Some of the best advice and assistance in starting your new Laundromat and come from the person you’re going to “be in business with”: Your equipment supplier. This is the man (or woman) who has much to gain from your success, and therefore should be an active participant in your laundromat planning stage. In fact one of the very first things you should do after browsing all the information on this site is to contact the major Laundromat equipment manufacturers and meet with their distributor for your area. You’ll come away from this meeting with specific details on equipment costs and lease/financing options, crucial to formulating a viable business plan, and be able to begin searching for the ideal laundromat location.

The primary requirement for coin-op success is a nearby large rental population (within a 3-mile radius may be sufficient…within 1 mile is ideal). ‘Renters’, as a percentage of the total number of residents of the USA, is growing and has surpassed 30%. Additional positive considerations are high ethnic population and below-average economic levels.

Secondary considerations for successful Laundromat location are the presence or absence of competition. This doesn’t mean that an existing coin-op laundry within a mile of your considered location will necessarily be a detriment. Consider these two points: First, if your competition appears to be successful, then you have an opportunity to draw many of their current customers to you…certainly those who will now live half-way between two Laundromats, and especially those who will now live closer to your location. Secondly, if your competitor’s store is dirty, cramped, and/or lacking services and amenities you can offer, your potential customers will find that your “competitor” isn’t really any competition at all, and they will flock to your store.

Researching the potential “competition” is crucial, but it’s easy: Just go in and do a load of laundry. Is the place clean? Friendly? Do all the machines appear to be working, or are there 2 or 3 “out of order” signs around? You should be taking notes, including the number of machines they have, what sizes they are, and what their prices are. Stop by each of your potential competitors several times, at different times of day and week…are they busy? Perhaps even TOO busy, with not enough machines at peak hours to serve everybody? (If so, that’s an excellent sign for you.)

Add to all your notes a map of the area, and place a mark for the location of each of your competitors’ stores. Is there an area that lies more-or-less in the middle of all those dots? This is a good place to start. But don’t be afraid to be too close to your competition either, especially if there are a large number of rentals in the area, or if one of your competitors’ stores is dirty and dinghy.

Remember that a Laundromat is a destination, not a spur-of-the-moment stopping off point. You drive down the street and see a burger joint with a great promotion, and decide you’re hungry…that’s a drive-by.  If you want to run a burger joint, then you WANT and NEED lots of traffic.  But NOBODY drives by a Laundromat and says “Hey, I think I’ll stop in and wash my clothes”.

This second point can actually be the deciding point, considering the type of self-serve laundry facility you plan to offer. Consider this: An area of a major city is surrounded by rental houses and apartment complexes, with a young population. There are several coin-op Laundromats in the area, and of course many of the apartment complexes have coin-op laundry facilities on-site. On one hand you might think this is a “saturated” market, with more than enough Laundromat facilities to satisfy the market.

I mention this because I know a man (I’ll call him John) who took keen advantage of this situation. Near the middle of this area was a strip mall struggling to survive, with many units vacant for many months. Its location was in between two major thoroughfares, only a couple blocks from either, but the previous tenants were unable to draw “drive-by” traffic from either street, and the few remaining tenants were having a hard time as well.

John considered the “competition”. The existing Laundromats in what he considered his 3-mile radius area of competition were typical, simple, Laundromats in other strip malls. They were clean and accommodating, but still just basic “self-serve laundries”.

It was fairly easy for him to make a deal with the landlord of the struggling strip mall. He offered to put a new Laundromat in a 2000+ square-foot unit, and pay 6 months rent in advance, provided the landlord built-out the space with the required water, drainage, and electrical service. Further, John requested and received a written “first right of refusal” for the rental of the adjoining empty spaces. This meant that if business went as well as he anticipated, he could easily expand to either side. (In fact, that’s exactly what happened, and now it’s a 5000-square-foot “Laundry Super Center”.)

Provided you offer clean facilities, competetive prices, friendly service, and attractive business hours, the success of your Laundromat will hinge almost entirely on its location. Do LOTS of research before settling on a general area or specific location. Loaded with good location research, and the advice and numbers provided by your equipment vendors, you’ll be able to start building a realistic coin-operated Laundromat business plan.