more fun, entertaining, and family-friendly ON. Since then, Atmosphere has grown to 50+ channels included in their service with everything from Surfing Dogs to Extreme sports, hilarious fails, and jaw-dropping videos from all over the world built specifically for business use. Atmosphere can be used to supplement your cable or you can completely cut your expensive cable bill and use Atmosphere 100% FREE saving thousands a year! Use my code RESOURCE when you check out or click the link or image to have your setup fee waived or contact [email protected] for more information!

Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

hey guys this is jordan here and i’m

happy that you’re here listening

but i wanted to give you a warning today

just in case i know some of you listen

with little ones

in the car with you but there is

a little bit of language in this episode

and i wanted to just warn you ahead of

time and just in case you have little

ones in the car

that you didn’t want to hear that

language it’s not too much but there are

a couple of

words that are used in this episode in

particular

uh that you may not want your little

ones to hear

so plan accordingly all right let’s get

into it

all right what’s up guys this is jordan

from the laundromat

resource podcast this is show number 18

and i’m so excited for today because

today we have

the king of pickup and delivery service

rick

rome on the show today and this

interview is jam packed full of wisdom

so if you’re at all interested in the

pick up and delivery side

or if you’re interested in the future of

the industry

or you know what if you are just

interested in laundromats in general he

is dropping wisdom

all throughout this entire uh entire

interview

uh this is definitely an instant classic

and you are not going to want to miss it

that’s for sure so we’re going to get

into that in a second but i wanted to

welcome

all the new members over at the

laundromat resource dot com

uh and uh you know if you’re interested

in joining it’s free

laundromat resource dot com slash join

i’ll put the

um the link down in the description

uh uh and in the show notes so if you’re

interested uh go ahead and click on that

and uh in fact all the show notes will

be there um show notes for today

are at laundromat resource dot com slash

show 18 so check that out

okay um man i want to say uh

particular welcome to a couple of

members over

from the new member introductions forum

at laundromat resource.com

forums uh so big big welcome

to paul mccary uh who’s with cci

and a card system so go network

network with him he is uh excited to get

to know you

and see if you can help your business

out and also

big welcome and to brian

rumi brian i apologize i know that i’m

butchering your name there’s just so

many vowels r

h e a u m e

room uh you know what brian welcome

but you’re gonna have to book a coaching

call just so i can learn to say your

name

uh but anyways welcome thanks for

introducing yours

yourself if you haven’t yet go over to

laundromat resource.com

forums and go introduce yourself in the

new member introductions forum

uh start getting to know some people and

again i say it all the time but together

we are better off and that’s a great way

to start to get to know people or to get

to know more people in this industry

to help you grow and help your business

grow that’s what we’re all about so

um go join and go introduce yourself in

those forums and then go welcome someone

else who’s already introduced themselves

uh yeah super pumped speaking of forums

stanley over on the forum had a question

i wanted to

highlight today because it’s a doozy

and i get it all the time i’m sure a lot

of you guys

have heard this um but he wants to know

stanley wants to know is there really

such a thing

as free laundromats

now i know that this is a very

controversial topic i know that

this topic probably interests more

people in this industry than anyone else

and some people are just very

opinionated on it so i thought i’d throw

it out there because

that conversation is waiting to be had

over on the forums

laundromat resource.com forums uh go

let stanley know what you think about

free laundromats is it possible

is it not possible is it a gimmick is it

legit

uh you’ve probably seen some of the

youtube videos out there on it

and uh yeah go go have a conversation

about it because i think that’s a topic

worth discussing

so go help stanley out and uh

yeah i’ll say it all the time again but

head over to the forums

while you’re listening to this or when

you get home or whatever

and go ask a question go answer a

question

and start engaging in that community the

forums are uh

just they’re hot right now lots of

people on there

interacting with one another so go be a

part of that

um man i’m i just i think i’m done for

now uh

i am excited to get rick on

the show here and to let you hear this

interview

and all the crazy things he has to say

and we’re gonna get to it right after

this in today’s world if your laundromat

is not online you’re losing business

customers increasingly decide who to

trust with their laundry

by the quality of your web presence but

creating a professional logo

and website that instills trust in

potential customers

and can be found on page one of google

can be difficult to create on your own

and expensive to purchase through a

traditional marketing company

as part of our mission to help

laundromat owners succeed

and find financial freedom through

laundromat ownership we are launching

our done for you

marketing service tailored specifically

for laundromats

after ranking number one on google with

our own laundromat website

and consulting with many others to help

them do the same

we guarantee that we can build you a

professional website that ranks on page

one of google

within six months our joint expertise in

the laundry industry and over 15

combined years

in website design and online marketing

allow us to offer

affordable transparent pricing for a

high quality web presence

for your laundromats you invest so much

into providing your customers a quality

laundry experience

don’t let anyone miss out on what you

have to offer simply because they can’t

find you online

let laundromat resource marketing take

care of your online presence

so you can take care of your customers

visit laundromat resource dot com

slash get online today for more

information that’s laundromat resource

dot com slash get online or click on the

link in the description

[Music]

all right without further ado let’s

bring in the king of

laundry pickup and delivery rick romer

all right rick how is it going man

thanks for coming on today

yeah hey barry it’s my pleasure and i

really appreciate uh you spending some

time with me

yeah no fantastic likewise i’m really

excited about it and i know you’re an

awesome guy and you got a lot of wisdom

behind you and i can’t wait to hear it

but also i’m sure you got a lot of

stories but before we get into all of

that

tell us about who you are and give us a

little background on

on on youtube absolutely no problem so

uh you know i started wash club

uh new york city about 11 years ago now

um what i quickly learned is that

there’s

very very limited um

uh what’s right here um customer loyalty

when it comes to the self-serve business

that type of customer is very

financially dependent on

on lower pricing um and what i

didn’t like was the fact that i’m doing

all these things to keep these customers

but if someone was a nickel less across

the street

um they would go there and if i was a

nickel less than them they’d come back

so i didn’t like the fact that there was

limited customer loyalty

so i tried to figure out a way to

increase

uh customer loyalty uh and basically

that’s where pickup and delivery came in

and uh you know i’ve started with myself

and my honda crv and and two other

employees

uh about nine years ago doing pickup and

delivery and

fast forward today i’m at 24 trucks 60

employees

process close to 25 000 pounds a day in

laundry

oh my goodness oh my god well i want to

get into all of that but

let’s just back up for a second how in

the world did you get into the laundry

business i get asked this all the time

people are like so random how’d you get

yeah well after i was a wall street guy

for many years

the institutional market maker at morgan

stanley and when i

retired from the what we call you know

wall street of the street

um i was looking for things to get

involved with and um

one thing that i did it was hard money

loans

and when i was doing hard money loans i

i believed in the philosophy of sort of

say being on the street to get the deal

i call it street businesses and one i

constantly saw

all the time that looked pretty good was

laundry

right um so when push came to shove

in uh 09 when uh the world was the first

time the world was coming to an end

uh during a financial crisis yeah

especially on wall street there

yeah right um i jumped on the

opportunity

i jumped on the opportunity and um

long story short uh people were yield

hungry

this had a good return it was consistent

it was real uh

reliable and that’s how i got into it

but

you know i worked 191 days in a row no

less than 15 hours a day

learning the business uh about fixing

equipment

and dealing with the customers and all

those things and

um it was a challenge for sure no doubt

uh but the one thing like i alluded to

in the beginning

is that i i didn’t like the residual

portion of the i like residuals i just

didn’t like that this was a

um like an annuity right

basically yeah i would raise my prices

and if you know electricity and gas went

higher labor costs went higher which

they all have

it would kind of wipe out any sort of

skate games there there was no organic

growth

so i wanted to start to you know you

never want to buy the nicest house in in

the shittiest area you want to buy the

shittiest house in the nicest area yeah

right because that’s how you build

equity

and um that’s what i set out to do in

the pickup in

in the delivery and uh sorry about that

i had a call come in

and um

yeah that’s that’s that’s what that’s

what got me going on pickup and delivery

yeah i i mean kudos to you for having

that

site to you know see a business that

is a solid business and and then going

after it

and i see a lot you know i’ve been doing

you know interviewing

different owners uh both here on the

podcast but also just i’ve been talking

a lot through coaching and

just through networking and stuff and

i’m seeing a lot of common themes of the

the people who seem to be finding a lot

of success

extraordinary success in the industry

who early on

put in those long hard hours to really

learn the business and build that

business up

and you know you’re no exception sounds

like so

well i’ll tell you a quick story my

mentor in this business his name is

david amarendo and he’s a blind man

and he’s been in the laundry brokerage

laundry business for

a while i i might be short when i say

30 40 35 plus years it could be 45

frankly

and basically i used to you know

complain to him saying like i can’t get

above this

i know i’m always stuck here what do i

got to do yeah what i got to do and then

i started doing pick-up and delivery and

that started to grow a bit

and then it started to plateau again the

same thing after six months and

and i complained to him and finally he

just kind of smacked me in the head and

said

listen man i’m blind and look what i’ve

done

you can see what you’re doing so you

just stay the course

and keep chopping wood and chopped wood

and

you’ll see the fruits from your heart

efforts yeah and he nailed it i mean

i every about six months i hit a plateau

i get just i get disgruntled i get angry

why um and then for whatever reasons i

figure some things out

i do something a little bit better or

combination of the both

and um i go up to that next that leg up

again

excellent um which is which is which is

obviously great so

i’d say to everybody don’t be

disgruntled

uh too much um you know you’re gonna get

a lot of no’s in this world

a lot more of those than you do yeses

yeah

yeah absolutely and you know sometimes

we all need a good slap in the head

to you know to get us moving again so

you know it’s awesome to have somebody

uh you know to do that for you for sure

for sure and the fact that uh he’s

impaired

uh even had that better of a value to me

stronger value to me which is like come

on man look what this guy’s doing it’s

incredible

and and you can do better and he told me

i could do better

and uh he was right and uh i thank him

to this day

i call him all the time um he’s

he’s a bit sick right now so i hope he

makes it through it but uh

other than that uh he’s been phenomenal

and

yes i’m very fortunate but you know what

great guys like you these podcasts

they’re totally helpful

uh so thank you really thank you for

this sort of stuff

hey appreciate it appreciate it and

thanks for coming on again uh but

hey before you know we get too far down

that alley just

patting each other’s backs um you know

one of the things that you said which i

think is

so true and it’s one of the things that

i love and i hate about laundromats is

that

it’s you know there is a

cap at some point to the amount of

business you can do with a self-serve

laundromat and that makes it you know it

that can make it a solid and consistent

business

but if you’re ambitious and you want to

grow

you know your only options are to either

go buy more or find another way

to utilize the assets that you have with

your business

in order to grow to new and higher

levels and expand

your influence there it is it is

definitely a capex heavy business

if you’re going to go the route of what

what we commonly call a roll-up strategy

right so you know i i had the choice

i still have the choice uh to either

invest in laundries

or invest in my in my business uh which

is now pickup and delivery

um we were speaking prior to starting

i don’t have self-service anymore i

don’t allow people in

my laundries to do self-service work um

i chose that

because it became a tipping point where

either you’re gonna

mess up your your customers pick up and

delivery orders

because the self-serve customer is

either leaving their laundry in there

for 10 hours

and you need the equipment or they grab

the wrong card and

things get mixed up and you know blah

blah blah right all these things that

can happen so

i made a uh i made a business decision

executive decision back uh

so i’ve been five six years now um to

not allow any self-service in my

launches

and it’s been tremendous um

and it was the right thing uh for me to

yeah it i want to talk all about that

because that’s

craziness uh for one you know people

people don’t

think you know i’m just gonna close you

know my

business essentially i mean that’s like

what you got into right you got into the

self-service laundry

industry and it’s completely morphed

into something

different and and closed down that part

of your business so that’s

that’s pretty crazy can you can you talk

to me about

you know i i mean i can see right away a

ton of perks

of doing that because any time you’re

working with the public anytime you’re

working with people

uh you know and they’re coming in

they’re using your stuff i mean they’re

abusing your stuff

you know you’re gonna have vandalism

you’re gonna i mean just

it’s a rental car right what do we do

with a rental car we beat the heck out

of it we drive it like a ferrari

yeah and uh i take it out of the fields

do donuts and you know

it’s a chevy malibu you know and you’re

revving the damn thing

up doing peel outs and whatnot and who

knows and because

you don’t own it and it’s a rental

that’s what it’s for right at the end of

the day

yeah so yes i mean i will tell you

the i’ll tell you the cons let’s start

with the cons right what did i lose out

on i lost out on

face-to-face interaction pressing palms

with

people um which i think has a a big

to do um you know you can diffuse

customer service issues

quicker because you are face to face

with somebody versus

uh on online type of thing no doubt

um those are and obviously you know

having the cash in hand uh is always

you know is always great not enough to

pay credit card fees

um and things like that um but

the pros i mean they totally outweigh

in my opinion the cons right so

you know the same way you don’t have to

when you’re doing customer service you

know you know hold on let me

go back one second following the trend

what’s happening in society in culture

is is critical

right so you know the same way we used

to have a telephone that was hardwired

um and and what you know commonly

referred to as a landline or

it no longer exists right um

people walk around with computers in

their in in

that in their hands that can take

pictures and call

indonesia and um do all sorts of movies

and all you know all sorts of

gaming things whatever and this little

contraption called a cell phone

right our smartphone um so what i’m

getting is that

societal norms and cultural norms in

terms of

shopping and living have completely

changed

right i know everyone wants to get

dollars

or quarters uh all the time right but

the reality is is more and more

consumers

we’re becoming more of a cashless

society

for a number of reasons right because

it’s it’s safer it’s easier

um it reduces disease right risk of

spreading things right all those things

are are all there so the truth be told

you you need to follow all the trends

that are happening not just the fact

that more and more people use credit

cards to buy

things but also more and more people go

online

to figure things out um they

don’t necessarily you can they’re okay

with communicating via email

or text messaging is huge right i mean i

not to say like oh wow what an epiphany

text messaging is huge i get it

but the point of the matter is is i’ll

tell you i used to laugh

when i would read people would send you

an email and it would you know instead

of writing out

p-l-e-a-s-e or

t-h-a-n-k-space y-o-u right

now it’s pls and it’s thk and it’s all

things

and guess what i am guilty yeah i am

totally guilty of that

and i used to laugh at those we’ll call

them young

you know younger folks well what i’m

hearing is you’re turning into a

pre-teen

girl yeah from like the 90s

yeah maybe yeah maybe but those are the

those are the consumers

yeah those are the that’s where the

consumer is so totally you know you you

you have to be

omni channel is is really boiled downs

right because

some people don’t ever want to see your

face

some people only want to see your face

some people it’s a hybrid yeah right

some people will call you some people

text you some people

email you most people will use an app

right

so if you’re not omni channel and what

your business offerings are

i’m not saying you’re going to go out of

business but what i will say is that

you’re

you’re missing out on a lot of business

opportunities

and that is worse to me

than anything else right missed business

opportunities

is is my biggest pet peeve yeah right

it it drives me bonkers

at at the nth degree so i don’t ever

want to be in a position where

i can’t handle you know joanna the the

22 year old recent college grad

to fill up the uh 35 year old

bachelor or mrs mrs

regina who’s 82 years old and only

knows how to use a telephone and has no

idea how to order online

right so they’re all good customers they

all pay

um they all just need different um they

all have different needs of

communication

and as a full suite business

and you want to be a growing business

right you need to be able to communicate

in all those languages

plain and simple yep i love that and and

what i love is uh

our our you know i’m i’m just i’m

getting really excited just hearing you

talk because

our industry is notorious

for not adapting for not changing for

not following the trends you know we

are a get in your rut and stay there

kind of industry and that’s changing a

little bit there’s more and more people

i think

like you who are starting to think a

little bit differently about the

industry

and part of that is right now especially

you know

life is just forcing us to think a

little bit differently

which i think is good for our industry

but i love what you’re talking about

because

it’s you know it’s all about change

which when you can’t change anymore

uh your business when you can’t grow

when you can’t adapt when you can’t

you know start texting like a teenage

girl

uh you know as a as a man you know like

yeah when you can’t communicate in

different ways when you can’t offer

different things you you stop growing

and

you start the process of dying and i’ve

seen that

not just in our industry but i’ve seen

that all over the place

many all absolutely it’s men used to

only

shake hands now men can hug each other

right yeah

well not now well right but yeah

but right all i’m getting is that

culturally speaking

things change and if you want to be

a in my opinion a better well-rounded

individual

i’m not saying you got to love hugging

somebody

but if you you know if that’s your thing

um or that’s their thing

it’s not it is what it is right yeah

so at the end of the day i think that

the the wider your eyes are

about all the different um languages

communication languages i call them that

you can communicate with

um i definitely agree the more

successful you will be

and uh the the the more you’ll grow

as a business uh

point point blank yeah well i love that

i mean i think you’re

you’re dead on your spot on and i think

that those of us listening to you right

now need to

you know learn that lesson and continue

to learn that lesson because it’s a

continual

learning of that lesson well let me know

i mean right you’re not i’m not the most

religious guy in the world but i never

frown

upon anybody else’s beliefs or

disbeliefs

uh towards using religion as an example

right i mean i think michael jordan was

the best basketball player

ever to play the game somebody in

cleveland might say you’re full of it

lebron james is right or los angeles now

might say that right

but you know and i would never say oh

you’re but yeah it’s okay

there’s definitely another one and you

know the the

reality is they’re all awesome yeah and

they’re all a privilege to watch

and joyful to watch um but they all have

their different

ways of getting there totally that’s all

and that they’re all acceptable in my

book

yeah totally and i love that let me take

you back

uh to okay you have a self-serve

laundry at some point yeah in time and

you’re starting your pickup and delivery

service because you’re wanting to grow

and you want to expand tell me a little

bit about that experience how did you

start that how what was that like when

you first started did things just take

off was it slow going

you know just tell me a little bit about

that experience sure sure

so i i had one of the largest laundries

in brooklyn uh it’s about 6 500 square

feet

parking for 13 cars which may seem like

nothing where everyone else lives but

in new york city new york um i could get

600 i could get 600

a month per each parking spot if i

wanted to

right so that should just give you a

small idea of the value of that

yeah um so that was uh that was that and

i was doing about 45 000 a month in coin

right self-serve business so it wasn’t

like i wasn’t making

you know pretty good money i mean it was

that’s a lot of money that’s a lot in my

beliefs it is to me

yeah so um what i got what i got

sort of say i moved to a neighborhood in

brooklyn that was

up and coming and they were just

starting to build um

you know luxury residential buildings

and

you know what i felt that a lot of these

people were

service starved and i said you know what

i start here every day

i finish here every day why not go to a

couple of the dormant buildings and say

hey

this is my card or this is my business

you know if anyone wants laundry or in

this i was doing dry cleaning i do dry

cleaning as well

you know here’s no here’s the phone

number there was no

there was no website yet um

there’s there was a website i think but

maybe no shopping cart

if i recall correctly so definitely no

text messaging

so um i i i did that and

and after about three four five months

it started it was it was growing okay

you got to think of laundry

laundry’s cut is not you know when when

it came out they called it was on demand

right when people say on demand what

does really on demand mean

right on demand to some people mean i

want to

i want you to come now right or maybe

it’s i want to be able to order now

maybe it’s a combination of the two but

at the end of the day

laundry and dry cleaning is not an

on-demand true on-demand product like

let’s say

eating or transportation right

so we eat three four times a day right

your stomach

says oh i’m hungry um feed me so i can

stop

grumbling right and and the food comes

within an hour or whatever right

uh you’re you’re at work and you need to

catch a flight to the you know you’re

like you got to catch a flight in a few

hours so

you get a car to pick you up and take

you to the airport right so

there’s instant satisfaction or

gratification you need

laundry is similar to like food shopping

right you open your refrigerator and you

know what there’s there’s there’s a loaf

of bread there’s a

there’s some butter and there’s some

water okay

and and you go on and and and yeah it’s

not

the best meal but at the end of the day

you can survive because the only

available pickup

or drop-off i should say for the food

supermarket was tomorrow

so yeah okay i can survive i’ll eat this

and i’ll get the food tomorrow

laundry’s similar right we got a

thousand pairs of socks a thousand pairs

of underwear

thousand pairs of jeans and t-shirts and

you you have enough to last you

weeks generally speaking right without

having to do it

like that now there are consumers

who need instant gratification i get it

okay and frankly those who want that

instant gratification

should pay a premium for that meaning

same-day service

right i have no problems doing that if

not here’s the regular price

done so laundry is not in my book a true

on-demand product whatsoever

and i i think it’s more about service

and convenience

at the end of the day pick up and

delivery that is

so um i started to grow the business

and i hit a certain level and i still

i was stuck there for months months

and i was pulling my hair out i was like

i don’t understand i went from

you know zero to 50 in no time

and now i’ve been at 50 for three four

months and i’m like what the heck is

going on

right and i think that every

business every everything in life has a

cycle or has a as a

has a um what’s the right way

uh you have to cool down right because

if you’re running your car

at 85 miles per hour yeah it’ll last the

first you know

you know 30 40 days let’s say but after

the 40 50 days

you’re starting to notice that things

start to break down philosophically

speaking a business is no different

right

you may say well well what would break

down if people are ordering well maybe

it’s the person who’s taking the order

or maybe it’s the van that’s going to

pick up the laundry

or maybe it’s the internet in that guy’s

house is not good or

in your business it’s not it’s slow for

whatever reasons

um i mean i had a sinkhole actually

i had a sinkhole it was the largest

sinkhole ever recorded in new york city

it happened literally across the street

from my facility

it closed the street down for two years

oh my gosh so imagine if i had an

account on

walk-in business i’ve been out of

business yeah

right and what was nice is since the

street was closed

i had ample parking for my trucks

so it was made it even better so

you know through the you know through

adversity comes success

and being able to be quickly and and

fine-tune

and navigate those channels and see

those channels

um and take a risk on what you’re what

you believe to be the case

right since we’re all entrepreneurs um

you know you got to seize that moment

and and and that’s what i did that’s

what i did

and i think i don’t um i think you know

the amazons of the world frankly right

because

amazon my biggest problem from a pickup

and delivery perspective

was the fact that people couldn’t

believe they could order their laundry

online the same way they can order a

pizza

yeah right they just couldn’t believe it

when when this all started to come and

remind you this was

eight years ago things started to

articulate go up

up and then boom right now you have apps

and everything is done online

and uh people hardly want to talk to you

i mean

older people yes but younger kids no

yeah they just want their stuff they’re

busy doing their work or chasing boys

and girls yeah exactly what do i know

and um i always laugh because i do a lot

i do handle customer service i enjoy

that to a certain degree

oops and um i always laugh when

someone says you know for i get

recognized

at times and they’re like rick the owner

and and and i’m like yeah that’s me

they’re like yeah sure

rick rick the owner of washcloth is

answering the customer service lines

that’s a total joke and it’s like uh no

no it’s not a trouble i do do that i

drive truck you know this is how i do

quality control

checks right to see what’s going on um

so those are some of the things

that you should understand and that it

it isn’t like a fire hydrant where you

just turn it on and it just comes out

like crazy

all right it takes time just like

anything else yeah you got to put effort

and you’re going to have setbacks and

the question is do you do you brush

yourself

up off and get back up and and get on

that horse

or you just stay down and and take your

ball and go home

right i don’t take my ball and go home

i’m very very competitive

highly highly competitive um can’t stand

losing

and uh i i i fight tooth and nail for

every inch i get

that’s awesome i mean i see that

mentality

throughout you know the successful

people i’ve talked with also

that streak kind of runs through it’s a

thread that that

goes through all of you know everybody

so that’s something that

you know if you don’t have that you need

to develop it because that

is i think one of the big keys to

success not just in this industry but

in general i think well our

collaboration too i mean listen

i wasn’t a lot of people say well that

type of guy or that type of mentality

doesn’t play nice in the sandbox

and i agree that that used to be uh very

common

but now you you it’s it’s collaborative

thinking

right i mean you have to understand that

there are people

from all over the world all over the

country coming in and out

uh doing different things and and with

with this

you know with the power of the internet

you can you touch

you can touch them all right in theory

you can touch them all now obviously i

can’t service someone

who came from japan and is in los

angeles

but maybe they’re going to come to new

york or maybe next trip they’re going to

come to new york and they found

us some way and boom right or maybe they

stayed in a hotel that we service a lot

of their guests for

and and boom right so yeah it goes back

to that omni channel stuff and

being able to offer um

all those different channels to

communicate with people yeah i

i mean i think that’s awesome and i love

love love that

so uh in those early days i mean were

you

how are you getting the word out were

you

uh you know doing it man were you taking

flyers around were you taking out ads in

the newspaper were you

you know what were you doing yeah back

in the early days it was a lot of flyers

definitely um i used to pay my my

drivers

any any employee that got us

a customer pick up and delivery customer

which is really the drivers

uh would earn a 20 referral bonus

oh that’s for each one right so when

they would

you know in new york where i don’t know

if the right word is fortunate or

unfortunate

but there’s many uh six seven-story

buildings

so if someone was up on the fifth floor

of the walk-up and they had to go up

there to get

the laundry well on the way up the

flights of stairs

they would shove a flyer under every

door yeah

right so you know flyers aren’t the best

uh they hit you know less than one

percent but it’s

it’s a you know you can buy 10 000 of

them for i don’t know 500 bucks or

whatever it is

so you know it’s just a numbers game

yeah at the end of the day so

those are things i’m i’m a i used to own

some billboards

so i believed in what’s called out of

home media um

but primarily digital media

uh what is what i do now only

uh back then i have branded trucks

um word of mouth you know i was not

shy to promote self-promote um

i i used to have my kids uh they were

back then were in first grade i had them

um i have these t-shirts they say

on the back that say smell me right

so and it says you know watch club

laundry or whatever and people

exactly got a good kick that’s pretty

funny i like that

so uh you know we we did i gave out

t-shirts and things like that

um um you know i have one other one that

says give the gift of time

give laundry something like this um

so those the traditional

advertising means is how i got going um

and what was nice is that my drop off

customers from my laundry

man i don’t know how many of them said

they’re so proud to know me

because they saw when i started and they

saw how hard i worked and i was there

every day and i remembered their names

and always made them feel welcome

all those good things and those people

were great mouthpieces for me

whether i knew it or not oh a friend i

told you i’d ask someone how did you

hear about it so a friend

told me right or i saw your truck

driving around

or or trucks now um driving around right

um all those things are good but if if i

was to start

today 000 digital media

all the way you can forget about flyers

you could forget about

um billboards forget about radio

newspaper i don’t think it exists it’s

like a fax machine

um i would not touch any of those now

somewhere in um you know in the heart of

tennessee let’s say

where you know half the population

has spotty internet okay maybe

um doing something with the pta or the

school

uh or a church organization or a

religious organization

something like that where you do a

fundraising

one that i love is um i did once

a local craft show i got a booth at the

local craft show you know i didn’t have

any crafts to sell

i i got a booth but everybody there was

local

yeah and everyone’s got dirty underwear

totally right so

that one worked out pretty good you know

350 bucks for a booth i think it was and

i probably end up getting like 20 25 uh

customers out of it which is pretty

awesome yeah that’s awesome

that was pretty good so um yeah those

are some of the things that i

did then and and and you know i didn’t

mention everything i do now but

uh from a marketing perspective but i

again slow and steady wins the race

you know try and keep your chin up

you’re gonna you’re gonna come across

plenty of setbacks and that’s what’s

nice you know like like i said i get a

lot of calls from people all over the

place

and at the end of the day i have 10

years of experience

about pickup and delivery and i built

well

we didn’t get into it yet i guess but i

have built software pos pickup and

delivery software that’ll allow you to

scale

and that software is a direct reflection

of all the

failures frankly i had

and then i took those failures and i

made them iron clad

so when let’s say you start tomorrow

you’re not starting like i did 10 years

ago you’re starting

in today’s time and in today’s world

yeah

yeah so i love that and you know i want

to get into your

your pos system here in a second um but

you know just another thing i don’t know

i’m just

i’m listening to you talk and i’m just

seeing the things

in you that have got you the point that

you’re at and i just i love your

creativity

in your marketing in the way that you’re

drumming up business

you know you’re you just off the top of

your head i was just writing them down

and you just you listed off like

12 different things that you did to

advertise to

drum up business you know in those early

days and

you know now you know and most of them

failed by the way

most of them failed right i mean

that’s advertising it’s it’s it’s trying

to pull that rabbit out of the hat and

it’s like is it in there well i know

what’s in there but when’s it coming out

it’s your best you have to advertise

guys it’s so i mean yeah we all drink

coca-cola but what do you

do did they stop advertising no they got

a multi-billion dollar budget

even though everyone in the world knows

coca-cola it doesn’t matter

you have to advertise at least i

strongly strongly recommend

you do it and if you don’t do it and

you’re successful

god bless you yeah hey good for you

gamble and it paid off yeah it is a

gamble if you don’t you

i mean that’s the reality of it i agree

yeah so are you doing like google ads

facebook ads what do you

what do you do yeah i do from a digital

perspective

my biggest spend is uh

search and email marketing

and oh nice i am implementing

some uh ai automation into the software

um and i’ll get into that in a second

text messaging

um i’m not a facebook

i haven’t mastered facebook in terms of

advertising

i think in my opinion facebook is uh

it’s a phenomenon for sure but when

you’re doing laundry you need to be

super hyper local

and facebook is not it it can be

hyper local but the problem is is that

it reduces

your your number and it’s purely a

numbers game so from a branding

perspective

for me to advertise it’s just i’m just

going to use new york for me to

advertise new york

you know the cpm right cost per thousand

uh advertising with facebook is cheap

it’s

you know one two three cents tops per

thousand

impressions right so i’ll spend 100

bucks a month

purely on branding right just on

facebook yeah that’s just

just you know people it’ll follow you

around it’ll cook you and follow you

around

and and things like that and you know in

i don’t i don’t see many people on

facebook being in the right

mind at the right you know in the set of

oh i’m looking to do laundry right now

right

as opposed to search it’s very you go to

search because you want to do that

then right so search is really important

but here’s how i view it

advertising it’s a basket right you need

to you need a diversity of different

avenues to reach different people so

you go to work and you’re talking

sorry you’re going to work and you go

to um the water cooler

and you’re talking to your buddy and

you’re like yeah i got a hot i got a hot

date tonight with tiffany and

uh but god damn i got so much laundry to

do i don’t have anything to wear

right or i have it tomorrow night with

tiffany or whatever

and uh your buddy joe says oh

check out wash club right so joe goes on

to wash club

you know he’s at work he’s like checks

out he says oh that’s cool and then his

boss calls him in and for whatever

reason doesn’t order

but then when he gets home or when he’s

on his phone um

he gets an email from us that says hey

you didn’t

you know you have any problems or you

forgot to finish your order or whatever

it is

then he he gets the website and he goes

on our banner ad there on the top of the

website and says download the app for

free

and he likes to use the apps fine clicks

the app

downloads it places the order right

so who gets the credit is it his friend

he told him at the water cooler

is it uh the email is it when he was

walking home i didn’t mention it but he

also saw the truck

across the street from his neighbor’s

house yeah you know

the answer is they all get credits yeah

it’s yes

they all they’ll yeah yeah they all they

all get credit so

with that being said you have to be

found again going back i know it’s like

third or fourth time i said it

you got to go back to omni channel you

have to be found so

when someone tells you that it’s all

web-based it’s not all web-based

it’s phone it’s text it’s uh it’s

it’s uh app you know it’s huge all that

the app is

app is huge it saw 60 70 of my sales

come through

an app not a website not a website on

your phone

okay not a call-in but i do get people

who order on the website i do get people

who call in

no doubt um

those are some things that we do but

another thing we’re going to do

right and i learned this in my sales

days in wall street

is that your best customer are your

existing customers

okay because the acquisition cost is is

obviously

zero um pretty much so

we we we’ve built and we’re gonna launch

it probably in the next

hopefully 30 days or less where

let’s just say i hadn’t seen you in 30

in 40 days 30 days whatever you haven’t

ordered

and now you’re going to get a text from

us because we’re in your neighborhood

and it’s going to say hey we’re going to

be in your neighborhood

do you want to pick up you want to pick

up tonight press one tomorrow press two

uh you know no thank you press three

right so you press

uh number one which means tonight so

then you get another

text from us that says do you want um

you know press one for for wash and fold

press two for dry cleaning press three

for washer full and dry cleaning

boom they press number one let’s say

great

that will automatically trigger our

system

to create an order and then you’ll get

an email as a customer letting you know

the first available pickup for well the

pickup is based on the day you

you requested and based on the products

that you offer which is a 24-hour

turnaround for us

um you’ll get it back tomorrow and no

human interaction

zero yeah right it’s awesome

to me is awesome yeah right that’s

awesome so

now i’m getting more potentially more

out of my existing customer base

right um i’m continuing to hammer away

at potential new customers

right and some of these new customers

are people i’m going after also

maybe they’re business owners maybe they

work at a business that needs our

services

right i mean it’s it’s incredible how

this thing uh

facil uh what’s the right word here uh

master size is going yeah it’s amazing

right yeah

anyone who knows anything about finance

what’s the biggest most powerful thing

you can do

compound interest yeah right it’s the

best thing you can do

for any portfolio uh in in

any time any place in the history of

time so this is just

other ways to do it and that’s what we

do at wash club we

we we offer this to our

our customers and then we we test it we

make it

stronger and make it work right and then

we we give it out to our licensees

who can use it for those purposes

if they choose to or not yeah man i love

that i love

you know just the ability and again it

goes back to you know changing and

adapting and growing continually

and you know and doing that with your

software system is you know it’s just

going to ensure that your business

continues to grow and not only that but

the people who are using your

your system what’s it called by the way

watch club track

tra k and it’s a full full-blown

pos uh pickup and delivery commercial

platform

um billing i mean ordering

processing facility management um

uh all built into one one

one place in the cloud yeah

that’s awesome that’s awesome and you

know at the end of the show

you know i’ll ask you where people can

find out more about it um

so we’ll get there uh no problem yeah

so i mean and you said you’re doing what

do you do 25 000 pounds a day is that

what you said

yeah roughly that’s i mean it’s it’s

it’s a bit lighter now because of covid

yeah uh but you know it is what it is so

half my business roughly is commercial

and half as

um what i call retail pick up from

people’s homes

yeah are are you seeing uh

increases or decreases in in either one

of those categories separately are they

both

up are they both down from colbit yeah

right now yeah from kovid my pickup and

delivery is through the roof

okay by retail my commercial is uh

just a step above the toilet yeah that’s

what i’m hearing a lot of

yeah you know the gyms are closed uh

hair salons just i mean again it depends

on where you live

um hair salons opened up in new york

again

um um you know like spas and things

opened up again

but the gyms are closed um corporate

gyms are closed

all that stuff is closed right now so

it’s a lot of it’s a bit

that part stinks yeah a lot of

businesses are

you know closed or even if they’re open

they’re down and

you know maybe can’t afford some of this

service so

that’s what i’m hearing a lot of right

now of you know residential being up and

commercial being down

yeah well at the end of the day it’s

just they have to

it’s what’s the value of your time and

you got to get high level

right i mean it i get it that these are

all everyone’s baby

i i mean it was hard for me to

relinquish so to say authority to do

things

but by doing that okay

that allows me to focus on the high you

know high level stuff

that really can drive additional

revenues

uh into your business right and it’s not

always perfect i mean i’ve had i right

now have

the best general manager in the world

wendy i love you

um she’s the best shout out yeah wendy

totally she’s the best um and

she is it took me six or seven

tries to find a gm over about a five

year period

and one of them one time i had a

business partner

at one point and i ended up buying them

out um

it you know she’s the best and and that

has allowed me to focus on

cool in in addition to the software like

the the the automated you know the ai

ordering yeah right um and focusing on

uh adding other types of great stuff for

the software so uh and going after big

business accounts like uh amazon for

instance right

so i i all those things have a lot of

all that time

has allotted me this now other folks may

say hey you know what i uh

good for you rick but you know what i

enjoy uh

going for long walks on the beach with

my wife i want to play golf

uh twice a week um i only want to go to

the laundry

for uh three three minutes on

on saturday uh to get my money

um and get the time clock stamps or

something whatever right

so from that perspective to each their

own um

but i have a strong feeling that many

many many more people

many more uh sophisticated

um driven individuals are getting into

our space

which you know i believe that high you

know high tide

rises raises all boats yeah right and

i think like you said back in the time

there’s a lot of

uh uh

[Music]

lethargic uh operators

um who think such a thing and i i have a

friend at eastern funding

uh who calls it the zombie mats right

and they don’t put any love into it

and um there is a difference i mean

think about it do you want to wash your

clothes in a dirty filthy laundry it’s

like going to eat a

filthy dirty restaurant yeah why in the

world did you want to do that

yeah it’s worse than that’s like cooking

your food in a dirty filthy kitchen

you know yes yeah totally yes

totally and that’s how a lot of

laundromats are still to this day i mean

it’s changing more and more

like you said i think more sophisticated

people are coming into the industry

and realizing it it can be a legitimate

business where it’s been run i think

traditionally more as like a mom-and-pop

uh type thing so i well i also think

that

with the inventions of different

softwares right

you like you know a pos for instance

right

um or a card system in the laundry

right whatever using you you should

embrace technology

right just like you should embrace uh

marketing

right it’s it’s an it’s a if you think

of it as evil fine

but it’s a necessity it’s a necessity

it’s a necessary evil it is at the end

of the day

and i don’t think it is as evil i think

as a as a

as you know who’s my you know who my

best salesman is

it’s this guy named google okay

he’s my best salesman and and and and

he does a bang-bang job and he’s and he

works

24 7 365 and never complains

yeah well you know what makes marketing

evil is when

you’re saying things that that aren’t

true

when you’re deceiving people because if

you have a service that’s helping people

and you want them to know about it

there’s nothing evil about that

right it’s when you’re taking advantage

of people it’s when you’re not offering

good service and you’re manipulating

people or you’re tricking people into

giving you money for something they’re

not going to receive and that’s what

makes it evil

but it’s a tool like anything else right

marketing is just

a tool it’s not good or bad it’s how you

use it

and you know if you’re providing a great

service

you’re doing 25 000 pounds of laundry

for people who otherwise

you know wouldn’t be able to do it or

would have to figure out a different way

to do

it we just don’t want to do it yeah we

just don’t

want to do it right i mean we all have

we all have lawn mowers

we all have coffee makers in our house

but we have someone cut our grass and we

go to starbucks for our coffee

yeah right i mean i i i can tell you in

new york

we don’t order domino’s pizza well we

don’t even have donalds i don’t think in

new york but

you don’t order domino’s pizza because

it’s good you order it because it’s

convenient

yeah right i mean guys mcdonald’s is

doing

deliveries now yeah mcdonald’s

yeah starbucks i mean that’s what i’m

trying to explain

guys the writing is so clear on the wall

it’s like you have to cater to your

customers

needs and again i know there’s going to

be people and be like

well screw them i’m going to do it my

way and this is how i want to do it

and i don’t i don’t do it no problem

that’s fine

but if you’re wondering why your

business doesn’t grow

out you know and raising your prices is

not a growth

right that’s that’s that’s not that’s

that’s incremental growth it’s not

organic growth right

true growth is organic meaning you get

new customers coming

from somewhere else and i think you said

it earlier in the cast saying

like you know you can you can only

attract so many people from in a four

block radius

right there’s they’re not going to be

able to build anymore there

at the end of the day so if you think

that the guy on the other side of town

is going to pass

seven laundry before he gets to yours

and not stop at those because

you have air conditioning or yours is

the cleanest or you’re of the highest

price

or whatever it is you’re you’re

which is yiddish for crazy okay it’s

just not gonna happen

so how do you get that person on the

other side of town

hook up and delivery and i’ll say t and

i’ll say to you

you better not buy another store until

you’re looking to pick up and delivery

okay don’t risk that much money try it

out

yes it has different challenges just

like anything else

okay but at the end of the day your roi

will be if if you’re if you’re a winner

right if you work hard

if you think like oh i’m gonna just buy

this you know it’s like buying excel

and being like oh great now all my

problems are solved i have excel

yeah no right no

you gotta you actually use it and you

have to create these formulas

and and at the end of the day it’s just

a tool it’s a crotch to help you get

stronger

or more importantly really release time

back

to you so you can take that and focus on

getting new business

or if you want to work on your golf game

work on your golf game

but at the end of the day you got to be

proactive

you can’t sit on your hands um

it’s just it’s it’s just not gonna work

and it you know

and i learned that i used to have

numerous businesses and

when you focus you know if you’ve got

four businesses and you focus 25

of your time on each one well what do

you think is going to happen

not much not much but when you give 100

of your effort towards one of those

businesses watch how much it will grow

yeah yeah i love that and i i think

that’s

that’s super wise uh you know they it

made me think how much time do you spend

on your business

you kind of mentioned the time a lot i

mean

i mean back in the day it was a lot

uh excuse me i still spend a lot of time

on my business

it’s just i don’t spend so much time

inside my

facilities anymore because well one

because i can do things remotely

right here we are having an interview i

believe you’re you’re in southern

california i’m in new jersey

yeah so uh you know you can do more so i

utilize

technology to allow me to do more

things and windy and well

no doubt i mean i got i got a i got a

couple wendy’s over there

would thank god they’re all awesome

um but at the end of the day

those folks allow me to

go after those high level things and do

interviews like this or or whatever it

may be

so in essence i am uh i am

i every day every day

uh i i i eat breathe and

whatever else you want to say there uh

laundry

okay uh in my business because i i

really enjoy it and more importantly

i think everyone can do it i mean

i’m not like i’m not that smart i’m not

i’m not smart i laugh when people call

me an expert on things i kind of laugh

sometimes

and i’m like are you talking to me or

the guy behind me right now he’s looking

over my

shoulder um but

this such is the reality but i’m very

uh i’m fortunate right because i built

something from the ground up

i truly love and cherish it and i think

that

i want to spread that uh opportunity to

everybody and

you know i think i don’t know if he was

your first podcast but ross dodds in los

angeles

is one of those guys um who

really took my advice and and and used

it and then when he ran into a couple

brick walls here and there he asked me

for support

our advice and that’s exactly what we do

and uh i’m proud i’m super proud of all

my guys

and girls frankly yeah

i i love that i’ll link to uh i’ll link

to jo

to ross’s uh podcast too if you haven’t

heard that one yet

you have got to hear it uh because his

story

is insane and what i love about it is

that he

i mean basically worst case scenario

when he bought his first laundromat

and now you know if you looked at him

now you would never know that that

happened to him because he

is uh he’s just killing it right now

he’s doing awesome i went out

a couple weeks ago to his new location

and he’s getting ready to open up uh

here pretty quick

it’s amazing and it’s just gonna be

incredible in fact we built a website

um you know for him and in that location

and

it’s man it’s awesome and so yeah i

i yeah his perseverance is amazing oh my

gosh

and it’s a testament to him and and what

he’s gone through

and how he continues to to go higher um

and and we love all those stories we

love all and every guy and girl

listening or or interested you can do it

you totally can do it you just

you know you gotta focus and and accept

uh problems when they arise and and and

brush yourself off and get back up

you know yep love that well hey we have

a segment

that we like to call secret sauce listen

up it’s the secret sauce

[Music]

here and uh it’s basically you know

what’s what’s one thing

that’s working well in your business

right now that other owners can utilize

to help improve their business and

specifically i guess for you

in this uh you know this interview

what’s what’s something that’s working

well with your pickup and delivery that

other owners can implement

i would say i mean

technology is the easiest lowest hanging

fruit

that you guys anyone can can get

involved with

okay i mean

i don’t know what else i can tell you

about the fact that being able to

know what you did today or what you did

last week or what you did a year ago and

and

you know and a snap of a finger to help

you pro

forecast what you’re gonna do or what

your goals are yeah

um is it it’s it’s i i can’t imagine

any i can’t imagine not doing it right

so i’ll give you a for example

when i built my first version of my

software

um it used to take us about four hours

to write down the orders because we had

it on a spreadsheet we write it down we

print it

we had to call them to remind them that

we were coming

a race they’re not answering this

when we got our first version of

software which allowed us to

take all the orders in the dashboard

this is about eight nine years ago

take all the orders in the dashboard and

basically hit the print button

and it would come out i mean that saved

us four hours of time

slightly crazy yeah i mean and i know it

wasn’t like

i invented something that was incredible

it was just like

i just organized it i guess better

whatever i don’t know how you want to

say it but

um those efficiencies and what you

do with those efficiencies

right so if you’re a golfer and you want

to buy four more hours of golf i

guarantee you

you’re gonna get better at golf right i

guarantee it so

just like if you’re selling um

you would you know it’s four more hours

so to say of selling

it gives you another opportunity yep

right so

i would say that’s uh that would be

i don’t know if that’s a secret uh but

that’s something

uh i absolutely would tell anybody to

get into the you know get back get into

the 21st century

well you know what sometimes i feel like

in our industry that is a secret

you know to utilize technology to

you know run our businesses because i

think a lot of people are just not

utilizing

technology in their businesses to any

degree other than having

a coin-operated machine in their

laundromat so

i do think that that’s the secret so and

i think it’s

i think it’s great too because again you

know propelling towards the future

is um you know if if you can get on that

train

now you know because our in our industry

slow moving and it’s slow to get there

and so if you can get on it now which is

still you know surprisingly it’s still

early for us

you know early on way

early i mean guys it’s like being on a

freight train right

a freight train moves slow but

eventually will get you to where you’re

going

yeah right and it can move perhaps

faster

if you start to um utilize it properly

right so if you just sit in the freight

train and wait

you know 32 hours till you end up

wherever you’re gonna end up

fine so be it but as you start doing

that more and more often you’ll learn

that there’s other trains that might get

you there faster or

in this case other vehicles yeah whether

maybe a car or a bus or a plane that

might get you there

much quicker jet right so it’s it’s that

simple

it’s really that simple so i i

totally hope that everybody um can start

to to do that because

that that’s like a no-brainer

you know and i get it guys don’t want to

maybe report all their

cash that they take i i get it

but that’s their business i i i

i don’t i don’t do that so i don’t know

what it’s like i think it’s

it’s silly because you’re being a

pennywise to be a dollar foolish

exactly exactly and i think that nailed

it right on the head

yeah right you’re missing so many other

opportunities that you can be getting

involved with

but you don’t realize it because you’re

you’re

you’re you’re bogged down in that other

garbage yeah

yeah so yeah i kind of see it like uh

almost like utility bills for a

laundromat you know it’s like

you don’t want high utility bills but

you kind of want high utility bills

because if you have high utility bills

it means you’re doing a lot of laundry

you’re doing a lot of business and

you’re making more

money and you know if your goal is to

minimize utility bills well you might be

able to do that

but you’re going to lose out on business

you know because you’re not doing as

much laundry

funny you should say that because i’ve

always said that laundry guys

you know i get it focus on the bottom

line that’s important

but if you raise the top line the bottom

line will move up too

yeah yeah so it’s not

just the top line i guess and it’s not

just the bottom line

it’s a combination of the two but most

laundry guys

are so fixated on just you know

cutting out this that or whatever and

in essence it’s actually not it’s not a

good idea

yeah you can never downsize your way to

wealth

right you you have to increase your

capacity

to grow your wealth and you know that’s

a big mindset shift for a lot of people

i know it was for me

um you know so we have another section

we call pro tips pro tips

and pro tips is directed towards new

newbies people who are maybe looking to

buy their first laundromat you have any

tips for them

uh to get them started in the right

direction

on the laundry business on the

self-serve laundry business

i would say don’t think of it as a

passive investment

okay you can and many do okay

but this is a multi-multi multi-billion

dollar industry

and in my opinion you you got into this

because you’re tired of working

you know for for the boss you want to be

your boss you’re right

so if if if you’re thinking that

i’m going to do this as a passive

investment i would tell you that it’s

probably better to buy real estate

okay that’s what i would tell you um but

from that perspective

i would say you know

be a sponge talk to people i will say

that people here

are super duper friendly they’re open to

talk about

almost at least i am uh and it seems

like you are as well to talk about

really anything because um

you know we all know how to make

hamburgers right

but the good chefs the good barbecue

pit masters they know exactly how much

salt exactly how much pepper

how much uh i don’t know how long to

grill it on each side and so on and so

forth right so

you know you may take a whole handful

and i might take two handfuls

but the guy who knows takes it’s two

pinches

not the whole thing right so i would say

the same in the laundry business

there’s lots of competition nobody is

your customer

okay you don’t own any customer you can

think you own a customer

but at the end of the day with all the

email lists all the text message lists

all these different ways of finding uh

people on lists

they’ll end up on a list no if ands or

doubts about it

so what i would tell you is you know

be there focus on that grow your

business from that perspective

work hard be honest okay and if you can

do it full time

um from the beginning not much better

because you’ll see that improvement

um and you’re you’re risking a nice

chunk of change at the end of the day

so understand that time is money also

so make the best use of your time just

like i tell people who wants to do

laundry

you know like you can give it to me and

pay me forty dollars

or you can do it your and it takes you

one minute

or you can do it yourself it’ll cost you

20 bucks but four hours of time

so the net net is uh 20

in your pocket but four hours of time

lost

so if your time is worth five bucks an

hour i have a broom you can push

all day all night in any of my

facilities yeah yeah seriously

yeah right so know the value of your

time and

and and make it make it happen yep

i love that great advice hey real quick

i forgot to ask you this but

it made me think of it what does it cost

to do a pound of laundry in

in new york sure on our software we have

tiered pricing so it depends on where

you live

but um it’s ironically you would think

it’d be

super expensive uh because it’s new york

city

we probably actually have some of the

lowest prices in the country

um uh it ranges

from a dollar 23 a pound to a dollar 63.

okay yeah that is pretty low yeah you

know

so it’s it’s it’s just there’s so many i

mean

that’s the other thing i mean there’s a

laundry in new york

not manhattan everywhere but in the

boroughs

i mean there’s one i’m on 63rd

and and 5th avenue in brooklyn and

there’s

between 63rd and 60th street and 5th

avenue which is three blocks which is

basically once around the track okay

uh there is one two three four launders

of course smile man plus mine oh gosh

so five i mean i’m not a self-serve

laundry so when i closed down the

self-serve they were so happy with me oh

yeah they love me

they they were carrying me on their

shoulders around the neighborhood yeah

it was great

you know thank you thank you how’d it

get popular in the long run industry

yeah right um so from that perspective

um yeah what that’s that

yeah and it makes a lot of sense too

because there’s a lot of competition i

think people are surprised by

um a lot of the eleven prices a lot of

times people in the midwest who are

charging like two

three times more than what we can charge

here but there’s just a lot more

competition so it drives that pricing

down for sure

well you also you guys build out we

build

up yeah you guys go up i know right and

you go out

so you know you still have some you know

considerable travel time

uh potentially to get to where you’re

going and and

it’s pretty dense i mean california is

40 million people it’s an incredible

economy

i believe it’s like the fourth or fifth

largest economy in the world

yeah i know okay um i mean that that’s a

pickup in delivery heaven

california are you kidding me oh it’s a

heaven for pick-up and delivery

so um you know places like that and

and listen we even have places uh we

have

an operator up in lehigh valley which is

basically allentown pennsylvania

it’s uh the poconos mountains which is

you know about an hour and a half west

of new york city

there’s no train lines um and it’s you

know

about maybe 50 000 people spread out

over god only knows how many miles

um and he’s he’s one of our best

operators actually for pickup and

delivery

he he kills it he kills it that’s

awesome yeah

yeah and that i mean that goes to show

you can kind of do it

anywhere too you know so who likes them

who likes doing laundry

nobody nobody exactly you know and those

that hate unfolding

yeah you know the only thing that i wish

that that you would do and other pickup

and delivery do is come put it away also

after they

wash it dry it fold it you know

i will tell you that that has a

liability risk out the wazoo oh yeah

pass on that

yeah any day believe me we

we get people who want us to go inside

the apartment i tell all my drivers that

don’t you step

a single foot inside any apartment

that’s the last thing we need

yeah so uh yeah yeah i hear you no that

would be nice and

uh yeah i just you know i i hope guys

and girls

read the trends and and it’s not just

the trend in the laundry business it’s

also the trends in

society that’s happening you know

realize that you use your phone

a lot to do certain things many many

many things it’s like

again you’re probably much younger than

me but when i used to go on road trips

with my family

you know we’d have the atlas i mean i

could read a map right yeah thomas

which which road do you travel i used to

measure out how many miles it is i take

the ruler on the map and the car

and you know the whole nine yards i

figured which truck stop we’re gonna

stop at

and all that jazz right and and and now

shit you just get throw your your bag

you know throw your stuff in a duffel

bag jump

in your car type in uh los angeles

and it gives you their mind it gives you

all the way there yeah all the way there

yeah right so uh that stuff is

is that’s that’s technology i mean

remember mapquest

mapquest used to go online then you

could print it out and then that was

your

guide instead of having to carry that

you know this book that’s this big

and and and that long right and so

it’s just natural guys it’s like a pay

phone you see payphones

where do you see a payphone no

superman’s extinct man he can’t change

clothes anymore that’s right he’s he’s

he’s in a world of trouble

so all those things they happen in

right in front of you yeah they’re

they’re happening

every day in front of you right i mean

when you used to get an apartment

you know when i was just got out of i

didn’t have internet when i was in

college but when i first got out of

college i had dial up

and one of the things we would ask is do

you have

you know are you wired for dial-up right

or ethernet or whatever it was right and

you know

ten years before that it was like do you

have a garage door opener to open the

garage right

you know why washing your dishes versus

a dishwasher

right hanging your clothes outside on

the going full silver here

on a clothesline versus putting it in

the drive right

all those inventions all those things

save you time

yeah and technology

pos my pos in my opinion

um will help you do all of those things

what you do with that time is up to you

love that

what a great sales pitch and great tag

line too you need to put that all over

your website

i got one more question for you before

we wrap it up um sure

do you have any uh you have any resource

recommendation i mean we are a

laundromat resource over here and we

like putting resources in people’s hands

you have any resource

recommendations maybe a book

recommendation or any other kind of

resource that

um that might benefit other owners

either personally or in their business

uh this podcast would be great number

one look at you

okay now i mean i’m shameless

i love that i knew that’s why you were

one of my favorites

[Laughter]

um there’s no specific

book um i that i know of

you know there’s some out there there’s

some videos out there

all that jazz um i would tell you

the the best advice i would tell you is

do you know do what mom and dad taught

you say please

say thank you um try and be kind to your

neighbors

um all those things and it’s not easy

because customers you know the worst

part of our business is customers

oh yeah right i mean it’s the worst but

we we all

we we we all stand on that same ledge

thinking about

i hate them but we need them you know

um so i would tell you the best thing to

do in that regard is just

you know always take a deep breath think

about that they do

serve your purposes but if they come out

right at you like

well i’m the customer

know i you know i’m sorry i’ll give you

this note i had a great

two i had a two great customers today

uh two different problems well yeah

one was a customer has been me for you

know a year or year and a half he’s

spent

a lot of money with me um he

he he basically he’s an older gentleman

he canceled or changed his delivery

order and it was by mistake

but he said oh i didn’t touch it i

didn’t do it it’s the system

and you know i kind of nodding my head

yes yes sir

sure sure and then i explained to him

and then

he got to the point where he’s like i’m

sorry i’m a little stressed out we have

such a great relationship

my daughter’s sick and blah blah blah

and in the hospital i said

i understand don’t worry sir we’ll take

care of our stuff you just go do what

you got to do with your family

right versus i had another lady first

time customer

spent 500 and twenty dollars

she had 270 pounds of laundry right i

mean

i don’t even know how in the world you

get to 270 pounds of laundry

but nonetheless or something yeah maybe

right

nonetheless um we told you know

she starts complaining about how we

don’t call or how come no one

uh told us how much it was gonna cost

and then i said well ma’am

we don’t know how much it costs until we

get it back to our place to weigh it

so how would we possibly know and we

have over 90

000 customers in new york city alone we

don’t have the time to call each guy and

girl to say hey

your laundry weight this much do you

want me to charge it

we can’t do that it’s just not good for

our business well i don’t care about

your business

i’m the customer blah blah blah blah i

said okay well

i think this will probably be the last

time you’re going to be a customer

and that’s fine just get your credit

card

updated and we’ll charge it and we’ll

make the delivery on time if you do it

by three o’clock today

if not then you know we’ll wait till you

do that right and i’m sure they’re gonna

dispute it and all those other things

yeah that that people do uh because

they take it personally yeah and it’s

not a personal attack on

on anybody it’s just these are our rules

this is how we do it right

you don’t go to your favorite restaurant

to eat dinner at three o’clock if they

don’t open till five and then complain

to them why are you close right yeah

i mean my hours are five to ten not some

people do

yeah right but yes yes

yes they do and it’s like what do you

want me to do for you yeah

so i would say uh

those types of things happen they happen

to everybody yeah okay

and it’s just part of the business yeah

well can i just say nobody has ever

recommended as a resource to be kind

but i love that because i mean like you

said

this is a people business you know the

customers are the worst part of the

business but i would also say the

customers are the best part of the

business

because the majority of the customers at

least that i interact with i’m in rough

neighborhoods

the majority of them are great people

you know and the

worst parts customers are yes it’s

a few it’s a relative few and

but i love the be kind thing because you

know when you’re kind to people it makes

them want to do business with you

and that’s right great great recommended

resource even though it’s not a

traditional resource

well it’s not and i’m sorry i don’t have

that book or

anything to point to but that’s just

it’s just common to me to be like this

and um

and um and guys i’m not always this way

believe me

uh you can you know there’s been plenty

of times where i

made mistakes like before yelp became

yelp

i used to i wouldn’t care about it i

could care less i’d scream at people

and yelp started to gain popularity back

in the day and you can see some of my

reviews are because of it

and it’s because of me at the end of the

day so i need to i need to keep my uh

my lids shut sometimes because i do take

it personally when i shouldn’t

take it personally yeah and the thing

that blows my mind even

even more is that it’s a new yorker that

had to come out with be kind to other

people

wait rick you know it’s been awesome to

have you on

seriously incredible stuff i’ve been

eating up every single word i know that

people are gonna grab

a lot of uh just a lot of wisdom from

what you had to say and you had great

perspectives

um on everything that you talked about

especially especially

your number one resource recommendation

of the podcast

um that was probably the best part by

far

no but i seriously appreciate you coming

on and sharing this and

uh just you know loved everything you

had to say

if people want to get in contact with

you either just to ask you about how

you’re doing stuff or to ask you about

your pos system

what’s the best way they can do that uh

they can send me an email at

rick rick at wash

club track w-a-s-h-c-l-u-b-t-r-a-k

dot com uh we’re happy to talk about the

pos

we’re certified google adwords experts

we’re email marketing experts

so um you know we’re happy to help you

guys you don’t have to use our software

for us to do the marketing for you

either um so

we’re just there to build relationships

like you’re doing now

and uh hopefully we can um make those

materialize into bigger better things

that’s that’s what we’re here to do and

everyone can do it everyone can do it

awesome and you guys have a website for

washcloth track

yeah uh watch it’s washclothtrack.com

okay

yep and uh it’s no problem yeah and i’ll

put the link to

that and also the email address in the

show notes in the description

um so you know if you’re listening to

this and you want to get in contact with

rick talking about his pos system

um or uh you know just talk to him about

the way he’s doing business he’s doing

some pretty cool stuff

um yeah the the email address and the

link

to his website will be in the

description show notes

rick thank you so much again for coming

on appreciate it thank you for having me

i appreciate you have a great day enjoy

the rest of your tuesday okay

yeah thank you appreciate it you too

take care bye-bye

man how cool was that episode i mean

rick just brought

so much wisdom he brought so much

passion he brought so much uh

just enthusiasm for the industry and he

just he gave a lot

i know i learned a ton i took a lot away

and

i want to encourage you as i do every

week to pick

one thing that rick talked about and

figure out a way to actually implement

that

in your existing business or in the

process

of uh getting your first laundromat

wherever you’re at in this in the

process

go implement one thing and if you can’t

think of anything

hey you know what a good place to start

would be just

go be kind i loved that advice

uh of his recommended resources just be

kind to people

i love it so go out there and be kind

this week

and uh man grow your business do awesome

thrive

and take those steps toward your

financial freedom through laundromat

ownership

i am looking forward to seeing you again

next week come hang out with us on the

forums

and man come be a part of what we’re

doing all right

we’ll talk to you next week peace

[Music]

Links from the Show

Become a Laundromat Pro & Join the Pro Community!

Unlock the secrets of laundromat success! Join our Pro Community now to access expert insights, exclusive resources, a vibrant community, and more.

Become a Laundromat Pro and Join the Pro Community!

Unlock the secrets of laundromat success! Join our Pro Community now to access expert insights, exclusive resources, a vibrant community, and more. Elevate your laundromat journey today!