2. From Unexpectedly Buying a Laundromat on Craigslist to a Small Laundromat Empire With Dave Menz

Long-time multi-store owner Dave Menz shares his experience about how he got into the laundromat industry, how his journey took him from small time to big time, and what his plans are to expand from here. This episode is PACKED full of practical wisdom and successful mindsets that will help you propel your business to the next level!

If you have aspirations of growing an empire, Dave brings the wisdom and mindset that you will need to get your first laundromat, scale to multiple laundromats, and grow beyond that. Dave is on the move and in this episode of the Laundromat Resource Podcast he holds nothing back, sharing exactly how he’s gotten to where he is now.

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Episode Transcript

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all right buckle up cuz we’re bringing

in Dave Menz right now all right so

we’re here with Dave Dave how’s it going

man yeah how are you I’m doing well

it’s a little chilly here in California

it’s like 55 and there’s actually this

water falling from the sky right now

it’s kind of yeah that’s called weather

one of the reasons I don’t live in Ohio

then yeah you handle it I understand

thanks for being on the podcast I’m

really excited you have such a really

cool story and I can’t wait to hear a

little bit more about it and so let’s

start with where are you you’re you’re

in Ohio right so tell us about that yeah

yeah we currently live in Cincinnati

Ohio I am I transplant from Michigan but

we’ve lived in Cincinnati for probably

over 30 years now so I’m I’m as much in

above an Ohio and as I am a Michigan ER

but I grew up in Michigan as again so

yeah this is Cincinnati’s home for me

there’s no doubt about it but your heart

is is Michigan for the Wolverines yeah

definitely but I said yeah Cincinnati

it’s a great place to grow up and raise

a family

I this is home I wouldn’t live anywhere

else yeah awesome awesome well hey I’m

super curious I’m always curious about

this I get asked this question all the

time how did you get into the laundromat

industry Wow luck yeah I worked in

corporate America for 17 years of a

local phone company here in Cincinnati

started out young as in an entry-level

position and worked my way through

several different departments and

learned a lot of different skills that I

didn’t realize I was learning along the

way but since I’ve been a little kid

I’ve always my heart’s been on

entrepreneurship and so I was throughout

that whole career I was always looking

for different business opportunities and

sometimes opportunities would come up

that I wasn’t prepared for

sometimes the opportunities weren’t

there and I was prepared yeah eventually

those tube that’s kind of you know

crossed each other and I found a local

under not for sale

in Amelia IO which is the community I

grew up and it’s sober Cincinnati

and I actually just found it on

Craigslist I was just stumbling around

on Craigslist looking at businesses for

sale which I had done hundreds of times

and I knew exactly where the winner Matt

was I need nothing about the business

but he had been there forever so I

immediately just jumped in my car and

went down and took a look at it it was

it was in very bad shape this is in 2009

you know the economy was very good and

the place had been neglected for many

many years and you know one thing led to

another I did my due diligence and went

through the entire process we didn’t

have a lot of money but we had enough to

kind of get going so we put out a you

know a small SBA loan and put a lot of

sweat equity into it and you know we

turned it around and it kind of it kind

of uh I got the infection I realized I

realized you know the one of my business

is in a sexy business but it’s mine and

I’ve always been very passionate about

entrepreneurship and a big part of my

passion of entrepreneurship is obviously

supporting my family I’m making money

but as big of a part of it is really

seeing and meeting a need and within the

community that’s not being met it’s not

about being that xxx pizza place on the

corner it’s it’s about seeing a need in

the community and meeting that need and

I get a lot of satisfaction and

gratification out of out of that and

knowing that I don’t just work for money

but I work for something that’s equally

as important to me is not more important

than the money and since I grew up here

and I lived here I knew that that place

used to be booming you know it used to

be bustling and it wasn’t anymore and it

was kind of sad as I went through my due

diligence I visited nine different

laundromats when about

fifteen or twenty miles of that store

every laundromat that existed every one

of them were in bad shape

mm-hmm and that’s what I realized

there’s a need and this is a tremendous

business opportunity right yeah I knew

that I was willing to put in the work

you know I didn’t have a ton of money I

basically started with about $20,000 in

the bank and a decent job you know we

didn’t have any debt so we were in low

and good cash flow and so we knew he

could support it so I stay at my

full-time job for the next five years

while we grew grew our businesses and

just reinvested all the money if the

businesses paid back into them to

continue to scale and in Rome and in

here we are ten years later that’s crazy

and it’s it’s just so funny that you

just found it on Craigslist and you

weren’t even at particularly looking for

a laundromat you were just looking at

businesses for sale absolutely I know it

never even occurred to me to look grill

under Matt I was literally Craigslist

back then had a category used as

businesses for sale and you click and

it’s just landscaping companies and car

washes I mean every business on planet

Earth a daycare center and for me I’ve

always been a passionate entrepreneur

but I didn’t really care what the

product was yeah I’m NATIVE by the the

business model or different business

models I kind of geek out over those

things and so as I dug in more and more

I realized that you know it was an

opportunity and there was a need and it

was it was really perfect for me because

I knew you know most likely whatever

business I bought I wouldn’t be able to

just put my job in the next week and so

that was when it was unattended and that

was one of the few business models that

would allow me to kind of do both and so

I would get up at 5:00 a.m. run by the

laundromat for an hour so clean it up

sweep it up because it was open 24 hours

and I would go into work which was an

hour away and I’d work all day climbing

telephone poles working on the phone

lines and stuff like that and after I

was all done with that I would go back

and stop back by the way home and I

pretty quickly put a video surveillance

system in there and so when it got off

there to bedtime I would pull it up and

if it looked busy or whatever then I’d

run by there again before I went to bed

yeah you know now we have a completely

different business model but that’s how

we started just simply out of necessity

we had no choice yeah I you know those

first five years that I was in business

for myself I kept my full-time job and I

estimate between the two his week really

acquired other businesses or other one

or nuts and during that five years I I

asked tomato I work ninety two hundred

hours a week for five years straight

yeah and you know it was it’s kind of a

fog now but it’s I’ve always just been

the type of person just give me the

opportunity and uh just get out of my

way we’ve been yeah that’s that’s what I

did

you know what I mean I’ll be honest

sometimes a lot of times in

entrepreneurship a lot of a lot of

people that aren’t entrepreneurs like us

they don’t really understand the drive

the motivation so like I you know I took

some critiques and you know from family

and friends and things like that but I

always knew what I was doing and why I

was doing it and I knew that I was on

the right track and then I was gonna

make a difference in that community and

that was like I’ve always been pretty

good at ignoring the noise I love it I

mean I think that’s a like a crucial

skill for an entrepreneur business in it

there’s so much negativity and even just

pressure you know to not go in those

directions and did not stick it out when

it’s tough and why are you spending a

hundred hours a week on this rundown

laundromat and it’s probably not ever

gonna even just all these messages come

in time and time again so I love to hear

that you started like that same way I

started I was I would drive an hour to

go clean up my laundromat every single

day every night I’d be there late at

night a lot of times and you know all

all of that so I love to hear that you

started like that and I know that you

scaled that way out and your business

looks very very different from that now

and I want to hear all about how you

scale that but before we do can you tell

us just a little more detail about how

you actually got that laundromat like

how did you how did the purchase of it

go and what kind of that process look

like how’d you get into your first one

yeah that’s a pretty pretty interesting

story actually because I never had a

business before and I was in my early

30s I guess you know me and my wife

that we both have decent jobs but we

have a young family and you know we’ve

never had a business and you know I put

together a business plan because I don’t

read that’s what you do and so I did my

homework it might be diligence to put

together the business plan we thought we

were personally in a good financial

place we had a little bit of money to

invest but certainly not enough to cover

the whole thing and if it probably took

every bit of four or five months and I

bet I applied to you easily 20 or more

financial institutions and every single

one of them told me the same thing and

they just said you’ve never owned a

business before you got $20,000 in the

bank and you think you’re going to take

this business that isn’t profitable

because it was losing money you know I

mean who do you think you are is kind of

the attitude that I got from them like

you know if I was a veteran and we’re

experienced like that nowadays I’d have

a little bit different story to tell but

I was just like stuck in this like it’s

like when they tell cribs you know young

kids you should build a credit when you

start eighteen years old

well how do I do that get some credit

how do I get credit you can’t until you

have credit it was almost like it was

like that almost that vicious cycle I

was very very frustrated and when I when

I looked into this model I owned a local

distributor here in Cincinnati called

hmm and they’re a hip distributor

they’ve been around since the 1950s

they’re a phenomenal phenomenal

distributor and I had already built a

relationship with them over the few

months and so I talked to him regularly

about my struggles and you know he I

connected as a mentor to me in a lot of

ways and I’ll never forget one night on

the phone you know I had probably been

rejected for the 18th time and I’m

telling him and I’m frustrated I don’t

have in my nature to give up but I was

frustrated and he asked me he was like

what what are you gonna do and I said

Steve if I have to apply to a thousand

banks eventually somebody is going to

say yes because I’m not ever going to

stop like I this is I’ve decided this is

what I’m gonna do I feel very confident

you know we were taken out of windows

I don’t know roughly thousand maybe and

we didn’t know we were going to violence

equipment we didn’t know a lot of what

we know nowadays but we knew we were

gonna borrow some money

but our new or SBA note with you know

anyway I end up getting alone it it was

like 1415 higher dollars a month I went

to a local credit union that I had a

relationship with and they were trying

to grow their business department I had

done business with him for years

personally and so I sat down and talked

to him I said look here’s my personal

finances we have no debt except our

house we have a pretty good revenue or a

pretty good you know household income

our personal cash flow we can easily

support this note for the entire length

of the note personally so this is you

know I feel like I’m like going into the

sales pitch but it was the honest truth

at was how I actually saw it and finally

like it just clicked with them and they

were like you’d be willing to do that

and I’m like you have no idea like I’ll

be willing to do anything that is legal

or ethical those are the only two lines

I won’t price to be successful and they

you know they gave it to me eventually

but it was it was it was a long road and

it was exhausting you know three or four

months doesn’t sound like a long time

but when you’re living it and you’re

working a full-time job and you’re

spending your lunch hour falling banks

and applying and sending emails and you

know and I worked out in the field so I

mean I wasn’t in an office it wasn’t

always mine yeah but you can’t take home

on the weekends so I mean you really

have like it was it was it was a long

three or four months but one of my one

of my biggest strengths is that I am

stubborn to a pole as a little kid I

wouldn’t want to raise me as a little

kid it wasn’t always a good thing

but as an adult I found that if I

channel it for good versus evil that

that I I’m able to accomplish a lot more

that I ever dreamed that I could and so

it’s it’s really it’s really just taking

my dreams and just taking them to a

whole new level

but it wasn’t easy and you know I don’t

know how many people would have given up

I just knew that I wasn’t going to yeah

so kind of was kind of a crazy time it

wasn’t it wasn’t smooth but I mean I

find that that is a lot of people’s

experience when they get into business

any kind of business really is that it’s

the people who are willing to

I do the crazy like it’s crazy that you

called 20 you know banks and you it’s

you had to do it on your lunches in

between you know jobs and it’s crazy

that after you got the business you you

know you you went there every day at

5:00 in the morning you go at night

sometimes like those things are crazy

but it’s that tenacity and that just

this is what I’m doing this is who I am

now this is what I’m doing you know and

just gonna happen and I’m gonna just

keep going until I make it happen and I

think that’s you know I think that’s a

huge key to success I’m sure it’s a huge

key to your success sometimes I think

back you know I ironically enough in

kindergarten when they asked all the

kids what do you want to be when you

grew up in like your little graduation

you know Donny says Batman and this guy

says a police officer and I said I

wanted to own my own business you know I

didn’t know what an entrepreneur was but

I said I want to own my own business and

only adults were like oh that’s you cuz

back then that wasn’t near as like info

because it is nowadays it wasn’t your

school to be an entrepreneur a business

owner back then and so they all thought

I was cute but I mean I don’t I don’t

know if you’re born an entrepreneur or

not all I know is like that’s just where

my mind and my heart and my drive is

always win and when I finally had the

opportunity and I knew I had you know

the right thing and the right

opportunity in front of me and I’m in my

you know early 30s and I’m married with

a family like that sometimes I wonder

well how would I responded to that

opportunity when I was 19 or 20 no

because I mean it was the same guy but I

was certainly like at a different place

in life mm-hmm you know fun was a lot

more important to me than then you know

setting up myself for six months or

serving my community or yeah I mean

that’s just the reality so sometimes I

wonder I really you know I’m I’m happy

and blessed and part of it too is you

know I didn’t go to college I started

working right out of high school and

worked at an entry-level position at

since I fell and I worked there for 17

years and during the time that I worked

there I worked in sales marketing I

worked in the skilled trades outside

learning how to use tools I mean I

learned so many skills through working

in those departments that I had no idea

I was learning

and everything one of those are directly

attributable how I’ve learned my

business it’s amazing to me that like

all I was being prepared I absolutely

believe that that was the case and it’s

you know it’s it’s fun to look back and

it’s it’s it’s kind of humbling at the

same time obviously I’m living my dream

there’s there’s no other way to put it

the laundromat dream yeah well you know

it’s funny I don’t know if you’ve ever

had this happen that I heard people ask

you know guys talk me stale with what

you do for a living and you know my

first response is either I’m an

entrepreneur on the business owner

people are always fascinated by that

babe they’re so impressed they think

that’s been fantastic yeah that’s

question they ask so what kind of

business are you in other face like I

thought you were a real visitor yeah you

know I used to kind of think it kind of

it was a shot to the heart a little bit

now I’m pretty used to it but I realized

you know of being part of like

opportunity for the business and the

industry that we’re in is that it’s not

sexy yeah there were sexy then there

would be a lot more people attracted to

it but it’s amazing how many people

avoid this industry because it’s not

sexy yeah you know and then obviously

there’s a negative connotation

associated with a laundromat in general

so when you say that word laundromat

most people don’t think of my my stores

and so the flip side of that is we get

people walking in their stores every day

and they’re like I’ve never seen a

laundromat like this you know in your

pocket if all the top operators in the

industry they all hear the same thing

you know that and percent or whatever it

is they constantly hear that because

it’s the bottom you know sixty percent

that people automatically associate you

know the dungeons in the basements and

you know happy women doesn’t work and

there’s a homeless guy sleeping in the

corner and you know it’s it’s it’s

unsafe and all these things so that’s

that’s where people go with it but there

as you know there’s a whole different

side to the industry which is which is

very modern and becoming more modernized

every day operations operations are or I

would say overly complicated but they’re

they’re not as simplistic as a lot of

one

operation and you know one of the one of

the things I love the most about being a

business owner is I get to decide what

my business is no one gets to decide

that for me and so there’s more than one

way to really successful under Matt it’s

not necessarily the way I do it’s just

how I view all that my team built but

I’m you know I’m I’m pretty passionate

about our industry well that’s awesome

okay so you got your first laundromat

how long did it take because you own for

right now is that right yes that’s

correct

okay so how long did it take you to get

to your next one and in your next couple

and and then just tell us a little bit

about what your business looks like

today hmm so that’s also a little bit of

a funny story so we take on this big

debt loan that we’ve never done this big

opportunity this industry we don’t know

the end within five or six months we had

you know put a little sweat equity into

our business and I mean business within

seven or eight months with a double and

almost tripled and it wasn’t doing a lot

so it wasn’t hard to double or triple

said you know I kind of caught a bug and

I was like I knew it I knew it I knew

this would work so I immediately start

talking to my distributor and I’m like I

want to get another one I wanna have

twenty I don’t have thirty on the party

and that’s my nature I’m very ambitious

yeah that’s the whole time he’s like

babe you’re doing fantastic but slow

down like giggity Brett slow down you

don’t want to move too fast

well once again I’ve never been a good

listener like I said you know that’s

just not my nature and so I just

couldn’t I couldn’t not look for other

opportunities even though I had nobody

everything I had was poured into that

store right and I ended up finding my

second store and it was an abandoned or

it was in a strip mall but water mat was

abandoned it had been closed by the

previous owner but it was in a great

location and ironically it was 20

minutes from my home where the other one

was five minutes from my home it was

when it’s from my home in the direction

of my job yeah okay you know this

community cuz it’s not that far away it

was a great opportunity I literally got

the one herb after you know what they

say

free laundromat the mythical three

laundromat

right free laundromat that comes with a

lot of headache and but yeah so I you

know I will in it was it I mean it was

it was successful the owner of the strip

mall had a albatross on their hands and

they knew it yeah I just approached them

and said I’m in the business you know I

I have a location over to me oh yeah I

didn’t tell them how long have it right

I know what I’m doing I think this is a

great location if you’re basically

willing to sign me you know sign me to a

long term lease this is what I’m gonna

do I had no idea how I was gonna do it I

just knew that this you know I didn’t

have any money to buy another store and

I also knew that once again it would be

unattended it would be open 24 hours and

I would need to stop by it regularly

while I’m commuting as I thought man for

the situation I’m in I mean this seems

like it would work it’ll double my

workload from from too much already but

I’ve always been a firm believer in

business that when opportunities come

about like you don’t get to choose when

the opportunities come about you just

choose whether you pick advantage and

I’m gonna you know and so it ended up

showing sort of into being about eight

or nine months after we have on our

first store that we bought this for and

we signed a lease and we we were able to

I mean it was in such bad shape like

none of the equipment and I was really

useful so we were able to work out a

loan because we were in the business now

mm-hmm work out a manufactures one for

the financing of the equipment and we

put all new equipment in there and we we

took you know the cash flow that we were

getting from our one store that was

making some money and we would put that

into it and me and my father-in-law and

some friends just did twice the amount

of sweat equity in that store but we did

in our first store because I literally

just had money for materials and we

ended up we end up maxing out our credit

card I mean it was we we pushed it to

the limit or yeah and we went from

beyond our personal finances are very

conservative I mean we we were debt-free

except for our house we had a pretty

good savings we had really good cash

flow personally and so this was very out

of the ordinary for how me and my wife

typically ruin our financial life but I

just saw it is different from personal

life you know I’m not doing this to buy

a corridor an ATV right

I’m doing this to buy an on-set and so I

saw I saw that I felt that that risk was

worth it for that reason and so we we

acquired it we kept it closed for four

to have five months and literally I

stopped by there every day and work

until I couldn’t work anymore and when I

was left and I you know had a lot of

friends and family step up and helped me

and some with his help for a day or two

which was appreciated and some would

hope every weekend and you know I still

to this day that place holds a special

place in my heart within my portfolio

just because I know the amount of you

know blood sweat tears and love that

went into that these people didn’t ask

anything from me they were just like wow

he is going to do this he’s crazy but

yeah exactly and so I’m sometimes amazed

what we accomplished with his little

resources is behind it hoped that it was

a small store it was like 2,100 square

feet maybe not even that and so that’s

how we acquired our second store and so

on my story is we we acquired two stores

and less than a year yeah that’s crazy

that store and we had a pretty

significant moment for the equipment and

so part of it was okay well we got to

get this thing to break even you know

quickly if we can yeah it was it was

profitable within three weeks whoa

that’s awesome

it had been closed for six months before

we took over it and then we kept it

close for another year so once again

that tells you the demand in the area we

have people while were in there working

knocking on the doors asking if they can

come in really there’s literally no

washers in here like what it’s not we we

as we continued out of the project the

word the puns kind of spread in the

neighborhood we knew there was a need as

soon as we open the doors they just came

in drills

he slid anyway yeah I mean it was

profitable immediately so that was how

we acquired our second store which was

which was definitely a unique situation

after that I had the boat twice as bad

and so I continued to look and never

really found the right opportunity in

several years went by and it probably

gonna be a good three or four more years

and we just kept reinvesting everything

the business is made

back into our two businesses to grow

them and at this point I realized this

could be like a career this could be my

full-time gig right now I could actually

fund a quit my job and so then I just

dug it even harder and I was like you

know what if I if I did really hard and

I’m very disciplined and I reinvest and

I keep my hand out of the cookie jar and

to keep my lifestyle the same and all

these things in a few years I’ll be able

to leave my job and so I was more

motivated than ever before and people

thought I was more crazy than ever

before because you know people are

saying things like well how much money

you need Dave it’s like you don’t get it

like you just – he don’t this isn’t

about like my – but like yeah Wow like

changing my family tree at this point

yes so I ended up you know I ended up

around those two businesses we

eventually added a few our time

attendants that would do a little

cleaning that we’re actually on payroll

at this point and that helped a little

and I reached out to an old family or an

old friend from high school that

actually lived right up the road from my

second store and she’s still over there

and she was married had a kid we hadn’t

lost touch and I remember from our days

right out of high school that she was

one of the hardest-working people I’ve

ever met in my life and she was high

integrity I character high energy she

was loyal and she had worked basically

when she got out of high school she had

worked at a server at a restaurant and

over her career she had worked her way

up in 17 years and she was the manager

of this restaurant now mm-hmm and I

reached out to her and I said all right

this is this is my dream this is what

I’m gonna do we had talked 15 years and

I said I’m building this chain on Linda

ballots and I know I can’t do this all

on my own and I want you to come do this

with me I want you to be my manager and

we talked and I think she thought I was

half crazy story shop I’ve always been

really good at something my dream

something I’m you know really good at

most people are inside she you know she

eventually came around and she said well

since you have attendants that just

worked three hours in the morning three

hours an evening I’m gonna eat my

full-time job and just work as an

attendant for a few days and you know do

that for a few months and see if I like

it and then we’ll then on

a decision so that’s fair I brought her

in literally making $9 an hour and she’s

got another full-time jela and she

worked third shift at this Perkins

restaurant and was the overnight manager

and she would work all night and she

would stop on her way home and work for

three hours for me between the store in

the morning and then go home and have

her life and so she did this for I don’t

know several months and it eventually

got to the point where I said Ari and

you know I want to bring you on

full-time and and we couldn’t afford to

hire her full-time so we slowly but

surely gave her more and more hours and

I was I was you know reinvesting pretty

heavily in her basically and I knew he

was I knew I couldn’t do it alone and I

needed I needed a manager and so long

story short her restaurant actually got

bought by the state and that they were

putting a highway through and so she

would have lost her career and about

that time was a time we were acquiring

their third store and so I said Ari

timings perfect

we’re gonna bring you on full-time and

the rest is kind of history she’s she’s

still my GM to this day whoa she’s been

with me for eight years now she is she

is a rock star and that is probably not

even a fair statement for her value to

me personally in our family she is

family to us at this point

and she is she’s she makes way more than

she ever made it other job now and one

of the things I promised her is if

you’ll do this with me and you’ll stick

with me you know I can’t afford to pay

you much right now but as our business

grows all constable I will compensate

you more every chance I get and there

was times where I gave her multiple

raises in a short period of time and you

know so I kept my word I did what I

could do and I wouldn’t I could have

accomplished what I’ve accomplished

without her but I would have needed

someone like her yeah but I wouldn’t

have taken element s that we have

without her specifically I just I know

my nature I know I like if I didn’t have

her along my side

I wouldn’t promise I wouldn’t have

attempted to and so it’s you know she’s

a big part of our team and we’re the

same age where both 43 and so it’s

pretty exciting to kind of work together

and built this over the last eight you

know ten year

and we really feel like this is kind of

the tip of the iceberg of where we’re

gonna go but long story short once I

hired her we ended up purchasing a third

store and that store had a drop of

laundry service and it was it was a

complete dump as well also in a great

location and so one of the decisions we

had to make is okay are we gonna we

don’t do drop-off services at her other

stores right are we going to like you

know it wasn’t much of a drop-off it was

pretty rough the way it was ran I said

all right I can’t really like that I’m

gonna have to completely revamp it but

policies and procedures and training and

all this stuff in place or I’m just

gonna shut it down the day we closed and

I talked with Marlene and we thought

through it and I talked with my wife

Carla and I decided okay you know we’re

gonna we’re gonna transition from being

partially attended or almost unattended

to now we’re going to be attended what I

have fully attended stores and so we

knew that we needed every ounce around

me we could get and so we decided to

keep them the drop off laundry open and

so about two weeks before we closed on

the third store I put my job man

Marlene came on full-time and so things

got real really quick we had prepared

for this for three or four years so it

wasn’t a it wasn’t a quick decision but

you know we it got real really quick

things got really tight all of a sudden

calling out that corner it used to be no

big deal holy cow I’m gonna pay this guy

that kind of stuff and we’ve we revamped

the drop-off service and it did really

well and continues to this day and that

really changed our path in the

laundromat business because we not only

transition from unattended to attended

which is a big difference right we also

you know added a pretty I mean it took a

little while but we had a pretty

high-quality drop-off laundry service um

we I mean we turned a dollar fifty mmm

and will probably be raising her braces

in the next few weeks yes

yeah we’re the I mean we’re kind of near

the top of the industry when it comes to

you know cost of what we can charge per

pound we’re a lot of people are still

charging a dollar a dollar and a pound

or less in some areas

and so you know once we did that we

realize okay let’s back up and go back

to the second story we bought and let’s

start a long drop off laundry service

there once we got this one perfected

then I moved more lean back to this

store and we built a drop off laundry

service there and she managed boot all

three stores basically from that one

site and we grew that drop off laundry

service and a few years after that we

acquired her for store and it was the

same thing it was really rundown it

happened to be a huge facility it was

kind of it was just like it’s like 5200

square feet but it’s one of these deals

where it was two businesses I don’t want

it was a drug finger on one side and one

around together so only half of it has

the laundromat footprint the other side

was basically a huge drop dry cleaning

so they didn’t have equipment it was a

huge facility and so when I I approached

them about acquiring it they you know

they they really will you gotta take all

the space like Padano need all the space

I don’t want a little space and we

worked out a deal where he gave you a

pretty sweet her deal on the rent on the

other side and I said Ari I’m gonna I’m

gonna acquire this and we were a mint

the laundry the drop off laundry service

there and you know fast forward to what

we’re doing now today now we have a

pretty clean laundry pick-up delivery

business called happiness and the funny

thing is like when we acquired that

location we thought we had all this late

wasted unused space and three we’ve been

doing our happiness for about three and

a half years now it’s grown to the point

where it generates double the revenue of

our store it’s all run out of this one

store well and so now we have successful

drop-off laundry services at three of

our four stores we have a general

manager which is in Marlene and she has

roughly 40 employees that report to her

we have three trucks on the road for

delivery business and you know we do

about twenty-five to thirty thousand

pounds a month and just delivery and

that’s it at all our $89 19 I have and

so it you know we need to always tell

people the beauty of the pickup and

delivery business is you take an already

successful business model owner map and

then you take another successful model

and you lay it on

but you leverage the same industry yeah

when you do that it turns a $300,000

laundromat into a million dollar online

yeah you’re running it was still running

it with one employee you know one

manager and so our general manager

Marlene is also the store manager at

that story that’s where she spends most

of our time mm-hmm

manages probably half hour probably over

half of our employees out of that one

facility we have a third shift

production crew that processes the

laundry overnight while the store is

closed to the public and so once again

we’re leveraging that infrastructure you

know most laundromats if they’re open 24

hours they don’t do much business most

art open at all so they don’t do any

business right we probably generate more

revenue well we definitely do more

revenue more most than one yeah so I

tell people I’m like you know I wasn’t

smart enough to plan this although

here’s a good if this kind of evolved

and I just followed my passion and you

know I bounced a lot of stuff off of my

wife who’s a you know professional

schoolteacher and she’s not an

entrepreneur she’ll be the first to tell

you that yeah we were a really great

team because she actually has a

background in accounting not your degree

and so she does Oliver bookkeeping and

longer accounting and keeps all that

straight which I could never do and as

we grown the business it went from just

like a little side business of a few

thousand dollars a week and now we’re

you know a multi-million dollar

operation and we have you know we’ve

created 40 jobs that didn’t exist ten

years ago you know we have I always say

I mean we weren’t always in this

position but I team up against anyone in

the country at this point we’ve invested

heavily in operations and in people we

really believe you can have a great

product you can have brainy machines and

fancy this and free walk by and all that

which is important in a modernized loan

or not but the thing that will really

separate you from your competition 99

out of 100 times is having operations

but the level that you take them – yes

Oh Mia Arlene and my wife have taken

that very very seriously and you know

here we are 10 years later and like I

said me my wife Marlene we’re all 43

years old and we feel like we have a

really good

foundation we have a history of running

unattended laundromats transitioning

them to attended building a drop-off

service from the ground level not

knowing anything about it and learning

through the school of hard knocks and

networking with other laundromat owners

throughout the industry and then the

drop-off laundry service is just like

shot us to the moon and beyond and one

of the things we’ve learned or not the

drop of the pickup and delivery and a

lot of things we’ve learned in three

years will pick up and delivery is when

we started that business we really just

thought it would be an ancillary income

you know by van go pick up some laundry

and a drop-off and we really like didn’t

think a lot more into that but

everything I do I do what I mean I I’m

150 miles an hour and I rethink kind of

a perfectionist and because of those

things I kind of met the market at the

society at this perfect place where they

were kind of melding into what I call

the Amazon economy and everybody wants

full service everything right to their

door and we were perfectly positioned

the seven years prior we had been

building a team for this business that

we had no idea we were even gonna run

some and we were building you know we

have invested heavily in all new

equipment I mean probably couple million

dollars worth of equipment between our

four stores and you know those those

notes get pretty heavy that buttons and

so my thing was okay how can I you know

without behind a fifth and a sixth and

an eighth business how can i leverage my

career and assets and that’s where you

know marketing our drago services at our

stores being attended just transitioning

from unattended to attend it you know it

took a year it took a year and a half

and two years but our business doubled

just by making that transition and one

of the things we’ve learned in the

industry is there’s nothing wrong with

running an unattended map don’t get me

wrong but one of the things we’ve

learned is that when you transition from

unattended to attended there is a full

different segment of society that will

now use your facility mmm that was a

deal breaker they would no matter how

nice it was they will not use your

facility if you’re on attended and we

didn’t know that I mean we learned that

just by trial and error now though we’ve

just over the course of ten years we’ve

just taken all this experience and

knowledge and

a lot of stuff at our toes and a lot of

stress and grief and headache and worry

and transitioned it into something that

you know I mean I’m literally living my

dream and I’ve created jobs for these

people that didn’t used to have jobs and

some of them are entry level but a lot

of probably over half in they’re not

probably close to half of our staff

makes five to six dollars above minimum

wage and some of them make double or

more minimum wage and so you know I’m

pretty proud of that you know whatever

part-time but there are times they want

to be right their decision but a lot of

them have transitioned from part-time to

full-time and so I get a lot of

satisfaction out of you know yes

supporting my family and you know being

an entrepreneurial geek and just doing

what I do every day

but I get a lot of satisfaction out of

knowing that I’m serving the community

the east side of Cincinnati was just

when it comes to laundry facilities it

was in shambles at one point and now we

for the top stores in the state probably

as far as the quality of operations and

the quality of the facilities and to

back up our second store that was a

small 2,100 square for the store is in a

strip mall we eventually tore down the

wall in between it and space next door

and now it’s about 4,500 square feet so

it’s our second it went from being our

smallest or second-biggest store so I

always say that project which was a lot

and I managed it myself

there was a lot I learned a ton through

that process of building a wonder that

even though I’ve never technically built

along that yeah you know were in the

process eventually building a winter met

our fifth and so now I’m applying a lot

of those skills and things I learned

with that project but always that I own

for wonder hats but it was actually five

because the one that I kind of doubled

the size of it was basically like an by

you’re building a new laundromat yeah

that was a different set of challenges

but you know we feel like our operations

and our experience and our age like

we’re perfectly positioned to do much

more than we’ve done in our first 10

years in the next 20 yeah now we’re now

we’re you know we really focus on two

things now we focus on you know

serving the industry and giving back and

you know I do some consulting and things

like that and helping people when I can

and I also focus on you know meeting the

needs of other communities finding other

opportunities I probably turned down ten

or fifteen motive apps that people

approached me about but they were either

in a market that was already served or

in a market that didn’t need you know

there 2,000 people there or something

like that right and so I’ve turned out a

lot of opportunities too and so now I’m

really looking for new opportunities and

new markets throughout Cincinnati and

maybe even outside of Cincinnati to

continue to serve you know serve the

community and now we’ve kind of settled

in on this you know good bettervest

business model because we used to just

be a self-serve one or not mm-hmm yeah I

drop off and now we offer pickup and

delivery and so we have this good better

best model and they’re all a different

different clientele a different segment

of the market that still all has a

specific need yeah and so it’s you know

it’s pretty exciting to me if you told

me this where I would be ten years ago

I’m like I never would have believed you

and certainly no one that knew me would

have ever believed this but it’s just a

good old-fashioned tenacity well you

know hindsight’s 20/20 I mean as I’m

listening it’s it’s so fascinating cuz

what I’m hearing is you just stacking

stuff on top of each other like you had

this like idea of yourself wanting to be

a business owner and and so you had kind

of that vision and then you kind of

stumbled on this laundromat and then you

you know you had the tenacity so you

just went for it and you found a way to

get it and then you found a way to make

it work and then you did it again you

know again with this tenacity and just

you know expanding kind of your vision

and what’s possible and just being an

action taker and doing it and then

you’re learning along the way you know

how to do different things and then

you’re applying it and growing and

growing and you know you built out this

half of the your second laundromat and

you’re using that now to build out your

fifth laundromat and it’s just pretty

cool to see you know I think a lot of

times when people want to get into

business

they wanna they see where you’re at and

like well I want to do that but what

they don’t see is the five years where

you were working a hundred hours a week

and people were telling you no we’re not

gonna give you any money we don’t

believe in you essentially that’s what

the banks are saying we don’t believe in

you yes your friends bring you that

you’re crazy your family’s like oh man

here he goes again he’s buying another

one or whatever and and yet you know

people want what you have but in order

to get there you gotta you gotta pay the

price to get there you know you gotta

learn what you need to learn because

there’s no way I bet I can almost

guarantee you that if somebody was just

gonna hand you your portfolio that you

have now back when you first started and

said here here are these four

laundromats and and you’re building one

that it would have just all gone to

waste you know handle it because you

didn’t have everything that you have and

I said I love hearing your story because

I just love hearing you stack all of us

bills and I’ll say it wasn’t I mean

obviously it wasn’t my design I mean it

was intentional but it wasn’t by design

like 10 years ago I never knew that I

would do this but one of the things I’ve

always done in my life is I’ve never

been afraid to pivot like I’ve never

believed just because that’s what I used

to do that I have to keep doing that

I’ve always built my foundation of my

family my faith and my my businesses

from a foundation of character the

foundation of just simply doing the

right thing and following the path

whatever path that is and not trying to

you know force things that don’t count

and that’s why I’ve always really

focused on meeting needs in the

community that are already there

it’s it’s a nobody’s doing it why

wouldn’t I do it and if you can do it

and make money it’s very very satisfying

yeah yeah that’s so cool it’s so cool to

hear that I’d love to just take a second

just get down to business a little bit

and just hear a little bit of just you

know the baseball card stats of your of

your businesses

all right out so we already know that

you’re in you’re in Ohio you’re in

Cincinnati area and you have so you have

four laundromats and you’re building a

fifth and then I think you mentioned at

one point maybe to me beforehand that

you have real some real estate too is

that the case

yeah we have one commercial property

it’s the building that our third store

is in okay we acquired that store it was

in a standalone building and so when we

approached the owner of the building

which was a separate person about

signing a long-term lease they had

inherited the building and their dad and

it was paid for it and they didn’t

really want to be in commercial property

right so they were ok to talk about that

but would you be interested in buying

the building well yeah of course are you

crazy

oh yeah we we but we acquired the

business with the lease and two months

later we closed on the building and so

now we own this commercial property and

if we ever sell the business we still

have the revenue from the commercial

property because the business it’s going

to be so they’re pretty good multiple to

somebody that can drive the business and

support it and one of the things we’ve

learned through that too is that that’s

a pretty profitable long-term business

venture just the real estate holdings

alone and so what we focused on is is

now you know our fourth store and we

acquired it it’s in a small strip all

about ten thousand square feet and when

we signed a long-term lease for that we

got rid of first refusal for 30 years to

produce the football and so the owner

that has a right now still doesn’t want

to sell that he’s he’s getting up there

in age and he’s he’s gonna be selling

eventually and when he does we’ll

acquire that that actually have some

tenants other than ourselves

yeah and and we actually were just

approached recently from one of our

competitors about purchasing and on

their business because we’ve kind of put

a put a big curtain on them over the

last ten years through our growth and

there is a standalone building as well

and they own that property and they want

to sell us that building and so now that

we’re like perfectly positioned to meet

a lot of these needs all of a sudden we

have many opportunities coming our way

you know so a big part of our business

model over the rest of my life is to

find ways to focus on multiple revenue

streams and that includes acquiring the

real estate and the depreciation and

things that come along with owning and

building a real estate portfolio and so

someday we will either you know back out

of the business when we’re you know in a

rocking chair days how the book must

keep the real estate investments which

is pretty much passive at that point and

or we’ll just pass the businesses on to

our kids if they’re interested and then

they’ll be our you know we can mentor

them through the process and they will

be our early in our tenants and when

we’re someday gone then they will

inherit the buildings and that will just

create this multi family around

multi-generational business model if

they’re interested you know we’re not

we’re not wants to pressure them or

focus on that they know that that

opportunity is there if they want to go

take it but they also know we’re not

going to give it like that’s not in my

future nothing was given to me and

nothing gonna be given to you don’t make

me tell them gone and so now so now I

think it’s like this step back and kind

of have this like 30,000 foot view of

what I’ve created but the opportunity I

have over the next 20 or 30 years which

includes continuing to grow the business

continuing to diversify the business in

different ways my 21 year old daughter

works full-time in the business now and

I don’t know she always will but she

does right now and that’s that’s really

exciting to see where she grows as she

matures and my 12 year old is already

talking about he wants to run the whole

empire and so we’ll see how that works

out I don’t know if it’ll be a fight but

we’ll make it work but it’s that’s

that’s a whole new level of just like

love like just just loving what I do

knowing that whether that happens or not

that I put my family in a position where

that could happen yeah I think it’s

always yeah future is pretty exciting

for us one of the things this is a

little side note one of the things I did

with my son as I told him hey if you

save up your money and you buy a little

like bubblegum machine or whatever you

can put it in the store and I’ll teach

you how to run that like a business he’s

eight right now so he has no ax

he did he saved his money and actually

the stories really sad at the he he

saved his money

my buddy made him like a cool little

stand for it we bolted it into the

ground we did a little like ceremony for

him and that night some guy came in high

on something and literally just ripped

it out into that night same night and

took it so that was his first his first

foray into business that’s heartbreaking

yeah but you know it’s good because that

you know that again those are lessons

that he’s learning and one of the things

that I want to do is whether he ends up

taking over our laundromats for whatever

I don’t know a long time from that

hopefully but yeah trying to just teach

him here’s how business works if you

want to go into business for yourself

you know doing laundromats for anything

else here’s here’s how you manage your

finance you don’t just get all this

money from your bubblegum machine and

get to spend it all because you got to

buy inventory and you want to have money

to reinvest and you know all this stuff

so it’s been a funny it’s funny that you

tell that story because I have a similar

one so my daughter when we got into the

business I had the exact same mindset I

was like I want my kids to learn that

there’s nothing wrong with having a job

in working fair employer but I also want

them to know there’s there’s more than

one way to make a limp and if it’s for

them that’s fine but I want them to get

the lesson in life and so my daughter

who is not an entrepreneur by nature at

all she will tell you that she was

probably 12 10 or 12 maybe at the time

and I basically said you know she had

some savings and I said you know this is

what we’re gonna do and I basically told

her she was going to do it and we bought

a sticker machine and it bends the

little kids stickers yeah and so she

used her savings on a sticker machine

she ended up taking that one and buy the

second one and my current 12 year old

who is mini-me like born entrepreneur

when he was five he calls her titi and

when she was five he heard us talking

one day that she had made $100 the

previous month off of her sticker

machine

don’t want to like you know nose into

everything yeah

you bought that us at five years old and

he said well I want a sticker machine I

said well we actually just bought a

third wonder that if you save up the

money then you can buy a sticker machine

and you can put it in our third store

and that little boy for three and a half

years saved every penny he could find

birthday money he would have be out

shoveling driveways when it was nine

degrees out he sticks and saving the

money and he would sell things that he

didn’t want anymore

and you know the machine was four

hundred dollars in the inventory was

about two hundred yeah I was excited on

an investment for for a five-year-old I

mean that’s like a million dollars that

is like a month long story short my

daughter was successful she got a lesson

when she went off to college my son had

bought his first machine and had just

saved up his second machine and so he

bought her two of Asians from her that’s

awesome

at this point he’s probably nine and he

has three sticker machines and three

stores but we’ve just acquired a four

store so he takes the revenue from the

three puts a sticker machine in the four

and about six to eight months ago he

took the revenue from all four of those

sticker machines and bought a claw

machine that he’s now putting our Thor

and so me and my wife joke all the time

they’re like he’s gonna be like the only

only 16 year old on into school like in

a BMW ya know he actually paid I drove

all the time I’ll get all three my kid

they’re very smart people with anything

they walk but he is is 100% I mean and

that lesson and you know I went with her

I kinda had to encourage and push her

into that lesson with him you drugged me

into him and so it’s been it’s been

fascinating too so cool now him get that

message and he has a little brother that

that isn’t an entrepreneur probably but

he’d still like he listened and I hear

tubular

yeah we’ll see where that goes with our

kids and how that works out in life but

I mean it’s all about the lesson you

know that’s that’s what it is so that’s

awesome to hear that somebody else is

doing that

oh yeah you know I tell people that

story and they’re like wow that’s

fantastic I’ve never heard anything like

that

yeah I think you’re the first one that’s

been like yeah I’m basically the same

thing

yeah it’s heartbreaking that I got

broken into like like you said there’s

also kind of a lesson to that it’s now

yeah oh man I was and I haven’t seen

that guy since and it’s probably a good

thing what I ended up doing so we had

some conversations about that and you

know it it was it was good it but he was

sad obviously but what ended up doing

the saying I’m gonna buy another gumball

machine for you but you still have to

pay for it so I ended up getting an

opportunity to teach him about how to

use a loan to buy an asset like you did

and and to do it in a wise way and I

said you’ll just give me a little bit

every month from what your mission your

gumball machine makes until it’s paid

off and then you know to go so and I

make them I make them do a split I make

them pay pay me you know to have this

gumball machine like all all the other

vendors that we have in our our stores

but I’m just saving that you know you

know it’ll probably go to school or yeah

later

fantastic good for you pretty cool

though all right back to business

give me some give us like a feel of

bending prices in Cincinnati how much is

it costing to do you know a few various

types of sizes of loads yeah it depends

we’re definitely a high price leader

we are definitely significantly above

our competitors I mean our competitors

are probably more in line with you know

the market across the country which

tends to be you know too low not about

people are aggressive enough raising

their prices and in charging probably

what they should for the little service

they provide but you know my competitors

that are in really rough shape they’re

still venden top loaders for a dollar

fifty yeah under mine or three bucks

you know I’m literally targeting Dunnell

and and we probably won’t have fillers

in the future but right now we do but we

we are afraid to charge what we feel as

the top of the market and price for them

we have 20 pound machines that we’ve

been for $4

we have 40 pound machines that we’ve

been for six dollars and we have 80

pound machines that we’ve been for ten

dollars

yeah enough and then on the sixty the

forty 60s and 80s we have the extra wash

extra rinse motions and on the forties

the extra wash and extra rinse is a

dollar each and uh because they where a

lot of people are still like doing

quarters and on the 60s and 80s the

extra wash and extra rinse is two

dollars each and when I tell people that

they’re like are you insane like I’ve

never heard of anybody charging more

than $0.50 for an extra watch like it’s

eight loads of laundry like that’s a

little yeah I mean you’re you’re cutting

yourself short if you’re doing that and

a lot of people just like because they

can build charge by quarter increment

pricing they did yeah and we converted

two of our four stores from quarter over

$2 point okay part of the reason our

prices are set up that way but now even

though their order stores everything is

done in dollar pricing and we’re able

price we raise fifty cents or a dollar

yeah and if you’re 50 cents it’s when we

convert the store to dollar coin it’s

going to go up by another 50 and be

rounded up and there are dryers

the dollar point stores are another on

the 30 pound dryers they’re a dollar for

16 or sorry

dollar for 24 minutes which was a

quarter for six minutes 45 pound dryers

are a dollar for 16 minutes a quarter

for four minutes

yeah and so we’re actually evolving and

working our dryer pricing over Q full

circle pricing which is you know I know

a lot of people that have done it with

great success yeah

so that’s something that’s something

we’re working on in the future but in my

opinion if you have a halfway-decent

laundromat let alone a really nice

modern top of the industry Matt mm-hmm

your self-serve prices are fifteen cents

a pound under tire like you’re cutting

yourself short you know and I tell

people all the time really

you have my competitors I have

competitors too we had we had somebody

build a brand new store as a distributor

not mine but a different one well the

brand new store are four stairs are kind

of in a triangle of each other all

within 15 miles away somebody built a

brand new star right in the middle of

our four stores

and started out with a VIN price of $1

for a 20 pound machine is like a loss

leader two years later they’re still

charging that price because they can’t

capture any more fish here are $4

there’s our a dollar and they can’t take

customers from us

geez and so that’s when I go back to

what I said earlier I put my team up

against anyone a lot of times it comes

back to the people and the training and

the operations and the processes and

that the support and the love that goes

into a family work environment and if

you do things right and it’s genuine and

sincere I mean there’s people run

through a brick wall for you yeah

they’re lopping I want nothing more than

to take a nominal care of every customer

they walk through the door yeah

not everyone will pay for that level of

service but there’s plenty of people in

any market that will pay for that little

service but what I find is people either

under price or they over price they want

they want a church prices like I do but

they’re really not to where we are they

just have like a new store with new

machines right it’s unattended and it’s

not that clean and there’s nobody there

to help and move in three or four years

it starts to look tired and it’s like

when you were but you were really high

quality of the day you opened but you’ve

you’ve you went down during spent well

yeah and so we’re really big about span

cutting edge work our entire business

philosophy is is really all about

pushing the envelope and being better

tomorrow than we were yesterday and so

that’s that’s how a lot of these

opportunities of collapse is because

like we’re never content we’re happy but

we’re never content we’re always looking

for a better way to serve people and as

we do those things and execute at a high

level we’re also not afraid to charge

for it because our customers come in and

they love us I mean they don’t come into

on price gouging then they come in and

say I’ll happily pay double the price

because you have triple the level of

service they’ve got no more Road you

know pence they’ll you know say there’s

more than one way to skin a cat and

wonder industry is no different people

just a lot of times a lot of times are

afraid of the unknown or they’re afraid

they’re gonna lose half their business

if they raise their price 50 cents I’ve

raised my Coppa leaders from two to

three dollars which is a 50% increase in

price and not lost a customer

yeah so it can be done and I’m not

unique I mean there’s other people

operating at a high level in our

industry as you and I know yeah not the

only one there’s there’s thousands of

them you know and if they’re not you

know

charging a similar price model then

they’re them stop store yeah very cool

do you have any cards at all or is it

all coin right now it’s all point or in

the next couple years we’re going to

convert our laws to order stores over $2

coin mm and then once we do that we’re

going to add CCI fast car a hybrid

system to those four stores

and so they’ll hopper a top dollar coin

and I’ll operate on the credit or debit

card or the best part and pay it you

know phone pay up and so we’re their

suburban stores they’re not like

high-volume urban stores if you will and

and so their volume is to a place where

we can make that work long term that

quarters I mean it’s you know not that

people are not rating with borders

because 200 stores are but it’s it’s

becoming the way of the dinosaur very

quickly especially if you’re a high

price leader yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean

if you if you use an ATM machine and you

choose extra washing experience that’s

$14 yeah sounds insane and that’s a lot

of quarters but the reality is it’s also

eat loads of laundry that have been

washed and rinsed twice and so they’re

if they weren’t heavily soiled I mean

it’s I always I always tell people well

if they’re heavily so then you need to

wash them in or in some place would you

rather pay 20 bucks or would your other

paperwork team that’s right hey it’s all

about value and that’s a big thing that

I’ve learned of the business that I

didn’t always know is that there’s a

there’s a big difference in price and

value and I refuse to compete on price

I always compete on value mine I always

make sure that I win

but I can charge significantly more than

you if I charge if I provide a much

higher level of service and I value

proposition is way higher than yours it

and I really believe that’s that’s one

of the things I really found hard when I

talk to people in consult and network or

other operators is I really try to pound

into them that you know for whatever

reason the laundry industry is probably

as sensitive to price as any industry

you know and there’s plenty of

industries that are sensitive to price

and so I really try to push back on

people and they you know I hear all the

time only you can do that but I can

doesn’t this and you know it’s like I

have no competitors or something and so

I was actually as far as my story is

concerned I was a little happy that

somebody built a Brady laundromat I mean

all my horse doors because that’s like

the worst case scenario all right that’s

like right there good so now you can

tell people like I’m about you me you

know I mean you can do this and you know

there might be exceptions to that

there’s some markets that are really

really insane and I respect that but the

reality is I think those are few and far

between I think most people are just

selling them some store or they don’t

want to sell that value proposition they

you know they like the idea of charging

those prices but they don’t want to

operate at that level because it’s not

easy it’s it’s really kind of exhausting

at times you know I’m kind of obsessive

and I’ve built a team of people that are

kind of obsessive with serving people

then they have the heart of a servant

and want to serve others and they get

satisfaction out of that

above and beyond just their paycheck and

so we’ve been very intentional about

that and so I’ve said for 10 years I’m

building an arm and that’s exactly what

I’m doing and I’m never gonna stop I

love that I love that all right so do

you I’m just I’m just loving your

mindset and the way that you are

approaching things and the way that

you’re thinking about things I think if

you know anybody listening to this you

know in whatever industry or even if

they’re not in alignment issues of life

I think they’re gonna take value from

that so absolutely awesome and these are

I didn’t create any of these I stole

everything that I just said I stole

every bit of it

want to share it I just want people to

know like candy what’s in this industry

yeah you can do it outside – yeah but

have a thief in the night I steal all

kinds of good ideas wait and that’s you

know that’s good but it’s not just what

you’re saying you know it’s it’s the way

that you’re thinking and I think that’s

you know I think that’s valuable so do

you have any sense of like an average

like how many turns per day they’re

doing maybe outside of your pickup and

delivery service you have any sense of

that yeah it’s it’s anywhere from three

to 500 machines the smaller machines are

closer to three and that’s mainly

because we have more of them I mean if

we had you know a similar number the

terms would be a little higher you know

and that’s what things I’ve kind of

learned in the business – it’s a lot of

people whether they’re they’re

architects or manufacturers or

distributors and I’m not just I’m not

just saying the the shady ones there are

some you know unethical distributors out

there but I’m talking about even ones

that are well-intentioned

that mean well one of the biggest things

I see in our in our industry is there’s

too much equipment not enough space I

see it over and over again so I’ve

learned that myself because I could say

pretty much every one of my stores if I

didn’t have my pickup and delivery

business which is all different animal

if I didn’t have that I mean with my

pickup and delivery business at that

store returns per day or probably closer

to eight or nine and so you know that

becomes really profitable really quickly

I I believe when people are retrofitting

stores you know one of the mistakes I

made early on and was okay this is the

footprint it’s obviously expensive to

change the footprint and so I’m gonna

see how many machines I can fit this

footprint and that was really my only

focus and in four or five years I’ve

really kind of taken my operations

knowledge to a different level and I’ve

went back and taken a lot of those

machines out and my turns per day have

gone up because I don’t believe in

having any one out of order or you know

any more than a day or two unless if I

can hope and so because of that okay

well if I’m operating after five years

two or three times per day it just tells

me I have too many of those machines in

there and so I can pull four of them out

and sell them or give them to a friend

or move on to somewhere else or

redistribute them in a different way and

because all the machines are if them you

need more machines then you really need

in your operations if you’re not going

to keep them all run mm-hmm every time

you lose one you’re losing capacity

yeah if you keep all your machines

running at all times and you’re very

hyper sensitive and obsessive about that

then really what you need to do is just

find the right fit what’s the right

number and you need to keep you know in

my opinion your you know your

transportation before you should never

lost on that but there’s other things

that go to into that when it comes to

like throughput you know if you’re gonna

have you’re gonna have an operation that

regularly is running four or five turns

a day or more then you have to set it up

that way you have to allow for a very

quick route but you have my two aisles

you have the friendly attendants that

are help people in quick between up

spills and you have proper seating and

you know you have to there’s things you

have to focus on beyond just washers and

dryer

yeah if people are waiting on a

bottleneck or a dryer then they’re delay

if they’re waiting on a folding table

they’re delay if they’re folding out of

the car

they’re delay because that’s not how

this should be done what happens in a

lot of laundromats because they put too

much equipment in there you know I’ve

actually walked in laundromats that had

30 or 40 dryers and had four holding

people see I’m just like this is basic

math like this is basic addition and

subtraction like it’s insane yeah but

it’s common like it’s not even the no

it’s not even out of the norm it’s so

common yeah and and I think a lot of

distributors very well intending

distributors you know their their

mindset is if you put more equipment in

than your pro forma those if you’re

doing a Performa or five times a day and

you say well you know we couldn’t do is

put six more double loaders in the back

wall well they don’t lower it to three

turns a day and the five all the sudden

decide it’s going to be more revenue

well on paper that may sound really good

but in real life it’s not usually works

the capacity is the capacity that’s

that’s what

I really focus on as I’ve evolved in

this industry you walk into some of my

stores that’s not what you’ll see

because that’s not what I did nine years

ago

but I really believe that that’s that’s

a that’s a big part of of our success I

mean our new store is gonna have any

times you know my thing is if somebody

is standing in a folding table on one

side of the other and they’re loading a

washer on the other the adjacent side of

the aisle

somebody should still be able to walk

through there with it hard and not not

be just

yeah well that’s proper three-point

that’s how you get four or five or if

you talk to these large operators and

urban environments these people are

doing eight nine ten terms of it a lot

of time how they’re doing a lot of times

it is just a pure numbers game and

they’re they’re not built right and

people are don’t fit into each other

right but I really believe that when you

talk about modernizing the whole

internet industry those type of things

are every bit as important as technology

operations all the other aspects and a

lot of times you can’t do anything with

that if you take over a retrofit I mean

it’s really expensive to change the

floor plan yeah really expensive and a

lot of times it’s just not economical

but when people are building new Launer

notes and I see some of it like I see

modern mats that were just built two

years ago he spent two and a half

million dollars on this place

there’s like 100 washers and dryers in

there and like six molding people and

like two benches to sit on first comfort

sure everybody else tan like it’s crazy

it’s just absolutely crazy it’s like I’m

on yeah I always tell my distributor I’m

like then you’re 90% of the way there

like they were so close because I’m

pretty passionate about that because

it’s kind of been a sort of an aha

moment for me over the last probably

four years did I you know I’m always

kind of pushing the envelope to learn

and be better like I said more on that I

was today yeah sometimes you know I’m

not a quick learner to notice takes me

six years for me to man me too

so how many hours are you spending on

your business a week on average you know

until until about a year ago I was

spending it varies if out of pure

necessity I would say six to eight hours

a week because I’ve one of the things

I’ve also very intentionally done over

ten years has built my businesses so

that operationally they don’t need I’ve

always I call it the bus test if they’ve

got hit by a bus today with this thing

collapse with everything I work for a

lot of ten years and sacrifice collapse

yeah well what rise where my family that

I’ve lived on and whether they want to

sell those assets or run those assets

that’s a different conversation but if

they collapse they can you need it and

so that’s also a big part of my mindset

is operationally I’ve built my

businesses so that they don’t rely on me

there is there is an investment in that

I mean you have to invest more heavily

in managers which make more money and

store managers and general managers and

driving supervisors and purchase

supervisors and all these things that a

lot of owners do themselves but I’ve

been pretty intentional about that yeah

well knowing everything that I know

about you now after having talked to you

for this long I am pretty convinced that

if you got hit by a bus that that bus

would be totaled yeah taking the bus

down it’s not taking you down so you

know so the reason I said to last year

so is in the last year I’ve partnered

with a technology company with our

pickup and delivery business and I don’t

know if you’re familiar with that but

the happiness model is kind of

transitioning across the country and now

what I’m doing is spending most of my

time mentoring and consulting for

happiness and they’re bringing operators

on our platform they’re utilizing their

technology their infrastructure their

digital marketing and customer service

what they’re doing as they hired me as a

consultant to basically train and mentor

all of their operator also literally

just yesterday that’s a new client from

Florida and train with me in my team for

two days and then I’ll mentor them on an

ongoing basis on a long-term relation

though I’m not I’m not the you know the

owner

penis a national brand I’m holder of

happiness in Cincinnati I’m an operator

but I’ve had a I’ve had a relationship

with them for three or four years and

they’ve seen that I’m one of their top

operators and I also do a lot of

consulting and have a heart that I enjoy

helping people and so they approached me

and they were like we don’t have time to

support these operators local that they

need to be supported if we’re going to

grow this into something and capture the

laundry pickup and delivery business is

quickly evolving into its own industry

mm-hmm

laundromat industry you know generates a

six or eight billion dollars a year in

gross revenue and a lot of people think

in the in the not so distant future that

laundry pickup and delivery will exceed

that as its long history and so there’s

more than one company that’s you know

trying to capture that and there’ll be

plenty of room for multiple competitors

but you know we believe that happiness

will be one of those national

competitors and of being part of that is

finding the right operators in the right

markets and and mentoring them and

training them supporting them at a high

level just shoot me an e-mail I’ll try

to get back to you they can call me

pretty much 24 hours a day and I don’t

fail and so you know I was pretty

sensitive about it I don’t need a job my

whip you know what my wife always jokes

the word VOB is a four-letter word to me

about this relationship I was like let

me be clear I don’t need a job I’m not

an employee a consult but I do have the

skillset and the time and the passion to

take the things that I’ve learned in

laundry pick up and delivery and teach

others all over the country how to do

this and they even built a business

model that allows that to happen and I’m

just a small part of that

but I’m essentially the operations the

mentor side of it and so that answer

your question that’s what I spend a lot

of my time doing nowadays because it’s I

mean this motto just kind of came out

nine or ten months ago and we’ve already

got 25 30 operators in the platform I’ve

been busy I really really enjoy it I do

I enjoy helping others and so it was a

there’s been a lot of time doing that

and then and then I do a lot of vision

and marketing you know our new store

wouldn’t happen if I wasn’t busy new and

all kinds of work for a year or two

before we actually you know open it

you know what’s required in that – so

there’s a lot of happens before the work

start yeah that’s right exactly yeah you

know the a big part of building my

business the way I did was for like I

said to leave for my family that was

test all those things but obviously I’m

not planning on dying tomorrow and so a

big part of that too is as soon as I am

around you know I could I’m freed up to

do the things that will take our

business to the next level it kind of

goes back to being happy but not content

you know I have no intention of just

sitting back and writing or what I’ve

created for the next thirty years until

I die someday I have every intention of

considering continuing to push the

envelope and if I can give back to the

industry in any way then I want to do

that

I think the sole term mentor people I

want to do that if I can literally grow

from four to five to ten maunder nuts or

grow my pickup and delivery business

into new markets or whatever that I want

to do that but I don’t believe I’m here

to just sit around and watch TV you know

I like watching football and things like

that but at the same time like I’m here

to make a difference and I believe that

God’s put me in the place I’m in right

now for a reason and I have every

intention of pursuing that with

everything that I have in me and I don’t

you know I don’t believe it’s for the

money I don’t know I don’t know the

bigger purpose a lot of times I just

know that this is where I am this is the

knowledge the expertise the opportunity

that I have and so I want to find ways

to give that of course I’m limited by

time so I can’t just like be on the

phone with people for like thirty hours

a day

so I have some capacity issues there and

that’s why I started like charging for

consulting where I did consulting for

years for free because I enjoyed helping

people that I would sit on the phone for

hours and hours with people and no I

didn’t want anything from them other

than just if I can help you by doing

what we’re doing and I’m happy to do it

and then I realize like wow this is

becoming like really overwhelming

because they free consulting that’s a

booming business you know I was like

I don’t mean that money but I have

somehow like justify my time at so much

time of the day and I was just getting

calls and he was like crazy it was very

overwhelming that was like okay the only

way I know to like separate the people

that are serious from the people who

maybe aren’t quite as serious it is to

start charging you know a fair wage for

my service and exactly that’s exactly

what has happened and so I didn’t

necessarily do it for the money but

that’s kind of how we’ve evolved once

again hey I love I love that keep keep

evolving keep stacking all those skills

and talents and where it takes you well

hey this is the part where we like to

call it our secret sauce

[Music]

I feel like you’ve given us so much

already if you had to narrow it down to

the one thing that you see working in

your business that you think other

laundromat owners can implement today or

you know in the near future what would

that what would that one thing be oh my

goodness there’s there’s a bunch of

things I could throw out for that one if

I had to say if I had to say one thing I

would just say value and and there’s

that’s a that’s a broad that’s a broad

term but you know I would also use words

like genuinely caring being passionate

wanting to serve your community wanting

to be better tomorrow than you were

today pushing the envelope all those

things fall under that same kind of

grant value but that’s ultimately really

what’s been a big market differentiator

for me and my team in my businesses and

one of the things I try to teach other

laundromat owners is like if you’re

gonna do this you’ve got to do it like

you gotta go 150 miles an hour and you

have to be passionate you have to care

and has to be sincere you can’t beat it

because people are stupid nuns don’t

figure it out that you have an ulterior

motive or you’re just trying to sell

them dance or whatever um and that goes

down to other laundromat owners if

you’re mentoring you’re consulting it

also applies to the self-serve customer

that looks in the door if they know

you’re just after your four bucks it’s

like they’re just Serie three and they

may or may not use you otherwise but the

reality is when they see that you care

and that you built a team of people that

genuinely care and like we will

something instead of rolling their eyes

and huffing off to get them up that

they’re like don’t worry about it you

know here and then they’ll give little

Johnny a sucker distract them so mom can

do their holding or whatever like all

those little things helping people carry

their laundry again helping them carry

their laundry out because they’ve been

doing laundry for four hours and they’re

exhausted you know giving them a free

bottled water for no reason absolutely

no reason you know I’ll go to my store

I’ll be collect on my vending and you

know a little kid looking over my

shoulder at Snickers and then we like is

it okay if he has a receipt Oh

we’ll just hand it to them and they

didn’t thinks I’m a millionaire is last

day they send me for free you know but

little things like that they go a long

ways but they they don’t go near as far

they’re not gin

yeah that’s that’s really you know

that’s my secret sauce but it’s it’s

very genuine oh I mean it is a secret

sauce in that sense but it’s really all

about value whether it’s whether it’s

you know the happiness pickup and

delivery or it’s my drop loss services

or myself sir stores or for that matter

if I’m ever either never a commercial

you know property owner and leasing

space to other people they care they

know that I care about their business in

the way that I take care of my property

now as I some property owners that don’t

care it’s very obvious and and we don’t

have as good of a relationship and I

have a property owner that does care

genuinely cares about my business being

successful No so those things go a long

way in about I’m loving spirit I really

yeah yeah and I think that’s why you’ve

reached the level of success you have so

far and that’s why you know I’m pretty

confident you’re gonna you know fly to

bar higher heights going bings yeah

that’s an awesome answer so here’s a

little section we like to call pro tips

specifically for people who you know I

think there’s gonna be a lot of people

listening to this who are interested in

the lawn mat industry who aren’t in it

yet what what is a one tip that you

would give to a perspective or a ‘new

laundromat owner somebody who’s looking

to get into the industry what’s it

what’s one tip you give them kind of

going into it oh I did this I mean from

like a design standpoint order like I

know just I say I’m I’m brand new and

I’m looking to getting by a laundromat I

want to buy a mat what’s one thing that

I need to know going into it I think

there’s really three things I would tell

that person and probably had a pole

people one of them is the beauty of

being an entrepreneur and a business

owner is you get to decide what your

business is and what it was no one can

decide that for you

that’s that freedom of being able to

make those decisions based on what’s

important to you is pretty powerful and

so so take that seriously another one

that I would say is that networking is

really important get to know other

people in the in the industry there’s a

lot of knowledge and a lot of expertise

out there and there’s a lot of people

willing to help you in a lot of

different levels based on how you know

how much time they have available and

they if you if you do those things one

of the things you’re going to learn in

the process of networking us there’s

more than one way to skin a cut in this

industry um you know it may sound like I

have a negative association with an

unattended laundromat I do not I know

phenomenal laundromat owners that run

very very well run very well unattended

laundromats

and there’s nothing wrong with that

that’s what I was that’s what I wanted

to do at one point and then the last

thing I would tell them is don’t be

afraid to pivot because as you’ve gained

knowledge as you gain expertise like

you’re gonna wake up one day and be like

what we can do I was a newbie but now

like people are only a better in how did

that happen you know what we’re because

that happened to me I was like whoa did

you just call me a veteran like did you

just call me experience like nice ball

you know six years went by and I you

know I still don’t consider ten years I

don’t consider myself a veteran but a

lot of people do and I guess compared to

the guy that this potted wonder about

last week you know and so those are you

know there’s a lot that goes into those

even but those are the three things I

would really tell them I think maybe the

fourth one I’ll throw in there is to

have a master plan but going back to

that pivoting don’t be afraid to pivot

don’t be afraid to change that master

plan I really believe that if you don’t

have a vision where you’re trying to go

you’ll never get I really truly believe

that and so it’s okay to have a very

defined division but where you’re going

and then gained a new information into

the context and change that vision

that’s okay that’s funny you don’t have

to follow that for 40 years but you

still need to have a vision today and

that good vision can change tomorrow and

if you if you use all those things and

kind of a big picture and buyer

then you’ll methodically make decisions

based on all of those things without

even really thinking about does that

make sense

makes perfect sense yeah that’s and that

the bottom what I’ve done and I’ve

learned a lot of that all the way along

the way no no for five years I didn’t do

a lot of the things we’re talking about

now yeah five years I’ve done a lot more

of those things and it goes back to why

things like networking are important

spending time at clean show and

excellence in laundry and joining the

CLA and being on Facebook groups and

there’s you know getting the industry

magazines and and in white papers and

and all these different things like

there’s so much there’s so much

information and someone to value out

there and part of why I’m really

passionate about our industry is because

like I said I’ve stolen everything I

have from someone in some way no maybe a

point here that’s weak here and I made

my own melted my own model out of that

but like nothing I’ve done and I created

out of cynic know and so when you when

you learn it it when you begin to

understand your success is based on

those things then you really it should

humble you to the point of where you you

don’t think you’re spectacular yes

you’re confident in your team you know

what you do is very good maybe even you

know that it’s at the top of the

industry but you also know that you’re

not special this is a collaboration of

all the things I’ve been talking about

for the last hour mm-hmm and so once

again I don’t know if that makes sense

but that’s just how my brain works like

my brain never stopped I’m just like

always digging and pivoting and focusing

and sometimes that causes me to do

really stupid things I do things that

I’m like what was I thinking

but I really believe that you can learn

from that you know you can learn from

your mistakes and your failures probably

more so then you can learn from your

successes no those are those are a lot

of the key things that I tell people are

the direct correlation of my success and

so I believe that they would be would be

a key to their success

however they they know that together for

them yeah that’s gold that’s seriously

gold one other question before we wrap

this up is speaking of everything that

you’ve been

saying you’ve stolen what’s a do you

have a good resource that you’d

recommend to other laundromat owners or

prospective laundromat owners just to

help them develop maybe even just some

of the mindset that you have and I’m

sure there’s a ton but you got one or

Tom well one thing I’ll add on to that

and I’ve open a ramble too much is as

much information and knowledge as there

is in the industry and there’s a lot you

should tap into that there’s just much

outside of the industry mm-hmm because

I’m an entrepreneurial nerd what I mean

by that is I love the process it’s not

about the product it’s about the process

about the people and I really truly

believe that and so you can learn you

know I have many friends that are in

businesses you know that someone

franchises and some built franchises and

on different things and I learned

Cleanse from them just by having lunch

from that other business nothing to do

with my business but some of the things

I just told you I’m most likely stole

from that yeah so there’s a you know

there’s a big part of that to you that’s

that’s really set pretty deep in me well

Dave this has been I think epic is a

good word to describe it’s been really

really cool getting to talk to you and

hear about your story and all your your

whole journey that’s taking you to this

point and you know we’re gonna have to

have you back at some point to hear

about this fist store and to hear what

direction your head in there because no

you’re gonna pivot you know quite a few

times I appreciate I appreciate you

having me on at sundry you know talking

to you and getting in a video I know

we’re being reported and everything but

st. I’m this is a big part of my success

is doing what you and I are doing right

now

yeah just isn’t networking meeting each

other getting to know each other it’s

cool that we have the technology

available for you to be in California

and me to be in Cincinnati and to do

this like so easily and so there’s a you

know that that’s fantastic and I you

know I I hope someday that we meet many

times face-to-face you know over the

course of this but it’s been really cool

getting to know you and kind of hearing

your story too so I appreciate having me

on thank you and before I let you go why

don’t you tell people how they can get

in contact with you

you know best ways they can get a hold

of you maybe they want your consulting

or do they wanna just you know connect

with you in network yeah they could

reach out to me a lot of different ways

I have a couple email addresses DME NZ

and happiness comm which is just B for

Dave and then my last name Emmy NZ or

Dave at laundry magician is my

consulting email address and so they can

send it there as well I don’t know if

I’m supposed to do it on the podcast but

my cell phone number is five nine three

six oh seven one five one one and if I

get overwhelmed forgive me but I do I do

plan to get back to people I can text me

they can call me and and we can chat

talk and I’ll see if I can help them I

don’t need to be an expert in every area

of the industry but the things that

we’ve encountered and learn from we feel

like we have a pretty good grasp on

things and a last thing also people is

like I’m always doing local events or

the excellence in laundry or the clean

show and different things like that and

so obviously you have my face it and and

so you may see me there and I have no

idea who you are and so like I love

meeting people and get to know him

getting to know people so if people see

this this interview and they you know

see me at one of these events like just

come up and shake my hand introduced

yourself because like I can’t have I

can’t have too many friends kind of the

way I look at it so I like meeting new

people and getting to know people and

and I can help them that’s fantastic too

so awesome and I’ll have that

information down in the show notes so

make sure you check that out and get in

contact with Dave he will be an awesome

resource and sounds like just a cool guy

so get to know Dave shoot him an email

or trim a call on a cell phone that

would be awesome

all right Dave well thanks so much for

being on the show man I can’t wait

hopefully we’ll get to meet up here soon

I’m sure like a clean show or something

yeah that’d be fantastic but hopefully

before that we’ll get together yeah I’d

be great thanks again probably

appreciating you thank you

Wow I mean just just wow if you’re if

you’re still here I don’t know how you

couldn’t be just soaking all that up

from Dave but if you’re still here then

hey congratulations to you you made it

through it’s a long episode but hacked

jam-packed full of great practical tips

but probably even more so just mindset

tips and you know one of the big things

that I pulled away from this episode is

just that key word that kept coming up

over and over which was value you know

Dave is all about value and bringing

value to customers and sometimes I think

it can get easy at least for me maybe

you feel this way too

you know the laundromat industry can be

kind of a relatively hands-off business

it doesn’t require your full attention

all week long necessarily and so I can

lose sight of you know how am i bringing

value to my customers and you know Dave

is just hyper focused on that and that’s

what he’s built his business on and it

has served him well and so I mean I’m

definitely bringing that away from this

episode of from talking with Dave and

getting to know him just as a person and

I hope you’re bringing something like

that away too I’m positive that everyone

listening to this brought something

valuable away from it so thank you again

for listening to the laundromat resource

podcast this is Jordan on show number 2

we’ll see you next week

signing off

[Music]

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