Interesting Question for mat owners....

[ZX7TREV]

Guys. Of all of your utilities, which expense rates the highest each month? What percentage of the utility expense is it? Here is why I ask:

I am very close to closing on a Mat that is running at about break even with 1 full time staffer. The walk in business is not likely to change much. They only solid option for growing the business quickly is by doing a pickup WDF service....let me expand on this a little:

What I am thinking about doing is approaching 2 other Mats that currently have WDF services and asking them to outsource that business to me while they keep an acceptable percentage of profit. (basically they coninute to have the stuff dropped off and picked up from their locations, but we then pick it up and wash it at our place) The reason that I bring this up is...the Mat I am looking at has no water expense, and I think a good strategy would be to leverage that savings into an opportunity to work a win/win with some of the competition. Do you feel that the no water bill scenario presents enough of a savings to work a deal like this?

Thanks,

T~

[thelaundrydoctor]

Gas and water are very close for me both (each) average around 8% to 9% each month. In the winter gas creapes up to 10%. Electric goes between 2% and 4% in the summer.

Rember that 30% to 40% of gas cost can be water heating.

on a side note, Im always looking to build my WDF, why do thay have so much ?

[petefritz]

Having no water bill sounds great, but here the sewer is 3 times the water costs. Do you have no sewer also?
In any case, I am not sure how you will leverage the water cost into other mats w/d/f business. Interesting concept, but not sure do able.
I would look at the mat itself for other things.
Can you have less attended hours? Maybe be un attended part time, and have longer operation hours.
What shape is the equipment and store in? Older stuff replaced with new, and many times bigger, will bring in more customers. Also energy use, new dryers cost less to use than old ones, same with washers. You may have to upgrade to make the money happen. Light fixtures, timers, many different possibilities to increase the bottom line.

[millenniumplus]

We have two stores and our water/sewer bills averages $2,500 per store bi-monthly.
Whether that's a lot or not to some we all agree it would be nice not to have a water
bill, yes. Anyway, why not initially build a better mouse trap. Meaning, charge a lower
wdf per pound service. Improve on the basic things your competitors offer. Advertise.
Pound the payment and get major wdf accts with businesses, hotels, etc.. We never
went to competitors to offer outsourcing. Because we offer fast turnaround and can
handle extremely big loads, some dry cleaners and laundromats come to us to do
their wdf. That's outsourcing in a way so you are on the right track.

[ZX7TREV]

Yeah here are the details guys:

This Mat is in a retirement community. It's only walk-in customers are from the folks that live in that community. There are about 7000 units in the community, 10,000 or so people on average living there. Increasing walk in business is not really that feasible. The place is already very large, clean, and comfortable. Its also cheaper than any mats in the surrounding area. So those people that would use it regularly use it already. We ARE NOT allowed to advertise to bring in additional business that is not brought in by our own vehicles. The develpment doesn't want unknown traffic comng through the security gate just to do laundry. So, our customers base is A. Walk in from the residents. B. WDF for residents and outside that we pick up and bring inside. C. Commercial accounts that we bring inside. The lease holders, as a recognition that we are somewhat limited by the restictions imposed, has agreed to pay all water bills, sewer etc... Anyway, the best way that I could see to get things cranking quickly would be to increase WDF(there are not a ton of commercial accounts in the area). The best way to do that might be to do try and sell a WDF outsourcing service, even to other mats. We wash WDF at .70 per pound, and let the competitor charge .90 as he is doing now. Now he collects .20 of each pound, and doens't have wear and tear on his machines, nor does he have the utilities to go with it. I would be profitable by about .25 per pound at this rate....seems like a win/win to me. There are other factors involved like quality of work etc...but I am a sales guy, I can sell our ability to do quality work...I dunno, just brainstorming.

T~

S~

[millenniumplus]

You do seem to have some limitations now that you mention it! If an owner considers
outsourcing his/her wdf the question must be asked, "how much per pound" does that
owner think they make per pound after expenses/headaches? Based on your latest info
they might make .20cents per pound, no wear/tear on their machines, no expenses, and
no headaches that comes with it. In other words, expect some bargining from your
competitors. All you can do is ask, so go for it. In any case don't under-estimate large
commerical accts. Half of our big accts are miles away. Keep us posted and good luck..