122. She Lost the Battle, But the War is Far From Over with Madison Anderson

Madison Anderson [00:00:00]:

Hey.

Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:

Hey, what’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Laundromat Resource podcast. This is Show 122, and I’m pumped you’re here today because today we go into the depths of a battle. We’re straight up on the front lines of the battlefield with Madison, and she tells us her story of starting a pickup and delivery business from scratch. And oh, my goodness, this one is a wild roller coaster of a ride. And I think you’re going to get a lot out of this, but I think you’re also just going to be engrossed in this story. And I think you’re also going to love Madison because she’s great. I cannot wait for you to meet her. In fact, you’ll probably be seeing a little bit more of her around, so look forward to that. And real quick, before we jump in it with Madison and her story, I just want to let you guys know, man, so many of you guys have reached out about joining a Mastermind group. And just in case you don’t know, the Lottery resource pro community has a ton of perks discounts on stuff, unlimited access to all the tools and resource and everything that we have. All of that a great, great community there where everybody’s just there to help each other out. But one of the best things that I’m most excited about is the Mastermind groups. And that is where we help you join up with a group of four to six people who are in a similar phase as you. And we get you guys together into a group and give you some guidance into how you can all help each other achieve whatever the next step of your goal is. If you’re a current Laundromat owner that could be optimizing your Laundromats or scaling up, buying more, or scaling your pickup and delivery or drop off service. If you are looking to get into the business that can be that encouragement, the accountability and the brainstorming that you might need help with to help you get that first deal under your belt. So we have got our about every six weeks or so, we do a mastermind induction where anybody in the pro community who wants to join a mastermind group, we do a quick little call where I kind of introduce the concept of mastermind. Give a little bit of groundwork and then break you out into your first mastermind meeting with your group to introduce yourselves and get started again. We give you guidance on how to do all of that. Just wanted to let you know if that’s something that you have been interested in or you want to join a Mastermind group. Like I said, we do this every about six weeks or so. And August 23, 2023 august 23 is our very next Mastermind induction that we have going on. So if that’s something you’re interested in, make sure you check out Laundromatresource. Compro to check out the pro community and all the other perks that come along with it. But again, I can’t tell you how valuable this is. If you get in a mastermind group and you guys all commit to meeting together regularly, to helping each other out, to encouraging each other, keeping each other accountable and brainstorming with each other, this year alone, I’ve spent five figures on mastermind group myself and it’s returned me six figures already worth of value there. So mastermind group can be super powerful, literally. It’s one of the secrets to accelerating accomplishing the goals that you’ve set out for yourself and succeeding in life. I think so. I’m a huge fan. This is included in the pro community membership, which is, in my view, the biggest bargain of the century. And we’ve got more coming up that’s going to make it more bargain. So, anyways, if you are interested in joining that Lanamatresource.com pro, you can find that link and links to everything else we talk about, which is quite a bit today on the show notes page which is Laundromatresource.com show 122. Or if you’re on YouTube, hit that subscribe and like button and then go down to the description where you can get information about all this stuff. All right, let’s jump into with Madison. I think you’re going to love her and her story is so compelling. You’re going to love it. All right, let’s go meet Madison. Madison, how is it going? Thanks for coming on the show.

Madison Anderson [00:04:09]:

Yes, thank you for having me. I’m doing wonderfully. Like I said, Beyonce is in town today. I can’t go to the concert because there’s so much drama in there, but I’m going to be bumping it on my Alexa.

Jordan Berry [00:04:20]:

I was going to say, are you going to at least play some Beyonce at your house or wherever?

Madison Anderson [00:04:24]:

Absolutely. I am Beyonce.

Jordan Berry [00:04:27]:

All right. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s awesome. Sounds like an exciting time. Where are you? Tell us where you are. Like, where do you live?

Madison Anderson [00:04:36]:

Yes. I’m in Charlotte, North Carolina. The north side.

Jordan Berry [00:04:39]:

North side. I don’t know anything about Charlotte. Really? Is that the cool side? I’m assuming that’s the cool side because.

Madison Anderson [00:04:44]:

You’Re no, no, I wish I was on the cool side.

Jordan Berry [00:04:48]:

You are the cool side. How about awesome? Uh, well, I’m super pumped about this. Cannot wait to jump into it. We had a little chat right before we hit that record button. And I got to be honest, excitement levels have been growing over here just to hear more about you and what you got going on over there. So why don’t you tell us a little bit of background about who you are. And listen, I’m just going to be frank with you. A lot of Matte industry is not known for being cool, but you seem very cool. So I’m curious how you got into this business with that level of cool. So who are you and how did you get here?

Madison Anderson [00:05:30]:

Yes. Well, hey, everybody, my name is Madison Anderson. I am the founder and operator of fresh and mobile laundry delivery servicing the Charlotte metro area. And I got into the industry in the pandemic. And just to let you all know, I’m 24, so I don’t know if I’m the youngest person to be on the podcast.

Jordan Berry [00:05:53]:

I’m a claimant youngest and representing the young crowd. Right. That’s the other thing about our industry is we’re kind of known for being older. So way to represent the youth of the nation over here.

Madison Anderson [00:06:04]:

Yeah, the laundry industry is very old and white. No offense, but I’m repping for the young black girls out here.

Jordan Berry [00:06:11]:

That’s what I’m talking about.

Madison Anderson [00:06:12]:

We are old and white.

Jordan Berry [00:06:14]:

In fact, that’s what my kids I am all the time old and white. Okay, wait. Okay, listen. You’re young and you’re cool and laundry. Why? How? Tell me.

Madison Anderson [00:06:33]:

Yeah. So I got into the laundry mat industry after I had my daughter. I got pregnant my freshman year of college. I was on track scholarship at Radford University, got pregnant, then had to come to Charlotte, transferred everything. And throughout my whole life, I knew I was going to be an entrepreneur. However, I didn’t know which route I was going to go to until I did have my daughter. And I don’t know, it’s like you say every time on the podcast, we don’t wake up thinking like, oh, the Lord has blessed me with the laundry mat industry and all that stuff. No, I don’t know what happened, but something happened. And Laundromat industry came into my brain one stormy night or whatever. And since then, I had been doing lots of research. I say lots, but I’m going to be real with myself because we’re going to keep it real today. I say lots, but it was like a good amount of research for little 19 year old Maddie. But I did some research. I got into the CLA right when the pandemic started, became a member, read their white papers, looked at their data, got on some Facebook groups, which are real. Those Facebook groups are really something, but we can say that’s for later. And I just really fell in love with the laundry industry and the things that it could do for mine and my daughter’s future. And when I was a senior in college, I started to take things a little bit more seriously, building out a business plan for a Laundromat, which later in life I found out that doesn’t even matter. And I also started talking to sellers of laundry mats. I am going to have a Laundromat empire like several other people that watch this and have been on this podcast. And once I was starting to talk to some sellers, they did not take your girl seriously. 20 year old Maddie, they were like, this girl is trippy. She ain’t got no money in her bank. And they were right. So I was like, okay. I was like, okay, I’m going to take a step back. I graduated from college, and I walked across the stage with my daughter shout out. And once I graduated, I was on go mode to start in the industry. Somehow in the beginning of my laundry industry journey, a lot of people were telling me the best way to figure out or to get really familiar with the Laundromat industry is to either work at the Laundromat or start your own laundry delivery company. So my hard headed self and throughout this podcast, you’ll find out how really hard headed I am. Yes. My hard headed self did not take any of that information seriously until I was put on my butt at the end of my college career with no laundry mat. So I was like, okay, let me get off my butt. Start this laundry delivery company. I took a month after graduating until I opened up my laundry delivery company, which is fresh and mobile, to get all the pieces together, and voila, we had a laundry delivery company.

Jordan Berry [00:09:39]:

Awesome. All right, well, we’re going to dig into that. Okay, first of all, love everything about that. I mean, I think it’s just funny that you had your daughter and then you’re like, yes, laundry. Yes.

Madison Anderson [00:09:53]:

Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:09:54]:

And I kind of joke, but I kind of don’t joke that kids are filthy, disgusting creatures. So maybe there was some subliminal things happening there that’s like, I’ve got to clean this place. Awesome. Congrats for graduating college and having a daughter and getting inspired to be in the industry. Yes. I’m blown away that you’re going talking to owners. Like, I do consulting calls all the time, and I’m talking to people all the time right. Who I’m like, especially right now when the industry is just so tight, there’s just not a lot of inventory on the market. I’m like, you got to do the things that other people aren’t willing to do. And a lot of times that means getting off your butt and going to try to talk to people and networking and all that stuff. But you’re, like, young and going out there and doing that. What was that experience like?

Madison Anderson [00:10:50]:

Oh, my gosh, it was so nerve wracking. And I don’t know where I got the confidence from, but I got it and I snatched it up and I held onto it tight to go and talk to these sellers. But I will say that it did get really discouraging because like I said, they didn’t take me seriously. And, I mean, I don’t blame them. I was 20, whatever. I think I was just 20 or 21, and I was coming to them asking not great questions. I got lots of no’s, lots of people hung up on me. Lots of people were like, if you’re not offering a million dollars, then I don’t want to talk and straight hang up in my face. So, I mean, I don’t blame the people that are scared to do it because it is scary, but you got to make some shake.

Jordan Berry [00:11:44]:

Yeah, well, I mean, you’re dead on. It is scary and discouraging when you’re getting that kind of response over and over and over. So what kept you going? I think a lot of people hit that wall there, and they’re like, people are laughing at me. They’re hanging up on me. Maybe this is not the thing. Maybe I’ll go try to do something else and go and get that job or whatever. Why not you? How come that didn’t happen for you?

Madison Anderson [00:12:16]:

Well, one, because I’m hard headed, and I’m also diligent, and I will say that I don’t give up on things until I really say that there is no way that I could win. And guys, we’ll find that out deeper into this story.

Jordan Berry [00:12:37]:

You’re hitting all this resistance. How did you keep the hope? Like you said, you don’t give up on things till it’s not dead. Till it’s dead. Stopped breathing. Right. How did you keep breath into that dream? Because like you said, you had no money. You’re young people aren’t taking you seriously. People are hanging up on you. Discouraging. How do you keep that dream alive when you’re hitting those obstacles?

Madison Anderson [00:13:01]:

Yeah, it’s all about purpose. Honestly, you’ll give up more if your purpose isn’t big enough, if it doesn’t mean that much to you. And my purpose means the world to me.

Jordan Berry [00:13:14]:

Yeah, well, listen, I think I’ve talked with a lot of very successful people in this industry, but also outside of this industry, right. And I’ve listened to a lot of podcast and interviews with successful people, and pretty much unanimously, everybody has hit these obstacles. Right. And one of the big differentiators I’m not saying it’s a guarantee, but one of the big differentiators between people who are successful in achieving their goals and their dreams and the people who I don’t want to say it. In a negative way, but kind of settle or divert their dreams to something else and amend their dreams to something a little more manageable. Big difference is that hard headedness. Right. And when you’re growing up as a kid, a lot of times that hard headedness is perceived as a negative trait. And we try to train that out of our kids, right. Because it’s easier for us. And I got two kids, so I know it is easier to try to train that out. But that’s a trait that you need to find any level, I think, of success. So kudos to you for keeping that dream alive. I mean, you mentioned your purpose. Can you talk a little bit more about that? What’s driving you? What’s that purpose?

Madison Anderson [00:14:32]:

Yeah. So I don’t want to get too much into it, because when I tell people my purpose, they look at me funny and they downplay my purpose and all that great stuff. Even people that have even people with definitely people within our industry like I said, the industry is old and white, and all white men are stubborn. But even my parents but even my parents, they’re like that too. But I have three purposes in life, three points of purpose, and they all well, my purpose excuse me, let me run it back. My purpose surrounds three categories in my life and that’s my daughter or any other child that I decide to have my people, as in the black community. And then my seven year old self, who would be devastated if older Maddie didn’t do what seven year old Maddie wanted to do, which was be an entrepreneur. Know, save the world and all that stuff through Laundromat. But to not get too deep into it. My purpose surrounds those three things. And that is what keeps me pushing. Because I will say that I am really throughout my journey, I have been really hard on myself, even in college. Younger. Even younger than like in my meditations, which I meditate here and there just to calm what’s going on in my little coconut head. But this alter ego that I like to call beast mode Maddie, she’ll come up, and she’ll remind me of my purpose. She’ll be like, it’s a shame. What a shame that your people will never know who you are. It’s a shame that your daughter will never see the potential that you can be. So that’s what keeps me going, because I don’t want to hear beastball Maddie yell at me like that ever again in real life either. So I got to keep going.

Jordan Berry [00:16:30]:

Yeah, well, listen, I got goosebumps over here. That’s so good. That’s so good. I think your point, too, and your sort of hesitancy to share that because of how other people respond. I mean, I think that’s so common for people with big dreams, right? It’s the whole what’s that? Metaphor? I don’t even know if it’s true, but it’s like the crabs in the pot where the one crab tries to climb out and everybody’s pulling them back in, right? It’s so true. And it doesn’t matter that it’s people that love you and care about you and want the best for you. And a lot of times, our responses to those big dreams and those purposes comes from that. Not always, but sometimes it comes from that even, like, I want the best for you. Go get a job, or like, I want the best for you. Let’s let sleeping dogs lie, or whatever that saying is. Let’s calm it down a little bit. Let’s back it off a little bit. And I love that you have seen that, have recognized that, have acknowledged it, and have pushed forward. And even I don’t know, I could see where somebody would say, oh, that’s kind of weird that you meditate, or that’s kind of weird that you have this alter ego that speaks at you from a different perspective and keeps you motivated, but listen to interviews of successful people. That’s a common thing that successful people do because there’s so much negativity that can just overwhelm you when you have big goals, big dreams, big aspirations. And you need to find deep, meaningful things to help keep you going when you hit those obstacles or when the people that care about you are discouraging you from doing the things that you’re trying to do. And so listen, all I’m trying to say is yes. Go. Yes. Awesome. So I appreciate you sharing that, though, because I think it’s a big deal, and I think it’s something that a lot of people struggle with internally, and it isolates you, right. It makes you feel alone. And so by sharing that, I’m hoping I’ve felt all of those exact same things. I’ve had similar experiences with my family and my friends and them thinking I’m ridiculous for starting a Laundromat podcast and all that. And it is ridiculous. I will acknowledge it. But I think a lot of people will relate with that. That’s what I’m trying to say. That was really long winded, but that’s also kind of my mo. Sorry. Okay, thank you for sharing. That your purpose. Now let’s go back to you’re finishing up college. It sounded like you had a goal to try to get a lawn map by the end of there, and you were kind of disappointed. Was that the case?

Madison Anderson [00:19:25]:

Yes, that is exactly the case.

Jordan Berry [00:19:28]:

Yeah. Okay. Now, how do you deal with that? How do you handle that? I mean, the dream kept breathing, so how do you deal with like, okay, I had a goal, I had a deadline. Bam, I missed it. What does that feel like? And then how do you move forward from there?

Madison Anderson [00:19:47]:

Yeah, I wouldn’t have moved forward. Well, I would have kept trying to get a Laundromat if it wasn’t for a mentor of mine who’s not in the laundry industry at all. He owns a smoothie company in Atlanta, and he’s no longer my mentor. We had to lay him to rest. But he was the person that told me to start from where you are. Since you didn’t get that big goal, you got to start from where you are. And here are the benefits from starting where you are. You’ll build up your clientele, you’ll get your brand, the name out there, and then you’ll also get the money to get your laundry map, potentially sounds like, okay, that’s not so much of a bad idea. And I’ve actually heard this when I started my journey into the laundry industry. So let me put my hard hitting this to the side and actually listen to somebody this so I took a month to get everything together, all the cute stuff, like the LLC, the logo, the POS system, the bags, all kinds of cute little stuff to start the company. And then I had a launch day. I had a launch party, too, a virtual launch party. So that all my friends and family could come and celebrate with me. And I got my first client from there as well, so that was pretty dope. And oh, my gosh, looking back at it now, that launch party was and sorry to all the millennials and boomers out there, but that launch party was so ghetto. I’m a Gen Z person. I’ll break down my lingo to you all so you all understand. But that launch party was so bad.

Jordan Berry [00:21:35]:

What was bad? I love the idea of a launch.

Madison Anderson [00:21:38]:

Party because it was just so ill put together. I was like, Frankenstein.

Jordan Berry [00:21:49]:

What did you guys do at the launch party?

Madison Anderson [00:21:50]:

It was a Frankenstein. Oh, my gosh. That’s why it was so bad, because it was not well planned. It was kind of like, hey, come to this lunch party to hear that I’m open. Like, hey, I started a business. Yay. Celebrate me. Buy something from me. Y’all can’t use my services because I got family in Barcelona. I got family in Tennessee, family in Greensboro, family in Virginia. So I’m like all gave I gave them a list of the services that I had going on, the products that I was using, a promo code. And then I also had a wrap. I made a wrap for this launch party, and I have fumbled it, which means I messed up, guys. They would be fumbled, but I messed it up the first time I went, I did it. So I had to bring it back. And I had wrote the rap like, hours before the launch party, so it was already going to be really bad, but I did it, and the people were lit. The people were having fun lit. Okay. Concerned, right? But people were having fun with the rap. And then that was that. I got one customer that day. So for the people that couldn’t support me, like, couldn’t use the service, I gave them the option to buy a laundry bag or to sponsor a laundry bag so that I could donate it to the women’s shelter here in Charlotte.

Jordan Berry [00:23:31]:

That’s awesome. It was a piece of mean. I love I love that. And what I’m impressed by, by that is myself. And I think a lot of people it’s difficult to kind of put yourself out there in front of friends and family and say, hey, and even just like, accepting support sometimes. It’s just hard. I don’t know what it is, but it just be really hard. So good for you for inviting them. And who cares? They’re in Barcelona. They’re some other state. Who cares? Giving your friends and family an opportunity to vibe with you while you’re doing your rap and look at come on. I’m a little bit there a little bit. I can drop a vibe every now.

Madison Anderson [00:24:19]:

And then.

Jordan Berry [00:24:21]:

But allow them to be a part of the process and to celebrate you and what you’re doing. So I love you. You’ve got to know that this is coming. But, like a wrap, do we get to hear it, or was that recorded?

Madison Anderson [00:24:39]:

Oh, my gosh, I don’t even remember where I put that file, and I hope it’s somewhere deep in my Google.

Jordan Berry [00:24:47]:

Drive file is what I’m hearing.

Madison Anderson [00:24:50]:

There is a file I’m going to hold. Maybe I don’t know. Maybe I’ll put it on Instagram.

Jordan Berry [00:24:54]:

I mean, I’m going to hold this interview hostage until we have access to this rap. Listen, if it’s anything our industry needs more of, it’s wrap. Pick up that file after we’re done and let me know where I can find it, and I’ll link to it in the show notes. It’ll be great. Good. Okay. Brought up the rep.

Madison Anderson [00:25:17]:

Shame on me.

Jordan Berry [00:25:18]:

All right, so you had a launch party, got your first customer. Did anybody buy the bags or donate the bags or anything?

Madison Anderson [00:25:25]:

Oh, yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:25:25]:

Awesome.

Madison Anderson [00:25:26]:

Yeah, we had a lot of people buy bags, which was great. And those bags really carried the team that first month of revenue.

Jordan Berry [00:25:33]:

Yeah, well, and that’s huge, right? Because your business is most vulnerable in the beginning when you really don’t have any customers or revenue or anything like that. Let’s talk about that. Okay. You have a launch party. Now what?

Madison Anderson [00:25:51]:

Yeah. So that was the big question. Now what? Because even though I got a degree in marketing and I’m very passionate about marketing, I love everything that the way that marketing is going right now. I’m like, oh, yes. However, I was fresh. I was a baby marketer, still am a baby marketer. I’m, like a toddler now, but I was a baby marketer. So I’m like, okay, well, I see that google. Since I set up my Google My business page, they’re giving me, like, $500 in credits, and also Yelp is giving me 100 $300 in credits or whatever. So let me do that. Let me do some Google Ads, do some Yelp ads and see if we can make something shake. And I did that with no experience. I don’t recommend that to many people. If I were to do it again, and I will be doing this again because later you’ll find out that I made a lot of mistakes, but not hiring an expert or a specialist in the digital ad space, that was kind of my downfall. But I use those Google Ads. I use those Yelp ads? Got some customers from them. Not too oh, I got, like, a really bad customer, too, from my Google Ads, but I had to roll with the punches to get that money up. And let me think, what else did I do? I did a little tiny bit of social media marketing here and there, but I didn’t have a strategy for social media when I started. So, yeah, it was the Google Ads and the Yelp Ads that really carried the team the first month or so when it came to marketing and bringing in customers. Yeah, I’ve kind of dabbled into next door, but not too much.

Jordan Berry [00:27:52]:

Yeah. Awesome. How are you feeling like you’re running these ads? You said you’re getting some customers, but not too many. Are you feeling like, okay, I can do this, I got some, so I know I can get more, or are you feeling like, man, I was hoping for more. I’m a little nervous.

Madison Anderson [00:28:11]:

Yeah, I was always hoping for more, and I was nervous the whole time because I didn’t have my SOPs in order at all. I did not think about how I was going to process anything. I have my POS system, which I use since, by the way, and since back then was going through a lot. Thank the Lord that sense is where they are now. But since it’s going through a lot. So I had to figure out a lot of things on even how to process orders when I did eventually get them. I also had to figure out the optimal route situation. I had to figure out how to get more customers. I had to figure out how to even deal with the customers that I had. It was very, again, ghetto. The operation in the beginning was very ghetto, not working well, not a weld.

Jordan Berry [00:28:58]:

Oil machine, which, I mean, listen, you’re just starting a business, right? That’s nothing to be ashamed about. And in fact, I think that’s where a lot of people start, even when they’re just buying a Laundromat and taking over. Right. It’s like, I don’t know what to do. I’m just kind of like, I got to do stuff to figure out what to do. Right. So good on you. Keep going. Okay, first of all, just want to clarify for everybody, just case you’re not following. SOPs not millennial talk is business talk, which is standard operating procedure. So I just want to make sure we’re all unless it’s also Millennial talk. I don’t know.

Madison Anderson [00:29:36]:

There’s not and I’m a gen z, so I’m even deeper into the weird slang.

Jordan Berry [00:29:44]:

Yeah. Okay, so you’re running some ads. I don’t need hard numbers or anything, but what was your revenue looking like that first month or two? Were you paying bills, or were you dipping into savings? Where were you at credit cards?

Madison Anderson [00:30:05]:

Listen, credit cards. So it was a mixture of a lot of things, because at the beginning of the business, the only major bills that I had was, like, gas POS system, and I didn’t have the WiFi to the Laundromat that I was working out of. Oh, yeah, by the way, I did not have a Laundromat at all. I was operating out of my car. Yeah, I was operating out of a Laundromat that I was looking to purchase because the owner, he had told me, him and his wife well, his wife was like, sell that Laundromat. He was like, okay. So I was working out there to build up that relationship also to get some. Information on the laundromat industry. So I didn’t have the WiFi password at the Laundromat at the time, so I had to buy a little hotspot. So that was like, part of my bills. And yes, I don’t think that I was paying the bills just yet from the revenue in that month, but in the next few months, I did start to pay bills, start to see a little bit of profit. We were very much in the red for a lot.

Jordan Berry [00:31:10]:

Yeah, well, I mean, dude, good for you for making it to break even within even just a few or even six months. I mean, a lot of times it can take. When I do consulting calls and people are asking about timeline for pickup and delivery and when it’s going to be profitable. I mean, a lot of times you’re looking at like, six to 18 months, I think. So if you can hit that break even before that, and I know you’re bootstrapping it and you’re the one doing it all and everything early on, at least. I don’t know about now, we’ll find out. But as you’re doing that, I think you’re on par with what or maybe even ahead of the curve for what you should be expecting. Okay. How did you develop this relationship with this Laundromat in order to kind of get started and process the laundry there?

Madison Anderson [00:32:04]:

Well, I kind of just showed up while in the pandemic. I forced myself to go to different Laundromat in Charlotte to check out the competition and see what their operations were like. And the Laundromat mat that I ended up working out of was the first Laundromat that I did my research on. So when it came time to start processing orders for fresh and mobile, I just showed up because I knew that, one, it was a card operated Laundromat, so that’s easy to keep books, and two, it was the cheapest laundry mat in Charlotte. So I was like, wow, what is a win win right here? And three, the laundry attendant, she was only there from Wednesday through Sunday after 230. So I was like, I won’t even run into her for the most part. And whenever I did run into the owner, he would just ask me questions about the industry and give me tips on the industry. So he wasn’t concerned about nothing that I was doing because I was paying his bills.

Jordan Berry [00:33:10]:

Yeah, especially early on. You were just like a person doing laundry, essentially. It wasn’t yours, but you didn’t have, like, a very big volume early on. Right. So it wasn’t like you were eating up all his machines or something. Awesome. Okay, so you started doing this laundry. Are you doing 100% of everything at this point? You’re picking up, you’re doing the laundry, you’re taking it back. Did you like that?

Madison Anderson [00:33:37]:

I am. I did not, but I knew it was what needed to be done.

Jordan Berry [00:33:43]:

Yeah, well, I’m seeing just a lot of the right stuff lining up with you here, so I’m excited to keep going. Okay, so you start doing that. You’re running these ads for a little bit. How long did you run ads for? Are you still running ads?

Madison Anderson [00:34:00]:

No, I stopped running ads. I think I ran it for maybe a month and a half because I saw that the Google Ads, this is where they get you on those credits. It’s like, you got to spend money to get the credit. So I was like, oh, they played me. So I got to stop this Google I got to stop these Google Ads because it’s running up my and so I stopped doing Google Ads because I didn’t understand that. So make sure you all read the fine print of everything that you do. And I just stuck with the Yelp ads, which from Yelp, I got my highest paying customer. I got two of my highest paying customers. I had a family of five, which those are always the best in a richer part of Charlotte. And I had a Planet Fitness.

Jordan Berry [00:34:40]:

Oh, nice.

Madison Anderson [00:34:41]:

As. So I was like, okay, so I could chill out on the ads for now because they had a lot of laundry. Family five had over 100 pounds every week, which I was very shocked about. And I was like, I don’t know if I want any more kids after that. I told you kids, I don’t know. They are. And then I had Planet Fitness, which they had me on call two times a week.

Jordan Berry [00:35:08]:

You do a towel for them?

Madison Anderson [00:35:09]:

I can just relax. Yeah. Towels, mops, and dust racks.

Jordan Berry [00:35:14]:

That’s a good score. Especially early on. Get that one.

Madison Anderson [00:35:18]:

Yeah. And then after a while, after I stopped running ads, I started reaching out, or I started getting into other Facebook groups like Airbnb, Real Estate, general business Facebook groups as well, and started to see if any cleaning companies wanted to partner up to have them outsource their laundry to me. And that’s where I got another higher paying customer or a partnership with a cleaning company. They didn’t last long and kind of bit me in the butt after a while, but it was a good experience, and it brought in some good money as well. It showed me the potential that short term rental properties have when it comes to the commercial side of business. So after I stopped doing the ads, then I started going to the Facebook groups to see if any cleaning companies wanted to partner up and to see if there were any STR owners that wanted to use a professional laundry service instead of having their inexperienced cleaners who don’t know anything about laundry. And also it takes them a long time to see if they wanted to outsource to me.

Jordan Berry [00:36:26]:

Yeah. STR short term rentals, airbnbs VRBOs. Yeah. To make sure everybody’s on the same page here. It’s tough to distinguish business lingo from gen z lingo.

Madison Anderson [00:36:36]:

Sometimes it is.

Jordan Berry [00:36:39]:

No. Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, I think Facebook groups are a great way to generate leads and create those relationships. I think that’s awesome. Just real quick, logistically, are you sending people to a website when you’re trying to get these leads? What’s that looking like?

Madison Anderson [00:37:00]:

Yeah, well, with the cleaning companies, I would set up meetings, zoom meetings, and for the strs, I would have them DM me. Well, later in the business, I had them DM me so I can send them all the other stuff so I can get more information on the business. But for the most part, they would all go to the website, which my website was built by my amazing boyfriend. He’s a web developer. Well, he’s a lead developer right now at a VR company. So I was like, baby, come do my website, please. Because the website that I first got, which I don’t want to hurt nobody’s feelings when I say this, but the first website that I got, it was real trash. It was booty. Not good. So my boyfriend came and saved me like a knight in shining armor.

Jordan Berry [00:37:49]:

Yeah, well, and especially for you, I think your web presence for any laundromat in any laundry service business is so important. Right. But especially for you, you’re entirely a service based business. You don’t have a physical location, and everybody’s experience of your business is going to be primarily through that website until you’re actually physically picking up their laundry and stuff. So super critical to not have a booty website. Yeah, that’s great.

Madison Anderson [00:38:24]:

Oh my gosh.

Jordan Berry [00:38:25]:

Yeah, I’m just going to drop them in every now and then and just try to channel my inner ginza. Okay.

Madison Anderson [00:38:33]:

Yeah, cool.

Jordan Berry [00:38:35]:

So you got an awesome boyfriend with an awesome website designing talent, which is awesome. So you’re getting some bigger customers now. You’ve got Planet Fitness, you’ve got some short term rental stuff, some cleaning companies that you’re working with. It sounds like it’s pretty good momentum going. Are you still processing all that laundry on your own? And how was that? Was the workload getting high?

Madison Anderson [00:39:01]:

Yes, I was. Yeah, I was processing all that laundry on my own. I had to take some laundry home with me, like after cooking dinner, after putting my daughter to folding. Or I bought a fold out table from Sam’s before I opened up the business, just in case I had to bring laundry back. And I would be folding in the laundry room, I mean, in the living room when my daughter was asleep after or when I had to come back home and she would just be chilling. I would be folding laundry in the living room, watching cocoa melon or whatever we were watching.

Jordan Berry [00:39:37]:

Wait a second, you said your daughter went to bed. So are you watching cocoa melon on your own without your daughter? Be honest.

Madison Anderson [00:39:44]:

Well, it depended on how much laundry I had brought back. See, if I had a lot, then I would have to multitask by trying to entertain her and folding. Or if I had a little bit of laundry, then I would just wait until after I put her to bed.

Jordan Berry [00:39:59]:

I want you to take a look at this face. This is a face of somebody not believing you. And I think you’ve just been busted that you love CoComelon watching.

Madison Anderson [00:40:07]:

Okay, yes. Maybe I like to listen to Johnny Johnny every now and then.

Jordan Berry [00:40:15]:

That’s awesome. Yeah, well, no, I mean, dude, I think that’s awesome that you’re just doing what has to be done, right, in order to get this business going. So where are we at in the story now? Like, timeline wise? Are we still in 2021 somewhere in there?

Madison Anderson [00:40:32]:

Yeah, we’re still in 2022. So I opened the business. 2022. Yes. I was doing a lot of laundry, had a lot of clients, a good amount of high paying clients as well. And then that was throughout summertime also, let me tell you, summertime, the laundry mat air condition was broken and I was in there sweating bullets, standing by the dryers, folding laundry nonstop. Oh my gosh. It was crazy. But the AC got fixed eventually. Thanks, Jesus.

Jordan Berry [00:41:07]:

You get to a point where like, listen dude, I’m just going to pay to have your air conditioning fixed. I’m here so much. Let’s just get some air in here.

Madison Anderson [00:41:13]:

Well, the thing was yes. Oh my gosh. Oh my goodness. I would talk to him about it. I would talk to the Laundromat owner, shout out to Rex. I would talk to him about it every day. And he was like, there’s just a part that’s on back order because in the pandemic, everything went to crap and things got held up and all that great stuff. But eventually we got AC. So that was all during the summertime where I was bringing a good amount of clients, high paying clients. And then all of a sudden people stopped using my service. And I’m like, what’s going on? Stressing out, trying to figure out ways to get more clients. And I lost two of the high paying customers, the family of five, and also Planet Fitness. The family of five, they started using me because the mom, she went back to work and she was a stay at home mom previously. So she did all the cooking and the cleaning, all the housewife things, but she went back to work. So they were like, okay, we need a little bit of extra help. And then towards the end of summer, they were like, I didn’t see an order come in for them. So I texted and I was like, I know you’re supposed to have a pickup today. There might have been some technical difficulties where your order didn’t come in on our side. And he was like, oh no, my wife decided to stop working, so we’re just going to go back to having her do the laundry, but we will contact you if anything else changes. I’m like, okay, well, I really appreciate you using our services. So I’m like, oh, well, there goes like, $100 a week down the drain at the time. $100 at the time down the drain. And then Planet Fitness, they also stopped using our services. And I remember it was the last delivery I did for them, and I didn’t know it was going to be my last delivery. But the manager, she was like, this is the last time we’re going to be seeing you. I’m like, oh, really? Why? And she’s like, well, our machines got put back in. They were using me on a temporary basis as well. They were going through renovations while they were using me, and those renovations caused them to have their machines taken out and renovations stopped. The machines got put back in, and I’ve lost another client. And things just kept fumbling and fumbling and fumbling. The cleaning company that I had a partnership with, he got in an argument with one of his or it was a six bedroom, six bath, like, great, great revenue for me. He got in an argument with them. Revenue stopped, client lost. He also booed out of Charlotte and was no longer using my services. And then things kept happening over and over again, and I was starting to freak out, and it was a lot going on. So that was fall, winter, New Year. Bad things, or things just started going to crap back to back.

Jordan Berry [00:44:16]:

Also, this is like, over a few months that this has happened, and it’s just kind of like going downhill. Oh, man, that’s hard. And that’s super stressful. Especially you’re, like, building this business, and you’re kind of depending on this income, and it’s all starting to go away. That’s super stressful. Holy cow. So, I mean, what did you do?

Madison Anderson [00:44:43]:

I was pulling a lot of strings at the time. I got a business loan, which was one of the biggest mistakes that I did. Yeah, probably like, number three on a list of ten, one of the worst things that I did because I didn’t have a strategy. I was like, I could do a lot right now with money, but I never sat down and thought about what I could do and strategize on the things that I could do. So it was kind of like an impulse. I’m like, okay, I’m going to get this loan, and I’m going to hire a VA. Little did I know that hiring a VA takes time. That takes time and training. You got to figure out what you want this VA to do. You got to find the right VA. I didn’t do any of those things at all. Then I was like, okay, well, also let me get a graphic designer to rebrand the business, which I had no business doing. I spent the money on unnecessary things where if I were to do that again, if I had to take that loan out again, one I would strategize on which marketing avenues that I would put that money in, which marketing bucket. I would put that money in and I would have a plan, a full out Excel sheet, PF document, Google document of things that I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it with this amount of money. So that was one downfall because I had to pay that money back, and I didn’t make any money to pay that money back.

Jordan Berry [00:46:16]:

Real quick. Yeah, I think that’s a really common mistake is taking out money and not putting it into things that will directly bring in more money, right? And especially just kind of put your mind at ease about that a little bit. Because especially when you’re losing money and things are spiraling and you don’t know what to do, and you’re just kind of grasping at everything, and you’re like, I just want something to work, like redesigning a logo or, like, hiring, because you’re like, I need help here. And so hiring anybody, this is like a natural thing, right? But like you said, it’s a mistake that money needs to go to make more money, right? Because you’ve got to pay it back, and it’s an opportunity to grow that business, right? So I don’t want you to feel bad about that because that’s something that the pressure is mounting. You’re losing income, you’re feeling the stress. You’re just kind of grasping at straws, and that happens all the time. So just wanted to point that out, because I’ve done that before, too. And I’m sure a ton of people listening to this have done that and or would do that if they didn’t listen to this right now. But they’re listening to it, and they’re going to learn from our mistakes that we have made and not do that. Thank you for sharing it, though.

Madison Anderson [00:47:43]:

Yeah, you all, please don’t be hard headed. Yeah, of course don’t be hard headed. Please don’t be hard headed.

Jordan Berry [00:47:48]:

Please be hard headed.

Madison Anderson [00:47:49]:

That’s like me telling right things, not the wrong. Yes, like I said, that’s what I did. That’s the big thing that I did. Oh, I also raised prices as well. So before, when I started the business, I didn’t know how much a pound of laundry was going to cost me to do. It wasn’t until I talked to Waleed, shout out to Walid and Jessica. Yeah. But I finally reached out to Walid, which I should have done in the beginning, to ask him about all the grid things. And he was like I called on him to specifically ask about commercial laundry, how to set up the behind the scenes on that, like how to acquire leads, how to convert those leads, how to get information from those leads so I can customize a quote and all that stuff for them. So I asked him about pricing, which everybody asks about pricing as you know, I’ve seen on the live Q and A’s, everybody’s asking about pricing. They ask about pricing in the forums. And I did that. And he gave me the same answer he’s given everybody. You need to figure out how much it costs you to do a pound of laundry. And I was like, okay, this is when a moment where I’m going to stop being hard headed after I get off this call, I’m going to figure out all the costs that it cost me to do laundry. And I did. So I figured out that number, and then I was like, okay. So I started off doing laundry for a pound and $0.20, which I was like, okay, this is a good price. We got two laundry here. We got washing laundry here. We got Leslie’s laundry here. They all do their laundry for like $2. Whatever. I’m going to be so attractive, so different, and make my price so low so people come to me, no, girl, don’t do that. Serve your customers in other ways. Price. Don’t do the price thing. So after I figured out how much it cost me to do a pound of laundry, I came up with a new price, and I started doing laundry for 1.90 per pound, which was not.

Jordan Berry [00:49:59]:

Do you remember how much you figured out it cost you to do laundry?

Madison Anderson [00:50:03]:

Yeah. Let me share my screen and I can show you my little Excel. Let me figure out which one it is. Here we go. The cost analysis. Let me know if you can see it. Can you see it?

Jordan Berry [00:50:15]:

It is popping up right now. And speaking of which, just in case you’re listening on the podcast and not watching, go to the Show Notes page. And I’ll have a clip of just this part. So you don’t have to watch the whole thing, but you can watch this if you want to see the visual of this.

Madison Anderson [00:50:30]:

Yes. Or just come to the YouTube, because we need to get those numbers up, too.

Jordan Berry [00:50:34]:

Yeah, you’ve been subscribed.

Madison Anderson [00:50:38]:

Yes. So this was what I came up with, with my cost per pound analysis. And this was the average cost per pound when it came to be doing laundromat. So about thirty two cents. I will say that I didn’t know how to incorporate gas and all that stuff, so I kind of just put that there. If you have any input on how to do that, please let me know so we can all know.

Jordan Berry [00:51:04]:

Yeah, we could definitely talk, that for sure. It’s tough. Yeah, it’s a tough one to figure out, for sure.

Madison Anderson [00:51:13]:

Yeah. So this is what I came up with. I did the, uh I had clorox wipes because I wanted to wipe down the table after every person’s laundry that I did. I had the plastic bags, which I was putting customers laundry in garbage bags when I first started. Clean laundry in garbage bags. Shame, shame, shame. Don’t do that. Go to Cleaner Supply and get the nice plastic bags. They’re cheap, I promise. And they look good. I had thank you cards that I would put in residential clients bags that let me see. I think I have some right here. Hold on. I don’t know if they can see my camera, but if you can, thank you cards that also has a QR code that sends them to a link tree that has, like, review us on Google Yelp to get what is it, $10 off of your next order. Also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, all the socials and order again. So this is one thing that I do recommend that laundry delivery companies have is a thank you card to put right on top of your bag so when they open it, they see, oh, thank you. And they were like, oh, yes, girl, you’re welcome. So I had that. I had stickers for commercial clients to put their bag tag or their receipt on the bag. We had slack sleeves, which shout out to Walid. Again, this is another thing that I did that I should have done. I should have done this in the beginning of my laundry journey, but I did it after things went to chaos. But I had sock sleeves that I put on customers socks. They also had a QR code that led them to our Instagram page so that they could put a photo on their story or something and tag us, put our hashtag on there. So that’s another thing that I put in the Cost. And all customers got a free fresh and mobile bag their first order after things went to chaos, something that I would have done in the beginning again. And, yeah, that is pretty much how I got that number. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to figure out how much water it cost me, like some laundry mat owners have to do. This is for the people that are doing laundry without a laundromat and using somebody else’s laundry mat. So this is how I got that number.

Jordan Berry [00:53:36]:

Awesome. I think that’s awesome. And listen, if we can just talk, you and me, just for a second and just promise not to say anything, walid is actually pretty dang smart and really good at what he does. I would never tell him that, right? I won’t tell him. Yeah, because my mo as Walid is, I always have to just got to knock him down a pin or two. But he’s actually really smart and really good at what he does. Yes, I like him a lot, but that’s awesome. And kudos to you for reaching out, to finding a legend who’s really good at what you’re trying to do and actually following their advice and doing the work there. So love it. Action taker. You’re an action taker.

Madison Anderson [00:54:21]:

Yes. Yeah, I had to be because things were going to crap.

Jordan Berry [00:54:24]:

So how did it change things? I mean, you start implementing some of these things. Did business start to pick up or what happened or no. Is it still bad?

Madison Anderson [00:54:37]:

It did start you’re still losing all your money.

Jordan Berry [00:54:39]:

What’s happening?

Madison Anderson [00:54:42]:

I was still losing money because I had that big loan that I had just taken out. But with that money, I did do one good thing, which was run Google Ads again because they offered me another credit. And I was like, I know your tricks now, girl. I know your tricks. So I’m going to use this loan money to put this ad out, and I’ll also get that $500 credit, too. So I did, and I only got two customers out of that, but they were reoccurring, and it was at the upgraded price. I also put all of my previous customers on the upgraded price as well, with warning, of course. Always let your customers know what you’re doing.

Jordan Berry [00:55:20]:

What was the response to that, by the way? I mean, you have that conversation. You raising prices on your pickup and delivery customers. What was their response to that? Anybody have any issues?

Madison Anderson [00:55:31]:

I did not have any issues because I also backed it up with other things that they would get as well. So, like the sock sleeves. Their socks would not be you really can’t see that very well.

Jordan Berry [00:55:42]:

There it is.

Madison Anderson [00:55:43]:

Like the sock sleeves. You won’t get your socks just thrown in a bag like crazy. I also dropped the delivery fee. I was like, no more delivery fee. Since I’m increasing the prices, we’ll just incorporate it in there as well. Also, I went from two day delivery to next day delivery. So it was like a give and take, and people were okay with that at the time. Another thing that I will say is that I tested out the per bag price as well as the per pound price. And so I started my previous customers off with the per bag price, and then I was like, okay, we can’t do the per bag price no more, because that was too much of a brain strainer for me when it came to calculating the profit margin and all that stuff and really finding the value in that. But everybody was okay with it for the most part. If they weren’t, I can’t remember.

Jordan Berry [00:56:45]:

Okay, so you have run some Google Ads. You’ve raising your prices, and you’re trying to get that ball back rolling. Did you feel like you staved off the free fall that your business was feeling like it was going in and kind of got things a little more under control, or how are you feeling at this point about everything?

Madison Anderson [00:57:05]:

No, I still didn’t get things under control because I only got two customers from those Google Ads. Luckily, they were everybody was on the new prices, but that still wasn’t enough to, one, pay back the money that I just took out irresponsibly and then also try to hold up what I was trying to save with the loan. So I started reaching out more on Facebook, in the airbnb groups that I was in. I started dropping laundry tips and tricks to try to generate leads that way directly through the airbnb to the airbnb individuals in the area. And I got a lot of calls, a lot of DMs, a lot of great stuff. But when it came time to like, hey, can you fill out this request for quote, fill out this information so I can give you a personalized customizable quote and all that stuff. People flatline me. They weren’t moving as fast as I needed them to. Also at the time, I was working on a social media strategy, which I should have been doing in the beginning, but that wasn’t pulling in as much awareness and engagement as I needed it to. I got one customer from my social media strategy, and she was reoccurring as well. But this is a sad story. This is where the story kind of hits the fan. But I had to shut the business down, and I recently had to do that in April, so I could have started my intro off like, hey, I’m Madison, 24 years old, and I failed my first attempt at the laundry industry.

Jordan Berry [00:58:49]:

That makes two of us.

Madison Anderson [00:58:50]:

That’s where we are now. You too?

Jordan Berry [00:58:54]:

Yeah. Okay, well, you just weren’t able to generate enough revenue, so you just had to shut it down.

Madison Anderson [00:59:01]:

Yeah. I was trying to do so many things at that time, cold calling small businesses. But my mistake was with the cold calling, is that I was calling nail salons and hair salons, and most of those shops had washers and dryers in their facility. And also, I don’t know anything about cold calling. I could barely call my doctor to set up an appointment. Me being on the phone with somebody, trying to ask them to use my services, it wasn’t going to work out for me at that time, at least. What else was I trying to do? I was also trying to reach out to small businesses via DM as well, cold DMing them, which was very scary because I don’t want them to think that I’m like a scam because there’s a lot of scams going on in the social media world as people asking for crypto and all that stuff. I’m not a part of that. I’m like, I will drop off bags for you at your store, at your shop, at the gym, at the salon or whatever, and then I can come pick up the laundry the next day. People left me on scene. People didn’t even see the DM. People did not care what I needed or that I was trying to service them. Yeah, what else was I doing? I was doing a lot, and I can’t remember. I think I started to try to apply for some grants as well, but that didn’t last long.

Jordan Berry [01:00:29]:

I mean, you’re hustling. You’re trying to make it happen, but you had to shut down the business.

Madison Anderson [01:00:36]:

Yes. Okay.

Jordan Berry [01:00:37]:

So, I mean, where are we at now? Is the dream dead?

Madison Anderson [01:00:42]:

No, it’s not dead. The dream is not dead. The dream is on pause, and it’s been on pause for going on three months now. It was a heartbreaking decision, but I will say that I’m hard headed and I am diligent and I know my purpose, and I did what I could, what I thought was enough at the time to keep the business going and not to give up until the horse was dead. And the horse was dead. Don’t beat a dead right? And I was beating that thing. I was beating that dead horse. Like, wake up. Wake up.

Jordan Berry [01:01:24]:

Beating a horse and trying to give it CPR. You can try to give a horse CPR. That’s fine.

Madison Anderson [01:01:31]:

My horse was out of commission.

Jordan Berry [01:01:33]:

Yeah. Talk to me about how does that feel? Obviously, it doesn’t feel good. Right? Like, you’re trying to do this business. You’re hustling, you’re making it happen as you’ve been talking. I’m like, yes, that trait, you’ve got it nailed. That’s going to help you succeed. That’s going to help you succeed. That’s going to help you succeed. And then you just slam me with the heartbreak of I didn’t succeed. And I feel that punch in the gut. I’ve shared this before, but when I bought my first Laundromat and it was not going well, and I would just hear this, like, oh, 95% of Laundromat are successful. And I’m like, how am I in the 5%? That’s not succeeding here. It feels horrible, and it feels like a punch in the gut. But can you take us there a little bit? You have these big whys, these big purposes that’s driving you to succeed in what you’re trying to do. And you have to come to this realization that, okay, this is not it, at least not right now. Where does that put you? Where’s your headspace? How’s your heart feeling? All that stuff.

Madison Anderson [01:02:48]:

Yeah. So I remember the day that I had to make the decision. I was driving. I was just having a really bad month week. April was March, and April not good for me. And the day that I made the decision, I left my house. I left my boyfriend without telling him I’m going out. Whatever. He has my location. He knows where I’m going to be. So I’m like, I’m out of here. Throughout my entrepreneur journey, I recorded anytime that I felt discouraged or anytime that I felt good. I had an old school recorder handheld that I would talk into every night to just debrief my mind so I could have a good night’s sleep. But that day I went out, it was like midnight. I drove around north Charlotte huntersburg concord area for those that know North Carolina. And I was just on my recorder, and I was like, I failed. I can’t believe that this is where I’m at right now. I got to shut down the business because and at the time, I knew that I was the problem. I can’t blame it on anything else except for for me, I was, like, screaming on the recorder. I didn’t do what I needed to do at the time that I needed to do it. I failed. It’s all my fault. I should have done this, should have done that, should have done that. And now we’re here because of the mistakes that I made, the decisions that I didn’t, the decisions that I made, the decisions that I decided not to make. And it was hard. I was kicking. I was screaming. I was crying. I was hitting the steering wheel really hard in the parking lot at Target. A super target. At. That a nice target. I was like, okay, I can’t be a crybaby forever as much as I want to. I can’t be depressed forever. I’ve come across hard times. Like, I got pregnant when I was 18, freshman in college, a few months into my college experience. Take it away. So I’m like, okay, I’ve been through hard things before. All we got to do is just restrategize and actually strategize this time, and I’ll just have to start looking for a job. Thankfully, I do have a degree. Thankfully, I did have some marketing experience with my mother. My parents are real estate investors, and I worked for my mom a little bit as her marketing assistant. Thankfully, I have a great personality. I have lots of customer service experience. Thankfully, I learned a lot as an entrepreneur. So now it’s time to get a job, to pay that money back, because you borrowed a lot of money, and they’re going to be knocking at your door, taking your car, doing something so you can pay that money back. So I’m like, okay. So the day after I made that decision, I put it on social media that we were shutting the business down at the end of April. We are still taking new customers for now, but it’s not going to be long term, but we will be shutting down temporarily until further notice. All that great stuff. So the day after I made that post, I went ahead and started applying for jobs. And I’ll be real. I’ve been applying for jobs for a long time, and I’ve had zero success. Lots of rejection emails. It’s crazy, but from the rejections that I got in the business, this is no big deal. The goal is to step into my marketing career. So, one, I can learn more about marketing, because, spoiler alert, they don’t teach you a lot in college when it comes to marketing, especially the way how fast marketing is moving right now. Absolutely right. It’s crazy out here. So the goal is to right now, the goal is to get into a good marketing position with a good team. So I can know what that feels like because I was an entrepreneur all by myself, and I’ve been an athlete all my life, too, so I’ve been a part of a team. I love that feeling of being a part of a well oiled machine. So that’s what I’m looking for now, so that I can experience that, learn what a good team needs, learn what a good leader needs from a higher up, and then also get some money to pay that money back. And then to build some money up so I can open up Fresh and Mobile 2.0 or Fresh Laundromat Matt or the Fresh Kingdom fresh Wash kingdom of all of North Carolina. So I can get the ball rolling again because the goal has not died. She’s just in a beauty sleep right now. She’s Sleeping Beauty. We need to wake her up.

Jordan Berry [01:07:37]:

Yeah, well, no, I appreciate you sharing all that. And so that process, I know you’re even still kind of in the middle of it right now, so it can feel, like, really fresh. And I love that you brought up, like, hey, right in the beginning of college, I got pregnant, changed all my plans. And I don’t know what feelings you were feeling there, but it can feel a lot like my life is over. I know.

Madison Anderson [01:08:03]:

Oh, yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:08:05]:

But I’m glad you brought it up because I think it’s a beautiful picture of sometimes our biggest failures lead to the best things in our lives. Right? And out of that, you’ve got your daughter now. And I think about failing in my laundromat in the first one, too, and just the pain of that and embarrassment and all that stuff that I was feeling at the time. But because of that, we’re here talking we didn’t have a podcast if it wasn’t for that. I’ve met so many awesome people because of that. I love doing this stuff. I love talking to people about their experience on the podcast. I love doing Q and A’s with people. It’s so good. And none of it would be here if it wasn’t for the failures. Right. So I know it’s still very fresh right now. And hindsight is 2020. That’s a thing for real. And when you’re in the middle of it, it can feel like it’s just swallowing you up. At least it did for me. But I truly believe that when you I’m not just speaking to you, I’m speaking myself, because I still go through it. And a lot of people, I think you say, okay, that didn’t work. It’s not a failure. Right? It’s not a failure because, like you said, you’ve learned so much, you’ve grown so much through all of that. And whether it’s the 2.0 version of your business or whether you end up going a completely different direction at some point in life, this is going to serve you in the long term if you let it. Right. I just appreciate you being willing to come on. And I did want to ask you, like, okay, look it you’re coming fresh off of having to close down your business, and here we are. You said you want to come on the podcast and share your story. So I’m curious, why did you want to come share this story with people?

Madison Anderson [01:10:15]:

Yes, I was very hesitant the first time that you emailed me from the sense I think it was a sense Q and A. I think we were talking about maybe finding good employees or something like that. I can’t remember, but it was months ago. Months ago. So I was like, yeah, and I emailed you after you emailed me saying that I think that you operating without a laundry mat. I’d love to have you on the podcast. I would love to hear your story. And I emailed you. And I was like, well, just starting off not very successful. Don’t know if you want to hear my perspective, but here I am having I’ve shut the business down temporarily, and I wanted to come on. I was so eager to come on because I want people to know this side of entrepreneurship in general. But since it’s us, the laundry industry, for sure, because I think every perspective is very important. I definitely have gotten blindsided by all the glitz and the glam, the shiny things like, oh, yeah, you can make X amount of money in 30 days, in a week, in a year, but I want you all to hear a real story. I had to shut my business down because I was blindsided by those shiny I did have shiny object syndrome. I was on a lot of cool new things that popped up in marketing, that popped up in entrepreneurship in general. So that’s why I was so eager, because I wanted people to know, especially us laundry folk, to know a real story. And then also, I have a long list of things that are going to prevent you from making the same mistake that I did. So you don’t have to be in my position. There is not a day that goes by that I’m like, oh, my gosh, I want to get back in. I want to get back in the game. Let me back in the game, Coach. I learned so much. I got so many different plays now. But the coach is telling me, like, no, girl, you got to sit on the bench until it’s time. So me getting out on the court, my version of getting out on the court is telling everybody the mistakes that I made and the lessons that I’ve learned, so you all don’t have to be on the bench with me.

Jordan Berry [01:12:26]:

Listen, I think that’s like the highest level of serving other people, right, and coming and sharing, especially while you’re still in this vulnerable phase, right? You haven’t fought your way out of it yet, right? That’s the hardest time to share it’s a lot easier. It’s still hard to share your mistakes and your failures and all that stuff after they’re long over. It’s still difficult to do that. But when you don’t have a resolution, right, you have not reopened your business yet. You have not paid off that loan that you took. You don’t even have the job yet that you’re searching for right now, right? And so that is when it’s the most difficult to share that. But I appreciate your willingness to kind of come on and share all of that stuff with us to help all of us do better, right? And one of the core, the reason I started the podcast was I genuinely think that we’re all better when we’re helping each other out, working together. And you saw that when you were working with Lead and he was giving you really good advice, right? And here you are saying, hey, look, I don’t have a huge success story to offer you to tell you how to do it, but here’s what I do have, right? And that’s huge, man. And again, I just see thing after thing after thing, character trait after character trait after character trait in you that’s going to you’ll be fine. Like, listen, I know that it may not feel like that all the time. You’re going to be fine. You’re going to be more than fine. That empire is coming your way. I will bet money on that because I just see all the right stuff in you. And so don’t let this set you back. And for anybody else listening, too, this is like the biggest fear, right? This is why people don’t go, this is the biggest fear because what if I buy a Laundromat or I start a business and it doesn’t succeed? Guess what? Life goes on, right? Like, life goes on. You learn a lot. You grow a lot if you allow it to teach you something and you allow yourself to grow through it. And, man, I try to talk this much, but I’m talking a lot. But I just think so highly of you and I’m just blown away that you came on to share your story and I think it’s so awesome. So I appreciate that a lot.

Madison Anderson [01:15:02]:

Thank you. I was really shocked that you still I don’t know how much research you did on being in fresh and mobile. So I was kind of shaking in my boots like, oh, my gosh, he’s going to find out that I’m not successful. He’s going to not want me on the podcast. And I’m like, okay, girl, take a deep breath. We all get there when we get there.

Jordan Berry [01:15:19]:

That’s right. It’s true. And it is like, you even mentioned this, right? There’s this pressure to just be successful, be a millionaire ASAP, have a successful business ASAP. And it just doesn’t work that way. Like almost never. Almost never. And so don’t get sucked in. And I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to all of us. Me too. I get sucked into this. Don’t get sucked in that it’s not going to be a lot of work or that you’re not going to experience failure or that there’s not going to be obstacles along the way. Don’t get sucked into that stuff because it’s a lot of work and it takes time and it takes effort. And if it didn’t, then everybody would do it, and we’d all be rolling like Scrooge McDuck. But it does. And it’s the people who are able to stick with it and persevere and apply the hard headedness in the good ways, right, in the good areas, who have a shot at eventually finding your way. Right. And that’s not even a guarantee. But listen, like I said, I would put money on, you’re going to be fine. You’re going to have that empire, whether that’s in the laundry industry or wherever. Okay, so we do have a couple of segments I want to get to still, but anything else you want to share about your experience or anything else you want to share before we get to those segments?

Madison Anderson [01:16:45]:

Well, let’s get into the segments because all the beans are going to spill in the segments.

Jordan Berry [01:16:50]:

Okay, well, let’s start off with this. We got a segment called Secret Sauce, and this is for people, and we could talk about people who are doing a pickup and delivery, whether they have a laundromat or not. Listen, you’ve already shared a lot of the hard lessons, but I know you’ve also learned about some of what works and stuff. So what’s something that you found that was working pretty well for you in your pickup and delivery business that you think other people could benefit from?

Madison Anderson [01:17:19]:

Yeah, so one thing that I think that worked really well was definitely I do think that the paid ads worked really well. You either got to know what you’re doing with them, or you got to have somebody know what they’re doing with them. Because I feel like you said this, maybe somebody that you were interviewing said this in a previous podcast episode. Laundry delivery is still new. A lot of people are really in shocked that people can do their laundry for them. There’s a lot of mommies out there that are up to their necks in dirty laundry that need our help. So they’re not going to just come across us by accident. They’re going to type in laundry service, or they’re going to be scrolling on Instagram and come across one of us or somebody talking about the laundry service. So I think that Google ads definitely be spending a good amount of money in Google and Yelp ads so that our brands can be put in their faces. Also, when it comes to social media, I do think that social media is important. But y’all and y’all cannot get lazy with this because I know us, and I know you all we cannot just be putting up static posts of dirty laundry and say, call us now. It’s got to be real. Short form content is key right now in the social media space, and we cannot get lazy with that. So there are several different ways, different social media strategies to help us with that. Social media does take a lot of hard work. Anything takes a lot of hard work, takes a lot of work. But we just got to do that work. So that’s the two things that I would say, google and Yelp ads and then have a social media strategy that’s not static post. It’s got to be short form content.

Jordan Berry [01:19:20]:

Love it, love it, love it, love it. Going back. Like, if you were to go back and just start all this over, how would you do your ads differently?

Madison Anderson [01:19:33]:

I think that I would do more of the video ads like that you see on YouTube. Well, yes, let me stop lying. I have seen some laundry services use the YouTube ads. Hamper is one of them. So I would definitely go that route. I know that to you, laundry has done a video ad on Facebook, and I know that they also do ads on social media that way too. Same with washing, laundry. But they’re all static posts. Except for that one that I talked about that I mentioned that to you. Laundry did. But theirs was very elaborate. It was very nice, well put together. They probably spent a good money, a good bag on that one. But yeah, shout out to Alex. So, yeah, I would go the video route. I mean, that’s just for me because I’m a visual learner and visual explainer. And I feel like especially if people are on YouTube, they’ll feel the same way and they’ll be open up to a whole new world.

Jordan Berry [01:20:36]:

Dare, close your eyes. No, I love that. I love the idea of video ads for you because you’re great on camera and that life really comes out of you. And I think video is one of the best ways for people to kind of get to know you. And that whole no, like, trust factor, right? It really comes out in video and it’s hard to get that in text ads or static ads. So awesome. Love that. Just curious how you would do it differently. Okay, so we have another segment called Pro Tips. Let’s keep it with like, hey, if you’re going to start a pickup and delivery service from scratch, you got anything you want to make sure people know so maybe they don’t end up in the same situation, right? What do they need to know before they actually get started?

Madison Anderson [01:21:24]:

Yes. So I have a long list, so we’re going to be here for a while. The first thing that I and I’ll.

Jordan Berry [01:21:31]:

Be back in a little bit.

Madison Anderson [01:21:32]:

Okay, I got you. So before you get into the laundry industry, definitely do your research I know that there’s a lot of people that say that, and it’s definitely easier said than done because you can’t really just Google a lot of these things. You have to use the analytics type of situation, at least. Thankfully for me, since I was still in college, I had access and I was in school for marketing, too, so I had access to some of the analytical tools that marketers use when it comes to heat, maps, all that great stuff when it comes to population, income, stuff like that. So go on fiverr. There are people that will do market research for you. Pull in some demographic stuff for you, for your area. So that’s the one thing that I would say for people that are thinking about getting into the laundry delivery side of things, definitely do your research to find out which areas are best. I didn’t do that. And I made the mistake of making my radius, my service radius too wide. I tried to compete with the big dogs to you laundry and washing laundry. I was like, hey, if you all could do it, I could do it too in my little Ford Escape. But no ma’am, I could not. And I didn’t find that out until things went to crap and I was losing lots of money. So don’t do what I did. Do what I’m telling you to do now. Do your market research. Find the most affluent areas that are around you and service those areas. This is for people that are thinking about it. Think about that about the most affluent areas. And also find a good Laundromat. If you’re going to operate out of a Laundromat, if you’re not doing the own the Laundromat route or make sure that you can do whatever you need to do in your house. I never got into outsourcing laundry to other Laundromat, but that’s another thing that people could look into to see what’s going on with that. Another thing that I would say to people that are looking to get into the Laundromat and the Laundromat delivery side is definitely figure out your cost per pound all the way before you do get into the industry. Because that was one of my weak points was I was priced so low that I never really broke even from the things that I had started the business with. I just broke even on the bills, on the monthly business bills. So those are the two things that I would suggest. Do market research, find out the most affluent areas, and then also do your cost per pound analysis ahead of time. Oh, third thing, third thing is third thing is to have your processes together for commercial laundry as well because they may come out at any time and you want to be prepared and professional about it and have your strategy down. And I could share my screen again to share my process for that as well. So I have before, I was just guessing on commercial laundry and how to quote them and all those things. So I was just like giving them enough, giving them a price. It was really ghetto. It was really bad. But don’t do that. Do what I did do later in life, later in the business, which was have a scope of work. Questionnaire so if commercial clients are interested in you or if you are reaching out or want to specialize in the commercial industry, have a questionnaire built out. Figure out how they heard about you, their name, company’s name, email so you can contact them and all that stuff. Figure out which industry they’re in, what all needs to be serviced. That’ll help you figure out the workload that you’ll have to deal with. Same with the approximately how many bags, pounds, whatever, loads that need to be done with laundry. Because they’re not going to know. Our customers don’t know how many pounds of laundry they’re doing. They only know it by load for the most part. So that’ll also help you out. Figure out how you want to price them if they need their laundry folded in a special way, like some airbnbs or some nail salons. They may need their towels folded. I don’t know. In flamingos, you got to figure out if you got to do that so you could charge extra for that. Charge extra for the flamingos. Figure out what products they want to use so that goes back into the pricing as well. And then also that shows them all the options that you have for them, which makes you look better as well. Just get as much information as you can from them so you can price them correctly. And these are all the questions that I have. And if you guys want that, we can link that or you could DM me and I can give it to you. And then another thing that I did to make myself seem very professional. Let me see. Where is it? Right here. I had a nice proposal built out so that they didn’t know that I was a real deal. I like to be professional. I will say that for the most part, even though it was just me operating and I was operating out of my car, my customers didn’t know that. My customers in my customers minds, I was just as good as two U Laundry and Washroom laundry. And that’s all that matters. So I like to keep that name up, that reputation up there. So I made sure that everything was nice, neat, and professional so that they knew what they were getting and so that I knew what I was getting as well. So this is the little proposal template that I had. Oh, look at her. Isn’t she so cute? You all so cute. Those are three things, right? Let me think. Yeah, we’ll stick with the three.

Jordan Berry [01:27:43]:

Yeah. No, that’s awesome. That was a lot of really great stuff. And then we’ll have the link in the show notes to that questionnaire if you want to take a look at it. All right, last little segment is do you have any resources that you recommend to help people grow themselves, their businesses?

Madison Anderson [01:28:02]:

Yes, my number one resource, and it’s not you. I’m sorry, Jordan, it’s not you. It’s not Dave. It’s my main man, Walid.

Jordan Berry [01:28:11]:

No, you can’t do that to me. I mean, I’m okay with it. You can’t make it, Walid. Come on.

Madison Anderson [01:28:17]:

I got to shout out my dog. That’s my homie. Walid at Wash Weekly. Definitely tap into his newsletter.

Jordan Berry [01:28:25]:

Sign up for that.

Madison Anderson [01:28:26]:

Every Sunday at ten.

Jordan Berry [01:28:27]:

Comes out on Sundays. You got to sign up for he calls himself a Laundry pirate on LinkedIn. I love it. Definitely sign up for his newsletter. But you’re not going to hear any of this episode because I have to just scrap everything now because you just recommended me. Come on.

Madison Anderson [01:28:45]:

Well, everybody knows that you’re the ultimate resource. Like we said in the beginning, we gave Jordan the title of Mg. I called him the OG of Laundry podcast, but he said he was the Mg, so everybody knows that you are the Mg.

Jordan Berry [01:29:04]:

I will also endorse your recommendation and say, Walid, do it. Love him.

Madison Anderson [01:29:11]:

Yes, all his information is great. Also reach out to him because he didn’t charge me to talk to him. I don’t know if he’s not going to charge you all. I don’t know if it was just me. And he was like, yeah, I’ll do it for free.

Jordan Berry [01:29:22]:

Will do it for free for everyone. I will link to his personal cell phone number. So everybody give him that’s what you get, Walid?

Madison Anderson [01:29:31]:

Yes.

Jordan Berry [01:29:33]:

Passing me in the number one resource, I don’t like that. So you’re going to pay for it.

Madison Anderson [01:29:37]:

That’s so funny.

Jordan Berry [01:29:38]:

Just kidding.

Madison Anderson [01:29:39]:

1808, seven, seven coat. But that’s my number one resource, is Wash Weekly and also just reaching out to Walid on LinkedIn and he will respond, which I was very shocked about. It’ll take him a few days because he’s a busy man. He’s a busy pirate. He is a busy pirate, but he will get back to you. And he’s got some great free information all over social media, YouTube, Instagram. Follow him, subscribe to him after you subscribe here. Go to Wali Cope. And then also go to Commerce and chill with him and his wife and subscribe to those as well. Another resource, of course, like Investment Joy for the laundromat side, cody Sanchez for the laundromat and the laundry delivery side, taveman’s CLA. There’s Facebook groups, laundry mat, Facebook groups that have a wealth of knowledge. There’s a little bit of controversy that goes in there, but you got to put your hater blockers on and take the meat and leave the bones. Some other podcasts that I would recommend, some of my favorite podcast when it comes to the marketing side of. Things. Marketing against the grain. Marketing made simple. Both HubSpot Network podcast. Even business made simple is good. And some books. I got lots of resource for you all. Some books that I would recommend. Let me think. 1 minute salesperson. That one’s old, but it’s good and it’s really short. It’s like this thick. I’ve heard one that’s on my list, but I haven’t read it yet. Purple cow.

Jordan Berry [01:31:34]:

Good.

Madison Anderson [01:31:35]:

And I think that goes well. Yeah, I think that goes well with our industry know, laundry mats. Laundry. It’s not sexy, it’s not cool. But I feel like Purple Cow would be really great to open our minds to that. And Alex Hormone just came out with a new book, 100 Million Dollar Leads. That’s on my list.

Jordan Berry [01:31:56]:

It’s not out yet. Interview but it’s coming out. Did you read $100 million offers?

Madison Anderson [01:32:02]:

I haven’t. Listen, you all, I’m trying so hard to get a job so I can get these books because they’re not free. And I know that he sells them for like one dollars on Kindle, but I don’t have a Kindle, so I don’t know. I might have to go to the bank of my boyfriend and ask him for a small loan.

Jordan Berry [01:32:23]:

Don’t take out loans unless they’re making money specifically. Come on, we learned that.

Madison Anderson [01:32:29]:

I did learn that, but listen, I cooked dinner for him.

Jordan Berry [01:32:32]:

Yeah, well, don’t take a loan. Be like, hey, dude, bill it over.

Madison Anderson [01:32:36]:

Right? Can I have this? Yeah, your money is my money.

Jordan Berry [01:32:41]:

You got to buy me a book.

Madison Anderson [01:32:42]:

Every now and then, right?

Jordan Berry [01:32:45]:

I tell my wife.

Madison Anderson [01:32:46]:

That’s the least I could actually she.

Jordan Berry [01:32:47]:

Has never bought me a book, so I feel like she’s trying to get rid of me. I don’t know.

Madison Anderson [01:32:51]:

It’s not going to work.

Jordan Berry [01:32:54]:

Yeah, awesome. Any other I don’t want to cut you off.

Madison Anderson [01:32:59]:

Let me think, because there are a lot of great resources out here.

Jordan Berry [01:33:04]:

I’ll link to all. We’re going fast through them, so there’ll be a link in the show notes. If you’re on YouTube, they’ll be down below. Links to all these things, books, podcast, everything.

Madison Anderson [01:33:13]:

Yes. I don’t know if the podcast will come out before this, but the workshop that’s coming up, CLA Workshop, I wish I could go to that, but like I said, I got to get this money first. What else is coming up? Clean show is coming up too. So definitely make sure you go to those. Go to as many events as you can. Go to as many events as your little brain can hold and also your wallet can bear. And yeah, I mean, you all can hit me up too.

Jordan Berry [01:33:51]:

I got lots of if people want to contact you, they want to thank you for coming on the show and sharing your story. They have questions for you. What’s the best way they can get a hold of you?

Madison Anderson [01:34:02]:

Yeah, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn or Instagram at millionaire madison on Instagram, LinkedIn. You can email me at Madison [email protected] and we can hop on a call. I’m not going to give y’all my number here because Jordan warned me that y’all gonna be blowing me up, and I don’t need that. My boyfriend is going to get upset, and he gonna answer the phone and say, who called my girl? We don’t need that drama.

Jordan Berry [01:34:36]:

I get phone calls.

Madison Anderson [01:34:37]:

Exactly. Oh, madison anderson at. Yes. And Walid also is pushing me to become while I’m trying to find a career or while I’m trying to find my way back into the laundry industry, he has pushed me to start doing some social media management as well. So I haven’t set everything up, though, because I want to know how much you guys would want to pay for somebody to manage your social medias for laundry mats, for laundry delivery, et cetera, et cetera, because I’m willing to do it. I just need to know. I don’t want to throw out a pricing. I’ll be like, oh, no, we don’t need that. And I also don’t want to price myself too low to where I can’t satisfy these bill collectors. DM me. If you guys are interested in some social media management, I would love to help you guys out, give you guys some strategies or just manage your pages as well. Don’t know the price yet. We’re coming up on that. We’re figuring that out. But, yeah, you guys can DM me or you can email me about that. Or if you just want to talk about the laundry can, you can hit me up via those contacts.

Jordan Berry [01:36:06]:

Madison’s, been awesome having you on. Thank you for sharing your story. I mean, I know that you’re in the thick of it right now, but like I said, I’ve got no worries about you. You are going to be just fine. So hang in there. Hang it tough. And man, appreciate everything that you’ve shared, everything that you’ve done, and we’ll be hearing more from you again, for sure. You’ll definitely be back on that podcast. I know you’ll be back in the industry. So thanks again and keep me posted on what’s going on with you, okay?

Madison Anderson [01:36:36]:

Definitely will. Thank you guys so much.

Jordan Berry [01:36:39]:

All right. I hope you love that story with Madison. I got to tell you, I did not see it going, where it went, and, man, I just have so much respect for Madison, not just for struggling, the struggle she struggled, but also being willing to come on and share that with us. And we had a long conversation after that interview, and she just expressed to me that her desire and the reason that she came on this podcast was just to share the lessons that she’s learned, and it’s part of her process, right? Yes, she lost this battle, but the war is far from over from her, and I believe that 100% for her. And like I said, you might be seeing her around a little bit more in various capacities in the future. So huge thanks and shout out to Madison for coming on and sharing her story. As always. Pick something and put it into Know. One of the themes that came up, Know just had me like, yes, she is going to just kill it in life, is that she was someone who was trying stuff, she’s putting stuff into action. She was getting advice podcasts from other people in the industry. She was getting that advice, putting it into action. And pick something. You specifically pick something from this episode, whatever it might be, put it into action. None of this means anything if you don’t actually take some action towards your goal. So do that. Maybe it’s go to Lawnmowerentresource.com slash Pro and join a mastermind group and you’ll see Madison over there in the pro community also. All right, hope you enjoyed that. Again, shout out to Madison if you want to send her just to drop her a line of encouragement or have questions for her, anything like that, feel free to reach out to her and we will see you next week on the podcast. Peace.