Stephanie and Claudia We Wash Laundry Company share their road to success in laundry pickup and delivery. And they did all of this WITHOUT a laundromat. They now provide guidance to others who are getting into the business.
[Transcript]
Over 400% growth in laundry pickup and delivery without a laundromat. Check out Claudia and Stephanie from We Wash Laundry Company. They put together this one minute video of the entire delivery process from beginning to end. Check it out. I wanna welcome Claudia and Stephanie with, we Wash Laundry company. They’ve just absolutely hit it out of the ballpark and they’ve been on a couple previous episodes as well with over 10,000 views altogether in just about one year. So pretty cool stuff. And their story is incredible. What makes them unique and really fascinating as well is they started their laundry service, their pickup and delivery laundry service without a laundromat. So this was live or die by their online presence, by their marketing. And they made it work. And not just work, they made it really work. And you’ll see in the graphics, when you look at their total revenue, they went up 400% increase in one year, which basically means five times as much business and then 700% growth in two years. So their numbers are astronomical. It was no accident. These ladies have a business plan and, and it worked and we’ll be getting to this a little bit later, but they’re also providing guidance to people who are getting into the business. And so I’m really excited to hear about that as well. Considering where you’re now, is this where you expect it to be? Why you got into the business and, and basically where you’re at now?
Speaker 2:
Claudia is the yin to my yang and we really do a great job of balancing each other because for me, I want more. I’m all about like, I’m the one pushing for more business and push, push , push . And she’s the one that keeps sleeping . Like , let’s slow down, let’s think about the processes. How can we best ease our way into it? And she’s like, feet on the ground , let’s do on . We’re running <laugh> . So it works. It works. I think . No , it’s having a great partner to balance. Yeah , to balance everything out has really, really worked . We’re about halfway where I’d like to be right at this point because our machines are sitting empty, not running overnight. Overnight. So there’s a huge opportunity there that we haven’t even crossed into. Just one of those we’re tiptoeing ’cause we know then that means managing that many more employees. That means taking that many more phone calls. So yeah , that’s our next plan. That’s our next step. We’re just, right now we’re easing into it because you know, we both have families, you know that we both have three children. Yeah . So trying to manage the homes, the husbands and a business. Um ,
Speaker 1:
It’s funny you mentioned the nighttime shift. Yeah . Because that is the entire reason my brother and I got into it was our , our dad said we want these machines spinning at nighttime. Yeah . And , and the only way we could accomplish that is if we brought laundry to the laundromat. Your fixed costs are the same. You already have the machines and the marginal costs of one more wash is pennies <laugh> compared to buying an and buying more equipment.
Speaker 2:
And we don’t have that luxury of other people feeding our machines when we’re not there. Right. Like a laundromat . So
Speaker 1:
It’s everything that you bring there. A hundred percent .
Speaker 2:
We’re only making money if we’re bringing laundry in. What
Speaker 1:
Did your operations look like when you started and what does it look like now?
Speaker 2:
First, first started, let’s rewind a little bit. It’s almost comical now. Yeah. To talk about, we talked about originally doing this out of my garage. Yeah . Which is really, really funny. But I’ve got a heated garage and we just like , you know what, we don’t really have or wanna invest the money ’cause we’re not sure if this is going to take off in our area because there’s nothing like this in our area. And are people really gonna send their laundry out to get done? And I really struggled with that at the beginning myself too. Now, now it’s like please take it all. Hold on, I’ve got two socks that help . Lemme throw them in, take it all. But anyhow, we thought about doing that outta my garage and last minute a great opportunity for a warehouse space came available and we jumped on it because we just thought, you know what? We’re gonna take our chances if for rain we’re only out in a one year lease. So it wouldn’t be terrible. It was a great space with lots of potential for growth. It’s in a commercial area though, so people can’t find us. Yeah . Like you’re not gonna , it’s not like normal retail space. So It is .
Speaker 1:
Which is actually perfect because then you’re paying lower rent because you’re not paying for all the, you know, traffic, the foot traffic, which you don’t really need. We
Speaker 2:
Don’t need it. And the best thing about our specific place is it’s very, very easily accessible to all the interstates. Yeah . We’re right off the highway so it makes it very easy for our drivers to get on and off, whichever way they’re headed. It’s really funny, I never would’ve thought this, but we have truck drivers Yes. That Google Laundry services right as they’re passing through . ’cause we’re right around that 85 and
Speaker 1:
30 . Wow . Never heard of that market. Yes. That’s great. Yeah .
Speaker 2:
And so here we’re they pull over in their big rigs <laugh> . They do . And they bring up and they park there . They park there. And we’re very, very nice. And when we get customers like the truck drivers , we do push their stuff ahead of everyone else’s.
Speaker 1:
Oh that’s terrific.
Speaker 2:
Out there waiting in their trucks . Another opportunity we never thought would come. Yeah . But as far as where we started warehouse space, we started with one little ProMaster city minivan, which we still own to this day. And then we started with three top low , just your residential , uh, speed queen washers and speed queen dryers. There’s nothing speedy about ’em , but they were <laugh> <laugh> , you be careful , they weren for us , you know , but it , it was your typical residential washers and dryers where it took 58 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes for a load to wash and then an hour for them to dry. So we definitely started very, very small and then quickly learned that we needed to invest and we only had two employees when we started. Yes . So that’s a big thing too. And I think we mentioned in our first podcast with you that when we opened we had so much laundry that we cried because it was like, what are we gonna do? We hate laundry. The laundry haters, the OG laundry haters are the ones doing all the laundry in these like slow machines. Yeah. And we’ve changed quite a bit in the beginning .
Speaker 1:
So what , what does your equipment mix look like today?
Speaker 2:
We have got some commercial washers and commercial dryers. 40, 40 pound all the way down to, we still have a couple of the top loaders and we hold onto ’em because you know what? You get customers laundry who you can tell the kids have been out rolling in the mud and they’re sliding into first and third base. And so it really, really is nice to still have those old school top with an agitator in them. But other than that we’ve pretty much upgraded to 40 pounders and now we’ve got commercial dryers where we have to dry everything on low because they do dry. Um , so fast. So fast. That’s great.
Speaker 1:
<laugh> , there’s a big difference between residential and commercial equipment.
Speaker 2:
Oh hundred percent . And we added a van, a much bigger van. Yeah . Which is great . Like an Amazon van. And we went from two employees to 23. That
Speaker 1:
Is fantastic. The hardest part is getting started because then it’s just you, you know, doing the wash and fold or maybe one person and if that one person calls in sick or isn’t able to show up, just a job to them. But it’s your company that you invested so much in. Yeah . You know, if one of your outta 20 doesn’t show you’ve got backup . Yeah.
Speaker 2:
We’re the last resort. I mean she’s a great folder, but she hates it <laugh> . But she’s so good and I can launder really, really well. Yes . She’s very particular. I’m launder not the folding person, so they don’t want me in there.
Speaker 1:
One of my business school classes, the founder of Kinko’s came in and, and he goes, my secret to success is I can’t do anything. So when somebody does something I say, well you did a great job <laugh> .
Speaker 2:
So stand back and just relate the message, you know? Yeah . We like to be on the outside looking in and just managing things that way. Well now we’re to the point where it’s about business development. Yeah . So that’s really where we need to be focusing on Yeah . To move forward and to grow the business. We don’t necessarily wanna be in the day-to-day operations. We need to be continuing to
Speaker 1:
Grow. And that’s a big part. Operator versus business owner. Yes . Then it’s neat seeing people make that transition and it , it’s hard to do because there’s always a fire, oh I gotta put it out. But you gotta create a system so somebody else could deal with that and prevent the fire from happening in the first. So I wanna get back to 2020. And so a lot of people who were in wash and full delivery had tremendous growth, you know, just because of Covid. But your growth was even more spectacular than I’d say most basically went up 400%. And you were doing pretty well before. I know you wanted growth from that point, but then it grew as five times what it was in one year. Operationally. How did you deal with that type of growth?
Speaker 2:
We always joke to you that we didn’t really have a plan when we started this and that we certainly didn’t have a lot of procedures in place, <laugh> . And we made every mistake you possibly could and it was terrible. Yeah. So guess what? We only have to make the mistake one time and we learn to write down processes and procedures and we have it nailed down so well now . Right . And that’s why it’s just so smooth. And when you grow that fast, you have to have those policies and procedures in place. Yeah. So we call it the we wash way and it works. Yeah . So yeah , we’ve got a really well-oiled machine is like, is what we like to see . Yeah. We have like a really serious training program.
Speaker 1:
It’s interesting is Mark flak camp at the wash try fold conference. His whole presentation was on standard operating procedures. Yeah . Because he scaled his business lot too. And everybody in the audience was like, nobody was interested in creating the standard operating procedures, but everybody wanted them <laugh> . So Yeah . Is that transferable?
Speaker 2:
Yes. It’s definitely a model that we think anybody could do. Even if hundred percent even laundromat owners. Yep . You know, and yes, they could make it to their own specifications for whatever, you know, tweak what needs tweaked, but you know, ’cause some, like you guys, I know you guys have your folders, at least they did when we trained with them three years ago. Yeah . But they, you’d decide take it from the beginning to , to the end the pounds . So you would have ’em wash it, you know, sort it, wash it , uh, dry it and then fold it. And so we do things a little differently at our location. So we have people that are actually experts in certain areas. So we have a sorter that’s designated just to sorting. Yep . Just laundry. Yep . And then we have our folders. Folders . So we, you know, made it go in these sort of sections.
Speaker 1:
Neat . Part two in our softwares, you’re able to track who’s putting it in the wash and sorting who’s doing the drawing and who’s doing the folding. And it’ll actually tell you the number pounds for each person because you know, just like in your case it in your situation, it could be somebody different. So , right.
Speaker 2:
Yes . Yep . And it’s been kind of fun because we’ve had a few people reach out and actually came to our facility to learn from us and see what our procedures are and what our processes are. So especially for not owning a laundromat. Nice . The whole thing that started this was running a wash and fold without owning a laundromat .
Speaker 1:
You’ve are now providing guidance or consulting for laundry owners.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Why not share it? Yeah . We don’t have direct competition yet and we, there no one’s a threat to us. Um, so why not share our stories? Why not share the this is what we did. Please don’t do this. Okay. So we live in America, the American dream. Right. You don’t have to take huge loans Yeah . To open a business. We both are huge Dave Ramsey fans. So we both went at it, the Dave Ramsey way and we just went slow. Yeah . And just went and made sure that it worked.
Speaker 1:
And you know what’s interesting? We, we get so many , uh, phone calls from people who are looking for laundromats and, and it becomes like five different things all have to come into place for a deal to happen. You have to make a deal with the laundry owner. You have to make a deal, make sure the lease is good with the landlord. You have to make sure the location is good. You know, you have to make sure equipment, you know the loan. You’ve got so many different pieces and one piece doesn’t make sense. You have to walk away from the deal. Otherwise you can’t have a good deal with a bad lease or any one of those missing components or a great lease with a bad location. People have been waiting on the sidelines for years, like three years, five years now . I’m waiting for the right deal. And so we just say , what are you waiting for? Go pick up the laundry.
Speaker 2:
Well we started profiting pretty early in the game due to just business growth and us being out there and making people aware of we wash , laundry, coat .
Speaker 1:
Make sure to hit subscribe because in the next episode we learn more from Stephanie and Claudia. You could also reach them directly for consultations at Hello at we wash laund co@co.com . Curbside laundries is the software platform that they built their successful business on. So if you’d like to learn more about the curbside laundries business and software solution, go to curbside laundries.com. We provide the software, website and guidance to help you be successful.
