I've been doing a full time laundry business for 14 months up till today. So far the business is quite satisfying with increasing amount of sales and repeated customers and also new customers everyday. I can assume the profit margin is quite ok from average of 48% in the final 10 months of 2008 and 52% for the first three months of 2009. Despite charging a cheap service tags (never increase since opening) and increase in expenses due to extra labours and extra materials ordered, I can still manage to get the increase in the profit margin. There are ups and downs in doing any type of business but it's just a matter of how you manage to counter it such as selling at a loss.

Since there are no thread in this section regarding laundry/dobi service discussion, lets just make this is one as an official discussion thread. Anybody who wants to know more about this business, I'll be here to elaborate more except the exact figure of gross/net income and expenses.....everything counts on percentage.

This post has been edited by am_eniey: Apr 4 2009, 03:18 PM

@zenwell

As a start, any business will turn from bad to worse if the owner does not monitor it full time. I do not know about this business at the beginning. Never work in the business or anywhere near it. It's just that I was a frequent customer. The start up cost depends on the degree of laundry business of your desire. Charging cheap does not mean low profit. Charging cheap means a lower profit margin but higher profit if you understand what i mean. I started my own laundry not a franchise. Yes I do know several suppliers as well.

that's my thread as well my friend. but it has become more to advertising so it was removed. This one is for discussion regarding this business.

Actually the purpose of this thread is not about my plan or my business, it's more about laundry business generally and specifically.

Buying a secondhand business might be the best or the worst options.

You must study the history and the previous owner must reveal to you his accounts (fake or not, nobody knows). Know their attitudes towards their customers, know their machines, know their location. Only buy the business if it is very good including the condition of the machines and references of whom you have to call if there's any breakdown and the reason of the previous owner selling is it because he/she is moving away following wife/husband/family or whatever (roughly 95% of previous business owners like to cheat on this part as well as the account part).

If the previous owner wants to sell the business with no proper or concrete reason, just forget about it. To stay safe, open a new one with brand new machines. If no capital, don't start. This does not apply to laundry only but to all other businesses.

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Added on April 3, 2009, 6:05 pmI am not quite into Smart Wash or any other self service laundry. But I know somebody who deals with it from several other forums. Self service laundry have advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage : No need monitoring, just come and collect the collections.
Disadvantage : No guarantee on how quick the after sales services will be, nobody calls you when it breaks down, people will put extra weight that might damage the motor, vandalism, coin box will be torn apart just like what happened to my campus several years ago.

just my 2cents, I really don't know actually

This post has been edited by am_eniey: Apr 3 2009, 06:05 PM

To make sure whatever receipts, it's not just by looking at the one he gave you. You must be present at the premise at least for one whole month to look at the operation by yourself. Take care of the counter and make you own personal unofficial account as it is not yet your premise. You must also know all the operations which means you have to do a bit yourself everything from A-Z. Just like a doctor who opens a clinic or a lawyer who opens a law firm. The boss must know everything before becoming a boss. And never rely everything on the employee. My advise in doing business is either do it full time or don't ever try it. You might lose both your job and the business if you try to handle both. Even with me present most of the time at my premise it sometimes give me sleepless nights, I can't imagine if I just leave it to my employees. This business is not just about calculating whatever collection you make, it's mostly about how to make the customers pay you which means all jobs must be done within time.

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Added on April 4, 2009, 8:17 amMy side of the story is not to be discussed here, my other thread might be great help for you

http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/557066

This post has been edited by am_eniey: Apr 4 2009, 08:17 AM

First of all, this thread is not about my business, it's about laundry/dobi business in general. I'm doing this to support my life and the life of my wife and my children. Becoming a millionaire is not the subject. The amount of capital depends of what type of laundry that you are planning to run which ranges from RM25K-RM300K. I can't give you the exact figure for the monthly sales but i can guarantee you once the business is stable, you probably get around slightly more that 50% out of all your monthly expenses.

of course, the more customer, the more you have to buy plastic materials and soap and other cleaning chemicals. unless if you include throwing money into the river as your expenses.

Yes I started up with 5 machines, they all fully utilized now. The minimum number of machines is 3. A washer, a dryer and an ironing set. That's all. I don't know much about the Laundryroom but the owner is my senior schoolmate and I heard that he's quite successful now and contradicts to whatever you saw on the net.

It's ok if you've mistaken.

There are many obstacles and risks in any kind of business. You just name it. These risks are inevitable but you can minimize it by following proper procedures. You must be very very very strict when it comes to washing. At my place, I always seperate bleeding colour garments with the rest...ALWAYS. These bleeding garment not just from pasar malam but even an RM5K shirt can bleed real bad. Even so, I still make mistakes and refund is the only solution to avoid my shop from being bad mouthed from the customer.

But just remember that all businesses have obstacles.

Laundry - colour bleed, missing clothes, torn clothes etcetc
Mechanic - wrong screw, missing nut, lubricant mistake etcetc
Food business - rotten meat, uncleaned plates

and many more....

both

RM900. As I said this is to maintain the sales reputation for the future. For example a car wash centre accidentally damage the tyre or the windscreen, there's nothing else to do but to replace them. The car wash can't just leave it like that.

Not quite bro, a laundry business without dry cleaning machine is different from a laundry without dry cleaning. Some laundries which do not have the machine still accept dry cleaning but send them to a laundry which has the machine and some laundries which do not have the machine do not accept dry cleaning at all. This is the handicapped one.

I learned the hard way. You have to consider yourself lucky as I'm here to explain the do's and dont's of this business. Not all business owners would share this type of information widely as how I am doing for the past months.

Attracting customer and thinking on how to cover all the expenses for the first month.

Rough capital is so rough to tell but it ranges from RM30k to RMmillions.
assets invested for my business? i don't understand....
yes, there are lots of competitors around here within 5km radius, perhaps another 20 outlets.

Perhaps outside this country as this business is not that popular in Malaysia.

I use the dryer most of the time. Yes it will cost more but clothes are to be ready quicker than hang dry. But beware, not all clothes can be dried using the dryer.
I don't make any chemical, I buy them in bulk quantity.
Even with my RM2/kg, some say it's expensive. Some people are born retard.
I don't cater hotels etcetc as they want their things to be ready super quick, super clean and at the cheapest price therefore walk in customers are likely to be neglected.
I don't mix clothes so I don't need specefic tagging or barcode.

Yes mixing clothes will save time and money but hygenically, it's bad. I choose not to mix unless a customer sends 1 or 2 pieces of clothes. You want your clean clothes to be mixed with someone who has germs and bad smelly clothes with armpit hairs attached to it....surely you don't. If you want to be a good and honest businessman, try to imagine yourself as the customer. What does a customer want, that's what you do. If mixing clothes is the right thing to, try telling your customer that you mix up their clothes with others. If you are afraid to tell them that, then what you are doing is wrong.

A multi purpose commercial machine usually has 3 types of operation. They are small, medium and heavy load. If 2kg, just apply the small load. The washing time is reduced so as the consumption of water and electricity.

Hotel linen can be cleaned with ordinary commercial machine but you got to have a big tank to soak them overnight. These linen can be ironed neatly using a flatwork ironer ( not similar to the ordinary commercial iron set ). Auto ironing does not exist. Total number of machines depends your load. Rough capital for a complete laundry operation is around RM100k

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Added on May 21, 2009, 8:33 amYes the brand is one of the best there is..

This post has been edited by am_eniey: May 21 2009, 08:34 AM

It does not work that well, my marketing outside the net works better. But at least the online marketing helps a bit.