Hello guys. My apartment (I named it House) is halfway to its completion and I thought, why not make a part of the first floor a laundry shop… “we pick up, we deliver” sort of stuff. I am new to this laundry business, and I would highly appreciate your advice, suggestions and tips. I hope you guys could help me out. I am from Mindanao, I havent heard nor have I seen a pickup-delivery laundry shop around here so I decided to put up one. The location is near a private hospital (about 100 mtrs away), around 300-400 mtrs away from the public market, most of the people near this place including the whole neighborhood is, I would say middle class. There are a lot of subdivisions near the place, a couple of schools and a big university is less than a mile away with lots of apartments and shops nearby. Fortunately, I own the whole house which is a renovated ancestral home, so I wouldnt worry about any rental fees. Some of the interiors are preserved and hopefuly when it’s completely fisnished I am confident enough to say that its a nice and clean place with a twist.

There arent other competing laundry shops within a mile radius or 2. Safe to say, my competitors aint that close and they dont have the pickup-delivery system. I also figured out, why not use google earth for map print outs, so that my driver wont get lost in pickup and delivery. I also plan to use a digital camera and take images on the clothes on each client and at the same time make a clothing list on the computer. The client gives a list of the clothes to be picked up and encode the list of clothes on the computer, and when delivered the list will be printed out and attached to it, the list of clothes which the client gave. So, I would say mix-up would probably be close to impossible.

Basically the following will be my scheme:

1. Clothing list and pics for clients who avails for the monthly billing options (25kg/36kg/50kg/65kg/80kg). I will post the tentative price below, I am still figuring out the cheapest options possible. Basically my rate would be PhP 25.00 per kilo, but for monthly options, the higher kg/month would get a lower price for the bulk. The pics would be some sort of an inventory list so that mix up of the clothes would be avoided and for ease in looking for the right owner. I would also use color coding making use of a colored yarn. well, the colored yarn will really come in handy especially for walk-in clients.

2. For the pick-up-delivery system, I would incorporate it with the monthly options for free as long as the client lives not quite far from my shop. I would say around 2-4 mile radius. And more than that, I would charge PhP 150-300/month for clients living around 5-8 miles away. I would still research about this though.

3. Pick-up and delivery would be twice a week (e.g. sundays and wed), and then if the client exceeds maximum wt for the month I would charge PhP 25.00 per kilo (on the spot), and thats the regular rate.
(I have this notion that the client would avail a much higher monthly option the next time.)

4. My laundry team would be composed of 3 laundry people and 1 driver. 2 laundry persons would be in the shop the whole day and the driver and the extra laundry lady for the pick-up and delivery. And any of the two would do the encoding, receiving payments and stuff. I will rotate the laundry people who goes with the pick-up and delivery.

5. The laundry shop will be composed of a washing area, drying area (I could also utilize a large part of the whole laundry shop for hang drying the clothes), receiving area.. etc. 3 washing machines, 2 of them with drier/spinners… (not really familiar with washing machine types and stuff yet, I really need help on this).

… the whole laundry shop will be around 80-90 sqr meters, that would include the parking area for my “delivery truck”

I will have a computer with two printers, an LX-300-II for duplicate printing (I find the 2-ply carbonized paper fairly cheap and the ribbon for the printer would only cost PhP 150 the most) and a Brother MFC-150 for other printing purposes (continuous ink really is a help here). The computer will be for all documentation purposes and stuff (e.g. google earth, clothing list, monthly fees…). I am also thinking of printing a whole 2-4 mile radius map for easy tracking and stuff. Colored pins would indicate what site that needs attention and stuff. I want it highly organized as possible.

Here are the monthly options:

PhP 599 – 25kg
PhP 860 – 36kg
PhP 1170 – 50kg
PhP 1495 – 65kg
PhP 1800 – 80kg

regular rate PhP 25.00 per kilo

btw, I am still figuring things out for the ironing service. But initially I wouldnt offer it. The service would only comprise of wash, dry and fold. (That’s how I would call it. Smiley

This is just the initial stuff. I hope you guys could give me a hand on this. My plan is totally open for criticism and alike. I still need to know a lot more about what I would really need, what I’m missing, stuff like washing machines, detergents, washing techniques..etc.

Which among them is good? Sharp, Whirlpool, National… any advice?

For the “delivery truck”… I am still looking for cost-effectivity. Any suggestions?

By now, you’ve reached this far to read, I appreciate your patience in reading the whole stuff. Thanks, and again…I am looking forward in the help you guys

can give. Highly appreciate it. More power.

donjuan

Galing naman ng mga ideas mo. Parang ayaw ko nga maniwala you dont know anything about the biz because your ideas answer the minute problems of day-to-day laundry operations.

But like they already said, too much work for the staff. Aslo, i do not think the customers would bother to fill in the form for the piece count. In my shop, most if not all would leave the filling up of itemized checklist of clothes to my staff. i pick up and deliver also but only my institutional clients avail of the free service. Because for walk-in clients, they find it inconvenient to set a time for pick up, for them to prepare the clothes, for somebody be left in their house to attend to my staff. hassle daw.

also, very high tech yung set up mo, baka you need special skills from your staff. in my case, yung mga staff ko na magaling sa labada, hinde marunong with computers or elementary graduate nga iba. Meron naman akong very efficient secretary in another business na i wanted to oversee operations but hinde nya kaya to be exposed with the dirty clothes, you know what i mean. yung magaling mag computer baka hinde bagay mag laba.

also, i suggest, you dont hire a driver na hinde alam yung place. helpful yung map but if you hire somebody who is from the place, you will not need it.

i notice na hinde masyado malaki discount mo for monthly clients mo. parang its not worth the hassle. also how would you impose the volume bracket and pricing? you will bill after one month? Risky yata specially kung hinde institutional clients and most walk-in prefer to pay cash per transaction para the bill wont pile up.

constructive critisisms lang po. and im still interested in your shop’s progress. please post naman experiences mo with your operation.