Coin Laundry Business

[Gaulkin]

Anyone have an experience in this field? I have been reading a few articles on the web about how easy this business can be and has the able to be run part time. Just want some general knowledge for now.

[Brainy]

I know a successful Real Estate Entrepreneur that has a Coin Laundry Business as part of his business portfolio. He's been running two of them in our small town for perhaps 10-15 years. One laundry facility is not-staffed at all and is open 24-7; the other is part of three businesses in one building: Insurance Offices, Tanning Booths (Staffed), and Coin Laundry; it is open from about 9am to 10pm daily.

His other businesses are:
1) Nationwide Insurance Agency Owner (2 staff sales people)
2) Real Estate Investing (Including Remodeling them; Residential & Commercial)
3) Coin Laundry(s)
4) Tanning Salon(s)

He started out as a successful sales-person for IBM many years ago, and I would say that he's roughly my age, about 45 years old. And perhaps one of the few (or only) very successful black business entrepreneurs that many people in our community consider very gracious, kind, happy, and busy. Married with a wife, and 3 college aged kids.

I believe the main income streams that initially started him out were real estate (when it was appreciating very well), and also having a serious full-time job (sales career) during his start-up into becoming an entrepreneur.

Cheers.

[Gaulkin]

It just seems like everything i read about this business is to good to be true, sort of like a get rich quick scheme.

- absentee
- high profit margins
- all cash business
and the list goes on and on

Can anyone bring this business to reality for me please.

[Grandmarnier]

I guess it depends where you are located. If by a dorm or university, I would expect it to be busy all the time.

But dont always look at the "good" side of it. You still have to maintain ALL the machines. Repair and maintenance would be your biggest expense ( I assume ) aside from electricity bills. Vandalism is a problem too. And stocking detergents and stuff like that too.

[TheBigIdea]

i suppose we can outsource maintenance.

[lechuga727]

I used to work for a large ($300 million in revenue) card/coin operating laundry company as an analyst, and I was in charge of determining the financial feasibility of deals. You can make a lot of money doing this, but a majority of the risk comes from 1) being able to predict the maintenance costs and 2) being able to determine the potential usage. While you can make money from this, the larger companies are going to win the majority of the proposals because of their ability to offer better deals to the their customers (apartment owners, schools) due to greater economies of scale. If you are going to do this, you need to find a niche area, meaning you need to build up a reputation in the area that will outweigh the financial advantages offered by the bigger companies. Your best bet to make money in this is to dominate a small market and then be bought out by one of the bigger companies at a premium.

[mikek]

i know somebody who runs a green oriented coin laundry, stocking on enviro friendly detergents, has solar panels on the roof and also has some other features