Content about America

WASHINGTON — Small-business owners are less optimistic today about the economic outlook of their own firms and the overall economy than in the previous six months, according to the Mid-Year Economic Report released by the National Small Business Association (NSBA).

“While the dip in outlook is in line with cyclical drops in optimism mid-year, there’s more to it,” says NSBA President/CEO Todd McCracken. “The constant barrage of negative campaigning and near-complete failure of Washington to govern is having a broad, negative effect on America’s small businesses.”

Six months ago, the number of small-business owners who anticipated a recessionary economy was just 14%—that number has jumped to 34% today, the highest it’s been since December 2009.

Correspondingly, the number of small-business owners who anticipate economic expansion in the coming 12 months was cut nearly in half, from 20% six months ago to 11% today.

There is a bright spot: the long-term economic outlook is slightly improved, with 23% now saying that today’s economy is better than it was five years ago, the highest it’s been in four years.

The near-term outlook shows that 44% of small-business owners think the national economy is worse today than it was six months ago—up from 31% in December 2011. Furthermore, the number of small-business owners who are not confident about the future of their own business jumped from 25% six months ago to 40% today, the largest increase in nearly five years.

“Given that economic uncertainty is the most significant challenge small-business owners face today, it should come as no surprise that addressing the deficit is the No. 1 thing small businesses want policymakers to address,” says Chris Holman, CEO of Michigan Business Network.com.

The full report is available for download here.

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — Equipment distributor Todd Santoro recently shared some thoughts about providing extra services for your laundry customers and how certain additional revenue streams require little extra work to put into place (Coin-Op 101:Extra Creativity Can Lead to Extra Profit).

Today and tomorrow, American Coin-Optakes a look at two laundries that couldn’t be more different as far as geography and demographics are concerned, and how their owners approach the offering and management of extra profit centers.

MEGAMAT SUPER LAUNDROMAT, MOUNT VERNON, N.Y.

When Conrad Cutler responded to American Coin-Op’srecent poll about extra profit centers, his list for the Megamat Super Laundromat in Mount Vernon was a lengthy one: vending machines, laundry bags, wash-dry-fold services, drop-off/commercial accounts, video games/pinball machines, moving truck rental, rug cleaner rental, ATM, and car care equipment (vacuum, air machine, and fragrance machine).

The 5,000-square-foot store located in a low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhood just north of New York City is open 24 hours, seven days a week, and is advertised as the “home of America’s largest washing machines.” (For the record, the largest machine there holds 125 pounds.)

Cutler, 22, only recently graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in supply chain management and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises, but he’s been running Megamat since August 2009.

His family owned the property, a former warehouse, and had leased it to a tenant who installed the mega-laundry. When the tenant went bankrupt after five years, the young Cutler was called on to take over the operation so the family could avoid the accrual of real estate tax on a vacant property.

Cutler successfully renegotiated the tenant’s sizable outstanding note with the finance company and instituted a renovation plan that would take four months to complete and cost $30,000.

Expanding the breadth of services offered by the laundry was always part of his business plan.

“We took the store over in a bad situation, so we needed to do whatever we could, not only to bring up the revenue but also to increase the foot traffic in there,” Cutler says. “Diversifying the services that we offered to the community was the way in which we developed a large customer base.

“My objective in having so many different auxiliary revenue streams was not only to generate money but also to bring people into the Laundromat who might not come in there regularly otherwise.”

And that’s mighty important when you consider there are 46 coin laundries within four square miles serving 65,000 people. That’s a lot of competition, so it pays to offer services that set you apart from the rest.

All of the non-laundry equipment is serviced by outside contractors (eight, by Cutler’s count) that pay Megamat a portion of the revenue.

“The most important thing to me is that we have 100% uptime on all of our equipment,” he says. “One of the most detrimental things you can do in the laundry industry is to have equipment that’s out of service. Not only do you not make money off of it, it also makes the store look bad.”

Cutler depends heavily on a staff of six attendants to manage the around-the-clock operation when he’s not there. All are trained extensively in customer relations, equipment troubleshooting and store management, he says. The store wouldn’t be able to offer the number of added services that it does without them.

“One way that we’re able to compete so well … is because of the staff that we have,” he says. “They’ve all been in the laundry industry for a long time, way longer than I’ve been here. They know how important customer service is, not only to me but to the customers as well.”

Among the Laundromat’s most popular auxiliary services are U-Haul truck rental (it’s one of the few Northeast businesses to offer it around the clock, according to Cutler) and pay-as-you-go Internet service (at the rate of $1 per 10 minutes; most people living in and around the neighborhood don’t own a computer or have Internet access, he adds).

“I would say that the ATM, the vending machines and the (video) games are kind of just an extra. They don’t really bring in that much money.”

Megamat’s newest extra profit center is carpet cleaner rental. In the first 30 days of offering the service ($27 to rent the machine for 24 hours), just one person rented a machine. But it was a person who’d never visited the store before.

“After three months, I think you’ll be able to tell if the real estate that it’s taking up in your store, and the liability of operating it, is worth your time or not,” Cutler says. “If you see an upward trend where it’s at least doubling every month for three months, it’s worth keeping.”

Extra profit centers are a “dual-edged sword” that can just as easily hurt the operation if they’re not treated with the same level of care and concern as the laundry, Cutler says.

“You really have to make sure that you’re giving excellent customer service in all aspects to whoever walks in the door, regardless of whether they’re washing clothes or just putting 25 cents in a gumball machine,” he says. “That’s really what’s going to keep the business going is maintaining the same level of customer service for every customer.”

Tomorrow: We visit The Service Station in rural Thompsonville, Ill., where owner Nova Randolph’s business offers laundry, tanning, Internet and copy/fax services for her hometown.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The 2012 Spring Educational Conference of the Multi-housing Laundry Association (MLA) will focus on increasing profits through business cycle changes; interviewing, hiring and evaluating employees; and the political picture of 2012.

Also, the group will bring back its popular route operator roundtable discussion.

The Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) will play host to the event on April 22-24.

Three educational sessions are scheduled in addition to MLA committee meetings, networking opportunities and more.

Educational sessions on the tentative agenda include:

• The Intersection of Politics and Policy, by Ron Brownstein, National Journal Group.

A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, Brownstein explains with lucid precision the complexities of American politics. He appears regularly on MSNBC programs, including Hardball, Andrea Mitchell Reports, and Morning Joe, and has served as a regular panelist on Face the Nation.

His sixth and most recent book, The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America, was published in 2007.

• Talent Acquisition and Retention, by Deidre Siegel, PEAR™ Core Solutions.

Siegel is founder and CEO of an outsourced, human resources management firm that provides core competencies in behavioral analytics for individuals and in the workplace, talent acquisition strategies, and all levels of human resource support in areas of legal compliance and organizational development pertaining to policies, procedures, process, and people.

Her company has worked with teams in many organizations across a variety of industries. Clients are able to understand their unique business culture in a strategic manner, MLA says, and using this knowledge of specific and unique corporate dynamics, as well as the implementation of proper processes, documentation and communication, remain in growth mode perpetually.

• Increasing Profits through Business Cycle Changes, by Alan Beaulieu, ITR Capital Partners.

Beaulieu co-authored Make Your Move, a book on how to increase profits through business cycle changes. He is president of the Institute for Trend Research, principal and managing partner of ITR Capital Partners, and an active member of ITR’s Investment Committee.

Beaulieu has been consulting with companies throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. His firm’s accuracy rate and unique position—with more than 60 years of calls throughout every major historic economic turning point—as well as his extensive understanding of business cycles and the ability to explain the implications makes his presentation unique, MLA says.

Away from the conference, attendees can take advantage of Fort Lauderdale’s art and museum tours, yacht charters, sports fishing, casinos and racetracks, and more.

The reservation deadline has passed at the host hotel, but rooms may still be available. Call 800-542-8680 for information.

MLA membership entitles each company to two complimentary registrations. Additional registrants or guests may attend at a registration fee set to cover the cost of food, beverages, and speaker expenses.

To learn how to register, call 800-380-3652 or e-mail nshore@mla-online.com.

MILFORD, Mass. — The Lifetime TV series America’s Most Wanted recently featured the case of an early-morning Laundromat robbery on its program.

Just after 6 a.m. on Jan. 3, an unidentified male smashed the front door of Village Laundromat with a large hammer, and then threatened to hit the clerk if she didn’t open the safe and hand over the money. The suspect, identified by police as a white male, fled after stealing the money.

While security cameras recorded the incident, the suspect’s face was covered. He was wearing an olive green or gray jacket with a light strip around the sleeve, and carried a black backpack with a yellow construction hat strapped to the top.

America’s Most Wanted asks anyone having information about this crime to call its national hotline, 800-CRIME-TV. Locally, Milford police have an anonymous tip line, 508-473-3800.

Surveillance video of the break-in, courtesy of Milford Police, can be viewed below:

MARFA, Texas — A well-known business strategy is to run two businesses under one roof, share the overhead, and mingle the clientele. Perhaps the best example of this in our industry is Tumbleweed Laundry.

Daniel Browning is the “Laundromateur” who pulled off the magical feat of combining an ice cream parlor, coffee shop and Laundromat. The genius is that Browning has a monopoly in all three markets.

Ingenuity is What Makes America Great

These days, Tumbleweed is doing quite well. It’s the only place in town to sit down, chat with friends, eat an ice cream sundae, and do your laundry all at the same time. The big advantage is that one staffer mans the entire operation. When Browning does his commercial volume, he and another helper are also on premises.

“That’s a big plus,” Browning says. “I know some Laundromats don’t have a person there. But we do, so we can take care of problems right away. But we are also there to take care of the ice cream and coffee trade. It’s really a good, efficient use of labor.”

Tumbleweed runs with 10 Dexter T-300 30-pounders, four 45-pounders (front loaders?) and six double-stack dryers. Prices are $3.50 for a 30-minute wash and 25 cents for a six-minute dry. “Our prices are pretty good,” Browning says. “They could be higher, but I want to balance intake with customer needs. In other words, I want to be reasonable.”

The commercial volume pays the equipment bill. That includes about 600 pounds of sheets a week from the hotels and bed-and-breakfasts in town. (One establishment, Hotel Paisano, is famous for having housed stars Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Rock Hudson while they filmed the movie, Giant, here.) Tumbleweed also maintains a commercial linen service, renting out about 1,000 napkins a week and hundreds of tablecloths to area restaurants. Browning calls his commercial business a “boutique” operation. Generally, the service is same day, and the customers drop off the work.

Browning pegs his Laundromat’s utilities cost at a shade above 25%. “That’s not too bad, since our gas company is owned by two cities, and rates are very expensive,” he says. “The 25% also includes commercial work, which requires heavy utilization since so much ironing is necessary.”

As an efficiency gauge, the 25% utilities cost standard is for a strictly retail operation. Of course, renting the upstairs apartment also helps offset the building costs. So all in all, Browning is pretty satisfied with the way things are going. Such a combo would have more problems in a larger town, he believes, but it works just fine in Marfa.

What’s next? Browning has his sights on opening a second Laundromat/coffee shop combo in Alpine or Fort Davis, both within 30 miles of here. Alpine has two Laundromats, but Browning feels his offering would be far superior and win a dominant share of the market. He knows this because several customers travel the 30 miles to his facility to do their laundry. Or maybe they just love ice cream.

Ingenuity is what makes America great. And Browning surely shows what can be done in a tiny Texas town. Serving many needs under one roof can be the perfect strategy.

Click here for Part 1.

ROCKY HILL, Conn. — When opening a self-service laundry for the first time, many owners discover the challenge of multitasking. Nancy Sousa’s challenge is maintaining a successful business while dealing with being a seven-time cancer survivor.

The Town Line Laundromat, Rocky Hill, Conn., opened in July. About seven weeks prior to the opening, Sousa, diagnosed with breast cancer in 1994, discovered that she had metastatic breast cancer in her bones.