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Stop Pushing Delivery Before You Are Cashflow Positive — Transcript

by Laundromat Ownership · 7,378 words · 1,107 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Hello and welcome to the Laundromat
0:01Ownership Podcast. I'm your host Ian
0:03Gallaher. Me and my business partner
0:05Brian Henderson own three Laundromats in
0:08the Tulsa, Oklahoma area. They're called
0:10Liberty Laundry. In 2025, those three
0:13Laundromats did a total of $2.5 million
0:16top line revenue.
0:17And we also own the original point of
0:20sale system for Laundromats. We're the
0:22founders of it back in 2016. It's called
0:25Wash-Dry-Fold POS. Sometimes abbreviated
0:29WDF POS. So if you ever see that
0:31abbreviation, you'll know what they're
0:32talking about.
0:33But that's our company that we started a
0:35long time ago to help other Laundromat
0:36owners deal with their point of sale
0:38system, manage their staff, manage
0:40equipment repairs, prevent employee
0:42theft, and so on.
0:45Um
0:45the podcast that you'll be listening to
0:47today is actually a crossover with Steve
0:50Marcantel's podcast Drive Time, which is
0:52more for Laundromat distributors.
0:55But because it was actually an interview
0:56of me, your host, I thought you might be
0:58interested in it. Um he does actually
1:00have some pretty good questions like
1:03what do most Laundromat owners
1:05miss? And there is a special promotion
1:08on the point of sale system if you're
1:10interested in that as well. But without
1:12further ado, let's get to Steve
1:13Marcantel's interview of me on Drive
1:16Time. Here [music] it is. Thanks.
1:21All right, Ian.
1:24Thank you very much for joining me. It's
1:27great to have you on the podcast. Um you
1:30know, it's We were just talking before
1:32we got things started. You know, it's a
1:34reiteration of the distributor
1:37relationships
1:38that we have and how complicated it can
1:41be for a distributor to know everything
1:44there is about everything laundry
1:47related. And so it's great to have
1:50somebody from an ancillary perspective
1:54that works with companies like CCI and
1:56talk about Wash-Dry-Fold. And
2:00you know, but before we get too deep in
2:02it, I know that you know, we want to
2:03tease everyone listening with this
2:07special offer that you have for us. And
2:09we're going to We're going to kind of
2:10make everyone wait till the end of it.
2:11So just so we don't forget those
2:14listening, we have a special offer for
2:16those listening as it relates to
2:18Wash-Dry-Fold POS. But
2:20we'll get to that. I think that'll
2:21happen to short shortly enough. But
2:24you know, you know why don't you start
2:26tell us a little bit about yourself.
2:28I know I know who you are. I know where
2:30you come from. But I think it's a great
2:31opportunity to talk about who you are
2:33and kind of talk about Wash-Dry-Fold and
2:35kind of what role you play.
2:37Yeah, so I started kind of getting into
2:40the Laundromat industry probably a
2:42little bit similar to a lot of the
2:44listeners. I was in sales and it was B2B
2:46sales and I was selling a billboards. I
2:49don't know if you see the little
2:50billboard back there with my name. That
2:52was from when I went to corporate
2:54training with Lamar, the billboard
2:55company, and
2:56uh
2:58I went to this little entrepreneurship
2:59meeting and
3:00one of the guys there was Brian
3:02Henderson and he was there for his
3:03family's chain of Laundromats. And we
3:05just really hit it off and became
3:07friends and I was kind of helping him
3:09think through how to sell this point of
3:11sale system that he was using for his
3:13own Laundromats.
3:14Um and he had a lot of other interests
3:17from other Laundromat owners. And I was
3:19trying to help him kind of figure out
3:20how do you structure it, how do you sell
3:22it, and
3:23he was starting to get bogged down
3:25pretty quick with the support as as you
3:27guys know. What people they buy
3:29something, that's not the last you hear
3:30of them.
3:31So
3:33getting getting the equipment set up and
3:35making sure everyone knew how to use the
3:37system and training them and all that
3:39and he got so busy with that so fast
3:42that right away he was like, "Man, I
3:44really need someone to take this sales
3:46piece of this off my plate." And so
3:48pretty early I I you know, in that first
3:50year that is back in 2016, I joined the
3:52company.
3:53And Brian and I have just been
3:56figuring it all out since, you know. And
3:58there's no uh no user guide to how to
4:02build a multi-million dollar business,
4:03but we have figured it out as we've gone
4:05along and um
4:07yeah, we've you know, sold over 1,300
4:09point of sale systems now 10 years later
4:11and certainly one of the big four
4:15players in in the point of sale space.
4:18Um and certainly been a leader
4:20especially in the higher grossing,
4:22excuse me,
4:23Laundromats nationwide. I kind of run
4:25the day-to-day and I do the sales piece
4:27of it. And Brian really has moved
4:29into the technology stuff because that's
4:31I mean, we're a technology company. And
4:32so that's a full-time job for him just
4:34to do the
4:35software and the software team and the
4:37team of developers. Yeah. Yeah. You
4:39know,
4:40you [clears throat] know, quick side
4:41story about Brian and I. Brian and I met
4:45years before he started Wash-Dry-Fold
4:48POS cuz he was working with his family's
4:50laundries as you mentioned. And he was
4:52involved in that. And he came and
4:54visited me at our office. Gosh, I don't
4:57even know what year it was, but it was a
4:58number of years before he started the
5:01business to evaluate our product. And we
5:04got a chance to spend some really nice
5:06one-on-one time
5:08you know, evaluating our Gen 1 FastCard
5:10product. I mean, this is going back
5:12probably 20
5:13Yeah.
5:13>> 15 or something like that.
5:15>> ago. Yeah. And [clears throat] you know,
5:17and you know, and I've known him for a
5:18while. Since then, but one of the things
5:20that he one of the great um
5:22impressions that he left with me was
5:25this
5:26this ability to take somewhat complex
5:29ideas and make them simple.
5:32And if there's one thing that I know
5:35when I talk to customers who have your
5:37products is how simple it is. And
5:41and and I I could it would just seem so
5:44natural is the idea that Brian was the
5:46perfect person to take something that
5:48maybe was a little complicated or could
5:51be could be complicated and just
5:53simplify it and make it there. And I
5:54know that you know, over the years
5:56functionality gets more complex or more
5:58advanced. And so you know, it starts to
6:00become more of a challenge. But I I know
6:03that that was something was a something
6:04he left me with when he came to visit.
6:07He put together this amazing
6:10review of our products that I I should
6:12have done.
6:13>> [laughter]
6:13>> You know.
6:14And it just because it was how he
6:16simplified our conversations into almost
6:20like a
6:21product review that he didn't even had
6:23hadn't even purchased. Do you know what
6:24I mean? It was just his way of kind of
6:26just like sharing this with Here here I
6:28spent some time with Steve and this is
6:30what I learned about this product. And I
6:33can just you know, when I learned that
6:34he had started you know, the company or
6:37started developing this product. So
6:39you're you have aligned yourself really
6:43well by by whatever the chances were
6:46that got you connected to Brian. It was
6:48it was fate. And you know, we've had a
6:49chance to get to know each other a
6:50little bit over the years as well. So
6:52it's a it's a great pairing. So
6:55amazing. You know, I'm I'm curious
6:58um
7:00what did you know about the laundry
7:01industry prior to meeting Brian and
7:04starting to talk about that? And and
7:06then kind of trailer that into
7:09what you thought you knew versus
7:11you know, what was reality when you
7:13finally started to to work in it?
7:16Yeah, I think
7:18however much the average person knows
7:21about Laundromats,
7:23I knew less for sure.
7:24>> [laughter]
7:24>> Like
7:26this whatever wherever that is on the
7:28graph, I was [laughter]
7:30I was on I just knew nothing. I had been
7:33inside of a Laundromat a few times when
7:35I was in Chicago. I used to live in
7:36Chicago and and uh
7:38the you know, we had the multi
7:40multi-housing I think is what they call
7:42it now, but we had you know, we had
7:43units in the basement. Sometimes those
7:44went out. And so we had to go to a
7:45Laundromat. And that was my experience
7:48with Laundromats. And the Laundromat we
7:49went to was just the typical Laundromat
7:51experience where it was like kind of a
7:53hole in the wall and there was this
7:55little old lady running it who would do
7:57the wash-dry-fold if you wanted her to.
7:59And Right.
8:00>> Um you know, and so but just all on pen
8:02and paper, of course. No no actual like
8:05And I do remember being like, "Does this
8:07lady even work here?" She doesn't look
8:08like she didn't have a uniform or
8:10anything. [laughter] And so I was like
8:12"Is she just hanging out at the
8:13Laundromat? And I'll pay like I didn't I
8:16wasn't convinced she worked there."
8:17[laughter]
8:17She she's just started a business in the
8:20Laundromat. Right. And I to this day I
8:22don't know. That's probably what it was
8:24because it didn't have any [laughter]
8:25kind of There was no counter, you know.
8:27She was just like, "Yeah, give me I'll
8:28I'll I'll write it down. I've got a I'll
8:30do it. Yeah. And so
8:32um
8:33yeah, so that was my experience with
8:35Laundromats. And um
8:37you know, Brian
8:39we started playing tennis afterwards and
8:40he was I was asking him how he was
8:42doing. He was like, "Oh, you know, my my
8:43family's Laundromat
8:45was on the cover of Planet Laundry this
8:47month." And I was like, "Man, that's
8:49hilarious. Can you imagine if there was
8:50a magazine called Planet Laundry?" He
8:52was like, "No, there is. [laughter]
8:54There is and it's a trade magazine and
8:56we're on the cover." And I was like,
8:58"You're messing with me." He was like,
9:00"No, [laughter] there really is." I was
9:01like, "What are you talking about?" And
9:03so he had to show it to me for me to
9:05believe it. And um
9:08so yeah, that that's about where I came
9:09in to the industry. So I really knew
9:11nothing. But I did know sales and I knew
9:14value and marketing and and um
9:18that was really what I brought to the
9:19table is how do you convey value to the
9:21business owner? And even something like
9:23that you brought up about the
9:24simplicity,
9:26you know, there was a lot of directions
9:28we could have taken our marketing in
9:29those early days. But what our customers
9:31were telling us again and again and
9:33again was these ladies can't use
9:35anything. These ladies don't These are
9:37not computer programmers. They don't
9:39know Don't give me anything complicated.
9:41It's got to be easy for them to use. Now
9:44as the years have gone by, our I think
9:46our our competitors try and take say
9:49that as a negative thing. But the
9:51reality is it still does delivery. We
9:53can go on your website. You can place a
9:55delivery order. Um, we're doing the
9:57laundry lockers integrations. It
9:59integrates with all the major card
10:01systems. We even have deep deep
10:02integration with CCI, obviously. Mhm.
10:04Um, but it has all the features. It's
10:06not that it doesn't have the features.
10:08Um, it's that
10:10it's got to be easy to use. And for it
10:13to be easy to use, it has to be simple.
10:14There can't be 300 buttons about dry
10:16cleaning if you're not doing dry
10:18cleaning in your in your laundromat. And
10:20so that it really has been key to how do
10:22we market this? And then,
10:24um, also key to how do we actually
10:27develop it and make the software? And
10:29luckily for for Brian and for me,
10:33he had the little old ladies in all
10:34three of his laundromats that couldn't
10:35use software. So they were the perfect
10:37ones if he built something that was too
10:39confusing on how to use, they would let
10:41him know. Like, I don't Brian, I don't
10:42know how to do this, you know? And so
10:44well, what if I put it right here? What
10:45if I made it more simple? What if
10:47instead of a drop down, you just tapped
10:49the washer and you just tapped the dryer
10:50instead of having to find it from a
10:51list? And those were some of the really
10:53early insights we had that, um, you
10:56know, now all the point of sale systems
10:58are built like that, but there was
10:59actually someone had to figure that out.
11:01So that was us.
11:02>> Yeah. Um, but yeah. Yes, I came in at
11:04the very beginning to answer your
11:05question. I knew nothing, yeah.
11:09Well, that's that's uh that's um that's
11:11interesting and and very honest as well.
11:13I appreciate that.
11:15You know,
11:16when I say simple too, and I hope I
11:18didn't make the wrong impression. It was
11:20not a matter of lack of functionality as
11:22much as making something that could be
11:23complicated simple. And um I am aligned
11:27with that so closely in our early days
11:29as well. It was, you know, make the
11:31buttons as big as possible because um
11:34because Estelle, that is going to be my
11:36attendant who's been here for 25 years,
11:39um she needs a big button to push.
11:41That's right.
11:42>> [laughter]
11:42>> That's right. They don't have good
11:43vision, yeah. Yeah, and and so to some
11:46level you have to you have to remember
11:48who your who your user is, you know? And
11:51so certain things have to be built a
11:52certain way in order to um to make it.
11:56So functionality um is um obviously we
12:00as as
12:01software companies, we want to develop
12:04new functionality that starts to express
12:06more complications, but it's a true
12:08talent to keep it simple. So I I I love
12:11what you guys have been doing. So I want
12:13you to tell me a little bit more about
12:14Wash-Dry-Fold POS and, you know, like
12:19I think you're known for being just this
12:21this a really down-to-earth company that
12:24has made things simple, but tell me tell
12:26tell tell my my my my listeners what is
12:29Wash-Dry-Fold POS and what are you known
12:31for?
12:32Yeah, so
12:33we're the original point of sale system
12:35for laundromats. And when we came into
12:37the industry in 2016,
12:39you could use a dry cleaning software to
12:42run a laundromat or you could use a
12:45some other software to run a laundromat,
12:46but uh we really became the first
12:49laundromat point of sale company that
12:50that I I I don't know of an older one
12:52than us. So um
12:54so that's really what we are still known
12:56for.
12:58Over the years, even though it's gotten
12:59more advanced, we have really stayed
13:01true to that simplicity. So I think you
13:03did hit the nail on the head. It's got
13:05to be easy for people to use.
13:06Ironically,
13:08we were the most expensive back in 2016.
13:11And
13:13even 2019, we were priced at the top of
13:15the market. If you just lay out the four
13:18major options today, which four options
13:20have 80% of the market share, right? And
13:22so we have about 20%. Um, so that makes
13:24us, you know, about even with the other
13:26big three that are in our space. Yeah,
13:28sure.
13:29If you just lay out all of our prices,
13:30we're about half the price of anyone
13:32else. Now, um
13:34certainly half the price of two of the
13:35three. And
13:36>> Okay. um
13:38the reason for that, one of them is
13:39credit card processing. We've wanted to
13:42just make that cheap and it's like 2.65%
13:46um and then we do uh 10 cents per
13:48authorization. We can get lower than
13:50that and do interchange pricing, uh but
13:53I don't want to get too deep into the
13:54pricing, but just to say that, you know,
13:57we're the affordable option now, which
13:59feels weird because we were the premium
14:01option, but we just we just have stayed
14:03true to who we wanted to be. We and if
14:06you're first starting Wash-Dry-Fold and
14:07you don't have a big operation, it's
14:08really hard to justify spending hundreds
14:11and hundreds of dollars per month on
14:13some software that's going to help you
14:15service
14:16$100 a month in revenue. And so we've
14:19wanted to stay
14:21really approachable.
14:23And I think that has helped us um and
14:25then I think we're also really well
14:27known for our customer service. If you
14:28go on to our reviews, we're all
14:31US-based. Um we either live in Oklahoma
14:33or Kentucky, so we may have an accent,
14:35but um
14:37we definitely you're not going to get
14:38someone that that can't speak your
14:40language or anything like that. So um
14:43that's really important to us to be
14:46American-owned and operated and to have
14:48full-time salaried employees.
14:50And then, um
14:52every one of our employees, except for
14:54one, our newest hire,
14:55all of them have worked in a laundromat
14:57at some point. And in fact, most of
14:58them, like the lady who trains each
15:01person who buys a point of sale system,
15:03she used to operate eight laundromats
15:05for 6 years. So she had like 100
15:08employees underneath her. She's trained
15:10like three or 400 employees before she
15:13started working for us on how to use the
15:15system cuz there's a lot of turnover in
15:16laundromats. And so
15:17she was already an expert at training
15:19people on how to use it before we hired
15:21her. And then she's hired she's trained
15:23like 1,000 stores since. And so
15:26you're going to get someone who there's
15:28not going to be a question you've you
15:30could ask her that she's not already
15:32heard.
15:33Yeah, I mean, she's heard it all. She's
15:34done it all. And so
15:36um I think
15:38if you're scaling really quickly and
15:40you're maybe a different business type,
15:43you can't afford to do that, right? If
15:45you've got 30 employees, there's no way
15:48they've all worked at laundromats. But
15:50Wash-Dry-Fold POS are a pretty small
15:51US-based team. We all live and breathe
15:54laundromats 24/7. And so um
15:57so yeah, it's it's definitely um
16:00and then Brian and I also I know I I
16:02came into it with no laundromat
16:04ownership experience, but now Brian and
16:06I own three laundromats called Liberty
16:07Laundry in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So I've I've
16:10gotten the call when the laundromat's on
16:11fire. I've gotten the call to stop by
16:14the store and fix the bill breaker's
16:15jammed again. And so I've been living
16:18the laundromat owner lifestyle for a
16:19while now, too. And our three stores do
16:21um about 2.5 million in revenue
16:24combined. So they're they're definitely
16:26in that top 5% of grossing, you know,
16:28stores in the nation. So um I've got
16:31that laundromat owner side of me now as
16:33well.
16:34Brian dragged me kicking and screaming
16:36into it, but but he he did a good job.
16:39>> [snorts]
16:39>> Yeah, that's um you know, there's
16:41there's a lot to be said for
16:44you know, you're as I'm listening to you
16:46tell your story and and talk about where
16:49your experience comes from and now in
16:51ownership, you know, of stores as well
16:53as it's not far off from our own. And my
16:55family's been in the laundry business a
16:57long time and I was on your podcast, we
16:58talked about that a bit
17:00um you know, a few weeks back, but um
17:02you know,
17:03there is something really to being able
17:06to develop a product in the industry
17:08that you are completely [clears throat]
17:09committed to and have and and are not
17:11just watching it and observing it from
17:14the outside and acting as kind of an
17:15outside influence, but you're actually
17:17in the industry and doing it. And again,
17:19we own laundries as well.
17:21Um and so we use our locations as I'm
17:24imagining you do as well as test sites
17:27for when you're developing a function or
17:29a feature that you want to get
17:30real-world experience without you know,
17:33making a customer feel too much like a
17:35guinea pig as they like to be taught as
17:37they like to say. And I would I would
17:38imagine that's that's not uncommon with
17:40you folks as well. Um you know, and your
17:43pricing um
17:44story is really interesting, too,
17:46because, you know, particularly now
17:49where we have all this I'll call it new
17:51money that has kind of entered our
17:53industry and there's a lot of
17:54conversation behind that. Um you know,
17:57both of us kind of kind of somewhat in
18:00in competition with that now in in in
18:03certainly navigating, you know, what
18:04feels different than it certainly did 10
18:06years ago. Um
18:08is this idea of that why raise prices if
18:12you don't have to?
18:14And and the idea that you are
18:16independently owned as we are and you
18:18basically you're bootstrapped. You guys
18:20you guys are your own
18:22you have your own destiny in your hands.
18:23Is that, you know, you aren't you aren't
18:26you aren't being forced to do things
18:28increase revenue for no other reason
18:31than to increase revenue. And I think
18:33there is a lot to be said then you're
18:35also probably willing and I'm I'm
18:37extending my my views on you a little
18:39bit here as this idea is you're willing
18:40to do more for a customer that I think
18:43that others may not be willing to do
18:44because of this um this connection that
18:47you have with the industry. And and I
18:49think that there's a lot to be said for
18:51those that are evaluating any product,
18:53whether it's point of sale or a payment
18:55system, is this idea of
18:57um who are you buying from? Who are you
18:59partnering with? And and um
19:01um I love the story. It's um it's very
19:03reminiscent of ours as well. So thanks
19:05for sharing that. Awesome.
19:08You know,
19:10I want to talk a little bit we we have a
19:11special interface together. We have we
19:14have a connection in in our products.
19:16You know, our Wash-Dry-Fold Pro Link was
19:19uh launched um
19:21uh end of last year uh or begin it's the
19:23middle of last year and you guys were
19:25early adopters, you know, this idea of
19:27us opening up um our system so that um
19:32so that companies like Wash-Dry-Fold POS
19:34could do more inside the payment system
19:37and leverage the information that we're
19:39gathering anyway about machine starts
19:41and all of that so that you have a way
19:43to create kind of a seamless
19:46um experience for staff as they process
19:50wash, dry, and fold. And I don't want to
19:52uh go too far in it because you guys
19:53have I think done one of the done a
19:55great job interfacing with that.
19:58Can you Can you share a little bit about
19:59how you guys are now interfacing with
20:02with CCI and using our Prolink feature?
20:05Yeah, I think I think the most The way I
20:07look at it is
20:09most of our stores before this Prolink
20:12uh if you want your your attendants have
20:15to be able to start machines for wash,
20:16dry, fold. They just have to. Right? You
20:18can't And you don't want to use coins.
20:20That's even worse. Yeah, right? But
20:22you know, the idea of just putting money
20:24on the little employee cards
20:26okay, yeah, they've got that. But then
20:28what if they use it for their friends?
20:30What if they use it for their family?
20:31What if they use it for the self-serve
20:32customer and then take a 20 on the side?
20:34And so
20:35um how do you make sure that they are
20:38only using it for wash, dry, fold
20:40orders?
20:41And so the way the software works is
20:43let's say you've got Steve Marsonetti's
20:45order here.
20:46He He's got $100 worth of wash, dry,
20:49fold. Or let's do $1,000. Let's Steve's
20:51a high roller here. So we're going to do
20:53$1,000 worth of wash, dry, fold.
20:55As you start uh dragging and dropping
20:58that through the process, so it goes
20:59from to do to sort to wash or dry to
21:02fold to done and then to picked up by
21:04customer.
21:05So we we want to keep track of the
21:07custody of the of the order the whole
21:09time
21:10and have those timestamps very lots of
21:12important reasons why.
21:13But used to you would just tell it,
21:15"Okay, I'm starting machine three and
21:17four."
21:18And then that documents, okay, we know
21:20how much machine three and four costs to
21:21start. And so that number then on that
21:24report should match
21:26the number on the CCI report that that
21:28matches they used those cards to start.
21:30Well, it's better now because instead of
21:34them having a card, you can just hit
21:36three and four and then it actually
21:37starts machines three and four. And so
21:39they can't just start machines that
21:41aren't tied to orders.
21:43Well, why don't they just start 20
21:45orders for Steve Marsonetti's $1,000
21:48order or whatever? Why don't they just
21:49start 100 machines?
21:50Well, because we're also providing
21:52reports.
21:54They could be run daily, weekly,
21:55monthly, however however little or much
21:57you trust your employees would be how
21:59much you want to run these reports.
22:01But it'll show you a ratio. And so we
22:03see it at our at our stores is 37%. I
22:06don't know why so many stores see 37%,
22:08but that is a common ratio.
22:10And so that would means for $1,000
22:12order, you want to see $370 worth of
22:14machines started. It's not going to be
22:16exactly 370. For big [clears throat]
22:18order, it'll be less. For small order,
22:20it'll be more.
22:21But the thing is if you're looking at
22:24100 orders or 200 orders and you're
22:25looking at all of your employees and you
22:27see 37, 36, 35, 38, and then 50. Yeah.
22:32What on earth is going on with that 50?
22:34Did she only do two really small orders?
22:36Is she just not working? Or is she got a
22:38business on the side that she's opened
22:40up? Or we've even seen it um you know,
22:43where they just are using the biggest
22:45machines possible even for 20-lb orders.
22:48And it's like [laughter] It's like we
22:50need those 80-pounders open. We only
22:52have two. You know, like there's
22:55We need that open. What if like a bus
22:56full of people comes in and you've got
22:5720 lbs in there? And not only is that
23:00not efficient, but it cannibalizes, you
23:02know, sales from the rest of the store.
23:04And so this functionality
23:08adds a layer of security, it adds a
23:09layer of efficiency, and it just makes
23:12the two systems work better together.
23:15And then of course, if they've got money
23:16on their fast card or laundry card, they
23:18can still use it at the point of sale
23:19system and buy soap or whatever they
23:21need to buy. So it it accomplishes that
23:24too. And the biggest way we utilize that
23:26at our store, sorry to over-answer your
23:28question here, but but last bit of it is
23:31um if people want money back off those
23:33cards, "I got $2. I want my $2 back."
23:36It's like, "No, you got a $2 bonus.
23:38Remember when you did when you did the
23:4020 or whatever?" And so um if they want
23:43money out of it, whether it's bonus or
23:44not, we don't want our attendants
23:46handing customers money all day. And so
23:48we just say, "Well, we can't give you
23:50money back. It says on the kiosk
23:52non-refundable. But we can sell you
23:54soap, we can sell you snacks, we can do
23:56wash, dry, fold." So it allows another
23:58way to get the money back off the card
24:00besides just cash back. So
24:02I would say that's kind of the broad
24:03overview of why we would even connect
24:05Why even connect the point of sale
24:06system to the fast card or to the
24:08laundry card.
24:10Yeah, no, thank you. That's that's a
24:11great description. And And uh you know,
24:13further for those who are um you know,
24:15leveraging our products, the the other
24:17piece to that that's um is if depending
24:20on which generation of our card readers
24:22you have, you can also um present the
24:25order numbers on the card reader. So as
24:27your attendants start machines using
24:30your software, you guys have an order
24:31number like all systems do. Those order
24:34numbers will present themselves on the
24:36card reader. So you can almost have a
24:37nice visual as you look down a row of
24:39machines and we color code them on an
24:41order basis too. So all the red ones
24:43might be order 1 2 3 4. The blue ones
24:46are going to be order 5 6 7 8. And so
24:48there's this great visualization of that
24:50these machines are running wash and fold
24:52orders. Because you might have a store
24:53full of customers at the same time and
24:56you can easily tell which machines are
24:58running wash, dry, and fold orders and
24:59which orders are in those machines. So
25:02um yeah, you know, I think this all
25:04comes from um some early conversations
25:06that we've had before we even started
25:08developing this and how can we best
25:10bring two completely independent
25:12companies together to provide just a
25:14seamless
25:16um interface between point of sale and
25:20payment system. So I think I think it's
25:21great great great description. Um you
25:24know, this is a This is a podcast for
25:26distributors I mentioned earlier and I
25:28know that you guys um you know, you
25:30don't really sell through distributors.
25:32And really none of the none of the POS
25:34systems really sell through
25:35distributors. It's just kind of a little
25:37bit of a different product. But that
25:38doesn't mean that it's not an important
25:40part of a package that a distributor's
25:43going to put together. And so you know,
25:44it's very common that they align
25:47themselves and they work and they at
25:48least refer somebody to you know, to
25:51what they like. And certainly
25:53um you know, you guys offer an excellent
25:55solution certainly paired well with CCI.
25:58You know, but I I I'd be curious when we
26:00talk about technology is cuz you know,
26:02one of the things I learned from
26:03distributors, sometimes they can be a
26:04little bit um they don't like technology
26:07because it adds complication sometimes
26:10to their life. So you know, do you have
26:12any advice or any thoughts about what
26:14common mistakes you see um you know,
26:17whether it's store owners or even
26:19distributors make when they're when
26:21they're considering technology? What are
26:22they overemphasizing something? I mean,
26:25what do you see happening? Yeah, I
26:28uh several several things come to mind
26:30right away when you say that. So
26:32um
26:33I do see from a store owner side of
26:35things
26:36in fact, I just got off the phone before
26:38this phone call. I was like, "I got to
26:39go. I've got a podcast I got to be on."
26:41He was like, "Okay, one more question
26:42though." Yeah. And so but uh no, really
26:44nice guy. Carmen, if you're listening,
26:45hello. But um
26:48uh he was telling me he's opening his
26:50first store.
26:52And he's going to buy, you know, our
26:53system and it's got to work with card
26:55machines and all that. Great. Okay, we
26:56got that.
26:58And he wants to do delivery first thing.
27:00Okay. All right. You're going to find
27:02that that's just a money pit that like
27:03takes two to three years to pay off.
27:06Like the
27:07you spend $2,000 advertising for
27:09delivery, you're going to get like $200
27:10worth of orders. Now
27:12hopefully they'll keep on ordering
27:16after two years you get your money back.
27:18But it is a heavy CAC CAC heavy customer
27:21acquisition cost heavy and LTV like it
27:24it's at least a six-month payback period
27:26on these
27:28uh delivery orders. So
27:30it's already doing too much to do
27:31self-serve, wash, dry, fold, and
27:33delivery at the same time if you're a
27:34first-time owner. I just think that's
27:36way too much. Like you don't even have
27:37employees yet. What are you talking
27:38about getting a delivery vehicle? Like
27:41figure out self-serve then add wash,
27:44dry, fold cuz that's going to help you
27:45grow your self-serve and you need people
27:47there to help with the machines and all
27:48that.
27:49So you want to be attended also for
27:51liability purposes.
27:53But those two things are going to be the
27:55majority of your revenue. And you know,
27:57we do 2.5 million I mentioned with three
27:59stores. Well, 70% of that is self-serve.
28:03I have a I have a laundromat that is
28:04700,000 in that laundromat alone is
28:06self-serve.
28:07You will never get to 700,000 of
28:09self-serve if you're not doing wash,
28:10dry, fold there. Those two grow each
28:12other. So those have to be there. It
28:15lowers your liability. It gives you a
28:16better customer experience for the
28:18self-serve.
28:19But delivery is a whole separate
28:20business and you have to buy ads, you
28:23have to build a website. It's like, do
28:26you want to start another business while
28:28you're starting this business? And it's
28:30capital intensive. It's very capital
28:31intensive intensive, excuse me. So
28:35I would say And we do delivery. Again,
28:37I'm not saying don't do delivery. We
28:38have customers that do delivery and do a
28:40lot of money with it. I'm just saying
28:42that
28:44you know, there's something to be said
28:45about crawl, walk, run. Yeah. And
28:49if you're trying to do too much too
28:51fast, you're not going to succeed at
28:54anything.
28:55And that's especially dangerous if you
28:58want to if you're not cash flow positive
29:00yet. Because if you're dealing with and
29:02I I hope everyone who's listening to
29:03this and has a laundromat gets there.
29:05I've def We've been there for years with
29:06our laundromat. Eventually that thing
29:08will just pour out so much cash you just
29:11you're buying new machines, you're we
29:12just bought new vending machines, you
29:14buy new washer and dryer. We don't know
29:15what to do with the cash. So we're going
29:16to reinvest it in delivery. Now we're
29:18doing delivery, we're buying some
29:19trucks, we're going to and you try and
29:20get your revenue.
29:22That's when to do it. Don't do it when
29:23you just spent all your cash and now you
29:26you're not even cash flow positive. You
29:27haven't even proven your business model
29:29yet. So I think that's the biggest
29:31mistake I see owners make is just
29:33getting ahead of their skis. Perfect the
29:35product first. Like if you don't even
29:37know how to make the pizza yet, you
29:39don't even know wash, dry, fold, don't
29:40start the delivery route yet. Like Like
29:42figure it out, get the team in place.
29:45And then if you want to do delivery on
29:47your first year or even 6 months into
29:48it, okay, great. Like if you have got
29:50our product, it's included. So that's
29:52easy. But
29:53um
29:54it's not like there's just going to be a
29:55floodgate. You're going to put up the
29:56link to do the delivery and you're going
29:58to get 100 deliveries. No, deliveries
30:00cost you like $100, $200 each to get
30:02one. So it's not, you know, you're
30:05talking to someone who who spends a lot
30:06on Google Ads, right? And so
30:08and Facebook Ads and all that. So
30:11um
30:12And then for distributors,
30:15to make it specific to them,
30:17I come from that sales background where
30:19you really just want to get the deal
30:21closed. And any complications to the
30:23deal jeopardize the whole deal. You
30:25don't want to jeopardize the whole deal
30:27with a a $4,000 addition to it. You
30:30won't you just want to get it closed and
30:31done. And so
30:33our product, I think, works pretty well
30:35there because
30:37it works with all the major card
30:38systems, but it especially works well
30:40with CCI. So if they're doing a CCI
30:41store, it's going to be the best
30:43solution for that. Of course, in my
30:45view, of course, I'm biased, but
30:47we have that deep integration with CCI.
30:49We will ship it.
30:51We will guide them on how to just take
30:53it out of the box and plug it in. It's
30:54not hard. This isn't adding a
30:56complication. And then we will give them
30:58a 2-hour setup and training session so
31:00that they know more about that point of
31:02sale system than you do,
31:04you know, day one. And so
31:06we've built it in a way that we want to
31:09take off all the work from the plate of
31:11the distributor.
31:12And when we tried to work with
31:14distributors, they really wanted to get
31:17more involved and like train the
31:19customer or set it up themselves. And
31:21it's like honestly, you don't need to.
31:23Like if you want to unplug it and put
31:25the scale up and all that, sure, that's
31:26fine.
31:27But at the end of the day, we've
31:30designed it to be very easy to sell,
31:32very problem-free. There's no reason to
31:34complicate it and say like well, if you
31:36go with this card system, get this point
31:38of sale. But if you go with this one,
31:39you get this It's like no, we're just
31:40we're the easiest, we're the cheapest,
31:42we're the best, we're the easiest to
31:43use.
31:44And the simplest and and best setup and
31:46training experience as well. And so we
31:48just want to take all that fulfillment
31:51piece of it off your plate.
31:53And instead make it a very
31:55easy-to-use experience that they're
31:57going to have a good good experience
31:58with. We're not going to send them to,
32:00you know, they're not going to say,
32:01"Hey, I can't get a hold of someone or
32:02the one guy I talked to was in India."
32:03That's just not what they're going to
32:05have with us. If that makes sense.
32:07That makes perfect sense and it was a
32:08lot of to unpack there and I I related
32:11so much with what you just
32:13you told us and and and just to kind of
32:15rewind a little bit,
32:17this idea of
32:19um
32:21of run, walk, you know, a crawl, run,
32:24you know, whatever. Crawl, walk, run,
32:26yes, you know, and and I and I and I I
32:28had I kind of unpack it is is so true
32:30because in in reality, we're we're big
32:32self-service. I mean, that's what as we
32:34focus on self-service. We let the people
32:36who are experts at the full service,
32:38which I
32:39I'll I'll defer to you on there. And I
32:41often make that same analogy that
32:44there's different layers to businesses.
32:46You've got your self-service.
32:49And then another business you can start
32:51is a full-service wash, dry, and fold.
32:54And then another business you can start
32:55is a pickup and delivery. And another
32:57business is a commercial,
32:59you know, that all can run. Yeah,
33:01lockers. I mean, it's just there's all
33:03these businesses can happen. But what,
33:06you know, I spend time, as we all do, on
33:07social media and we see so many people
33:10wanting to get into this business. And
33:13the the first thing in their inquiry
33:14about wanting it into it is, "I want to
33:16do pickup and delivery and I'm going to
33:17do commercials." And go They don't even
33:19haven't even started a store yet. You
33:21know what I mean? It's like and I and I
33:23almost would recommend, honestly, if
33:25someone's pure goal is to do pickup and
33:28delivery and commercial work, don't open
33:30a laundromat. Go to a commercial space
33:33where the rent is half what a retail
33:35space would cost and open a commercial
33:36laundry. Now, nobody's going to do that
33:39that comes to Facebook. They want to own
33:40a laundromat. No, they're but it is such
33:43good advice to really take this in steps
33:46and and take it there. And I I I preach
33:48that all the time and it's good to it's
33:50refreshing to hear it from you.
33:53Yeah, this is really good stuff. I think
33:55the simplicity that you talk about in
33:57eliminating the complication from the
33:59distributor is should be really well
34:01heard here.
34:03This idea that they need something on
34:05their counter. They need a way to
34:07process things on the counter and it
34:09needs to be something simple. And you're
34:11not going to make the distributor do a
34:13lot of backflips in order to make that
34:15happen. You're going to work with the
34:16store owner and you're going to and
34:18you're going to make sure that they are
34:19set up. And you've talked about your
34:21customer service and I've heard nothing
34:22but positive things about it
34:25you know, ever since you guys have have
34:26been on the on the scene. So
34:28yeah, that's that's excellent excellent
34:30stuff.
34:32You know,
34:32you kind of already answered my last
34:34question about some of the advice that
34:36you've given. So it's good. But I do
34:37want to circle back to this special
34:39offer that you have for CCI for our
34:42Drive Time listeners. And so I'm going
34:44to let you take it from here and kind of
34:45explain what you have for us. Sure.
34:47Well, we we really love working with CCI
34:49stores. We see them be successful. It's
34:52a great technology stack. And if you
34:55listen to this podcast, you know how
34:56hard Steve works and his team on, you
34:58know, constantly updating it. So we did
35:00want to do a special offer for anyone
35:02who's listened to podcast. If you decide
35:04you want this for your store or if
35:06you're distributor and you own a store,
35:07you want it in your distributor store so
35:09you can see it and and test it. Whatever
35:12the reason, the coupon code is CCI. It's
35:14not advanced, right?
35:16>> [laughter]
35:17>> Simple. We got simple. Yeah, it's not a
35:20long coupon code, but it is [laughter]
35:21$300 off.
35:23And so if this is something that it
35:25sounds like you want to do
35:27and
35:28it sounds like, you know, something that
35:29you want to integrate with your with
35:31your Fast Card or Laundry Card or even
35:33if you're just listening to this podcast
35:34and it sounds like something that would
35:36work well in your laundromat, then we
35:37want to give your listeners that that
35:39special discount. So if you mention CCI
35:42in the coupon code, there'll be a little
35:43spot for it. CCI. You get $300 off. And
35:47we do, you know, if you've got any
35:48questions, you'll go to
35:49washdryfullpos.com,
35:51book a call with our team. Rebecca's
35:53like the nicest person ever. Everyone
35:55loves her.
35:56You'll have a lot of fun talking to her
35:58and just making sure you understand the
35:59system and then she'll walk you through
36:01the checkout process and you'll have
36:03that that coupon code at the end as
36:04well. So yeah, so happy to happy to do
36:07that for any distributors listening here
36:09and and happy to do that for the CCI
36:11team. I know how much value they they
36:13bring and add to everything.
36:15Well, that's terrific. You know, and and
36:17really appreciate it, too. I think that,
36:19you know, just because not everything is
36:21a distributor sale doesn't mean that you
36:23can't add value to the distributor sale
36:25in some way. And this idea that we've,
36:27you know, at this point we I think we've
36:28done a good job of explaining.
36:31Ian, this has been just a a great
36:32conversation. I really appreciate you
36:34participating. Thank you so much. I I've
36:37been appreciated. I'm sure we'll get a
36:38chance to to talk [music] more over over
36:41time about other topics I think that
36:42might be good in the line. But thank you
36:44so [music] much. It's been great
36:45speaking with you. So long. Thank you,
36:48Steve. This It was a pleasure. Thanks.
36:49All right. [music] Bye-bye. Bye.

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