CINCINNATI — Dave Menz spreads his passion for laundry business ownership well beyond the walls of his stores, sharing with others in the self-service laundry industry his thoughts and ideas about lifting what can be a commodity business into the realm of premium service.
“I always say the laundromat business is a good business,” he says. “The full-service laundry center business is a great business.”
GETTING INTO IT
Menz owns four Queen City Laundry stores along the east side of the Cincinnati metro area, the newest of which is a super store that combines 6,500 square feet of retail laundromat space with 2,500 square feet for “back of house” needs, including a hub for Queen City’s wash-dry-fold pickup and delivery operations. He says the stores combine to generate some $2.3 million in revenue annually with a staff that includes a general manager, two assistant GMs, and a manager in each store.
Additionally, he has written a teaching memoir titled “The Laundromat Millionaire” that was picked up and published by a New York City publisher, a first in an industry where its related books and guides are typically self-published, he says.
He was already doing some coaching on a small scale at the time but the notoriety gained from his book has grown that infrequent gig into a consulting business that hosts regular workshops and just assisted its 300th client.
“It all came from a place of just genuinely wanting to help other people figure out that there’s a better way to do this,” Menz says. “That’s my and my wife Carla’s mission, to elevate the industry, make the industry a better version of itself.
“I think it’s a great business already but I think it can be done better in a lot of different ways. And that’s where the, quote-unquote, platform has come from. Just a heart of servitude and figuring out a better way of doing that. Believing we’re all better together.”
‘IT DOES WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO DO’
This article was inspired by something Menz emphasized during an episode of his podcast: “We can view our business as a commodity or we can view our business as a service business.”
“I refer to it as a commodity laundry, or sometimes I refer to it as ‘plain-Jane,’ which means it’s functional,” he tells American Coin-Op. “It’s not meant to be denigrating in any way. It does what it’s supposed to do. I have my dirty laundry and I want to get it clean, and you provide me with a laundry room … with a few washers and dryers in it, (and) it’s designed to functionally clean my laundry and nothing else.”
Looking back to when he first entered the self-service laundry business, he believes that much of the industry fit that plain-Jane description then.
“I would argue that, anecdotally, it’s still a majority of the industry. Now, I do think people’s eyes are being opened more and more every day, that’s there another side to the industry which is service-based. … More laundromat owners are opening their eyes to the concept of serving our community vs. just functionally cleaning their laundry.”
‘PUTTING LIPSTICK ON A PIG’ TO START
Menz says he’s gone through three phases of ownership, starting as a novice who knew nothing about laundry ownership or management.
“When I got in the business in 2010, Carla and I basically had no money. We had no business acumen, had never run a business of any substance before, and really didn’t know what we were doing. We bought a ‘zombiemat,’ for lack of a better term, that was in a great location. I really only knew two things: I knew I needed an equipment distributor, and I knew the laws of supply and demand.”
He studied the nine laundromats his would be competing with and decided that they were in “horrible shape, just like me.” But he’s a perfectionist, so he couldn’t run his store like that. He had to make some changes.
“I didn’t know what I know today, so I just slowly but surely started fixing it up. We didn’t have a lot of money. I call it putting lipstick on a pig. We just did what we could with what we could afford, and sweat equity.”
Coming in Part 2 on Thursday: Falling in love with the concept of servitude, and building from good to great
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].
