Keeping It Simple

By Bob Nieman | Apr 01, 2010

Six years ago, Deb Piccirillo’s 20-year marriage ended. It’s also when her journey to becoming an entrepreneur began.

With a 9-year-old, a 12-year-old and two teenagers at the time, along with a degree in teaching, Piccirillo started down a brand new path – a road that eventually lead to her opening the Pottstown Laundromat in Pottstown, Pa., located about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

“I was a homemaker for 20 years,” she explained. “My husband was a doctor, so when he graduated from medical school, we opened his practice together. My first business experience came from working in his practice. That gave me a sense of working with finances, dealing with people and scheduling. My background was in teaching, that’s where my degree was, but I was a homemaker.”

Today, Piccirillo substitute teaches high school English, tutors students on the side and is currently finishing up her master’s degree in English. However, a good portion of her time is also spent owning and operating her year-old coin laundry.

“After I got divorced, it took me a good five years to decide on a laundromat,” she said. “I had some money left over from the divorce, and I was looking to invest it somewhere. I was doing research on different franchises and coin laundry was something that came up a lot in my searches. I kept exploring that, and it looked like that would fit into my schedule more than any other business or franchise. Opening the laundry fit nicely with my background as a homemaker, plus I needed flexibility with my schedule so that I could continue to teach. Some days I’m at the laundromat and some days I have teaching assignments.

“I needed something where I wasn’t going to be locked into a 9-to-5,” she continued. “I needed something where I had some flexibility to generate income. I didn’t want to give up my teaching. With this, I can still substitute and keep my certification.”

Clearly, the flexibility of running a self-service laundry was a huge factor in Piccirillo’s decision.

“I don’t have to be there on a set schedule,” she noted. “I don’t have to make a sandwich and be there in order to make money. It’s passive income. The other advantage is the fact that I have a hard asset. That was my biggest sell to the bank. If for some reason this business did not succeed, it’s not as if I needed rolls and bread to make a product to sell. I have washing machines, dryers, folding tables and a change machine that I can sell to recoup some of my finances.”

Regarding the finances, Pottstown Laundromat cost Piccirillo approximately $300,000 to build, including the equipment.

“I used a portion of the money from my divorce settlement, and took out a couple of loans as well,” said Piccirillo, who has a five-year lease on the store, with five three-year options. “Actually, I couldn’t have chosen a better time to take out those loans, with the economy and the rates they way they are. It was just a matter of securing the credit.”

The site Piccirillo chose was an empty, 1,000-square-foot storefront in a strip mall just a mile from where she lives. However, the buildout grew into a nine-month process.

“The strip mall has been in existence for a while, but the store was just a vanilla box,” explained Piccirillo, who shares the mall with a bagel shop, a pizzeria, a bookstore, a furniture retailer and other small businesses. “The hardest part was dealing with all of the different contractors. We would receive a late delivery, which would annoy one person, because another person was waiting for that. Or a delivery would arrive damaged, or else it wouldn’t be the correct item. Or the electrician was waiting for this, while the plumber was waiting for that. People would get really frustrated and annoyed with each other. My phone was constantly ringing. That was the most draining part. There were so many unexpected snags. Many days during that process I thought to myself, ‘Why didn’t I just open a Subway?’”

On those tough days when Piccirillo was considering abandoning her washers and dryers for $5 foot-long sandwiches, she leaned on her faith.

“I am a Christian,” she said. “I try to run my business consistent with my faith. I try to deal with people fairly and ethically. During that buildout process, I wasn’t anticipating so many people getting frustrated and angry. And there were times I was angry and frustrated, but made sure I dealt with people in a professional, businesslike manner.
“A lot of prayer went into this. I relied on my faith and guidance from God to show me the right thing to do in different situations, and I feel He has blessed that. My faith is the foundation of everything I do, including this business.”

In addition, as a first-time laundry owner, Piccirillo also relied on her distributor to show her the ropes.

“As the equipment salesman, Bob Eisenberg [of Qualclean Equipment, LLC] could have been the kind of guy who drops off the equipment and says good luck. But he was more of a mentor. If I didn’t have Bob to teach me things, I would not be as successful as I am. You need to find somebody like that who is in the business. You really need someone to come alongside you. It makes a big difference.”

Piccirillo also took advantage of her local CLA affiliate, attending meetings of the Delaware Valley Coin Laundry Association.

“Talking with other storeowners – some who are just starting out and others who have been in business for 20 years – was very helpful,” she said.

From those interactions, she learned about the CLA’s LaundryWeb Network program and immediately had the association create a Web site for her store.

“The CLA is a world I never would have known existed,” she said. “And those are things that are keeping me going.”

In addition to her Web site, Piccirillo estimated that she spent about $1,000 on advertising, which bought her a large banner, a few yards signs and some flyers.

“That was my ad budget,” explained Piccirillo, who opened her laundry on February 13, 2009. “Don’t not do it because you don’t think you have enough for advertising. You can get the word out on a minimum amount. In this recession, advertising is a good thing to negotiate.”

These days, Piccirillo – who has three competitors within a 10-mile radius – said that her laundry business is growing by word of mouth. “The local people are realizing I’m here,” she said.
However, even before Pottstown Laundromat had attracted a regular walk-in clientele, Piccirillo was making her rent thanks the patrons at four local hotels located within a two-mile radius of the store.

“During the first four to six months I was open, I would not have been able to pay my rent if it were not for customers that were staying in those hotels – construction workers at the local power plant, carnival workers. Some of the local schools offer camps for the kids, and the parents will stay in the hotels.”

Of course, that hotel business is now complemented by a strong neighborhood customer base of families, seniors and college students.

Although Piccirillo admitted to saving some money on her advertising budget, she’s was quick to point out that she did not skimp on her laundry’s security system.

“I have a very sophisticated security system in there,” she boasted. “From my cell phone, I can lock and unlock my door, and activate my motion detectors. It’s on a timer. Plus, I can watch my store from my home computer – to see it there’s trouble or if someone needs help.

“My security system is big comfort to me. In fact, last year, I went on vacation for a week, and I took my laptop with me to watch the store.”

The long, narrow store, with 14 washers and 16 dryers, is all about simplicity for its owner. The laundry is open 24 hours on the weekends and from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. during the week.

“I have a cleaning service that comes in once a week that cleans the whole place after hours – and I’m in there every day, too,” Piccirillo said. “That’s the biggest challenge, keeping it clean. I do not have a wash-dry-fold service because I obviously don’t have the space to store anything. I have no attendants. I don’t have drop-off drycleaning.

“I know that some laundry owners have tanning beds and drycleaning and wash-dry-fold, but for me and my personality, that’s too big. It’s not manageable with everything else in my life.

“I’m sure there are owners out there who are making more money than I am,” she added. “I have my limitations as far as what my revenue can be, due to the size of the store and my equipment mix. But I’m somebody who has a career and wants something to supplement it. I don’t want something complicated or big. For me, this works.”

Piccirillo explained that she’s not looking for more “jobs” – just something she can manage and maintain through her retirement.

With Pottstown Laundromat, it appears that she’s found it.

“I was a first-time business owner, so I didn’t want to look at a franchise where I would be in over my head and not really know what I was doing. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing,” she admitted. “It took me a long time to plan. I looked at a lot of different things. And, when I finally said, ‘Yep, that’s the business for me,’ it’s been everything that I hoped it would be – as far as being a small-business owner and as far as the flexibility and the income generated. I’m not disappointed at all. From the beginning, I’ve been able to make all of my bills, and we’re starting to come out ahead. I’m very happy with my choice.”

So happy, in fact, that she sees more self-service laundries in her future.

“I would consider opening multiple stores,” she said. “As I get older and my children move, wherever I would decide to retire I would look to open another store or even multiple stores in that area. It’s been so manageable.”