How to run a laundry from home
Offering a service where customers can leave laundry so that it can be washed and ironed, can be a good source of income.
This is because the prevalence of two-income families, suggest that convenient services such as wash, dry and iron will grow in popularity as working parents have less time to attend to household chores like laundry.
Do careful research before you start
You will have to decide how you will market your home laundry business. Research is vital. Canvas the area in which you will be operating the home business in order to determine if there is a need. Check if there are laundries near you and if there are, be sure you can offer better value and service.
Target the market
Decide how you are going to target the market that you believe will make use of the service you intend to offer. Prepare a business plan. This will ensure that you cover everything and have a plan to follow.
For the business plan, work out what equipment you will need. This might include washing, dryers, folding tables, irons and ironing boards and in time, even dry cleaning equipment.
Space
As you are operating from home, make sure that you have enough space. Equipment, unwashed clothes and washed clothes will take up space. The location of your laundry business should have adequate space to house all the necessary materials and collaterals.
Scheduling
Another major consideration is are you simply going to wash and fold laundry or are you offering to include ironing as part of your services? This is an important point because ironing takes so much more time and needs to be factored into your rate schedule and your business plan.
A major key to success in this type of home based business is scheduling. Taking on ironing as part of the project will definitely be a drag on the quantity of work you can do and prices should be gauged accordingly.
Using the electronic media
Consider setting up online appointments – customers can make appointments to have their laundry picked up and dropped off. If you don’t want to run a collection service you can still use SMS’s to provide automatic alerts when the laundry is ready for collection.
Money
Some clients may want to use a credit or debt card to pay for the services that they have purchased from you. It is important that you are able to transact this way. Contact your bank for details and the costs involved in operating debt and credit cards.