small commercial business

[cprohens]

I exploring the "small commercial" market. I understand that the big customers use giant commercial launderers, but I am interested in restaurants, beauty parlors, etc--$150-500/month customers.

I have been told that you can't really use your regular machines because they won't get the stains out... Is that true? Do any of you do it?

If so, what do you need and how much will it cost to get set up for it?

Also, I figure that if I work hard on it (cold calling, going out and meeting potential customers, etc) that I can bring in 3-4 accounts/month. Is this unrealistic???

Finally, if you are in an area that generally charges about .60/lb for wdf, how much do you figure you can charge for the type of commercial business that I described above?

[Chuckels]

About 6 months ago I was at the exploratory stage as you are now when a guy drives up and asks if we can help with his 20 unit timeshare biz. We now do about 600#s per week of white towels and linens at 90 cents a pound with PU and Delivery 1 mile away. We do the laundry one night each week after biz hours so as not to compete with or inconvenience our valued day customers.

We have 2 50#, 4 35#, 6 25# and 10 16# washers and on heavy days all of the washers are used 2+ times each. We are now looking into a 80# washer and perhaps a jumbo dryer.

Problems encountered so far have mostly to do with make up. It seems the time share biz has lots of senior women who wipe lots of eyeliner etc... on the towels and this stuff is hard to remove. We seperate out the offending items and use spot remover, heavy bleach and the hotest water your tank can muster. We have learned that hot water is crucial to good stain removal in whites. And we are still learning but enjoying the commercial side. After we install a few more higher capacity machines we will go after some more hotel, massage parlor type of biz that exist all around our area.

When you get some biz let us all know what you experience.

Chuckels

[Anonymous]

massage parlor

I bet i know what kind of stains are in the sheets there LOL

[cprohens]

Chuckels,

Ok, so you charge .90 for this 600#/week account (nice). How much to you charge per pound for regular Wash & Fold??

I have been told that you need a programable commercial washer that distributes the correct chemicals at the correct time in the wash cycle and at the correct temperature if you want to take on things like food stains, makeup, heavy oil & grease. I'm glad to hear that you think a regular 80# washer will do the trick with hot water, but if that's true, why doesn't everyone on here spend a few hours a day calling on small commercial accounts in their area? It seems like easy money--all you have to do is pick up and deliver...

10-15 little accounts can double some mats' business...

[David]

Originally posted by cprohens
... but if that's true, why doesn't everyone on here spend a few hours a day calling on small commercial accounts in their area?

Because I still have a full time job.

I enjoy only taking 10-12 hours a week to run the mat.

And in my town there is a dry cleaners every two or three blocks. (Or it seems that way.)

Even if I were full time mat business, I think I'd go into the service side instead of the commercial laundry accounts.

[Chuckels]

David Thank you for answering why others do not pursue more biz. It is true that we must remain focused on what we do best at work in order to maximize quality time for our real lives. By the way, why would you rather do personal over commercial?

We are in a resort beach area so there are lots of opportunities for commercial laundry. Our store is busy when open to the public so we feel that doing personal WDF would get in the way of our main biz so we choose to utilize the store after hours instead.

Who told you that you "need" a programable washer? A salesman? We have achieved good results with maxing out our water temp and dispensing the chemicals ourselves in our wascos. Speak to some soap/cleaining chemical manufacturer in your area and they should provide you with good honest guidence. In the super heavy soiled loads we stop the washer a couple of times for soaking which helps alot along with some Oxyclean. It is usually only one machine that we use for this and two loads at most per weekly cycle for the one account.

Chuckels

[David]

Originally posted by Chuckels
By the way, why would you rather do personal over commercial?
Chuckels

I meant commercial laundromat maintenance repair.

The ideal situation for me is, 3-4 laundromats, and service work within 100 miles.

[Andy]

You can install chemical injection outfits on many coin machines. I have one 50# and one 27# machine that I use for our commercial accounts. You can also place a switch on the timer power so that you can agigate, extract or soak until doomsday if you feel inclined or your clothes are that dirty. It stops the timer from advancing so whatever the washer is doing when you flip the power off it will continue to do so until it looses all power or it breaks or you flip the power back on.

[Anonymous]

Andy, what type of machine did you alter, and how did you do it?

[Kitty]

We have never called to do business with commercial accounts, however, we have never turned them down either. It is hard to start them up but we have very consisitent commercial customers.

Churchs, janitorial and colleges have been the most consistent. Parks and recs during their seasons has also been awesome.

We do the wash dry and fold service in any machine, throughout the mat. She has an area toward the front office she uses most consistently but will use any machine she needs to use.

[cprohens]

Kitty,
do you pick up and deliver for them? How much do you charge, compared to your regular WDF customers? More, less, same?

[Andy]

Kirby,

I placed the "hold" switch on a speed queen sc27 and a sc50. Install the switch on your timer motor power wires, I placed my switch on the back panel. When you switch the timer motor power off the machine will not advance.

[Kitty]

CP,

Pick up and delivery is a real pain in the arse...........we did this only once. When the USopen came to town I went to the area hotels and told them if they had people wanting the service I could pick the items up each day and deliver late each day. We also picked up the caddy bibs and towels the tournament generated each day, twice a day, all week and weekend. But, doing the bibs and towels got us great parking and tickets.....At that time we charged 1.00 per pound to the hotel guests, and 80cents a pound for the caddy bibs and towels....much too little for this, as we had to keep up with a very large demand and go through alot of traffic in order to pick up and deliver. I wouldn't do it now, for anything less than 1.50 per pound!


Currently none of the commercial patrons we have need pu/delivery. They also do not have a great amount at a time.

The suntan places are really good to tap into as well as the hair salons. Cold call and just tell the management of your services. The fact they could do it themselves, or simply drop off. Its their choice, a phone call my gain you the new customer?

[Andy]

Kitty,
That's a great tip on the tanning shops I have one two doors down that is open from 7am to 2am it's gotta be a fricken gold mine, it's a 4000 sq ft building with about 15 cars in the lot at all times.

Also, we have several local hotels that we service for guest laundry. We charge a premium, and don't offer bulk pricing for this service, for example:
socks 1.00
t-shirt 1.50
pressed shirt 4.00
polo shirt hangered 2.50
PJ's 5.00
jeans hangered 5.50
undershorts1.50
bra 2.25

Our largest account grossed over $1000 last month.

[brucefla]

I just got a massage parlor, that for about 40lbs of sheets/towels a week i get a free massage..... do I have to report it to the IRS?
hehe

[Fred50]

Bruce,

A better question is, does your wife know?

:-)

[Andy]

is that the sports massage or the "premium" massage?