138. High School Dropout to Laundromat Luminary Alex Bloom

Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:

Hey. Hey. What’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Laundromat Resource Podcast. This is show 138, and I am pumped that you’re here today because today, we have an awesome interview with Alex Blum, who spills the beans, man. He shares, all the details. He says, hey, listen. I’ve gotten the most value and value, when people share, real real information, real knowledge, real numbers, all that stuff. And so he wants to return that favor Anne has come on to share, just the real solid information.

Jordan Berry [00:00:31]:

So if you’re one who thrives like me with, that real information. How much did it cost? How did you finance it? How did what are the details? How did this whole thing work? A and how do you run that business successfully? This is the episode for you because, Alex, this is an awesome episode. He shares shares all. Tells all. It’s a tell all. That’s what we’re talking about. Tell all. Anyways, right before we jump in it with Alex, I just want to say this.

Jordan Berry [00:01:00]:

We’re coming up on the holidays here when this episode is going out. So if you’re listening to it at a different time, still applicable. A this is a time where we focus on family and friends. And I love all that is, like, the reason for the season to get a little cliche there. Right? A you should definitely be doing that. However, I also see this as a good opportunity to, really start developing some habits that are gonna carry you carry you with some momentum into the new year. A lot of us. And we’ll be talking about this, I’m sure, when the new year rolls around.

Jordan Berry [00:01:37]:

We think about, the new year. We think about New Year’s resolutions, all that stuff. And that’s great. It. But how great would it be to roll into the new year with New Year’s resolutions, but already have some momentum behind us? So opportunity to do that, especially as things start to slow down. Maybe you get some time off. You can sit around on the couch and watch football the whole time, which is awesome too. Nothing wrong with that.

Jordan Berry [00:02:02]:

Or you could take a little bit of that time and take some action towards achieving your goals. And if that has to do with improving your laundromat, a get after it. If that has to do with getting that 1st laundromat under contract and buying your first one, get after it with some action. I just want to kind of remind us, look, most people are gonna be taking it easy. And there’s nothing wrong with that. And if that’s what you need to do, you should do that. However, it’s also a really good opportunity to take some action while everybody else is sitting down, doing nothing a and and and start building some momentum behind you to roll into the new year with authority. You know what I mean? Alright.

Jordan Berry [00:02:44]:

That’s all I wanted to say. A don’t overdo it because, again, this is the time and the season for family and friends and all that love and generosity and all of that. So don’t lose out on that. But maybe carve out a little bit of time for yourself to get some momentum behind you. That’s all I wanted to say. Let’s jump into it with Alex. And, you’re gonna love this interview, so let’s do it right now. Alex, what is going on, man? How you doing?

Alex Bloom [00:03:10]:

I’m great. How are you?

Jordan Berry [00:03:13]:

I am awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show, taking some time out of your busy day to come talk laundromats with me. I’m super pumped to do that. A why don’t you kick it off with, who who are you, actually? And then how did you get into laundromat business?

Alex Bloom [00:03:27]:

That’s a great question. A Well, thanks for having me first. I mean, long you know, a long time listener, first time caller, I guess. So this is really exciting. I’ve, watched a lot of your your shows, and, thank you a everything you do. Awesome. So, yeah, my name is

Jordan Berry [00:03:42]:

Alex, and, I’ve kind of been an entrepreneur pretty much my whole life.

Alex Bloom [00:03:47]:

Immigrated to the US when I was, like, 5 in the early nineties with my family from, Belarus, which is right next to Russia. A So pretty much Awesome. You know, grew up in the states in the western mass area. And I’ve always kinda had a knack for business, a And I learned at a young age I was unemployable. So I went to high school, did auto shop, Dropped out my senior year because my son, you know, knocked up my girlfriend, had a kid, so dropped out, got always had a hard time keeping jobs. That was, like, the the biggest hurdle. It was, like, you know, a 4, 6 months in. I don’t like what I’m hearing.

Alex Bloom [00:04:22]:

I kind of lose interest, and I’m on to the next one. So that’s kinda when I realized I was unemployable. And, I should look at, You know, being self employed, I guess. So just tried out a bunch of different jobs, you know, most of them auto related, Small dealerships, repair shops, stuff like that, and nothing really worked out for me until I got into the towing business. That was in 2009. I started a towing company a ground up, 1 truck. Had a bunch of friends that were mechanics as well, so it seemed, you know, to be the perfect thing. Like, cool.

Alex Bloom [00:04:55]:

I have all these friends that are mechanics. They all need toes. A Cars are always breaking down, and that’s kind of where I think I got my real start as an entrepreneur and something that actually worked out. A So, ran that for a while. 2016, I sold it to a larger company and got into real estate and, construction and remodeling and flipping houses and all of the above. Kind of just grew from there, got into the Airbnb world, a Did that for a little bit. COVID hit. We did really well.

Alex Bloom [00:05:26]:

Market kind of just skyrocketed, took advantage, sold out, did a 10/31, and a Got into laundromats. That’s a short story.

Jordan Berry [00:05:34]:

Jeez. So Yeah. You’ve been all over the map, like, literally from Belarus over to here. And where a where

Alex Bloom [00:05:42]:

are you at, by the way? I’m in Western Massachusetts. I’m in Westfield, Mass. So that’s kind of, Springfield is one of our big metropolitan areas, and I’m just outside of that.

Jordan Berry [00:05:49]:

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. So you’ve been all over the map that way, but also you’ve you’ve had your finger in a whole lot of different, businesses. A so what made you why Laundromat? Like, you know what I mean? Like, you’ve done a lot of stuff. Why why’d you land in Laundromats for now?

Alex Bloom [00:06:05]:

That’s a great question. So I guess here’s Here’s kinda what happened. Me and my wife were sitting around, and she’s been great. She kind of agrees with 90% of the stupid ideas I have a And following, she, you know, she has her full time job and all that, but she definitely supports me in all of my endeavors. And after, you know, we were kind of a under contract with our condo. We had a condo in North Myrtle Beach that we were Airbnb ing, beautiful place, oceanfront. We bought it before COVID, a renovated it. I brought my crew down from up here.

Alex Bloom [00:06:34]:

We spent the week, went through the whole place. So then we when we listed it, you

Jordan Berry [00:06:39]:

know, we got decent amount of money for it. And we were like, what are

Alex Bloom [00:06:42]:

we gonna buy? Like, we’ve got a 10/31 into something. So I’m looking at, you know, storage units a like everybody else is in multifamilies. And then, like, I have a ton of friends in real estate who all got kinda screwed over during COVID with rent because Massachusetts, I’m a Sure. It’s kinda like California. Nobody wants to pay, and it’s a tenant friendly state. So I’m like, oh, I don’t wanna be a landlord anymore, which I still am. A so I wasn’t looking at more multifamilies. I’m, like, looking at other options.

Alex Bloom [00:07:09]:

And then I’m watching YouTube, and I’m like, I ran across, Cody Sanchez. And she said one thing that really, like, stuck to me. She’s like, hey. You know, you buy this multifamily for 400 k and you make $200 a door. Like, why are we doing this when you could spend that 400 ks or even less and buy a small business and cashflow, you know, day 1. A And I was like, holy crap. This is like genius advice. So then she’s talking about laundromats, and they were already on our radar.

Alex Bloom [00:07:36]:

Car washes, laundromats, we’re already looking, a But that kinda really pushed me towards it, and found one that had the real estate for sale. So I was able to do a 10/31, and that’s kinda how I got my first one earlier this year.

Jordan Berry [00:07:49]:

A that’s awesome. Just so everybody’s on the same page, a 10/31 exchange is where you buy a piece of real estate. Instead of paying, taxes on that sale. You actually just commit to putting the money into buying another, piece of real estate essentially. So They

Alex Bloom [00:08:06]:

let you differ the taxes. So you don’t really ever get away from them unless you just, you know, properties sit there and you die and pass them on and

Jordan Berry [00:08:15]:

defer until you die. Defer until you die. Right? Or refi till you die.

Alex Bloom [00:08:19]:

Super stressful to do because you have such a short window, but if you can make it happen, it it’s worth it.

Jordan Berry [00:08:25]:

Yeah. There’s timelines associated all that. Just wanna make sure everybody’s on the same page. So alright. So you took this, money you had, 10.31 exchanged it into a property with, with a laundromat. And were you were you looking for a property with a business in it or with a laundromat specifically? Or what were you looking for? I was

Alex Bloom [00:08:42]:

looking a For anything that I could 10 31 into that I could make money on that wasn’t a multifamily. So I was looking at commercial leases, you know, laundromats, car washes, storage units. And in our area, Everybody’s trying to get into storage units, so it’s kind of like oversaturated at this point and they’re overpriced. So I was like, alright, this is out of my price range. A Car washes, same thing. They wanted way too much money. And laundromats, I kinda found, like, the happy medium where I can afford to get into it. A Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:09:07]:

And it’s still, like, it’s not an overly complicated business. So, like, the 1st store I bought, it was 2 transactions because the 10/31 only lets you buy the real estate. So I had to buy the laundromat business itself separately. So it’s like 2 2 2 separate transactions. A But we were able to work out a deal. And, you know, I mean, I’ll put the numbers out there. I paid what did I pay? I paid 405,000 for the real estate and the business. A it was a turnkey business.

Alex Bloom [00:09:36]:

The guy got it from 88 year old guy. He built this place up. It was profitable from day 1. He just wanted to retire. A He wasn’t selling it because it needed a retool. The machines in there are from 2016. So, you know, they’re pretty much just paid off. A Everything works great.

Alex Bloom [00:09:53]:

The store was nice. It had good curb appeal. It was just walk in and start making money from day 1. So it was a win win.

Jordan Berry [00:10:02]:

A what was the breakdown again for the real estate versus the laundromat price?

Alex Bloom [00:10:07]:

200 k on the real estate and 205 on the business. A Okay. And I had a P and L sheet. So this guy had it’s a hybrid store. So he was able to give me his printout from his card system a in that store. So I was able to go back years and see his revenue for card and coin. I took his p and l, his profit and loss statement. I gave it to my local banker.

Alex Bloom [00:10:28]:

A She looked at this thing and said, I can lend on this right now. The numbers look great. So I was like, perfect. Like, that’s what I wanna hear. You know? It looked good to me, but she knows better. A

Alex Bloom [00:10:39]:

Mhmm.

Alex Bloom [00:10:39]:

And, yeah. So there was 20205. So we ended up doing 2 separate transactions because of the 10/31. So I was done in March 31st, a And I was, you know, pulling that was, I believe that was a Friday, and I was pulling money out of this on Monday. Dude. So it was a win.

Jordan Berry [00:10:58]:

Living living the dream there.

Alex Bloom [00:11:01]:

Yeah. Wise man once told me, nightmares are dreams too.

Jordan Berry [00:11:04]:

A that’s true.

Alex Bloom [00:11:05]:

You know, I’m brand new to the industry. In March, you know, 31st, we closed on this. And, like, 2 weeks in, 3 weeks in, I had a dryer fire.

Jordan Berry [00:11:13]:

Okay. Welcome. Welcome to the business. Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:11:16]:

Hey. Welcome to the business. It’s it’s it’s a hot business.

Jordan Berry [00:11:20]:

That’s right.

Alex Bloom [00:11:22]:

A So, yeah, small dryer fire. It was a 75 pound Speed Queen machine that wasn’t even running. So we were able to go back, watch the security a footage. The clothes were in there. They were left in there for about an hour, and they spontaneously combusted. Woah. Customer in the store. It’s unattended too.

Alex Bloom [00:11:37]:

So a There’s a customer in there that saw it. He runs over, grabs the fire extinguisher, runs back, goes to put it out, he stops, a pulls out a cell phone so you can record it while trying to put it out. Yeah. The funniest thing that

Jordan Berry [00:11:50]:

you’re like. Of course, man. You gotta get the footage. Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:11:53]:

If it’s not on Facebook, it never happened.

Jordan Berry [00:11:55]:

A that’s right.

Alex Bloom [00:11:56]:

You put the fire out. The fire department came in, you know, put fans in, so there was no smoke damage. A It was just a dryer, which we were able to fix and really kind of worked out

Alex Bloom [00:12:07]:

the best way you could.

Jordan Berry [00:12:09]:

A yeah. Well, just I don’t know. We’re since we’re on the topic, can you what was the, did they get any sense of why it caught fire.

Alex Bloom [00:12:19]:

No idea. So we speculated a few things. There was one of those, like, bathroom floor mats that has the rubber backing. So what we think happened is that was in there. It got hot, and it was laying in there with the clothes on top of it, and it just kinda kept on getting hot and just kind of spontaneously. You could see it start smoking, a in the cameras before it actually went up in flames. So Yeah. But fire department was great.

Alex Bloom [00:12:43]:

The the customer was great. I wish I knew who he was. Like, I’d give him a loyalty card with money on it to say thank you, but he didn’t stick around. He kinda just put it out and continued about his business. A

Jordan Berry [00:12:54]:

were were there any repercussions for the customer whose actual stuff it was?

Alex Bloom [00:12:59]:

Never even heard from them. A the fire department took all the clothes from that dryer, and they threw it outside. So this was, like, 9, 10 o’clock at night. It was raining that night, so I ended up driving down. That place is an hour from my house. So fire department calls me. I’m like, yeah. I’ll be there in an hour.

Alex Bloom [00:13:13]:

I’m on my way. Drive down. The clothes are outside getting soaked. Like, I just a Threw them off to the side. Nobody called me. The next day, they went in the trash. So

Jordan Berry [00:13:24]:

Man, wild.

Alex Bloom [00:13:26]:

Yeah. It was.

Jordan Berry [00:13:27]:

Wild. Wild. Well, you know, it’s what’s, what’s crazy is, like, number 1, you know, you you hear these stories a lot, especially if you’re like trying to get into the business. People are like pretty quick to be like, Oh, don’t do that because a you might get a fire or repair costs are expensive or whatever, whatever, whatever. And it’s true. Like, so Ross Dodds, a he’s been on the podcast a couple times. Episode 9 was the 1st time he came on the podcast, and he shares a story of how he had a fire, and it basically burned down his entire store. Like Like,

Alex Bloom [00:13:59]:

the 1st day he owns it. Right?

Jordan Berry [00:14:01]:

Yeah. Like, yeah, like, basically, like, right after he bought it. And then he didn’t have any laundromats for, like, 2 years, and then he had 2 after 2 years when they were, like, fixing it all. Right?

Alex Bloom [00:14:10]:

I was just scrolling through Facebook, I think, yesterday, and I saw a post from him that he just, you know, had another location that they broke into and stole all the copper.

Alex Bloom [00:14:20]:

A Like, I feel so bad.

Jordan Berry [00:14:20]:

All yeah. Can’t win. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to Laundromat, and welcome to LA too at the same time. That’s yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:14:26]:

That’s that’s tough.

Jordan Berry [00:14:27]:

A that’s wild. So Yeah. He’s been waiting on, permits to redo this place and finally got them and then found out he didn’t have any pipes left, a bunch of stuff. So this stuff happens. Right? And like this is why like, you know, for a lot of people, buying a business or starting a business or it’s not for everybody. Right? Because stuff does happen. And part of being a business owner, part of being an entrepreneur is having the you know, it. It’s solving problems.

Jordan Berry [00:15:01]:

Right? It’s solving problems. And, you know, sometimes these problems come up like that. But kudos to you for, you know, handling and having, you know, luckily, you had a customer who could put that thing out before it did real damage.

Alex Bloom [00:15:14]:

Yeah. That’s, that’s a saving grace there.

Jordan Berry [00:15:17]:

Yeah. A that’s crazy. Okay. So let’s go back to your deal. So you 1031 into this real estate property and, and then bought the laundromat. What was the process like for you, both on both fronts? Actually, the the real estate side and the laundromat side. What was the process for you of, like, due diligence?

Alex Bloom [00:15:42]:

A Jordan, I lost you there for a minute. Alright. You’re back now.

Jordan Berry [00:15:48]:

Yeah. It was it, like, froze up on me here. You know what I’m gonna do? I have a, hold on. Let me mark down this time, actually, just so my editor knows. Cut this out. A I don’t I don’t know. It might be my Internet, actually. I’m not sure.

Jordan Berry [00:16:11]:

I’m gonna hit this low data mode. And what that’s gonna do is it’s gonna turn off our video for each other live.

Alex Bloom [00:16:21]:

Okay.

Jordan Berry [00:16:22]:

But it’ll still be recording the video. So the video will still be there, but it’ll just turn it off so it doesn’t freeze up like that. Is that cool? Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:16:31]:

It’s fine.

Jordan Berry [00:16:32]:

Alright. And then I’ll reask the question, which was, tell us about the due diligence on the real estate and the and the laundromat. So I’ll reask it. We can cut all that out. Eric, cut all that out. And then we’ll just pick it up as if nothing happened.

Alex Bloom [00:16:51]:

Yeah. Perfect.

Alex Bloom [00:16:53]:

Alright.

Jordan Berry [00:16:57]:

Are you still there?

Alex Bloom [00:16:58]:

Still here.

Jordan Berry [00:16:59]:

Alright. Cool. Alright. Let me just get down this time here. So okay. Going back to the deal. Tell us about, a if you don’t mind, tell us about, the due diligence process that you went through, both for the real estate and for the laundromat when you did this 10/31 exchange.

Alex Bloom [00:17:21]:

So The real estate part was, it was pretty simple. So I’m a realtor as well. I I didn’t use myself as a realtor on this because I’m not licensed in Connecticut.

Alex Bloom [00:17:31]:

A So

Alex Bloom [00:17:31]:

I’m I live in Mass. This store was in Connecticut.

Jordan Berry [00:17:35]:

So I used The Real

Alex Bloom [00:17:36]:

the listing agent that listed it for the seller, a And it was it was pretty simple. I looked at the comps in the area, which was really kinda hard to figure out. It’s a small store. It’s only 900, 918 square feet. A so I kinda figured out what it’s worth. And then I looked at the business itself and what his gross and his net was, a And I ended up buying if if you do the math on the real estate and on the business and you combine, you know, that purchase price of 405 a with what his, you know, gross and his nets were. I ended up buying it with real estate at, like, a little over 3 x, but it was under 4 x.

Jordan Berry [00:18:12]:

Dang.

Alex Bloom [00:18:13]:

So that was to me like a home run because I’m looking at other laundromats that are no real estate for, like, 5 x and more. A So I looked at a bunch of places before I even bought this one, because we we were gonna build a store. Are we gonna buy another rundown building, you know, before we got this one and just nothing worked out. I ran into issues with everything, which is probably for the best because this ended up working out, which was great because it was profitable day 1. A But I looked at comps for the real estate, figured that it’s easily worth, you know, the the 200 k. And that was pretty much that. A on the business end, I looked at all his utilities. I mean, this guy was super organized.

Alex Bloom [00:18:52]:

He had everything. He gave me, like, I think, a 2 years of data off of his, he’s got the Spider Watch system in there. So 2 years of data off of that, which has your coin and your, you know, card sales on there and all your loyalty stuff. A He had bills for the past few months. And he was just, like, a genuinely honest guy. Like, when you talk to him, he’s, like, 88 years old. And you could tell he just wanted he wanted to sell this so he could take the money and go travel with his wife. That was the whole thing.

Jordan Berry [00:19:18]:

That’s awesome.

Alex Bloom [00:19:19]:

Yeah. Which, a You know, unfortunately, it didn’t happen for him. So while we were going through this process, we ran into some environmental issues. So we had to do a 21 e. A This used to be a gas station, so that kind of threw up a red flag with the bank. The site was perfectly clean. We paid for the 21 e. He split the cost with me.

Alex Bloom [00:19:38]:

A During this whole process of everything getting delayed to buy it, his wife ended up, like, passing away 2 weeks before the closing. A oh, no. I feel so bad for him because that’s all he wanted to do was just go travel with her. You know? And the 1st offer I made him a was, owner financed offer. Like, hey. Take this. I’ll buy you out. You know? And he didn’t wanna do that.

Alex Bloom [00:19:58]:

He wanted all the money to go travel. And I feel like if you’d taken that, I could refied and got him the rest of the money, and he could have just started doing what he did. But it probably took about 3, 4 months for the whole process to go through. A

Jordan Berry [00:20:10]:

So Dang.

Alex Bloom [00:20:12]:

It sucked. Yeah. I felt so, so bad for him. But after he sold, I I still talked to him. He just went down to Florida to visit a other kid. So he’s traveling just not the way he wanted.

Jordan Berry [00:20:24]:

Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:20:25]:

So

Jordan Berry [00:20:25]:

Yeah. That’s too bad, you know, a that that happened like that. Man, the timing of that is just brutal.

Alex Bloom [00:20:31]:

Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:20:31]:

Yeah. Still, really nice guy. And like I said, he was just you could tell just from talking to him, he wasn’t out to screw anybody or sell you something that wasn’t there. He was just 100% upfront about everything he did. He automated just about everything in the store. A just, you know, one of those guys, like, DIYers that would do things, but he would do them right. So I I barely did anything to the store after purchasing it. I did some paint, a Cleaned up some stuff, and, you know, we’re gonna do some work to it over the winter now, but just kind of freshened it up a little bit and just kept it running.

Jordan Berry [00:21:04]:

A dude, that’s awesome. Did you find that I mean, it’s nice that he had a card system, that spider watch system that helped you verify everything. Did you find that business was the same as it was before or, like, what he said?

Alex Bloom [00:21:17]:

It was yeah. It’s exactly what he said, like, to the t. A, yeah, everything was, you know, as expected. So our 1st month, you know, I went back and, you know, what’s nice was I took all you’re you’re able to take over the spider wash a So he’s had it there for, like, 8 years or so. So I took it over. So now I’m able to go back and compare my numbers now to a All his numbers going back, like, 8 years. Mhmm. So I was able to see, like, the averages that, you know, the best days and all of that, averaging it over multiple years.

Alex Bloom [00:21:48]:

A So everything he told me was accurate, and I think that, you know, the card systems kind of stop people from trying to cheat you on a sale. If you have a all of those numbers. If it counts coin and it counts card, like, it’s all laid out for you. It’s the best way to do it.

Jordan Berry [00:22:04]:

A yeah. No. I agree. Totally. And it makes it like you said, that makes it much more financeable Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:22:10]:

Too. So Yep. Exactly. You know, you gotta change that might count how much cash is going into it, but that cash isn’t necessarily, like, what your profit is because, You know, somebody can put a $20 bill and only spend 10, 10 walks out the door. Your cash machine counted. You got 20, but that skews your number. So, like, all a Cash stores. Like, I feel like it’s really hard to purchase and kinda figure out what it’s making, which we talk about for the other stores that we did.

Alex Bloom [00:22:37]:

So

Jordan Berry [00:22:38]:

yeah. No. That that’s for sure true. And and especially if there’s not very good records, which a lot of times there aren’t, and especially if, you know, things aren’t being reported or deposited into banks, which a lot of times they aren’t. So, yeah, it makes it it makes it tough. That is that is the, a that is the trick for sure when you’re buying a store. So that card system makes it super easy.

Alex Bloom [00:23:02]:

Especially when you’re brand new to the industry and you really don’t know what to a fact. I mean, that’s, like, key. Find a store that’s for sale that might be a hybrid store or even, you know, an all card store, which I’m a hybrid store type of person.

Jordan Berry [00:23:13]:

A

Alex Bloom [00:23:14]:

but, yeah, all the numbers are there, and they can’t lie to you. I mean, I guess they could sit there and really just feed quarters all day if they wanted to, but They have that kind of time. I mean

Jordan Berry [00:23:25]:

Yeah. They they earned it at that point. But there’s other ways to kind of verify that too. You know? A yeah. And that yeah. And that’s a reason like, if you’re if you’re seeing yellow flags or red flags popping up, you know, it’s a reason to bring somebody in if if it’s your first deal or you’re not really sure what’s going on. Bring somebody in who’s got some experience to help you kinda unravel all that. A do you when you went back through the spider watch data, did you find anything interesting? Like, did it used to make a whole lot more money or less money or or anything interesting in that data? A curiosity.

Alex Bloom [00:23:57]:

Yeah. So, actually, I got curious and I went back. And I’m a numbers guy, so I definitely looked back years, and it was just a slow progression that kind of he kept building onto. And it seems a Like, over the years, he just made more and more, and it progressed in the right direction. So the data kinda supported everything he was doing in that store and the customer base. And I was able to talk to customers in the store even when we went to go look at the place, and they were all like, this place is amazing. It’s always clean. A The owner’s super nice, and they’re all like, we’re super worried when he sells it.

Alex Bloom [00:24:26]:

I’m like, no. We’re gonna keep it all the same. Like so a Talking to customers, there’s a lot of good information because they’re not hiding anything.

Jordan Berry [00:24:35]:

That yeah. That’s exactly right. Yeah. They’ll tell you. Mhmm. Too.

Alex Bloom [00:24:40]:

So It could

Jordan Berry [00:24:41]:

be a blessing and a curse, though, sometimes, depending on what the customer. Sometimes you get those opinionated ones that,

Alex Bloom [00:24:47]:

Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:24:47]:

Think they’re speaking for everybody. But generally speaking, absolutely.

Alex Bloom [00:24:51]:

You know, you gotta take what they say with a grain of salt and form your own, like, you know, conclusions to it, but it’s still valid information that kind of should help you figure out, you know, if it’s a good store or not.

Jordan Berry [00:25:02]:

Yeah. Yeah. It’s awesome. Okay. So you bought this, you bought this ornament. You really didn’t do a whole lot to it, and it was profitable day 1. And it sounds like a nice, boring success story aside from a small dryer fire that could have been bad, but wasn’t bad.

Alex Bloom [00:25:18]:

Yeah. That’s it.

Jordan Berry [00:25:20]:

I love a I love all this so far. You and me both. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is way better than my story. Gosh, man. I would love a boring story like that.

Jordan Berry [00:25:31]:

When you, when you kinda took over, like, how are you how are you running your store? You got, a is it attended, unattended, or what are you doing over there versus other people? Are you running everything? How’s that how’s it shaping up?

Alex Bloom [00:25:43]:

This

Alex Bloom [00:25:43]:

one’s an unattended store. It’s a It’s open 7 AM to 11 PM, 7 days a week. Everything’s automated. Doors, lights, alarm system. There was a cleaner that would clean for, an Excuse me. The previous owner, he would come in before the store opens because he works at the gas station next door 3rd shift. He would get off of work. He would come in.

Alex Bloom [00:26:02]:

He would clean. Store opens up. A so it’s nice and clean in the morning, and that’s pretty much it. So all I really do is I go there twice a week to Check on the store and empty out the coin boxes. He’ll call me. The you know, the cleaner will call me if there’s an issue. So, So, like, he called me the other day. He goes, hey.

Alex Bloom [00:26:21]:

1 of these machines isn’t working. I had to go down there, found out that the drain was clogged with, I mean, you name it, it was in there. A But that’s pretty much all I’ve done is a little bit of maintenance here and there, and I just go down there, you know, minimum twice a week unless there’s an issue. A I had 1 weekend last month. I was there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It’s an hour from my house. It sucked driving there, but It is what it is.

Jordan Berry [00:26:50]:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that’s I was gonna ask you about that too. Like, being an hour away. Like, how difficult or easy? I mean, one of the questions I get asked a lot is, you know, how far is too far for a laundromat. And a lot of people, like, on on the Internet, have different opinions on this. I’m just kinda curious at your experience being an hour away from it.

Jordan Berry [00:27:11]:

How have you found that? Is that manageable? Would you recommend that?

Alex Bloom [00:27:14]:

So I think It’s

Jordan Berry [00:27:15]:

been more challenging than you thought?

Alex Bloom [00:27:16]:

A I think because the previous owner did such a good job setting everything up, that store being an hour away, and it’s all back roads for me, so there’s really not a lot of traffic

Alex Bloom [00:27:28]:

a going out there.

Alex Bloom [00:27:29]:

It’s not bad. I don’t think I would go any further than that. I think that’s gonna be my limit. A But if the store wasn’t as automated as it is, there was no way I’d be able to make it work. So when when I found the store and I showed it to my wife, I was hey. Check this out. You know? Let’s go look at this. She goes, oh, it’s an hour away.

Alex Bloom [00:27:46]:

I was like, yeah. But it looks nice. You know? Let’s check this out. So I set up a thing with the agent, And, the day we’re driving down there, she said, this is too far. You’re wasting everybody’s time. I don’t even know why we’re looking at this. And we walk through the doors, and we meet the owner. And, like, we talk to him.

Alex Bloom [00:28:03]:

He shows us around, shows us everything. We leave. She’s like, yep. Put in an offer right now.

Jordan Berry [00:28:10]:

What was it that she liked about the store so much? I think

Alex Bloom [00:28:12]:

she really liked the previous owner.

Alex Bloom [00:28:15]:

An

Alex Bloom [00:28:15]:

An honest guy that literally he took the time to show us everything without us even, like, saying we’re interested yet. So Mhmm. You know, just talking to him, and she wanna talk to customers because it was busy. That store’s busy all day long. It doesn’t have a ton of machines. It’s a really small store. A 14 dryers, 13 washers, and it does you know? I mean, I think we average 5 to 6 turns per day in that store.

Jordan Berry [00:28:42]:

A dude, that’s awesome.

Alex Bloom [00:28:44]:

Yeah. So we walked out, and she’s, like, make an offer. I’m like, do you want me to turn around? She goes, well, no. Don’t make it seem too eager a We can’t negotiate. I’m like, I think he knows what he has. He’s not negotiating. Pay him what he wants. You know? He wanted 400.

Alex Bloom [00:28:56]:

We gave him 405 because we found out there was 2 other offers coming in. And then, he accepted ours because he said that he liked us. So it was kind of a a win win.

Jordan Berry [00:29:06]:

Yeah. That’s awesome. And that’s I mean, that that’s actually a really good tip. You know, I’ve said this before, but like real estate, buying businesses, stuff like that. This is a relationship business. Right? And building rapport and taking the time to, you know, get to know a seller. And not only that, but probably even more importantly than that, a you know, recognizing when a seller has is taking pride in their business and just letting them share. I’m sure that’s what did it for you.

Jordan Berry [00:29:33]:

I mean and you guys obviously our awesome people. But I’m sure a huge part of it was you guys just let him show you everything. And he probably did it because he loves a business, and he takes pride in it. And he’s rented for a long time, and he knows what he has. And, you guys let him kinda show it off, which is awesome.

Alex Bloom [00:29:50]:

And an Ed’s funny. So he came back a few times because, you know, just to check on the place and hang out. And and one of the times he was there, a A customer came up with an issue, and he went to go reach in his pocket for his keys like he’s probably done for the past 20 years and realized he doesn’t have keys anymore.

Alex Bloom [00:30:07]:

A Right.

Alex Bloom [00:30:07]:

Notice that. I didn’t say anything. I kinda just let him keep talking to the customer and help him out because it made him feel good. Yeah. He’s it’s his it was his baby for, like, 20 years. So a yeah. But great guy. I stay with him once in a while.

Alex Bloom [00:30:21]:

You know? So kinda keep that

Alex Bloom [00:30:23]:

relationship going.

Jordan Berry [00:30:24]:

That’s awesome. I love to hear that too. I’m curiously, I mean, you kind of mentioned this. And I’m wondering if you can kind of pinpoint some things for us. But you said, you know, being an hour away has been doable in large part because of how he set up his business and automations and stuff. Can you like, pinpoint some of the things that he has done that’s made it more doable for you to to live further away from the laundromat.

Alex Bloom [00:30:51]:

Sure. A so everything’s automated. Right? So, I mean, you have the coin. You have the change machine. There’s 2 of them in case one goes down. You have the card system a so people can use the cards, which it’s actually I just ordered a new one to upgrade them all because they’re all kind of you know, they’re old and beat up. A Doors. Both front and back door are automatic.

Alex Bloom [00:31:08]:

The front door is one of those automatic sliding doors, and the back door is a regular swinging door that he added, a, you know, a motor on too. So it’s motion censored. It opens right up for you. So when you’re walking in with a handful of laundry, you know, you walk right in, door opens. It’s it’s people love it. A He’s got heat and air conditioning. It’s set. It turns on and off as needed.

Alex Bloom [00:31:30]:

Cameras. So we upgraded the camera system because a This was a little older, but the cameras kind of help with all of that. We have an Amazon Alexa in the ceiling. So if we need to communicate with somebody in there, we can do that. A and one of the changes I made was I put a realtor’s lockbox on the wall, and I left a spider wash card in there with no money on it. And what I do is if somebody says, hey. The machine stole my money. I don’t have the time to go review cameras.

Alex Bloom [00:31:53]:

If you lost $5, I’m gonna give you $5. Like, I don’t care. It’s gonna cost me way less than a Driving down there and trying to figure

Jordan Berry [00:31:59]:

it out. Oh, totally. Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:32:00]:

So I have a card in there with no money, and I tell them, I’m like, hey. This is the combination. Open the box. Take a picture of the back of the card with a number. Send it to me. A I’ll put money on there. You lost 5. I’ll give you 10 for your trouble.

Alex Bloom [00:32:11]:

Whatever. Use the card. Put it back when you’re done. Right? A And the reason I have him text me that and I don’t actually keep the number on me, so this way if we have the same person doing it all the time, I’ll have that text thread going, and I’d be like, oh, wait a minute. You’re the only person having an issue every other day. So that was one of the things I did early on so a I didn’t have to drive down there for these, like, small issues of, hey. You know, this washer took my money or, you know, this dryer took my money. Just a That kinda saved me a lot of time.

Alex Bloom [00:32:42]:

I still gotta go down if the change machine kind of jams, which has happened a couple times, but a There’s another one, so I’m not, like, rushing down. So but that’s about the automation that he did.

Jordan Berry [00:32:57]:

No. I think that’s awesome. And that’s, you know, that automation and a lot of the kinda innovations that are happening right now where people are getting creative for, like, Alexa’s and, you know, the the card systems that are happening. And I love the the the real estate lockbox idea that’s on there. All of those things are making it easier to to own laundromats further away, which is really interesting, right now. So thanks for sharing, some of those, some of those tips on ways that we can automate our store. That’s I think that’s awesome.

Alex Bloom [00:33:32]:

Yeah. It’s

Alex Bloom [00:33:33]:

it’s been great. Every time I run into an issue, I try to find a way to resolve it without having to go there. A yes. That’s key.

Jordan Berry [00:33:41]:

Yeah. I love that. And I think that that kind of thinking leads to more innovation, right? Because a eventually, you’ll come up with things that, you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise because you’ve encountered a problem that you haven’t encountered yet, a that you could foresee having again and you think of a solution for it. So I love that, that sort of mindset. And I think even if you own a laundromat down the street from your house and I was kinda talking to somebody else about this today, actually. If you own a laundromat even just down the street from yourself, temptation could be to just jump down there and go solved the problem. And I did that a lot early on even though I didn’t live that close to my laundromat. But, you know, even if you live close, you know, trying to figure out ways to not have to go in there when you don’t need to, is I think it’ll just serve your business better, actually in the long run.

Alex Bloom [00:34:30]:

Yeah. So It it resolves the issue for the customer much faster than even if you’re 5, 10 minutes away. If you can resolve it in 30 seconds with a cell phone instead of driving down. Now that customer’s happy that they’re not waiting 10 minutes for you to get there.

Jordan Berry [00:34:42]:

Yep. Yep. A that’s true. And I definitely had or especially early on, I had my fair share of customers who had to wait, like, 35, 45 minutes for me to get down there it as quick as I could get there. But, you know, I and I wasn’t thinking about any of these things, early on there. So I love hearing all the different ways people do that.

Alex Bloom [00:35:03]:

Yeah. Time is money.

Jordan Berry [00:35:05]:

Time is money. Not just for us, but for our customers too. Right?

Alex Bloom [00:35:09]:

Exactly.

Jordan Berry [00:35:09]:

Yeah. And respecting them. Okay. Cool. So you’ve got this laundromat. You bought it into March or you close on it into March. An and this is I mean, this sounds like a dream a dream deal, more or less. Do you feel like you got the valuation worth out of your purchase price.

Alex Bloom [00:35:32]:

I think so. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t regret any bit of that one at all. A I feel like I might have even paid more if I had to, but Yeah. I don’t have to. So I had to guess that’s a good thing.

Jordan Berry [00:35:46]:

That’s right.

Alex Bloom [00:35:46]:

Yeah. It was it was a score. It was on the market. It was just on, like, MLS for a while, which I don’t understand why. And then I Saw it, and I didn’t think nothing of it because it was an hour away and then kind of revisited, you know, the listing. And I’m like, let’s go check this out. It’s still up, and we’re about to close on our condo. So let’s, like, a Let’s do this.

Alex Bloom [00:36:05]:

And yeah. So

Jordan Berry [00:36:07]:

Dude, awesome. But that was, that’s not your only one. Right? You own more than 1.

Alex Bloom [00:36:13]:

I do. I have, well, I have 3 locations, now. So the second one, we ended up buying June 1st. A and that one is

Jordan Berry [00:36:23]:

Real quick.

Alex Bloom [00:36:24]:

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Real quick. And that one’s 10 minutes up the street from me. It’s in my town, right in the center of town. So that one was on MLS as well for a long time with a realtor I knew, But it was overpriced. It had it’s like a 3,000 square foot stand alone building. The people selling it own the building, and then they have a tenant in it next door as well.

Alex Bloom [00:36:47]:

So it’s laundromat and a deli.

Jordan Berry [00:36:50]:

Oh, cool.

Alex Bloom [00:36:51]:

It was a great store. A I mean, the location was it it’s a phenomenal location right in the center of a college town. Windows I mean, we have 2 of our walls out of 4 walls are all glass. But they had, like, 30 year old Waskomats in there that were on their last leg. A they were older owners as well. They were in their late eighties, and they were only open 8 to 5, like, Monday through Saturday. They weren’t open Sundays. A so they weren’t really making money.

Alex Bloom [00:37:20]:

It was enough for them to

Jordan Berry [00:37:21]:

open Sundays?

Alex Bloom [00:37:22]:

You know?

Jordan Berry [00:37:23]:

Sunday’s like the busy day.

Alex Bloom [00:37:24]:

Exactly. Exactly. A But they were trying to sell, and they were trying to just cut back because, you know, they they just didn’t kinda run it anymore. That was kind of it. So went in there. So I went a construction company as well, and I talked to my project manager on my construction company. I’m like, hey, check this place out. And he’s a full retool and full remodel.

Alex Bloom [00:37:48]:

Like, are you interested in, like, partnering with me on this? And he’s like, You know what? Yeah. This could be fun. And I asked them on a really cold day when we were working in a place with no heat. So Laundromat has a lot of coin operated heaters.

Alex Bloom [00:38:05]:

Mhmm.

Jordan Berry [00:38:05]:

So That’s right.

Alex Bloom [00:38:06]:

We kinda joke around about that. A But, yeah, let the customers pay for your heat. Right? So it was on a cold day, so he was all for it. So we kind of looked at a couple places together and then Revisited this one because we looked at it before and just numbers didn’t make sense. They wanted they listed it for 85,000, and they just weren’t making that kind of money. A so it was just a business, no real estate. They wanted to keep the building. They still own the building.

Alex Bloom [00:38:34]:

They just kinda wanna collect rent even though I a bugging them to sell it to me every time I give them a rent check. So, and it was pretty much buying the location. I didn’t care about what they were making because none of it made a They weren’t operating it the way they should. I didn’t care about the equipment because none of it was worth anything to me. And the whole they didn’t have a change machine. They would count out quarters for the past 20 years for people. 30 years. They were there 30 years, and they were the change machine.

Jordan Berry [00:39:03]:

Oh my gosh.

Alex Bloom [00:39:04]:

They were selling soap. They would buy, like, big containers of laundry detergent at, like, Costco, and they would refill, like, you know, water bottles halfway up and selling

Alex Bloom [00:39:15]:

for, like, a

Alex Bloom [00:39:16]:

dollar 50. It was just, you know,

Jordan Berry [00:39:19]:

run really quickly. A yeah. I love it.

Alex Bloom [00:39:22]:

So we went in. They wanted 85, and I walked in, and I’m like, you know, there was a language barrier. So it’s an older Korean couple. A I walk in, and she’s there working. And I’m like, hey. You know, do you still wanna sell? Because it was off market at this point. It just didn’t sell. The listing expired.

Alex Bloom [00:39:36]:

I’m like, do you still wanna sell? She said, yeah. I’m like, can we look around? She’s, sure. We looked at everything we needed to see. I’m like, alright. I’ll get back to you. So we ended up coming back, I think, a week later, and her son was working, who he spoke a lot more English. A Okay. You know, we talked to your mom.

Alex Bloom [00:39:54]:

We’re interested in buying. I wanna look over the numbers. He had a folder ready to go with all of their numbers. A So I could see the utilities. I could see, like, the revenue, which was cash only. They didn’t do much card. They have it a wash and fold business going, but it was, you know, a few customers. So I looked at the numbers, and the numbers were just like, a There’s nothing here for me to buy.

Alex Bloom [00:40:18]:

I will make you an offer based on the location of what I think I could turn this into. So I offered him 50 k, And we ended up settling, I think, like, 525. Like, I wasn’t gonna lose a deal over $25100. A So we closed June 1st. We had a change machine already prebought. We bought, a POS system. You You know, I had it sitting in my dining room table. We did training on it with the company we bought it from.

Alex Bloom [00:40:44]:

So day 1, we took all of their soaps, and I felt so bad too because they give us the keys, and they’re still in the store, and we threw all of their soaps out. We threw, like, half of their stuff right in the dumpster. Yeah. Like, I mean, they’re just a Wasn’t valuable

Jordan Berry [00:40:57]:

to us.

Alex Bloom [00:40:58]:

Put the chain machine on the counter. It wasn’t even bolted in. Filled it with quarters. Like, I didn’t have time to count money. Had you know, went shopping, prebought a bunch of, you know, laundry detergent that we can sell and just kind of made changes day 1 a And then started retooling, and we never closed. We started retooling in phases. So phase 1, there’s 2 banks of washers, 2 troughs. A phase 1 was all the bigger equipment.

Alex Bloom [00:41:26]:

So we did 80, sixties, and forties. It was 17 machines. Phase 2 just got installed on Tuesday. We’re still working on connecting everything, but it’s all the 20 pound and 30 pound washers. And we did 2 75 pound dryers and 2 45 pound stacks, a And they should be up and running by this weekend. And then phase 3 will be the rest of the dryers probably in the spring.

Jordan Berry [00:41:52]:

A dude, I love it. I love it. So so you bought it from these guys for 52.5. Are you purchasing equipment in phase, or do you purchase all the equipment and just having it installed in phases?

Alex Bloom [00:42:06]:

So originally, we were gonna try to make everything last. A Right. Fixed all the stuff that was in there. I ended up buying some used equipment to fill in some gaps that were there. That was a mistake. Never buy used equipment again. A And then we ended up buying we ended up financing the equipment through Alliance. We got Speed Queen stuff, a And we ended up financing it in stages.

Alex Bloom [00:42:29]:

So we financed stage 1. They give you, like, you know, 90 day deferred payments and stuff as well to kinda help. A so stage 1, we finance that. Our and our application is actually good for the whole year. So to finance stage 2, we really did not a have to give them anything other than the machine breakdown from the distributor, which we’ll we’ll touch on the distributor in a minute. I got a good story about distributors. So, yeah, so phase 1, they financed. Phase 2 was real simple.

Alex Bloom [00:42:59]:

Hey. These are the machines we want. Gave them all the info. They’re like, cool. No problem. A And I’m hoping phase 3 goes the same because it’ll be within the 1st year, and they said our application is open for the whole year. So

Jordan Berry [00:43:11]:

a yeah. Awesome. Real quick. I mean, just because you brought it up. You okay. It sounds a it sounds like you didn’t have a great experience on the used equipment side, and you said you’d never buy it again. Can you enlighten us, like, what why do you have that opinion?

Alex Bloom [00:43:26]:

Buying used equipment is just a buying somebody else’s headache. If it’s gonna if they’re selling it, that means it’s a headache to them. You know what I mean? Even if it’s working, like, we put the stuff in. Some of it worked. A Some of it didn’t. Then it needed, you know, parts, and some of the parts weren’t even available anymore because it was older. We got a really good deal on it. It was super cheap.

Alex Bloom [00:43:46]:

When we did our 1st phase, I ended up selling my 30 year old Wascaux mats to a guy in Pennsylvania, a because they were all functioning machines. They were just old and, you know, sometimes having issues.

Alex Bloom [00:44:00]:

Mhmm.

Jordan Berry [00:44:01]:

A But

Alex Bloom [00:44:01]:

it’s just a lot easier to put new stuff in, bite the bullet, spend the money, and just not have to deal with constant. This machine took my money. The Quarters aren’t going into this one. I don’t think this machine’s working. It’s just spinning, and it hasn’t turned off. And it’s been spinning for the last 2 hours. A bad end. Yep.

Alex Bloom [00:44:20]:

I’m here. Keep going.

Jordan Berry [00:44:21]:

I’m sorry.

Alex Bloom [00:44:22]:

Start we’re at if I missed you. Nope. Yeah. So just buying the used equipment, just a Like, yeah, we installed it. So we spent the money on the install, and we reinstalled it ourselves. We didn’t have to hire anybody, wired it myself. Well, my son actually wired it. My son’s an a apprentice.

Alex Bloom [00:44:37]:

So he does all of our electrical work. He wired it. My project manager does all of our plumbing because that’s what he used to do. So we kinda have everything in house, but just having to constantly every day have an issue with the older equipment is a headache. So from now on, I will never buy used equipment again. It’s all gonna be brand new because now if there’s a headache, I’m calling that distributor. Hey. This is broken.

Alex Bloom [00:45:03]:

It’s still under warranty for 5 years. Let me know when it’s fixed. So

Jordan Berry [00:45:09]:

a yeah. Yeah. I’m a I’m a big proponent of buying you also for a lot of the same reasons. I I wouldn’t say I’m against buying used, but I don’t know that I would really buy used unless there was, like, a specific situation where it made sense, where I think those situations are pretty limited.

Alex Bloom [00:45:30]:

One of the other things with this store was, you know, it had this 600,000 BTU steam boiler that would heat a 200 gallon water tank. So the previous owner, he’s like, you turn this on at 8 AM when you open, so now you don’t have hot water till 10. And if you didn’t shut this thing down by 12 or 1, it would pour out out of the the relief valve on the tank all of the hot water that it made. So within the 1st month, we scrap that system. We put in a high efficiency water heater with a mixing valve, so now we get 200 gallons of on demand hot water. It’s not an on demand water heater, though. A tank. We saved $500 off of our utility bill in that 1st month.

Alex Bloom [00:46:10]:

Dang. So we spent I think it was like a We only had to pay material. We didn’t have to pay any labor to install it. So we were, like, right around 8 to $10 with everything with all the, you know, copper piping because we can’t use any PEX in Massachusetts. Everything in a commercial building out here has to be copper or cast. So all the copper piping, the water heater, the mixing valve, a we needed. My project manager, you know, he does all the plumbing. He installed it all.

Alex Bloom [00:46:35]:

And, yeah, just a $500 a month. We’re gonna make our money back, you know, very quickly on that. And our customers now have hot water all day long.

Jordan Berry [00:46:47]:

A yeah. No. That’s huge. That’s huge. And I know I mean, those the the the boilers with the big old tanks. I mean, I think they’re still probably the what people use, the majority of the time or still have in their stores. But yeah, man. I mean, it it’s costly to heat those big old tanks where the water and then they leach heat.

Jordan Berry [00:47:10]:

Even if you’ve got them covered, a they leach heat. And so you gotta heat them kind of throughout the day. And, yeah, it’s it’s a lot. But $500, that’s awesome savings.

Alex Bloom [00:47:20]:

Huge. And we noticed that right off the bat because we had all of their utility bills, so we could just compare. So we also have more usage. So even with so we probably saved even more because our usage doubled because we opened our hours. We’re a hybrid store, so we’re 7 to 6, 7 to 11, you know, open. 7 to 6 attended Monday through Saturday and 6 to 11 on Sundays were unattended. And just this past week, we actually added an attendant for Sunday for a half the day because we found the need for it. Yeah.

Alex Bloom [00:47:49]:

But yeah. So our usage probably doubled, and we saved the 500. So we probably saved even more if we really tried to calculate it.

Jordan Berry [00:47:57]:

A yeah. No. That that’s wild. That’s awesome. Dang. I I just thought of a question when you were talking there. A it’ll come to me. But so okay.

Jordan Berry [00:48:11]:

So you how how big is this store? A your other one you said was 900 and something square feet?

Alex Bloom [00:48:16]:

So the first one’s 918, and this one’s about 3,000.

Jordan Berry [00:48:20]:

Oh, this is a lot bigger.

Alex Bloom [00:48:21]:

A lot bigger. Yeah. And we have a decent, like, behind so behind, like, our counter area, we have a lot of storage for wash and fold. So we’re trying to grow that part as well, which a has been growing pretty good. We’re averaging about 25 new customers a month. So

Jordan Berry [00:48:37]:

Dude, that’s awesome. How are you getting those new customers?

Alex Bloom [00:48:40]:

A Oh, man. I do a lot of social media stuff. I was doing Google Adwords for a while. We have a radio ad right now. We just filmed a TV a TV commercial that’s not out yet, but I did put it out Uh-huh. YouTube sponsored, you know, YouTube ads and, a Google display ads. Mhmm. What else have we done? We’ve done a ton of community stuff.

Alex Bloom [00:49:04]:

A, you know, we do the laundry love program, which is free laundry for 2 hours every 4th Wednesday. So that kind of, like, brings people in and then they tell people, so we get a from that. Just word-of-mouth, a lot of networking. Networking is amazing. The power of, you know, business to business networking is huge. So I should’ve saved that for the end.

Jordan Berry [00:49:26]:

You can bring it back up again.

Alex Bloom [00:49:27]:

So, like, just a little bit of everything and kinda trying to find the best way to, a you know, where the best return on ad spend is. So still learning and still trying new things.

Jordan Berry [00:49:39]:

A I think we all are sorta as an industry. I mean, advertising, it’s not new, but it’s relatively new here, in our industry. And especially in in any kind of systematic way. I think it’s pretty neat. So I think we’re all kinda learning, together right now, which is pretty cool.

Alex Bloom [00:49:56]:

So yeah. An Yeah. And we’re there’s 4 laundromats in town as well, so we’re not the only one. We just happen to have the bigger store, square footage wise. A Mhmm. So we do have some competition as well.

Jordan Berry [00:50:10]:

Have you a have you seen the competition respond at all to some of the things that you’re doing in any way?

Alex Bloom [00:50:18]:

Not really. So one of them is a smaller unattended store. They have a decent amount of top loaders and stuff like that, and they’re further they’re probably a mile away from me. So I don’t even look at them as a because the people that walk into, excuse me, their store won’t necessarily come to mind if they’re just kinda going to whoever’s closest. A The other 2 are directly across the street from each other about a quarter mile away right on the other side of the town center. So if you go town center, we’re on a The east side there on the west side. There’s 2 right across the street from each other. 1 of them was renovating for about 2 years, and we kinda opened at the same time.

Alex Bloom [00:50:57]:

A They have air conditioning. We don’t. So customers come in all the time, all summer. All we heard was, hey. You know, they have air conditioning up the street.

Jordan Berry [00:51:03]:

I’m like, yeah. We’ve been told. Okay. Cool. So we’ll see you next week. So, like,

Alex Bloom [00:51:08]:

you know, so we we hear that we’re a lot nicer to people, so they come to us. A And now with the new equipment, we went with all the quantum touch stuff. So we have the Speed Queen insights. We have the app so people could do credit card. A we see a lot more people coming in for like that, the newer, the bigger washers, the 80 pounders. So We’re just trying to be the best store and give people the most value for when they come in.

Jordan Berry [00:51:39]:

Yeah. That’s awesome. Do you have any do you have any sense of how many people use the the app payment versus a do you have spider washing this 1?

Alex Bloom [00:51:50]:

No. So this 1, we have the Speed Queen equipment. So we just decided to go with the insights that they have.

Jordan Berry [00:51:55]:

So they have the insights Sure. Exactly. Everything.

Alex Bloom [00:51:59]:

A And they have the Speed Queen app that people can use

Alex Bloom [00:51:59]:

to, upload, you know, their credit card and just start our machines right from their app.

Alex Bloom [00:52:04]:

A

Jordan Berry [00:52:04]:

okay. Do do you have any sense of how many people use that versus cash?

Alex Bloom [00:52:08]:

So I don’t have a total number of customers, in our store. We just started using this app a Within the last month, and we have almost a 100 customers on it already, and we’re starting to build a nice float on it as well.

Jordan Berry [00:52:20]:

A Nice.

Alex Bloom [00:52:21]:

So people have so we also give out $2 free every time you load 20 to entice people to use the app so we can have less quarters. A But we’re not gonna do away with quarters because we do have a lot of older clientele that are stuck in their ways. They’re they don’t have smartphones. So a They’re changing machine in quarters, and they’re they’re worried that we’re gonna get rid of it. I had a conversation with a guy last night. I think he’s in his nineties. He’s He’s like, I heard you tell those people to use an app. He’s like, I don’t have a phone.

Alex Bloom [00:52:48]:

I’m like, don’t worry. We’re not getting rid of the quarters. We’ll help you whichever way you want help.

Alex Bloom [00:52:55]:

A yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:52:56]:

Yeah. Yeah. I I think that is the benefit of the hybrid. Right? The the downside of the hybrid is that a you’ve still got quarters you gotta deal with and all that. But the benefit is is it it does sort of cater to a wider, a, a wider audience there, wider customer base. Mhmm. Yeah. We’ve had a good nice.

Alex Bloom [00:53:16]:

To it. And one of the other, like, pitches I have when I’m trying to get people to download the app is, like, if a If you wanna come here on a Saturday, Sunday, and you wanna know how busy the store is, you can open the app at home, and it tells you which machines are available. So if you need the 80 pounders and they’re both running and you see, oh, they’re gonna end in, like, 20 minutes, now you could plan to come down and not have to really wait for one of those machines to open up for you. And that’s been Yeah. Really good for a lot of people. So

Jordan Berry [00:53:41]:

Yeah. That is that is super cool, especially, you know, as on those weekend days where the the laundromat can get busy, and your customers can just see. Like, how busy is it? Is it a good time to go or not? A they can stay in their pajamas a little longer. Exactly. Busy.

Alex Bloom [00:53:58]:

It’s all about creating value and giving them a reason to come to us and not the other guys.

Jordan Berry [00:54:03]:

A that’s exactly it. That’s exactly it. And I love that sort of mentality too of just like it’s given every reason to come to come to our store as opposed to anywhere else they could go. It’s not because it’s not just the other people. A lot of times, it’s like the the laundry room and the apartment complex or or even home sometimes. Mhmm. So they’re all your competitors.

Alex Bloom [00:54:24]:

I had a great customer. She came in. She has a washing machine at home. A she used up 4 or 5 of our machines, and she said, I can do this, Sucka. It’s 22 minutes for a regular wash. He’s like, all of these are done in under half an hour, a And I’m not spending the whole day doing laundry. And she’s like, I started these. And she left us a really nice Google review, and she talked about how she was able to do her laundry.

Alex Bloom [00:54:46]:

And since we’re right downtown while the machines were going, she left, and she was able to do some shopping and come back. And it was just like a win win for the whole neighborhood at that point. So

Jordan Berry [00:54:55]:

Yeah. Yeah. That’s and that’s awesome. That’s the kind of review you want, you know, highlighted by Google there. Right? Exactly. Those reviews.

Alex Bloom [00:55:05]:

So

Jordan Berry [00:55:07]:

distributors, what do you got for me?

Alex Bloom [00:55:10]:

Alright. So before I got into any of this, a Right. My 1st location, I was I put an offer on a building when I was trying to do this 10/31. It was in it’s a city One one over from me, so it’s, like, 10 minutes from my house. It was a dilapidated building. So, like, roof’s leaking. It’s falling apart, and I’m like, cool. I can renovate this building, Turn it into a laundromat.

Alex Bloom [00:55:33]:

Perfect area. You know, I knew nothing about laundromats at the time, so I’m over here trying to put my numbers a together so I can figure out. I’m like, where do I even get these commercial machines from? So I go on Google, and I’m like, you know, I think I searched I didn’t even know they were called distributors. Like, that’s how green I was. Right? A Googling, like, where do I get giant washing machines? Right? So I come across, you know, a distributor, and I call the number, and I’m like, hey. I’m looking to get some pricing on some machines. Right? So they’re like, okay. Let me transfer you to the sales guy from Massachusetts.

Alex Bloom [00:56:04]:

Cool. So this guy gets on the phone. He’s like, what are you a looking to do. So I tell him, okay. I got an offer on this building in this city. He’s like, I know that city. I’m like, okay. This is the building.

Alex Bloom [00:56:14]:

You know, this is what I’m looking to do. And he’s like, okay. Well, I don’t think you’re gonna be successful. You might as well give up while you’re ahead. This isn’t the business for you. You just can’t do things like this. I was, like, just shocked. I’m like, this guy doesn’t want my money.

Alex Bloom [00:56:27]:

Cool. Like, he doesn’t know me from the hole in the wall. Like, you’re just gonna tell your customer? You just, okay. Cool. Give up. Cool. I’m like, alright. No worries.

Alex Bloom [00:56:35]:

You have yourself a wonderful day. Hang up. Go down the list to the next distributor. Call up the office. A they’re like, yeah, the sales guy’s not in. I could pass a message along. I’m like, sure. That’d be great.

Alex Bloom [00:56:47]:

Couple hours later, I get a call from this guy. He’s like, hey. What are you looking to do? Gave him the same story I gave the 1st guy, and he goes, alright. I think the best thing for us to do is meet at the location. Let me measure it out. I can get you a a floor plan, and I can get you some pricing from there. That’s probably the only way to do it. I’m like, alright.

Alex Bloom [00:57:04]:

That sounds fair. Like, you know, let me get ahold of the agent. We’ll get into that building and do that. A so he meets me out there. Go through the whole building. He spends his time, measures it, gives me a nice plan, gives me a breakdown of machines, gives me cost. A And I’m like, cool. This this all these numbers seem to work for me.

Alex Bloom [00:57:21]:

The demographics look really good for that. And the only reason that project kinda died was the city would not give me utilities. A They are pushing for all electric. They don’t want any natural gas anymore. There’s a moratorium. So they’re like, yeah. Just do it all in electric. I’m like, a It’s not how this works.

Alex Bloom [00:57:38]:

Yeah. So gave up on that. Found another store. He came out. It was a operational store that needed a retool as well. This guy came out to that one, measured it out, gave me pricing on that one. That didn’t work out, a because of environmental issues. The real estate was for sale there too.

Alex Bloom [00:57:57]:

He came out to a 3rd store for me, measured it out, a Gave me a printout. So this guy spent, like, countless hours with me already, and I haven’t done a single thing. And I’m, like, starting to feel bad. I’m like, I keep calling him. A He keeps coming out with a smile, like, happy to deal with me. Like, just a great guy. And then I buy my 1st store in Connecticut, which is outside of his territory.

Jordan Berry [00:58:19]:

An And

Alex Bloom [00:58:20]:

he’s like, hey. You know? No worries, but we got a guy in our company that deals with Connecticut. If you need anything, call him, this and that. I was like, alright. Cool. A Call him up, you know, once we got to this Westfield store. And, I’m like, hey. I’m looking at this one.

Alex Bloom [00:58:33]:

He goes, I know that store. I went to college right up the street. A I’m like, cool. What do you think? He goes, I’ve always loved it. It’s got the wall of glass, this and that. I’m like, alright. I wanna, you know, retool it. A Comes down, looks at everything, gives us a quote for all of the machines, and I’m like, alright.

Alex Bloom [00:58:49]:

Let’s split this up into phases. So we’re doing We’re gonna end up retooling that whole store with him. And, he’s just been just an awesome guy. I can text him for advice. He tells me whatever. You know? So he’s you know, when they say find a distributor that, you know, you kind of can work with and you you vibe with, I think that was him. Kind of close to my age as well. So you know? And really knowledgeable.

Alex Bloom [00:59:15]:

So

Jordan Berry [00:59:16]:

can we give him a shout out? You wanna say who it is?

Alex Bloom [00:59:19]:

Yeah. So it’s, his name is Tim. He’s from Daniel’s Equipment. His boss, a Ralph. I see him at all of the shows. I just went to the CLA thing in, Nashville. He was down there. And, yeah, I mean, the the guy’s been awesome.

Alex Bloom [00:59:31]:

Like so a So anybody in, like, the New England area, they cover all of New England, and, give them a call. The company’s been great. Everybody there has been awesome to deal with a Just makes it super easy, especially when they knew I was new. It didn’t stop them from going above and beyond to make sure that I’m gonna be successful here. So

Jordan Berry [00:59:51]:

I love that. I love that.

Alex Bloom [00:59:53]:

The I I kind of I ran into the other guy that kind of blew me off on the phone at one of the that

Jordan Berry [01:00:00]:

a That, that distributor did one of those, like, local trade shows,

Alex Bloom [01:00:01]:

and I went there just to see what they were offering. And, you know, I was like, oh, this is gonna be your sales guy in Massachusetts, a Massachusetts blah blah blah. And I didn’t even tell him who I was. I was just like, alright. Whatever. I knew I wasn’t gonna buy from him. I was very happy with You’re

Jordan Berry [01:00:14]:

like, no. He’s not. Yeah. You know?

Alex Bloom [01:00:16]:

Yeah. So I kind of wanted to be

Jordan Berry [01:00:18]:

that guy. Like, hey.

Alex Bloom [01:00:19]:

You know? You blew me off, and I’m retooling 2 stores now. So I guess that kinda sucks for you, but it’s your problem.

Jordan Berry [01:00:24]:

Yeah. A

Alex Bloom [01:00:25]:

But I’m not that guy.

Jordan Berry [01:00:28]:

Yeah. No. But I mean, that’s a that I mean, thanks for sharing that story because that’s I mean, I think that’s a great, illustration of, like, the difference between a good distributor and a and a bad distributor. Right? Somebody who’s willing to kinda go a little bit more to help you get the deal. And eventually, if they help you, you’re gonna give them the business. Right? And they’re gonna make the money, and they’re gonna make more money because now you’re doing, you know, 2. But a who knows, right, going forward how many

Alex Bloom [01:00:55]:

Right.

Jordan Berry [01:00:56]:

How many more. Well, not

Alex Bloom [01:00:57]:

only that, but now Tim knows what I’m doing. So in the short, like, year and a half a Or whatever that I’ve met him and known him, he’s kinda seen what we do and the fact that, like, we do our own construction. So when they’re ready to come in, everything’s ready for him. Like, we don’t a Like, oh, it’s not ready yet. Extend this, extend that. So he actually texted me, couple weeks ago. He was, hey. I know this other guy selling a store.

Alex Bloom [01:01:18]:

Are you interested? Send me the info. I’ll look at it. What’s the worst that’ll, that’ll happen? Like, I’ll look at it, and it doesn’t work. So now he’s sending me info. He’s called me a couple times on a couple of stores for sale. A So, you know, those out there that are looking, like, just getting good with a distributor because they find out firsthand when things are going up.

Jordan Berry [01:01:36]:

Yep. Yep. I love that. I love that. Shout out to Tim

Alex Bloom [01:01:41]:

Shout out.

Jordan Berry [01:01:42]:

Over there. Daniel’s equipment. Always wanna reward the good the good people in the industry there who are helping each other out. So, Tim, well done.

Alex Bloom [01:01:50]:

Shout out

Alex Bloom [01:01:50]:

to Tim at Daniels.

Jordan Berry [01:01:51]:

Keep it up. Alright. So do you have 2 laundromats? Is that where you’re is that where you’ve stopped so far? What was that? I said, do you have 2 laundromats? Is that where you’re at right now?

Alex Bloom [01:02:01]:

So yeah. So those are the 2 operating ones. And then 2 weeks ago 3 weeks ago, I closed on my 3rd.

Jordan Berry [01:02:07]:

A

Alex Bloom [01:02:08]:

It was a laundromat that I had. Well, I went door knocking before I bought anything when I was trying to find something, and I stopped into this location and, a And, got ahold of the owner. The attendant gave me his number, and they weren’t ready to sell. And, I was like, alright. You know? No worries. Just here’s my info. If you ever change your mind, give me a call. A About, you know, a month or so ago, I went to, a BNI networking thing.

Alex Bloom [01:02:33]:

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with BNI. A It’s just like a networking thing you go to every week. It’s, like, an hour and a half, usually early morning. A I went to one of those, and the attorney that did the closing for my Connecticut store was there. He goes, hey. I was just thinking about you. I was like, oh, boy. What did I do? He’s the guy who invested in another store.

Alex Bloom [01:02:55]:

I was like, possibly. He’s like, because I got this guy. I a I sold him a laundromatic. Like, he bought this in 2020, and he named it 2020 Laundromat. I think most of us wanna forget 2020. Yeah. So, he had the laundromat. That was the one I ended up door knocking to, but I didn’t know it at the time.

Alex Bloom [01:03:14]:

So the attorney is like, hey. So I got this guy. He’s kind of in a bad spot. He ended up selling his laundromat that he bought to one of his managers That was running the store. A bunch of stuff happened, and now he needs to get out from under it. I was like, okay. I’m like, yeah. Give him my info.

Alex Bloom [01:03:29]:

Have him give me a call. So, like, a week later, I get a text like, hey. It looks like we’ve talked in the past, and the attorney said, you know, you’re interested. I was like, yeah. Let’s let’s meet and talk. So I meet him the next day, and I walk in, stand alone building, nice parking lot. It’s in Springfield, which is a really big metropolitan area here in Mass, a In our side of the state is probably the biggest one in our side. I walk in, and he’s got the 30 year old Wasco mats.

Alex Bloom [01:03:57]:

Half the machines are out of order. It’s like your typical zombie mat. A It’s closed. It’s been closed for 2 months. The manager just stopped showing up after buying this place, and they owner financed it to him. So they’re not getting their money. Nobody’s getting laundry done. It’s just, like, nothing positive.

Alex Bloom [01:04:13]:

Right? So I’m like, what are you looking to do? He’s like, oh, I’ll just lease it to you. I’m like, like, you just want me to pay you monthly and just run this? He’s like, yeah. Exactly. I’m like, like, I don’t wanna hurt your feelings. I don’t want any of this equipment. Like, none of this here is gonna work for me. If I did anything, I’d wanna gut this place and redo it. Would you sell me the building? He’s like, well, we didn’t never thought about that.

Alex Bloom [01:04:37]:

Can I talk to my wife and get back to you? I was like, yeah. Absolutely. Like, next day, I get a call. We’ll sell you the building. I I was like, okay. Cool. But, like, but I have some conditions. He’s like, okay.

Alex Bloom [01:04:50]:

I’m like, I want you to give me a lease with an option to buy. A I don’t wanna buy it right now because the store needs a ton of work. And, you know, I’m gonna retool it, put all brand new equipment in it, a And I buy it, you know, little ways down the road. So we settled on a price for the building, And he’s like, the money you give me down for the store, I’ll give you a credit towards the real estate purchase when you buy it. And if you don’t, it’s mine. I’m like, alright. That seems more than fair. Right?

Alex Bloom [01:05:22]:

Mhmm.

Alex Bloom [01:05:22]:

So we ended up figuring it all out, a And I ended up buying. So I’m I’m I’m buying the store for for 3.50. I only gave him 25 k down plus 10 k for the option, a He’s gonna credit me that 25 off the purchase price. So the building’s worth that and the parking lot on its own all day long. A I ended up selling all of the decent equipment out of there, and I’m gonna scrap the rest. We’re gonna retool with all Speed Queen, you know, Quantum Touch. A And I’m hoping to be open, like, maybe February, end of February, if all goes well. Equipment’s already ordered, so I’m just working on renovating everything inside.

Jordan Berry [01:06:02]:

Dude, awesome deal. Awesome. Awesome deal. And I love the the creative financing aspect of a 2. Right? Like, I think that’s where we’ve got some, you know, as an industry, we’ve got some some development to do, some growing to do is the the capabilities of some creative financing, like this that can help you work deals that work best for you as the the purchaser and and for the the seller too. Right? Being able to find these creative structures that. Let me get all work out, for you, which is that’s an awesome structure for that deal.

Alex Bloom [01:06:41]:

Yeah. It seemed to work out real. An And I was able to negotiate a really, really low rent, you know, with a with a he gave me 1 1 month free, and, like, I got it for under a dollar a square

Alex Bloom [01:06:54]:

a square foot per month.

Jordan Berry [01:06:54]:

Dude, that’s awesome.

Alex Bloom [01:06:55]:

Square foot store. I got him down to $1200, you know, on the rent because he knows how much work we’re gonna put into it. And the reason I structured it this way, actually, so this might help some people. So Alliance, has this thing where, oh, boy. Alliance has this thing where they’ll fund they’ll finance your store for you, a But they have, like, it’s a lot easier to do when you don’t they’ll finance the equipment, but if you don’t own the building, right, all you gotta do is put like a 25% of the value of what they’re financing as work into the building. So if I was to buy the building, I would need a Put down way more money. I need to put down money on the building plus money to Alliance. And I was able to figure out that if I don’t own the building, a I’m putting in, I think, about 80 k to a 100 k in renovations into the building because we’re doing a new HVAC system.

Alex Bloom [01:07:50]:

We’re doing a new water heater. Like, I’m abandoning all the old stuff because none of it is efficient. None of it’s good. There’s a lot of rebate programs out there that you can kind of, you know, get rebates, save money, save on utility cost. So that 100 k that I’m putting into the building is kind of like my down payment on the equipment. So Alliance has given the equipment with 0 money down a out of pocket to them. But if I was to own the building, it wouldn’t work that way. I’d have to put way more money out of pocket.

Alex Bloom [01:08:17]:

A So

Jordan Berry [01:08:18]:

Yeah. That’s a great tip. Way to way to work the system, man. I love it.

Alex Bloom [01:08:23]:

There’s always gray areas. And if you can work in those gray areas. You know, you could do a lot more.

Jordan Berry [01:08:29]:

Yeah. Well, I mean, it stretches that stretches that money out a lot more, right, and allows you to accumulated more assets than you would be able to, otherwise. And and you you said in the very beginning, you’re like, I was I’m just kinda like a born entrepreneur, unemployable, you know, those things. And, you know, how being able to think creatively like this, I’m like, oh, yeah. I totally do that. Like, you’ve gotta be wheeling and dealing. You’ve gotta be running your own businesses and all that stuff. That’s that’s in your DNA for sure for sure.

Alex Bloom [01:09:02]:

It seems to have been working for a little bit. So, I mean, knock on wood. It keeps on working because you never know. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:09:08]:

Keep it rolling.

Alex Bloom [01:09:09]:

Bad moving. That’s it. Right? A

Jordan Berry [01:09:12]:

yeah. It can it can go that way. That that’s true. But but the thing is you’ve got you have the skill set. Right? It’s like a there’s there’s the whole thing like, yeah, you know, you take away a millionaire’s wealth and and they have it back in the next 5 years or whatever. It in probably Ansem. It’s because that skill set, that’s the value there. And all the things you’ve learned and are learning, that’s what, you know, is that’s what brings the value to any to any business really or any venture.

Alex Bloom [01:09:45]:

Yeah. Never stop learning. There’s always a something you can learn. You know? Always be the dumbest guy in the room, but walk out not being the dumbest guy. So

Jordan Berry [01:09:52]:

Yeah. I love that. A so what’s what’s, do you have any, like, do you have any future plans? Like, hey. My goal is to get to 10 laundromats or or anything like that. Are you just kinda rolling with it and seeing what happens?

Alex Bloom [01:10:06]:

A little bit of both. So I have a long term plan. So this 3rd store, I guess I should say that I have a a partner in it as well. So my son’s 18 now. He just graduated from high school. A He’s gonna be an electrician because he’s an apprentice now. He’s been saving money and he wants to get into investing. So I’m like, hey.

Alex Bloom [01:10:25]:

You wanna invest in something? Thing. Throw your money into this and, you know, become a small partner in it and kinda super super excited for that because, like, when I was his age, that was the last thing on my mind. Yeah. So that’s kind of you know, for that 3rd store there, he’s gonna be a a partial partner in it. And then I’m thinking I’m gonna stop for a little bit a and get all of these, you know, up and running and profitable first before I continue. The 3rd store was never really in the cards for me. I just couldn’t say no to the deal. So unless something else like that comes up, I don’t think I’m gonna buy another one.

Alex Bloom [01:10:59]:

I’m gonna wait, like, a year or so. I’d like to have 10 in 5 years. So kind of 3, take a break, maybe 2 or 3, and kind of build up that way. I’m focusing right now on building our pick a delivery side of things as well. So I wanna get that kind of built and operational so where I can hire a driver. Because right now, I’m the driver, an and I can step away from the day to day and kind of focus on expanding. Till then, I’m just gonna focus on the day to day, Still running my construction company, still running the laundromats, overseeing everything, and, you know, see what happens. So

Jordan Berry [01:11:41]:

are you running that pickup and delivery out of the 2nd location or both or what?

Alex Bloom [01:11:46]:

It’d be out of, both. So right now, the third one’s not ready for anything, but I expanded our territory to build up clientele for that one. And I’ll just service it out of my 2nd location until it’s a It’s open, and then I could just split them up. And there’s a river that runs kind of in between my 2 territories. So the goal is everything on one side of the river goes to one a the other side of the river will go to the other store, for easy logistics. And I’m, yeah, I’m just gonna a Expand my area, bring everything to the functional store right now. They can handle the volume there. We have some amazing staff over there.

Alex Bloom [01:12:23]:

Our attendant our attendants are just, like, Top notch. I have customers that will, like, go out of their way to talk to me just to tell me how awesome the attendants are. A And when I go to the stores, I make it a point to, like, talk to every customer in there, say, hi. How’s it going? Do you need any help? You know, I’m all about customer service. So when I’m in there, I’m not just in there to collect the money. Like, I wanna know how everybody’s doing. You know? I know these customers by name, or if not, I’m gonna find out, and I’m gonna know them by name. So every a they come in, it’s, you know, more of a, hey, John.

Alex Bloom [01:12:54]:

How’s it going? Nice to see you again. So

Jordan Berry [01:12:59]:

a that’s awesome. I love that. It reminds me of the, that book, Unreasonable Hospitality. I don’t know if you’ve read it. If you haven’t, you should read it for sure. It. But it reminds me of that, just, you know, kinda going over and above and making people feel welcome and cared about and known. And, a and it turns out to be really good for business to do that.

Alex Bloom [01:13:21]:

It does. I was walking through my store the other day, and I hear one of the customers talking to my attendant that it’s a birthday and, like, you know, she’s doing she’s about to start a wash. It’s her birthday. You know? She doesn’t have a ton of money. She’s trying to figure out what to do, this and that. I walked up. I started the machine and said happy birthday. Your wash is on me.

Alex Bloom [01:13:39]:

The look on her face was just like like just a sign of relief. It’s not much. What is it? $8? A Like, you know what I mean? What’s $8? But to her, it was huge. And I know she went and told people. So, like, little stuff like that goes a long way. A You know? Yeah. A lot of these people that use the laundromats in store, you know, they don’t have a ton of money. So to them, $5 is a lot.

Alex Bloom [01:14:00]:

$4 is a lot. So We do a lot of giveaways. Like, we’re waffling off a TV right now. No purchase necessary. Fill out a form. I’m building an email list with it. That’s all I’m doing. A So the email is is gonna be paid for by this TV.

Alex Bloom [01:14:14]:

So

Jordan Berry [01:14:16]:

It’s killer. That’s killer and that’s smart too. Smart marketing. You know, I think that we’ve I’ve talked about this. The email list is the most overlooked tool in our industry, I think, in terms of marketing. Mhmm. It is. It could be super powerful.

Alex Bloom [01:14:31]:

What’s it take to send out a 100 emails, 200 emails, you know, a 1000 emails? Like, a Once you have all of those email addresses that you make 1 and you hit send. So, like, why wouldn’t you

Jordan Berry [01:14:42]:

build 1? So a Yeah. That’s kinda how

Alex Bloom [01:14:45]:

I’m trying to find is just, hey. Here’s a

Jordan Berry [01:14:46]:

free TV, 55 inch TV. We’re raffling it off before Christmas. Fill out this form.

Alex Bloom [01:14:50]:

We’re gonna notify you by email, so make sure your email’s accurate.

Alex Bloom [01:14:55]:

A

Jordan Berry [01:14:56]:

it’s killer, dude. I love that. I love that. Alright. We got a segment of the podcast called down to business. And we’re just gonna get just a little bit more details, about your business. And thank you, by the way, for already sharing a lot of details about your business and, you know, not just how they’re operating, but also how you acquired them and how much they cost and how you financed them. All that stuff is like gold to somebody who’s trying to get into business for the 1st time or who’s trying to build their businesses up too.

Alex Bloom [01:15:24]:

I I was in the

Jordan Berry [01:15:25]:

So I appreciate you sharing that.

Alex Bloom [01:15:26]:

Yeah. I was in the same boat, and I’m watching a ton of videos of everybody that puts stuff out. Like, nobody wants to share that, so I’m like, I’m gonna start doing videos. That’s like, yeah. I’m gonna start a YouTube channel. That’ll a Probably never happened, but I hope to one day. Yeah. Like, I’ll share it.

Alex Bloom [01:15:39]:

Well, when

Jordan Berry [01:15:39]:

you do, let me know. Alright. I’ll I’ll push it out there.

Alex Bloom [01:15:43]:

Awesome. Awesome. An But I feel like it’s important to get that out there and, like, just because somebody trying to get into it. Like, I get people that text me all the time. Like, hey. I see you’re doing laundromats. A Can you give me some advice? Yeah. Check these people out on YouTube, watch what they have to say, and, you know, see if it’s for you from there, and then call me back.

Alex Bloom [01:16:01]:

A So Yep.

Jordan Berry [01:16:04]:

Yep. You could be one of those people. You know what I mean? A alright. So we talked about where your laundromats are, but one thing I don’t know if you mentioned or maybe I just forgot, but how far are the laundromats from each other.

Alex Bloom [01:16:20]:

Alright. So, yeah, so I live in Westfield. I have one here in town. My first store is an hour from that one. A And the third one is in Springfield, which is probably 15, 20 minutes depending on traffic. A So the one in my my Connecticut one, the first one I bought is my furthest. The other 2 are 15, 20 minutes apart.

Jordan Berry [01:16:42]:

How far is the first one from the third one?

Alex Bloom [01:16:45]:

An If I have to take the highway, it takes you all the way around. I I’d guess. I haven’t done that run yet. A I’d guess it’s probably about an hour and a half.

Jordan Berry [01:16:57]:

Okay. So is the is the third one in a different direction than the first one?

Alex Bloom [01:17:02]:

Yes. Yeah. So, if you take where I live and you put me in the center, my first door would be an An hour to the southwest, and the other one would be 20 minutes to the southeast.

Jordan Berry [01:17:18]:

Okay. I see. I see. Okay. Yeah. That’s cool. And you’ve only been in since March. Right? End of March is when you closed on that first one?

Alex Bloom [01:17:30]:

Real short amount of time.

Jordan Berry [01:17:31]:

Dude, you are, like, drinking from the fire hose right now, getting into 3 laundromats in your 1st year.

Alex Bloom [01:17:36]:

Are you gonna do something?

Jordan Berry [01:17:37]:

1st, like, 9 months?

Alex Bloom [01:17:39]:

Is it 9 months already? Wow. It’s been a fast night.

Jordan Berry [01:17:41]:

I don’t know. Something like that. Right? Like, I don’t even think it’s been 9 months.

Alex Bloom [01:17:45]:

April, May, June, July, August, September, October. Yeah. 8, 7.

Jordan Berry [01:17:49]:

8. Yeah,

Alex Bloom [01:17:50]:

dude. Killing

Jordan Berry [01:17:52]:

it. That’s what I’m talking about. A or or don’t go home because you don’t have time because you’re driving all over the place to your laundromat.

Alex Bloom [01:18:00]:

True story. There’s so much Yeah. So much windshield time to listen to the Laundromat Resource podcast.

Jordan Berry [01:18:06]:

A that that’s what I wanted to hear. I like that. I’m gonna have to pay you.

Alex Bloom [01:18:11]:

Music. I am so tired of this. Can we listen to some music?

Jordan Berry [01:18:15]:

Come on. You tell her to get with the program.

Alex Bloom [01:18:18]:

Gonna have

Alex Bloom [01:18:18]:

to. She’s gonna hear it. God, man.

Jordan Berry [01:18:20]:

Yeah. That’s right. I’m gonna yeah. You know what? A I’m speaking directly to you right now. Wake up and learn to love this voice.

Alex Bloom [01:18:28]:

Yep. Yep.

Jordan Berry [01:18:28]:

How about that? Yeah. A what what are your VIN prices, at your different location? Are they priced similarly? Are they different?

Alex Bloom [01:18:38]:

They’re different. So my Connecticut store has the older equipment. Washes, like I said, a I think they’re 2016. My 20 pounders are 375. My 30 pounders are $5. A My 40 pounders are 6.50 and a 60 pounder is $8. My dryers, my 30 pound stacks are a quarter for a 6 minutes, I think. And then I have 40 fives that are 50¢ to start.

Alex Bloom [01:19:06]:

A and I believe that gives you 6 minutes as well. And then the 75 is 50¢ to start, and I wanna say you get a 4 minutes. I could be wrong on the last dryer ones, but somewhere around there.

Jordan Berry [01:19:21]:

Yeah. Yeah. Well and, you know, an important note. I guess, a takeaway from that is that, like, different different places, you’re gonna price them differently, right, depending on a whole lot of different factors how old the machines are, you know, what competition is, how much utilities are or rent or, you know, all those things to factor in. So Yep.

Alex Bloom [01:19:44]:

I a

Jordan Berry [01:19:44]:

I think it’s a good takeaway from that.

Alex Bloom [01:19:45]:

And, 2 Westfield store that we’re currently retooling, we’re gonna have we have twenties, thirties, forties, sixties, and eighties, a And they’re just gonna be 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. Plus all of the modifiers are gonna be more money, which we do really well on those modifiers. People love to add extras.

Jordan Berry [01:20:01]:

A just for anybody who’s in the dark here, can you talk about what a modifier is and maybe tell some of the modifiers you have?

Alex Bloom [01:20:09]:

Yeah. So on the Quantum a touch equipment. This I’m only familiar with the Speed Queen Quantum Touch, so I don’t wanna talk about any other brand that I I know nothing about. But on our machines, People can add, an extra, like, a prewash, an extra rinse. They can do heavily soiled laundry. It’s like an extra, I think. A The 80 pounder is $12 to start. If they wanna do betting in it, it it doubles the runtime.

Alex Bloom [01:20:32]:

It’s $16. A If they wanna do a deep cycle, it gives you hot water off the bat, which all of our machines are set to default to cold, and they have to actually change it to warm. Most people leave it on cold, so we’re not even wasting hot water. So we don’t charge any extra money for temperature. So if you wanna put it to hot, there’s no extra charge. A But if you wanted to do a deep cycle, it’s, doubles the 22 minutes to 44 minutes. I believe that’s $16 instead of 12. The betting on those is a It’s like an extra 2.50 or 3.50, to add, like, heavy soil.

Alex Bloom [01:21:07]:

Oh, it’s 3.50 for heavy, a 2.50 for medium. An extra rinse, I believe, is, like, $2. There’s so many different ones. I honestly, like, don’t remember them all. A but we like, on the smaller machines, it’s a little bit less. It’s not 3.50. You know? And so if it’s a 6 pound $6 machine, it might be a dollar a For that modifier, $2 for, you know, dollar for medium, $2 for heavy. And, you know, it allows us to kind of a upsell to to everybody very easily because it’s all touch screen.

Alex Bloom [01:21:41]:

It’s all written out what you get. A those machines have, like, 50 different languages you could choose from so people can read it in their own language. Like, just the technology a in the quantum touch versus just having the, you know, like, the goal where you just have 5 buttons to start something is is amazing. So

Jordan Berry [01:21:59]:

Yeah. A yeah. That’s awesome. I’m glad we’re finally in the touch screen phase over here.

Alex Bloom [01:22:05]:

Yep. And then the dryers there, I don’t even know yet. We’re gonna go to a full cycle then, a once these new Quantum Touch dryers are hooked up, I’m trying to figure out what those prices are gonna be. I just made a post on one of the forums on Facebook to ask a others what they’re charging. Tim sent me he saw my post. He texted me what, you know, our area’s doing. A I think I’m gonna be a little bit higher than what our area is doing, but lower than what some of the stuff I’ve seen online and kind of figure out a way to create the value for people because now These 200 g machines ring out your clothes so much better than the old stuff, so they’re almost dry when they’re going in the dryer. And these new dryers, they spin in both directions, a So now your clothes dry faster as well.

Alex Bloom [01:22:49]:

So we’re gonna try to play with some numbers and figure out

Alex Bloom [01:22:54]:

the best value for people.

Jordan Berry [01:22:56]:

Sweet. I love that you’re going, full cycle dry.

Alex Bloom [01:22:59]:

Yep. And, so we didn’t do all the dryers, so some are still gonna be the older ones are still gonna be your regular quarter for 6 minutes. A But hopefully, the new ones will start training people that this is what we’re going to when they all get replaced. And I think most people will will like it because Every time they use a dryer, most people are dumping a dollar 50, $2 in there to begin with. So Mhmm. Now it’ll make it easier.

Jordan Berry [01:23:22]:

Yeah. You already mentioned, I think, your first door, I think you said, is doing, like, 5 or 6 turns a day. Is that true?

Alex Bloom [01:23:31]:

Yes. Average on average. So if I average, like, a month, it’s about 5, 6 turns a day. Our weekends, our Saturday, Sunday, Mondays are way better than the rest of the days.

Jordan Berry [01:23:42]:

Right.

Alex Bloom [01:23:43]:

So but yeah. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:23:44]:

And that’s pretty typical. Pretty typical. What about your other store? How’s that one doing?

Alex Bloom [01:23:48]:

So I looked at the numbers. So I only have numbers for all the new stuff. So pretty much half the a So we ended up taking out so we have 2 banks of washers, like I said. So we’ve had the forties, the sixties, and the eighties for the past, like, 2 months. A so I have numbers on those. We actually ended up taking out our washers from the other bank, and then the delivery got a little bit delayed. So we we’ve been down to half a store. And I think we’re about, like, between 2 3 turns per day Based off of just that half a store.

Alex Bloom [01:24:24]:

Mhmm. So that 1 bank is pretty much floating our whole entire overhead, Which is amazing. It it’s breaking even. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:24:31]:

That’s awesome.

Alex Bloom [01:24:32]:

It’s breaking even. It’s it’s paying its own bills, which I can’t ask for more after doing all this work, a And we’re slowly kind of building up from there. One of the things we did is we have a lot of older people that really love the 20 pound smaller machines. They a can’t afford much more. So for the past few weeks, we’ve discounted our 40 pound washers to $4, which is what the 20 pounders are gonna be. A that way we didn’t lose those customers. And I think that actually brought in a lot more people because they were telling, hey. These washers are $4.

Alex Bloom [01:25:02]:

Come in. But we have signs on every machine. This machine on sale this week only, $4. So that way they know it’s not permanent. But even with the discounted pricing, a You know, we’re still kind of paying our own bills with it.

Jordan Berry [01:25:20]:

Yeah. No. That’s awesome. That’s a good sign for when everything gets in there and it yet fully operational too. Yeah.

Alex Bloom [01:25:26]:

I’m hoping that’s tomorrow. So actually, my kid’s going to school right now for his electrical class. When he gets out at 7:30, I’m going over there with

Alex Bloom [01:25:35]:

a We’re gonna finish wiring all

Alex Bloom [01:25:35]:

that equipment in.

Jordan Berry [01:25:36]:

Nice. Put them to work.

Alex Bloom [01:25:37]:

Oh, yeah. He’s he’s awesome.

Jordan Berry [01:25:40]:

I love it. A I love it. How about on your pickup and delivery? Do you know how much, like, pounds you’re doing of pickup and delivery?

Alex Bloom [01:25:48]:

So not a ton. It’s been a slow Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:25:50]:

I know you’re just starting out.

Alex Bloom [01:25:51]:

We’re just

Alex Bloom [01:25:52]:

starting out. Our 1st month, we picked up a summer camp, so that kinda skewed all the numbers, so I kinda ignore the 1st month. A but we’re we’ve we’re picking up probably 1 new recurring customer a month right now, a and all of them have been commercial customers. Like, we got a couple of, like, spas type of customers. So we pick up from these spas twice a week, a And they’re probably bringing us, like, 40 pounds each pickup, so each one brings us £80 a week. So now we a have 4 really good recurring ones, and then we have probably a good handful of, like, one off. They’ll order here, though. 2, 3 weeks later, they’ll order again.

Alex Bloom [01:26:29]:

A And we’re kind of I’m trying to still market that. It’s not big in our area. It wasn’t something that’s, like, really out there, so a lot of people don’t even know about it. A I’m also finding a lot of people don’t even know about wash and fall. When I tell people you can have your laundry done, people that have never been to a laundromat, they’re like, what do you mean? Like, somebody comes to my house? I’m a I’m like, well, we can come to your house and pick it up and bring it back when it’s done. Or you could drop it off in our store, and we’ll wash it, fold it, dry it, put it on angers. So I’m having these conversations with, like, you know Mhmm. Business professionals that don’t have time to do theirs, but they didn’t even know the service existed.

Alex Bloom [01:27:01]:

So Yep. Yep.

Jordan Berry [01:27:04]:

I think there’s a lot of people out there that still don’t even know that’s a possibility. So part part of our marketing, chore as an industry is to just educate on that service in general.

Alex Bloom [01:27:19]:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. That’s where all the business networking really comes in in handy. We just picked up a, an account with a, a Like, a state agency. I I could say they’re a state agency, and, they deal with, like, homeless shelters. So we just picked up an account for them to wash laundry for a some of the people that are, you know, in the shelters.

Alex Bloom [01:27:41]:

Mhmm.

Alex Bloom [01:27:41]:

So literally picked up from them today, an hour before meeting with you. 1st one. So I’m excited about that.

Jordan Berry [01:27:49]:

Awesome. Yeah.

Alex Bloom [01:27:50]:

So

Jordan Berry [01:27:51]:

That’s a good pickup. And do you have a ballpark? Like, how how much time are you spending with your laundromats these like, per week in these weeks?

Alex Bloom [01:28:03]:

A All of it? My Connecticut store, I don’t spend a ton of time unless there’s an issue. I’ve a Kind of figured out. I’m about 20, 30 hours a month with that store. And me and the wife have kind of made it a thing that if we have the time, we’ll go down there together, and we’ll a make it a date night. We’ll go to the bun you know, we’ll we’ll go out to dinner after or something like that. So it’s it’s kind of fun, to go down there. A The Westfield store. We have amazing staff there that hit

Jordan Berry [01:28:31]:

And that’s what part of what it is, like, getting getting things up and running and scaling as quickly as you are. It’s pretty cool. We got another segment of the podcast called secret sauce. And secret sauce is this, what is something that’s working for you that maybe you think might be working for other people, help them improve their businesses.

Alex Bloom [01:28:54]:

Customer service. I mean, you’d be surprised. It doesn’t cost a anything and it goes a long way. So put yourself in your customer shoes and see how they wanna be treated. And then when they have an issue, I try to resolve it based on if I was the a How would I want it to be handled? If I have to give somebody $5 or $10 back, like, it’s not gonna hurt me that much, but it might hurt them if they don’t get it back. A So especially dealing with, you know, a lot of lower income people in laundromats, I I try to, you know, understand their story and Just treat them all fair and kind and be nice and say hi to people, walk around, like, introduce yourself. A guy left us a Google review. I went to this laundromat.

Alex Bloom [01:29:34]:

A The owner introduced himself. I’ve never been to a laundromat where the owners willingly done that. Like, you put that on Google with 5 stars.

Alex Bloom [01:29:42]:

A Mhmm.

Alex Bloom [01:29:42]:

You can’t pay for that type of advertising. Yep. So it’s it’s that simple. Just, you know, go above and beyond in customer service, and it will come back.

Jordan Berry [01:29:53]:

A yeah. I that’s great advice. That’s great advice. And goes back to that sort of unreasonable hospitality. Again, if you haven’t read that, anybody listening out there, go check that book out. That’s a good one. Yeah. I’ll have to check that.

Jordan Berry [01:30:04]:

We’ve got another segment called pro tips. And that’s what’s your best piece of advice for anybody who is you, like, seven, 8, 9 months ago who’s trying to buy their 1st laundromat.

Alex Bloom [01:30:15]:

Find so if you’re really looking into the laundromats a And you you haven’t bought anything yet. Go talk to some laundromat owners. I never did that because, one, I’m so used to being in industries that are not willing to help. When I was in the towing industry, it was cutthroat. Like, no other tow company around you wanted to give you advice on how to do better. Because they’re your competition, why would they? All the laundromat owners I’ve met, I wanna say 95% of them have been amazing. This is how we do it. These are our prices.

Alex Bloom [01:30:44]:

They’ll share a ton of information with you a Just because you’re interested and they wanna talk about it. And I tell people all the time that

Alex Bloom [01:30:51]:

call me.

Alex Bloom [01:30:51]:

I give them information. Like, I don’t know what I’m doing yet, but this is what I’m doing. You know? So just talk to people and find a good distributor. I think that’s key. If you find a good distributor, they will help you left and right because they want your business. Even if you’re not buying right now, I think a good distributor realizes the relationship is worth more than the money right this second. So network.

Jordan Berry [01:31:13]:

Yeah. Shout out to Tim again.

Alex Bloom [01:31:15]:

Shout out

Alex Bloom [01:31:15]:

to Tim again. Buddy. Gonna have to send it

Jordan Berry [01:31:17]:

That’s right.

Alex Bloom [01:31:17]:

When it goes live.

Jordan Berry [01:31:19]:

I know, man. Maybe I’ll give you a discount. Tim, give him a discount on his next order.

Alex Bloom [01:31:23]:

You know what? So one thing that Daniels did for me. So we’re getting the in my 3rd store. And they went and did a bunch of, like, a Energy saving type stuff and got rebates. I don’t know what they did or how they did it. They ended up working the Santa Wash into my budget a By doing, like, these incentives through the state or, you know, whatever they did, I honestly don’t even know what they did. But a They saved me a ton of money. I was able to get the Santa wash in my 3rd store when it when we get all the stuff without having to pay full price for it.

Jordan Berry [01:32:04]:

A dude, that’s awesome. Above and beyond. Again, I mean, the customer service goes both ways. Right? Like, on the on the our end where we’re serving our customers. And, you know, when the people that we’re working for, if they’re practicing good customer service, we’re gonna give them more business. Right? So a way to go, Tim and Daniels. Last segment of the podcast before my last question is, what resources do you recommend to people to help them either improve their businesses or to improve themselves? A

Alex Bloom [01:32:42]:

One of the big ones is yours. I mean, I spent so much time, like, on YouTube a with watching, you know, your videos, the CLA stuff, Dave Men’s, his stuff. I just met him down in Nashville. That was awesome. A There’s there’s there’s so much information out there that if you fail in the laundromat industry, it’s because you didn’t take the time to learn. So just take the time, watch the videos, listen to the podcast, talk to people. So much great information that you guys spent the time to put out there, a that helps people like me. Like, I got so much information from, you know, your podcast and Dave and, you know, Brian Wallace and, a just seeing what’s out there, that I feel like if I fail, it’s because it’s all me.

Alex Bloom [01:33:29]:

You guys gave me all of the tools, and now I’m just running with them.

Jordan Berry [01:33:34]:

A yeah. Awesome, man. I I think that’s great. And I’m just gonna sidestep that com I appreciate the compliment. I’m a sidestep debit. I’m gonna give that pass that credit on to all the people like you who’ve been willing to come on the podcast and share your story, your experience, your wisdom, and knowledge. And and same with Dave’s, you know, show. I know, he’s had a lot of guests on too, share a lot of stuff too.

Jordan Berry [01:33:58]:

So, an absolutely. And I I love, love, love to hear you say that. So many owners have been willing to share information. That has not always been the case in our industry. And I love that it is becoming more and more common for that to be happening. So, yeah, awesome awesome resources. Check out Dave’s podcast on Rent Millionaire, as well. And, yeah, a lot of good resources on YouTube, podcast, all that stuff.

Alex Bloom [01:34:27]:

I was actually

Jordan Berry [01:34:27]:

Last question I have for you before we wrap this thing up is people are just jiving with what you’re doing and what you’re stand. They wanna connect more with you, maybe ask you some questions, maybe just wanna hang out. Maybe they want an introduction to Tim. What’s the best way they can get ahold of you?

Alex Bloom [01:34:44]:

Yeah. You can email me, email me or friend request me on Facebook and send me a Facebook messenger. Either one of those would work. A So on Facebook, I’m just Alex Blum. I I think you can link me to that somehow. And my email is Alex it. Atyesweelaundry.com.

Jordan Berry [01:35:06]:

Awesome. And we’ll have, we’ll have all that information, all the links, and everything that we talked today in the show notes. Or if you’re on YouTube, hit subscribe, and then go down below in the description, and check that out. Alex, dude, this has been awesome I loved hearing your story, how you got into this business. And I dude, I dig the way that you’re operating. I dig the way that you’re putting together creative deals. I dig the way that you are, structuring your stores and organizing things. And I love your strategy and plan.

Jordan Berry [01:35:36]:

And I think, you know, that, you know, scaling from 1 to 3 is no small feat in the first seven, 8, whatever it is, months, that you’ve been doing that. And I know the amount of work that you’re putting in, which makes this time that you gave up to to share your story even more valuable. And, I appreciate it so much, dude. Appreciate you coming on.

Alex Bloom [01:35:59]:

A Appreciate you having me. This has been amazing. Like I said, it’s my 1st time ever even on a podcast, of any sort. So this is, like, super exciting, and I’m, like, just super thrilled to be here. A So appreciate it.

Jordan Berry [01:36:09]:

Awesome, man. Well, it’s downhill from here in terms of guesting on podcasts. I mean, there’s not too many at the caliber. A no. I’m just kidding. But, dude, seriously, you rock. And, and last, I mean, I don’t want to, like, toot your horn too much. But I also want to just a specifically, thank you for sharing a lot of specifics, specific numbers and, and all that and specific details on what you’re doing.

Jordan Berry [01:36:34]:

I think that that is the kind of thing that is, the most helpful, especially for those getting started. But also for those of us who are in the business and are trying to figure out, like, is my business doing what it’s supposed to be doing? Am I thinking about it the right way? A so, dude, special. Thank you for being willing to just come on and share all those specifics with us.

Alex Bloom [01:36:52]:

Yeah. I’m I’m happy to do it because, yeah, if it helps out somebody, you know, that that’s gonna be awesome. So

Jordan Berry [01:36:58]:

sweet. Alright. Well, we’re gonna have to do another one of these, in a year or 2 when you’ve got accidentally, like, 7 or 8 laundromats, and you’re really trying to stop a buying them. You just you can’t stop.

Alex Bloom [01:37:09]:

Yeah. Definitely. Definitely have to do that again for sure. We’ll see what happens in a year.

Jordan Berry [01:37:14]:

Awesome, man. Well, I appreciate it a lot. And, let’s stay in touch.

Alex Bloom [01:37:18]:

All right.

Jordan Berry [01:37:18]:

I hope you loved that interview with Alex. So much good stuff. Again, he brought the numbers, a he brought the real details, and that’s what I love. So, huge shout out, and thank you to Alex for coming on the show. And, man, hopefully, we have you back on again because that was great. Listen. All that means nothing unless you do something about it. So take some action we talked about at the beginning.

Jordan Berry [01:37:39]:

I’m gonna just bookend it with, a hey. Take some action. Maybe pick 1 thing that Alex talked about sparked an idea in you and, and put it into action this week. Remember, we’re trying to stack these actions every single week in order to build the life that we wanna build, for ourselves. So, pick something, put it into action. Maybe go share it on the forums, automatresource.com/ forums, in order to hold yourself accountable and to see what actions other people are taking, an because, again, we’re better when we’re doing it all together. So, do that. And, we’ll see you next week.

Jordan Berry [01:38:14]:

And enjoy your time with family and friends, over the next couple of weeks.