A commercial laundry pickup route for salons and boutique gyms
Salons and small gyms hate doing towels. Pick up dirty, drop off clean, invoice weekly. Ten stops, one van, real cash.
How it works
A small salon burns through 40-80 towels a day; a boutique yoga studio, 60-120. Their staff hate laundry and their existing options (industrial linen services) require minimums they can't meet. A local operator with a commercial washer/dryer setup and a van fills the gap at $0.55-0.85 per lb.
Step by step
- 1Rent a 400-500 sqft warehouse space with 220V power and floor drains. Budget $600-900/mo in secondary markets.
- 2Install 2 commercial 60-lb washers and 2 75-lb gas dryers (Continental Girbau or Speed Queen). Buy used with warranty for $12-18k total.
- 3Buy 60 heavy-duty laundry bags with barcode labels, a barcode scanner, and a $700 industrial scale.
- 4Register an LLC, get a $1M commercial policy, and confirm your city allows small-scale commercial laundering (some require a wastewater permit).
- 5Build a target list of 40 salons, boutique gyms, yoga studios and physiotherapy clinics within 20 minutes. Visit each in person during off-peak hours.
- 6Pitch: 'You put dirty towels in this bag. I pick it up MWF at 7am and drop clean the same day at 4pm. $0.75/lb, weekly invoice, no minimum.'
- 7Sign a simple 1-page service agreement per client: pricing, pickup schedule, replacement cost per lost item ($6/towel), 30-day termination.
- 8Standardize the process: weigh in, wash on the sanitize cycle with commercial detergent, dry, fold, weigh out, log. 45 minutes per 40-lb bag.
- 9Bill weekly via QuickBooks Online. Autopay ACH gets a 3% discount — most sign up, which kills your AR problem.
- 10Add one client per week for the first 12 weeks. Cap at 15 clients per washer pair; beyond that, buy your third machine or hire a $20/hr helper.
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