fong6687
03-21-2004, 11:18 PM
Hi everyone,
I was wondering how I figure out what it costs me to do wfd 18lb-35ld-50lb loads. and then what my profit w/b be on the 60 cents i charge per lbs.
Thanks Karen
Duane
03-22-2004, 12:32 AM
Karen,
It takes some digging and number crunching, but it really isn't that hard to calculate.
Check your washer manuals and see how much utilities each type of washer uses. Use that and multiply your rates for water/sewer and electric to get your utility costs.
Gas usage for dryers can be difficult to calculate due to the spin speed of the washer, type of material, outside temperature, etc., but figure 10 cents per 10 minutes? (Anyone else with an estimate?)
Estimate your cost of detergent by amount used per wash compared to price of detergent.
Cost of hangers, bags, receipts, etc....
Calculate how many pounds of laundry your employees (or yourself) do in an average hour and divide their salary (including taxes, benefits, book keeping costs, etc.) by how many pounds they do each hour.
Extra costs such building maint, machine maint, etc., are difficult to calculate since your store also probably is used for self serve customers, but you should still calculate some of the cost to the WDF portion. Maybe 1-2 cents per pound?
Once you calculate each of the above and then combine them you will probably be surprised to find that at 60 cents per pound you are not really making very much money.
Oh the other hand your employees are taking care of the store and helping customers then you are really offsetting their salaries which makes the WDF worth while.
According to the CLA, the average cost was about 85 cents per pound.
I don't do WDF, so if anyone has a better way please let us know.
Duane.
www.LMARIES.com (http://www.LMARIES.com)
ThePoetSuede
03-25-2004, 05:06 PM
Duane, your always helpful. Keep it coming!
Howard
03-29-2004, 07:24 PM
Duane's aproach is quite sound, and is probably the best way to calculate. But if you don't want to go to that level of detail you could do the following. Just consider how much coinage you put in the machines to do the wash and fold, add to that the cost of detergent, softeners, bags and hangers. Take that total and subtract it from what you charge and that is how much profit you make on the sale. The theory here is you assume that the WDF is just like anyother customer using the machines and is contributing to overhead and profit of the mat. This assumes you already have staff and are not adding employees for this service. Again, Duanes method is more accurate, but this will give you a good idea where you are at.