54. Carving Out a Laundry Niche and Creating a Successful Business with Nikila Gibson

Nikila Gibson is a serial entrepreneur who has started businesses from preschools to drop shipping to staffing agencies, and now runs a laundry pick-up and delivery business in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has started and grown her business from scratch using mostly word-of-mouth advertising and is growing at a rapid pace!

Nikila brings grit and determination, hard work, and hard-earned business savvy to her laundry business, and, in this episode, she shares how she’s done it and gives great advice to anyone else wanting to start or improve their pick-up and delivery business. And we have a lot of fun talking about it!

In this episode we talk about:

Nikila’s entrepreneurship background
Being a single mom and business owner
How she got started in the laundry business
Eco-friendly laundry services
Pros and cons of a laundromat owner partnering with a fluff n fold operator
Pickup and delivery without a location
How Nikila’s customer flow works
How Nikila gets customers
Pickup and delivery as a tech and logistics company

And more! Be prepared to learn from a true entrepreneur!

Watch The Podcast Here

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Episode Transcript

Read the Transcript Here

hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the

laundromat resource podcast it’s

show 54 and i

am exceptionally pumped today about

today’s episode

not just because we have an amazing

amazing

guest today nakila gibson comes on the

show

she’s running a pick-up and delivery

service with no location

uh in the bay area san francisco bay

area and

it’s an awesome interview she is uh

just a really cool person has a lot a

lot

of uh wisdom to share just from her

experience um in in doing this business

for the last four years and even beyond

she’s kind of a serial entrepreneur

you’re gonna hear her story

it’s amazing and there’s a whole lot to

learn there and she’s also

super funny we have a lot of fun in

today’s

uh episode so you’re definitely gonna

enjoy that so that i

am pumped for that super pumped i’m also

pumped because it’s been

one year since we started the laundromat

resource podcast

and man just to take a second

and reminisce a little bit we’ve had

some incredible

incredible guests on the show i’ve met a

ton of

awesome people i know a lot of you guys

have met a lot of these same people

um just either through listening to

their stories here on the podcast

some of you have reached out to many of

the podcast guests

and it’s it’s just been really really

cool to experience and really cool to

see

how it’s been bringing people together

and bringing knowledge out to

uh just to our industry and about our

industry so

man what a cool wild ride it’s been over

the first year of the laundromat

resource podcast it’s reached

heights that i never even anticipated

you know we’re almost to 40 000 um

downloads now and i just i’m just blown

away by that so uh anyways huge

thank you to those of you guys who’ve

been listening for any amount of time

even if it’s just for the first two

minutes that i started this

welcome to you uh but seriously uh just

fun wild ride i just want to take a

second to acknowledge that it’s been a

year

and just all the cool things that i’ve

learned hopefully that you’ve learned

um over this last year it’s just been

really inspiring and

transformational for me and i know for a

lot of you guys too

so anyways enough of the nostalgia of it

being one year

um i i’m you know i’m just really pumped

for

this last year and just the momentum

that we’ve had i’m looking forward to

the next

year and just on that note real quick i

just want to let you know that i’m

always looking for

laundromat owners or people in the

industry who have something to say to

laundromat owners

to come on the podcast to share your

story your experience your wisdom

so if you’re a laundromat owner that

listens to the podcast and you haven’t

come on yet

you know maybe it’s time to consider

coming on and sharing your story and

your wisdom

even if you only own you know one tiny

store

or you haven’t owned it very long or you

own a bunch it doesn’t matter there’s

something to learn from everybody

and uh if you’re interested in coming on

laundromat resource.com podcast guest

that link and all the other links that

are mentioned today will be

uh in the show notes which you can find

at laundromat resource.com

show 54 is that we’re on yeah 54

or if you’re on youtube you can also see

them down in the description so

um yeah laundromat resource.com podcast

guest if you

uh are you know itching to come talk

laundromats with me come check it out

it’ll be a lot of fun

um and also if you know anybody who

would be good for the podcast i would

love

love love for you to connect me with

them um you know

just wanting to provide a lot of really

good

value for people and to introduce people

to each other

uh that’s that’s kind of what i see

myself doing so uh

all right enough of that um a couple

of quick things number one the forums

have just been rocking

still um so get on there a lot of my

resource dot com slash forums

you know whether you’re uh uh you know

somebody who wants to buy their first

laundromat

or you’re a veteran owner or maybe

you’re just in a related field in the

industry or a vendor or something

a lot of value in those forums and a lot

uh people to network with to help get

you to the next level of your business

journey

no matter where that is in this industry

um so

check out the forums on my resource.com

forums and make sure you go to the new

introductions

a new member introductions forum and

introduce yourself over there

i just i’ve seen more and more and more

people connecting in similar geographic

locations

and connect connecting up that way so

that has just been really really cool

for me to see

um so get over there let people know who

you are where you are what you’re up to

and uh yeah and you veterans of the

industry

hey you know get over there it’s a great

place to connect we should be connecting

with each other

a lot too so get over there um and then

the last thing before we jump into it

with nikila

uh that i wanted to let you know is that

we’re gonna start

uh hosting a bunch of webinars i mean i

do a weekly webinar

uh every week on thursdays

and you can sign up for that at

londonresource.com at the top of the

page

if you’re interested in those but we’re

going to start launching more

webinars for a variety of different

things and we’re going to have

guests coming in to host webinars so

number one

i would love to know what what do you

want to learn more about in this

industry we’ve got some people lined up

for things like pick up and delivery

fluff and fold that kind of stuff but i

want to know what you guys want to learn

about

in this industry what we should have

some webinars on and

i also want to know who you want to

learn from

if there’s somebody in particular or

or something that you want to hear from

in a webinar let me know

and connect me up with them so shoot me

an email jordan

laundromat resource dot com that email

will be down below to or in the show

notes

or you can just find that on the website

but jordan laundromat resource.com and

let me know if there’s any webinars that

you’re itching to

take part in because we’re going to

start getting those out there for you

guys

as another resource we are laundering my

resource so as another resource to help

you grow your business

get to that next level all right without

further ado be prepared for just a fun

fun

uh and information pack episode here

with nikila gibson

let’s jump into it right now nakila this

is awesome how

are you thank you for coming on thank

you thank you for having me i’m so

excited oh

i am so excited i i read through you

sent me a little bio and i read through

this thing and i was like oh

this is going to be an awesome awesome

interview so i’m really excited

uh to hear what you’re doing because

you’re doing something a little bit

different than most of our guests

um and we’re gonna get to that but

before we do can you give us a little

bit of background on you who are you and

you know what you know what is your

let’s let’s try to

let’s try to weave a story of this path

that you’ve taken to get to where you’re

at now

but give us some background it’s

definitely a path

well let’s start my journey actually

begins before i was born

all right so yes yes i’m a third

generation entrepreneur

which is uh rare in the african-american

community

my grandfather owned a door-to-door

sales business

and my mother was a salesperson in that

business that’s how she met my father

my father was a manager in that business

so i was literally

born on the road

i traveled to um

let me see before my first birthday i

had already hit 12 states

i don’t remember any of it of course but

right yeah

so it was it’s in my dna

yeah you’re still putting the pins on

the map that you’ve been there even

though you were less than one yeah

yes yes but um so that’s when

my journey started starting with my

grandfather and then my father

he has started a few businesses and

currently

has founded a non-profit um so it’s just

kind of been

always a part of my life i was that

child as

um like as a child when you know you

bring home the

christmas things to sell my parents were

like what are you gonna say what’s your

sales speech what do you say when they

say no

it was drilled into that’s awesome

that’s good training started my

entrepreneur yes i started my

entrepreneur journey at a very very

young age um i

then became a single mother at the age

of 22

with two toddlers and that’s

was during the last economic crash of

2008

and i at that point

you know i had to make something happen

so i started my very first business

which was a preschool um i founded a

preschool

you just started a preschool out of

nowhere as your first business

well i did i did work in them first so i

did

have some experience in some training so

i did study childhood education

but i didn’t like the way you know when

you’re in it you you get to see

different things i didn’t like the way

it was going i didn’t like the focus

that uh was happening within

certain ones that i’ve worked in so i

was like well i mean who’s better to

fix it than myself so i started my first

preschool

and i did a preschool instead of a full

day care so because i did have two small

children

um on my own so that way i can spend the

time

with you know with my girls i am

currently a homeschool mom

of four now but

so the yes the education has always been

vital it’s another thing my parents have

always instilled in

education as well as entrepreneurship

um which then gets into late watch later

but i know it’s a it’s a path it’s a

path

it’s a it’s a path i mean we started off

starting as preschool holy cow man i am

just

yes yes so um i started a preschool

and then that preschool i ended up doing

a subscription service

for childhood educational products uh

and i designed a lot myself that got me

into

learning to how to wholesale and then

from there

i i started a a wholesale jewelry

business where i sold necklaces and

lockets and things like that to other

small businesses

that i had stopped doing a little while

ago right before the pandemic

which is when all the small businesses

weren’t able to sell at their venues

but um i do currently still do jewelry

but not on the wholesale level

um but oh man there’s such a path i’m

just it’s hard for me

i read this thing and i was like where

are we we’re all over

the map we’ve done every kind of

business yeah

i’ve done ebay um i’ve i’ve done all

sorts of

i am a serial entrepreneur if you

haven’t figured it out already

but yes yes so from there yes i did

wholesaling

and drop shipping and then from there

um my preschool had grew into a full-on

daycare so um then i

had my third daughter and i wanted to be

able to spend a little more time

with her so i kind of started lessening

the time and then i have my fourth

daughter i have all girls

i mean i love i love my daughter and

would not trade her for the world but

four girls sounds

so overwhelming to me i mean one is like

i mean that’s like my limit

i’m like pushing the limit yeah holy cow

okay

yes so at that point okay so then i

wanted to be able to spend more time

with

my um with once i was having my fourth

daughter so during um i was trying to

figure out which route to go

so i actually started a um

excuse me an employment

business so i did temporary employment

and from there that’s where i learned

about logistics

so my employment staffing agency turned

into a logistics business so we ended up

just hiring for

our business and from there we would run

routes for other

small businesses and uh

we we had built a pretty decent

clientele

but some of them were like food

businesses and i didn’t like running

food i’ve never been comfortable with

dealing with

things that people eat so

from there my logistics business

we had ended up partnering with a few

other

startups and unfortunately some of those

fell through they didn’t um continue on

so that’s when we kind of learned about

the laundry business so and that’s one

reason why we don’t serve in san

francisco because

we have a partner in san francisco so we

just kind of link up with him

and we cross paths but uh we started

a laundry pickup and delivery service

lifewash

that is actually a logistics and tech

company

because our main focus is

getting the product from point a to

point b and making it easy for

the client as well as on our end

using technology to implement and excuse

me implementing technology to

streamline that process wow

okay yes now we can rewind

okay so i mean i feel like we’ve all got

the map

of you know yes it’s so logical to start

with a preschool and end up

with a laundry pick-up and delivery

service so um

yeah so okay talk to me a little bit

about

uh you know when you started you started

a preschool and i’m

assuming that probably also helped with

you know having your kids around and all

of that

um but talk to me about what it

what it was like to be a business owner

as a single mom

when you’re starting off there oh man

you know what

that it actually wasn’t as challenging

as you would

have thought it was it’s more

challenging

um at that point because i was so young

i think i was so

naive even though i had experience with

everything i’m so sorry my my

three-year-old yeah there’s

there’s four of them quite your sister

will turn it on

you know the joys of working from home

right

hey man we are all dealing with that all

year so

we get it yes so uh okay i’m so sorry

let’s rewind back

um so running a business as a single mom

that was an easy transition because of

the type of business

and my older two girls like they

literally went everywhere with me so

they were

so easy because they’re literally always

with me

um i have photos of us with our first

booths and they’re like sitting there

with them you know and i have the booth

with the subscription items and

you know they were just amazing

absolutely amazing they made it so easy

but also they were like my experiment so

i was able to test out my products with

them

and be like okay this really works and

also with my daycare we did a lot of

projects so i was like okay this you

know this really works and

i would build an entire curriculum

around it

and then that would be a part of the

subscription subscription service

so it really at that moment with that

particular business

it wasn’t as challenging as

later on in life with other men

with more children i was just so young

and just

you know i said naive just like you know

hey going with the flow

and plus we’re right in the middle of a

financial crisis so it’s kind of like

hey what do i have to lose

yeah yeah you know we just make it work

so it was actually a lot of fun because

i was able to experiment and really

start learning and getting my foot in

the door

with my own thing rather than watching

my parents

you know do their thing yeah

oh that’s awesome okay so you did a

bunch of stuff you did

uh you know the preschool you had a

subscription

service you talk to me about starting

this employment staffing agency how did

you

how did you get into that that’s kind of

yes

it is very interesting so i actually got

into that because my sister

is my younger sister she is a dental

hygienist

so she would go on temp jobs and there

was

a an agency in our

area that did strictly dental and i

thought that was the coolest idea that

this person did strictly dental you know

and i’m like oh cause you know you

always hear about the different types

but not

one that has such a specific niche so i

was like that’s so cool

i want to try that out too so

so i picked the niche which was

logistics and

um went from there just kind of you know

experimenting and learning and talking

different people and um at that time it

was also timing

uh i believe it was indeed or one of the

other companies they had

an option for recruiters to be able to

and get like behind the scenes uh

job listings and things like that and

then be able to recruit for those

so i kind of just had good timing as

well

it was a good timing but it was also me

just trying to figure out

which way i wanted to go

you know in life like let me try out

some different things and in staffing i

get to learn about all sorts of things

that are out there

yeah yeah it worked out

yeah that was a good point so how did it

turn

i mean you said it turned into like a

logistics

business and that led you to laundry so

what do you mean by that how did it turn

into a logistics business so

we ended up partnering with some

startups like i was saying some

logistics startups

and logistics i mean on the smaller

scale so the smaller scale logistics of

moving it

from city to city not nationwide to

nationwide

so between moving from city to city they

so i actually kind of learned from those

startups like

how does the business work and um you

know

my husband was my main employee

can be the main person i would send out

when i didn’t have anybody else

how amazing is that that you just get to

be like hey you know what you

why don’t you head over you know down to

the next town over

you get to just kind of boss them around

and that’s your job that’s amazing

yes

okay i’m so sorry one more time nikoia

come play with your sister so sorry okay

yes so yeah right it was wonderful so he

um would go out sometimes of course we

had other employees as well the other

people we sent out but

with him i could really get feedback

right yeah

i would ask you know i would follow the

routes and i would ask him

because we would and we ended up setting

up our own system

um as well so we would have their system

and then we have our own system

and i would be able to flip back and

forth and kind of compare

and and you know it was a real like i

would literally and my job was pregnant

at the time

and i would we would be up at four in

the morning you know

preparing for these routes and

you know me the whole time just up like

watching the routes and

putting things in and tracking and

dealing with customer service

you know it was just a whole thing

yeah but yeah so and that’s what we did

and then like i said that particular one

went belly up

so when it did you know we looked at the

list of clientele because now you know

everybody needed this additional

logistics i was like well instead of

just doing staffing let’s just

help out these companies that are ready

you know we’ve already been working with

them they know who we are

you know we’ll just take over from there

but i just didn’t want to deal with the

food companies so we

didn’t do those but we did offer to the

other companies

and one of them just happened to be a

laundry

service so with with dealing with the

laundry service

he was amazing i mean he taught us so

much you know he had his little area

that he covered he was interested in

going in any other areas that he’s like

really established

in the bay area like me in san francisco

he just taught us everything like he

taught us so much and was willing to

kind of like

talk to me about everything and it was

if it wasn’t for him we would have never

gotten it started like i

can’t give all credit to that particular

partner

but he was amazing and that’s how we got

started we went from

helping out another startup that ended

up closing down

to then taking over their clientele

because now they’re closed and the

clientele’s reaching out to us like hey

what do we do now we’re like okay we got

you covered and

thankfully i had already been looking at

systems and comparing systems

so you know and then i got all the

technology

set up and i was up for days out of time

coding and tech in the background

um and you know phone calls at two in

the morning

you know like to people overseas so that

they can like

help me with other texts yeah big

journey

um and just trying to you know quickly

get it together because we didn’t have

very much time

because they needed service to continue

you know they needed their businesses

to continue on so we just like okay

we’ll just pick up from there and then

you know over time

we kind of lessen those other ones and

then just focus strictly on the laundry

and then from that point um you know we

were working with

the particular partner in san francisco

and

uh but there was nothing going on in the

bay area so

i just happened to be uh searching for

you know new clientele

and just kind of doing my research and i

came across a laundromat

that was looking for a wash and fold

um person so the deal was you know they

would get paid for their machines

and you know we would get whatever we

charge so i was like oh great you know

now we can fully go full-blown because

before that

um let me rewind a little bit the

partner that we have in san francisco

had given us one of their uh larger

clients

uh it was the weworks building at the

time uh

they was one of their larger clients on

the other side of the bridge because

they didn’t service the area they’re

like hey you know you service this area

i’m like

yeah we can service that area yeah we of

course we do

we started off pretty well we started

off with

you know with a pretty decent uh client

there

and and then that’s when i came across

the

the other the laundromat that was

looking for this

this position but it wasn’t like an

employee position it was just kind of

like hey you know keep an eye on

my shop and you know you can get paid

whatever just

get some money in my my into my machines

and i was like oh this is a thing

i was like perfect we can do this we

already have

you know like our whole logistics set up

and i had it so then i went to go speak

with him

and you know he was telling me his deal

and i was like okay i was like

yeah you know like can we run our um

can we run pickup and delivery and he

was like oh yeah sure

and there and that was it

and there you have it then we started

and then from there we started making

more partners but that was

yeah that was the main start of how we

did it

but um also to rewind a little bit

because we

do uh we are we do have a special team

we’re not just a pickup delivery laundry

service

we specialize in eco-friendly and

nonsense products because um in

researching

i i’ve learned that and also experiment

not experimenting but experience with

talking to clientele a lot of people

don’t like the harsh detergents it’s too

much there’s a lot of sensitivities we

have a lot of clientele

that our cancer survivors are

elderly severe allergies our daughter

has very very severe asthma so i kind of

i was already familiar with what

products

to use that would be safe cleaning and

help reduce the allergens

and things of that nature so it it

that was our niche i was like well you

know if we’re going to do it i i don’t

want to just

do it i want to be of help to

to whoever helping in more than one way

more than just doing their laundry

like i want them to know that we care

about their safety and we care about

what they’re breathing in and you know

because a lot of people don’t think

about like their bedding you sleep on

your bed for

you know six to eight hours eight to ten

hours you know and you’re laying there

on your pillow and you’re breathing in

all these chemicals you know things like

that so i wanted to really kind of

educate

our clientele and just be that peace of

mind

to the people that need a laundry

service but can’t

use the laundry service because there’s

too many chemicals involved you know and

that’s why we don’t

with directly in order to get proper

candles a lot of chemicals

yeah yeah pretty much entirely

yeah well i mean i think that’s really

cool i think i mean obviously the bay

area is a great

location to have that niche um you know

there’s certain areas of the country

where you would just be hearing crickets

right yes yes san francisco is a great

or that the bay area is a great

place to you know to be doing that so

that’s awesome i think that’s

obviously i think that’s great you know

for you know the environment

yeah people’s health and everything um

yeah but it’s awesome too that you

found uh a solid niche that yes that you

can grow and promote

and educate and all that so uh all right

i want to go back for a second

to finding this laundromat who that was

looking for

a somebody to do their wash and fold i

mean not to do their wash and fold but

to do wash and fold

in their store and look for it um

okay so where did you find that you said

you saw that online or something yes

uh-huh it was online

um i was searching

you know i was just searching um all

throughout everything i was like on

craigslist and facebook just trying to

build a clientele list of people to

reach out to um

in my research and then i came across

that one so he was looking for weekends

only which was perfect

because um you know we want to be able

to really focus on our

own building our business as well and

um yeah so with him he was looking for

weekends only

and we were going to be uh

you know just mainly keep an eye on the

shop

and we would uh be able to be in charge

of the washing fold

he had recent just recently purchased

that particular laundry mat

but um he had a history of laundromat

ownership in his

family and there was already

a lady that had been there for quite a

few years

that did the monday through friday and

he wanted to expand to the weekends

got it uh okay so

i mean i i hear this a lot and i think

it appeals to a lot of owners

because you know you can kind of get

some

quote unquote free labor and and also

some income from somebody else’s

work into your business so not a bad

setup

but i also know that it’s not always a

good setup so i’m curious how your

experience was

uh doing that what are some of the pros

and cons of

of doing that you know maybe from your

perspective and maybe even from an

owner’s perspective

so the pros are that

well from my perspective as someone that

is starting a wash and fold

it gives you the opportunity to

learn your clientele learn your

demographics see if it works for you

because it is a lot of work it’s not to

be taken lightly at all it is a lot of

work

especially pick-up and delivery and i

think a lot of people are like oh well

you know i already have wash and fold

i’m just gonna ethic and delivery and

they don’t understand

like it’s it’s a complete other type of

business

um and it’s a lot of different things

that go into it whether

when you just have a right you know just

the laundromat but the pros are that it

gives you the opportunity to

try to test it out work on the

demographics with low

risk and kind of learn you know what

you’re going to do and how you’re going

to do it

for us the cons were that we started to

have

a blend of businesses uh the clients

didn’t

couldn’t differentiate between our

business and their business

so they would come to us with the

laundromat

issues and we’d like well we can afford

and then people would come to him for

wash and fold delivery

pick up and delivery um questions

and he would like well i can afford you

you know to me to tequila but like i

said there was somebody there monday

through friday

and she didn’t do pick up a delivery and

she didn’t have a credit card processing

she didn’t have all these tech

things that we had so it just ended up

being

too um

too much blurring of lines between the

two businesses so that’s something that

uh if you decide to go that route

that you should definitely um

find a way which i couldn’t figure out a

way we ended up leaving within our first

year

to to keep the the line separate

you know the lady that was there monday

through friday had her name

on the window but we didn’t want to

advertise

that way you know because we still

wanted to make sure our business was

completely separate even though we were

using their facilities

yes yeah yeah i mean

like i said i think there’s pros and

cons and it is a really great way to

just get your foot in the door right

if you’re trying to start a pickup and

delivery service you know

if you are lucky enough to live in a

house with

you know a washer and a dryer then you

can use that to a very small extent

you’re going to outgrow that real fast

yeah

you cannot do that type of capacity we

what depends on the demographics of

course of your area

we run a very large area

um because we are one of the only pickup

and delivery services in our area

and well that goes that route so

there’s no way we could we have to use

other facilities but yes yes yeah

it grows very fast

yeah i’m i’m sure i mean sometimes if i

get a little bit backed up on our

personal laundry it’ll take all day to

do laundry at my house just

our one house so yeah uh you know when

you’re doing other people’s laundry it

can it can add up real fast so

it is a great way to get started get

your foot in the door um

and you know sometimes i’ve even heard

where owners will

you know if they have if they have the

capability of doing this we’ll discount

a little bit for a bulk or something

like that so you might be able to even

negotiate some of that

yes um but you know i’ve talked to

owners who’ve tried this and from their

perspective

there’s pros and cons too you know and

you know some of the some of the pros

are hey you get somebody in there

who is you know cleaning the place up

and

right taking care of the place ideally

um some of the

some of the cons though is that you’re

at the

uh you know if if you don’t have

somebody who

is like you who’s gonna be doing what

they’re supposed to be doing yes

and they’re a little more wishy-washy

then you may not have somebody cleaning

up your place for you

and it may not be as nice and that’s

another

con because we got to a point of being

so busy

that we weren’t able you know we’d have

have another assistance we have

assistance with the laundry and

with the um washing fold

obviously with the with the laundry and

with the the um

cleaning of the place it ended up being

too much

so that’s another con yeah and that’s

that’s not a money-making part of your

business

right cleaning it up so that’s an extra

thing and you want to be focusing on the

money-making parts of your

exactly okay so you said i mean you said

you left

that partnership after you know less

than a year

so so what are you doing now what did

you what did you do from there

so from there we went and we started

just talking to other laundromat owners

and trying to see who else

we could to partner with

that and you know make our own little

deals so from there we made our own

deals

and uh we partnered with three

other laundromats so one we have

emergency access to overnight

and the other two are daytime access one

in the bay

and one where we’re centered at in

fairfield okay

okay is the are

are they just are they just getting the

turns from you or

is there anything else they have their

own attendance

yeah awesome that’s it they just we they

just get the

money in their machines yeah they just

get the turns that’s it good

it’s uh do you did you guys do a formal

like agreement or is it just kind of

it’s a verbal agreement

so right now we’re in verbal agreements

we soon uh

maybe going into formal more formal

agreements

but at this point i guess we do also

know that we’re dealing with

the virus so a lot of even though

they you know people still have to do

their laundry people are afraid to come

into the laundromats

so the ones that the main one that we

use

doesn’t have as much volume as they

would have had pre

corona so with doing that

keeping it informal it gives us the

flexibility to kind of like okay you

know

as your business starts to pick back up

you know if we need to pull back and

move to a different area you know our

space everything out between the two

then we can

you know so it’s kind of like we’re all

working together at this

point just to make it through we’re

making it through

the the virus and you know keeping their

doors open

and keeping us with um access to

keeping our doors open yeah yeah

yeah is there are there any uh just like

curiosity are there any

i’m just trying to think through like

what if you come in with like a lot of

laundry

and you’re taking up a lot of machines

or maybe you’re having to wait for

machines i mean have you run into that

at all

yes we have um but like

this particular one right now isn’t

doing the volume that they normally

probably would be doing pre uh pandemic

but we’re courteous like we’re not going

in there and just going to take up all

the washers and make it to where we want

them to have the terms

that way they keep their doors open for

us as well

we don’t want any complaints or you know

or anything like that so we are

very very curious and i believe that

comes from

us working prior you know in a more

formal

type of agreement you know but with

every uh with the two owners that

were three one of them is kind of more

formal because we have overnight access

to his

his uh laundry mat so of course that’s a

little

you know different because he’ll open

the doors for us but the other two

you know we we just you know make sure

they know who we are we talk to them we

let them know what we have going on you

know is it okay

of course you know they’re not they’re

not going to say no

yeah right uh no you can’t come do your

laundry like no you’re going to bring in

you know

2 000 pounds yeah wait what

you can come on down here and do the

mine that’s fine but they do have a

business to run

so we make sure that we are courteous to

their

clients and even though i don’t have to

and they have attendance there

if there’s a problem with the machine

and i know what to do i help them you

know if somebody

is confused about the dryers or i stop

and i you know i assist

because i mean i know and then and i’m

grateful you know that

we’re able to have the partnerships that

we do and that you know

and that they are are very they’re very

wonderful people you know

very wonderful owners and we haven’t had

any problems and we try not to give them

any problems as well

so you know there are things that we’ll

do just to kind of show our gratitude

like yeah you know we can help with that

or you know yeah

and things like that and just to you

know keep it keep it

good and beneficial for them as well

yeah and to be good people because

you’re good

right yeah okay so

uh all right so you’re working with

these right now three different laundry

mats

are you are you using like a

software how well first of all how are

people finding you how do you how do you

how does somebody order a pickup service

from you yes

so we are on yelp and google

and of course the social medias uh

instagram facebook

uh like i said we are a tech company as

well

so we have a lot of tech iterations

up there so they’re able to schedule

online

oh we also oh yeah with yelp they can

also schedule but we

from any of those sources they’re able

to schedule online directly

excuse me straight to our scheduler from

there

it gets pinged to our calendars and it

which pings to our logistics apps

that’s on the back end on the front end

all they do is they schedule

and then their credit cards are vaulted

for future

billing because of course we don’t know

how many pounds they have

and it’s all automated so they they get

auto auto build after

pickup and yeah we just kind of make it

seamless

and and that’s it they get text

reminders so they also get a text alert

when we’re on the way

and a text alert when it’s been

delivered and picked up

uh they also uh have

paperless invoice you know to their

email so they get invoices to their

email so everything is there

um everything is held on our end to

where we can pull up

you know their prior things there are

more integrations we want to add in the

future

but right now it’s pretty seamless

and like from the moment they schedule

to the moment that they are picked up it

can be completely contactless

and yeah but it’s pretty easy but they

find us

on online google yep instagram

facebook yeah awesome so are you doing

uh are you doing any marketing

or anything not at this moment we

actually are mostly word of mouth

and search yeah mostly word-of-mouth

search however

we will be um having an intern this

summer

that will be working with our social

media because i do know a lot of

uh you know behind the scenes tech

things and

helping them with digital marketing

right yes

yeah that’s awesome well that’s pretty

cool to be able to

kind of grow business and and not have

to worry about marketing up on the front

end and

be able to get going that’s awesome yes

uh okay i mean you this is interesting

because you dropped

a little just casually you just dropped

a little statement in there and you said

you know that you are a tech and

logistics

company right not a laundry company a

tech and logistics company

yes can you tell me a little more about

that what do you mean by that i sure

can so laundry is our product

we can actually run any product we can

run

anything from tissue we can do food we

can do laundry

anything anything that needs to be moved

from point a to point b we can move it

with our systems

however laundry is our product of choice

so that’s the logistics part like we

have of course it’s more complicated

than that but just

right now at the logistics part because

we we don’t have to even though we do

have our own employees that do the wash

we don’t uh vendor out that’s another

thing we don’t vendor out

i do it with assistance and even though

we have our own employees

we we can easily

vendor out if we chose to we don’t have

to actually touch

any wash and fold if we don’t want to we

can strictly just move it from point a

to point b

however there has been other startups

that have done that and it didn’t work

out i’ve done a lot of research

so we choose to have our own employees

in these different

settings that way we have more control

over the process

uh so yeah so there’s a lot of logistics

things

that go with that so um like i said the

alerts and then just the whole process

of mapping everything we service from

solano county

through san leandro so that’s about a 50

mile radius

yes and we only go up one way there’s

actually a whole other side that we can

right now we go up one one way up to 680

and it’s a lot in between there

there’s a lot of cities and we have to

kind of map out

the routes and where to go and it’s

pretty complicated

it’s pretty complicated especially

traffic flow and in the last year with

dealing with

corona there’s been so many changes

to the traffic flow that it’s been a lot

of work we’ve been focusing more on

logistics than anything else

yeah no kidding yeah it has been pretty

crazy

um and you know then integrating all

those systems together

so with the tech we’re constantly trying

to find

new and improved ways using technology

to streamline the process um on both

ends on the consumer end

and on the business end to where it

would be um

easier a lot of the systems that they

are putting out right now

are actually kind of complicated so if

you own a laundromat and you want to

set up um a pick-up-and-delivery service

and you want to have some of these

different things

it’s a lot of work like if you don’t

have experience with technology or

somebody that can assist you with it

the integrations and then you know

there’s always something going wrong

with it like lately we

have to go through and try to fix a few

things because some of

our clientele had been getting an alert

that we were like 40 minutes away

we were actually like five minutes away

you know so and that’s not

that’s not good

they’re still wearing the clothes they

want to wash when you show up at the

door

they’re like they’re like what do you

mean they got another thing to say hey

we missed you

that’s never good so there’s a lot of

that that goes into it i i really spend

most of my time dealing with the tech

and logistics part

but um it’s just making it a a process

that is easy on the consumer end

and also easy on the business end

um one day we hope to be able to put

together these systems

after our trial and errors for other

laundromats because it really is

it’s really complicated it and it’s a

lot of work

and the tech part you’re always having

to go through

and troubleshoot something you know

so it’s just so and it’s it can be

pricey you know if you’re going with

somebody else’s system

so it’s a lot it’s a lot of work so in

doing this i’m

you know even though you know we’ll be

helping the competition

the goal is to make it easier on

everybody like we do want to see other

businesses thrive as well

you know so yeah and i cannot get a bad

rep because you know if

if they get a bad rep and they’re like

oh i don’t ever want to try laundry

service again yeah

totally totally you know yeah

here i am standing here in my underwear

because you said you weren’t going to be

here for 40 minutes and

you’re knocking on my door

uh that’s funny are you doing um

are you doing residential are you doing

only commercial are you doing both

we do both we do um residential and

commercial

um we are going to in the next couple of

months be starting

a subscription service with our

residential to get a beta we’re going to

give it a try and see how that works out

just to make it easier on the budgeting

and things so you have to have us back

so we’ll be able to tell you how that

goes

yeah oh yeah i’m i’m excited right now

like i’m excited to hear how your

business is going to grow and just i

mean if you’re already

running a nice business with no

marketing or anything

you know i’m you know sky’s the limit

for you guys

like you said there there are a lot of

cities yes

around there and there’s a yes it’s

pretty densely populated so it is

there’s a lot of business to be had it

is it is i know

we haven’t even touched our we’re still

in our our

beginning stage yeah yeah

that’s exciting right it is very

exciting so

very um very bay area of you to be in

beta

you know for your subscription service

very very

yeah yeah you have to remind me uh after

this i need to

uh connect you up with mark vlaskamp

he’s doing something

similar he’s out in austin he came on

the podcast yes

and that’s another good area yeah and he

yeah

actually a lot of similarities to the

bay area in austin yeah

but he’s doing something similar he

doesn’t have a location and he’s

um you know he’s got a pretty booming

pickup and delivery service yeah yeah it

would be a good one for you to

definitely definitely i love the network

yes yeah yeah and if

if you’re listening you haven’t listened

to mark’s podcast i mean it’s an awesome

episode so i’ll put a link in the

description or in the show notes

so you can check that one out just in

case but speaking of not having a

location

are you guys ever planning on getting a

location or are you gonna

um keep utilizing uh you know other

people’s locations

do you have a plan there yet no um i

have a halfway

plan yeah that’s fine yeah you know

because

we actually are growing very fast very

very fast so i don’t foresee

us being able to continue this

way but i would still like to

keep my partnerships in a way so we’ll

probably

just have some volume there and then

move the rest to our own facility in the

future yes yes

so we do have to have yeah yeah

and i think it makes a lot of sense you

know once you have a certain volume

especially if you’re planning on

focusing on pickup and delivery

you get cheaper space uh

you know in like an industrial area set

up yeah yes

there where there’s no walk-in customers

but you’re not focusing on that

anyways exactly yeah you can run that

and

and you’re not paying the retail premium

for doing exactly

yes yeah it’s pretty significant yeah

and we’re located in fairfield

california

and most people are not familiar with

fairfield california but it’s actually a

big hub spot for logistics businesses

we have a lot of factories a lot of

industrial space so we’ve been keeping

an eye out

corona has kind of slowed things down

you know with that

but um everything happens for a reason

so it gives us an opportunity to really

step back

from the busyness i mean not that it’s

not busy it’s definitely still busy

but it just gives us a time to you know

kind of recenter and focus

and and focus more on our our future

goals because you know we do want to be

able to help

as many people as we can that’s the main

thing of our business to be able to

give people that peace of mind and

freedom

to not have to worry about the longest

chore on their list

yeah yeah oh my gosh man i don’t

so many people hate laundry yes i’m one

of them so

um yeah well awesome uh okay

the i had one more question darn it um

i mean i have a lot more questions but i

had one that i wanted to ask

right now but i can’t remember what it

is because i’m getting old um okay

if i think of it i’ll uh i’ll i’ll shoot

it out there to you but uh

we have a section on the podcast called

down to business

[Applause]

and down to business just an opportunity

for us to get to know

your business a little more uh in a

little more detail to see

you know what exactly you’re up to over

there in the bay area

um okay so you’re in the bay area we

already know that um and you own

zero laundromats yes zero laundromats i

like that

uh when did you when did you start this

oh 2017.

2017. yes yes yeah um okay cool

so you’ve been doing it for almost four

years now four years

yeah wow wow okay

that’s awesome uh yeah

what i do

i mean you’re at different locations and

stuff so you may not know how much it

costs to do laundry

does it vary

it does vary it does vary um usually

within

50 cents of each other per location

there the 60 pounders typically range

between

um 6.75

to about 7.25 okay 750 depending on

because there’s some locations that do

upwards of 750.

the uh 30 pounders

are wait are those 40 pounders

30 40 pounds

nobody really knows how much 40 pounds

of laundry is anyways

including me so

575 to 625 you know so they’re right in

those type of ranges

per machine um so

when we do it of course you know things

are separated out

so it’s

we charge per pound when we’re washing

we are looking at um like if they have a

load of wipes and a load of you know

colors darks and so on

we put those together so sometimes

one person may have you know

two or three or however many machines um

of course we try to convince as much as

we can to save on costs

because we we are um

you know we don’t have our own machine

so we do want to try to stay on cost

there but we also try to make sure that

the clients

close are still separated out as well

[Music]

her clients well not to say per client

we spend about 10 to 15 percent of our

income

excuse me of our gross revenue on

machines

okay that’s not that bad actually i

would have expected it to be higher

yes yeah that’s good it’s good

well oh what kind of poundage are you

doing like how many pounds of

laundry that’s more of like pickup

delivery metric

yes yes so poundage we

do on average

about five to

six sometimes 700 pounds a day

um we run three days

on our schedule but um so that’s another

thing that’s unique about our business

we don’t run seven days a week

we run um three days for pickups

but we have four wash days

so yeah because of the two day and next

day turn around

so we run monday monday tuesday

and thursday with wednesday being a wash

day

and we

yeah about five to seven hundred pounds

uh a day

that’s pretty good yeah that’s pretty

good it could be for some days you know

it just kind of depends because we do

have some temporary

you know clients that come and go and

they might we have some

contracts that aren’t all the time and

then i’m also trying to think like okay

pre corona like right now

there’s a lot of businesses that have

shut down unfortunately that won’t be

coming back to us

but we do we do pretty well we do pretty

well

yeah that’s pretty that’s pretty awesome

i forgot to ask you this before but with

your speaking of your logistics company

how are you keeping track of everybody’s

laundry you know like yeah you’re going

to different locations and yeah

you know what do you just whack the

desk how do you how do you keep track of

everything

so everything is uh scanned in

and i kind of list it so all the

businesses go

in one area and all the

smaller residentials go in another area

and then we have the large bulk pickups

from usually they’re like your families

that you know once a month or

just need to get it down that one time

and

those buildings 32 pairs of underwear

yeah

just wear one day and then give them all

yep

so we separate out separated out by size

in business so residential has two

different types

and the businesses have one type and

then from there it gets separated again

who’s right now we’re not doing same

days because of

the virus we need more time to implement

our

safety procedure we’ve always had the

high safety procedures but now you know

we’ve taken it up a step

because of those sensitive clients i’ve

told you about before so we’ve kind of

always had them so it wasn’t a major

change for us on that area

but from there then it separated again

into

who goes back next day who goes back in

two days

yes and then it’s it’s all input into

our systems

that’s where the system i built so it’s

kind of like it’s kind of yeah

where are you storing stuff like when

you do we do have a storage

no we haven’t we do have it storage yeah

we have our own storage building

okay yeah okay i was gonna say man is it

in your garage right now

in your in your spare room uh

awesome well the rest of these are the

just out of curiosities this is really

irrelevant but i curiosity the

laundromats that you’re partnering with

are they coin stores are you putting

quarters in all these machines all day

long

uh some of them are one of them is

the well two of them excuse me two of

them have coins one of them

is a card or they have a part option yes

yeah

okay do you use the card option or do

you use the coin

oh card store going back and forth

okay the one that we use the most is

mostly coin based

um and you know we just use the coins

i’ll run down to the bank

so because we know we’re also in the

middle of a coin shortage as well

a lot of things going on there but um

yeah

but you know since they know who we are

if they if they happen to run out of

quarters and i run out of quarters and

i’ll just like hey

we’re out of quarters and they’ll refill

the machines for us

yeah yeah well you could see that being

actually like

one actual problem for an owner if

you’re coming in

with 500 pounds of laundry that’s a lot

of quarters and you could empty them out

real quick and there was exactly another

person yeah right and we don’t want to

do that so we usually bring in our own

yeah man quarters are heavy though those

they are five they are

yeah oh gosh man those are so heavy

well you should see the tellers face the

first few times we come in now they get

used to us but they’re like

how many quarters yeah

i’ll tell you man it’s really tough to

look

cool walking out of the bank when you’re

carrying

five hundred dollars a quarters under

each arm you just

i just i can’t impress any of the

tellers walking out of the bank with

those things because they’re just

i don’t know if i need to bulk up or

what thankfully our business account

says laundry service so they don’t ask

too many questions

yeah well my favorite is i i used to

come in with my

when i first bought my first laundromat

it the change machine only accepted ones

and five so i come up with a huge stack

of ones and fives to the bank

wow i found out down the line a teller

finally told me there was a rumor that i

was stripping

that’s where i got all these ones and

fives

so i took that as a compliment but

all right we’re getting derailed here uh

let’s get back to this thing this is

serious business over here

yes uh all right we have a section

called

secret sauce listen up it’s the secret

sauce

and secret sauce is this what’s one

thing that’s working well in your pickup

and delivery business that other

owners who are doing pickleball delivery

could utilize in their business and help

them out

well honestly the thing that i think is

the

most important that um just in

conversation with other laundromat

owners and people wanting to start

picking delivery i think it’s overlooked

and it’s something very simple very

basic and it doesn’t cost you anything

and that’s taking the time with your

customer like really getting to know the

demographics of your area and what their

needs

are um i think it gets overlooked so you

know like it gets overlooked you’re like

okay i got the laundromat and i’m

already doing this and i see the people

that come in

but taking that time to kind of ask them

how their day is and kind of you know

see what else

they could need and getting in the

community and seeing what can be

provided

to really be able to connect with your

clientele i think that gets overlooked

when it’s the most vital thing

is to be able to see what else you can

do for them

rather what they can do for you um

as far as anything else learn as slowly

like day

by day take some time to learn a little

bit more about technology um things are

going that way

you’re still gonna have clients like we

do have clientele older clients that

call us and like hey i don’t know

anything about this check

help me out right yeah but

they’d like not having to write a check

or to um

just be able to put the card there and

it’s there and they don’t ever have to

worry about the other children can and

they don’t ever have to worry about it

you know and we’ll call them up you know

if there’s any issues uh they

they like you know the easiness of it

after they get past the first

steps of it but uh it’s everything’s

going that way so just taking a little

bit of time

to to to learn

about um how to use tech to make it

to make your business easier for

clients like the quarters like we’re

speaking with the quarters if that

laundromat had

um had a card machine you know where i

can just do a card even if it’s one

even if it’s their card and not my

credit card then

you know how some have like their cards

then

that would be so much easier we probably

would do even more at that particular

laundry mat because i have to worry

about the quarters you know

right yeah you know like just those

little things like that

to make it easier i think implementing

some tech into your

system does help a lot it helps you be

able to keep track of things

as well you know with your business

those are awesome

tips and i have a genius idea for you

since you’re such a serial entrepreneur

since those laundromat owners are not

upping their technology i think it’s

time for you to invent

a speed quarter loader so that you can

load those machines up real fast

and just really get good at that

yes that’s funny

i’m always looking for new ways to

improve yes go ahead honey

so sorry no that’s okay uh awesome okay

so i’m looking forward to that and i’ll

buy one when you get one

okay good uh okay we have another

section called

pro tips pro tips

and pro tips is hey you know let’s keep

it uh

pick up and delivery specific but what

advice would you have somebody who was

wanting to start pick up and delivery

service

so wanted to start a pickup delivery

service um

advice to give them

if they want to start it the way that i

did

not having their own machines

is to take the time to go in and network

with

the laundromat owners take time to learn

a little bit about the business you know

like i was you know naive about it but

not 100 because i did have

a mentor you know someone that could

kind of guide me

and if i was doing you know something

right or wrong of course we you’re going

to make mistakes

but just to have that guidance help so

you

you know go in and speak with them and

then that way

also you don’t leave any sour taste in

their mouth

you know like like who is this you know

like yeah they’re happy you’re bringing

stuff in but then

also be courteous you know things like

that but pro tips

i would say um research

really research i you know a lot of

people look and they’re like

like they look at the business they’re

like oh well i can wash clothes you know

it should be pretty easy

but it’s not it’s a lot of work the

laundry’s heavy

um you have to have storage space you

want to make sure um i go

and research the detergents that i’m

using on the um

oh i forgot the name of it is the epa

site but it’s a site and they have all

the different type of detergents there

and their ratings so you know a through

f and

just to kind of you know but take that

time take a little bit of time

to research what you want to do and try

to find a niche

if you can’t and then hone in on that

and then

then you’ll be okay you know um try to

find something that sets you apart

from everybody else i like that

yeah i think that’s really good um

advice you know especially at the end

there when you you know find your niche

find something that sets you apart and

go from there because you can always

scale

bigger yes but if you start too big

it’s too broad it’s like that hole if

you’re trying to target everybody you’re

targeting

right and so you know start start in a

niche like i mean i love what you’re

doing you know the eco-friendly

yes customer and you know if you can

expand it from there you can expand it

you know different kinds of services or

however you

but starting in that niche and really

nailing that

allows you the opportunity to grow from

there so i like that

yes okay we have uh our last section

called recommended resources and that is

you know

i mean it’s what it sounds like but do

you have any resources that you

recommend

uh to help people grow themselves or

their business yes

i do um i don’t know if i can get all

the titles right

i’m gonna try but um i definitely

recommend

again i’m big on research i’m big on

reading and learning more

uh so although we haven’t had to do

much advertising or in it we’re mostly

word of mouth

i do spend a lot of time reading and

studying

um how to write how to copyright and how

write advertising and do digital

marketing and things like that

uh of course regular marketing you know

paper marketing and

other type of advertising is very

important as well but

um with our our logo

and our brand colors we you know i took

the time to research

brand psychology you know like

psychology of the colors and make sure

it represents

what i want our business to represent

so taking the time to really build your

brand even if you are a single

location you know build a brand around

it like build

yourself up and build a name for

yourself but read

uh there’s one called influence

it could have something else with it i

just remember influence

and um another one that’s called

what is it called it has something to do

with a cat

i’m so sorry don’t strangle the cat i

believe or something like that something

about a cat i remember

i’ll get it for you so you can add it

into the the notes there

yeah yeah no don’t strangle the that’s

an awesome title for a book

yes but i do a lot of market research

a lot of research not market research

well i do that too but a lot of

reading on marketing so i just say pick

whatever you can on marketing digital

marketing

copywriting and sales and

read as much as you can um if i hadn’t

been a little more prepared with i would

have had all the titles that i have

like a ton of books i literally buy

books

every two weeks at the most and that’s

with four kids homeschooling

and running a full-time business on a

part-time schedule

and i still literally go like they know

me at barnes noble and always having

books

in here you know so it’s like continue

to just

anything you can find on copywriting

marketing um

and uh digital marketing yeah

yeah awesome awesome awesome and

and ironic that you don’t really do any

marketing but you’re doing

a lot of reading yeah but you will be

doing marketing

right but you’re like i said we’re a lot

of um word of mouth

but i talk my husband we talk to our

clientele often

that experience that you leave them with

is your marketing

so that’s why we make sure i

you know don’t do anything to leave a

sour taste of course you can’t please

everybody but you know like for the most

part

i am who i am but i use those

pointers in my real life every day in my

talking to my clientele and the way i

answer the phone

i answer the phone with a smile even if

they can’t see me

right so that way it’s portrayed that

way you know like they can hear it in my

voice

so all those type of things are part of

my marketing yeah

which ties right back into your secret

sauce so yes very nicely

interwoven together it just makes it

sound like you’ve really thought through

all this stuff so

yeah i have i know i can tell

well hey this has been awesome it’s been

so cool to hear

you know just your path to get to this

weird little industry that we’re in

and uh and then how you’ve been doing it

like how you’ve been

running your business and um you know

and growing it and

yeah just everything that you’ve been

learning along the way and appreciate

you coming on and sharing your story

with us sharing your experience with us

and your in your wisdom and knowledge

with us i know it’s going to help a lot

of people out because i get

asked all the time how to start a pick

up and delivery service but people who

don’t own laundromats so

uh so this is awesome and there’s a lot

for us laundromat owners who want to

either start or or grow our pickup and

delivery businesses

a lot of good stuff in there so thank

you so much for sharing

last question for you is you know

there’s probably people listening here

who want to pick your brain a little bit

ask you questions that i didn’t ask or

or whatever what’s the best way they can

get a hold of you

well the best way is they can email me

so they can email me

at our business email which you’ll have

linked there but it’s you know

in gibson at leastwatch.com they can

also find it on our website as well

they can send a comment i always

answer my emails and

anything on messenger so if they find us

on facebook or instagram and they want

to send me a message

they’re more than welcome to um i love

talking business like you see i’m a

serial entrepreneur so i’m always

always something you know i love talking

when people ask me you know well tell me

about yourself i’m like well

i’m a wife mother of four homeschooler

and a business owner they’re like well

okay but

like tell me about you i’m like but that

is me like

everything like you want to know more

about my business or what

like homeschooling or business

that’s funny awesome well i’ll have

links to

all that in the show notes and real

quick i

lied right to your face uh i have

another question

okay what are the name livewash or yeah

where did the name livewash come from

yes so lave means to wash

it’s just an old english word okay so i

i’m very big

like i said with the yeah yeah

so i’m really big on definitions because

of the education part like i love

definitions and um i

have the worst time with coming up with

names but i wanted something easy simple

you know because i mean most people when

they call us they’re already stressed

out with the pile of laundry last thing

they want to do is

remember a laundry name yeah right

it’s you know four letters very simple

and it is what it is it says what it is

yeah it’s the cleanest four-letter word

out there

awesome well thank you again so much

uh check this is this has been a lot of

fun i don’t know

hope it hope other people are having as

much fun as we are

i definitely enjoyed myself well make

sure you check out legwash.com

uh nikila thank you so much for coming

on and

cannot wait you know i’m up in the bay

area all the time so i’ll have to

you know hunt you down or

open my front door

uh can’t wait but thanks again for

coming on we will definitely have you

back on

uh after you’ve exploded your business

yeah

about that too

i’m looking forward to that all right

we’ll talk to you soon

bye okay bye all right how fun was that

with nikila

she is awesome i love love love her

entrepreneur spirit

some people say that and they don’t

really mean it she said it and she

means it because she has been all over

the place with

entrepreneurship and pretty cool that

she’s landed

uh with lave laundry or lave wash

pretty cool that she landed with lave

wash uh doing pick up and delivery for

laundry in it uh just a very

uh entrepreneurial way of doing it um so

very cool if you have questions for her

definitely reach out to her because

she’s learned a lot not just about

laundry pickup and delivery but about

business in general so she’d be an

awesome resource

somebody awesome to have in your network

so i always encourage you pick one thing

from today’s episode there’s

a bunch of things that you can take from

every episode but pick one and put it

into action

for yourself this week and as we stack

that on top of each other every single

week

putting one thing into action it’s

really going to lead to a lot of

transformation

for us in a positive way as long as

you’re picking good things

i guess so yeah so for me one of the

things i love that she said it’s so

simple it’s so basic

and it’s so easy to forget as we’re busy

entrepreneurs we’re busy business owners

um but one of the things she really uh

emphasized is in her secret sauce she

said

you know take time to spend time with

your customers and to really hear them

and to hear

you know what it is that they need how

you can

uh serve them better um so taking time

with customers i think

is something that’s easy to overlook

sometimes when we’re

busy sometimes i get so focused on

things that i’m trying to do

even even though i’m a people person i

get so focused on

doing whatever it is i’m trying to do

that i forget to

pause and take time to just talk to

customers every now and then

and see you know how they are and who

they are

so that’s my takeaway what’s your

takeaway let me know

head to the forums on my resource.com

forums and let me know your takeaway

over there i want to hear what kind of

action you guys are taking

all right hope you guys enjoyed this

episode and i know you did

and we’ll see you again next week as we

kick off

year number two of the laundromat

resource podcast we’ll talk to you then

[Music]

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