Laundromat business - side hustle?

[spsunny]

Hi all, I hope everyone is doing well! I am interested in the potential of buying a cashflowing laundromat as a side hustle while I work my full-time job.

I know everything differs based on the specific laundromat that you find, but based on your experience - is this a feasible idea, if you find a laundromat that cashflows enough to cover hiring someone to manage the place? Could I work on understanding and improving processes, putting new systems in place, improving other aspects of operations - with a few hours per day? (say, 15-20 hours per week?) I'm assuming this would differ based on whether the manager was already working for the business, or if I hired them. I work remotely and my schedule is flexible, so I could shift around my full-time job based on the needs of the laundromat.

Eventually, the goal would be to get the business to be pretty passive (1-2 hours per week), but I'm wondering about the transitional period. Is it possible to take over a laundromat as a side hustle, and if so what factors would be important to analyze in a given deal? What has your experience been? And how long did it take you to take the laundromat from purchase to 1-2 hours management per week?

Thanks a bunch in advance!

 

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[farmer79]

I don’t want to be negative and I know nothing about laundromats. But it seems to have become a fad of late on social media that there is easy absentee money in owning one. Based on that alone I’d be more inclined to be a seller rather than buyer.

 

[Stargazer]

Where do you live?

UK for example went from 12000 down to 2000. At the rate they are closing (200 a year) there will be none left in 10 years time although it wont actually ever be zero. And 90% of those don't make the owner money. They are in the poor areas and the owner lives in a flat above the place which they wouldn't if they made any money.

Why don't you get into something that is growing rather then shrinking?

If you are in some African country then maybe that is different.

Dan

 

[SleazyDan69420]

Why don't you get into something that is growing rather then shrinking?

Yeah, this sounds like the clicker. I was looking into it myself actually, and there are tons of websites teeming with info on the subject, personally I would look into that first. One thing I read while researching is competition is also a factor. IMO you want a place with high foot traffic (like a cbd) to be the location of your business, that way you always have customers. Maybe see if there's a place where the top floor is part of the property and mortgage it and live just above it. Similar to how mcdonald's main focus is on real estate not selling burgers. Having working vending machines and a coffee machine can also net an extra 200-300 a week.

 

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[Robdavis]

Hi all, I hope everyone is doing well! I am interested in the potential of buying a cashflowing laundromat as a side hustle while I work my full-time job.

I know everything differs based on the specific laundromat that you find, but based on your experience - is this a feasible idea, if you find a laundromat that cashflows enough to cover hiring someone to manage the place? Could I work on understanding and improving processes, putting new systems in place, improving other aspects of operations - with a few hours per day? (say, 15-20 hours per week?) I'm assuming this would differ based on whether the manager was already working for the business, or if I hired them. I work remotely and my schedule is flexible, so I could shift around my full-time job based on the needs of the laundromat.

Eventually, the goal would be to get the business to be pretty passive (1-2 hours per week), but I'm wondering about the transitional period. Is it possible to take over a laundromat as a side hustle, and if so what factors would be important to analyze in a given deal? What has your experience been? And how long did it take you to take the laundromat from purchase to 1-2 hours management per week?

Thanks a bunch in advance!

With a business like this, which is "shop" based, you can get a rough idea of how good a business it is or could be just by looking at how busy it is when you go past. So if there is a laundromat near you up for sale and it is always packed with people and often has a queue outside, then it's probably a good business or could be one.

I'm in the UK and haven't been to a laundromat for decades. The last few times I have seen one they have been either empty or they have one customer using one of about 15 machines.

To try to give you an example of this kind of thing, probably about fifteen years ago the father of a friend of mine wanted to buy a fish and chip shop. It was on a busy road. Further up the road was a Kentucky Fried Chicken, a Chinese takeaway and an Indian restaurant. There was ample parking in the area for people to park cars and collect takeaway food. There was also a modest level of people walking past on foot. My friend's father had looked at the four shops at different times of the day and week and saw that the KFC, the Chinese and Indian were always busy and the fish and chip shop was deserted. So he knew that there was plenty of potential custom for this shop but that the current owner was running it badly. When my friend's father saw the accounts, they indicated that the shop was busy with plenty of customers, so he immediately knew that the accounts were fake. He negotiated hard and bought the business for a very cheap price. He built the business up and exited about 18 months later for a good profit. When he put the business up for sale, most evenings people would be queueing out of the door.

In the case of your landromat, a successful business will have many people entering and exiting with huge bags of washing. The people who are coming and going carrying nothing you can ignore.

TL;DR Focus on whether there is a strong need for a laundromat in your area.