Question: What Is The Best Way To Approach a Dry Cleaning/Laundry Business About A Partnership/Alliance?

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Question: What Is The Best Way To Approach a Dry Cleaning/Laundry Business About A Partnership/Alliance?

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villarrealsj

posts: 85

Nov 28, 2007 12:12 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Well, I guess I would say use Craigslist. Believe it or not, it`s a good source. Other than that, it`s a tough call. Maybe get in touch with local college business students looking to make some extra money..?

Sorry I wasn`t much help on this one. If I lived near you I`d jump on this! :)

I am on the other side of this great business opportunity. I own a laundromat in Zanesville Ohio, which already offers Drop Off service, as well as Load n Leave and DryCleaning. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if I could find someone willing to establish a route of clients with disposable income who would appreciate a Laundry ValetService. Any suggestions for finding a reliable, honest, self starter to join forces with and get a route started. I would get out there and beat the bushes myself, but I have 2 preschoolers and a teen at home...so my time in very limited for marketing etc.

villarrealsj

posts: 85

Nov 28, 2007 12:12 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Labno,

The guy never sent it out to me. Sorry bud.

Thanks cartess, much appreciated. Sammy would it be possible to get a copy to me if its not too much trouble? Let me know! Thanks.

villarrealsj

posts: 85

Nov 28, 2007 12:17 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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SpikeMike,

If you`re just getting started, I would definitely recommend using an established company like w, which is probably the most well known merchant services that don`t required buttloads of cash and terminals to get started. They simply charge you per transaction a small percentage, which is what all other merchant services do anyway. It`s also a recognized and trusted commerce method. They get bad press at times, but what do you expect from such a large company?

I am in Washington State and am thinking about this very business.... reading this thread has seriously helped me....however I would like to know more information about using the web for my customers to pay online....

villarrealsj

posts: 85

Nov 28, 2007 12:20 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Good Question,

What I did was make an agreement with the laundry owner that each month he would invoice me my balance and I would pay at that time. So far, it`s worked out fine.

Hope that helps.

Cartess3:

I like your laundry website and I an going to start a laundry / dry cleaning pick up and delivery service. I am wondering about accepting payments. I am wondeing what is the best method. Should I have my own merchant account or should I bill the laundry provider and the dry cleaner.

Any help would be apprecited....

GIJoe

posts: 8

Nov 28, 2007 12:30 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I think CraigsList would be a good idea, but what about FaceBook and MySpace? Im getting ready for the Spring 2008 Semester (Start Jan 20th) and put out an add on CraigsList, FaceBook and MySpace for my service, asking hwo would be interested to see if I could get any interest. Im also going to be at the college laundromat spreading the word.

MySpace and FaceBook aare huge among college kids, so if you posted an ad in them you might find a kid willing to do it with you. Its easy to make an account and they have specific groups for colleges, towns and counties too.

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TheDailyTxt.com

villarrealsj

posts: 85

Nov 28, 2007 12:43 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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That`s a tough one. You would have to consider many factors when determining your prices such as overhead(vehicle cost, fuel, food, laundry fee, marketing, etc.) and the area you are conducting business in. If you will be servicing an affluent area, you would generally charge a slightly higher fee. In most cases. You`re the boss, so you can decide that, but to make things simple if you`re lucky enough to find someone that charges you .50lb, don`t charge less than $1.25lb or you can go a different route by charging a flat fee for an entire laundry bag. Some businesses are willing to work a deal out with you and charge you a flat fee, as well, if they know you are bringing in steady business. If you choose that route, you`re taking the chance that although a few customers will stuff their bag so heavily full, the large majority will have a reasonable amount and it will typically even out... if that makes sense.

Hope that helped.

Hi, I am looking into this idea as well in my area. Im located on Long Island, NY.

Some quick questions though, for those of you doing this, how much over your discount rate do you charge per lb?

For instance if you get a laundromat down to 0.50 per lbs, how much would you be charging to the customer?

Anyways in my area right now, I just stopped by 4 laundromats and asked for prices. The first one made me ask a price and I have no clue what I could get, especially here on Long Island (its expensive). So I asked .65 (normally a $1) and she jumped on it. I know I could get less now, considering I found another place doing .75 for regular customers. Im wating for phone calls though from the other 3 places though, the owners were not there.

If I could get .55 per lb at 15 lbs a week, thats 8.25/week and 33/month that I have to shell out. Whats a reasonable profit for me to charge?

Sorry, just wanted to throw some numbers out and see what other people had going on.

villarrealsj

posts: 85

Nov 28, 2007 12:53 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Bingo GIJoe! Facebook slipped my mind(and I have an account). That`s actually a great source ESPECIALLY if you`re trying to market this service to college students. Facebook started off exclusively for college students, so they`re very well connected in the Facebook community. I`m sure you know this GIJoe, but for those who don`t, Facebok is built around communities, so if you`re attending UCLA and you open your Facebook account, you must have a UCLA.EDU e-mail address to gain access to that group and only those people can see that area. However, you can advertise in that specific community for very cheap. You simply create flyers within Facebook.

Note: The response rates to flyers in Facebook have gotten semi-good ratings from some bloggers.

When I was a partner with Dorm2Dorm, Facebook was the only way we advertised and it was well worth it.

GIJoe

posts: 8

Nov 30, 2007 3:04 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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As an update here in NY I have gotten a laundromat quoted at $0.55 per lb of laundry so am pretty happy now. Maybe able to get 45-50 somewhere else because its only the 3rd place I asked.

I started up a MySpace account, www.myspace.com/SBULaundry (SBU stands for Stony Brook University), where Im trying to make lots of friends at the college (through the MySpace group for my college).

I e-mailed the Residence Hall Directors (people in charge of dorms) and told them what I wanted to do, see if they could help me out. Asked about putting up flyers and informing incoming students before the semester starts.

I have come up with a price list and will be charging a one time fee (upfront) for a semesters worth of laundry. I just need a way to accept credit cards and I think I`ll be using PayPal for that.

Once I get enough people interested Ill make a website (I have a friend I think I can get to do it for free and pay him later) and file my DBA forms. I need about 25 kids signed up and I can then quit my waiting job, but I may just keep it one day a week, I am going to school to ya know.

I have also thought about doing some houses but I don`t know if that would be a good idea. I like that at a college, all my customers are in one area, making pick-up and drop off very easy. If I did residential, people would be scattered everywhere. I think I may look into doing apartment buildings in the area too then. Everything in one place, we`ll see how it goes. so far all is good.

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TheDailyTxt.com

GIJoe

posts: 8

Nov 30, 2007 6:26 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Heres something I just thought of. How do you handle inventory? When a customer gives you a bag of clothes, how do you mark the bag as theirs? A pin? A label? Does the bag get washed too? If so, what could get washed and still stay on the bag? Thats not a big deal though, Im sure I could find something.

My real question is what do you do to make sure no one looses anything? If the customer gives you an inventory sheet, do you open up the bag and check it or does the laundromat your using do it?

What if they decide not to use an inventory sheet?

Do you inspect every bag of clothing you get? That seems like it would be time consuming, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I was thinking of having a disclaimer that if they did not provide an inventory sheet, they were not guaranteed anything.

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TheDailyTxt.com

spikemike

posts: 3

Jan 21, 2008 10:45 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Hey Joe:

I am in the startup phase for starting this type of business. I have encountered a few stumbling blocks. however, my plan is to accept their dirty clothing in laundry bags,

placed their dirty clothing in blue or red reusable plastic tubs and place their the clean clothing in clean clear reusable plastic tubs.

Because of the rain here in Washington, it would only be prudent.... I think a disclaimer would probably be appropriate.

However, I`m wondering have you come up with any answers to this dilema.

I would like to know.....

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