110. The Human Laundromat Encyclopedia is BACK with Some Knowledge for You with Andrew Cunningham

Jordan Berry 0:00
Hey, what’s up guys? It’s Jordan with the laundromat resource podcast. This is show 110. And I’m pumped. You’re here today, because today we have on the king of laundromat information. I’ve called him the human laundromat encyclopedia. The guy knows the business through and through, it’s Andrew Cunningham. He’s one of the favorites on the show here. And he’s also one of the favorite consultants at laundromat resource.com/coaching So if you’re interested by the time you listen to this thing, which you know, you should be in talking with Andrew more about getting into the business or how to optimize your business, check out laundromat resource.com/coaching and book a call with Andrew because he is the man and he knows his stuff. We go through a ton of stuff here today. And I want to jump right into it here with Andrew we’re going to talk about we cover a huge gamut of information and it’s is a notetaker one for sure as all of his episodes are so let’s jump into it with Andrew Cunningham. You could check out links to everything we talked about at laundromat resource.com/show 110 110 And I also have a link to book a call with Andrew right there on that page too. So if you’re interested in talk with Andrew, laundromat resource.com/coaching Alright, let’s jump into with Andrew Cunningham. Andrew, what is going on man? Hey,

Andrew Cunningham 1:25
hey, running, running around staying busy here in Southern California. It’s a busy market.

Jordan Berry 1:31
Dude. Yeah, it’s been it’s been wild and busy and kind of weird all at the same time lately.

Andrew Cunningham 1:37
Oh, it’s it’s a very interesting market we have out here yeah, in a very interesting but the rest of the United States but out here. It’s interesting.

Jordan Berry 1:45
Yeah, I think it’s been interesting all over just cuz all the weird. You know, we got not that many laundromats on the market. Lots of people interested inflation going crazy. utility costs are going crazy. Interest rates are going up all that crazy. But for we’re gonna get into all that stuff. David, thanks for coming back on the show.

Andrew Cunningham 2:06
Hey, I’m glad to be here. It’s been quite some time, I think I did 43 and 62. And you’re at 115.

Jordan Berry 2:14
This would be actually I’m not sure what number this will be. It’ll be slightly under 115 When this one comes out, okay,

Andrew Cunningham 2:19
in that range. So it’s been a while it’s been a little while. It’s it’s been exciting. I’ve gotten quite a few leads, people wanting to get in the business, understand better about operations, how I look at some perspectives and arrive at certain things. So it’s been keeping me busy for the last six months, had a nice holiday break. And now I’m getting back to, to reality, which is doing my best to help people a get in the business and be how to operate it so that they can make a profit and continue to do so.

Jordan Berry 3:00
Yeah, yeah. And in fact, you you got so much response from the last couple of podcasts and to to the more popular shows that we’ve done on the show, both on YouTube and on the podcast platforms that, you know, you’re you’ve got, you’ve got a spot on the on the consulting page now. So if you’re interested, you know, by the end of this thing and talking to Andrew, about laundromats or or getting into a laundromat or analyzing a laundromat, any of that stuff laundromat resource.com/coaching You can book a call straight with Andrew over there. So that’s been that’s been cool to have you on there, then helping out a lot of people already.

Andrew Cunningham 3:38
Yep. It’s, it’s exciting. And you actually get a different perspective when everybody asks all the different questions, and it helps round out the entire package of owning and operating a lager but today’s market.

Jordan Berry 3:52
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, and that’s, that’s kind of what I wanted to just chat about. It Well, real quick. The other kind of exciting thing has happened since you were last on the show is we we traveled across the country and went to the clean show together and room. We had a we had an Airbnb together.

Andrew Cunningham 4:10
We did we had a wonderful time in Atlanta, rain and all I thought the show was a very good show. I was really encouraged by the the youth that has come into the business and all of their great ideas. And there are new companies. There’s, I would take say now that most of the laundromat people that are doing into the business, getting into the business, operating the business having the companies in the business, there are some old timers that are still in it. They’ve been in it for a long time. But there’s a whole new wave of of, of young entrepreneurs, software programs, hardware, you know, card systems etc. That are It’s absolutely revolutionising this industry and taking it to the next level. Fantastic.

Jordan Berry 5:05
Yeah, I actually, I mean, you’ve been in this industry for eternity, you may have found it, and I’m not sure. Yeah. I mean, I’ve been saying I’m seeing more changes in our industry in the last two years than I saw. And since I’ve been in for sure, and I think probably for decades, just with all the new technology coming in, and you, you know, support the new companies coming in, what do you think about all that? Well,

Andrew Cunningham 5:34
what I’m really excited about is I’m really excited about why trifold. And, you know, for the most part of why in industry, being in the business, I started in 1984. And I surveyed laundromats that was the first thing I did when I got into this industry for the first six months of my life. And it taught me what to look for, and how to look for things and to get a better understanding, because some of the laundromats that I’d survey were owned by the company I worked for, and then I could get the revenue numbers and everything else. And I could see laundromats that looked like this, that do this have revenue numbers like this, that kind of helped build my base for my knowledge of what’s happening in the wash tried full portion now, which is probably and I’m just gonna guess five years, six years old, or six years new and novel. And it’s it’s climbing and it’s really climbing. And it’s fascinating, because in the original in the in the original in the 50s 60s 70s and 80s. Dry Cleaners did wash, dry fold, along with dry cleaning, and you know, the Chinese laundromat, which is what they were called. And somehow they got away from the wash, dry and fold. And that segment kind of went stale, stagnant, just basically stagnant. And the dry cleaners continued to do their dry cleaning with the PARCC machines. And now the ones that are dry to dry, there’s no chemicals and, and but they forgot that segment, and the laundromat industry came along and started to add that segment and it’s gone through the roof. So we’re someone would normally be saddled with just a self service laundry. And if they have the additional space, they can open up a wash, dry fold and start with drop off and branch out into pickup and delivery or start right away with pickup and delivery. And so it’s fascinating to see this new industry come alive. The software programs are with it, the marketing of social media, the awareness of it, and how you capture it and how you go after it. I just think is fascinating.

Jordan Berry 7:42
Yeah, and I think you know, what’s interesting about it is not only is it kind of research and maybe this is kind of they go hand in hand, but you know, the the technology that’s accompanying that Resurgence is making it easier. I don’t know if easier is right word is making it more doable for more laundromat owners to be able to run even out of a mom and pop small laundromat like we’ve had, like Daniel Logan, he’s got a tiny tiny laundromat. It’s like five 600 square feet. And he’s doing big business out of that thing with his drop off and pickup and delivery out of this small store. So it gives well you capabilities.

Andrew Cunningham 8:20
I found something fascinating. And I you know, if you’re not learning in this industry, and you’re picking up stuff, you’re not talking to other owners. And you’re not you’re not in the industry. And a couple of things came to my mind recently that I thought was fascinating. Number one was that you can open up a wash, dry fold in any community, not just just because the community that you serve and self service is of poor in nature. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be a wash, dry fold pickup and delivery operation out of there and service other communities and have it make money. It will. There’s a need out there. The other thing is I saw a laundry owner yesterday in the San Fernando Valley. And he was doing more in wash dry fold than he was doing in self service. And when I drove the neighborhood, the neighborhood had all the markings of a good solid self service neighborhood. And so it got me to thinking how do I get back those walking traffic people as opposed to the walk Drive folder pickup and delivery people now like now I’m encouraged by the fact that both are growing and both have room for growth. The only thing that would limit what the someone could do is the size of their facility. That would be the only limit there was. So I’m very encouraged by the washed dried fold and what it means to this industry and how Anybody can get in the business of Wash, dry and fold. And you can try it out to see if it works for you. And if you follow a tried and true marketing approaches for that social media, etc. Yeah, I’ll put all those other things you’ll do. Okay.

Jordan Berry 10:18
Yeah. Yeah. And that was, that was one of the really cool parts just to kind of see everything that’s going on, you know, at the clean show there. And, and then obviously, to get together with people, I think that’s the value of those in person events is, you know, see what’s going on in the industry, what’s new, what’s upcoming in what’s, you know, trying to take foothold and may or may not take foothold. And then, you know, obviously getting together as owners and you know, read really, you know, I’m really trying to make a push, hey, that is more important than ever for laundromat owners, because there’s so many things changing right now, not just with new technology coming in, and new business models sprouting up and developing. But also, I mean, just all the obstacles that I mentioned earlier that are coming up, you’re so popular over there. All the obstacles that are, you know, popping up, and we’re trying to figure out how to navigate like here in Southern California, natural gas prices just tripled, like how do we navigate that? As laundromat owners? Right? Interest rates are at 10%? How do we navigate that, as laundromat owners that are equipment heavy, we need to buy equipment, and we need to acquire, you know, stores and stuff like that we use leverage to do that. So as we’re trying to navigate that stuff, I think you’re you’re more likely to drown in all of that, if you’re on your own right. And if we are working together, meeting together, talking together, sharing together, you know, we’re more likely to thrive during that time. Right?

Andrew Cunningham 11:51
Right. And so whatever, that I’ll use this word lightly. So whatever association of individuals you need to see or go see, it’s important that you at least maintain some contact with other laundromat owners in the industry, so that you can garner information from them share ideas and thoughts on what’s working, what’s not working. And the goal here is, is to actually a make friends, but be improved my business. And as long as you do that, you’ll continue to learn to continue to pick up points, and you’ll you’ll grow your business.

Jordan Berry 12:35
Yeah, absolutely. And, and that’s kind of the case I’ve been trying to make for two years now two and a half years, almost, is you’re gonna grow your business larger and faster when you’re surrounding yourself with other people who have the same objectives, the same goals. So well, hey, let me back us up here. And let’s Can we talk about I mean, I think there’s some unique obstacles for people trying to get into the business right now I want to talk about also operations and like what we can do to improve our businesses, because I know you have a lot of insight into that. But I think there’s some unique obstacles in getting into the business right now. And, you know, one of which just off top my head is that there’s a low inventory, I think, more demand and supply out there. But you know, if somebody’s looking to get into this business right now, what do they need to be aware of? What do they need to be thinking about? What do they need to be doing to actually get that first laundromat?

Andrew Cunningham 13:32
You know, it’s, I just had this conversation this week, and the inventory is way down. And what is is available, isn’t moving. Now, I would say that, there can be a lot of reasons why it’s not moving. But the first one I’ll say is, obviously, if it was being sold for $1, it would have sold last week. And so if it’s they’re asking 100,000 And no one’s buying it, obviously, everybody has made a decision that the it’s unreasonably priced and somebody really needs to look at it. And that’s kind of the second thing I want to say is, is that there’s a lot of sellers out there today, who have never been sellers before. They’ve been a buyer before. And in most cases, I’m just gonna say 50%. They’ve had a broker or an owner hold their hand, that haven’t biologic man. Those that go those sellers out there, the first time sellers. They don’t know what it means to be a seller. They’ve never experienced it. They don’t know what kind of package needs to be put together to present to a buyer, what to give them when they first say hello, what to give them if you have an agreement of a deal, what information is valuable for them to be able to get a loan or to To make a financial decision, what are the correct expenses that are on a profit and loss, so the sellers have never been exposed to what it really means to be a professional seller, you’re gonna do it. And that’s where the brokers come in, that you may have had a bad experience with the broker. And I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. But as part, most of those most of us out here are hardworking brokers that will take you by the hand, and show you every step of the way of one how to view a laundromat two how to analyze a laundromat three how to understand the financial side for how to open an escrow five, how to operate within an escrow six, how to close an escrow and seven, how to operate a laundromat. Now, that’s the person that I walked in on my team, if I want to be successful, and those are the ones you should try to get yourself around. Right now, there are not a lot of brokers out here that have a lot of listings that are worth anything. And those listings have gone stale. And now you have an upset owner because whatever they originally agreed upon, didn’t work out. They are miffed that they were misguided. And they are putting all the brokers in the same hats for lack of a better description. And they’re trying to hold on to their listings and try to sell it themselves. Now I had a transaction that I was working on, and I happen to have another broker. And the there were two swamp coolers on the roof of the laundromat and a new swamp coolers I think around 2500 bucks. And it was five grand. So when we did our due diligence, we went through our walkthrough and everything else. We mentioned that the two swamp coolers on the roof was working. And we expected the seller to make sure that all equipment machinery and fixtures would be in working order at the close. And he refused. And he said well, that’s why I have fans in my laundromat. And I’m going well that’s fine and dandy, but those are part and germane to the business. Well, they’ve never worked for me. And I said, Okay, well, that’s nice, but you know, that they go with the business. And that’s part of the quote, the deal fell through for that $5,000. Now 90 days later, who calls me but the seller, I’m willing to pay for the swamp coolers now. Meanwhile, the buyer has either purchased another laundromat or they’re sitting tight to see what else is out there. The point is, if you have a good seller, a broker and they’re guiding you through the process as a seller, you’re going to better odds, you’re going to get a better marketable laundry and it’s going to sell.

Jordan Berry 17:44
Yeah, and I mean, I think that there, there are a lot. There are good hard working brokers out there. I mean, I can name maybe four in Southern California right now that I would use and no more than that. I think that’s, you know, about right? That’s about right, yeah, you would be one of them, you know, not to not to toot your horn, but you’d be one of them. And then there’s just a couple other ones that I would use personally, to do that. And, you know, what I’ve found, you know, in terms of, of those that are sitting on the market, you know, I’ve done a ton of consulting all over the country. And, you know, what I’m seeing is the ones that are seen on the market, it’s usually one of two reasons. Number one is, everybody’s pushing those multiples right now, everybody’s pushing them as high as possible. You know, I’ve seen quite a few, up over six, over six and a half, even in the sevens and eights for those big laundromats that are new with Card Systems and all that stuff. Asking price, right. And I think that that is causing people pause and being like, whoa, like that’s, you know, that’s unprecedented, you know, for our for our industry right now. So that or, you know, it’s just the, you know, your your classic zombie mats, where you know, all the machines are going to need to be fixed, everything’s going to be need to be retooled. And that’s more expensive to do now than it’s ever been before, because we just saw prices and machines skyrocket last year. You know, we’re seeing interest rates for loans skyrocketing this year. And so now it’s more expensive than ever to retool. And that’s causing people to pause on that too. And so, we have this weird kind of dichotomy here of, hey, I’ve got equipment, but I want a super premium for it, or, Hey, I’ve got a laundromat but it needs new equipment. And that’s a super premium right now. So it’s a kind of interesting place in the market that I’m seeing right now. How do buyers navigate that?

Andrew Cunningham 19:54
It’s difficult. You have to weigh you have to weigh The operational aspects of the existing laundromat and all of its attributes are pluses and minuses. And then you have to weigh the fact if you get a zombie because you get a zombie mat, what is it going to cost me to get that zombie back up to a level that I’m comfortable with? That my customers would like? And so, you know, there’s some rules of thumbs out there. I mean, some people would argue that, you know, there’s no real real answer for you. But there are formulas out there that you can basically say, what’s gonna cost me for construction? What’s it gonna cost me for new equipment. Now, some of us who’ve been in the business for a while, I can look at a 2000 square foot laundry and tell you that you need all washers in there, you’re gonna spend 200 202 50 for new equipment. I mean, it’s a ballpark figure, and you get the the distributor out there, and he marks it up, and it’s 223. And you go, Okay, well, I’m close enough. I mean, we’re 350.

Jordan Berry 20:52
Everyone,

Andrew Cunningham 20:56
we’re gonna throw a heating system, we throw out some dryers in there. Absolutely. So and then it’s, and then the question is, What equipment do I need? And why do I need that specific equipment? So that comes into understanding my market? Understanding that laundry, and nine out of 10 times you’re going to turn to the seller and say, Oh, by the way, it says here you do 10,000 a month, just as an example. How much is that washer? And how much? Is that dryer? Oh, I don’t know. I’m sorry, what? What you don’t know? What do you mean? Well, I just throw it all in one bag. Okay, so I won’t be able to determine which machines are most effective? Because you’re only you’re collecting a lump sum. Okay, well, I can think of that. I’ll take a real quick sample when I do my collections with you. And I’ll and we’ll get some rough percentages, and then we’ll go off of those percentages. But having said that, now I’ve got to start to look at my marketplace, I have to start to study my competition. And that is where I think most buyers and most current operators fall short. They go look at a buyer goes who looks at a new laundromat and a new laundromat, meaning it’s a new listing that’s come out in the marketplace, and they go look at it Well, unless you hand them a flyer or, or you you preset them to what they’re going to look for, they have no idea what they’re looking for. It’s no different than driving up to a subway and going what kind of sandwich do I want. So they don’t really even know what to look for when they’re going to the laundry. But what they should be looking for. And and I’ve I think I’ve mentioned a couple of them. But I mean, there’s there’s parking exposure, ingress and egress. And so there’s certain ways to look at a laundromat when you go in there. It’s not just what’s the gross? What’s the expenses? What’s the equipment? And then what’s what’s the lease? And then you know, we’ll get we could probably talk a little bit on each one. But back to your original question, what is a buyer going to be looking for? Well, the first thing, they want a reasonable return on their money. That’s the first thing. And that’s getting eaten up by as you mentioned, rent interest rates, utilities, labor,

Jordan Berry 23:26
Labor’s nine oh, yeah,

Andrew Cunningham 23:28
I know, in the rest of the United States. As a rule of thumb in California, it’s $20 an hour. Now actually might be $18.89 or 1935. But for easy math in conversations with you and your partner, or you when you sit down and you’re roughing some numbers out to see if you can afford it. It’s $20 an hour. Now I know there are laundromat out there that want to that are unattended. It’s hard to run a laundromat in Southern California unattended. It’s just It’s unheard of, you’re going to it’s going to get run over by the wrong people. And then you’re going to have a problem. And so you actually have to spend the money to keep people there. So back to buyers and sellers, which is where we started with this. So a seller actually has to understand this marketplace. And what a seller does and what a buyer does. When it looks at competition, there is no difference. One’s going to glean the information to buy one’s going to glean the information to keep their customers and so I thought I’d just give you a real quick snapshot of what I do and what I see when I look

Jordan Berry 24:52
yeah, well and I mean, I think you know as you’re as you’re kind of talking you’re mentioning all this stuff. I’m like wow, you know, there’s a You’d see how somebody could get easily overwhelmed, right? Like, it’s kind of scary already to buy a laundromat, because most people who are buying them have never bought one before. A lot of people have never even bought a business before. And that’s the situation I was in when I bought my first one, right? Didn’t know what I was doing. And it’s scary. And then my story scares people, because I lost a ton of money. And people were like, well, I don’t want to die if that happened to me. Right. And, and there’s a lot that goes into it that I had no idea, but there’s experience in there. Oh, there’s tons of experience in there. I mean, I paid for it dearly, but tons of great experience. And and, you know, honestly, like, the whole reason I started laundromat resource, this podcast, the reason we met is because of that experience, and just saying, hey, I want to share that experience with people, because that’s hard earned and very expensive. experience and wisdom and knowledge that I gained, and, you know, want everybody to have it without having to go through what I went through to get it right. And so, but it can be it can feel very overwhelming. It’s already scary to buy a cash business. And basically, what we have to tell people is, hey, look, you know, yeah, yeah, look, the seller is gonna give you information, you’re gonna have to make an offer based on that information. And then we’re going to have to go through and verify after the fact that you’re going to basically you’re going to make your offer based off of some, like round average numbers that are unverified. Right? I have a

Andrew Cunningham 26:27
I want to cut in there. Yeah. So it just what you’re saying. And as scary as it is, so I got a phone call this past week, and somebody is getting divorce. And the laundry is in the wife’s name, and their friends, and they’re amicable, but she’s not healthy. So she really doesn’t go to the laundry, she has somebody collect the laundry for her. Okay, and the laundromat is $500,000. And I when I talked with the husband, he said, Well, it’s doing about 25 or 30. And the lease is good for another 15 years. And I don’t know what the rent is. And they want a half a million. Yeah. So with that information, okay, so now I know the laundry, I’ve been to the laundry, I’ll go back to the laundromat. Again, I’ll make some more notes. But I plan to call two or three of my buyers that have been with me for a year because we haven’t found anything or we have we’ve made offers and then they fell through. And I’m going to sit down with them and say okay, in order to get the information we need, we have to reverse the process under which you you actively are a broker and a buyer and a seller. And that is we’ll make an offer subject to the volume, and project projected estimate of net income, subject to approval of the lease. And we’ll give them a half million dollars worth. And then we’ll put some kind of multiple in there that says, if it doesn’t do this, or it doesn’t net this, here’s the new math that works for the purchase price. But that’s what you have to do today. Because most sellers aren’t willing to sign a legal document that says, I promised to pay you a commission. If you find me a buyer. Well, I can do this on my own. And the answer is, you might be able to, you will struggle with it, you will get irritated and pissed off at most of the buyers out there, because they’re going to ask you some hard questions that you’re not willing to answer. And if you had a broker working with you, when as a buffer, those brokers could probably answer those questions and still keep the buyer live and make a deal with you. And so you’re actually being a little pennywise and pound foolish.

Jordan Berry 28:40
Yeah, yeah. But that that contributes to how scary it is right? Like yeah, in the minds of a new buyer, right all of that and then you’re saying hey, there’s all these nuanced things right? You can get a you can get you need you need relatively little core basic information to get a general valuation to be able to make that offer right you need to know how much income is coming in how much the expenses are so you can get that net income number you probably need to know about how old the machines are you need to know some information about the lease how much is rent how much how long as left on on the on the lease and that in from that information, you can come up with a valuation right. But then or Yeah, a ballpark and and make your offer based on that information. But then you got to go in and you have to you got to dig a little deeper, right you gotta get so what the way I’ve been thinking about it lately is like the whole process of after you get an offer accepted until you close is clarity. That’s the name of the game, right? Like you want to have as clear of a picture of that business as you can before it becomes your business. And that’s easier said than done. Because in a lot of laundromats because they don’t have any books or they have their Books are actually handwritten on a napkin, which right happened to me one time, or they have multiple sets of books where their taxes don’t match bank statements which don’t match the p&l they give you and, you know, they don’t have any repair records in for the machine, all that stuff, right? And all that stuff is super common. And so there’s a lot that goes into navigating all of that stuff. Right? Which makes it Yeah,

Andrew Cunningham 30:26
good. makes it more difficult. Yeah, there there are. There are quite a few moving parts, I like to break it down into four areas, I like to break it out into lease, financials, equipment, and location. So those to me are the four the big boys. And and, you know, the lease is self explanatory. It’s terms, conditions, assignability percentage of rent to gross financials and financials are, what does it take to operate this long amount on a monthly basis, your your monthly p&l is not going to look anything like your tax returns. And so I try to tell people, you know, I use tax returns to verify gross income, I don’t use tax returns to verify expenses, simply because everybody puffs, expenses. And so, you know, I’m going to be looking at some different numbers than they are. And then when it comes to the equipment, which the ag equipment, what’s the brand or the equipment? What are your actual real repairs, and 80% of all laundromat until you Oh, I fix it myself. And I’m saying, Well, that’s nice.

Jordan Berry 31:39
And still a cost associated with, there’s still a cost to social labor and parts cost. And a part is awesome. Yeah.

Andrew Cunningham 31:45
And so and then the last one is, obviously location. And location, to me is not only your physical location, but your competitors physical location, and how they impact what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. And so that’s a whole different area. But those are all combined into to what a buyer has to look at, should look at and have an understanding about, you don’t need to be an expert at it, but you need to understand it, how it went together. And then you’ll have people saying, well, is one more important than the other? And I? And I’ll say, Well, maybe maybe the lease is more important than, you know the location, but you know, the financials are strong. So there is a hierarchy, you have to get comfortable with all four areas. And then we can talk about how they impact this particular log about how they impact the value. And why. So that yeah, that’s why it’s scary. And there’s a lot of moving parts. And so I get some buyers going, Oh, wow. And then, you know, it, unfortunately, it’s it pushes some away, because it’s overwhelming to them. And in other cases people go, let’s, where are we going? Let’s hitch up let’s get get let’s go for a ride. And then the next thing you know, you’re, you’re on our merry way of looking at three or four laundromats and meeting them out there and walking them through what you already told them so they can physically see my goal here for for everybody is I want I want to be your eyes and ears on the ground and show you how to look at a laundromat. That’s part of the goal here. So that you you’re not scared. You get to know other people on on introduce you to people that I know. So that you’ll get you’ll get the resources that you need in order to move forward. So it’s a it’s a friendly market. And I don’t want buyers to be scared. I think that it’s a wonderful opportunity. It’s a great business.

Jordan Berry 33:40
Yeah, exactly. And and I mean, I think not to I’m not I’m not trying to like, I guess I’m sort of trying to promote you a little bit. But I think that’s the value in in having somebody with experience on your side, right? And I’ve said this before, but like, it’s good to have a broker on your side, but their job is to facilitate the transaction. Yes, they’re gonna educate you and all that but it’s really tough even for like a good upstanding honest broker, it’s really tough for them one week before close of a $500,000 laundromat to say, actually, I don’t think you should buy this, based on this new information. Let’s cancel this deal, right? Because that’s a huge paycheck that’s going out the window. Right, you know, for them. And so it’s hard for that, but to have somebody you know, in your corner, who understands the business like this, you know, and it could be a broker but somebody who understands a business like this, who understands that, you know, all these kinds of nuances and understands what you’re looking for in a laundromat what’s going to be a good fit for you and can match you up with a good laundromat and make sure that you get that clarity before you close on that business is I mean, I think it’s invaluable. If you’re planning on getting into this business. I think it’s invaluable. Right? Yeah. Okay, so you know, there That’s great advice for anybody looking to get in this business. And I mean, I think, you know, there’s a lot to think about there. But, I mean, I think that that is, you know, everything that you said, I’ve been taking notes like crazy, like everything that you said is, is just like golden nuggets. If, if where you’re at in the process is you’re looking to buy your first laundromat. So thanks for sharing all that. Let’s talk about operations a little bit. You know, it’s, I think it’s probably tougher to operate now than I feel like it was maybe five years ago, not necessarily because the tasks that we need to do change, but because I feel like just the world is getting a little more complex. And in trying to figure out like, how do we navigate pricing? How do we navigate hiring people and being able to afford that? How do you know all of these things, but maybe we can you talk about some like operational tips for owners to help them kind of, like you said, maximize the profit in their laundromat?

Andrew Cunningham 36:03
Well, there’s, you know, I like to I think with the advent of the card systems, you can start to reward your customers, whether it’s a loyalty program, or you’re going to have free soap or this or that, I you have a card system, you have a coin system, those with the coin system, it’s really hard to do any kind of weekly marketing, such as you do with your card systems by lowering the prices or, or what have not. And so for for the coin people and even for the card people, I like to have a Customer Appreciation Day, about four times a year. And I think that the cost of your marketing package is probably going to be 1500, maybe two grand. And that includes the giveaways whether you’re in a low income area, and you’re giving away scripts for groceries, or you’re in a other area where you’re giving like book bags, or backpacks for kids for school, or you’re giving away bicycles or televisions or whatever not. It’s a quite a festival fair, when you can pick a day out of the month, Saturday or Sunday. And then for four hours, you have what you would consider to be just a party at your laundromat to bring people in to thank them for coming in. So they can see who the management is what it is what it’s really all about. They get to see their family and friends that are there. And it’s, it’s a giveaway. And they appreciate that the customers do appreciate you giving things away, they do appreciate you taking the time to recognize why they’re there. And it also will bring in new people to your laundromat. So I’m recommending that, that you have a Customer Appreciation Day, every quarter. And in doing such, you’re going to you’re going to go out you’re going to survey your all your customers and and you’re going to look at the laundromats differently than you did before you’re going to look at them as a competitor, you’re going to look at them and say, What are they doing better than I am? What are their prices? When was last time you were? The question I have for most owners is when was last time where you’re at in your competitors laundromat. When was last time you sat down and did a lot of wash at your competitors. When was the last time that you took a load of laundry in for the competitor who’s got washed drying fold just to see how they packaged it, how they process it? What kind of what kind of step two they go through to ensure that you’re getting your laundry back? Is it nice? Is it I mean? Is it done the way you did it? Did they do it better than you? How was it wrapped? I wasn’t packaged? How soon do you get it? How much do they charge. I mean, there’s so many moving parts that you can’t avoid the step. So in growing your laundry and in taking care of your customers. The step is you need to get out of your laundromat, you need to get out of your comfort zone. And you need to start to look at what the competitors are doing, how they’re doing it what they’re doing. And you also at the same time are going to look at that shopping center where that laundromat is whether it’s freestanding, or it’s in a shopping center, and you’re going to look at it no different than a buyer would if they were buying a laundromat new maybe you could pretend to be a buyer that’s trying to buy your laundromat you’re gonna look at the competition. But you need to understand who your competitors are. And and and you need to look at what they’re doing, if they’re doing things differently, and how they are at what’s going on there. And the only way to do that is to visit the laundromat and then bring all your information back and you can make decisions. Am I charging the right price for my Wash, dry and fold? Do I have the right employees in there? Are they presentable? Do they have uniforms or are Am I attended? Am I unattended? What am I then prices? What am I driving prices? And so I’m going to start to match up to the sewer my company interject. And particularly in today’s market, which you brought up earlier, which is, you know, we’re in a different time now where rents have escalated. Interest rates have escalated on some notes for people and utilities have gone up. Utilities have gone up steadily. But gas is the biggest one that did us in Southern California here, but you still have Water and Electric. And if you’re with the department of water, power OMG, you’ve got some huge bills. And so someone that was normally netting six, or 7000, in December might only be netting three or $4,000 in February, and they have to take stock and go, Oh my gosh, how can i What happened and then how do I make it better. And the way you make it better is as you get out, and you start to look at who your competitors are, and what they’re doing and how good or bad they are, what equipment mixes they have, and what their bid prices are, so that you can plan ahead for the next six months on how you’re going to stave off the increases by raising prices. And, and becoming competitor and competitive in the neighborhood. And keeping up so that you can continue to make a decent profit margin and get ahead of your customers.

Jordan Berry 41:15
Yeah, I want to kind of propose a perspective shift on all this stuff for some of us. You know, as you know, I’ve talked with a lot of owners and you know, people are concerned about the rising costs and the rising prices and the you know, the slimmer margins that are there, if you’re not being super diligent about keeping up with your pricing, even your pricing models, the way that you charge, you know, I know a lot of owners are going to like full cycle dry, just because, you know, you either charge like two or three minutes a quarter or you go to a full cycle dry of some sort, or, you know, sometimes you have to change the whole model, right, but, you know, one, one positive, out of all this, it could be potential positive out of all of this, if you if you can get the mindset and the perspective, right is, this is an opportunity to figure out how to take your game your business to the next level, right, like offer next level service, and everything that you’re saying is, hey, you know, go out and see what your competitors are doing, go out and see how they’re pricing things go out and see what their model is. And, but also, like, kind of going back to the beginning here, like talk to other owners around the country, the world, you know, listen to the podcast and hear how other people are doing other owners are doing stuff in different places, and figure out, because, you know, if you don’t raise your prices with, with all the expenses going up, you’re gonna drown, that’s a lot of times where zombie mats come from, right, their prices continue to go up, rents go up, labor goes up, utilities go up, all that stuff goes up, and they don’t raise their prices. And eventually, they’re really not making money anymore. And so they can’t reinvest it, or they don’t want to reinvest it into the business. And eventually they turn into a zombie mat, right? So you’re gonna have to raise your prices. However, it’s also an opportunity to raise the customer experience at your laundromat is also an opportunity to raise your service of your customers in, you know, at this time, too. So not only not, you’re not just like throwing out, you know, raising prices, just because expenses are going up. But you’re also giving more to your customers, it can be a lot of little things doesn’t have to be like anything wildly crazy, it can be a lot of little things. And just thinking through the details, how can I make customer experience just a little bit better here, you know, this, this seating is super uncomfortable, I might change at the seating, you know, it’d be little things. But all these little things add up to big things, I think in the long run. And so that can be a perspective shift that we can have. As we’re getting squeezed on the expense side and we’re having to raise prices. Let’s take it as an opportunity to raise the level of our service and to raise our game with our customers at the same time.

Andrew Cunningham 44:17
Absolutely. That goes to in that operational aspect of it, improving the bottom line which will allow you to be a better seller. When you decide it’s time to sell. And you have all the information and the trials and errors that you went through to get there are stories that you can relate to say, here’s what I did, here’s what the responses were. And then and then also to you’re going to pass on the torch with the laundry owners or the distributors in the area, who you buy your products from etc, etc, etc. As you as you grow your laundry and your business are eventually selling. Everybody has an exit strategy. They just don’t realize it now but they will. So it’s Good to have an exit strategy, it’s good to have be able to improve upon your day to day operations, in order to improve upon your bottom line, every new customer that comes in your laundromat is probably worth 50 to 70 bucks. So, you know, if you have the density and you have the people in your area, it’s, you can afford to get another 10 or 15 people in your laundromat, which is, you know, 500 to $750. And everything is fixed already. So the only percentage of income that you’re going to lose off of that would be the expense for the utilities as a percentage. And if it’s 20%, then that’s 150 bucks. 150 bucks is your net and 600 bucks 600 on a multiple of 72 times four, it’s just you just put another $30,000 in your pocket or in the equity of your laundry, doesn’t take much to move that dial to improve upon the bottom line if your laundromat and make it more profitable. Yeah,

Jordan Berry 45:59
and I mean, it brings up a good point I I’m I think it’s been brought up on the show, or maybe you and I talked about it before, but maybe not actually is. One of the beauties of this business is number one, I mean, you you know, as long as you purchase it correctly, you can get relatively high return on your investment. When buying a laundromat. However, even beyond that, just kind of what you’re saying here is so you know, for example, a typical laundromat four and a half to five times the multiple, if you just bought it all cash, you’re looking at 20 to 25% return on your money there. And if you use leverage, it can go up, you know, 30 35%, you know, somewhere in there. However, once all your fixed costs are taken care of so like your rent, your labor, you know, all those fixed costs, what you’re left with is like you just said your variable costs, which is basically just utilities. So that means that every, every dollar that you bring in from there doesn’t have a 20 to 35% Return on the money, your utilities are probably running somewhere between 15 and 20, maybe 25%, right of your of your costs, and so are they should be. And so that means that every customer you bring in is a 75 to 80% margin of income there. And so you’re, you’re actually getting a much higher return on your investment, once your fixed costs are covered. So it’s worth, it’s worth worth worth, maybe we could talk about this next, trying to get more people in doing some marketing stuff to get more people in, because the return on your investment is going to be much higher, the more people that that you bring in, right, and then it’s crucial. And going back to what we were just talking about, it’s crucial that you keep them right, it doesn’t do you any good to bring new customers in and then not run a tight ship, not have a good operation not serve your customers well, and watch them end up leaving to go to different laundromat or or whatever. Right, right, it’s crucial that you keep them because they’re so valuable at that point,

Andrew Cunningham 48:17
right? Well, you’ve spent a fair amount of money to get them there. Now the goal is to keep them there. I mean, even in the marketing program, or from the customer appreciation to to capture new clients in your neighborhood. One is most people move I used to be about every six months now it’s about every year, but but they move in and out of these apartment complexes. And the ones that are in there aren’t necessarily going to use the facilities that are in the building, but they’re going to seek facilities elsewhere. And if you’re marketing and you’re doing a regular marketing program, you’re going to capture those people that come in that are new renters. And that’s one way to ensure or buffer yourself against, I’m gonna get it so at least once every six months, you’re gonna go back out in the same market area, and you’re gonna hit it with flyers, you’re gonna hit it with specials, you’re gonna say come in for a Customer Appreciation Day, or free soap on Tuesdays or whatever the the program that you want to institute to get people to come into your laundromat, you’re going to get it and you’re going to do it at least every six months, because that’s the new cycle of people coming in and out of a laundromat. And then you’re going to take care of them by having a nice, clean, safe place for them to do laundry. That basis never changes, clean, safe, well lit equipment that works reasonably priced. It’s not a lot. It’s how we go about it that we complicated sometimes, but it’s not a lot of things to remember on how to keep your business and how to grow your business. Yeah, I know there’s some owners out here in Southern California, that they’re not even flinching when it comes to raising prices. They may raise money They may have raised prices in December. And they’ve already had two price increases since December. Simply because utilities, everything else is just shot through the roof. And some people agree with that philosophy and other people’s don’t, I can’t knock it, they’re still making money. Remember, if you lose a couple of people, because you’re at a higher price, number one, it allows you to have more people in your laundromat now that they’ve gone. Number two, the increase in price probably buffeted against you actually losing any actual dollars. And your revenue is the same, your net income is the same because it costs you less utilities, because the prices were higher to make that wash and therefore you’re gaining more profit with less people, you have now have more room to get more people in your volume, which is another equation that you need to look at, what’s my glass ceiling? How many people? Can I actually fit my document at any peak time? And how close am I to Bing peak times. And the interesting thing about that is is, is if you look at a lot of successful laundromats, you’d be surprised that they maybe are at a 50% usage ratio, that’s high. Most laundromats are

Jordan Berry 51:10
I was gonna say that seems really high for what

Andrew Cunningham 51:13
if I kind of chuckle when someone says yeah, my laundry does four and a half turns a day. Okay, first of all, it’s a mathematical improbability, that each machine would be at four and a half times a day. So that’s a misnomer. But having said that, You, you, you you look at it and you look at turns per day and you go okay, well, this is what this is what’s going on in my laundry right now. And I’m going to try to figure out how to determine how many people I can have my laundromat at peak hours? And what’s the right bend price for my business to make it more profitable. That’s really the bottom line. And so you go about analyzing these matrices to figure out, geez, I’m only doing four turns a day, which means I’m open 16 hours, I only have a 25% usage. And you’re like, What are you doing for the other 75%? Well, we’re creatures of habit, you may or may not have that density, there may be sufficient enough laundromats nearby you where the overflow is going over there, but bear this in mind. Every blogger Matt otter should be looking at their efficiency to see how busy Are they really so well, I busy busy from nine till 11 On Sunday, and then it kind of dies off a little bit. And then I’m really busy from four to seven. Okay, those are your busy times. But the earlier hours, the in between hours and the end hours, you know, you’re still only doing four turns a day, which is 25% usage and, you know, a business that’s doing 25% usage can grow and grow and grow. We have to change the way people look at laundromats when they come into a laundromat. And and let them know that you know, if it’s super busy on Saturday, between these hours, you might want to try these hours.

Jordan Berry 53:03
Yeah, or incentivize them to come at different hours, right? And it kind of goes back to the card system conversation that you had earlier where you know it, you know, you can you can give people perks for washing on a Wednesday, as opposed to coming on the weekend, right? A lot of people are still gonna come on the weekend. But some people were gonna be like, hey,

Andrew Cunningham 53:25
yeah, let me let me go on the weekend. Let me go on Wednesday for a 25 cent deal. And remember, most of the free washes of free dry you give away you’re really only giving the cost of that unit, you’re not giving the total cost of the purchase of the afford or washer, you know, dollar dry, you know, you’re only giving away with the utilities would be on it, because that’s the usage on that. So

Jordan Berry 53:49
you’ll begin is usually about 15 to 25% 25 on the high end of right. Yeah. Yeah, so I think that’s, I think it’s awesome. Real quick since I brought up the card system again, just curious because I mean, you mentioned it do you recommend when when somebody buys a new laundromat do you recommend they install a card system because there’s obviously there’s costs associated with that and there’s pluses and minuses but Where’s where’s your thought process right now on we will hold you to it forever. Cuz everything’s changing so fast but which thought process right now on the card systems

Andrew Cunningham 54:25
pick the card systems are a boon for the industry. And for the operator who wants to perhaps grow the chain larger than one store because then you can have somebody collect the store or actually you don’t collect the store anymore. And we you have your your your value transfer machines, where you have loyalty cards and you can put money on the loyalty card but for the most of them it’s handheld units and what and phones and that kind of stuff. Credit cards. For one off operator, I think you’ve got to find the majority of the loggerhead Did you try to buy today or zombie mats are not going to have card? Yeah. And the question becomes, is it worth the $500? A unit to upgrade it? So, do I budgeted another 50 or $75,000 for the card system? And then the question is which card system, and I think they’re all great. I like the fact that, you know, I think it’s great, you can look good on your computer in the morning and say, I made this watch dollars yesterday. But you do have an additional line item, because the bank is going to charge you for the transactions. And the software program that you use may charge you on a subscription basis or on a transaction basis. They’re all different. Personally, right now,

Jordan Berry 55:43
real quick, real quick, sorry to interject, this should be out by the time this interview comes out. But we’re actually doing a big comparison of all the different card systems. So if you’re interested in Card Systems, and you want to see kind of pluses and minuses and what features and stuff are offered, I’ll put a link in the show notes are in the description. So you can go check that out. Hopefully, it’ll be out by the time this interview comes out. But if not, you know, shoot me an email or check back here, because I’ll upload the link here.

Andrew Cunningham 56:09
So yeah, yeah, you’ll get to see what we got to see it Atlanta, which was I probably saw 1010 Card Systems, all with pluses and all with, you know, all the bells and whistles that you want in a business. I think it actually allows an honor to focus on other areas of their laundry. Particularly I mean, if you talk just collections alone, you know, your average laundry mat, you know, is going to take you probably, if you collect each size individually, separately, and you log it, and then you’ll do your calculations, when you get home, it’s probably going to take you about three more hours per collection. And whether you do one collection a week, or two collections a week, or you know, that would probably be be mined on a on a coin store. I think that when as a buyer, even as a seller, that I think you need to understand the relationship between your coin and your changes. And if you’re doing $25,000 A month in your laundromat, you need coin changes that are going to have the capacity of about $6,000 worth of coin, so that you only have to click once a week. And if you don’t have sufficient enough coin changes to do so. Most hoppers are 800 bucks for Hopper unit is 3200, you’re going to need to for hopper to verifier units to be able to handle the load of your laundry mat during the week. So you only have to collect once, if you have fewer. If you have less capacity, you will be collecting more times per week, which will add to the two or three hours that it’s taking you now. So if you collect twice at six hours, what could you be doing better with those six hours in your laundromat to approve it then to collect? And so people have to weigh that? I hope that answered your question I, I, I have a I have a store and it’s coin, it takes me probably two hours to do it total. Could I jump to a card system and make it better probably. And I think my customers would like it, I just haven’t chosen to bite the bullet and spend the capital it would take to retrofit the entire store and go card. So and you might want to go hybrid which is card and coin. That’s for you to decide as an operator. But I think we’re going towards the card system and the the loyalty card system and the debit card system. I think overall it will improve the operational aspects for an owner that will remove quite a few obstacles or challenges that you have as as a coin collector in today’s market. And it will actually improve your the time that you spend at a laundromat for you to do maybe more marketing or actually go find another laundromat and that you’d have to and it actually gives you more time. So I think I think it’s a great addition to the industry.

Jordan Berry 59:14
Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, I agree to I mean, I think I think, you know, these digital payment systems are there. I mean, they’re here and and I think your assessment is right most laundromats still are on a coin on the system. More and more go into that car digital payment loyalty card, payment systems, payment options, and you know, I mean, that’s if you look around, like pretty much everywhere else you can pay with a card, you know, groceries anywhere really I mean you pay with the card so I mean I think it’s it’s inevitable whether you need to make the change now or not probably dependent on your laundromat. So

Andrew Cunningham 59:56
yeah, it’s it’s it The interesting thing about it is I kind of like and all of this other card systems along this card system has been around three years, five years?

Jordan Berry 1:00:08
I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, not to Bill. I think there were some earlier models. But yeah, in the current form there, there was a system called

Andrew Cunningham 1:00:15
persist that I used on my Lucy’s laundry Mart’s in 1997. And it was these were telephone connections, this guy wrote up the software program. And I had, it had to dump into an Excel spreadsheet, and then I got to put in the ven prices, what happened on it, it would tell you how many cycles would also tell you which machines were out of order. It wouldn’t do it wouldn’t make deposits for you, because it was still a coin system. But there was a system out there. So they’ve been around a while. But for the card system would have been, it’s improving the industry just like wash trifold is, and so you have two major evolutionary things that are happening in the industry, and it will make it better and it will make it more profitable. And

Jordan Berry 1:01:01
yeah, and I mean, I feel like I harp on this all the time. So I don’t want to belabor this point. But it also gives you a ton more data to work with when when you’re making decisions on most things about your business, what machines, you know, to incentivize what machines to buy new when you need to replace them. You know, what promotions work with customers, which ones die, there’s just so much data that you can gather to help you make better decisions with your laundromat to in addition to just the convenience of paying with card. Okay, I mean, we’ve covered a lot a lot of territory, what else do we need to talk about? Here? We I mean, you and I could go probably,

Andrew Cunningham 1:01:42
we could go for days on it. Yeah. But I think I think what I want to bring home today, besides what we’ve talked about and expressed here is that you need to do your homework as an owner, and you actually need to get up out of your chair, and and take the time to look at who your competitors are, at least quarterly, see what they’re doing differently. Go to their laundromat and do a lot of wash. Visit the laundromat set nice at night to see if you would go into the laundromat at night if they would go into your laundromat at night. And if not improve the lights. I’m always the kind of guy that says to is easier to ask for forgiveness and for permission. So if you want to put a couple of floodlights out and put in your login map, because it’s not bright enough, I would probably just go ahead and install them and have the landlord say yes or no. But that’s me. You know, you may have a real strict landlord, but I want to make sure that the experience as someone comes in my laundromat is first of all, when they drive up at night, it’s well lit, they feel safe. When they walk up to the laundromat someone can see in the laundry, I don’t have a bunch of trash and the trash being machines and signage that they can’t see through it. And then I want to give them a a nice place a good experience of coming in my laundromat, it’s clean, it’s well lit, there’s an attendant there to help them that they need it. They can get in and out the prices are right. You know, the dryers are all working. And then they had a good experience and getting it out. Because not a lot of people like doing laundry. It’s it’s something that we have to do. And the more pleasant and easier and more safe I can make someone feel in a laundromat. That’s what I want to deliver to my customers.

Jordan Berry 1:03:30
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that’s awesome. And I loved I mean, I love love when you were you’re talking about checking out your competitors. And basically, looking at them as if either you are going to purchase their laundromat and look at it through that lens or look at it through the lens of somebody who’s purchasing your laundromat and who’s checking out competitors. I think that’s super valuable to do as an owner, like now, and go check out your competition through one of those two lenses. Because it gives you a different perspective than you know. Otherwise, I guess, as just being a competitor down the street,

Andrew Cunningham 1:04:07
I think what you’ll find out is you’ll probably run into the other owner. And you’ll probably have a good laugh that you’re in there doing laundry. And he may get a good laugh because he may come in your laundromat or somebody may be in there, and you look at them and you go oh, and they find out they’re another laundromat owner. And your real competitor is yourself. Because you’re the one that’s being represented to the public out there and you’re trying to bring the public in and you’re trying to keep the public so you can be your own worst enemy. If you don’t recognize the size that you need to up your game, for lack of a better description. And by going into other laundromats, you may spot spot the owner and the owner is going to spot you and you may gain a good friend and that and realize that you’re both in the same marketplace. And what can you both do better to capture more people. And you know, a little frontally competitive competition isn’t bad. It’s actually good.

Jordan Berry 1:05:03
Yeah, I would just also say that you may not run into as friendly of a laundromat owner, because that has happened to me also, or I don’t know if somebody’s like, they’re thinking like, oh, man, this person is trying to, like, build a new laundromat near me or I don’t know. I’ve I’ve been yelled at. I’m like, Whoa, screamed at Yeah. Oh, that, you know, it could go either way. It can just, if they’re saying, Yeah,

Andrew Cunningham 1:05:30
I agree. But you still have to try it, you still have to get out there and do it.

Jordan Berry 1:05:33
For sure. I mean, you still gotta go check out what’s happening with the other laundromats in your area and stay informed stay, you don’t want to get left behind. That’s for sure. And in fact, it’s probably better if you’re the one sort of leading leading the way. There. So Andrew, this, as always has been awesome. I want to Well, I want to make sure we’ve covered everything that we need to I mean, I’m sure there’s plenty more that we can cover. But I’m sure you also be back on. Back on. Yeah, for sure. And thank you for taking the time to come and share it with everybody you’re like, I think I said this, your your a couple podcasts have are two of the most popular that, you know already that that you’ve been on. And so this will be no exception. I get told all the time, it’s actually really annoying, and I’m getting sick of it. But like, Andrew, so great. I’m a huge fan of Andrew, you know, like, yeah, he’s not that great.

Andrew Cunningham 1:06:32
I, you know, being an OG in this business, as long as I’ve been in, I just decided to, to give away all my knowledge and give away everything because I can’t take it with me. And I think that for most laundromat owners have the more you know, the better. And the more enlightened you are about what’s going on. When you get out in your neighborhood and you’re looking at logger match, you’re also going to look at trends, you’re also going to hear things, which is important to expand your, your social base in the industry to talk to other owners and and get to know other people in the business. And ask them the questions. It will make you that much more intelligent to make good business decisions. It’ll also make you very comfortable that when you do go to sell it, you have all the right things that’s necessary for a buyer to want. Because you’ve been there now you’re a seller. So I think that the first day that you buy a laundromat is the first day you’re preparing to sell it. And you should have all of that statistical data with you. And you should just keep saving it and saving it. Because at one point in time, you may come to a point where you say, Okay, it’s an exit strategy, and this is what we’re going to do. But good luck out there. It’s an exciting business right now. And I still think that it’s going to grow. I think that the there’s going to be a lot more renters and people are going to need the services of a laundromat. Yeah,

Jordan Berry 1:07:57
yeah, I agree with you. I in fact, I think that I think I can’t remember if I’ve said this on the podcast, I feel like that old guy who like repeats his jokes over and over. Now, because I’ve so I don’t know what I’ve said on the podcast anymore, like what I say to when I’m just talking to people, but you know, I think I think laundromats are poised for a big boom. You know, I think the the convergence of interest in the industry, the convergence of technology that’s making it more feasible to manage more laundromats and manage them more efficiently. All this stuff is kind of coming together to make it more attractive to a wider investor and business owner base. And so I think that that is I think, I think we’re poised for a big boom. So it’s a great, great time to be getting into this industry. Because number one, I mean, I think it’s gonna boom, and then number two, just a lot of a lot of stuff happening right now. And so it’s exciting. You know, this changes. Yeah, and you know, this, this business gets called on YouTube a lot, you know, boring business, and it is a boring business. It’s, you know, it’s there’s nothing flashy about it. There’s nothing exciting about his dirty laundry, right? But, man, this business is this industry has been more exciting. Lately, the last two years, three years than it has been for decades. In the past, so and I really, I wanted to say two real quick, one of the things I really appreciate you is that you are an OG and actually, we haven’t talked about this because I just had this conversation yesterday with somebody who called me and I was talking to them, and they were just kind of talking about you actually. And they’re saying, You know what, what’s his deal? Because he kind of it wasn’t their term is your term that you just said he’s kind of Og these kind of old school guy. He’s been in the industry for a long time. You know, is he you know, is he legit now? Is he relevant now? And one of the things I appreciate about you is that you are an OG guy you have been around for a really long time. You do have a ton of knowledge. And you have you have Have enough presence of mind, you have enough wisdom and foresight. And I saw this like in spades, when we were going to the clean show, and you were like, you’re like a, you know, like a kid on Christmas, excited to see all the new stuff that was, you know, coming into the industry, you’ve mentioned it a couple times in this interview. And, you know, you can go, I think the majority of you know, og people in any industry or any, you know, segment, the majority of people get kind of stuck in their ways and get stuck in the rut and aren’t willing to see the way that things are changing and to, you know, adapt accordingly. And I think what’s really unique about you is that you are OG you have all of this old school wisdom, you, you’ve been there, you’ve done that in pretty much every aspect of this industry, but you’re continually learning continually changing, and continually adapting and keeping on the forefront of this business. So I really appreciate not only are you willing to come share that stuff with us, but you’re also learning kind of along the way and grow in as this industry, learns, grows, changes adapts. So really, really appreciate you, man,

Andrew Cunningham 1:11:06
thank you very much, I appreciate that I, I do my best to stay up with whatever’s happening. So that the prospective clients will get a full plate of what’s happening in the industry. And they can formulate their own opinions by talking to me and other people. So I think that’s fantastic. Thank you.

Jordan Berry 1:11:28
No problem. And I can’t wait to have you back on the show. Again, we’ll have a good time. I bet you love that one with Andrew, I know I did. And as always, I encourage you to pick one thing, put it into action this week to help you build your business or get into the business. Whatever your next step is in, in accomplishing your goals. Put it into action. These things are awesome. It’s awesome to hear people’s stories, it’s awesome to hear people’s wisdom and insight, the lessons they’ve learned the advice, they have the wisdom that is sharing. But none of it means anything until we put it into action, right, and it’ll help us change our lives. So pick something one thing, anything something that stood out to you from Andrew this week, put it into action, maybe go share it at laundromat resource.com/forums on the forums over there. My one big aha takeaway is, and I love this, I think we’ve talked about this before with Andrew, but looking the way that he described looking at competitors, and specifically, you know, looking at competitors through the eyes of, hey, if somebody was trying to buy my laundromat, and they were doing a competitive analysis, you know, what would they be looking for and what would they be seeing? And similarly, if I was trying to buy that laundromat, what would I be looking for? So I love that perspective shift. But there I mean, there’s just so much it’s really hard to even choose one thing, but if I had to pick one, that’s what I would pick, what would you pick? Let us know laundromat resource.com/forums And we’ll see you next week on the laundromat resource podcast.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai