How I found Laundromats..."Me and George Clooney"

Better to be lucky than good...

A Little About Me….. and how Laundromats came to me

HOW I found Laundromats



Without a doubt, this question is asked of me almost every day.  I would be lying to you if I woke up in 6^th grade one morning and said to myself, “Hey, I want to own a string of Laundromats!”  I was just like every other kid.  I got into plenty of mischief.  I had 6^th grader dreams: I wanted to be in military.  I wanted to shoot guns.  I wanted to be a spy like James Bond.  I wanted to get the pretty girl at the end of the movie.  I wanted to be rich.  I wanted to drive fast cars, boats, and motorcycles.  Remarkably, I’m proud to say, that in the first part of my short life, I was able to accomplish all these dreams in some way, shape, or form.







I only drove it to get my haircut, (true story)

But one thing has stuck with me through all of these years.  It was an experience I had at one of my many jobs.



Like most Americans, I’ve had a lot of jobs.  Jobs that many people would consider careers. When I looked around my place of employment there were a number of “fortysomethings” doing everything they could to keep their head down, nose clean, and that steady paycheck coming in. I never really cared for the trappings of a traditional career ladder.  At an early age, I knew that it was against my nature to join the sycophantic throngs in their quest for advancement.  I would go from one employer to another, learn the ins-and-outs of a given position, get bored and move on.  It took me a long time to find my first career.



Nonetheless, at one of my stops on my own corporate parade was working as a merchant teller at a bank.   Although I knew I wouldn’t be receiving a gold watch from the bank during my retirement party, I liked this job because I was able to interact with the people I identified with the most—the small business owners!  I was able to talk with rich and poor, Owner and employee. Some were haggard and some didn’t seem to have a care in the world.  Some had employees and some were a solo operation.  I enjoyed my time with all of them.  There was only one that really stuck out for me, though.

Twice a week, we had a very distinguished gentleman who would come in and deposit a little less than $10,000 every visit on a consistent basis. (Turns out even that amount was significant).  The money that he brought to the bank was typically in small denominations such as $1s and $5s (wrapped in $100 and $500 dollar strapped bundles mind you!).  Most of the time, his stacks of bills were accompanied by bags of change.  Ironically, he would transport the money in a laundry basket, although I didn’t know the significance at the time.  He was so meticulous with the money that he deposited and he did it in such a volume, that the bank manager told me that we didn’t need to run the small bills through our counting machine, which was very rare.  He was constantly spot on. He always went to the window of my colleague, even if I wasn’t busy. He was very friendly and unpretentious.  He didn’t give the impression that he was someone special or unique. Immediately, I was obsessed with getting to know this gentleman and find out how I could bring laundry baskets of money to a bank on a bi-weekly basis as well. (I would learn that his deposits were always just shy of $10,000 because of the US Government’s policy whereby banks must report cash transactions at this level and above on a special form). This CTR (Currency Transaction Report) was meant to keep drug dealers from operating without scrutiny, but unfortunately places legitimate businesspeople under the same microscope.

After a while, I got to know this gentleman pretty well on a professional basis.  We would make small talk and he came to trust me and he started to ask for me whenever he came in for a deposit.  Eventually, we developed a little bit of a rapport.  Of course the first time I saw his deposit I asked my co-worker, “Where in the hell does he get all that cash?” the answer was simple: “He owns Laundromats.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OlLYxrWFNA&index=5&list=PL3175DEE28AC2491A

Not knowing at the time what type of resource I had in front of me, I used this new information only to make small talk and provide a high level of customer service to this man so that he would continue to call on me.   In the movie version of this story, we would deepen our rapport and build a bond that would eventually result in a multi-million dollar empire that would end in a hail of bullets, but that is for Hollywood to write.  In the real life version, my time at the bank serving this gentleman didn’t amount to much. Not Yet.

          - George Clooney would play me.

As time went by, my employment pattern was the same at the bank as it was with all of my previous jobs.  My budding need for freedom, both economic and social, lead me to move on to the next adventure. 

Throughout my restless search for economic independence, I would think about the experiences I shared with my wealthy Laundromat baron.  Eventually, I owned several different types businesses, none of them even remotely similar to owning a Laundromat.   Life was good to me and by the mid-point of the new millennium; I was in a position to be semi-retired.  I had accomplished a lot in my life, but I wasn’t ready to call it a day.  I had too much energy and passion to just sit on the sidelines and let life go by.  As I sat on the beach of my home in Mexico, pondering my next move I thought about this gentleman.  I decided that it was the perfect time in my life to give some serious consideration to owning Laundromats. Cash Flow, Freedom, another oar in the water.  

I have to admit that I caught the bug immediately.  As soon as I made my mind up, I started to do as much research as I could do on my own.  To my surprise, in an industry as old as coin-operated Laundromats, there was very little organized information to be gained.  So I went old school. I got on the phone. After making calls and a little digging, I realized I needed to create a network of people to learn from.  The first professional in this industry that I could think of was a distributor.  I’ll get into the importance of this type of professional relationship later in the blog, but for now it is imperative to know that this is someone who supplies all of the equipment in a Laundromat.  The first call that I made was to a very kindly gentleman who, for whatever reason, took an interest in me and eventually decided to take me under his wing. 

Initially, it was tough to pin him down, but from the other phone calls I was making, this person was clearly an information broker in Arizona for Laundromats.  Eventually, I got a hold of him and after some awkward introductory conversation, we seemed to find some common ground and we struck up a relationship immediately.  Our first call took about two hours.  I was surprised he had the time and the inclination to discuss the business with me at such length.  I was a nobody, but I was appreciative of the time he was willing to give me. For all he knew I was a piker, and would go on to open a chain of pizza parlors or nail salons!    

Out of a two hour conversation, the irony, though, came at the end of our chat, he asked me “Why Laundromats?”  I told him the same story I just recounted to you about the gentleman that I knew who deposited all of this cash  at the bank that I worked at in a former life and how after striking up a professional relationship with that man, that I had always been intrigued by him and his business.  Just like out of that Hollywood script, he said, “Oh yeah, I know him.  His name was Leroy.”  I was stunned. “That’s right!” I remembered,   I immediately asked him “how did you know that?”  His answer was, “That gentleman was me!”

His name is Leroy Aman. Fifteen years had passed, and Leroy’s thinning gray hair was all but gone. In the time since our frequent exchanges at the bank, Leroy had parlayed his involvement in Coin Operated Laundromats into quite an empire. I would come to learn that he had a genius system whereby he would run a Laundromat for years, paying his rent, waiting and watching.  He wasn’t necessarily looking for other Laundromats, although he did that too, but he was observing the landlord of his building until the time was right to purchase the property, in many instances an entire strip mall, property and all. He turned the cash flow from his existing stores into substantial real estate wealth.  By the time we would re-connect Leroy turned his 18 Laundromats, and numerous coin-operated car washes into a family dynasty. Believe it or not he even owned controlling interest in a BANK OF HIS OWN!  But it all started with his Laundromats. He was now a distributor for Huebsch, which is a reputable commercial laundry equipment manufacturer. Telling me that he was ready to retire, he put me in touch with his son, Randy who was about 50 years old at the time. I was reluctant to reach out to Randy, at first, due to my ingrained distain for “rich kids”.  But you only need to look at the dedication of my book to see that Leroy had raised quite a man.  And Randy Aman became my direct mentor in the industry. - I was off and running.

What you should be thinking by now is “Great.  What a nice story for Danny, he should go sell it to Fox and get that movie into production, but how does this help me?”

Even James Bond needs a little luck every now and then. I had Leroy, and now you have me.

***

The object of this blog, all of my seminars and DVD is to help you skip the parts of my story where I stumbled around in the dark trying to find answers to some very basic questions.  Even with Randy’s tutelage I made a lot of mistakes getting started in this industry.  I want you to read and learn from my mistakes and not make them yourself, and if you do, hopefully you’ll use this blog as a reference as to how to get you out of the mess you may find yourself in.

I also want to give you my perspective.  I don’t have all the answers.   But I wish I had a guy like me to refer to as I was going through my journey.  I had no reference material at all!  I was winging it and by sheer determination I’ve gotten to this point—but it didn’t have to be this hard.

Ultimately, the reason why I shared my story was to show you that anything can happen when you get in the game. How is it that a penniless immigrant can come to America and become a doctor while driving a cab? How is it that a guy born in Alabama goes to public school and works his entire life to earn someone else money? If you believe in yourself and have a passion to succeed good things will come your way. 

***

As I stated in my profile of you in the Preface, you are a self-starter and you have a passion for ownership in your future, but you may not be totally convinced that Laundromats are a great idea.  Let’s face it, Laundromats aren’t sexy.  Most people view them as low-class and a place where dangerous people, who live in dangerous places, go to do their wash.  You may or may not be right, but let me tell you what I see.

CLICK TO WATCH ANOTHER SUCCESS

AKRON, OHIO.

The first thing that I think of when I decided on sinking my own time and money into Laundromats was economic cycles.  As you read my Preface, you know that we are in the middle of the Mother of all economic down cycles.  How have I been doing since the country sunk into the Great Recession?  Let me tell you, my Laundromats have been recession proof!  As I’m having my morning coffee, reading the stock quotes in my local newspaper, it doesn’t matter if the stock market is up or down.  It doesn’t matter if I’m reading about tax rates getting higher or falling lower (let me give you a hint, they won’t be going down!).  It doesn’t matter if our country is fighting a foreign war or not, people need to air their dirty laundry—and I’m not talking about TMZ.  I’m talking about good old American dirty overalls, dirty t-shirts, and dirty jeans.  Whether the person coming into your Laundromat is employed or “in-between jobs” they need a clean pair of socks and a clean button-up shirt.  If they don’t have the means to do that in their own domicile, they need a clean, safe environment to do it outside of their home.  And guess what, I make that happen!  I allow my customers to clean their clothes in a safe and dignified environment.  I like to believe that it might be the most dignified environment they enter on a consistent basis. Laundry isn’t sexy.

When I am in my stores and I hear my customers pick up their cell phones, it doesn’t take long to figure out what the exchange is about, even though I’m hearing only one side of the conversation.  It never fails.  Very rarely do they tell the truth.  Very rarely do they say they are sitting at the Laundromat. 

Here is how one half of these exchanges usually go:

“Hello”

“Not much”

“Yea, I’m good. Just runnin’ some errands.”

Blah, Blah, Blah...

Laundromats aren’t glamorous. Laundry is a chore. Not having a washer and dryer is not something most people want to advertise, even to their closest friends, but I don’t care as long as they keep coming back.  The old saying goes; it isn’t wise to air your dirty laundry.  In this case, that is true, but it doesn’t matter to me.  I’m proud.  I know that it isn’t sexy.  But I deliver a very vital and essential service to people who appreciate it.  Whether or not they admit it in polite conversation, it’s that conversation that eventually attracts those friends to my stores. The guys on Madison avenue call that Word of Mouth.

It is something that everyone needs to do!  Especially those people in a lower income area.  Every two weeks, at least, you’ve got to do the laundry.  It is the ultimate in democratic capitalism.  I don’t care if the person I am serving is working poor trying to clean their uniforms or ultra-rich cleaning their down comforters once yearly.  Their money spends the same to me and I don’t make any judgments.  I treat all of my customers with the utmost respect.

Second, this is purely a CA$H  FLOW business.  This may have a different definition to those enrolled in an MBA program, but to me, it is a business that generates real cash, not intangible numbers on a monthly statement.  It is a business that delivers return on investment, but in a more direct way.   A couple of years ago, real estate, primarily, was centered on return on investment.  You buy a house, you fix it up (as inexpensively as possible) and then you flip it.  In a short period of time and with a little know-how or the right connections, you could receive a nearly instant return on the capital and time you invested.  Laundromats are a CASH FLOW BUSINESS.   I pay for my family vacations.  I pay my mortgages.  I pay for my groceries out of the cash flow generated from my businesses.  The difference between me and my neighbors is the fact that I handle the actual dollars that I use to pay my mortgage, it isn’t electronically deposited, so my hands are a little dirtier on Fridays at the bank.  Why don’t more people get involved?  It is perfectly legal, but it isn’t glamorous!  That is the key—think outside the box!  Go against the flow!  All those naysayers may have more flashy forms of income, but I beat them in consistency any day.

Thirdly, and most importantly to me, I think the Laundromat business is great because of the freedom it provides you.  This is a business that, no matter if I’m mowing my lawn, eating dinner with my family, or having cocktails with my friends, I am making money.  I’m the only one at the table earning money at Happy Hour. And I’m happy to pick up the check.   I think family is important.  I have three wonderful children and a beautiful wife.  I like to spend time with them.  I like teaching them to ski.  I like helping them with their homework.  This opportunity has given me the greatest reward I can ask for—a place in my children’s memories when they are 40 and I’m dead.  The return on investment that results in time spent as a Father can’t be measured.   It is priceless.

***

Did I create my empire with the snap of a finger—of course not!  Nothing worth achieving comes easy.  But, the difference between me and my friends in the real estate or stock brokerage industry is that my hard work up front thrives in good times and, especially, bad.  It is truly a business that gets better on auto pilot.  Nothing against those professions, but my gorgeous wife is a licensed stock broker, insurance agent, and real estate agent. She just happens to prefer to spend her time raising our girls instead of working the phones.  Picking up our daughter instead of picking up the phone doesn’t result in a paycheck.  I, on the other hand, have a business that is generating revenue whether I’m at home or some distant office. Hell, whether I’m awake or not.

          - My wife’s professional licenses all serve us, our family, our portfolio. Not some weekly paycheck or the all mighty dollar.

So now that you know a little bit of my back-story and how Laundromats can make your life better, you are ready for the next step.
I will teach you How to buy a laundromat - But with one difference - you will obtain it for FREE .

How to BUY a Laundromat 

Purchasing a cash Laundromat 

#invest #cashbusiness #investmentjoy 

LEARN MORE