How To Find The Right Laundry Equipment Distributor

You need to ask the right questions and feel comfortable. Are you being sold some equipment or being supported in starting your business?

At some point, you will need to buy some equipment and there are lots of companies and salespeople that are willing to sell you whatever you need or think you need, or what they want to sell you.

Does your salesperson own a Laundromat? Are they or have they been in the Laundromat business?

Don’t get me wrong. There are some great Distributors and Salespeople that know the business and will guide you through the process and details of starting and running your Laundromat. I would just like to know up front who I am dealing with and their experience.

You are making a purchase that may be worth more than your current home. You owe it to yourself and your family to screen the Distributor and Salespeople and to feel comfortable that they have your best interests in mind.

A Laundromat is a great business and requires a combination of the right location, the right amount of equipment and the right support.

Ask questions and make the right decisions.

Video Transcript:

Hi, it’s Ken Barrett. If you’re thinking about getting in the laundry industry, whether Laundromat, coin laundry, whatever you want to call them, at some point in time you’re going to have to buy some equipment.

You may buy into a laundry that’s got some older stuff already, it’s okay for a little bit, but you need to start replacing stuff. Or, maybe an empty building that you’re going to start from scratch to build your laundry, or you might already have the abilities there from years before and you want to freshen it up, put in some new equipment and get it brought back to life.

So, basically, with equipment, there’s a bunch of different brands out there. They wash clothes, water goes in, stirs it around, it’s hot, it’s cold, it mixes it up, spits it out, you dry it. There are guys that have some preferences for various equipment. It’s similar to cars and a way that they all get you from point A to point B, what features do you like, which one feels more reliable, the costs involved, etc. But the next step past that is the distributor. Manufacturers, there are various big names out there, they make the equipment, and then the distributor sells it. Again, somewhat like a car dealership, the manufacturer makes it, the dealership gets it and they sell it to you.

A big thing to look for with your distributor if you really want to be comfortable working with them. They need to provide you with enough information to make a decision and to be able to answer all your questions. One thing up front that I would ask is how many laundries do they own? If they say they used to own one but don’t own one now, wonder why that is. It’s a great business, once you get in, aside from moving or a major crisis in your life, it’s not something you’re just going to pack up and walk away from. It’s a business, it’s not a job you’re going to bounce around from.

So ask that distributor, that salesman, questions. Do you have a laundry and do you have more than one laundry? If you’re working with somebody who’s a distributor, a salesman, and he doesn’t own any laundries, he’s never owned a laundry, then does he really understand your needs?

That would be like if you’re buying a car and ask the guy what kind of car does he drive and he tells you he rides the bus to work. My first thought would be “Why do you ride the bus? You’re trying to sell me a car, but you’re riding the bus.”

There may be some situations where you need to understand why they don’t have a laundry. Maybe they’re in a big city where the building prices are high or they’re more into sales. At the same time, if you’ve never driven a car and you don’t own a car, are you really just reading off the sales sheet or you’re really providing the valuable information that people need to make a decision.

And you realize too, that you’re not just buying some equipment, you’re building a business. Once you buy the equipment, what’s your support structure there, how fast does it take you to get parts? If you’ve got a technical question, do they have a phone number you can call up and get answers while you’re there? Can your repairman, or if you’re doing it yourself, can you call in and say “Here’s my problem, talk me through it.”?

If it’s something big, how fast is it going to take them to get a service guy there to help you out, does corporate need to be involved? When you set up your laundries, you’re buying a bunch of equipment, is the manufacturer going to send somebody out to make sure it was put in right, that it started right and it’s running right? An expert saying “Yeah, we’ve tested everything, we’ve run everything”. Not just the installation guy running around firing some quarters and going “Yeah look, everything started, you got hot water, you got cold water, have a nice day”, but somebody who making sure the equipment runs like it’s supposed to.

That’s a lot of the things you need to keep in mind. What have they provided for you upfront, do you feel comfortable with them, and are they giving you the information you need? Again, if you’re just getting into this business, they’re already in this business, or they should be. They should know what information you need to make a good decision.

A good distributor wants you to be successful, they want to sell you the equipment for one store, and then a year or two later, they want to sell you the equipment for another store. If they’re just in there going “You know, this would be great and this would be great here, buy my equipment, it’s great.” Is it just a sale or is it really building that relationship that you want and need?

Do you want a distributor where you can call them up later and say “You know what? I need to buy a couple more pieces of equipment.” Or “I’m looking and I found another spot, it might be a good start, what do you think?” You want them to come in not with the idea of “Yeah, it’s a great spot, I’ll sell you $200,000 – $300,000 of equipment.” You want someone with the knowledge, whom you’ve built a relationship with, to be honest with you. Someone that wants you to succeed, they’ll tell you if there’s a concern, if they know the history of that store and why it failed, why it’s not a laundry anymore. A good distributor won’t come running in going “Yep, it’s great, let’s fire it in, and if it doesn’t work, well, I’ll come back in a couple of months and repo all the equipment on you.”

So, as I said, you want to be comfortable with who you’re dealing with, make sure they’re giving you the information you need to build and run a business, and not just selling you equipment. Someone who is providing value, providing good equipment, real, working knowledge for the decisions you need to open, run and handle the store, along with following up. If you call the guy up saying here’s my issue, are they going to answer right then? Or are they going to put you off claiming they don’t know anything about fixing the equipment they just put it in, they just sell it to you? You’ll have to call this or that guy.

Again, people who own, salesmen who own, laundries, they know those little questions you’re going to have. It might be something simple you don’t have to worry about, a simple fix or something major that you will need to call a trained service guy to come out and fix, not just your local handyman, but a salesman who owns his own laundries will be able to let you know and answer those questions for you.

So, keep that in mind, I’ll follow up with more of these articles, later on, give more details, things to look for.

So, there we go, I’m going to head in and check a couple of little things here at the store and unplug a change machine, then that’ll be it for the day. I’ll talk to you later on and have a great day.

Ken Barrett

LaundromatHowTo.com

Contact
Ken Barrett
800-792-1941 ext 2
ken@washincoinlaundry.com

If you have any comments please post them below.

Ken Barrett