I am not the superstitious type. I am the believer type… ever the optimist! My 10-year-old son was born on September 11. He gets all kinds of looks and sounds when he tells people his birthday. It is nothing more than a coincidence. He knows about the importance of that day in 2001, as much as is age-appropriate. We speak of the lives that were lost but then we celebrate the amazing child that entered my world nine years later.
The day after taking ownership of CB Laundry and receiving the keys from Chrys in late-January, I received a phone call from Alejandra saying that the hot water was out. Of course it was! The day after I took ownership, not the day before. I called my trusty plumber and he went over to take a look. He called me back with a “bandaid” option that would cost approximately $3,000 to fix the heating mechanism on the roof which might last 4-6 months. The tank itself was also old and would likely need to be replaced within the year. I made a second phone call to my plumber asking what he thought about a tankless water heater system and his response was, “you won’t regret it!”
What is a new laundromat owner to do? A new laundromat owner with a long-term vision. I realized that hot water should be one thing to not mess around with. We would not want customers coming into an already run-down laundromat only to find that there was no hot water. So, $26,000 later, there are four beautiful tankless heaters mounted on the wall up high that keep the hot water humming through the pipes. I laugh at myself calling those bright orange boxes “beautiful” but they are! They serve as a reminder that each day, we are faced with choice after choice and we must make impulse decisions. In hindsight, should I have spent the money on something else… new washers, new dryers? The answer is no. I appreciate that I chose to spend the money on that tankless system to eradicate the stress of the “no hot water” phone calls from the staff and customers. Dave was absolutely right… I don’t regret it for one second!
Other than hot water, what is another thing that a coin-operated laundromat shouldn’t go without? Quarters! (more on the quarter shortage during a pandemic in a future blog post).
Deb and Jay (my Downey laundromat friends and mentors) put me in touch with a plethora of valuable contacts but John remains one of the key players. I call him “The Money Man” — he sells and maintains coin change machines. John told me which laundromats to visit to try out various change machines. He helped me evaluate which one would carry enough quarters for my laundromat. $13,000 later, The Laundry Room has enough quarters to keep coins circulating for a week or so. In addition, he has trained me on basic troubleshooting methods should the machine become jammed.
Jay and Deb also had an awesome vending machine in their “mat” as Deb likes to call it. They helped me evaluate the rate of return on the Vend-Rite Vision machine. At a $14,000 purchase price and a conservative net profit of $300/month, it would pay itself off in less than 4 years. I am not a numbers person at all but that seemed pretty decent to me.
No, I am not in the vending business but I am aiming to provide a one-stop, top-notch customer service experience. Our customers should not need to walk to the liquor store across the street to purchase their favorite chips, candy bar or soda. And if they need any laundry detergent or fabric softener, they should have a wide variety to choose from right there at their fingertips. In fact, I want them to enjoy their in-store experience SO much that they rave about it on social media, tell their friends and spread the buzz!
Six weeks of construction on the laundromat kept me very busy. It was all tremendously thrilling watching it come together but watching my savings account dwindle did cause dis-ease and unrest in my stomach. “Spend money to make money,” was the voice that kept playing over in my head.
Then on Friday, March 13 (a day that will live on in superstition), I received notice from my sons’ school that the children were going to be out of school until the Monday after their Spring Break, which meant their first day back was April 20. Five weeks out of school? That seemed like an eternity but we would make the most of it! An extended Spring Break of sorts!
Upon collecting the money the last two weeks in March, it was evident that sales were way down, approximately 35-40% down. And remember, it was barely making any money when I took it over, so now I was officially in the red… BIG time!
But five weeks isn’t so bad. We can make it through five weeks of this pandemic, then the world will be back to normal and business will pick back up!
