STORE SCOUTING - get out and look at what is happening in laundrys

STORE SCOUTING - TAKE YOUR BLINDERS OFF!
Get a Laundromat NOW, no one will do this for you!

My "University" store - $42,000 free money from the landlord.

Wannabe owners think this undertaking is all about collecting quarters.

They actually believe it’s a simple matter of taking the money to the bank! I can’t tell you how many times I am collecting coin in one of my stores, head down minding my own business, when a customer looks up from his newspaper and announces, “This is a great business to be in.” Here this guy is waiting for his underwear to dry, and he decides he’s going to instantly analyze the laundry industry, and generate his report in one sentence. New owners have no idea why previous owners have failed. I have seen stores pass through the hands of three, four, even five people before anyone who knows what they are doing takes the reigns.  The definition of insanity is continuing on the same path and expecting a different outcome. New investors having bought a store from a failure are insane.

I will teach you How to buy a laundromat - But with one difference - you will obtain it for FREE .

I doubt Michael Jordan would have achieved his success in b-ball without going to a game or two. I don’t think it’s an accident when a new innovation that Mercedes debuts in their S-class soon shows up in every Ford on the road. The big difference with our industry?, There’s no need for stealth. No corporate espionage. Every Laundromat becomes your personal museum, imposium, and working model. Good or bad.

WATCH VIDEO!

WATCH me COLD CALL a landlord WATCH VIDEO ! 

GO INTO OTHER LAUNDROMATS. Pat yourself on the back when they are not as nice as your store, and know that you’ve got some work to do when they blow your socks off. If you get some good ideas, use them.

They call it “sampling” in the music industry, the idea of imitation being the greatest form of flattery is not a new concept, and certainly not lost on me.   

Even if a store only includes negatives (or what you consider to be negatives), you will still have gained by visiting. This Laundromat is showing you what you cannot possibly envisage when you walk into your own store. As you tour your store you are generally proud and prejudice. Proud of your hard work, and prejudice against other methods of doing business.  It is certainly easy to stroll into “the other guy’s” mat and with a fresh set of eyes see what he is doing to keep the consumers coming back week after week.

One thing that you will see a lot of is negative signage.  My pet peeve...

• Do not sit on the folding tables
• Last wash is 9:30
• Changer is for customers ONLY
• Coin is removed hourly from machines
• No smoking
• No washing pillows
• No washing stuffed toys
• No Dying
• Store is monitored by 24 hour surveillance

No, No, No. I don’t put these signs up in my stores for two reasons. First of all they give the customer a feeling of bad will from me, the owner, and I will probably never even meet them. Now I have created an atmosphere by which the customers don’t like me, and yet they will most likely never lay eyes on me. Will they bother to dial 911 if my store is on fire? Secondly, those rule breakers won’t listen to a sign anyway, so why waste your energy on the bad eggs. Who doesn’t know that you can’t smoke indoors by now?!

These signs are typically written in Spanish and English.  It goes without saying, but if you scouted a store in Little Italy in NY or Chinatown in San Francisco; signs are found written in the predominant second language of that particular community’s demographic. I don’t do that either. Here’s why. The English speaking populous is offended by it, and the immigrant class knows how to run the equipment and can get by in an English speaking society. By the way, these hard working bi-lingual folks are not offended if you don’t bother to tell them in Korean to “stay off the grass”.

This is another good point to be concerned about: what is the ethnic demographic of the block, the city, and the state.  As an example, in Arizona, where I am from, there is a large, and growing, population of citizens (legal or not) that utilize English as a second language. I don’t need to preach to them in their native tongue once they have found my store, are bringing in their money, and leaving without it. But it might be a good idea to advertise in Spanish newspapers and circulars.

A successful owner needs to be out of the store and running it with employees that they don’t pay.  These stores should be run by fluff and fold professionals running operations on their own. Your new vocation... SCOUTING and OBTAINING Cash generating Laundromats, not mopping floors!

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