For some reason, I've always been fascinated by the concept of owning a laundromat.

It doesn't strike me as the type of business where you'd be raking in serious cash (unless you managed to open a whole string of them), but it seems like it would be a nice source of income with minimal expenses and physical effort (relatively speaking).

I'd assume your biggest expenses would be your rent/mortgage, and the upfront cost of buying all the washers and dryers. Or do laundromats usually rent their equipment? Not sure. But assuming you can get past that sticking point......you've basically just got maintanence on the machines and electricity/water bills. You can probably hire a college kid (or an illegal) to sweep the floor for minimum wage. There's no inventory to keep, so you don't need to worry about customers or employees stealing from you. You can leave it open for 24 hours, unmanned for much of the time.

Just curious if anyone else had any opinions on this, or has any actual experience. I'm sure I'm probably missing a few expenditures and whatnot, but generally it seems like an under-the-radar type of thing that no one thinks about that could turn a respectable profit.

Rydog wrote:

You are totally underestimating what your H2O bill would be. Plus the gov't rakes every business hard one way or another. Plus, you can't assume you will pull in lots of customers and it isn't like advertising a laundromat is useful. I would assume you would own your machines to maximize your profit, though it will take longer to see said profit while you pay off your machines. Plus they are a dime (or should I say quarter) a dozen.

I'm sure the water bill would be astronomical. And I think location would be key to getting a lot of customers. If you could land a location near an apartment complex or college, you might get a lot more customers than if you were located in a random shopping center or something.

I disagree about the advertising not being useful.....even if it's something as simple as distributing flyers to local apartments and whatnot. People in close proximity who use their apartment complex facilities or a shittier laundromat would probably take notice.

Rydog wrote:

Idea! Go with the college campus and put arcade machines inside! Even MORE quarters!

Holy crap, that is a good idea! I mean what else are you going to do while you're waiting for your shit to dry? And you've got a pocket full of quarters.....

GPFontaine wrote:

Washers and driers are very expensive, especially industrial ones that have coin operation. But that isn't the expense I would worry about. I would fear for lawsuits. Damaged clothing, vandalism, personal injury, incorrectly adjusted for handicapped needs, etc...

Maybe......but I would think that every entraprenuer (I know I didn't spell that right) has to deal with those fears. Most laundromats I've been to have very prominant signs saying "not responisble for lost or damaged items, blah blah." Not sure how far that goes to absolve you from lawsuits over torn up clothing.