Daryl Zeiner has been through the ringer. From bleeding money before his laundromat even opened to having literally ZERO customers on his second day being open, you’ll feel anxious for him as he tells his story. And yet, just a few months from opening his first laundromat he’s looking for his second!
Why?? What happened between buying his first laundromat and the turmoil of losing money with no customers in sight, and today, just a few months after opening??
Daryl gives a very transparent account of his incredible journey toward laundromat ownership with a TON of valuable lessons for all of us weaved throughout his story.
In today’s episode, Daryl and I talk about:
- Why he chose laundromats
- How he bought his first laundromat
- Remote laundromat ownership
- Buying a fixer-upper laundromat remotely
- Covid’s impact on his laundromat opening
- What it was like to finally open the doors of his laundromat business
- The initial community response to opening (hint: there wasn’t much of one at first)
- How he and his partners handled adversity
- Working with partners
- His future plans
- Customer service tips and ideas
- Due diligence
- Knowing how to get a good lease
- Resources to help you succeed in your business
And so much more!
Watch The Podcast Here
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Episode Transcript
hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
laundromat resource
podcast this is show number 40 and you
know it i
am pumped that you are here today
because today we have
daryl zeiner on the podcast and i gotta
tell you man
literally as he’s talking i’m just my
palms are sweating
this is like an intense intense story of
his laundromat
journey so far and he’s pretty young
into it uh you’re gonna
love it i think and he’s you know he’s
just a great guy also super easy to talk
to pretty funny
and even though he is from the east
coast i still think that he’s pretty
awesome
i’m just kidding that’ll make sense when
we get into it but uh
you know i i am just excited about
today’s episode
i know that you’re gonna love it so make
sure you take some good notes uh before
we get there i wanted to just take a
second i haven’t done this in a while
and there’s a long list of new people
uh new members on laundromat
resource.com
and i just want to welcome some of the
more recent ones so
hey what’s up uh you know oh man there’s
a lot of them richard frankie tim anna
calvin
tom there i mean there’s like a lot of
people that are there so just
welcome to you guys and if you haven’t
yet
go over to the forums click on the new
member introduction form and number one
just go introduce yourself there so that
people can start to get to know you and
then go welcome the newbies
uh that have have come more recently and
say what’s up to them and make them feel
right at home
speaking of forums jump on the forums
there’s a lot of action going on over
there a lot of great questions
we won’t go through them today because
today we have a lot to
to get through with daryl and i don’t
want to take up too much time
but head over there there’s a lot of
action happening over there some great
great questions and some great
conversations again
when we’re doing this stuff together
that is when
we all get better faster so if you want
to get big results and you want to do it
quicker
man start networking and i say this a
lot but when you work with the best
you become the best so get over there
and start to meet the best
who are hanging out there on the forums
answering questions
asking questions you should be doing
that every single week if not every
single
day jeez man i said it uh yeah
anyways um one more quick thing about
the website i know a lot of you guys who
are members already some of you received
a spam message i received it too i just
wanted to let
let you know that i apologize for that
um if you received
that message and uh what happened to a
user’s account got hacked
and somebody used that hacked account to
message some other member so
my apologies we’re doing the best that
we can to kind of keep that under
control and hopefully that won’t happen
again
but i just want to let you know what
happened um
now i want to take a second to i i’m
like very excited about this so
from the beginning i’ve had this idea of
laundromat resource being by laundromat
owners for laundromat owners and
that has manifested in number one me
kind of creating content because i’m a
laundromat owner
but also having you guys on the podcast
fellow laundromat
owners sharing your stories your wisdom
your advice your experience all that
stuff and that’s been
awesome but i also recognize that
the podcast episode may not be the best
uh medium for you and i know some of you
guys really love to
write or you love to make video content
and i wanted to put it out there that
uh i want laundromat resource to be uh a
place
by laundromat owners for laundromat
owners and that doesn’t just mean the
podcast
so if you are interested in writing
uh for uh you know writing content for
other laundromat owners
and you’d like to use laundromat
resource to post your
your blog posts or your video content
any of that stuff
you know obviously we want to make sure
it’s really good content but
assuming and knowing you guys it’s of
course it’s going to be
great content if that’s something that
you want to do but
shoot me an email jordan laundromat
resource.com just put in the subject
line
uh you know something obvious
like i want to help or let me in or
something i don’t know just
i don’t you don’t put whatever you want
in the subject line actually i open all
my emails so
uh but anyways email me jordan at
laundromat resources.com and let’s chat
about uh different ways that you can
contribute and start making
a name for yourself and having a voice
for yourself in this industry i think
that there is
a ton a ton of room for more voices in
this industry
and i think yours could be one of them
so if you’re interested in writing i
know some of you guys have talked to me
about wanting to do
uh like you’re doing new builds and you
want to
you know document that and and try to
figure out how a lot of my resource can
help get those document documentaries
documentaries
yeah out there um so that’s one idea
some of you guys just want to write
about maybe your experience some things
that you’ve learned
you know some of you guys may have just
some incredible wisdom and insight that
you just
want to share so again shoot me an email
jordan at laundromat resource.com i’ll
probably
figure out a better way to do that so um
so you can submit stuff but we’ll um
we’ll chat and we’ll
get that stuff going because i would
love love love for more of you guys to
have a bigger voice
in this industry i think it’s what our
industry needs and i think
you need to be a part of it um so shoot
me an email i know some of you guys are
going to be interested in all over this
if writing is your thing if video is
your thing
and also not again to be a tease
but there are some other opportunities
big opportunities coming
soon very soon and i can’t quite
i can’t quite put them all out there yet
but i’m close
and some of you guys are really going to
want to be a part of this so
enough of that let’s get to this
interview with daryl
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the description
darryl what is going on man thank you
for coming on the show how are you doing
i’m doing great man thank you for having
me yeah oh man thank you for being here
i could not be more excited
uh to get to chat with you and you know
over here
on the best coast west coast uh you know
east coast east coast
sorry beast coast east coast let’s get
that straight
come on come on well
i mean i cracked up you you brought that
in we did that uh
live q a with dave mends and uh cls
brian wallace and you brought that beast
coast east coast
i was i was literally dying of laughter
at that and a quick little shout out to
brian henderson who gave it a good go
the essential central time
i thought it was adorable i don’t know i
don’t know it’s cute it was cute
hey daryl i am super excited to hear
your story
um and and in particular i was just
telling you how i keep saying that and i
can’t say it so
but specifically i want to hear about
your laundromat stuff but before we get
to that
who are you like tell us a little bit
about who you are and uh
and then i want to get into how you got
into laundromat sure
sure i uh early on in my lifetime
uh i was really into the trades
and uh just decided at an early age 1819
after
you know doing it for a couple years
that i didn’t see myself
wanting to be at 60 years old not that
there’s anything wrong with it i love
the trades um
i currently am still employed in the
trades just in a different
uh not as a physical labor anymore um
and from there just kind of transgressed
into
sales sales management along the way i
own different businesses
um painting business landscape business
you know when i was younger in my teens
i did paper routes
anything i could shoveling snow whatever
i could to make a dollar you know it
didn’t matter
i’d always had a dream and an aspiration
to be self-employed
um and dabbled in real estate over the
years um
flipped houses uh had some rental
apartments and
things of that nature but uh nothing
ever just satisfied
that burning desire in me for my own
business
so wow it’s kind of good yeah now this
is kind of
what has brought me to this point you
know in life it’s accumulation of
multiple things and
lessons learned along the way yeah well
it’s funny
that you say that because i was just
thinking about that you know myself
and just you know i’ve been reflecting a
lot start of the year here
in 2021 and i’ve been thinking about
like laundromat resource and thinking
about all that stuff and i was like man
you know what it’s so crazy
um because there’s like a lot of things
that i’ve learned along the way
just doing random stuff like i learned
how to build a website like way back
when
and in it you know now i built a website
and you know i learned
how to do some audio stuff just
recording kids
you know singing songs and and now
there’s you know i’m doing audio stuff
and video stuff like
so it’s just funny how all these kind of
skills kind of
compile together and lead you and
present opportunities for you so that’s
kind of cool that you
did that but you had this entrepreneur
blood in you
from from way back when right oh
absolutely absolutely yeah
okay so you you i mean you’ve dabbled in
a lot of stuff
and i mean it just begs the big question
is
why laundromats i mean i get asked that
all the time i don’t know about you but
like why law yeah
absolutely it’s you know it’s something
that never was on my radar
um i’ve been to a laundromat a couple
times
growing up at different circumstances
you know whether i had to wash
my own clothes or you know dog bed or
whatever the case may be
never looked at it as a business or
business model that i was interested in
um was on vacation uh back in 2018
with my family and my brother-in-law
came up and said
we need to open a laundromat and i just
kind of looked at him like huh
and uh he has a friend of his who has
two laundry mats
and was telling him how great the
business is his friend had grown up in
the business
kind of gotten away from it and then
opened up another one
years later um and he has been
the one thing i love about this business
the more i learned the more people i get
to know
the willingness to help truly help
somebody else
and not stand behind a veil and
just give bits and pieces but to open
the veil
so that you get a full view of what to
expect and what you need to do to be
successful
um i’ve never had that before really in
a business
so that’s been one of the biggest things
but going back to
2018 uh
it’s it’s kind of a unique blend between
myself and my partners because
we each bring a different skill set and
we i’m the one that’s very skeptical
and i’m gonna you know do research
until it paralyzes me unfortunately you
know and he’s kind of the one that all
right we’re going to jump we’re going to
jump we’re going to jump so it’s it’s a
nice blend
of uh personalities and then the other
pardon that we have
he is kind of in between both of us so
he kind of
is the teeter to balance both of us out
and he brings a whole different skill
set so uh it’s just that’s that’s how we
ended up
in the laundromat business well that
middle ground i could imagine is kind of
nice to have actually because if you’re
like ah
let’s i don’t know and he’s like let’s
just do it and just having that third
party that’s kind of in the middle
to say actually in this instance it
makes sense let’s hold off or in this
instance
look daryl we gotta jump you know like
it’s kind of nice to have
yes to have that uh yeah okay well
i’m gonna ask you a little bit later
about partnerships
and um and how that’s been and your
experience with that
um but tell me
about your foray into the business now
so you have a couple partners
how did you how did you go from hey we
should get a laundromat to
okay yeah one now sure so when
after we discussed it i was skeptical
because
i’d never really considered the business
as one
viable for myself so i started doing a
lot of research
lots of research and paralysis by
analysis became my
motive i figured i have to learn
everything before i can do anything
uh wait for all the lights to turn green
before you exactly yeah
exactly meanwhile they had already
located a facility
they had already been in contact with
the landlord they had already been in
contact with
a distributor um it was a facility that
was closed
for three years uh the gentleman that
this is kind of ironic i’m in outside of
philadelphia
there in florida the previous owner of
this laundromat
literally grew up 15 minutes from where
my brother-in-law and i
grew up no way yeah he moved down there
in 1960
opened this laundry mat or 60 or 70 open
this laundromat
and then had a dispute with a lease
where he didn’t want to pay an increase
so he just locked the doors and walked
away from it
so the equipment was ancient
it was a more than run-down
laundromat but uh and uh he found it
um we started negotiations on it
and we acquired it
wow we required we signed a new lease i
should say and then we had the
the privilege of gutting the entire
place and starting from scratch
which was a whole another learning curve
on many different levels
oh my gosh yeah okay wait so let’s back
up for a second
okay so you’re you’re in
pennsylvania correct and your
laundromats in florida is that what you
said
right that is correct yes okay all right
so we need to
we need to kind of just back the train
up a little bit
and i need to ask you why did you do
that
and how did you do that uh i mean one of
the big questions i get asked all the
time it’s like hey do i have to buy my
own backyard
or are there ways to do it you know
more remotely you know we had thomas
landenberger who lives in italy
and has one in florida also so i mean
i’d love to hear first of all like why
you know why did you
buy a laundromat so far away from where
you live
yeah have you ever been there oh yeah
absolutely i’ve
actually helped in the build out and i
actually was there on opening
day so uh then that covered well i’ll
explain that a little bit but um
so part of my
angst and always looking at businesses
was i never wanted to start something
and not be able to if it i’ve always
wanted to keep working my job
and the business at the same time so
that i would be able to build a cushion
and keep reinvesting
to make it grow exponentially um
when my brother-in-law uh approached me
with the opportunity and the idea
we talked about it i had partners in the
past so i know some of the nightmare
stories that that can be
um and i learned from it which is the
thing you know
it’s okay like my mom used to say daryl
it’s okay to make mistakes you just
don’t have to make them all yourself
so i finally learned that and i learned
from other people’s mistakes now
as much as i can and we discussed
different ideas and one of the appeals
now we all work full-time yet
so you know it’s this is a labor of love
on many different levels um they worked
out
with their schedules that they can
operate it so it’s a fully attended map
which was not the initial plan going in
we were originally going to open up a
unattended map
and then through education and and
research
decided that attended was the way that
we should go
um
hence that’s why the business partners
because they i
i did not have the time to devote with
my schedule
to a another full-time position you know
as far as
getting it off the ground and everything
else so i was able i’ve been blessed
enough to be able to throw some finances
at it
and they had the time to put the work in
so it was just a good blend for
everybody
yeah i mean i think that that is awesome
i think it’s an awesome lesson
you know there’s people you know who ask
me all the time
like hey uh you know i have uh
i don’t have a lot of money but i want
to get into this business
um you know and i tell them hey look you
know i think
i want to say i heard this on the bigger
pockets podcast or that
i think somewhere someone somewhere
somewhere smarter than me said
this um but basically you have uh
you know you got money you have time and
you have knowledge
and you need all three to make a
business
you know get off the ground and if
you’re missing
one or two of those go
go find the other ones right and so if
you have money
and you need you don’t have time and and
or knowledge
you know go find somebody who has the
time and the knowledge and partner with
them um
exactly because you got to have all
three so i love that you did that i love
that they did that with you
and uh and it makes you know potentially
for a good partnership
i don’t know we haven’t gotten to that
yet if it’s a good partnership or not so
um okay so how did you being so far away
um how did you being so far away
and also being pretty conservative by
nature
how how did you say okay we’re gonna buy
this beat up
run down laundromat so far away and i’m
gonna be okay with that
i spent about a year um honestly a year
figuring out and studying the business
learning doing everything i could every
research that i could find
um anything that i could read on it
joined the cla
looked at the forums every day just did
everything that i could to satisfy
number one my belief in the validity of
the business
i did market research in the area
demographics
i went in really feeling as comfortable
as you can
opening a business i went in with that
level of comfort
like i felt that i had done my due
diligence and i felt that i knew what i
was getting into
um from an investment standpoint so
um that was what really if i didn’t have
that time to do that research
i may not have made the investment
you know i i had to be comfortable with
it first
so right yeah okay so
you did all your research you you know
you pushed down your little voice that
said
hey big big voice
so you put them in the closet taped them
up you know
i did shackle them out of sight out of
mine okay
so then what did how did you how did you
proceed from there did you did you go to
florida to to do it and you rely on your
partners to
close this deal how did that happen so
at that time
um we had found the location um
i got in touch with the landlord
actually my partner got in touch with
the landlord
i got a copy of the lease that they were
proposing
um i went into go negotiations with the
company
the landlord um negotiated a one-year
free
lease essentially on the business
nice um it needed to be 15 to 18 months
but i got a year so
um we put a lot of money into the
business we like i said we totally
gutted the place
um we’ve ripped everything out of there
we have brand new electrical service
brand new water
trough system um the
air makeup system that blows my mind
what you need for air makeup
on dryers but and
worked with the lease got that
negotiated
and then we started demolition and
permitting
and with an architect and everything
else so
probably should have had an architect
involved earlier on
probably should have vetted the
architect better
we ran into some issues with the
architect and the
building codes and getting approvals
because
the architect was not um
he was not responding the way that the
city wanted to
for the uh comments so it drove the
process on for months and months and
months unfortunately until we even got
our permitting
in place for everything oh geez yeah
yeah so i mean that’s a huge i was just
talking to somebody
uh just earlier today who
you know was having city permitting
problems and
um you know so you know if anybody out
there
knows how to navigate that that city
permitting process
you know smoothly you need to come on
the show because i just think there’s
any time you start doing big projects
like that you need to do city permitting
you know it it can open a can of worms
and
it can be very inefficient time
consuming which means costly
absolutely multiple fronts so absolutely
yeah well okay well sorry to hear about
your
your architect that is a bummer what
would you have done differently veteran
architects
um i probably would have gone to the
city and i may have gotten
recommendations from the city of who
works with them and who they like the
most
um who’s the quickest in getting those
processes approved um coming back you’re
always going to have comments
you know that you’re that you’re going
to have to go back and forth and and get
corrected but
um i think the city probably could have
recommended somebody that they work with
on a more regular basis yeah and had and
had a relationship with because a lot of
times when you
anytime in business if you have that
personal relationship it can really help
in on any level it can really help ease
processes
you know and speed things up so it’s
probably what i would have done
differently
yeah that’s a couple of really great
tips you know when you’re i mean it’s
it’s kind of like the whole
it reminds me it’s like really nothing
like this but it reminds me of
you know the the whole tax system where
you know if you do what the government
wants you to do you’re going to get
tax breaks right it’s going to be easier
to work with the government you know
they want you to invest in real estate
they want you to invest in businesses
and when you do that you get tax
advantages right
and what you’re suggesting is hey i’m
going to go to the city who has to
approve all this stuff anyways and say
hey
who’s going to help me get this approved
right and when you do
kind of what they want you to do it can
kind of it can
grease the grease the wheels for you and
get things moving a little quicker so
yeah i’m sorry go ahead you go ahead i
was gonna say
the other thing i probably would have
done is i probably would have gone to
city management and told them about our
vision
because we were taking over something
that was closed down
something that was really an eyesore and
not it was a detriment to the community
and we’re going to make it an asset to
the community and i probably would have
shared my vision
early on with somebody in leadership in
the government as well
that’s the other thing i would have done
differently yeah that i mean
i think those are super good tips the
hey you know asking
the city’s advice for who’s going to
help you get things done
i think the relationship part of uh of
what you’re saying
is huge too because when you you know
when you walk in and you can greet
you know the people who are making the
calls by name and they and they know who
you are
in a good way not in a great comes again
here comes daryl
but in a good way you know and when you
say hey
we’re just here trying to make community
better right we’re trying to make the
city better
and this is what we want to do and you
know
how can you help us get that done i mean
it’s just it seems very common sense but
until you’ve gone through it and even
sometimes when you’re going through it
there’s there can be things that are
just so frustrating
that you can lose sight of that stuff
but it’s that whole
you know honey catches more flies than
i don’t know the saying actually
absolutely absolutely yep then oil but
uh yeah there you go yeah
and the other thing too is i uh what i
eventually what happened was i started
looking at the comments i got onto the
logon and i start following the the
resubmittals
and we actually ended up firing that
architect and going with somebody else
to finish it out
um because we just weren’t getting the
response that we needed after
multiple multiple months yeah so yeah
yeah i mean that’s you you got to do
that right it can be really hard
you built this relationship you’ve made
this investment with somebody the same
same goes with like an employee right
like you have a relationship with these
you know an employee but they’re just
not getting the job done you’re not
getting the response you need
from them you know it’s at some point
you gotta
kind of cut ties and and go in a
different direction and that’s hard to
do but i think that that
is key to be able to make those
decisions when they need to be made so
yeah good for you
yeah yeah okay so
how long did it take to get all of it
from the time that we signed the lease
engage the architect at the same time
until we
opened the door was 15 months
15 months yep okay i mean you’re you’re
sitting right on that whole
you know new build timeline you know and
i mean it’s essentially what you did
yes right it is what we did yeah um
it’s just naturally i want it done
quicker
and i think we could have got it no
quicker i really do um
my partners they worked unbelievable
hours gutting the place
and getting everything ready and then
bringing on a contractor and working
with the trades and doing everything
because
because they did a lot not a lot as far
as the electrical and the plumbing
but they did a lot of the grunt work to
bring the trades in so that our
costs were reduced on the build-out so
they beared a lot of that burden
um and were really hands-on throughout
the entire process
you know of construction which was
essential i could not have done that
i would have made the investment from
where i’m at if i wasn’t
if i didn’t have that confidence level
and have my partners there
you know every day so yeah awesome
awesome well i mean that is that’s super
helpful you know just not just cutting
costs but also
you know you you want to keep an eye on
your asset as it’s being built as it’s
being
you know formed you know it i’ve seen
people who just you know turn basically
turn over responsibility to
you know contractors or even a gc and
stuff just doesn’t get done the way you
want it or it takes a lot longer than
you expect or it costs a lot more money
than you expect
and you got to keep an eye so having
those people on the ground is
crucial yeah absolutely okay so
uh 15 months later you’re ready to fling
open the doors yes did you go
down there what what happened tell me
about that well 15 months later
was in the middle of covet
so we were we we thought we were going
to be able to open
february of 2020 then we got pushed back
to march
then covet really hit and we couldn’t
get inspectors to come out
because they weren’t working or if they
were working you couldn’t have an
employee or
any of the trades that we’re trying to
work around to get our final approvals
done
the trades didn’t want to show up
because they were concerned so
from that point it took us an additional
three months
to get to get our final
approvals that we could actually open
the door um
which was just frustrating frustrating
okay and uh so what month did you
actually open
june of 2020. so you’re supposed to open
in february
you think you could have gotten it
before that i think yes
but you were supposed to open in
february got pushed back to march and
you ended up opening in june correct
february was february was pretty much
when the
lease payment the the 12-month free
lease stopped
so the lease payment started then the
security deposits for all the utilities
you know everything just mounts that a
lot of expenses
yeah didn’t quite work out as we as i
had planned or had hoped anyway but
that’s you know that’s part of business
it’s part of life
yeah so well and it was pretty
unprecedented period of time i mean
you you you snuck right if you would
have got in in february
it would have been a different story but
because it got pushed back to march
it’s like you’re like you’re open now
you know like absolutely you’re right
and and honestly because we’re in
florida florida was a lot more relaxed
than a lot of the other country um
right or wrong um it was just from a
business perspective
it was a little easier than if we would
have been in a pennsylvania for example
you know where there was a lot of you
know shutdowns and everything else now
from the laundry business thank god the
cla really
uh was an advocate and we were deemed
essential
you know in industry but could have been
a lot worse
so yeah definitely yeah okay
so you didn’t open in february you
didn’t open in march what
what was the i don’t for some reason
everything you’re telling me just keeps
bringing different analogies but it does
remind me
of when uh when we were
my wife and i well i guess my wife when
my wife was pregnant with
our first our son and you know it says
like last
few weeks that feel like an eternity and
she was like a week late and that like
last week it just feels like
it’s forever long and it’s uncomfortable
and you’re like just i want to birth
this baby i want to birth this business
already i know
i’m just imagining it being like that
especially being so far away
what was it like thank god my wife
is forgiving because i was a bear to
deal with
um many many many sleepless nights um we
had
you know some with our we did all new
equipment
so we had the financing that was kicking
in as well
um it was interest only thank god it
didn’t start but then
the whole payment was supposed to start
was supposed to be three months interest
only and then the payment
thank god they worked with us and they
gave us six months
interest only um just for cash flow it
was it was the same
there were so many blessings that came
looking back but at the time when you’re
living it
you’re just you’re worried you know it
was it was scary times
scary times um
i’m sorry i kind of no that that’s
exactly what i’m talking about like the
feeling of
hey we’re supposed to be open i’m
bleeding money left and right i got
rent kicking in i got you know equipment
loans kicking in i got utility deposits
kicking in and it’s a whole lot of money
going out
and nothing coming in and you don’t know
when stuff’s going to start
coming in because you’re exactly you’re
waiting on the city which
you know right depending on your city or
maybe even not depending on your city
right
right every city could be it could be
and that’s
you know not only is the strain on your
personal relationship it’s a strain on
your business relationship
oh you know and you got it and you got
to navigate through that as well and
work through it and realize that
you know we’re all on the same page
we’re not our enemies you know
how was that those those months with
your partners
it’s it’s challenging you know it’s
they’re as frustrated as i am
you know um so and it’s trying to
decide collectively
what is our best way to move forward you
know we didn’t always agree we’re never
going to always agree
you know no partnership even you know if
your spouse you don’t always agree
but you come to a place of
commonality and you just agree to
disagree and what’s going to be best
moving forward
so yeah yeah okay so we made it to june
and the doors are actually flinging open
right thank god
okay yes yes i happen to be there early
so did you go down there tell me about
that i went down
to help finish we were we were basically
we had to get a final permit yet we had
to get a final inspection
uh we had to get the flooring done so i
went down
and within a week’s time we got all
those things accomplished
uh we opened the doors the second to
last day that i was down there
so i got to see meet the first customer
uh
in the door and uh the second customer
in the door
who is still a loyal customer every week
i see her
we have security cameras up then i look
you know i watch him
frequently and i see her there all the
time and she
her name’s jeanette and she is the most
sweetest sweetest kind of soul
it was great it was like a culmination
after all those struggles to have
someone there she had been come to this
laundromat
for over 45 years when she was a child
she was coming and she’s
maintained it and then it closed and she
was just so grateful
that the community had this to offer
again
that’s another thing that i really love
about this business my partners
are phenomenal in dealing with the
people um
because they become family you know and
it
it it’s it’s a business it’s a business
that yes you want to make money in
but it’s so much more than that because
the need that you’re giving the
community
and and the memories that these people
have that you don’t even like we weren’t
even aware of
and we didn’t even think of when we
picked this
you know laundromat out you know if you
want to call it a zombie mat
i guess it has to be open i guess to be
a zombie man i’m not sure
it was dead yeah exactly but um it’s
it’s just
they’re so it’s so rewarding it’s just
so rewarding yeah that’s huge and it
reminds me of you know last week’s
episode
elizabeth brick and wilson who was an
awesome episode if you haven’t listened
to that one go listen
to it um but you know one of the things
she said that just
really it i was like man i’ve never
thought of it like that but she one of
the things she said was that
your laundromat is an extension of
people’s homes
and i was like it is an extension of
people’s homes that’s
totally a great way to think about it
and i think that’s exactly
the sentiment that you’re expressing
right now where absolutely all this
almost man i’m going straight back to
the
pregnancy analogy but like all these
birthing pains right
and finally you see like
not just your business being born but
you see what what it means
right for this community and what it
means for the people
and like you had no idea that you were
tapping into these deep roots and these
um you know these memories that go back
you know since you were a kid you know
or before
even exactly so exactly pretty pretty
cool so
you got to be there i did the first like
day or two
yeah and uh what was the community’s
response to it
did you get a sense of that well while
the build-out was going on my partners
would say that there’s always people
knocking on the door they can’t wait to
oil they can’t wait to work when
gateways were open
and we were hoping that that would
spread like wildfire throughout the
community
you know word of mouth is always your
best form of advertisement
we opened the doors and the first two
weeks were
slow would be an understatement
but we did have customers on the first
day i don’t think we had any on the
second day
yeah and i had done some advertising
leading up to it on facebook and things
like that
um that was an area that we didn’t agree
on partnership wise
i felt that advertising was going to be
crucial to our success and
my partners didn’t necessarily see that
so we didn’t do a whole lot of
advertising growing
up moving into the opening
one of the comments that i put on early
on on facebook
was about the laundromat and its
location and i had
the naysayer oh good luck with that you
know like just
and i stuck in my crawl to this day it
still sticks in my crow like i’m gonna
prove you wrong i don’t know who you are
i’ll never meet you
i’m gonna prove you wrong you know
and uh so we opened up and
uh the first month was dismal the second
month
was nowhere near what we needed it to be
just even cover the rent so
i’m in panic mode
i talked to my partners we started doing
some advertising um i started doing some
google
got the website i don’t remember when i
put the website up but um did put the
website together
and uh finally we started to see some
turn around some results um five months
in
we were breaking even we were paying all
our bills um
so and it’s been growing ever since then
oh
gosh me so i i’m so glad you just said
that because
i’m just like having flashbacks to my
early days in my life
yeah i know you went through a tough
time from what from what i’ve heard
anyway and what i’ve listened to
oh that i can’t even imagine what you
went through well i mean
[Music]
what you’ve gone through has been plenty
too so i mean it’s just
it’s it’s tough though man when you’re
in the middle of it and you don’t know
like it’s your first one right you don’t
know
especially you know day two you have no
customer like that’s
not that no
yeah yeah because you just invested a
lot of money and a lot of
time and man you got bills coming in so
absolutely that’s super stressful well
okay
thank you for relieving some of that
tension in me and letting me know that
at least
you’ve hitting that breakeven point and
you’re you got an upward trajectory
you know i think part of it too is just
when you opened
yeah that’s it’s you were in the middle
of covid
and also the middle of summer which
you know florida like california you
know people are
we’re not wearing a whole lot of clothes
in the summer you know i’m showing off
my six-pack
everywhere and there’s no shirts sun’s
out guns out man that’s right man
so uh uh yeah so i mean it’s just a
you know business drops here in the
summer months
for you know for most of us um unless
you’re in a real touristy area
and so it’s just a rough time to be you
know
launching a laundromat business um right
so okay so you started doing some google
ads you did some
facebook ads did you guys do anything um
low-tech did you flyers or anything like
that or no
we did nurse no we didn’t we um
my partners built some signs and
creative advertising i guess and they
would park they still have them
they both have pickups trucks and it’s a
basically a moving billboard
with our name our address uh
and wherever they drive around they park
in a spot that everyone can see
when they’re at the laundromat they park
it right on the road we’re at a we’re at
a busy intersection of two major roads
um so there’s a lot of traffic there um
that was kind of the marketing that we
did
um unfortunately the the budget that we
had
our plan was to open why we still had
free rent we were hoping we could get
open with a month two three months left
of no rent
and no equipment payment or at least
just interest only equipment payment
of course that didn’t work out like that
but so our budget
definitely changed to accommodate
the demands at the time of bills coming
in so
yeah kind of multifaceted
on why we went the route that we did
yeah well
oh good yeah i was gonna say but at the
same time you got to spend money
to make money to draw the people you
want to get people in there as quick as
possible so if i could go back and do
something different
i would spend money early on it’s kind
of like you see that coming soon sign
well we did have that on our building
but
people don’t need to know exactly when
you’re coming just so you’re coming soon
to draw that interest you know yeah yeah
yeah well i i love the um
i love the creativity right like you you
got to do
you know i don’t say that as like an
insult but i mean like
genuinely like there’s you know when you
get hit
it’s like you got punched in the face
right like you had all these bills
coming in you weren’t even open yet you
got punched in the face and you got
a couple of options you can you can lay
down and not get back up
or you can make signs and hang them on
your truck and park in front of the
laundromat and
you know just like do what you can do to
get people in there and that was all my
partners
yeah that was all them yeah and that’s
the scrappy
kind of determinism that you just got to
have sometimes when
when things don’t go according to plan
and
i think that’s where a lot of
entrepreneurs fail
when you know when when stuff’s not
going we we all have great plans right
like
yeah who’s it like mike tyson or
something yeah i’m like
horrible today i don’t know maybe it’s
every day actually
but like you know everybody’s got a plan
to get hit in the face and you got hit
in the face right
and so you gotta you gotta adapt that
plan and
you know i think it’s that kind of grit
and that kind of
um you know creativity that
going to continue to make you guys
successful and
continue to grow your business uh you
know going forward too
you know especially as we hopefully are
coming out of this
pandemic definitely yeah you know
something i’ve always gotten through me
or just gotten me through in life and
every adversity lies the seeds of an
equal or greater benefit
and it really forced us to really hone
in on our
business model and where we wanted to go
and how we could bring in more revenue
drove us more towards wash drive fold
you know in working out the details
there which are working on
growing that business so yeah it was
struggles
but those struggles challenged us to
really look at our business
and and figure out how we can maximize
the space that we have
you know so it was bad at the time but
it’s going to be
a blessing years down the road so yeah
absolutely absolutely um okay so
man i’m like i have like
my palms are sweat like i’m so i have so
much anxiety right now just for
no it’s i mean it’s good it’s good
um okay so you fly open the doors
you you got met with crickets and
uh you you kind of just adapted
and rolled how how did you
just you personally how did you
how did you make it you know like i mean
you’re losing money
you’re you’re kind of the money guy
right and so
you know and you and you’re just
watching that money go out
and and not knowing if money’s coming
back in like how did you
how did you stomach that um
i believed in the business i believed in
my partners
i believed that i had done the due
diligence and i knew and i i just had a
confident
feeling that i did everything that i
could possibly do
a lot of prayer my wife and i live well
below our means
so that was part of the goal to oh i
i’ve always lived below my needs because
i always wanted to be able to not
operate when opportunity
and preparedness meet then success can
happen
so i always wanted to put myself in a
position of success when that
opportunity presented itself
and i’ve lived my life that way for
years and years and years
you know i’ve had failures in businesses
back in my 20s and i learned from that
you know as long as you’re learning if
you if you’re learning from your
mistakes
you’re going to succeed the biggest
successes are the biggest failures
so yeah i just relied on faith
you know yeah i think that’s good and
the reason i ask you that question is
because
you know i talk to in coaching calls and
stuff i talked to owners
a lot who you know expected one thing
and
and didn’t get what they expected you
know and and i can empathize with that
and so i just think it’s good for
for those people to hear okay look
there’s ways
out of it and and there’s ways to kind
of just
cope with it but i think it’s also good
for the people who
aren’t in that phase anymore to either
remember that phase or just to
acknowledge like hey you know plans
don’t always go
according to plan and you know you just
got to be
willing to be a little bit gritty
sometimes
and you know i think a lot of
a lot of us as laundromat owners but
especially
a lot of these other small businesses
have
come up against that over this last year
or so
[Music]
and and so i think hearing how people
deal with that adversity
is just it’s helpful for me and i think
it’s helpful for
for all of us i appreciate you sharing
sharing all that
i think it made i think it made us all
more aggressive
the three of us you know my two partners
on a daily basis
asking people for reviews you know hey
please go on google go on yelp going
wherever
give us a review you know if it’s not a
five-star review what can we do
differently
you know to help that and that
perpetuated itself to draw more people
in because now there’s people looking at
google and
we’re they’re seeing our reviews and
they’re coming in and they’re checking
it out and they’re
like wow we didn’t even know this was
here again you know so
double down i guess you know yeah yeah
i that’s awesome and and i i like
man i just like the image of
you guys being more aggressive right and
it’s kind of it kind of goes back to the
like hey you can either lay down or
you can get more aggressive right like
how do you
how do you deal with the bully well you
either give him what he wants
or you getting his friends right
yeah
and and those are your options and i
think
in order to make it you you did the
right thing right like you you got more
aggressive
definitely and we’re all three all three
of us are natured that way
you know we just we’ve all had our ups
and downs and lives
and uh we we are going to succeed one
way or another we are going to succeed
yeah well i mean that that’s a good
opportunity you know to to shift a
little bit and just talk about
partnerships in general and maybe yours
a little bit maybe you can tell us a
little bit about
you know this partnership and how you
guys got together
and how how you guys work together and
you know what you’ve learned about
partnerships either from this one or
other ones
that’s a lot of things i just threw at
you but tell us a little bit about you
guys
yeah um i i had the privilege of knowing
my one partner growing up he was a year
ahead of me in school
um he and i were both um i would say
kind of like-minded
where we like to push the limits of the
rules
let’s just say um so he moved away
he moved to florida 19 20 years old i
guess i don’t know so i hadn’t seen him
in
25 years um i ended up
marrying his sister years later and
getting to you know to get catch up with
him so i already had some familiarity
with him
and then his brother-in-law is the other
partner
and one of the things that
family is very very important
one of the things that we tried not to
do is discuss
sensitive business where it’s emotional
business with the spouses
because we need to keep business
separate from family
which is probably the biggest struggle
because when you’re upset
and you’re at home you want to vent a
little
but you really you can’t you know or you
you have to try not to
or you need to put it into perspective
so that’s probably the hardest thing
um with the partnership that we have one
of the best things about the partnership
is all three of us complement each other
and make us stronger together
my brother-in-law’s brother is fluent in
spanish
he’s from colombia so he has a different
perspective
into the culture and he speaks the
language fluently
i do not um my brother-in-law
and and the other partner is incredibly
talented when it comes to
uh mechanical things and electronics um
so
be very handy so the build out process
they
they handled without any problems
whatsoever they knew exactly what they
were doing they knew exactly what to
watch for
what you know what to correct what to
call the uh
the gcf and say hey we got a problem
here this isn’t right
you know so and the personality-wise my
brother-in-law
is a firecracker the
next the only person that he doesn’t
know and isn’t a friend yet
he hasn’t met next person he meets will
be his friend he just has the gift of
gab
he loves talking he loves communicating
with people and
i guess because i do it all day long for
a living i want to shut down
i just want to be like i’ve had enough
yeah so i don’t want to answer my phone
anymore i don’t want to answer another
email
you know so it’s it’s a blend of
personalities and
and really the blend of different
strengths so
my greatest weaknesses are some of their
greatest strengths
and vice versa you know i’m more
analytical than i think
than either one of them would probably
say that they are
you know i like the details i like
diving in and figuring out you know
the demographics and the terms per day
and what we need then price and
everything else like that and how to
maximize the analytics which is why i
finally hired somebody to do
the uh our ads for us because
i couldn’t figure out the algorithms it
was driving me crazy i want to be on
that first page of google
yeah so yeah yeah well i mean i think
that’s awesome and i think a lot of
people when they get into
partnerships it you tend to uh partner
with people that are
like you and that have similar skill
sets to you and i think
you run into trouble that way i mean
there’s a lot let’s just be honest i
mean there’s a lot of ways to run into
trouble definitely you know with
partnerships
and um and i think it is a big concern
some people will say
hey never partner with anybody some
people say hey never partner with family
absolutely and and for good reasons like
families have been
you know torn apart but exactly but you
did so
why why did you partner with family out
of curiosity
um a rising tide raises all ships
and if i can help not only myself out
but other families out especially my own
family i wanted to take that chance
to me that was more important than me
investing my money
um into stocks or into something that
yeah i’m going to get personal gain out
of it but if i can change
three families lives or we can change
three families lives
i want to take that chance to me it’s
worth that chance they have
young kids
and i just want to try and make that
impact you know in everyone’s life
not just my own i love that yeah i love
that and i mean that’s coming from
someone over here who
you know my brother and i are running a
lot of my resource marketing
together and you know we’re building
tons of websites right now
and doing some ad stuff and uh man it’s
just a lot of fun a big part of the
reason i did it is
yeah i mean we want to help each other
out and we want
you know you know we’re sitting on the
beach i don’t want to be sitting on the
beach by myself i want him to be there
and he want you know
that’s exactly right i got a video from
them today they’re
they’re down in florida and the water is
crystal clear blue and they’re videoing
man it’s
it’s december it’s january it’s 75
degrees
where are you at
um to go back to your question before i
think
from the partnerships what i’ve learned
is and i have a good friend of mine matt
mchale he has been a mentor to me and
one of my best friends for
30 years he has had partnerships
i’ve talked to him extensively and i’ve
learned from him i’ve learned from my
own partnerships
open honest communication about
everything
is paramount um
and our distributor in florida we kind
of put it in a different way which
really made sense to me too
you know we have uh dexter machines so
we have dexter live
so that i can keep track of the finances
and everything else and
one of the things he said is trust but
verify
you never want to go into something
blind with blind faith and blind trust
you still have to you know protect
yourself regardless of the situation
which is
hard to say with family but in a
partnership regardless of who it is you
have to do that
and i have to be held accountable you
know to them
so yeah and i think that that’s
important
too because i mean look life if we’ve
if we’ve all learned anything over this
last year it’s like life can throw you
curveballs right it can throw our whole
society curveballs but it
it throws us personally curveballs
sometimes too and it’s very
tempting when you’re in a
a situation that is a difficult
situation
and maybe even embarrassing to talk
about or you need help and you don’t
really want to ask because it’s
embarrassing or whatever it’s really
easy to say hey i’ll borrow a little
money from the company
i’ll pay it back you know and really
mean that
um but you know the situation maybe
doesn’t get better i mean it just
happens
so often right so i mean i think you
know
the open honest communication and the
trust but verify i think those are
awesome awesome tips and you know in
in partnering with people who you feel
like you can actually do that with and
who will
actually communicate like that um with
you
um is it i think that that’s crucial
you know to having a partnership so
[Music]
awesome
i would say the other thing the other
thing too is bridling your tongue
never speak out of anger which is
hard especially for me hard to do but i
think said than done yeah
much easier said than done but i think
that’s
paramount to success in a partnership
yeah okay so you
you’re you’re on the mend things are you
know trending in the right direction now
you’re feeling good better i don’t know
how good you’re feeling but you’re
feeling better at least it’s worth
maybe this is too soon to even ask but
do you do you guys have
goals aspirations to buy more
to expand into different areas like what
what do you
what are you guys doing are you just
gonna get this one going and
and then not out or what no we have we
have a plan to have nine more by the end
of the decade
nice so we’re we’re already looking for
our second location
um we have two possibly
picked out um we’ll see how quickly that
with my one partner i’m sure he’s ready
to jump
but we have to get some other things in
it’s place balance you know and then we
want to buy real estate too you know
ultimately
you know because that’s to me that’s
building long-term success and i think
i don’t remember what podcast it was
that you did but you did one where it
explained
um the compounding impact
of being able to leverage yourself once
you have real estate tied in with
your business and everything else which
was phenomenal because i listened to it
several times because i got to get this
i got to get this
yeah yeah one thing i’ve always
struggled with in my life is being able
to leverage
myself um because i’m conservative
nature i’m i’m hesitant to do it
you know but i think it’s key to
business growth
yeah and all um you know for anybody
who’s interested i’ll link to that
um what what daryl’s referencing just in
case you want to go
check that out too because it is super
powerful
uh concept and if you can get it and
figure out a way to put it into action
it i mean you really have a shot to
accelerate your wealth pretty
pretty rapidly that way um you know but
honestly for you
i feel like 10 by the end of the decade
is a good goal to have but i think that
that is
i think you’re gonna blow by that real
fast to be honest if
i just especially if you’re already
looking for number two and you just got
done
you know having your first baby and
you’re already trying for number two
you’re you know i got some neighbors who
have 11 kids right next door and you’re
on their path laundromat wise so well
i don’t ever want to get comfortable
yeah i love that
i love that uh so i mean being far away
uh how how much time do you spend
on this business i probably spend well
if you’re gonna include research and
following things
it’s probably 15 to 20 hours a week um
but that’s it doesn’t have to be that
for me
i choose that because i want to learn
i’m a sponge i’m going to learn as much
as i can as quickly as i can i want to
flatten that learning curve
um as fast as i can you know
so awesome uh and again i mean
look i know you just got through
you know running through the gauntlet
you know but just all these little
things that you keep saying first of all
it just it really shows that you have
done a lot of research that you are
you know analytical like you said it i
mean it shows that you
i just i hear you saying a lot of the
right things
to have you know to just take off right
like you’re like you’re spending a lot
of time
researching you’re analytical you’re
partnering with people who don’t have
the same
strengths as you who complement your
strengths you know you’re
you know you’re investing down in
florida so when you’re an old geezer you
can retire down
there exactly i hate winter i hate
winter
yeah well you know i always say man as
soon as
as soon as we kiss 50 in the 50s
in here i’m like ah man like i gotta
move to hawaii because i just can’t
handle this cold weather
here yeah and i’m not really a joke or
something
that’s that’s legit i don’t know how
you live in snow i don’t know i don’t
either i’m still trying to figure out
how i’ve lived here this
my whole life yeah i don’t get it i
don’t know why you would
you know there’s there’s better places
yeah like i come from a family lord
fairly large family
and uh i have a wonderful stepdaughter
and she’s probably gonna have kids soon
so it’s gonna be hard to pry my wife
away but i keep saying it’s only a two
and a half hour flight it’s only two and
a half hours
yeah well you know what you need is you
need you know
you need laundromats that will just you
know pay for those flights
like once a month you know and exactly
be like look the cost is nothing i’ll
fly you first class
this laundromat over here it’s got you
covered so
absolutely yep you’ll be warm all year
long
um all right well we have a
section of the podcast called down to
business
uh let’s get down to business
over and out and that’s where we just
want to talk a little bit about the
details of your
business so you know tell me once again
where
where in florida is your laundromat
located we are in uh west palm beach
nice oh man you’re like you’re like in
the gym well your partners are living
they’re living in a dream
yeah i’m living vicariously through them
exactly that’s funny uh okay and
and you have one laundromat do you have
any real estate out of curiosity i know
you said do you not
not down there not down there i do have
a rental unit
um in my area but not down there yeah
cool
cool um i mean you mentioned wanting to
start getting some real estate are you
wanting to buy it down
there or okay yeah down there yeah cool
uh and you’ve been i mean i
i try to ask people how long you’ve been
in the business that’s kind of a
complicated question for you
yeah i mean it’s a couple years or a
couple years on yeah it depends on how
you want to look at it exactly yeah yeah
yeah yeah both yeah exactly
yeah so cool well tell me what does it
cost to do laundry in west palm beach
uh we have 20 40s 60s and 80s
and we’re at three five seven and nine
dollars just before that like that
yeah that we’re preparing ourselves for
our next store which will be a dollar
store
coin yeah uh good and
i mean if you don’t mind sharing i mean
i know you’re you’re still early on
you’re still
you know building that business but can
you give us like an idea of
like what kind of turns per day you guys
are doing sure just
just in walk-in customers not in wash
dry fold uh we’re over three turns a day
nice so we’re we’re getting to where i
want to be we’re not there yet but
we’ll get there yeah well hey i mean
oh i mean i’m glad you said that too i
just
you know i just there’s just so much
anxiety in this
episode of just like feeling the pain
that you’re going through
and you know to hear that you’re up over
three i’m feeling a little better
yeah right now and so are you doing a
lot of
uh like drop off stuff right now uh you
know it’s it’s building
it’s really building we’re starting to
do more commercial
we’re getting commercial drop-offs and
uh we have a steady clientele of uh
people and it’s it’s funny because they
each have their clientele my partners
um some people drop off only when one’s
working someone drop them only when the
other one’s working and they’re like
if you drop and if they switch shifts
they’re like no
i want you know the other one to do the
laundry
it cracks me up but they build those
relationships even in the in the
drop-off
you know so beautiful yeah so it’s grown
yeah so what can you i mean this isn’t
really part of the down to business but
i
you know what i can do what i want right
so
and you guys will all listen to it
because i’m curious
man i’m a dictator over here today uh
what’s uh how have you been growing the
the drop-off service because i mean
you’re growing from scratch right
because
it’s been closed forever correct and so
how how did you get that started
i was doing a lot of targeted google ads
specifically for drop-off and i think
that’s the thing which i know it’s been
mentioned numerous times on your podcast
the two businesses are unique from each
other
you don’t advertise for one because the
emotions the ones and the needs and the
desires are different for one versus the
other
so it’s two different marketing
campaigns that i run um
specifically design one for wash dry
fold one for drop off
i’m using one sorry one for coin laundry
um
and then there’s also another segment
for specifically for
commercial wash dry fold
so so are you running are you running
targeted ads for residential
and commercial and are you doing them
separately or do you have a run
okay separate separate awesome yep
so most of your businesses come through
google ads yes
yeah we have uh my one uh partner is
dogmatic he had he set a goal that he
was gonna get
so many reviews by christmas
and the last week i was dogging him i’m
like you’re going to come up short
you’re going to come up short
and he pulled through and he got that
number so
uh yeah but
the majority of what we’re getting down
there is definitely google google driven
yelp i spent a fair amount of money on
yelp early on i did not see the results
i didn’t like it
facebook ads i i did a fair amount with
facebook ads and i
um i used to sing in a band i used to
promote our band through
facebook so i’m pretty i know how to
target the market
and just didn’t get the response that i
was looking for as far as my return on
the investment um
google has definitely been the best for
us
at this point awesome awesome yeah i was
just curious because
you know i think a lot of people are you
know are kicking around the idea of
starting
drop off services starting pick up and
delivery services and
it can be a little bit daunting trying
to start that from scratch
so it is we’re refining our processes
um we’re going to be looking at adding a
system in place
you know to help us track better to help
accountability
[Music]
give a better perception to the customer
so there’s things in the works but
we want to build up to that so yeah
awesome
okay um all right man okay i’m glad
you’re over three turns per day we got
that
um are are your partners
you said they have jobs right are they
they do so they’re working
at the laundromats and they’re working
their jobs
they are putting in sweat equity and
what we want to do is we want to get
them to the point where
the business allows them to take a step
back
we can hire employees and then they can
work on building the business instead of
working the business
so that’s that’s the goal in the next
several months
so are they doing like split shifts are
they working mornings even well how is
that working out logistically
it all depends on their schedules um
their schedule they each have different
schedules
and it’s thank we’ve been blessed where
it’s worked out for them to this point
for us to this point um there has been
occasions where somebody hasn’t been
able to cover and we’d have to bring in
somebody else
um you know to fill in for a couple
hours
but um so far it’s it’s working now
that’s a short term solution it’s not a
long-term solution it’s just what
what was dictated to us with covid and
with
business um the growth of where we’re at
right now right yeah so
i mean that’s that’s you’re good i’m
sorry no no that’s that’s why we’re
really focusing on wash dry fold
because that’s going to give us the
ability to pay for those attendants
without affecting anything else and then
we’ll still have the store maintained
and manned
or attended the whole time we’re open
yeah so yeah i mean that’s that kind of
that creativity that grit that we were
talking about earlier right like
just got to do what you got to do when
you get when you get punched
exactly yeah all right so you referenced
dollar coin earlier but are you
a coin we’re quarter right now
um we are going to probably start with
dexter pay
in the very near future um i did a lot
of research on it
um some people it seems had a bad
experience just if you go on on google
reviews
but i think after talking to numerous
people i think what that really was is
maybe they were unattended stores and
people weren’t educating the people on
how to use the app properly
so they walked away with a bad taste in
their mouth i’ve looked at the product
it’s
it gives you a lot of flexibility uh
without adding the cost of a card reader
so we already paid for the system yeah
but there’s a trash
sure there’s a transaction fee but we
don’t have to reinvent the wheel
so right yeah cool
i like that uh and i know that there’s
uh you know more and more people using
dexter pay so that’s awesome
uh and i already where i mean i already
asked you how much time you spend on
how much time do you think your partners
are spending on the business
gosh a lot time yeah too much
too much at this point yeah you know we
all want to get we need to get them out
of there as quickly as possible which is
why we’re focusing on getting our
you know the washed rifle built up as
quickly as possible so that they can
number one have a life not be a
detriment to their families
and be able to build on the business
growing the business not working in the
business so
yeah yeah i think yeah that’s huge
all right we got another section called
secret sauce
listen up it’s the secret sauce
what is something that’s working for you
right now in your business that you
think maybe other owners could implement
into their businesses to help their
businesses grow
i would say for anyone that’s attended
number one
i know there’s pros and cons to
unattended versus attended
um for us attended makes sense that’s
the business model that
we’re going to pursue customer service
doing the little things getting to know
the people’s names opening doors for
them if you see them walking in
carrying a wash basket out you know
anything that you can do to make their
life getting in and out and then
inside the mat any easier you do it you
know if they
leave um this may be controversial but
if they leave a lot of times my partners
will take their laundry
they’ll put it in the dryer and they’ll
dry it for them so that when they come
back that way
the machine isn’t tied up but yet they
can get back
their washer or their clothes are dry
and they just pay us for the drive
you know so maybe charge a little extra
if they want to give a tip or something
they do
you know but it’s the little things that
really knowing the customers
knowing how you can serve them better um
i think is key
i think that’s i honestly believe that
is the number one key
to our success at this point because
word is spreading like wildfire now that
we have a clientele base
yeah that customer service i mean it is
key
you know just and it kind of goes back
to that whole
you know it’s an extension of of their
home right
is you just wanted to feel comfortable
and wanting to feel
known want them to feel cared about and
you know that’s that’s what customer
service is right it’s just making people
feel
known and cared about and wanted you
know
and here’s a little tip too that my
partner came up with because when we
were looking at the foot of the foot
store the foot this
the square footage of the store is only
about 1800 square feet we were trying
we minimized machines we had it
jam-packed
we were like this isn’t going to work we
need you know we need folding tables we
need
you know different things so we backed
off the number of machines
um and we were like what are we going to
do with seating
we have folding seats
instead of taking a hard plastic mount
that’s going to take up a fixed space
we put folding tables all around those
and the customers love it because they
can take the seat
they can put it right in front of their
washer their dryer and they can just sit
there
and do whatever right in front of it it
works out great and i would have never
thought of it my partner was like
simple solution and it’s been phenomenal
that’s something i would have never
thought of
yeah just like folding chairs or folding
chairs so it’s like picturing something
like mounted to the wall that folds down
or something but oh no no no
fold grab a folding chair and plop it
where you want to pop it just stay out
of this way yeah exactly easy to wipe
down afterwards right now with covid
you know when they leave we’re cleaning
the store constantly you know so
but it it just another way to utilize
space
in an effective manner yeah so that’s an
awesome tip i like that especially for
those smaller laundromats that
you know i mean again that’s more of
like an attended
you know store without a doubt i’ve had
full-on
benches bolted to the ground literally
that somehow
walked off uh i don’t know man people
are
creative and the poor gumball machine
yeah oh
gosh man the poor my poor son
he’s been a little gun shy to get back
into the government business
but understandable uh okay well hey man
awesome awesome secret sauce and i think
that those are things that everybody can
utilize and even if you
are an unattended store you can still
focus on customer service it may not be
direct face-to-face customer service but
thinking of little things that you can
do to make the customer experience
better to make things easier for the
customer
you know to keep things cleaner to keep
things safer
all of those things i would say fall
into that category of customer service
so even if you’re not
you know an attendant store you can
still think about customer service and
making your customers have a good
experience at your laundromat
so awesome secret sauce we got another
section called
pro tips pro tips what’s
one piece of advice you’d give to
somebody who
is not not too far behind you maybe um
who’s looking to buy their first
laundromat what advice would you give
them to buy their first
i would say due diligence and vet people
out
what do you mean vet people out like i
mentioned if you’re gonna ha if you’re
doing a new build
make sure that you understand exactly
who you’re hiring um
get references and check the references
don’t don’t get lazy in your due
diligence you know
and don’t make assumptions yeah
yeah i think the checking references is
kind of a funny thing because i
i feel like a lot of jobs that i applied
for kind of along the way
i’d give references and i’m like do
people just want to know that i have
references
uh because i’ll you know i’d ask people
like did they ever call you in the bag
no nobody ever called me like all right
probably better but for them you know
yeah awesome i mean i think the due
diligence piece is huge obviously
you know you want to know what you’re
getting into and you want to know that
it’s a good fit for you and you want to
know that it’s going to be what you
think it’s going to be
and you know it probably never will be
exactly what you think it’s going to be
as you found out
a fun way but you know having a good
understanding and i think your research
probably allowed you
to pivot and to endure you know when
things didn’t go the right way
definitely and the other thing too
naturally is the lease i mean that’s
the cornerstone of your business if you
don’t have a good lease
you’re done you know yeah so
how do you have any tips for how does
somebody who’s new know whether they
have a good lease or not
uh i would probably go to i mean i know
through my research i found out that
there’s different people especially if
you’re going to do financing the quality
financing people
will want to see your lease ahead of
time before you sign it
they have experience with seeing it
reading it knowing the legal
verbage that’s in it and helping you to
avoid some of those pitfalls
or find somebody have a lawyer review it
whatever the case may be but make sure
it’s one that understands
not just commercial property but laundry
mats in general
because of the long-term nature of the
lease and the commitment that you’re
making
in the equipment
yeah i think that’s good advice and i
think it’s tough to
find a lawyer who’s got that experience
actually if anybody knows of a lawyer
that you’ve used maybe who
understands not just commercial leases
but also
uh the laundromat business hey maybe
shoot me an email introduction jordan
my resource.com and uh you know it’d be
a good
good kind of resource for people to have
and so when that question comes up i’ll
have somebody to
to send them to so let me know uh
awesome awesome pro tips our last
section
of the podcast we call recommended
resources
and we are laundromat resource so do you
have
any resources that maybe you’d recommend
to help people
either get into the business or to grow
their business or themselves personally
absolutely i think with with today’s
technology you’re at a far more
advantage than you were 20 years ago
because of podcasts like yours and other
people out there ken barrett has youtube
videos that i read or that i looked at
dave mentz has his thing um cla make
sure your member is cla
there’s just so many different things if
you want to get educated there’s so many
opportunities to be able to do that
if you’re going to will be willing to
invest the time some of the books that
i’ve read
rich dad poor dad by robert kiyosaki
was phenomenal phenomenal book that
really helped me change my mindset on a
lot of things
peak to peak principle by robert
schuller it’s interesting because
it talks about a mountain you get to the
top of the mountain you see the peak
of the next peak but you still got to go
through the valley and you’re constantly
growing
i’ve read so many different books you
know over my lifetime for
self-improvement i think any
any quality book that you can get to
read to work on yourself and invest in
yourself
will pay dividends throughout your
lifetime i would highly recommend
becoming a reader and i hated reading
when i was younger so yeah
i couldn’t i couldn’t agree more and
i’ll i’ll uh i’ll actually link
all those ken barrett to youtube i’ll
link um
dave laundromat millionaire men’s is
youtube and
cla and i’ll put links also in case
you’re interested if you haven’t read
rich dad poor dad you just have to
like love it or hate it like it has just
shaped
so many investors and business owners
and their way of thinking
that you you just can’t ignore it right
and there’s you know there’s naysayers
and haters out there
and that’s fine but sure you just can’t
ignore
the impact that it’s had on so many
people so if you haven’t read it
read it i’ll put a link below just in
case you could probably find it
pdfs floating around for free too if you
need to
think and grow rich by napoleon hill
there’s another one yeah
i have never read peak to peak so i’m
gonna put that one on my list i do a lot
of reading too i’m another one who did
not like reading in fact
i don’t this is not an exaggeration it’s
kind of embarrassing but i don’t think i
read
an entire book until like late into
college
um i did not read an entire book all
through high school
i i just got really good at getting the
gist of it
and being able to kind of and really
embarrassing but now i read like 50 to
60 books i tried to cut back last year
and i still
i look back and i read 40 so i did but
i don’t think i read a book in high
school i didn’t go to college so i know
i didn’t read one there
it was in my early 20s when i started
reading self-improvement books so
yeah so i mean i’ve read a lot but i’ve
never read peak to peak so
i’m going to check that one out looking
forward to it thanks for that
recommendation
a lot of good recommendations actually
um well i got one more question for you
if people want to get in contact with
you maybe
uh ask you some questions hear a little
bit more about your story thank you for
coming on the podcast whatever you know
prank call you
i don’t know whatever what’s the best
way they can get
in contact with you they can email me at
uh
palm beach lakes laundry at
gmail.com they can check me out on
facebook
on my facebook profile linkedin those
are probably the easiest ways to get a
hold of me
cool and i’ll put links to all those
things in
the description if you’re on youtube or
in the show notes
uh if you are listening to the podcast
daryl you sir i have i just have a lot
of respect for you
and we’ve never talked before this i
mean we’ve you know we’ve chatted back
and forth a little bit about
best coast beast coast and we shot a
couple emails back and forth but
uh this has been truly an honor and a
privilege
to have you on to hear your story thank
you so much for sharing i think it just
it speaks so much when someone’s willing
to
stand up and share their real story
right
the story with you know with the pain
with the ugliness with the
financial stresses and and also
you know some of the victories and some
of the lessons learned and all of that
and
you know you’re just you’re a super
genuine guy this was a ton of fun
i learned a ton i have like a whole page
of notes
and i just you know i learned a lot and
i know a lot of people really gonna love
this so thank you so much
for coming on this podcast thank you for
having me and thank you for the
opportunity
like i said if i can help one person
with one idea
it’s all worth it yeah well i i know
you’re gonna help
a lot more than that uh and so really
you know
appreciate it appreciate you and looking
forward to uh
hearing about you know your next 10 that
you’ll probably have in the next three
years not 10 years
thank you all right we’ll talk to you
soon all right i don’t know about you
but i i mean
legitimately i had like anxiety issues
during this episode i was just really
feeling daryl’s pain
as he was going through this process of
not
shelling money out and not only not
seeing any money come in
but even after he flung open the doors
there was no money coming in i just
man it’s like a kick to the gut and i
was feeling his pain
uh but i’m glad that things have turned
around he’s doing better and he’s
already looking for his next laundromat
deal
and man what a trooper uh awesome
awesome
ton a ton of wisdom again every week i
encourage you pick one thing
that you can put into action into your
life
this week and when we start stacking
those on each other
watch how far we go i mean i don’t know
about you but i’ve been trying to put
stuff into action
and i just i feel like i’m making leaps
and bounds in my business
in my laundromats and in just my
personal life too
so for me one takeaway that i took away
there’s a ton of stuff to take away but
one thing that i took away
was this quote i wrote down he said
every adversity holds the seed to an
equal or greater
opportunity and i know so
often for me it’s really easy when
things do not go
uh the way that i want them to go
according to plan it’s easy to focus on
that adversity and not see the
opportunity
in that adversity so for me my
my go-to thing this week is going to be
look for opportunities in
all the adversities i come across this
week i don’t know what it is for you
but hey pick something and put it into
action this week
that is how you were gonna yeah i say
this all the time
action paves the way to success so put
it into action
and you know let’s let’s skip down that
yellow brick road to success by paving
the way with
action all right enough of that i don’t
even know what i’m talking about anymore
i cannot wait until next week’s episode
we will see you guys then
[Music]
peace
[Music]
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