How many people work their own laundromat?

[Teskid]

I was just wondering how many people hire workers to work in their laundromats, and how many people actually work their them selves. Which would be most benificial and the whole time issue. Im still very interested in opening one. Everyone i talk with thinks im freaking crazy, and that its a stupid idea and could never be accomplished. So thought alot more about it, and the laundromat i live next to (the one that gave me the whole idea to begin with) has a worker. So i was thinking i will chances are have 2 jobs out of high school, keeping the job i have now, and a full time job with T-mobile. Obviously ill be putting tons of money away, but i started thinking i wanted to do it all at once, maybe drop my part time job and use that time to work in the laundromat, but if i can hire a worker and still make a profit and the payments why not do that more time to do whatever with and plan my next purchase of whatever it will be. I know workers cost money, but then again it gives me time which also turns into money. So thought this question might just give me a few more ideas on how to approach the whole situation.

Thanks,

Clint

[laschmove]

There's not really an option for me. We have an attendant M-F 7-4, and I am there M-F 8-5 or 6ish.

[goingtoarizona]

Our daughter works in our part time. We work there on weekwnds.I have a full time job. Most importantly, you need to do your due diligence, and learn as much as you can before you leap. If you read these posts, you will find many people who didn't heed this advice, and are now panicing. Who will fix your machines? Who will clean your mat? The people who ridicule you probably haven't suceeded in life, and are too lazy to work to suceed and get ahead. I love my mat, and am looking forward to our second. It requires lots of effort and work, especially in the beginnging. You can't let it get run down and dirty, or you will loose customers and all the money you put into it.

[Kari]

I work it my self -

Why would you work a part time job to earn money when you would have to hire someone at your store part time. It seems you would use the money you make at one job to pay your attendant. I would skip the part time job and work the store yourself. Less paper work and less stress.

[Ken]

I have attendants ,I have not worked any attendant hours for a long time.I told my emplyees if they can not show up,call other emplyee first.My emplyees don't like me stay in store too long anyway,I always find work for them to do :-)

[Teskid]

As far as the job goes, i would have the part time job before i bought the mat. I have the job now, and i really love working there. Its at a fish market/take out restaurant. Its a really fun enviorment and i learn alot every day. Thats the reason i would stay there, for the love of it and because of how much i learn. Once i bought the mat obviously i would lose the part time job. I also would not be paying out of my pocket for a worker that would be pointless to me. Im thinking about putting the down payment for it, and going 50/50 with it with my mom to try and get her back on her feet and to have the extra help and advice from someone else.

[laschmove]

I work it my self -

Why would you work a part time job to earn money when you would have to hire someone at your store part time. It seems you would use the money you make at one job to pay your attendant. I would skip the part time job and work the store yourself. Less paper work and less stress.

What if he can pay an attendant $6/hr but makes 7 0r 8/hr at his job?

[Teskid]

That is true, min wage out here in cali is $6.75 and im making $8 right now, with a raise highly probable again in a few months, chances are another $0.50 or so, but i would rather work it my self than have a second job to afford an attendant. That does not make sense to me to work a second job, just to have someone else doing what i could, granted i would have an extra $1.25-1.75 an hour, but dosnt seem very wise to do that.

[DuboisLaundry]

I do almost everything myself but I don't have a huge business volume.
as Sole Propieter I don't pay myself a "wage" but I estimate I typically earn between 25 cents to 10 bucks an hour. If I priced out the work at fair market value it would cost me a lot more to hire someone. The only time I hire anything out is opening/closing/cleaning if I'm out of town more than a day.
When my upstairs rental tenant moves out I might try to talk my brother and sister-in-law into moving here and then I would incorporate and put all of us on payroll, but for now no.

Since this is all just preliminary research for teskid, I would say you and your mom would work the mat as many hours as necessary and save payroll costs while paying down the startup/acquisition debt. Meanwhile keep enjoying your current job(s) while saving up the down payment.

Owning your own business can be, in many ways, like slavery - sometimes it is the business that "owns" you.

Maybe thats a poor choice of words. How about this instead
"My laundromat IS my life" this is either a sad commentary, or a demonstration of exceptional dedication. I choose the latter.

Even so, I would never go back to the corporate world!

[hithere]

I agree,thx

[alesser738]

Attended 24/7 and stop in probably 2-3 times daily. Payroll alone is $10,000 plus per month.

[pete f]

I do almost everything myself but I don't have a huge business volume.
as Sole Propieter I don't pay myself a "wage" but I estimate I typically earn between 25 cents to 10 bucks an hour. >>snip..
Owning your own business can be, in many ways, like slavery - sometimes it is the business that "owns" you.

Maybe thats a poor choice of words. How about this instead
"My laundromat IS my life" this is either a sad commentary, or a demonstration of exceptional dedication. I choose the latter.

Even so, I would never go back to the corporate world!

interesting choice, and I agree. Anne and I still sweep floor a few days a week, I do detail work on washers to keep them clean. We hire cleaners, but they never really do it the right way. We visit out mats 3- 4 times a week, and stay involved.

[laschmove]

Even so, I would never go back to the corporate world!

AMEN Brother!

[Teskid]

the whole thing on just owning one, and not going back to the corprate world that is my goal, but i feel just owning 1 laundromat will not get me own my own at all. I dont feel it will produce enough income to live off of, and thats why i wanted to have a full time job to pay my living expenses for a while so that i could build up assets atleast, so that when i wanted to quit working and milk my assets and live off them i would be able to do so with out worry if i would make enough.

[Kari]

What if he can pay an attendant $6/hr but makes 7 0r 8/hr at his job?

By the time he pays employee taxes and deals with the headach of employees - is it really worth it. Now if his job paid a lot more than he was paying his employee I would say go for it.

[laschmove]

That depends, among other things, on whether or not the wdf biz covers attendant salary and if he would like to do wdf all day liong as a full time job. There is a marginal utility cost embedded in quitting his job to work the mat. Is it worth it to him? Only he knows....

[Teskid]

i want a full time job to pay my living expenses and have a mat to help me along the way to buying another mat, or a house to just have that extra profit. The part time job i would have would be to help my build my down payment for the mat. Once i decided to finally buy the mat i would no longer keep my part time job, i do NOT want a part time job to hire some one else and pay them for work i could do. So give up on the part time job deal. Another question what is wdf?

[Teskid]

hey so before the thread gets lost ill up it again, but....


what does wdf stand for? and mean?

And i just learned some interesting information from my readings about business about how you get to spend your cash flow on "business expenences" before you get taxed, i didnt know that. Which by the way is awesome!!! Obviously i know there is a lot of loops and things like that in the rules so thinking about talking with an accountant soon.

I also have a school project for my work expierience class to interview someone in the field i want to hold a job in. Well this is it so i was curious if anyone would like to PM back and forth a bit and give me an interview when the time is right, if so i would greatly appreciate it.

[laundryboy]

WDF - Wash Dry Fold.

This is the drop off component of the laundry business. If you have staff, try and build up the drop services to offset payroll expense. It gives your staff 'something' to do.