May I peek at your website?

[Sunflower]

I'm having a website made. (East-Central Washington) and would like to take a peak at some other sites. Thanks for sharing. -Anna

[brucehwalker]

Here's mine. Peek away!

[JohnH]

I just got mine up and running today, thanks to my college sophomore son, who's been home for the holidays! We still have a little bit of tweaking to do on it, but it's basically all there. What do y'all think?

John
www.libertylaundryok.com (http://www.libertylaundryok.com)

[countymat]

John,

Took at look at your site and it's great! Hope your getting lots of busines from that apartment/condo complex to the rear and side of your store.

Two questions... Where did you get those stainless steel folding tables and is your tile floor the non-skid composite type..

[SandyD]

John, nice store. Give details on the presser please!

SD

[eastfield]

Here is my site and yes John more info of where you can get this presser, I like it as well

www.eastfieldlaundry.com (http://www.eastfieldlaundry.com)

[keepitclean]

Countymat---looks like those tables came from a restaraunt supply house. Look for one in your yellow pages or do a Google search. They are in expensive and hold up well. The kind I saw had a 3/8" rod tacked or welded to the side so customers could hang their clothes. Kind of a modified version of what you see with many of the folding tables that can be ordered from Solomatic.

[Sunflower]

These sites are all great. Is posting photos on the bord allowed? Just want to show some thumbnails in another thread... -Anna

[JohnH]

Wow! Thanks for all the positive feedback and friendly replies! We opened Liberty Laundry April 23, and had our grand opening on the 4th of July. It’s been a very interesting ride so far. To answer a few questions…the tables came from Sam’s Club. They cost $78 when I was doing my research…the price had increased to $107 by the time I bought them…they were going for $117 each as of last Tuesday in Tulsa. Keepitclean is correct, they are restaurant work tables. The shelf underneath is real handy for customers to put their baskets and supplies on while they’re folding. Next, the floors in the mat are porcelain tile. I know, you’re thinking “How can anyone afford that?” I got a screaming deal on all of it, thanks to judicious shopping and finding the right guys to install it. The tile cost 87 cents a foot and the installation ran $1.25/foot, for a total of $2.12 per square foot. Plus another 500 or so for the installation supplies. It’s not a skid-proof material, but there is texture to the tile. When it’s wet it’s a bit slippery, but we’re totally attended and try to keep up with spills. I am super happy with the floor. I have mixed emotions about the Forenta utility press. It’s the most expensive piece of equipment in the store, but produces the least revenue. But it’s a draw. The people who use it (and I have several regulars) love it. I initially offered ironing as an ancillary service, but I discontinued it for now due to lack of demand and it was too often me who was doing the ironing. So, I have a high-priced loss leader. At least it lets folks know we are serious about trying to serve all their laundry needs. Oh, yeah…I got it through my Speed Queen distributor as part of the total package I bought from them. Thanks again you guys for the nice feedback!

John

libertylaundryok.com

[dram]

Here is mine, it was fun setting it up

http://www.laundromat-indianapolis.com/

[laschmove]

Here's ours...

www.MobileMomLaundry.com (http://www.MobileMomLaundry.com)

[Duane]

www.LMARIES.com (http://www.LMARIES.com)

[SandyD]

Duane, I have always admired your website and just never got the chance to tell you. Its uncluttered and very clear. The ATM giveback is a great idea that costs you very little.

I recently played a megatouch game at a party and plan to have one at my store. Can you talk about your experiences with it? Have a pic or a link where you got yours? This machine is the "end all" in my opinion.

SD

[Duane]

Sandy,

Thanks. I did the web site myself. I didn't want anything too fancy that needed a lot of maintenance, just something simple. After all, I am in the laundromat business, not a web designer.

The mega touch is probably one of the highest money making items in the store. The total for my system is about $4k, but that includes the mega touch, card reader and table. It took less than a year to pay off.

It is about 2 years old now and I might need a new cable for the monitor. Every now and then the screen will get a green tint to it. When I open it up and move the cable it goes back to normal. Other than that it has been great. Customers love it.

You can find pictures and information at www.meritind.com. (http://www.meritind.com.)

Duane.

[Sunflower]

Dram- Great links on your site. I've already checked them out and they've been a help to me! Thanks!

[LAA]

Hello, we are in Australia, 25% of our business is Self Service 25% is wash, dry, fold that is walked in and the other 50% is picked up and delivered back.

Our website is www.dialalaundry.com.au (http://www.dialalaundry.com.au)

[lizzyo49]

I also live in Central Washington. We are considering opening a laundromat and would be interested in knowing the location of yours so that we may visit it sometime in the future. We are looking at building sizes, popluation of the area, equipment etc. thanks.

[Sunflower]

Hello, We are in Twisp, WA. It's on the main hwy (20) and is currently closed down for remodel. It's small - about 1000 feet and we are working from the original layout (not our design). We bought it primarily for real estate. P.S. I know of one maybe two for sale in Okanogan/Omak w/great demographics. Let me know if interested and I'll look up their names. Ours is really not in a good spot that way. Good luck!

[Senior_Sudsy]

www.sunueva.com (http://www.sunueva.com)

[katriina]

Those are very nice stores.
Free transportation,free dry and AC!You are offering a lot service .I heard Chicago in tough market.....

[neal]

Duane, What mega touch games do you have at your laundromat? Thanks

[Duane]

The Vibe. It was the only one that I could fit a card reader with. The CPU is mounted under the table and the display swivels back and forth. The software version is 2005.5 with over 100 games.

[larrytelcom]

Senior_sudsy I am here in Chicago and have my eye on a possible location it is 4800sq. ft. and is in the shape of www.washitkwik.com (http://www.washitkwik.com)(username: brucehwalker), high traffic/nice size/etc. As far as equipment goes would you recommend D&M or Miller? Is personal credit a very big issue when trying to lease/finan. equip.? What will be some of the things I will have to do to a location to prepare it to be a laundry? Who would you approach about money to do the store conversion? Any advice or suggestions would be helpful!

[Sudzbouldercity]

Great web site. How did you develop the site? Where should I start and how much should I expect to spend?

[JohnH]

My 19 year old son actually put together my web site and did all the research to find the best web hosting company we could find. About all I did was write the copy for the site. My son determined that the web hosting company that got the best reviews was IX Web Hosting. The cost was not much and that included the domain registration. I think it cost about five dollars a month. You get a break on the price by agreeing to stay with them for a year or so. As far as building the web site, my son put it together using a Microsoft tool called FrontPage. You don't have to do that, though. IX has tools to help you build a site. My son just thought the options weren't as good as building it with FrontPage. We were real impresssed with the customer service/tech support we got from IX with some minor problems we encountered. The company is located somewhere in Kansas, and they actually have the servers on site -- that is, they are not a third-party reseller. You also get your own e-mail address with the service. Hope this helps.

John
libertylaundryok.com

[Howard]

Check out http://officelive.microsoft.com

They are offering a beta for small businesses to get out on the web. The base service even after the beta will be FREE! Here is what is included in the base service:



Easy-to-use Web site design tool


Get started fast with our easy-to-use Site Designer tool. Don't worry — it was designed with the small-business owner in mind, so you can quickly create your own Web site.

Free domain name and hosting


Select your own domain name (for example, www.northwindtraders.com (http://www.northwindtraders.com)) and let Microsoft keep your Web site up and running.

5 personalized e-mail accounts


Access your company e-mail using your personalized domain name (for example, jsmith@northwindtraders.com).

Storage and data transfer


More than enough space to promote every aspect of your business and plenty of bandwidth to allow lots of customers to visit your site.

Web site traffic analysis and reporting tools


View the success of your Web site with reporting that lets you see how often people visit your site, what pages they visit the most, and their system and browser information.

The following took me about 45 minutes to put together on their free service: www.morristownlaundry.com (http://www.morristownlaundry.com)

[Sunflower]

Thanks for the great tips everyone! And for all the great sites too!