laundromat... advice pls

Hi Royce
What area are you in?
Ray

Beer.

Yep, have to use em each time and each one's different.
Need a sign "Laundromats for dummies" followed by more detailed explanation, somewhere a first timer might look. I certainly would use any food or coffee dispenser, depending upon the hour. A CCTV, even if a dummy (no glowing lights) might help to keep nasties down, depending on where you are. You might find that there's a lot more involved than just collecting the cash :))

Royce, I reckon

1. Good ventilation - they can get awful hot 7 stuffy when all the dryers are going

2. Ability to change notes to get coins

3. Somewhere to sit - and a coffee machine or cold drink machine would be nice.

Good luck - better get a caretaker to avoid having to come and fix the inevitable things that go wrong!

Max

A comfortable chair to sit on, some magazines???? Change machines? Powder/softner dispenser?

And yep I'd use drink/snack machines!!

Sandy

Haven't owned one, but would love to find a business where you just set, forget, and collect cash.

If you find that business, let us know - there are probably thousands of us who would go for it without hesitation - problem is, it doesn't exist.

With a laundromat, you are constantly repairing broken machines and dryers.

When not under repair, they require constant cleaning, because every mechanic's wife uses them to do the overalls, leaving oily film inside. I know I always used a laundromat to wash the dirty go-kart suits impregnated with oil and dusty dirt absorbed into them. No way would I put them into the home washer.

Then you are paying compensation to the next person who uses said dirty machine and ruins their whites.

You would drink your remaining profits having coffees from your machine to keep you awake during the midnight to dawn cleaning shift!!

Just think about the huge water account,lol and it only gets worse from there,you must be desparate to put in a laundromat just because you can't lease it out in the short term.Better to put more effort in to lease it out imo.Unless the area is screaming out for a laundromat but you probably will not know that till its to late and you find out the demand just isn't there.My 1st thought is a lot of pain for very little gain or worse.

G'day Royce, you will need to pay particular attention to security. i.e. of your machines, fittings - anything that has a value. If the business doesn't have a full time attendant, you should also consider installing a CCTV - in a conspicuous place - with sineage.

Decent seating, machines that actually work, soap dispensers that dispense, perhaps some reading material, good lighting (makes people feel more secure - particularly at night).

Good luck.

Hi Royce,

My old man use to run one for almost 10 years. Initially he decided to purchase one for some additional cash. Luckily for him he is extremely handy as the number of times machines and dryers required maintenance, if he had to pay someone to fix the problems he would never have made a quid.

As mentioned by everyone else, trying to maintain the cleanliness requires the laundromat to be visited on a daily basis. The job is not as easy as it initially seems. Although he did make a few $$ by the 10th year he was more than happy to see it go.

One other thing to consider, because the washing machines use a metal slide for the coins to be inserted, it is not a simple process to change the fee to use the machine, actually it is quite expensive. You literally have to have a new metal slide made, so if you were going to up the ante from 2x$1 coins to 2x$1 coins and 2x20 cent coins you need to have a lot of washes just to cover the cost of changing the metal slides.

Good Luck

Royce, we have used them when travelling, but without a directory of where they are, they aren't always easy to find. Do you have main road frontage (so people can see your shop) and do you have adequate parking nearby? - Essential for lugging baskets of laundry. We spend a night in a CP around once a week to have a long shower, wash hair and do the weekly washing (daily laundry done in buckets and we do have a shower in our caravan). It is only when free camping for longer than this, and if we have found decent pay showers around weekly, do we look for a laundromat. If both were in the vicinity and we knew this, we would use the laundromat when free camping.

If your laundromat was combined with coin hot showers it would be attractive for the bush campers. Are there public toilets nearby? I don't know your area, to know if it is on a regular route used by caravaners or if 'bush camping' is available in the area. I can't see campers using a laundry away from a CP if they have to stay at a CP, as CPs seem to all have laundromats now.

If you do set a up laundromat, you would need a way of generating enough income to cover capital costs - such as getting a contract to do the laundry for the local hotels or something (i realise you don't want to be doing this all day). We went to a laundromat in Bicheno in Tasmania, and they appeared to be doing a lot of washing plus ironing - in fact most machines and driers were being used for this purpose and only a couple set aside for public use. Their driers were excellent - much bigger, hotter, better than the regular caravan park driers (except a bit hot for the elastic!). The other one we used was in Wudinna SA on the Eyre Highway - we had been bush camping, and we always shower at the servo at Ceduna. It was unattended and we were the only customers at the time. It was a hot day, and very hot in the laundry - so we sat in the caravan with the 12 v fan while we waited for the washing to be done. We were able to park with the caravan right in front of the laundry, which was well placed on the highway.

Good luck with what ever direction you take with your shop - but short of getting someone to lease it, i don't know of a way to make money without work.