Want revenue growth? You’re missing out right now! 🤷‍♂️

Hi Wash Weekly family,

Did you know that just by adding commercial laundry service* to your existing laundry business, you could easily ramp up your revenue and grow your business?

According to a recent CLA survey, only 31% of laundromats offer commercial laundry service…

…which means there’s a WHOLE LOT of opportunity out there remaining for your business.

*for our purposes, commercial refers to offering your laundry service to local emerging and mid-size businesses across all industries– unrelated to other commercial laundry and/or linen rental companies.

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So why is offering commercial wash-and-fold laundry services a no-brainer?

Here’s what I’ve found to be true:

1. They’re less labor-intensive.

With commercial, less time is spent washing, folding, and packaging when compared to residential laundry care. Here’s why.

There’s no longer a need to separate articles of clothing or look at individual clothing tags. Imagine all the time saved from NOT having to:

• Inspect every single article of clothing’s care tag

• separate adults’, men’s, women’s, and kids’ clothes

• wash rugs separately

• deal with custom residential packaging

A natural consequence of these aspects is also a lowering of your labor and supply costs.

Reasons why service to commercial clients is less labor-intensive than residential clients are abundant.

2. They create steady streams of business.

Commercial service gives you low-maintenance recurring orders on a weekly or monthly basis.*

*Just make sure to agree on length-of-agreement terms in advance so that you have long-term retainers onboarded!

3. There’s more volume per pick-up.

• Your drivers can pick up more weight from individual businesses than they do going to several homes for residential services.

So what kinds of businesses can you offer your services to?

Here’s a list of the industries we’ve had immediate success with:

• Bars

  • all those bar towels…so easy to clean and fold!

• Salons and barbershops

  • towels and capes, galore!

• Yoga studios / gyms / personal trainers

  • endless towels and mats

• Spas

  • Towels, sheets, and robes… all fairly easy cleans!

(Beware: some spas use massage oils that stain linens and can be difficult to get out.) Make sure to discuss this when evaluating for pricing-- more about pricing in a future issue.

• Vintage Shops (one of our personal favorites) 

  • These kinds of businesses need the used items they acquire cleaned before they sell them. Here’s how you can build a great long-lasting partnership with them:

    • The Vintage Shop Playbook - Keep an eye on your inbox for it this week.

• Check out more of our favorite commercial clients here!

Note:

Our list is not by any means exhaustive, but we do want to tell you to be wary when it comes to working with restaurants. With the restaurant industry, you’re dealing with not only the difficulty of removal of grease and oil from cooking, but also with the danger of spontaneous combustion and dryer fires from those same oils.

It’s already happened to us on three occasions, so take our word for it and proceed with caution if you decide to work with restaurants and other food and hospitality establishments.

For more on safety precautions for your laundry service, don’t miss the reads below. 👇

• https://unimac.com/news/4-tips-to-help-reduce-the-risk-of-spontaneous-combustion-in-the-laundry-room/

• https://www.hklaundry.com/resources/articles/preventing-laundromat-fires-spontaneous-combustion-in-dryers/

But so long as you’re careful with your process, you can keep your employees as well as your peace of mind safe.

So if you’re looking to increase revenue, commercial businesses could be your gateway to huge growth! And the best part is, they’re just so easy to add to your already existing services.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this week’s topic– let me know in this issue’s survey.

And for more on the garment care business, feel free to connect with me on Youtube and Linkedin!

‘Til then, I’ll be here airing out some not-so-dirty laundry every Sunday!– Waleed 🏴‍☠️

INTHE NEWS

• Zips doubles down in Washington, DC area

• Insiders Talk Laundry Industry Today, Tomorrow

• Understanding Your Rights When Leasing

Together With Laundry Owners Warehouse

Laundry Owners Warehouse, “People You Trust”, delivers customers what they want when they want it with the highest level of pride and warmth with years of coin laundry ownership experience. Committed to “Laundroteurs”, the distributor is a “One Stop Shop” with over 74,000 replacement parts, a full line of soap and supplies, and a wide variety of used commercial laundry equipment, all in stock and available at LOWlaundry.com, the company’s newly designed flagship website. Laundry Owners Warehouse also sells new commercial laundry equipment and is a proud member of the Dexter Laundry family, “Made in the USA” since 1894.

EVENTS

• Reintroducing Your “New” Store to the Community, November 30 @ 2:00 pm CST

• Free Laundry Day – Abilene, TX, December 7 @ 2:00 CST

• For New Investors: Getting Into the Laundry Business, December 13 @ 11:00 am CST

INTERESTING READ

The Tipping Point, Gladwell identifies 3 “rules of epidemics” that determine whether something tips and spreads like wildfire. These 3 rules will determine how far your campaign succeeds (or fails).

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Don't spend so much time trying to choose the perfect opportunity, that you miss the right opportunity.-Michael Dell