After I left the corporate world in 2009, I spent a few months as a Certified Energy Advisor working as an independent contractor. This involved doing evaluations of people’s homes for energy use including the Blower Door Test to check for leaks. This was a great job. It allowed me to combine something that interested me, use my past experience in home renovations to help people understand how their home worked, help them get government rebates for improvements and I actually got paid to do it.
This was a short career as I had my paperwork submitted to move to the US. I investigated the energy evaluation business in the US but found in the SouthEast it was not a big concern to most people and as there were very few rebate programs in place the payback was from the energy savings only. Part of the difference in the attitude between the colder climates and the SouthEast is that you don’t notice a warm breeze coming under a door with the air conditioning running but you definitely notice a cold breeze in the dead of winter.
As my time to move started to draw closer I continued to investigate various business opportunities.
I was introduced to the coin laundry industry by a friend of mine in our volunteer fire department. As he was a captain at the Fire Department and also did service on appliances he earned the title of Captain Freon. His family had been in the coin laundry and appliance sales and service business his whole life.
We would sit around and talk about various business ventures and at one point we actually took a tour of a couple of laundry in a neighboring town. I had other projects on the go at the time so another friend of his opened one in that town a couple of years later.
Fast forward a few years and I had left the corporate world and was getting ready to leave that country, so I was looking at alternatives. Part of the fun of moving to the US is that once you are here it takes months to get a green card to be able to work but fortunately you can own a business before you even get here.
During the time I was waiting to move I hunted down Captain Freon and started asking questions. I would ride with him to his coin laundries and ask all kinds of questions about income and finance and maintenance and setup ……. Finally, he told me until you actually own one I can’t really tell you much more.
I will be honest and tell you that you can read about them, stop by and use some, talk to distributors, accountants and lawyers, develop business plans and study demographics but there are still things that you don’t find out until you own one. But I hope to be able to provide some insight into many of these items as we move along.
I have been operating in the laundry business since 2010 and learning and studying since 2009. Currently, I own 3 stores. One was closed and required a complete renovation, one was running and needed some freshening up and the third was running and had good equipment but needed renovations and some additional equipment. One of my stores has attendants and a strong Drop Off service. Although not in my original business plan it was a good opportunity so I made some adjustments to the business plan and moved forward.
As the Laundromat business settled into a nice stride I returned to another area I have been active in for many years, Real Estate Investing. I was stuck at a certain level and decided I needed to find some support and direction. I contacted Fortune Builders and I have been able to use the training and coaching to increase my Real Estate Portfolio and add another area of Passive Income.
Throughout this time I was also involved in marketing in many forms. Internet, newspapers, radio, TV and even billboards. I try to take two or three courses per year on business and marketing. Some are only a few hours at the local Chamber of Commerce or the University and some full-day courses. I also invest a lot of time in online training, webinars and audio books.
There is no such thing as staying in the same place. You either move up or move down. This applies to business and personal activities. Staying in the same place actually means you are falling behind as everyone else moves ahead.
Now I am able to set my own hours, spend more time with my family and be flexible enough to pick up the kids from school or travel on the “off days” to take advantage of discounts on flights.
