Wash with Wally: Tackling Tangled Apron Strings

By Wally Makowsky | Jan 17, 2011

How can I keep the ties on restaurant aprons from getting tangled during washing?

The only way you can do it is by using zippered, laundry net bags. Place the aprons in these bags and wash them within the bags. That’s the easiest and best way to keep the apron strings from getting tangled up.

My rent payment is killing me. Is there some type of calculation as to what percentage of gross the rent should be?

Ideally, your rent should be between 15 percent and 25 percent of your gross volume. When you venture into that 25 percent range, have a mortgage and are fully attended, I consider you as being in a vulnerable position. And, unless you have substantial volume, you could be headed for financial problems.

For instance, let’s say your gross is $125,000 annually. Your rent at 25 percent will be approximately $31,000. Labor will be about $45,000, and utilities will be around $33,000. Insurance, parts, garbage, supplies and miscellaneous expenses will be between $8,000 and $12,000. Rounding off that figure, you come up with about $121,000. If you have a mortgage, you’re going to be losing money.

If you doubled your volume and are paying rent at 25 percent, you’ll have approximately $50,000 to $65,000 additional funds for the mortgage or profit.

The old rule of thumb is that your rent and mortgage should not exceed 25 percent to 35 percent, if you want to make money. If it does, you will need substantial volume to support your coin laundry.

I have a 3,000-square-foot coin laundry, and I’m always looking to add something new that the customers will use. I recently visited a laundromat that has a 125-pound washer. Do people really use them?

The answer is yes. In fact, thus far, they’ve received enthusiastic acceptance in most markets in which they’ve been installed. In addition to 125-pound washers, some stores also are installing 50-pound stack dryers. In my opinion, this is the direction in which many new self-service laundries are going. Of course, be sure that your laundry does sufficient volume and attracts a customer base large enough to handle such big equipment.

All in all, today’s laundry owners need to provide customers the types of machines and services they cannot get at home or in their apartment buildings. A couple of more offbeat items that caught my eye recently are a coin-operated gym shoe dryer and a coin- or card-operated dog washer. Perhaps these are additional services you might want to consider for your laundry down the road.