134. 10 Harsh Truths About the Laundromat Industry Today

Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:

Hey. Hey. What’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Laundromat Resource Podcast. This is show 134, and I’m pumped you’re here today because today you know what? There’s just some hard truths that we need to come face to face with and acknowledge in our industry right right now and guess what? Today is the day that we are going to stand toe to toe with these hard truce. So I’m bringing the 5 hard truths for those of you guys who are looking to buy Laundromats right now, and I’ve got 5 hard truce for those of us who own a laundromats right now that we need to confront and come head to head with. So looking forward to doing that, but I don’t wanna leave you with just a bunch of hard truths. So I’m gonna point out where I think there’s an opportunity with each one of these hard truths. So I, I’m kind of excited about this episode and not to be, like, clickbaity or whatever.

Jordan Berry [00:00:56]:

I guess this is too late for clickbait because you’ve already clicked. But, the I saved the best one for last. So, you know, maybe it helps you stick around a little bit longer, but, I think the juiciest one is last. And, you know, I’d be interested to hear what you guys think about all of these hard truths, but in particular, number 10 when we get there. Before we jump into that real quick, however, I’m gonna put something out there, and I’m a little bit nervous to do this because I don’t know if and how I can pull this off. However, I’m I’m pretty excited about this. So if you’ve been listening lately, you know that a few weeks ago, a month or so ago, in our pro community, we unleashed our AI chatbot that’s been trained on all the content from LauterMet Resource, from the podcast interviews, the YouTube videos, the blog posts, the forums, all that stuff has been trained on all that. You can interact with that, as a pro community member as much as you want.

Jordan Berry [00:01:55]:

So that’s pretty cool. You may have heard maybe last week or the week before, I mentioned that we just launched The Pro podcast, which is me going back to the 1st episode starting from episode number 1, and I’m giving the top 3 takeaways from every interview in 3 to 5 minutes so if you wanna find out, like, an overview of what every podcast episode is about, you can do it in a relatively short amount of time because I know it’s a lot of content to go back to. Although kudos to you guys who have been going through them all. I know a lot of you guys go I can binge listen to all of them or binge watch them on YouTube. So that’s there. I’ve got a new calculator that’s coming out. Hopefully, next week or the week after, I’ll be able to announce that one and there’s another super secret tool that is coming out. Hopefully, again, in the next week or 2, that’s coming out, we’ve been working on for, like, months now, and I’m very excited to get that one finally launched.

Jordan Berry [00:02:52]:

Fingers crossed that’ll be coming in a couple alright. So there’s a lot of that stuff happening, but here’s what I’m nervous to put out. The pro community, we’re always looking to make it better. We’re always looking to help you guys achieve that financial freedom faster. One of the ways that we do that is we have discounts set up, in in the in the industry, so that if you’re a pro member, you get discounts on different services and goods, for our industry. Right? And as of right now, I think every single discount is more valuable than the actual investment in joining the pro community. So if you’re looking at doing any of those things, even one time, it just makes sense to join the pro community. You’ll actually save money.

Jordan Berry [00:03:34]:

But here’s the thing I was nervous about is that 2024 between now and the end of 2024, my goal is to have $50,000 worth of value in the pro community. That’s my goal. So I’m gonna be out there, building relationships with different people in the industry and different tools and resources that we need as laundromat owners or laundry business owners, to help us, run our businesses and our lives, and and getting discounts for stuff. So my goal is to have $50,000 of value by the end of 2024 in the pro community. And I would just say, you know, the investment in the pro community is nowhere you’re near that number. Not even close. So in my mind, it’s already a no brainer if you’re in this industry to go join community over there, because in addition to all that, you get access to mastermind groups, all the tools and resources, and the community. I mean, it’s it’s awesome.

Jordan Berry [00:04:33]:

But, you know, listen. My goal is to just blow it all out of the water. And at $50,000 worth of value, that is the goal. So you heard it here. Hold me accountable to it. That’s what I’m gonna be trying to get for us over there. Super excited about that. Okay.

Jordan Berry [00:04:49]:

Let’s get into the 10 hard truths we have got to confront, in this laundromat industry. And we’re gonna start with those of us trying to buy laundromats right now, let’s start with the 5 hard truths for laundromat buyers. Hard truth number 1 is deals are harder to find than ever before in this industry. Now I’ve only been in the industry for a decade. I’ve got friends who’ve been in 3, 4 decades. But I cannot imagine there ever being a time where laundromats were more in demand than they are right now and, less inventory available right now. So I know I talk to people every single week in consulting calls and stuff that you know, and webinars, all that, that deals are hard to find all over the place right now. And, that can be super frustrating.

Jordan Berry [00:05:46]:

I know a lot of you guys have expressed a lot of frustration about that. However, I just wanna point out that there’s opportunities everywhere. Okay? Just because deals are hard to find doesn’t mean there aren’t deals. So here’s the opportunity in my mind is that those of you willing to persevere and put in the work will find good deals even in this market. Okay, now it might take a little more effort than it normally would, but those deals are there. There are lots of people retiring from this industry right now. There are laundromats that have been mismanaged, there are, you know, neglected laundromats and zombie mats around that need somebody to come in and and fix them up. Right? So there are opportunities out there.

Jordan Berry [00:06:29]:

And those of you who are willing to put in the time, effort, energy to, persevere and and hunt for those deals and be proactive about it. You will find a deal. So take some you know, take heart in that. Be encouraged by that. Yes. It’s difficult right now. However, the opportunities are there. The deals are there.

Jordan Berry [00:06:51]:

You just gotta go find them and compete for them. Alright. So that’s hard truth number 1. Hard truth number 2 for those of you buying a laundromat is this. Brokers won’t call you back. Like, I’m just gonna say it. One of the things I hear all the time, and I’ve experienced this myself, I see this, and I’m I’m sort of throwing brokers under the bus here, but I am 1, so I feel like I can do that, is that a lot of people are reaching out to brokers even about deals that are supposedly up for sale right now and not hearing anything back from them. I’ve talked to multiple people who’ve made offers on laundromats and then just never heard it heard back from brokers or lots of people who brokers have just never called back, email it back or anything, you know, in this business.

Jordan Berry [00:07:37]:

And, again, that’s frustrating, especially when you find a deal that you really wanna make an offer on and you can’t get a hold of that broker or the broker ghosts you in that process. I get the frustration. K. And I’m frustrated about that too. I think we need more accountability in this industry for, small business and laundromat brokers, and that’s on the to do list. But, you know, in the meantime, let’s look at the opportunity here. Business ownership, real estate, all these things, businesses and and investments, these are relationship businesses. So the opportunity in this situation is, a lot of times, brokers aren’t calling you back because they don’t know who you are, and they have more buyers than they need.

Jordan Berry [00:08:23]:

So you have got to figure out a way to get in front of these brokers and begin building a relationship with them. Now I would probably stop short of following them home or something like that. But I would be doing everything possible to try to get face to face with a broker and to try to introduce yourself, to let them know what you’re looking for, to let them know that you’re serious, to let them know that you’ve done your research, you understand this business. Right, and it’s out of these relationships where deals come. And it’s one of the reasons why you know, I’ve said this before. Like, once you get your foot in the door in this business, more deals and more opportunities open up to you. Part of the reason is because you start to build relationships in this business when you get your foot in the door. Right? So if you can be proactive about getting in front of these brokers, then you’re much more likely to get a callback to get deals sent your way before they end up online and all that stuff in order to help you get your foot in this industry.

Jordan Berry [00:09:21]:

And I’ll say too that sometimes you can just bypass the brokers altogether and go directly to the owners of the laundromats and see if they’re willing to sell. So don’t rely solely on the brokers. But if you’re struggling with getting callbacks from brokers, do everything in your power to get face to face with them. Buy them a coffee. Show up at their office. Harass them, you know, squeaky wheel style. Right? Like, do what you gotta do to get in front of them. And that is an opportunity because, like, you know, you probably have heard a 1000 times.

Jordan Berry [00:09:52]:

It’s not what you know. It’s who you know. And that’s true in modern mats as well as pretty much everything else. Okay. Hard truth number 3 is this. Money is more expensive than ever. Interest rates are high. Equipment costs are high.

Jordan Berry [00:10:11]:

Rents are high. All that stuff is high, and it can feel very frustrating. Down payment requirements are high right now if you’re going the traditional route. Right? All of that can feel very, very frustrating. And it can feel like, hey. Just out of principle, I’m not gonna pay 10, 11, 12% interest to buy equipment or to buy a business or something like that. And while I totally understand that. Like, I totally get that, especially coming out of the lending environment that we were in, you know, for a decade or more before, or, everything went haywire on us last couple years.

Jordan Berry [00:10:48]:

And now it’s a little bit of, like, sticker shock for us. However, here’s what I wanna say about this and as far as where the opportunity is. The opportunity is it goes to the people who know the math. Okay? Interest rates, purchase prices, amortization schedules, all this stuff is just a math equation. Right? And for me and this might be controversial, but for me, it doesn’t matter what interest I’m gonna pay for something to me if the deal still makes mathematical sense. Right, if I’m still getting the return on investment that I want to get and I’m hitting that minimum threshold of how much I wanna bring in every single month or every single year. Right? So, you know, maybe if I’m getting a high return on my I’m getting a 50% return on my investment, but I’m making a $1,000 a month. Well, maybe or maybe not that’s gonna be worth it for me.

Jordan Berry [00:11:47]:

Right? But, you know, if I’m making the number that I need to make and and I’m getting the percentage of return in on investment that I wanna get, then I’ll pay the 12%, the 14%, the 30% interest rate, as long as the math makes sense. So if you can learn how to do the math and then structure deals in a way that make the math make sense for you. Then don’t pay as much attention to the interest rate. I mean, obviously, you wanna know what interest rate you have, but don’t make that the deciding factor, and don’t rule out deals just on the principle of you don’t wanna pay a high interest rate. K? Because that’s all relative, and all this is is a math equation. Okay? Okay. So that is hard truth number 3. Hard truth number 4 is this.

Jordan Berry [00:12:37]:

Multiples have increased, and you will pay more money for a laundromat than you would have 2 years ago. That’s just the reality of the situation. I’ve seen multiples shift up a half to 3 quarters of, of of a multiple, in the last 18 to 24 months. Okay? So multiples are up. And that whole average of 3a half to 5, I’m seeing more like 4a half to 5a half right now. And so adjust expectations accordingly. And, again, listen. It’s all about the math.

Jordan Berry [00:13:18]:

Right? The multiple only matters as far as the math right? And and if the math still plays out and you’re still getting the return on your investment that you wanna get and you’re still able to hit that threshold that you wanna hit. The multiple is just 1 variable of the equation. Okay? But that’s not the opportunity I wanna talk about here. The opportunity here is actually much more intriguing to me, and it’s something that I’m pretty confident about. Obviously, it can go either way, but I’m pretty confident that multiples will continue to increase as we go forward. I think that we’re just starting to see multiples increase and that as technology and automation take more hold of this industry and our and allow us to, manage our laundromats with more, more data and allow us to manage multiple locations easier. I think that those multiples will continue to increase. And as more sophisticated investors and owners like you guys are coming into this business and bringing some professionalism to our industry.

Jordan Berry [00:14:31]:

I think that also is only going to increase our multiples going forward. So, yes, multiples are higher than I’ve ever seen them before, but I think I I think it’s a pretty safe bet. Those multiples will continue to increase. The other opportunity I wanted to mention in this scenario too is those of you who invest the time, effort, energy in learning creative financing, and going back to number 1, persevere in finding the right deals, that’s a huge opportunity right now too. So being able to Zoom loans maybe, that, people took out before interest rates went up so that you can take over their low interest rate loan payments, you know, things like that, seller financing, obviously, private money. There’s lots of different ways to use utilize creative financing, in order to make deals work. So number 1, multiples are up, but take heart. I think they’re gonna continue to go up.

Jordan Berry [00:15:32]:

Soon I don’t think you’re gonna lose equity by buying at a higher multiple and then seeing those multiples drop later. I think they’re gonna minimum stay the same, but I’m pretty confident they’re gonna continue to go up. And number 2, if you can utilize creative financing on the right deal, you can get some smoking deals there. And the multiple, again, may or may not matter all that much if you can structure the deal correctly. Okay. That’s number 4. And number 5, which is a very interesting one, as a hard truth, but it’s this. There is more information about this industry available to you than ever before, which is awesome, it’s a huge part of why I started Laundromat Resource.

Jordan Berry [00:16:16]:

Huge part of why I started the podcast is to get more information out there, and it’s played, just one small part in being able to do that. There’s lots of different people with podcasts and YouTubes and Facebook groups and stuff like that, there’s a lot more information being shared than ever before, which is awesome. But here’s the hard truth is that now you have the problem of filtering through that information and deciphering what’s good and what’s bad? Taking the wheat from the chaff, right, and figuring out what information to, to trust and to put into action to help you either get into this business or even just to run your own business. Right? So it’s a it’s awesome, and I think it’s a net gain overall. But the hard truth is that I see a lot of advice being given that’s not good advice. I do probably almost a quarter of my consulting calls. I am working with somebody trying to repair some damages done by some bad advice that they got somewhere along the way. Right? So the struggle is to figure out what advice is good? Who do you listen to? There’s lots of different voices out there.

Jordan Berry [00:17:32]:

Who do you listen to versus who do you not listen to and, and what, you know, what path that sets you on. Right? So here’s the opportunity in my view. Number 1, I mean, listen, lot amount of resource. You could just put it in the bank. You know what I mean? No. Just kidding. No. But, genuinely, like, you know, lots of different people have come on the podcast.

Jordan Berry [00:17:53]:

And, you know, I my knowledge is not universal in this industry, and I’m not always right about my opinions. And I’ve changed opinions on things over, over the years. So, you know, vet everything from from all the sources. Right? But here’s here’s where I think a good opportunity lies good opportunity lies in holding tight to the principles and hold loose to the tactics. Right, you can try different tactics. You can, you know, see if things work. And if they don’t, let them go. Right? But the principle is you need to hold tight to something like, the principle of well, actually, you know, if you haven’t listened to Michael Jones’s first podcast interview, I I forget what it is off top of my head, but I’ll put a link in the in the show notes or in the description.

Jordan Berry [00:18:42]:

Show notes, by the way, will be at lawnmowerresource.com/show134, and description down below on YouTube if you’re on there. Make sure you like and subscribe. And, he Michael Jones talks about some, some various principles of, like, marketing for laundromats and stuff like that, which is great. Another principle that we see over and over and over from the best owners that have come on this industry is, you know, compete on value, not on pricing. You know, hold hold tight to those principles, but hold loosely to the tactics of what that looks like. And that will help you, as you move forward in your acquisition phase and as you move forward in in actually owning your laundromats. Right? So those are the 5 hard truths that we need to confront. But like I said, opportunities are everywhere.

Jordan Berry [00:19:33]:

And so if you’re on that journey of buying your 1st laundromat, listen. Those are some of the realities of this industry right now. But, if you can do some of those things that I talked about and the opportunities, it’s gonna give you a leg up on everyone else. Okay. I wanna talk about 5 hard truths that we need to confront as laundromat owners right now and also the opportunities behind these, hard truths. Okay? So number 1 is competition is fiercer than ever before, now, you know listen. It it used to be that laundromats didn’t really compete with one another, or maybe you’re sort of competing with one other laundromat or something like that. Right? Well, especially in urban areas, I’ve seen competition really starting to ramp up.

Jordan Berry [00:20:31]:

And while, yes, we are competing with, with each other sometimes, I would say, listen. When I say competition is fierce, I I don’t mean that you know, I I don’t mean it in a way that listen. We gotta go after the throat of our our neighboring laundromat, some of you guys I know have that mindset, and that’s great too. But what I mean by this is that we can no longer be lack lackadaisical, lacksadaisical, lackadaisical, whichever the right one is. Insert that there for me. And, we we can’t just sorta let things flow. We have got to compete. And what that means is, you know, I had a customer one time who gave me this, you know, fake silver coin, but it said mind your business.

Jordan Berry [00:21:16]:

Right? We need to mind our business. Pay attention to our business. Pay attention to the details of our business. Right? Do all the basics, of course. Keep it clean. Keep it well lit. Keep your machines running. Keep it safe.

Jordan Berry [00:21:29]:

You know, all those things are the basics. We also need to pay attention to the details. We need to pay attention to our pricing. We need to pay attention to, you know, how you know, the flow of our customers through our store, we need to pay attention to, yeah, I don’t know. I can’t think of anything else on top of my head. But, you know, we need to pay attention to the details of our business, and we need to pay attention to our competitors, see what promotions they’re running, see what pricing models they have, see what’s working for them and what’s not working for them, find out where we can fit, in the marketplace, is there something unique we can bring to the marketplace? And, you know, that that sort of is the opportunity. The opportunity is this. The bar is still low in terms of that competition.

Jordan Berry [00:22:21]:

Right? It’s it’s fiercer than ever before, but the bar is still pretty low. However, we need to professionalize our laundromat businesses. No longer can we run them like a mom and pop. We need to start professionalizing our businesses and I’m seeing all across the country, the people who are committing to professionalizing their businesses are seeing huge gains are seeing huge gains right now, in the business. So, work towards professionalizing your laundromat business, and you won’t really have to worry about competition. Okay. That was a little shaky, in terms of clarity, but, hopefully, you got the main message. Okay.

Jordan Berry [00:23:05]:

Number 2 is this. This is something that I inadvertently prescribed to when I got in the business, and I just wanna kinda declare it here, the field of dreams model business model is dead in our industry. And field of dreams, just in case you’re not familiar, it’s an old movie. And, essentially, the message was, if Kevin Costner I think it was Kevin Costner. He built a baseball field in his cornfield, then the ghosts of old baseball players would come essentially play baseball in his field, and then people would come watch it. Right? Kind of a weird premise when you put it that way, but classic movie. Right? And and that was sort of the business model I had getting into this industry, which was, you know, I was essentially told, hey. If I go put in new equipment and remodel the place, people would come.

Jordan Berry [00:23:53]:

If you build it, they will come. That’s the message from Field of Dreams. Right? If you build it, they will come. Well, I built it, and it took them years to finally come. Right? And I waited for them. I didn’t go out and get it. So that that business model and that, which is how this industry has been advertised to, to us for decades, that business model’s dead. Okay? Now for some of us, that’s kind of a downer because we like that.

Jordan Berry [00:24:23]:

It was just like a set it and forget it type thing. However, here is what I think the opportunity in this is. It’s that attention will equal revenue. Okay? Tension will equal revenue for a laundromat. We see that with, like, YouTubers and stuff like that, where they, you know, get attention and they build these businesses or, like, you know, like the Kardashians who’ve built, you know, $1,000,000,000 businesses off of however they got their attention you know, like, attention equals revenue. The Rock building a a $1,000,000,000, was it Tequila Company, I think? Same with Conor McGregor. You know, some of these other people who just have capitalized on the attention and built really big businesses off of it. Well, we don’t think about that in laundromats, but it’s true even in laundromats.

Jordan Berry [00:25:13]:

Attention equals revenue. I wanna mention one thing again. Michael Jones getting shout out again. It was a great episode, by the way. One of the things that he said, which I think sort of plays into this is he’s like, you need to have social media accounts for your laundromat on all the social media platforms. And he said it’s not necessarily so that you get a bunch of followers that you can communicate with them. And, partially, that is the reason, and that’s true. But he said the other reason is that when people go search a laundromat in your area, if the if the search results search engine results Paige, the SERP search engine results page, is your website and then your Facebook page and then your Instagram account and then you know, yada yada yada, it can be 6, 7, 8 places down until your competitor comes up.

Jordan Berry [00:26:01]:

Well, guess what? They’re not gonna scroll down to your competitor, 7 places to click on them. They’re just gonna click on you and assume you’re the best. Right? And this is an example of attention equals revenue. They’re gonna go to your, to your business there. So the goal then is to figure out ways to get more attention. Right? Some of the some of the easy advice that we’ve gotten multiple times on the podcast is, you know, have social media accounts. By the way, Center Social has a pro perk worth, I think $600, which again exceeds the investment of joining, the pro community. So if you’re looking for social media marketing help, center social’s there.

Jordan Berry [00:26:41]:

Come join the pro community. Get that discount. And then, you know, another example of this sort of attention equals revenue. That’s just an easy win that gets brought up a lot is go claim your Google Business, listing, right? And post to it regularly once a week, couple times a week, post to that Google business account and solicit it reviews. Right? Because when you do that, your profile, your Google Business profile is gonna show up first in the maps. It’s gonna show up first in the search results when people search for laundromats or laundry service. Right? So that’s typical advice that’s come through the podcast that demonstrates this attention equals revenue. So look for various ways to get attention.

Jordan Berry [00:27:26]:

Maybe that’s online advertising. Maybe that’s leaving flyers. Maybe that’s getting one of those dancing blow up thingamabobbers that you put out on the street. Whatever it is, attention equals revenue. So don’t rely on feel the dreams model, because attention equals revenue. Alright. So number 3 slash 8, I guess, if 8 total, 3 for the owners, is this. Rent, labor, and utilities are your 3 biggest expenses, and they’re all getting more expensive.

Jordan Berry [00:27:58]:

They’re all increasing right now, for most of us. Right? And that puts a lot of pressure on our businesses, when our 3 biggest costs, get and expenses get even more expensive. Right? So where’s the opportunity here? And this is a difficult one because it’s one that we really struggle with, and it’s compounded by the fact that many of our competitors don’t respond to this. Right? When when utility costs go up, you know, they don’t respond to that in their businesses. They don’t raise their prices. Right? When, you know, minimum wage goes up, well, guess what? Now they’re paying their employees under the table, and it’s less than minimum wage or you know what I mean? And that makes it really difficult for a lot of us to compete. Now what’s the solution here? Well or the opportunity? The opportunity, I think, is twofold. Number 1, I think we’ve got to do a better job as, you know, just an industry as wholesome.

Jordan Berry [00:29:01]:

You guys I know do a great job of this, of putting your price increases on a schedule, whether it’s, you know, twice a year, quarterly, once a year, whatever it is, no matter what, you’re gonna increase your prices. But then, also, reevaluating that every single quarter. So if you say, hey. Every every year, I’m gonna increase my pricing by a quarter, 2 quarters, whatever it is. Right? Well, every quarter of the year, not quarter that goes in your washing machine. That’s confusing, man. Every every 3 months or so, every quarter, reevaluate that and say, hey. Look.

Jordan Berry [00:29:38]:

Have my expenses gone up beyond this? Right? We saw this here in Southern California earlier this year where our gas prices went up, like, 50, 60, 70% or whatever it was, and all of a sudden, our utility costs were significantly more. A lot of laundromats didn’t respond to that, and they started losing money. Right? And some of us responded to it, and some of us tried to respond to it and you know, to various levels of success, right, is a difficult, position to be in. But I think putting your price increases on a schedule every, you know, January, whatever it is, what for you, you’re going to increase prices and then reevaluating that every quarter and say, hey. Look. Did something happen that makes me need to increased my pricing earlier than my schedule dictates, right, because that will happen. Okay. So that is number 3.

Jordan Berry [00:30:30]:

Number 4 is this, and this one is listen. This is this is a hard hitting truth here for some of you guys. If you keep doing business the way that you’re doing business, you will be tomorrow’s zombie Matt. If you keep doing business the way you’re doing business, you will be tomorrow’s zombie Matt. And here’s where it gets a little more hard hitting. Even if right now you’re running your business very well and your business is doing well, if you keep running your business the way that you’re running your business now, you will still be tomorrow’s zombie mat. Listen, our world has been changing all over the place, and our industry has changed. I kinda half joke, but I think it’s probably kinda true.

Jordan Berry [00:31:21]:

It’s changed more in the last 2 or 3 years than it had for decades before that. Decades, literally. And if you keep doing things the way you’ve always done things, which has kind of been the MO of our industry, continue to do what we’ve always done, you will end up tomorrow’s zombie mat even if you’re running a good ship right now. But here’s the opportunity. And, again, the bar is low here, and I think this opportunity upside potential is huge. It’s this. If you innovate, if you iterate, and you adopt new technology and more sophisticated business practices, you will far exceed the market. You will far exceed the competition.

Jordan Berry [00:32:09]:

Right? Innovate and iterate. And what I mean by that is try new things. Try, you know, new technologies. Incorporate, new business models into your laundromat. Sometimes they’ll work. Sometimes they won’t work. Sometimes the technology, you need to change companies. You know, I think of people who are doing this really well, and I think of, like, Ross Dodds, for example, you know, he’s changing things all the time.

Jordan Berry [00:32:39]:

He’s using this payment processor or this software, or these vans or whatever it is, right, he’s changing them all the time because he’s figuring out what works best. And it’s people like Ross, and I know some of you guys too that iterate, come up with new versions of things, try different things, adopt new technologies, figure out innovative ways to utilize current technologies, in your businesses. Those are the people you are the people who will kill it long term. And as those multiples continue to increase, your businesses will command the top end multiples if and when you’re ready to exit. Right? So, you know again, I I I know this seems a little bit dramatic, but I actually genuinely believe that if if we take our best operator who’s operating right now today and they don’t change a thing for 10 years, that laundromat will be on the verge of being a a zombie mat. Maybe not in the terms of it being rundown, but in the terms of it being surpassed by competitors who continue to innovate and iterate, and adopt new technologies in their business. So, don’t get stuck in that rut of keeping things status quo, always be looking for ways to improve your business. I think it’s more crucial to do that now in our industry than ever before.

Jordan Berry [00:34:10]:

Okay. Now to the final hard hitting truth that we need to confront in our industry is this. Our industry’s businesses, organizations and our association do not advocate for owners. And I think that that’s something that said a lot under the table behind the scenes. I’ve talked with so many people, about this, across our industry and I’m not hearing anyone else say this out loud publicly, and it’s businesses, organizations, and our association are not pro laundromat owner. And I just wanna be very clear about that, at least not how they’re set up right now. And so I wanna be very clear about that because I see a lot of people thinking that and getting burned by that. And here’s where I think, though, the opportunity is.

Jordan Berry [00:35:08]:

There’s a lot of things in this industry that need to be changed. And in fact, this this episode was originally I was originally planning on doing almost a little bit of, like, a manifesto to our our industry. Maybe I’ll still do that at some point, but I felt like it was a little too hard hitting, for that manifesto. But we’ve got some issues here in this business, and nobody is stepping up to make these changes. And just kind of for an example, I think our distribution model is broken right now. I think, you know, manufacturers not having a a manufacturer suggested retail price on equipment is broken, lack of price transparency. We already talked about the brokerage system is broken right now. And there’s other things that, you know, that we can talk about, maybe in a future episode.

Jordan Berry [00:35:55]:

Nobody is advocating for us in that. Nobody is standing up for us in the things that matters. And guess what? It hurts us, not them. It hurts us that there’s no price transparency. It hurts us that some of the manufacturers are going out and buying up distributors and are putting in franchise, franchises in our backyards. That hurts us. And guess what? Nobody is standing up for us in these situations. So here’s where I think the opportunity is.

Jordan Berry [00:36:27]:

It’s this. If we want anything to change in this industry, we have to be the ones to do it together, we need to actually come together and say, no. We’re not gonna stand for this anymore, and then we need to put our money where our mouth is. Right, so for whatever issues matter for us, we need to come together on those and vote with our dollars, and say, hey. Listen. This is not good for us that we don’t know how much equipment costs. There’s no no way for for them to know and I’ve I do consulting calls all the time, and I I say, hey. Tell me what what quotes you got on the equipment.

Jordan Berry [00:37:07]:

Those quotes vary wildly, wildly, wildly, like 1,000 and 1,000 of dollars, wildly for the same equipment. And and and people don’t know because you don’t know what you don’t know. Right? There’s no price transparency. That’s just an example of an issue. Right? But the issues that matter to us as owners and that affect us as owners, nobody is advocating for us. Nobody’s gonna solve these problems for us. So if we wanna solve the problems, that’s a big if. Because as of this point, I’ve heard some rumblings and some complaining and stuff like that, but I haven’t seen any action.

Jordan Berry [00:37:45]:

And maybe I should, you know, turn the mirror on myself here because I haven’t done enough at least yet to to really make a difference. But if there’s gonna be any change, has to be us doing it together. We’ve got to come together and do it. There’s nobody doing it for us. Our association is not doing that for us. They’re not they’re not for us in that way. Right? The businesses obviously aren’t doing that for us. And so if we wanna make any of these changes, in any of these areas, we have got to do it, and we’ve got to do it together.

Jordan Berry [00:38:19]:

So, there it is. Ten hard hitting truths that we need to confront in this industry right now, this is just the way it is right now. And the point of this episode is to get some of this stuff on the table, to face the truth because we can’t move forward, without facing that truth, at least not in a healthy way, in a productive way that’s gonna benefit us, unless we, you know, put these truths out on the table and then, you know, start working on them together. Right? Start coming together and working on these things, all all 10 of these things, right, together. And, you know, laundromat resource exists, you know, to be a platform to help us do that together. Right? And the whole reason the podcast is the way it is, where most of the episodes are me bringing on some of you guys who own lawnmower mats to come share your wisdom is because I do think that we’re all better together. And one of the reasons why I started the community is because I do think we’re all better when we work together. And, you know, anyways, I I love this industry.

Jordan Berry [00:39:26]:

I think that so many of you guys listening love this industry, are excited about what’s happening in this industry just like me, excited about the future potential of this industry just like me. But listen. We’ve got some hard hitting truths that we’ve got to confront here and and hit head on. Right? And once we confront them, then we can address them in a way that’s appropriate. So, anyways, I’d love to hear what you think about any of these things, if you agree with them, disagree with them. What did I miss? I’m sure I missed some, pretty hard hitting truths because there’s a whole lot of things that we could talk about, here when it comes to this stuff. So I love to hear about that. So I’m gonna drop a link to a forum post that I’m gonna start just in case any of you guys wanna come over and share your thoughts on this episode.

Jordan Berry [00:40:14]:

You could find it at laundromat resource.com/ forums, and I’ll put it in the laundromat forum, but I’ll share the direct link to it in this, in the show notes, lawnmowerresource.com/show 134, or if you’re on YouTube, right down below. So let me know what you think. I’d love to hear about it. And, hey. Listen. We are all better together, so make sure you’re getting together. Speaking of which, check out laundromat resource.com/events to figure out when the next online or in person event is that you can join us. Alright.

Jordan Berry [00:40:44]:

Alright. You guys rock. Appreciate you. We’ll see you next week.