181. Beyond Laundry: Building a Business That Stands Out with Nicholas Constantinou

Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:
Hey. What’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with the Lonermat Resource Podcast. This is show 181, and I’m pumped to hear today because today we have back on the show, the man, the myth, the legend, Vic Constantino, and it’s on me. This is awesome. He is one of the coaches in the Lonermat Playbook. And, listen, he is bringing some heat today and helping you to grow your business. We get into the down and dirty details in building a business, and, he he brings it, man. You will not be disappointed.

Jordan Berry [00:00:32]:
Super excited for you to hang out with me and Nick today. And, before we do that, we’ve got this quick, announcement from our sponsors regarding the giveaway for the website and brand building package. So, yeah, if you haven’t done that yet, take a listen to this ad, and, then we’ll roll into it with Nick. We are halfway through the contest with Business Marketing Resource, who’s giving away a free website and full branding package to one lucky winner. And let’s not forget, there are secondary prizes as well. So your chances of winning just went up dramatically. All you gotta do is head over to build with bmr.com/ win. Fill out the form.

Jordan Berry [00:01:14]:
You are automatically then entered into the contest, and the winner will be announced right here on the podcast, February 18th. It could be you, and even if it’s not you, your chances are pretty good at winning at least a secondary prize. But, hey. Let’s be real here. You’re a winner. So, chances are pretty good it’s gonna be you. This is the year. This is the time to transform your business.

Jordan Berry [00:01:37]:
Get a leg up on the competition, and go out there and make a good first impression. Because let’s not forget, most of your customers interact with you for the very first time online. So make a good impression with that branding package and a brand new website in 2025. Again, this contest is halfway over and will be announcing the winner on February 18th right here on the podcast. Alright. Build with b bmr.com/ win. What is up, Nick? How are you doing, man?

Taryn Rooms [00:02:09]:
Hello, sir. How are you, Jordan?

Jordan Berry [00:02:11]:
Dude, I am I could honestly, dude, I could not be doing better. We just talked before we hit record for, like, an hour and a half. It was a we were doing faltering. It was like it was like joint therapy that we were in right there together.

Taryn Rooms [00:02:24]:
Always is. Always is.

Jordan Berry [00:02:26]:
Yeah. It was great, though. So I’m I’m doing excellent, man. I’m super excited to have you on here. And, you know, for those of you guys who don’t know, Nick is this is a 2 timer. Right? This is your 2nd time on?

Taryn Rooms [00:02:37]:
2nd time.

Jordan Berry [00:02:38]:
2nd time on? But you’re coming on back. Yeah. You’re coming on this time as a as a as an official consultant here. So this is kind of a kind of a big deal, which I’m super excited about. But, dude, you you’ve had a lot going on since you’ve been on. Can you give us a quick update on you and what’s going on?

Taryn Rooms [00:02:57]:
Absolutely. So I don’t know if you guys remember, I was a teacher when I started off in my work career and then it pivoted into laundry. And naturally consulting is just my goal now because I love teaching, I love helping, and I’m here to help you guys as well. So any questions that you might have, I would love to answer and be of service to you guys. Where I’m at now is I scaled I don’t want to say I scaled down. I just moved within my company accordingly. I was at 2 laundromats and a pickup and delivery service. I now sold 1 laundromat and I am down to 1 laundromat, 1 pickup and delivery business.

Taryn Rooms [00:03:44]:
It’s serving me better, Believe it or not, it’s serving me better because I don’t have those extra expenses that I had. And to be honest, the store wasn’t generating the revenue to cover those expenses. Luckily, I had the pickup and delivery service, which kept me afloat. But now that I got rid of that weight, it’s just, 2 profitable businesses. So I’m in a better place now with one location and one pickup and delivery service.

Jordan Berry [00:04:15]:
Yeah, killing it. And, you know, just everybody kind of gets a little sneak peek. That was what we would call a zombie mat when he took over and he he took over that zombie mat. We retool it, redid it and, you know, turned it into something better and handed it off to somebody else who’s gonna run with it, which is awesome. And, you know, it’s it’s interesting sometimes to get feedback on on stuff like this. I know I have gotten feedback. I’ve sold, you know, laundromats and and stuff too. And one thing that I’ve found is that as you go along, businesses that served you the time that you pick them up, sometimes they you’ve evolved, you’ve you’ve changed and your priorities have changed and all that.

Jordan Berry [00:05:04]:
And, you know, I get asked a question all the time, like, why would anybody ever sell a laundromat? And there’s a whole lot of different reasons. And one of one of the big reasons is a lot of times is that that laundromat just doesn’t serve the purpose it did when they first purchased it. And for you, I know you, you know, got to a point where you’re going to benefit way more putting your effort into putting the pedal to the metal on your pickup and delivery that’s growing, you know, right now than you would putting the effort into, you know, getting that laundromat. You’ve got it to where it is it was when you sold it, and it’s gonna require more effort to get it to where you want it, and it’s gonna serve you better to focus your time and attention on that pickup and delivery. So Correct. Killer stuff, already. And I’m I’m super excited for you because sometimes the best thing you can do to grow your business is to get more focused. I was gonna say get smaller, but get more focused on on the things that are actually going to grow your business faster.

Taryn Rooms [00:06:03]:
Yes. Yes.

Jordan Berry [00:06:05]:
Entrepreneurs, and you are for sure an entrepreneur, we you know, I think a lot of us suffer from that shiny object syndrome. I we talked a lot about that before hitting record. And Yeah. Sometimes buying another laundromat is shiny object syndrome for us.

Taryn Rooms [00:06:22]:
I mean, I learned a lot, and I’m very excited about the lessons that I did learn during that second laundromat time. Right. I learned retooling. I learned the benefits of having 2 locations, which there are a lot of benefits because one of the main struggles that I find with laundromats and owning 1 and almost every business is employees. Yeah. And the ability to have 2 locations allowed me to have more employees. So say one employee doesn’t show up at one location, I can take them from the other one and put them at that location. Or I can have 1 manager in charge of both locations now, so I can be more hands off.

Taryn Rooms [00:07:18]:
Whereas when it’s just one, sometimes it doesn’t pay off. It’s not worth the money or or the, you know, you you can do it yourself. Whereas when you scale a little bit bigger, you you need to create different systems, put different people in charge. And what we said earlier was find put the right driver in the seat. And,

Jordan Berry [00:07:40]:
I Sometimes literally, when you’re do pick up a delivery lease.

Taryn Rooms [00:07:45]:
Oh, man. Oh, man. I have stories about that.

Jordan Berry [00:07:50]:
We’ll get into pick up a delivery here. Yeah.

Taryn Rooms [00:07:53]:
But, yeah, definitely it served its purpose and, very happy for that lesson. Sometimes in business, things don’t always go the way you planned and that’s inevitable, but you can always make the best of that situation. Luckily I did. One is the lessons that I’ve learned were, you know, you pay for those lessons. But luckily on the sale, I did well and yeah, I’m happy with everything the way it turned out. And now I’m just back to perfecting my first location, which is always good advice. Make sure you have your first systems in place before you go into your second location. Another thing that I said again, I’ll say it again, is that if you do have pickup and delivery, which I do I recommend because that’s what kept my second location afloat during the beginning of it.

Taryn Rooms [00:08:53]:
I put all my pickup and delivery into that basket, and that helped keep me afloat. So, yeah, there’s certain things that you have to have in order when you’re scaling in order to help you scale. Otherwise, you know, I would have been losing $3,000 to $4,000 a month. Luckily, I had the pickup and delivery to account for that and and give my employees work as well while they’re there. They’re not sitting there doing nothing. So, it I wasn’t losing in the end because of that.

Jordan Berry [00:09:27]:
Yeah. Well, in you know what? Here’s what’s interesting is that what you experienced is the the biggest fear of a lot a lot of people who have, you know, I hear all the time, you know, doing doing consulting, you probably heard this too. You know, I’ve been thinking about buying a laundromat forever or, you know, that’s, you know, I’ve been thinking about doing business forever. Right? And and a lot of times, you know, if you try to, you know, pry into why haven’t you a lot of times it comes down to the fear of what you experienced where you bought a laundromat, it was not performing when you bought it, you invested into it, And you got it to a point to where it was on the right path. But it wasn’t there yet. And, you know, like you said, if you didn’t have that pickup and delivery, you know, it wouldn’t have been profitable. It wouldn’t have been making money every month. And that’s the worst fear of a lot of people.

Jordan Berry [00:10:29]:
But here’s here’s the thing is like, number 1, I mean, you mentioned a lot of really good lessons that you learned. I’m sure you learned a lot more than that, too, from that experience, which is hugely valuable. So you know, there’s never losses. Even my 1st laundromat were, you know, if you haven’t heard that story, go listen to episode 1 of the podcast, and you can listen to that train wreck, have how it started. But the lessons you learn turn you into somebody who can do bigger and better things, who can run a better business, who can run a bigger business. And so that’s number 1. And then number 2 is there’s there’s almost always a way. You know what I mean? Like, you

Taryn Rooms [00:11:16]:
know, if it’s ad

Jordan Berry [00:11:17]:
and pickup and delivery, like, there’s almost always a way to to get out of it. And sometimes you don’t know what that is, but that’s the power of having other people in your life, having a consultant like you or coach, or having other owners who can kind of help you, you know, navigate the way through it. So there’s there’s always a way. So have have some faith in yourself. If, you know, if you need it, bring in somebody else who can have faith in you and who you can have faith in Oh, yeah. To make sure it’s going and and and take the step because, you know, a lot of times, worst case scenario is not that bad, especially on a long enough time horizon. So Yeah. Thank you for sharing all that, in that that little update.

Jordan Berry [00:12:05]:
I wanted to talk today you know, one of the things I think that you’re really good at, that I’ve seen is, like, the operations side of things.

Taryn Rooms [00:12:15]:
Yes. So I was

Jordan Berry [00:12:16]:
wondering if we could just kinda pry into your mind when it comes to operations and, how to operate, like a laundromat, but also then maybe we can sort of dovetail into operations on pickup delivery. That sound alright?

Taryn Rooms [00:12:32]:
Sounds great. Dave? So, when I came into the laundry industry, I came in with my father’s mindset, man. He he ran kind of similar to a restaurant and he always said if you want to learn how to run a restaurant, you gotta learn how to wash the dishes, you gotta learn how to make a cheeseburger, you gotta know everything. So when I first came into the industry, that was my approach. So there’s a lot of trial and error in that stage. What times to open? Having the right point of sale system in place to track this and give you guys that information. Should I open at 7? Should I open at 6? Should I are any is anybody coming in during those times? Or is it worth it? Maintaining machines, right? There’s a lot of different things and learning how to fix them now. You know, I went into it not knowing anything about fixing a washer, but now I know how to teach others how to fix a machine and I don’t have to pay a mechanic every time because I know it’s something simple.

Taryn Rooms [00:13:46]:
And my machines are like my kids now. I know what what it means. And and and yeah. And, you know, it is a little bit more challenging as you scale, but that’s also another thing that a point of sale can can include. I know mine has something where I can type in which machine, what was the last service that it did. And you know, this is something very important. You guys spend a lot of money on your machines and you want them to last as long as they can. And those of you that didn’t purchase new machines and you’re approaching them with older machines, There’s so many just little things that you can do to optimize your machine and maintain it, right? Maintenance is the key for your equipment.

Taryn Rooms [00:14:35]:
What else?

Jordan Berry [00:14:36]:
Well, real quick. I mean, yeah, I I love that, man. I think you I think kind of getting in there and learning the business is huge. The one thing I’ll say and I’ll add to that is that you know, when you you got into this business, well, like 7, 8 years ago? Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. And I was, like, a little over a decade. Well, when we got into the business, there wasn’t really anything out there to help us. Right? Like, there were no YouTube channels.

Jordan Berry [00:15:08]:
You know, there were no podcasts. There were no you know, there wasn’t a lot of resources out there back then. But one of the advantages I think people have now, whether you own a laundromat or multiple laundromats already or you’re looking to buy your first one, is that you can shortcut some of those things. You don’t have to always do trial and error, because you’ve got people like Nick, you’ve got people like me, you’ve got people, you know, like on Facebook groups and forums that you can tap into and can get some of those answers before having to do trial and error. And so you actually have an advantage over, you know, kind of the way that we had to get in. Or you can have an advantage, I guess. The opportunity to have that advantage is there. To shortcut some of those processes, you’re still gonna learn things.

Jordan Berry [00:15:58]:
You’re still gonna do trial and error on different things. But some of it, you can start off with a more educated guess than maybe we were able to do when we got started, which is a huge advantage, I think.

Taryn Rooms [00:16:10]:
It it is. And, you know, as entrepreneurs, we can be somewhat isolated where we think that we’re on our own. We have to solve all of the problems on our own and there’s no one to reach out to, that. But but guys like Jordan and I have already put out these fires and we have the fire extinguisher now that we can give to you and you can use and, it would have saved us would have saved me for sure a lot of of money having known then what I do now. I believe, Jordan, you were saying something about, the fire extinguisher.

Jordan Berry [00:16:53]:
Yeah. Well, you know, one thing I’ve said a lot is like, if me, when I bought my first laundromat, could have had a 15 minute conversation with me now, it would have saved me 6 figures. Right? And, you know, I put together this Laundromat Playbook program here where, you know, it’s got a lot of tools and resources. It’s got a lot of information courses. You know, you can get paired with a 1 on 1 coach. There’s a whole bunch of stuff. Right? And and the whole concept behind it is to try to create something that minimizes your risk of failure because there’s a lot of knowledge there. But then there’s also a lot of resources, you know, and human resources like Nick, like coaches, and the team of coaches, and, you know, our networks in the industry, like, the whole the whole point is to try to make it so that there’s there’s not a problem that you could create for yourself or your business that that you can’t get out of with with the help of the knowledge and resources in that thing.

Jordan Berry [00:17:59]:
Right? So, you know, the the concept of, like, hey, both of these fires have been put out. You know, don’t don’t go about the business of building fire extinguishers when, you know, we have them just laying around over here. Yeah. And that’s the power of that community, I think.

Taryn Rooms [00:18:19]:
We we are here for you. And I think that having that community and that support, it motivates us and it continues to inspire us because there is a point sometimes where you experience that that burnout as as an owner, right? As an operator, you are bouncing around, you are maintaining the machines, trying to grow your business, training an employee. You know, you’re wearing all of the different hats of your business that you don’t feel like you have someone that you can reach out to and communicate with. And, I have that now and it’s just allowed me to grow my business and approach it from an outside in point of view as well, not just being stuck on the inside and and not being able, you know, having that tunnel vision of what needs to be done. This kind of gives you a step back and allows you to approach it with a clear review of what you want to accomplish. Jordan was talking to me about a book that I’m very excited to pick up and read which is 10x is easier than 2x. And that conversation alone just allowed me, you know, to to step back to look in and see how I can turn my business into a small business to into a company, into a 10x and having that different perspective and communicate, you know, that that’ll happen through our conversation. And, it’s just very it’s a very valuable thing that I think will pay off.

Jordan Berry [00:20:00]:
Yeah. Well, first of all, I’ll link that book for anybody who’s interested. It’s, it was a game changer for me. It really shifted kind of my mindset, on on business in general, both my laundromats, but also, you know, this this business, Laundromat Resource, even like my real estate investment, like it it shifted a lot of how I think about a lot of things. So, you know, I think, Nick and I were both saying, like, I think we’re we’re probably both heading to the woods or the beach or something to take a little time to, you know, think about, okay, well, what are the implications here and what what direction does that take us in life?

Taryn Rooms [00:20:41]:
Which is

Jordan Berry [00:20:42]:
a good time here to be doing that.

Taryn Rooms [00:20:43]:
Yeah. And I think that’s the right way to approach this business and most businesses is to approach it with that 10x mindset because that’s the right way to scale and I think that’s the right way to do business. Most businesses that are successful today have that in mind, which means consistency. What does that look like in your laundromat? For me, what that looks like is all of my employees folding their clothes the same way, all of my customers receiving their clothes back the same way. Right? That’s one way that I can 10x. I now what I did in order to accomplish that is a couple of things. I remember when I first got into the industry, I went to a CLA event. It was The Clean Show.

Taryn Rooms [00:21:37]:
Highly recommended guys. If you’re in the industry, you need to educate yourself in the industry. These shows will educate you and it’s another resource that really helped me and can help you. What was introduced was the Foldmate. I remember seeing the Foldmate for the first time and it’s just a little blue mechanism and you fold it one way, fold it the other way, and then the shirts come out exactly the same. Once I saw that, I said, I I have to do this. And and it and and I’ve been doing it since. And I do have employees that resist it.

Taryn Rooms [00:22:19]:
And in the beginning, they resist it. But after that, they they don’t wanna work without it. It’s literally it’s a construction man’s drill or hammer, you know, it really is another tool for them. It puts the clothes very consistently. All my t shirts come in the same size. When it goes into the bag, it looks perfectly squared, and you use it accordingly. I have different measurements on that tool for different sized items. That’s one thing that differentiates me from my competition.

Taryn Rooms [00:22:58]:
I don’t think they’re as consistent as as we are. And then we have other small things that differentiate us from the others. And I actually read a quote recently that said, love laundry is like love in that it’s the small things that can. So those little details that you apply to your customers, to your laundry, to your laundromat is what’s going to differentiate you from your competition. And, you know, this is where you stand out. This is where you make something that’s on, you know, I’m in I’m in New York. This is what differentiates you from the laundromats that are on every block because there’s so much competition here. So

Jordan Berry [00:23:46]:
many. Yeah.

Taryn Rooms [00:23:47]:
So so those little details, they it makes it personal. And people are now the laundry is a personal space. It’s a personal thing. So the fact that you’re bringing personal to the table, they’re your customers are more comfortable bringing something more personal to you as well. I named my laundromat Mr. Cleaners because when I was starting off, I was a teacher. So my laundromat has chalkboard paint. My folding tables are lab desks from a school.

Taryn Rooms [00:24:22]:
The chairs inside are student student chairs. So, you know, there’s there’s a lot of ways that you can add your personal touch to your laundromat, and in turn, it’ll be a reflection of you. It’ll be more fulfilling to you, and it’ll add to your laundromat’s theme, so to speak. And, yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:24:45]:
Dude, I I love I I remember I mean, we talked about that. By the way, if you haven’t, if you haven’t listened to the first episode of Nick, it was episode 160. Incredible show. We talked about your theme for your laundromat. And I love that. I mean, you said, dude, I was trying to write it down. I didn’t get it down fast enough, but I have to go back and and snatch it because it was a great quote. But you said something along the lines of, you know, laundry is personal.

Jordan Berry [00:25:11]:
And when you when you give something personal, it makes people your customers feel feel better about giving you their personal stuff, like their laundry. That’s their dirty underwear. Right? It’s very personal. But I loved I loved that. And the you know, your whole point of the small things, the details, the little touches, I mean, it literally will make or break your business. You know, I think of you. I think of, like, Waleed Cope, who is Waleed is probably like the master of doing the little small touches.

Taryn Rooms [00:25:47]:
Oh, yeah. Very inspiring.

Jordan Berry [00:25:49]:
Yeah. Also New York. Maybe it’s a New York thing, man. Maybe you guys are a

Taryn Rooms [00:25:52]:
teacher too.

Jordan Berry [00:25:53]:
Yeah. Yeah, man.

Taryn Rooms [00:25:54]:
He was a teacher too.

Jordan Berry [00:25:55]:
I’m seeing I’m seeing themes happening here. Right? Like those things, it it’s not difficult to wow people. Right? It’s not difficult. The bar in our industry specifically is very low in order to wow people. So thinking about these little touches, like I love the theme of your laundromat, Mr. Cleaners, and and the just the details, the small details of the lab desks and the chalkboard wall and all that stuff. It makes it it wows people. It makes an impact, on people.

Jordan Berry [00:26:30]:
And you can do the same with your pickup and delivery stuff. Right? Like, having stuff folded the exact same way, every time, having sort of that McDonald’s assembly line. Yeah. You know, product that’s coming out the same, every time is it’s a big deal. Right? And there’s things that you can do that are small for you to do but make a big impact. That goes right along with that 10 x is easier than 2 x. Yeah. Small effort, big impact.

Taryn Rooms [00:26:59]:
I went to, I have a friend that has a laundromat and something that he does is something so small, but he has little can these candies like mints, lifesaver mints. And the packaging has his name on it. And, you know, and his name hit the business’s name and he he pins it to every laundry bag and something so small. That’s that’s his little mark, his his little trademark. I have another friend that after when when the clothes are all all said and done before they get packaged, they tie them into in a little ribbon and they receive it back and it looks like a little gift. I have other friends that do a little saran wrap at the end of the laundry. You know, there’s just so many little touches that you can do to differentiate you that will, you know, not only will it have people coming back, but you can charge a little bit more because you’re different. You’re not just a competitor of who can process more clothes at a cheaper price.

Taryn Rooms [00:28:01]:
Right? We’re we’re past that. We we want to do we want to really give service to our customers. We want to really stand out and and wow them.

Jordan Berry [00:28:15]:
Yeah. 1 of the this is not this episode is not meant to be an ad. So apologies if it sounds like this. But one of the one of the concepts in the laundromat playbook that I talk about is, you know, we’re we’re in the business of creating feelings. Right? And we’re creating feelings whether we do it intentionally or not. And if, you know, if if customers leave their experience either in our laundromat or with our pickup and delivery business with a bad feeling, you know, they’re not gonna be our customer for very long. Or if they are because they don’t have any other options, they’re they’re not gonna like it, and and you can’t charge more for it. Right? But if you leave the customer with a good feeling, you know, because of these little touches, because it’s super clean, because, you know, your employees are incredibly friendly, like, the Chick Fil A or In N Out or whatever.

Jordan Berry [00:29:17]:
Right? Like, whatever you’re distinguishing things are, if it leaves customers with a good feeling, especially because it’s a this is a chore. Like, nobody has good I shouldn’t say nobody because there are those weirdos that like doing laundry. But

Taryn Rooms [00:29:33]:
I’m one of those guys. I’m just kidding.

Jordan Berry [00:29:35]:
But I’m sort of kidding. I’m not really kidding. I’m not kidding at all. I’m just gonna say weirdos. No. But there you know, but so many people hate doing laundry. If you can leave them with a good feeling and a pleasant experience, like you said, number 1, you’re gonna command their loyalty. But number 2, you can charge more for it because, number 1, I mean, it takes a little more time and effort to do those little touches.

Taryn Rooms [00:30:01]:
Those things for sure.

Jordan Berry [00:30:02]:
And so you need to charge accordingly. But also because people feel good when they have your experience that you’re creating for them. So it’s such a big deal. And I don’t hear people talking about it in our industry at all about, like, hey. We need to be very intentional about crafting the emotions of our customers and their experience with us. But I think it’s critical. I think it’s crucial to do that in terms of growing the business.

Taryn Rooms [00:30:31]:
Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:30:33]:
And do it

Taryn Rooms [00:30:33]:
and do it in a way that you can scale.

Jordan Berry [00:30:36]:
Exactly. Exactly. Well, in, you know, and maybe maybe when you start, you don’t have to necessarily do it in a way that you can scale. If you’re starting like if you’re starting out, like pick up and delivery, like it’s okay to do things that don’t necessarily scale. I mean, eventually, you want to, you know, the goal is to grow the business. Right? So eventually, you want to do things at scale. But sometimes to get started, you got to do things that don’t scale. So also don’t be afraid to do that.

Jordan Berry [00:31:00]:
But the goal, you’re right, is do it in a way that can scale. Can we go back to employees real quick? Because I think employees are a tough topic. I don’t think anyone is immune to the difficulties of working with employees. Not you, not me, probably not anybody listening. You know, there’s some challenges with working employees. But can you talk about, like maybe maybe let’s start with what do you do you have anything that you’re looking for in a good employee?

Taryn Rooms [00:31:31]:
So some things that I look for in a good employee. One of my almost requirements is location. I do prefer the employee to live closer to the location just to make their lives easier. I understand a job is a job, people will drive, but it’s it’s much easier if you do live close by. So one way that I acquire those customers is sign in the window. A sign in the window has gone a long way for me. Yeah. I continue to use that as well as other methods that we’ll talk about.

Taryn Rooms [00:32:13]:
But what that does is it attracts people in the neighborhood.

Jordan Berry [00:32:18]:
I’ve had good results with that too.

Taryn Rooms [00:32:20]:
Yeah. Just people just walking by, they see it, oh, my friend needs a job. Oh, this would be a great fit for them, and and they’ll reach out to their friends Yeah. That are also in the area. And, you know, it leads to word-of-mouth, which is which is good. What’s another

Jordan Berry [00:32:36]:
I’ve also found that, you know, if you have good employees, asking them if they like, good people tend to hang out with good people. Yes. If you have a bad employee, I would not necessarily ask them for a reference because, you know, similar people tend to end up hang out with similar people. And also, if you have a bad employee, maybe you should consider replacing them. I don’t know. So For sure. But but employees could be a good reference point, or referral referral point for employees.

Taryn Rooms [00:33:06]:
Reaching out to your employees because not only that, they also I like experience. My laundromat, we do we we process a lot of weight in a short amount of time. So I do look for experience. And a lot of times when you request, or you ask one of your current employees, if they know of anyone, they’ll refer to someone that is in the industry. And and yeah, a lot of times I’ll, you know, I have friends in the industry and will, you know, if I need someone and they’re off on their dates, if they have, you know, they have an employee that only works 2, 3 days a week and I need them 2, 3 days a week. Now we have a full time employee between us. And, that’s helpful as well. Another requirement of mine is it’s it’s basic, but it’s so important.

Taryn Rooms [00:34:04]:
One is a lot of my employees are fluent in Spanish, but they need to be fluent in English as well because I have a lot of customers that call and request, oh, is my laundry bag ready? How can I schedule a pickup and delivery? What time do you guys close? And and also just drop off customers, customers that are coming in to drop off and I need to put down your phone number. I need to do this and I need to do that. I think that ability to communicate properly with a customer is a necessity for me, for sure.

Jordan Berry [00:34:43]:
Yeah. Well, yeah. And it’s, you know, I’m here in Southern California, so we got a lot of people who don’t speak English. I’ve I’ve had employees that don’t speak English or, you know, usually, I think they speak a little English, and they just don’t, you know, like to tip their hand. But, but, you know, they they won’t speak English, maybe. But, you know, I mean, there’s a lot a lot of that that’s going on too. But I think that that communication is important. And it’s not to say that there isn’t a role for somebody who maybe doesn’t speak any English.

Jordan Berry [00:35:16]:
Maybe, you know, maybe their only role because you’re doing, you know, crazy volumes is is just washing laundry or folding laundry, and they’re not customer facing. I think that’s totally fine. Yeah. But being able to communicate with customers is so important. And if they can’t, it can create frustrations with the customers that, you know, that just create problems that you’re gonna have to deal with later. So I I I hear what you’re saying. Like, it feels like a silly requirement, but it’s it’s not. I think it’s a legitimate requirement, especially if you’re on the coast, I think, or maybe Texas also.

Taryn Rooms [00:35:54]:
Yeah. I don’t know. But, you know, from there, it’s acquiring them. That’s a big challenge. And the way that I’ve resolved that challenge was, you know, 1, the sign in the window still works, but 2, I pivoted because at first I was using, I would put an ad on Craigslist and it was cheap, dollars 45 exposure for, I think the whole month and the amount of phone calls that I would get were astronomical. I would get it. It brought a lot of people my way, but the quality of people was not what I was looking for. So then I pivoted to Indeed.

Taryn Rooms [00:36:40]:
And Indeed was such a great platform for me, and that has helped me to, I’ve hired now 2 employees from Indeed. You can communicate with them right from the app. You can ask them questions right from the app, and it organizes your the people that you’re highly interested in. It organizes them. When I was working with Craigslist, it was just so hard for me to, I had to write everybody down. I would lose a piece of paper that I wrote them down on this one. Everything is very organized. It’s right there and I highly recommend it.

Taryn Rooms [00:37:13]:
I recently found, my pickup and delivery driver from there and, you know, these everyone has a resume, so it shows a little bit of their background. It shows that they’re really what they’re doing currently and if they’re a good fit for you. So I highly recommend that. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:37:33]:
Yeah. Well, speaking of drivers, I mean, I think that is sort of notoriously the most difficult position to hire for. I know you’ve struggled with that. I’ve struggled with that. Oh, yeah. Lots of people have struggled with that. I just I I feel like we need to come together as a community here and, like, put together, like, a master list of of tips on how to find drivers and then how to keep them once we find them. Oh, yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:38:00]:
Because that’s

Taryn Rooms [00:38:00]:
I have something for you.

Jordan Berry [00:38:01]:
Yeah. Oh, let’s hear it. I love it.

Taryn Rooms [00:38:04]:
Okay. So one thing that I have learned over the years, growing with pickup and delivery, growing with your driver. When I started off doing pickup and delivery, I paid a driver to use their own vehicle. I paid them well in order to account for the use of their vehicle, their gas, and I I saved money. I didn’t have to pay insurance. I didn’t have to pay for parking. I didn’t have so it was good in the beginning. But what I found was there was a large turnover on those drivers.

Taryn Rooms [00:38:43]:
They didn’t like using their car. Their car, even though they had an SUV, laundry bags are very big and it took up a lot of space. So we were constantly throughout that one day loading and unloading and loading and unloading and loading maybe 4 times in one workday. So my turnover rate was pretty high. Now I put the right tool in place and the right tool for deliveries, guys, is the van. It’s the right tool in many ways. It made my driver’s life much easier. He no longer drops off and picks up and drops off and picks to the launch to the store, to the laundromat.

Taryn Rooms [00:39:29]:
He loads everything in the van in the beginning of the day and unloads it at the end of the day. And that one thing that has made his life easier has, retained him. It has allowed him to stay. Another so you want to work with your drivers. You do want to try to make their life a little bit easier because there’s a lot of other companies that are hiring as well and they’re hiring drivers and they’re paying well. So another thing that I do in order to incentivize my driver is I offer them, one wash a week where I wash, you know, we he gets free laundry. That’s enough. That’s a perk.

Taryn Rooms [00:40:13]:
He he gets his clothes washed and folded for free. Well, at least, you know, once a week. And that’s another perk because sometimes even though the pay pay is good in my opinion, because you’re getting a good salary plus tips, so they’re compensated well, but just that little extra really shows a level of appreciation and a level of connection with the company that that will retain them.

Jordan Berry [00:40:44]:
Yeah. No, that’s huge. Question on the van, just because I’ve seen, debate sparking. Did you wrap your van with your branding or no? I

Taryn Rooms [00:40:56]:
have, and I’m happy I did. What it has led to is when my driver parks outside, I’m I’m in Queens, New York. We’re in a small town in Queens. I like to do my deliveries within a smaller radius. So my VIN is very visible within that radius, which I want to grow on. I would rather have 100 customers within 3 miles than than 150 customers within 200 miles. Yeah. Because that time is it’s inefficiency when you’re able to be efficient with pickup and delivery, which is the name of the game.

Taryn Rooms [00:41:44]:
That’s efficiency is the name of the game with pickup and delivery and that van. Oh boy, is it efficient? That ability to load everything and unload once is an efficiency role. So you’re able to stay on the tracks for longer. And, with the van being that having that graphic, I just find my 100 customer base to grow to 150 customer base within the same area, within the same 3 mile radius. So for me, it has been very efficient to have that van wrecked. Oh, yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:42:22]:
Yeah. Well, and I think, you know, I think it’s a it’s a no brainer, honestly. And, you know, even though there’s cost associated with doing that, I think your ROI is pretty high on that cost, you know, by and large. So okay. I I love that, and I am on board. I’m on I’m on team Nick when it comes to wrapping the van. Oh, yeah. So Oh, yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:42:50]:
Can we talk on on the pickup and delivery side, while we’re while we’re talking about that, can we talk a little bit about, like, systems and processes that help, you know, I mean, you’re talking about efficiency being the name of the game in the context of driving, which, you know, is there. And a lot of the softwares have, like driver apps and stuff like that, that’ll help you plan efficient routes and stuff like that. But can you talk a little bit about systems and processes, pickup and delivery in general that can kind of help improve our efficiency?

Taryn Rooms [00:43:21]:
Yeah. Well, you said it. The first thing is having the right point of sale in place and what that looks like for you because there’s so many different ones. One thing that stood out to me with a point of sale system that I said I need some I need something that has this and and you’ll find it was a text message. My point of sale system will send a customer a text message when their clothes are ready, when they’re when the driver is on the way to pick up their clothes, when the driver is on the way to deliver their clothes. And just having that point of system in place, I couldn’t imagine doing this job without it. It’s doable, but oh man, for us, I wanted it to be like Amazon where it’s seamless. You don’t even see the driver.

Taryn Rooms [00:44:12]:
You don’t even have to know that you you just kinda have this this ease about it. I know I’m gonna leave my laundry downstairs at this time. I know I’m gonna get it back the next day. I know that my my card will be charged. I don’t have to be present to to take a payment. It’s already charged through the point of sale system. And that took time to to get to that point. And, but once you have that in place, it’s really easy.

Taryn Rooms [00:44:40]:
And then hiring and maintaining the right employees becomes easy as well. So it definitely starts off with having the right point of sale system in place. Then you have to find your demographic or your location rather, right, where you want to be. I chose to be within 3 miles of my laundromat because of the loading and the unloading. That was my beginning phase. That was when I was paying a driver to use their vehicle. I was not as big. Now as I’ve grown and I have a van, I can expand my radius from 3 miles to 5 miles radius.

Taryn Rooms [00:45:25]:
And that’s what’s happening. And then

Jordan Berry [00:45:28]:
real quick on that, I just want to I just want to point out you’re in in New York City here. And so some some people in the Midwest might be thinking like 3 miles. What is Yeah. Like, there’s like 8 businesses and 42 houses within their mouth. Right? Like, so I mean, the, you know, the radius is gonna vary depending on where you’re at. But but I I think the point is a good one. One of the mistakes I made when I first started my pickup and delivery is I was like, I’m just gonna throw the net wide. I’m in LA.

Jordan Berry [00:45:58]:
Right? And I’m gonna throw the net wide. I’m gonna open up a bunch of different ZIP codes, and I’ll just be going all over the place. And one thing I found real quick, which again, you know, fire extinguisher has already been invented. Don’t go invent 1 like I was trying to do, is you’re gonna spend an awful lot of inefficient time on the road, and there’s plenty of business much closer. Even if you’re, you know, in a relatively smaller area or less dense area, there’s plenty of business to get started relatively close. So start with that and then expand out just like you’re doing. I think that’s super smart. May may seem obvious to most people, but it wasn’t to me.

Jordan Berry [00:46:36]:
So maybe there’s a couple other dummies listening like me who were tempted to start big.

Taryn Rooms [00:46:42]:
Don’t

Jordan Berry [00:46:42]:
do it. Start small and expand out.

Taryn Rooms [00:46:45]:
Yeah. And there’s there’s different ways to run these routes. When I was starting off, I was doing on call. So someone would call. I would have, I would go pick it up, bring it back to the store. Then I created a more efficient route and I had 1 hour time slots and I would try to put as many people into those 1 hour time slots so that when I would leave, it wouldn’t just be 1 and back and back and forth. And it was going, picking up 6 bags within 1 hour and going back to the store. But as you grow bigger, those 1 hour time slots become a little bit restrictive.

Taryn Rooms [00:47:27]:
So I went to 2 hour time slots and I was able to pick up more laundry bags. Now, which has been the most efficient is I will put 20 orders in, have a day shift, a morning slot for if you if you want a morning pickup, there’s a 4 hour slot. I can do a whole round pick up 20 bags, probably finish within the 4 hours that I have assigned. And it just, the route is way more optimized. No longer going back to the store every hour. So that’s going back to the store for 5 times. Now I load, I take my I do one complete route. My point of sales system optimizes that route for me, which is another reason why you guys, if you’re looking to get into this, you need that.

Taryn Rooms [00:48:21]:
That optimized route tool is just makes everyone’s life easier. And now I’m able to go further and help more people and, and at an, and, and my life is, is easier at the same time. So there’s different routes and there’s different ways that you’re going to start off and then grow. And yeah,

Jordan Berry [00:48:45]:
I’m thinking of the person who’s thinking about starting a pickup and delivery right now. And I’m gonna I’m gonna thrust you into that situation. So you’ve got no pickup and delivery all of a sudden, And there’s a special EMP that just wipes out all existing pickup and delivery business. Right? So that’s all it does. And you’ve got a laundromat, and you’re gonna start again. Do you start the same way? Do you still do the on call to the time slot to the 2? How do you recommend people start? If they’re trying to start a pickup and delivery from scratch or something very small?

Taryn Rooms [00:49:22]:
If I was starting from scratch right now, what I would do is I would launch it if I were to open up a new location, starting that location from scratch. I would launch immediately with DoorDash integration, just to see what the market is like in the beginning. And then, you know, I I’m a believer of starting small and building up because I’ve done it the opposite right away. I bought a van, wrapped it. I only had 5 customers. And what happened was my expenses outweighed my profits and I ran into that downfall. So by starting small, I think that you will grow bigger. You will do it the right way.

Taryn Rooms [00:50:13]:
So I think starting small would be DoorDash. And then once I’ve acquired, say, 10 customers, I would do it myself. Once you get to that point of doing it yourself, I think that you have access to so many more homes and apartments. I’m in Queens. And when I was going to do a pickup and delivery, I’m realized that I’m I’m in this apartment building. There is 20 or 30 doors here. I need to get in these doors. So from there, I did a print marketing.

Taryn Rooms [00:50:49]:
I would recommend doing some print marketing door hangers with specials on them, and I would go just tag all these doors. And, you know, this is beginning phase. It’s a lot of legwork in the beginning. Now I no longer do that form of print marketing. I still do some print marketing, and I see it is it’s called every door direct mail. And I I still do that as well as online marketing. But, you know, just for the beginning phase, that’s how I would do it. I would get my hands dirty, start off with DoorDash, then pivot into doing it myself, then pivot into the way I did it, Paying a driver to use their car, it’s much less expensive and and you’ll learn so many lessons along the way.

Taryn Rooms [00:51:38]:
And then when you get to the point where you have 20 customers, 20 pickup and deliveries a day and you find it worth it to now pay for that van because don’t, you know, don’t forget that’s an extra expense that van. I learned that the hard way. I just you got your insurance, you have your gas, you have your tickets, parking, plus the payroll, you know, it’s a big expense. So I held off on that for as long as I could, and I’m not upset with that. But now I’m at a point where I, you know, you get to a point where where you need that VIN because it will add that efficiency to your route. So I wouldn’t rush to the VIN. I would start off small with DoorDash and then a paid driver and then a VIN. And and then and then you’re building up and you’re constantly growing from there.

Taryn Rooms [00:52:28]:
Then it’s going to be 2 vans. And, you know, I don’t like skipping steps. I, it, it, it doesn’t, it doesn’t pay off. You’re going to actually lose lose by skipping certain steps. So start off the right way. You start off nice and start off small and you will grow. You will you will grow.

Jordan Berry [00:52:51]:
Yeah. And I you know, for me, so I I love skipping steps, but it usually bites me in the butt. It’s what I think, you know, when I hear hear what you’re saying, I’m like, like, it sounds so slow. But here’s here’s the thing is, like, when you lay that good foundation and you like, if you’re dropping off an order and then or picking up an order and every time you pick up an order, your driver picks up an order, you know, whoever’s doing it, you drop off 20 door hangers, you’re going to grow. And that stuff compounds. And so growth doesn’t look like linear like this. It looks like real slow, real slow, real slow, and you just keep doing the same things over and over and over again. And then it starts to get more exponential.

Jordan Berry [00:53:36]:
Right? So even though it looks like you’re going really slow early on, a lot of times doing stuff like this, you’re laying a foundation that’s, you know, providing the framework for some exponential growth there. So it actually ends up being faster in the long run, and you tend to get bigger, like you were saying. So even though I hate everything that you’re saying and not skipping steps and stuff, I think it’s good advice. And I agree with it.

Taryn Rooms [00:54:06]:
I and and you put you said the perfect term. It’s just laying that foundation. Because when you do scale and you are taking in 50 bags a day, you can’t do that as a I mean, you can with with help. You absolutely can because with the right support, you know, with the right fire extinguisher, you’ll put out the fire and you will grow faster, but there’s something to to be said for for creating that solid foundation and and being confident in that foundation and then moving forward from from there.

Jordan Berry [00:54:46]:
Yeah. Dude, I feel like we could go all day talking operations, talking pickup and delivery, growing. I mean, I think that is why, we’re gonna be doing a live q and a, to just talk pickup and delivery, operations, all things kinda laundromats, coming up. So definitely, if, you’re you’re someone out there listening who wants to talk laundromats in general or specifically operations, pickup and delivery, how to grow that stuff, how to make things more efficient. You know, you know, one of the things that, I say is, like, you know, laundromats are great businesses because they can replicate. You can, you know, you can you can scale them up or you can add a portfolio, multiple locations. But if you don’t have efficient operations, you know, while the model can replicate, your problems also are gonna duplicate and and enlarge, also because you’re gonna have more locations doing it. Right? So so we wanna have efficient operations and, you know, and all that.

Jordan Berry [00:55:51]:
So I don’t know if you’re interested in talking about that stuff. Nick and I are gonna jump on it. We’re just gonna, you know, we’re just gonna hang out together and talk laundry like we’ve been doing for, like, 4 hours today before we hit record here and and after. But we’re

Taryn Rooms [00:56:06]:
going to

Jordan Berry [00:56:06]:
do it with you guys. So if you guys want to come talk laundry with us, talk about pickup and delivery, talk about operations, come to the Q and A. The link will be in the show notes, or if you’re on YouTube, it’ll be down below. Or you can go to laundrometresource.com/events and get all the information and make sure you join us for that. Nick, dude, I am psyched about where your business is going. I’m psyched about you and what you got going on. And, honestly, I I’m psyched about you reading 10 x easier than 2 x in hearing what you come up with there. And, maybe if you finished it by the time we do that q and a, we can chat about that a little bit too because I’ll be interested to hear your take on the book, as well.

Jordan Berry [00:56:49]:
But dude, thanks for making the time to come on.

Taryn Rooms [00:56:51]:
Hey, man. Thank you. Thank you for all of your support and, I’m excited to to give as well support to others that that are in a a hard time when it comes to their laundry business and help them get through it.

Jordan Berry [00:57:04]:
Yeah. And even if not, I mean, even if you’re doing good and you just wanna do better, like, I I’ve said this before, but I I pay, you know, 5 figures every single year to to get people to help me grow myself and my businesses. And I think that that and we were talking about this before. Like, I think that that is hugely, it’s it’s just important to do that stuff because we can only go so far on our own. And I say it all the time, but we can go farther, faster together.

Taryn Rooms [00:57:36]:
And

Jordan Berry [00:57:36]:
I think that’s true. And if you if you’re if you’re if you’re picking up what Nick is putting down today, if you’re jiving with Nick, you want to chat with him more, you want him to help your business, check out laundromatresource.com/coaching. Again, not to be a commercial. That’s not the intent of this episode, but it kind of there’s some commercially type things going on here. But but, seriously, huge, huge opportunity there to connect with Nick, get some input on your, on your laundromat. Laundromatresource.com/coaching. Check that out. And, Nick, dude, man, thank you again for coming on, making the time, hanging out with me.

Jordan Berry [00:58:12]:
As always, one of the highlights of my week already. So appreciate it, man.

Taryn Rooms [00:58:18]:
Always a pleasure.

Jordan Berry [00:58:19]:
Right back at you. Alright. I hope you loved that episode with Nick. If you want more from Nick, if you wanna work directly with Nick, check out lawnmowerresource.com/playbook and book a free call to see if that’s a direction that you wanna go, because you can work 1 on 1 directly with Nick to help have him help you build your business. That’s what it’s all about around here. Alright. With that said, we will see you next week. But before that, go out and take some action.

Jordan Berry [00:58:47]:
Do something to build your business. Do something to build your future. Peace.