54. Carving Out a Laundry Niche and Creating a Successful Business with Nikila Gibson

Nikila Gibson is a serial entrepreneur who has started businesses from preschools to drop shipping to staffing agencies, and now runs a laundry pick-up and delivery business in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has started and grown her business from scratch using mostly word-of-mouth advertising and is growing at a rapid pace! 

Nikila brings grit and determination, hard work, and hard-earned business savvy to her laundry business, and, in this episode, she shares how she’s done it and gives great advice to anyone else wanting to start or improve their pick-up and delivery business. And we have a lot of fun talking about it!

In this episode we talk about:

  • Nikila’s entrepreneurship background
  • Being a single mom and business owner
  • How she got started in the laundry business
  • Eco-friendly laundry services
  • Pros and cons of a laundromat owner partnering with a fluff n fold operator
  • Pickup and delivery without a location
  • How Nikila’s customer flow works
  • How Nikila gets customers
  • Pickup and delivery as a tech and logistics company

And more! Be prepared to learn from a true entrepreneur!

Watch The Podcast Here

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Episode Transcript

hey what’s up guys it’s jordan with the
laundromat resource podcast it’s
show 54 and i
am exceptionally pumped today about
today’s episode
not just because we have an amazing
amazing
guest today nakila gibson comes on the
show
she’s running a pick-up and delivery
service with no location
uh in the bay area san francisco bay
area and
it’s an awesome interview she is uh
just a really cool person has a lot a
lot
of uh wisdom to share just from her
experience um in in doing this business
for the last four years and even beyond
she’s kind of a serial entrepreneur
you’re gonna hear her story
it’s amazing and there’s a whole lot to
learn there and she’s also
super funny we have a lot of fun in
today’s
uh episode so you’re definitely gonna
enjoy that so that i
am pumped for that super pumped i’m also
pumped because it’s been
one year since we started the laundromat
resource podcast
and man just to take a second
and reminisce a little bit we’ve had
some incredible
incredible guests on the show i’ve met a
ton of
awesome people i know a lot of you guys
have met a lot of these same people
um just either through listening to
their stories here on the podcast
some of you have reached out to many of
the podcast guests
and it’s it’s just been really really
cool to experience and really cool to
see
how it’s been bringing people together
and bringing knowledge out to
uh just to our industry and about our
industry so
man what a cool wild ride it’s been over
the first year of the laundromat
resource podcast it’s reached
heights that i never even anticipated
you know we’re almost to 40 000 um
downloads now and i just i’m just blown
away by that so uh anyways huge
thank you to those of you guys who’ve
been listening for any amount of time
even if it’s just for the first two
minutes that i started this
welcome to you uh but seriously uh just
a
fun wild ride i just want to take a
second to acknowledge that it’s been a
year
and just all the cool things that i’ve
learned hopefully that you’ve learned
um over this last year it’s just been
really inspiring and
transformational for me and i know for a
lot of you guys too
so anyways enough of the nostalgia of it
being one year
um i i’m you know i’m just really pumped
for
this last year and just the momentum
that we’ve had i’m looking forward to
the next
year and just on that note real quick i
just want to let you know that i’m
always looking for
laundromat owners or people in the
industry who have something to say to
laundromat owners
to come on the podcast to share your
story your experience your wisdom
so if you’re a laundromat owner that
listens to the podcast and you haven’t
come on yet
you know maybe it’s time to consider
coming on and sharing your story and
your wisdom
even if you only own you know one tiny
store
or you haven’t owned it very long or you
own a bunch it doesn’t matter there’s
something to learn from everybody
and uh if you’re interested in coming on
uh
laundromat resource.com podcast guest
that link and all the other links that
are mentioned today will be
uh in the show notes which you can find
at laundromat resource.com
show 54 is that we’re on yeah 54
or if you’re on youtube you can also see
them down in the description so
um yeah laundromat resource.com podcast
guest if you
uh are you know itching to come talk
laundromats with me come check it out
it’ll be a lot of fun
um and also if you know anybody who
would be good for the podcast i would
love
love love for you to connect me with
them um you know
just wanting to provide a lot of really
good
value for people and to introduce people
to each other
uh that’s that’s kind of what i see
myself doing so uh
all right enough of that um a couple
of quick things number one the forums
have just been rocking
still um so get on there a lot of my
resource dot com slash forums
you know whether you’re uh uh you know
somebody who wants to buy their first
laundromat
or you’re a veteran owner or maybe
you’re just in a related field in the
industry or a vendor or something
a lot of value in those forums and a lot
of
uh people to network with to help get
you to the next level of your business
journey
no matter where that is in this industry
um so
check out the forums on my resource.com
forums and make sure you go to the new
introductions
a new member introductions forum and
introduce yourself over there
i just i’ve seen more and more and more
people connecting in similar geographic
locations
and connect connecting up that way so
that has just been really really cool
for me to see
um so get over there let people know who
you are where you are what you’re up to
and uh yeah and you veterans of the
industry
hey you know get over there it’s a great
place to connect we should be connecting
with each other
a lot too so get over there um and then
the last thing before we jump into it
with nikila
uh that i wanted to let you know is that
we’re gonna start
uh hosting a bunch of webinars i mean i
do a weekly webinar
uh every week on thursdays
and you can sign up for that at
londonresource.com at the top of the
page
if you’re interested in those but we’re
going to start launching more
webinars for a variety of different
things and we’re going to have
guests coming in to host webinars so
number one
i would love to know what what do you
want to learn more about in this
industry we’ve got some people lined up
for things like pick up and delivery
fluff and fold that kind of stuff but i
want to know what you guys want to learn
about
in this industry what we should have
some webinars on and
i also want to know who you want to
learn from
if there’s somebody in particular or
or something that you want to hear from
in a webinar let me know
and connect me up with them so shoot me
an email jordan
laundromat resource dot com that email
will be down below to or in the show
notes
or you can just find that on the website
but jordan laundromat resource.com and
let me know if there’s any webinars that
you’re itching to
take part in because we’re going to
start getting those out there for you
guys
as another resource we are laundering my
resource so as another resource to help
you grow your business
get to that next level all right without
further ado be prepared for just a fun
fun
uh and information pack episode here
with nikila gibson
let’s jump into it right now nakila this
is awesome how
are you thank you for coming on thank
you thank you for having me i’m so
excited oh
i am so excited i i read through you
sent me a little bio and i read through
this thing and i was like oh
this is going to be an awesome awesome
interview so i’m really excited
uh to hear what you’re doing because
you’re doing something a little bit
different than most of our guests
um and we’re gonna get to that but
before we do can you give us a little
bit of background on you who are you and
you know what you know what is your
let’s let’s try to
let’s try to weave a story of this path
that you’ve taken to get to where you’re
at now
but give us some background it’s
definitely a path
well let’s start my journey actually
begins before i was born
all right so yes yes i’m a third
generation entrepreneur
which is uh rare in the african-american
community
my grandfather owned a door-to-door
sales business
and my mother was a salesperson in that
business that’s how she met my father
my father was a manager in that business
so i was literally
born on the road
i traveled to um
let me see before my first birthday i
had already hit 12 states
i don’t remember any of it of course but
right yeah
so it was it’s in my dna
yeah you’re still putting the pins on
the map that you’ve been there even
though you were less than one yeah
yes yes but um so that’s when
my journey started starting with my
grandfather and then my father
he has started a few businesses and
currently
has founded a non-profit um so it’s just
kind of been
always a part of my life i was that
child as
um like as a child when you know you
bring home the
christmas things to sell my parents were
like what are you gonna say what’s your
sales speech what do you say when they
say no
it was drilled into that’s awesome
that’s good training started my
entrepreneur yes i started my
entrepreneur journey at a very very
young age um i
then became a single mother at the age
of 22
with two toddlers and that’s
was during the last economic crash of
2008
and i at that point
you know i had to make something happen
so i started my very first business
which was a preschool um i founded a
preschool
you just started a preschool out of
nowhere as your first business
well i did i did work in them first so i
did
have some experience in some training so
i did study childhood education
but i didn’t like the way you know when
you’re in it you you get to see
different things i didn’t like the way
it was going i didn’t like the focus
that uh was happening within
certain ones that i’ve worked in so i
was like well i mean who’s better to
fix it than myself so i started my first
preschool
and i did a preschool instead of a full
day care so because i did have two small
children
um on my own so that way i can spend the
time
with you know with my girls i am
currently a homeschool mom
of four now but
so the yes the education has always been
vital it’s another thing my parents have
always instilled in
education as well as entrepreneurship
um which then gets into late watch later
on
but i know it’s a it’s a path it’s a
path
it’s a it’s a path i mean we started off
starting as preschool holy cow man i am
just
yes yes so um i started a preschool
and then that preschool i ended up doing
a subscription service
for childhood educational products uh
and i designed a lot myself that got me
into
learning to how to wholesale and then
from there
i i started a a wholesale jewelry
business where i sold necklaces and
lockets and things like that to other
small businesses
that i had stopped doing a little while
ago right before the pandemic
which is when all the small businesses
weren’t able to sell at their venues
but um i do currently still do jewelry
but not on the wholesale level
um but oh man there’s such a path i’m
just it’s hard for me
i read this thing and i was like where
are we we’re all over
the map we’ve done every kind of
business yeah
i’ve done ebay um i’ve i’ve done all
sorts of
i am a serial entrepreneur if you
haven’t figured it out already
but yes yes so from there yes i did
wholesaling
and drop shipping and then from there
um my preschool had grew into a full-on
daycare so um then i
had my third daughter and i wanted to be
able to spend a little more time
with her so i kind of started lessening
the time and then i have my fourth
daughter i have all girls
i mean i love i love my daughter and
would not trade her for the world but
four girls sounds
so overwhelming to me i mean one is like
i mean that’s like my limit
i’m like pushing the limit yeah holy cow
okay
yes so at that point okay so then i
wanted to be able to spend more time
with
my um with once i was having my fourth
daughter so during um i was trying to
figure out which route to go
so i actually started a um
excuse me an employment
business so i did temporary employment
and from there that’s where i learned
about logistics
so my employment staffing agency turned
into a logistics business so we ended up
just hiring for
our business and from there we would run
routes for other
small businesses and uh
we we had built a pretty decent
clientele
but some of them were like food
businesses and i didn’t like running
food i’ve never been comfortable with
dealing with
things that people eat so
from there my logistics business
we had ended up partnering with a few
other
startups and unfortunately some of those
fell through they didn’t um continue on
so that’s when we kind of learned about
the laundry business so and that’s one
reason why we don’t serve in san
francisco because
we have a partner in san francisco so we
just kind of link up with him
and we cross paths but uh we started
a laundry pickup and delivery service
lifewash
that is actually a logistics and tech
company
because our main focus is
getting the product from point a to
point b and making it easy for
the client as well as on our end
using technology to implement and excuse
me implementing technology to
streamline that process wow
okay yes now we can rewind
okay so i mean i feel like we’ve all got
the map
of you know yes it’s so logical to start
with a preschool and end up
with a laundry pick-up and delivery
service so um
yeah so okay talk to me a little bit
about
uh you know when you started you started
a preschool and i’m
assuming that probably also helped with
you know having your kids around and all
of that
um but talk to me about what it
what it was like to be a business owner
as a single mom
when you’re starting off there oh man
you know what
that it actually wasn’t as challenging
as you would
have thought it was it’s more
challenging
um at that point because i was so young
i think i was so
naive even though i had experience with
um
everything i’m so sorry my my
three-year-old yeah there’s
there’s four of them quite your sister
will turn it on
you know the joys of working from home
right
hey man we are all dealing with that all
year so
we get it yes so uh okay i’m so sorry
let’s rewind back
um so running a business as a single mom
so
that was an easy transition because of
the type of business
and my older two girls like they
literally went everywhere with me so
they were
so easy because they’re literally always
with me
um i have photos of us with our first
booths and they’re like sitting there
with them you know and i have the booth
with the subscription items and
you know they were just amazing
absolutely amazing they made it so easy
but also they were like my experiment so
i was able to test out my products with
them
and be like okay this really works and
also with my daycare we did a lot of
projects so i was like okay this you
know this really works and
i would build an entire curriculum
around it
and then that would be a part of the
subscription subscription service
so it really at that moment with that
particular business
it wasn’t as challenging as
later on in life with other men
with more children i was just so young
and just
you know i said naive just like you know
hey going with the flow
and plus we’re right in the middle of a
financial crisis so it’s kind of like
hey what do i have to lose
yeah yeah you know we just make it work
so it was actually a lot of fun because
i was able to experiment and really
start learning and getting my foot in
the door
with my own thing rather than watching
my parents
you know do their thing yeah
oh that’s awesome okay so you did a
bunch of stuff you did
uh you know the preschool you had a
subscription
service you talk to me about starting
this employment staffing agency how did
you
how did you get into that that’s kind of
yes
it is very interesting so i actually got
into that because my sister
is my younger sister she is a dental
hygienist
so she would go on temp jobs and there
was
a an agency in our
area that did strictly dental and i
thought that was the coolest idea that
this person did strictly dental you know
and i’m like oh cause you know you
always hear about the different types
but not
one that has such a specific niche so i
was like that’s so cool
i want to try that out too so
so i picked the niche which was
logistics and
um went from there just kind of you know
experimenting and learning and talking
to
different people and um at that time it
was also timing
uh i believe it was indeed or one of the
other companies they had
an option for recruiters to be able to
sign up
and get like behind the scenes uh
job listings and things like that and
then be able to recruit for those
so i kind of just had good timing as
well
it was a good timing but it was also me
just trying to figure out
which way i wanted to go
you know in life like let me try out
some different things and in staffing i
get to learn about all sorts of things
that are out there
yeah yeah it worked out
yeah that was a good point so how did it
turn
i mean you said it turned into like a
logistics
business and that led you to laundry so
what do you mean by that how did it turn
into a logistics business so
we ended up partnering with some
startups like i was saying some
logistics startups
and logistics i mean on the smaller
scale so the smaller scale logistics of
moving it
from city to city not nationwide to
nationwide
so between moving from city to city they
so i actually kind of learned from those
startups like
how does the business work and um you
know
my husband was my main employee
can be the main person i would send out
when i didn’t have anybody else
how amazing is that that you just get to
be like hey you know what you
why don’t you head over you know down to
the next town over
you get to just kind of boss them around
and that’s your job that’s amazing
yes
okay i’m so sorry one more time nikoia
come play with your sister so sorry okay
yes so yeah right it was wonderful so he
um would go out sometimes of course we
had other employees as well the other
people we sent out but
with him i could really get feedback
right yeah
i would ask you know i would follow the
routes and i would ask him
because we would and we ended up setting
up our own system
um as well so we would have their system
and then we have our own system
and i would be able to flip back and
forth and kind of compare
and and you know it was a real like i
would literally and my job was pregnant
at the time
and i would we would be up at four in
the morning you know
preparing for these routes and
you know me the whole time just up like
watching the routes and
putting things in and tracking and
dealing with customer service
you know it was just a whole thing
yeah but yeah so and that’s what we did
and then like i said that particular one
went belly up
so when it did you know we looked at the
list of clientele because now you know
everybody needed this additional
logistics i was like well instead of
just doing staffing let’s just
help out these companies that are ready
you know we’ve already been working with
them they know who we are
you know we’ll just take over from there
but i just didn’t want to deal with the
food companies so we
didn’t do those but we did offer to the
other companies
and one of them just happened to be a
laundry
service so with with dealing with the
laundry service
he was amazing i mean he taught us so
much you know he had his little area
that he covered he was interested in
going in any other areas that he’s like
really established
in the bay area like me in san francisco
so
he just taught us everything like he
taught us so much and was willing to
kind of like
talk to me about everything and it was
if it wasn’t for him we would have never
gotten it started like i
can’t give all credit to that particular
partner
but he was amazing and that’s how we got
started we went from
helping out another startup that ended
up closing down
to then taking over their clientele
because now they’re closed and the
clientele’s reaching out to us like hey
what do we do now we’re like okay we got
you covered and
thankfully i had already been looking at
systems and comparing systems
so you know and then i got all the
technology
set up and i was up for days out of time
uh
coding and tech in the background
um and you know phone calls at two in
the morning
you know like to people overseas so that
they can like
help me with other texts yeah big
journey
um and just trying to you know quickly
get it together because we didn’t have
very much time
because they needed service to continue
you know they needed their businesses
to continue on so we just like okay
we’ll just pick up from there and then
you know over time
we kind of lessen those other ones and
then just focus strictly on the laundry
and then from that point um you know we
were working with
the particular partner in san francisco
and
uh but there was nothing going on in the
bay area so
i just happened to be uh searching for
you know new clientele
and just kind of doing my research and i
came across a laundromat
that was looking for a wash and fold
um person so the deal was you know they
would get paid for their machines
and you know we would get whatever we
charge so i was like oh great you know
like
now we can fully go full-blown because
before that
um let me rewind a little bit the
partner that we have in san francisco
had given us one of their uh larger
clients
uh it was the weworks building at the
time uh
they was one of their larger clients on
the other side of the bridge because
they didn’t service the area they’re
like hey you know you service this area
i’m like
yeah we can service that area yeah we of
course we do
we started off pretty well we started
off with
you know with a pretty decent uh client
there
and and then that’s when i came across
the
the other the laundromat that was
looking for this
this position but it wasn’t like an
employee position it was just kind of
like hey you know keep an eye on
my shop and you know you can get paid
whatever just
get some money in my my into my machines
and i was like oh this is a thing
i was like perfect we can do this we
already have
you know like our whole logistics set up
and i had it so then i went to go speak
with him
and you know he was telling me his deal
and i was like okay i was like
yeah you know like can we run our um
can we run pickup and delivery and he
was like oh yeah sure
and there and that was it
and there you have it then we started
and then from there we started making
more partners but that was
yeah that was the main start of how we
did it
but um also to rewind a little bit
because we
do uh we are we do have a special team
we’re not just a pickup delivery laundry
service
we specialize in eco-friendly and
nonsense products because um in
researching
i i’ve learned that and also experiment
not experimenting but experience with
talking to clientele a lot of people
don’t like the harsh detergents it’s too
much there’s a lot of sensitivities we
have a lot of clientele
that our cancer survivors are
elderly severe allergies our daughter
has very very severe asthma so i kind of
i was already familiar with what
products
to use that would be safe cleaning and
help reduce the allergens
and things of that nature so it it
that was our niche i was like well you
know if we’re going to do it i i don’t
want to just
do it i want to be of help to
to whoever helping in more than one way
more than just doing their laundry
like i want them to know that we care
about their safety and we care about
what they’re breathing in and you know
because a lot of people don’t think
about like their bedding you sleep on
your bed for
you know six to eight hours eight to ten
hours you know and you’re laying there
on your pillow and you’re breathing in
all these chemicals you know things like
that so i wanted to really kind of
educate
our clientele and just be that peace of
mind
to the people that need a laundry
service but can’t
use the laundry service because there’s
too many chemicals involved you know and
that’s why we don’t
with directly in order to get proper
candles a lot of chemicals
yeah yeah pretty much entirely
yeah well i mean i think that’s really
cool i think i mean obviously the bay
area is a great
location to have that niche um you know
there’s certain areas of the country
where you would just be hearing crickets
right yes yes san francisco is a great
or that the bay area is a great
place to you know to be doing that so
that’s awesome i think that’s
obviously i think that’s great you know
for you know the environment
yeah people’s health and everything um
yeah but it’s awesome too that you
found uh a solid niche that yes that you
can grow and promote
and educate and all that so uh all right
i want to go back for a second
to finding this laundromat who that was
looking for
a somebody to do their wash and fold i
mean not to do their wash and fold but
to do wash and fold
in their store and look for it um
okay so where did you find that you said
you saw that online or something yes
uh-huh it was online
um i was searching
you know i was just searching um all
throughout everything i was like on
craigslist and facebook just trying to
build a clientele list of people to
reach out to um
in my research and then i came across
that one so he was looking for weekends
only which was perfect
because um you know we want to be able
to really focus on our
own building our business as well and
um yeah so with him he was looking for
weekends only
and we were going to be uh
you know just mainly keep an eye on the
shop
and we would uh be able to be in charge
of the washing fold
he had recent just recently purchased
that particular laundry mat
but um he had a history of laundromat
ownership in his
family and there was already
a lady that had been there for quite a
few years
that did the monday through friday and
he wanted to expand to the weekends
got it uh okay so
i mean i i hear this a lot and i think
it appeals to a lot of owners
because you know you can kind of get
some
quote unquote free labor and and also
some income from somebody else’s
work into your business so not a bad
setup
but i also know that it’s not always a
good setup so i’m curious how your
experience was
uh doing that what are some of the pros
and cons of
of doing that you know maybe from your
perspective and maybe even from an
owner’s perspective
so the pros are that
well from my perspective as someone that
is starting a wash and fold
it gives you the opportunity to
learn your clientele learn your
demographics see if it works for you
because it is a lot of work it’s not to
be taken lightly at all it is a lot of
work
especially pick-up and delivery and i
think a lot of people are like oh well
you know i already have wash and fold
i’m just gonna ethic and delivery and
they don’t understand
like it’s it’s a complete other type of
business
um and it’s a lot of different things
that go into it whether
when you just have a right you know just
the laundromat but the pros are that it
gives you the opportunity to
try to test it out work on the
demographics with low
risk and kind of learn you know what
you’re going to do and how you’re going
to do it
for us the cons were that we started to
have
a blend of businesses uh the clients
didn’t
couldn’t differentiate between our
business and their business
so they would come to us with the
laundromat
issues and we’d like well we can afford
it
and then people would come to him for
wash and fold delivery
pick up and delivery um questions
and he would like well i can afford you
to
you know to me to tequila but like i
said there was somebody there monday
through friday
and she didn’t do pick up a delivery and
she didn’t have a credit card processing
she didn’t have all these tech
things that we had so it just ended up
being
too um
too much blurring of lines between the
two businesses so that’s something that
uh if you decide to go that route
that you should definitely um
find a way which i couldn’t figure out a
way we ended up leaving within our first
year
to to keep the the line separate
you know the lady that was there monday
through friday had her name
on the window but we didn’t want to
advertise
that way you know because we still
wanted to make sure our business was
completely separate even though we were
using their facilities
yes yeah yeah i mean
like i said i think there’s pros and
cons and it is a really great way to
just get your foot in the door right
like
if you’re trying to start a pickup and
delivery service you know
if you are lucky enough to live in a
house with
you know a washer and a dryer then you
can use that to a very small extent
you’re going to outgrow that real fast
yeah
you cannot do that type of capacity we
what depends on the demographics of
course of your area
we run a very large area
um because we are one of the only pickup
and delivery services in our area
and well that goes that route so
there’s no way we could we have to use
other facilities but yes yes yeah
it grows very fast
yeah i’m i’m sure i mean sometimes if i
get a little bit backed up on our
personal laundry it’ll take all day to
do laundry at my house just
our one house so yeah uh you know when
you’re doing other people’s laundry it
can it can add up real fast so
it is a great way to get started get
your foot in the door um
and you know sometimes i’ve even heard
where owners will
you know if they have if they have the
capability of doing this we’ll discount
a little bit for a bulk or something
like that so you might be able to even
negotiate some of that
yes um but you know i’ve talked to
owners who’ve tried this and from their
perspective
there’s pros and cons too you know and
so
you know some of the some of the pros
are hey you get somebody in there
who is you know cleaning the place up
and
right taking care of the place ideally
um some of the
some of the cons though is that you’re
at the
uh you know if if you don’t have
somebody who
is like you who’s gonna be doing what
they’re supposed to be doing yes
and they’re a little more wishy-washy
then you may not have somebody cleaning
up your place for you
and it may not be as nice and that’s
another
con because we got to a point of being
so busy
that we weren’t able you know we’d have
to
have another assistance we have
assistance with the laundry and
with the um washing fold
obviously with the with the laundry and
with the the um
cleaning of the place it ended up being
too much
so that’s another con yeah and that’s
that’s not a money-making part of your
business
right cleaning it up so that’s an extra
thing and you want to be focusing on the
money-making parts of your
exactly okay so you said i mean you said
you left
that partnership after you know less
than a year
so so what are you doing now what did
you what did you do from there
so from there we went and we started
just talking to other laundromat owners
and trying to see who else
we could to partner with
that and you know make our own little
deals so from there we made our own
deals
and uh we partnered with three
other laundromats so one we have
emergency access to overnight
and the other two are daytime access one
in the bay
and one where we’re centered at in
fairfield okay
okay is the are
are they just are they just getting the
turns from you or
is there anything else they have their
own attendance
yeah awesome that’s it they just we they
just get the
money in their machines yeah they just
get the turns that’s it good
it’s uh do you did you guys do a formal
like agreement or is it just kind of
it’s a verbal agreement
so right now we’re in verbal agreements
um
we soon uh
maybe going into formal more formal
agreements
but at this point i guess we do also
know that we’re dealing with
the virus so a lot of even though
they you know people still have to do
their laundry people are afraid to come
into the laundromats
so the ones that the main one that we
use
doesn’t have as much volume as they
would have had pre
corona so with doing that
keeping it informal it gives us the
flexibility to kind of like okay you
know
as your business starts to pick back up
you know if we need to pull back and
move to a different area you know our
space everything out between the two
then we can
you know so it’s kind of like we’re all
working together at this
point just to make it through we’re
making it through
the the virus and you know keeping their
doors open
and keeping us with um access to
keeping our doors open yeah yeah
yeah is there are there any uh just like
curiosity are there any
i’m just trying to think through like
what if you come in with like a lot of
laundry
and you’re taking up a lot of machines
or maybe you’re having to wait for
machines i mean have you run into that
at all
yes we have um but like
this particular one right now isn’t
doing the volume that they normally
probably would be doing pre uh pandemic
but we’re courteous like we’re not going
in there and just going to take up all
the washers and make it to where we want
them to have the terms
that way they keep their doors open for
us as well
we don’t want any complaints or you know
or anything like that so we are
very very curious and i believe that
comes from
us working prior you know in a more
formal
type of agreement you know but with
every uh with the two owners that
were three one of them is kind of more
formal because we have overnight access
to his
his uh laundry mat so of course that’s a
little
you know different because he’ll open
the doors for us but the other two
you know we we just you know make sure
they know who we are we talk to them we
let them know what we have going on you
know is it okay
of course you know they’re not they’re
not going to say no
yeah right uh no you can’t come do your
laundry like no you’re going to bring in
you know
2 000 pounds yeah wait what
you can come on down here and do the
mine that’s fine but they do have a
business to run
so we make sure that we are courteous to
their
clients and even though i don’t have to
and they have attendance there
if there’s a problem with the machine
and i know what to do i help them you
know if somebody
is confused about the dryers or i stop
and i you know i assist
because i mean i know and then and i’m
grateful you know that
we’re able to have the partnerships that
we do and that you know
and that they are are very they’re very
wonderful people you know
very wonderful owners and we haven’t had
any problems and we try not to give them
any problems as well
so you know there are things that we’ll
do just to kind of show our gratitude
like yeah you know we can help with that
or you know yeah
and things like that and just to you
know keep it keep it
good and beneficial for them as well
yeah and to be good people because
you’re good
right yeah okay so
uh all right so you’re working with
these right now three different laundry
mats
are you are you using like a
software how well first of all how are
people finding you how do you how do you
how does somebody order a pickup service
from you yes
so we are on yelp and google
and of course the social medias uh
instagram facebook
uh like i said we are a tech company as
well
so we have a lot of tech iterations
up there so they’re able to schedule
online
oh we also oh yeah with yelp they can
also schedule but we
from any of those sources they’re able
to schedule online directly
excuse me straight to our scheduler from
there
it gets pinged to our calendars and it
which pings to our logistics apps
that’s on the back end on the front end
all they do is they schedule
and then their credit cards are vaulted
for future
billing because of course we don’t know
how many pounds they have
and it’s all automated so they they get
auto auto build after
pickup and yeah we just kind of make it
seamless
and and that’s it they get text
reminders so they also get a text alert
when we’re on the way
and a text alert when it’s been
delivered and picked up
uh they also uh have
paperless invoice you know to their
email so they get invoices to their
email so everything is there
um everything is held on our end to
where we can pull up
you know their prior things there are
more integrations we want to add in the
future
but right now it’s pretty seamless
and like from the moment they schedule
to the moment that they are picked up it
can be completely contactless
and yeah but it’s pretty easy but they
find us
on online google yep instagram
facebook yeah awesome so are you doing
uh are you doing any marketing
or anything not at this moment we
actually are mostly word of mouth
and search yeah mostly word-of-mouth
search however
we will be um having an intern this
summer
that will be working with our social
media because i do know a lot of
uh you know behind the scenes tech
things and
helping them with digital marketing
right yes
yeah that’s awesome well that’s pretty
cool to be able to
kind of grow business and and not have
to worry about marketing up on the front
end and
be able to get going that’s awesome yes
uh okay i mean you this is interesting
because you dropped
a little just casually you just dropped
a little statement in there and you said
you know that you are a tech and
logistics
company right not a laundry company a
tech and logistics company
yes can you tell me a little more about
that what do you mean by that i sure
can so laundry is our product
we can actually run any product we can
run
anything from tissue we can do food we
can do laundry
anything anything that needs to be moved
from point a to point b we can move it
with our systems
however laundry is our product of choice
so that’s the logistics part like we
have of course it’s more complicated
than that but just
right now at the logistics part because
we we don’t have to even though we do
have our own employees that do the wash
we don’t uh vendor out that’s another
thing we don’t vendor out
i do it with assistance and even though
we have our own employees
we we can easily
vendor out if we chose to we don’t have
to actually touch
any wash and fold if we don’t want to we
can strictly just move it from point a
to point b
however there has been other startups
that have done that and it didn’t work
out i’ve done a lot of research
so we choose to have our own employees
in these different
settings that way we have more control
over the process
uh so yeah so there’s a lot of logistics
things
that go with that so um like i said the
alerts and then just the whole process
of mapping everything we service from
solano county
through san leandro so that’s about a 50
mile radius
yes and we only go up one way there’s
actually a whole other side that we can
right now we go up one one way up to 680
and it’s a lot in between there
there’s a lot of cities and we have to
kind of map out
the routes and where to go and it’s
pretty complicated
it’s pretty complicated especially
traffic flow and in the last year with
dealing with
corona there’s been so many changes
to the traffic flow that it’s been a lot
of work we’ve been focusing more on
logistics than anything else
yeah no kidding yeah it has been pretty
crazy
um and you know then integrating all
those systems together
so with the tech we’re constantly trying
to find
new and improved ways using technology
to streamline the process um on both
ends on the consumer end
and on the business end to where it
would be um
easier a lot of the systems that they
are putting out right now
are actually kind of complicated so if
you own a laundromat and you want to
set up um a pick-up-and-delivery service
and you want to have some of these
different things
it’s a lot of work like if you don’t
have experience with technology or
somebody that can assist you with it
the integrations and then you know
there’s always something going wrong
with it like lately we
have to go through and try to fix a few
things because some of
our clientele had been getting an alert
that we were like 40 minutes away
we were actually like five minutes away
you know so and that’s not
that’s not good
they’re still wearing the clothes they
want to wash when you show up at the
door
they’re like they’re like what do you
mean they got another thing to say hey
we missed you
that’s never good so there’s a lot of
that that goes into it i i really spend
most of my time dealing with the tech
and logistics part
but um it’s just making it a a process
that is easy on the consumer end
and also easy on the business end
um one day we hope to be able to put
together these systems
after our trial and errors for other
laundromats because it really is
it’s really complicated it and it’s a
lot of work
and the tech part you’re always having
to go through
and troubleshoot something you know
so it’s just so and it’s it can be
pricey you know if you’re going with
somebody else’s system
so it’s a lot it’s a lot of work so in
doing this i’m
you know even though you know we’ll be
helping the competition
the goal is to make it easier on
everybody like we do want to see other
businesses thrive as well
you know so yeah and i cannot get a bad
rep because you know if
if they get a bad rep and they’re like
oh i don’t ever want to try laundry
service again yeah
totally totally you know yeah
here i am standing here in my underwear
because you said you weren’t going to be
here for 40 minutes and
you’re knocking on my door
uh that’s funny are you doing um
are you doing residential are you doing
only commercial are you doing both
we do both we do um residential and
commercial
um we are going to in the next couple of
months be starting
a subscription service with our
residential to get a beta we’re going to
give it a try and see how that works out
just to make it easier on the budgeting
and things so you have to have us back
so we’ll be able to tell you how that
goes
yeah oh yeah i’m i’m excited right now
like i’m excited to hear how your
business is going to grow and just i
mean if you’re already
running a nice business with no
marketing or anything
you know i’m you know sky’s the limit
for you guys
like you said there there are a lot of
cities yes
around there and there’s a yes it’s
pretty densely populated so it is
there’s a lot of business to be had it
is it is i know
we haven’t even touched our we’re still
in our our
beginning stage yeah yeah
that’s exciting right it is very
exciting so
very um very bay area of you to be in
beta
you know for your subscription service
very very
yeah yeah you have to remind me uh after
this i need to
uh connect you up with mark vlaskamp
he’s doing something
similar he’s out in austin he came on
the podcast yes
and that’s another good area yeah and he
yeah
actually a lot of similarities to the
bay area in austin yeah
but he’s doing something similar he
doesn’t have a location and he’s
um you know he’s got a pretty booming
pickup and delivery service yeah yeah it
would be a good one for you to
definitely definitely i love the network
yes yeah yeah and if
if you’re listening you haven’t listened
to mark’s podcast i mean it’s an awesome
episode so i’ll put a link in the
description or in the show notes
so you can check that one out just in
case but speaking of not having a
location
are you guys ever planning on getting a
location or are you gonna
um keep utilizing uh you know other
people’s locations
do you have a plan there yet no um i
have a halfway
plan yeah that’s fine yeah you know
because
we actually are growing very fast very
very fast so i don’t foresee
us being able to continue this
way but i would still like to
keep my partnerships in a way so we’ll
probably
just have some volume there and then
move the rest to our own facility in the
future yes yes
so we do have to have yeah yeah
and i think it makes a lot of sense you
know once you have a certain volume
especially if you’re planning on
focusing on pickup and delivery
you get cheaper space uh
you know in like an industrial area set
up yeah yes
there where there’s no walk-in customers
but you’re not focusing on that
anyways exactly yeah you can run that
and
and you’re not paying the retail premium
for doing exactly
yes yeah it’s pretty significant yeah
and we’re located in fairfield
california
and most people are not familiar with
fairfield california but it’s actually a
big hub spot for logistics businesses
we have a lot of factories a lot of
industrial space so we’ve been keeping
an eye out
corona has kind of slowed things down
you know with that
but um everything happens for a reason
so it gives us an opportunity to really
step back
from the busyness i mean not that it’s
not busy it’s definitely still busy
but it just gives us a time to you know
kind of recenter and focus
and and focus more on our our future
goals because you know we do want to be
able to help
as many people as we can that’s the main
thing of our business to be able to
give people that peace of mind and
freedom
to not have to worry about the longest
chore on their list
yeah yeah oh my gosh man i don’t
so many people hate laundry yes i’m one
of them so
um yeah well awesome uh okay
the i had one more question darn it um
i mean i have a lot more questions but i
had one that i wanted to ask
right now but i can’t remember what it
is because i’m getting old um okay
if i think of it i’ll uh i’ll i’ll shoot
it out there to you but uh
we have a section on the podcast called
down to business
[Applause]
and down to business just an opportunity
for us to get to know
your business a little more uh in a
little more detail to see
you know what exactly you’re up to over
there in the bay area
um okay so you’re in the bay area we
already know that um and you own
zero laundromats yes zero laundromats i
like that
uh when did you when did you start this
oh 2017.
2017. yes yes yeah um okay cool
so you’ve been doing it for almost four
years now four years
yeah wow wow okay
that’s awesome uh yeah
what i do
i mean you’re at different locations and
stuff so you may not know how much it
costs to do laundry
does it vary
it does vary it does vary um usually
within
50 cents of each other per location
there the 60 pounders typically range
between
um 6.75
to about 7.25 okay 750 depending on
because there’s some locations that do
upwards of 750.
the uh 30 pounders
are wait are those 40 pounders
30 40 pounds
nobody really knows how much 40 pounds
of laundry is anyways
including me so
575 to 625 you know so they’re right in
those type of ranges
per machine um so
when we do it of course you know things
are separated out
so it’s
we charge per pound when we’re washing
we are looking at um like if they have a
a
load of wipes and a load of you know
colors darks and so on
we put those together so sometimes
one person may have you know
two or three or however many machines um
of course we try to convince as much as
we can to save on costs
because we we are um
you know we don’t have our own machine
so we do want to try to stay on cost
there but we also try to make sure that
the clients
close are still separated out as well
[Music]
so
her clients well not to say per client
we spend about 10 to 15 percent of our
income
excuse me of our gross revenue on
machines
okay that’s not that bad actually i
would have expected it to be higher
yes yeah that’s good it’s good
well oh what kind of poundage are you
doing like how many pounds of
laundry that’s more of like pickup
delivery metric
yes yes so poundage we
do on average
about five to
six sometimes 700 pounds a day
um we run three days
on our schedule but um so that’s another
thing that’s unique about our business
we don’t run seven days a week
we run um three days for pickups
but we have four wash days
so yeah because of the two day and next
day turn around
so we run monday monday tuesday
and thursday with wednesday being a wash
day
and we
yeah about five to seven hundred pounds
uh a day
that’s pretty good yeah that’s pretty
good it could be for some days you know
it just kind of depends because we do
have some temporary
you know clients that come and go and
they might we have some
contracts that aren’t all the time and
then i’m also trying to think like okay
pre corona like right now
there’s a lot of businesses that have
shut down unfortunately that won’t be
coming back to us
but we do we do pretty well we do pretty
well
yeah that’s pretty that’s pretty awesome
um
i forgot to ask you this before but with
your speaking of your logistics company
how are you keeping track of everybody’s
laundry you know like yeah you’re going
to different locations and yeah
you know what do you just whack the
desk how do you how do you keep track of
everything
so everything is uh scanned in
and i kind of list it so all the
businesses go
in one area and all the
smaller residentials go in another area
and then we have the large bulk pickups
from usually they’re like your families
that you know once a month or
just need to get it down that one time
and
those buildings 32 pairs of underwear
yeah
just wear one day and then give them all
yep
so we separate out separated out by size
in business so residential has two
different types
and the businesses have one type and
then from there it gets separated again
who’s right now we’re not doing same
days because of
the virus we need more time to implement
our
safety procedure we’ve always had the
high safety procedures but now you know
we’ve taken it up a step
because of those sensitive clients i’ve
told you about before so we’ve kind of
always had them so it wasn’t a major
change for us on that area
but from there then it separated again
into
who goes back next day who goes back in
two days
yes and then it’s it’s all input into
our systems
that’s where the system i built so it’s
kind of like it’s kind of yeah
where are you storing stuff like when
you do we do have a storage
no we haven’t we do have it storage yeah
we have our own storage building
okay yeah okay i was gonna say man is it
in your garage right now
in your in your spare room uh
awesome well the rest of these are the
just out of curiosities this is really
irrelevant but i curiosity the
laundromats that you’re partnering with
are they coin stores are you putting
quarters in all these machines all day
long
uh some of them are one of them is
the well two of them excuse me two of
them have coins one of them
is a card or they have a part option yes
yeah
okay do you use the card option or do
you use the coin
oh card store going back and forth
okay the one that we use the most is
mostly coin based
um and you know we just use the coins
i’ll run down to the bank
so because we know we’re also in the
middle of a coin shortage as well
a lot of things going on there but um
yeah
but you know since they know who we are
if they if they happen to run out of
quarters and i run out of quarters and
i’ll just like hey
we’re out of quarters and they’ll refill
the machines for us
yeah yeah well you could see that being
actually like
one actual problem for an owner if
you’re coming in
with 500 pounds of laundry that’s a lot
of quarters and you could empty them out
real quick and there was exactly another
person yeah right and we don’t want to
do that so we usually bring in our own
yeah man quarters are heavy though those
they are five they are
yeah oh gosh man those are so heavy
well you should see the tellers face the
first few times we come in now they get
used to us but they’re like
how many quarters yeah
i’ll tell you man it’s really tough to
look
cool walking out of the bank when you’re
carrying
five hundred dollars a quarters under
each arm you just
i just i can’t impress any of the
tellers walking out of the bank with
those things because they’re just
i don’t know if i need to bulk up or
what thankfully our business account
says laundry service so they don’t ask
too many questions
yeah well my favorite is i i used to
come in with my
when i first bought my first laundromat
it the change machine only accepted ones
and five so i come up with a huge stack
of ones and fives to the bank
wow i found out down the line a teller
finally told me there was a rumor that i
was stripping
that’s where i got all these ones and
fives
so i took that as a compliment but
all right we’re getting derailed here uh
let’s get back to this thing this is
serious business over here
yes uh all right we have a section
called
secret sauce listen up it’s the secret
sauce
and secret sauce is this what’s one
thing that’s working well in your pickup
and delivery business that other
owners who are doing pickleball delivery
could utilize in their business and help
them out
well honestly the thing that i think is
the
most important that um just in
conversation with other laundromat
owners and people wanting to start
picking delivery i think it’s overlooked
and it’s something very simple very
basic and it doesn’t cost you anything
and that’s taking the time with your
customer like really getting to know the
demographics of your area and what their
needs
are um i think it gets overlooked so you
know like it gets overlooked you’re like
okay i got the laundromat and i’m
already doing this and i see the people
that come in
but taking that time to kind of ask them
how their day is and kind of you know
see what else
they could need and getting in the
community and seeing what can be
provided
to really be able to connect with your
clientele i think that gets overlooked
when it’s the most vital thing
is to be able to see what else you can
do for them
rather what they can do for you um
as far as anything else learn as slowly
like day
by day take some time to learn a little
bit more about technology um things are
going that way
you’re still gonna have clients like we
do have clientele older clients that
call us and like hey i don’t know
anything about this check
help me out right yeah but
they’d like not having to write a check
or to um
just be able to put the card there and
it’s there and they don’t ever have to
worry about the other children can and
they don’t ever have to worry about it
you know and we’ll call them up you know
if there’s any issues uh they
they like you know the easiness of it
after they get past the first
steps of it but uh it’s everything’s
going that way so just taking a little
bit of time
to to to learn
about um how to use tech to make it
to make your business easier for
clients like the quarters like we’re
speaking with the quarters if that
laundromat had
um had a card machine you know where i
can just do a card even if it’s one
even if it’s their card and not my
credit card then
you know how some have like their cards
then
that would be so much easier we probably
would do even more at that particular
laundry mat because i have to worry
about the quarters you know
right yeah you know like just those
little things like that
to make it easier i think implementing
some tech into your
system does help a lot it helps you be
able to keep track of things
as well you know with your business
those are awesome
tips and i have a genius idea for you
since you’re such a serial entrepreneur
since those laundromat owners are not
upping their technology i think it’s
time for you to invent
a speed quarter loader so that you can
load those machines up real fast
and just really get good at that
yes that’s funny
i’m always looking for new ways to
improve yes go ahead honey
so sorry no that’s okay uh awesome okay
so i’m looking forward to that and i’ll
buy one when you get one
okay good uh okay we have another
section called
pro tips pro tips
and pro tips is hey you know let’s keep
it uh
pick up and delivery specific but what
advice would you have somebody who was
wanting to start pick up and delivery
service
so wanted to start a pickup delivery
service um
advice to give them
if they want to start it the way that i
did
not having their own machines
is to take the time to go in and network
with
the laundromat owners take time to learn
a little bit about the business you know
like i was you know naive about it but
not 100 because i did have
a mentor you know someone that could
kind of guide me
and if i was doing you know something
right or wrong of course we you’re going
to make mistakes
but just to have that guidance help so
you
you know go in and speak with them and
then that way
also you don’t leave any sour taste in
their mouth
you know like like who is this you know
like yeah they’re happy you’re bringing
stuff in but then
also be courteous you know things like
that but pro tips
i would say um research
really research i you know a lot of
people look and they’re like
like they look at the business they’re
like oh well i can wash clothes you know
it should be pretty easy
but it’s not it’s a lot of work the
laundry’s heavy
um you have to have storage space you
want to make sure um i go
and research the detergents that i’m
using on the um
oh i forgot the name of it is the epa
site but it’s a site and they have all
the different type of detergents there
and their ratings so you know a through
f and
just to kind of you know but take that
time take a little bit of time
to research what you want to do and try
to find a niche
if you can’t and then hone in on that
and then
then you’ll be okay you know um try to
find something that sets you apart
from everybody else i like that
yeah i think that’s really good um
advice you know especially at the end
there when you you know find your niche
find something that sets you apart and
go from there because you can always
scale
bigger yes but if you start too big
it’s too broad it’s like that hole if
you’re trying to target everybody you’re
targeting
right and so you know start start in a
niche like i mean i love what you’re
doing you know the eco-friendly
yes customer and you know if you can
expand it from there you can expand it
to
you know different kinds of services or
however you
but starting in that niche and really
nailing that
allows you the opportunity to grow from
there so i like that
yes okay we have uh our last section
called recommended resources and that is
you know
i mean it’s what it sounds like but do
you have any resources that you
recommend
uh to help people grow themselves or
their business yes
i do um i don’t know if i can get all
the titles right
i’m gonna try but um i definitely
recommend
again i’m big on research i’m big on
reading and learning more
uh so although we haven’t had to do
much advertising or in it we’re mostly
word of mouth
i do spend a lot of time reading and
studying
um how to write how to copyright and how
to
write advertising and do digital
marketing and things like that
uh of course regular marketing you know
paper marketing and
other type of advertising is very
important as well but
um with our our logo
and our brand colors we you know i took
the time to research
brand psychology you know like
psychology of the colors and make sure
it represents
what i want our business to represent
so taking the time to really build your
brand even if you are a single
location you know build a brand around
it like build
yourself up and build a name for
yourself but read
uh there’s one called influence
it could have something else with it i
just remember influence
and um another one that’s called
what is it called it has something to do
with a cat
i’m so sorry don’t strangle the cat i
believe or something like that something
about a cat i remember
i’ll get it for you so you can add it
into the the notes there
yeah yeah no don’t strangle the that’s
an awesome title for a book
yes but i do a lot of market research
a lot of research not market research
well i do that too but a lot of
reading on marketing so i just say pick
up
whatever you can on marketing digital
marketing
copywriting and sales and
read as much as you can um if i hadn’t
been a little more prepared with i would
have had all the titles that i have
like a ton of books i literally buy
books
every two weeks at the most and that’s
with four kids homeschooling
and running a full-time business on a
part-time schedule
and i still literally go like they know
me at barnes noble and always having
books
in here you know so it’s like continue
to just
anything you can find on copywriting
marketing um
and uh digital marketing yeah
yeah awesome awesome awesome and
and ironic that you don’t really do any
marketing but you’re doing
a lot of reading yeah but you will be
doing marketing
right but you’re like i said we’re a lot
of um word of mouth
but i talk my husband we talk to our
clientele often
that experience that you leave them with
is your marketing
so that’s why we make sure i
you know don’t do anything to leave a
sour taste of course you can’t please
everybody but you know like for the most
part
i am who i am but i use those
pointers in my real life every day in my
talking to my clientele and the way i
answer the phone
i answer the phone with a smile even if
they can’t see me
right so that way it’s portrayed that
way you know like they can hear it in my
voice
so all those type of things are part of
my marketing yeah
which ties right back into your secret
sauce so yes very nicely
interwoven together it just makes it
sound like you’ve really thought through
all this stuff so
yeah i have i know i can tell
well hey this has been awesome it’s been
so cool to hear
you know just your path to get to this
weird little industry that we’re in
and uh and then how you’ve been doing it
like how you’ve been
running your business and um you know
and growing it and
yeah just everything that you’ve been
learning along the way and appreciate
you coming on and sharing your story
with us sharing your experience with us
and your in your wisdom and knowledge
with us i know it’s going to help a lot
of people out because i get
asked all the time how to start a pick
up and delivery service but people who
don’t own laundromats so
uh so this is awesome and there’s a lot
for us laundromat owners who want to
either start or or grow our pickup and
delivery businesses
a lot of good stuff in there so thank
you so much for sharing
last question for you is you know
there’s probably people listening here
who want to pick your brain a little bit
more
ask you questions that i didn’t ask or
or whatever what’s the best way they can
get a hold of you
well the best way is they can email me
so they can email me
at our business email which you’ll have
linked there but it’s you know
in gibson at leastwatch.com they can
also find it on our website as well
they can send a comment i always
answer my emails and
anything on messenger so if they find us
on facebook or instagram and they want
to send me a message
they’re more than welcome to um i love
talking business like you see i’m a
serial entrepreneur so i’m always
always something you know i love talking
when people ask me you know well tell me
about yourself i’m like well
i’m a wife mother of four homeschooler
and a business owner they’re like well
okay but
like tell me about you i’m like but that
is me like
everything like you want to know more
about my business or what
like homeschooling or business
that’s funny awesome well i’ll have
links to
all that in the show notes and real
quick i
lied right to your face uh i have
another question
okay what are the name livewash or yeah
where did the name livewash come from
yes so lave means to wash
it’s just an old english word okay so i
i’m very big
like i said with the yeah yeah
so i’m really big on definitions because
of the education part like i love
definitions and um i
have the worst time with coming up with
names but i wanted something easy simple
to
you know because i mean most people when
they call us they’re already stressed
out with the pile of laundry last thing
they want to do is
remember a laundry name yeah right
it’s you know four letters very simple
and it is what it is it says what it is
yeah it’s the cleanest four-letter word
out there
awesome well thank you again so much
uh check this is this has been a lot of
fun i don’t know
hope it hope other people are having as
much fun as we are
i definitely enjoyed myself well make
sure you check out legwash.com
uh nikila thank you so much for coming
on and
cannot wait you know i’m up in the bay
area all the time so i’ll have to
you know hunt you down or
open my front door
uh can’t wait but thanks again for
coming on we will definitely have you
back on
uh after you’ve exploded your business
yeah
about that too
i’m looking forward to that all right
we’ll talk to you soon
bye okay bye all right how fun was that
with nikila
she is awesome i love love love her
entrepreneur spirit
some people say that and they don’t
really mean it she said it and she
means it because she has been all over
the place with
entrepreneurship and pretty cool that
she’s landed
uh with lave laundry or lave wash
pretty cool that she landed with lave
wash uh doing pick up and delivery for
laundry in it uh just a very
uh entrepreneurial way of doing it um so
very cool if you have questions for her
definitely reach out to her because
she’s learned a lot not just about
laundry pickup and delivery but about
business in general so she’d be an
awesome resource
somebody awesome to have in your network
so i always encourage you pick one thing
from today’s episode there’s
a bunch of things that you can take from
every episode but pick one and put it
into action
for yourself this week and as we stack
that on top of each other every single
week
putting one thing into action it’s
really going to lead to a lot of
transformation
for us in a positive way as long as
you’re picking good things
i guess so yeah so for me one of the
things i love that she said it’s so
simple it’s so basic
and it’s so easy to forget as we’re busy
entrepreneurs we’re busy business owners
um but one of the things she really uh
emphasized is in her secret sauce she
said
you know take time to spend time with
your customers and to really hear them
and to hear
you know what it is that they need how
you can
uh serve them better um so taking time
with customers i think
is something that’s easy to overlook
sometimes when we’re
busy sometimes i get so focused on
things that i’m trying to do
even even though i’m a people person i
get so focused on
doing whatever it is i’m trying to do
that i forget to
pause and take time to just talk to
customers every now and then
and see you know how they are and who
they are
so that’s my takeaway what’s your
takeaway let me know
head to the forums on my resource.com
forums and let me know your takeaway
over there i want to hear what kind of
action you guys are taking
all right hope you guys enjoyed this
episode and i know you did
and we’ll see you again next week as we
kick off
year number two of the laundromat
resource podcast we’ll talk to you then
[Music]

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