DRY-CLEANING/LAUNDRY BUSINESS

Nigeria is growing every day. People are getting busier to attend to their simple but immediate needs. I have a neighbor who tips my Landlord’s teenage son to wash his clothes every other three days. He was doing this often and at a time my landlord threatened to eject the guy for turning his son to his houseboy (he never knew the boy was being paid though). My neighbor had to stop. But the boy observed that the tenants in that estate are predominantly young families, some unmarried but busy/working bachelors and spinsters. He began to go close to them asking if he could do their laundry. These tenants were relieved and the boy himself started giving this service with the little they pay him. Today this boy has established a good laundry business with employees and has many branches. He is studying too o! Have you seen how my neighbor opened his eyes just because he tipped him to wash his clothes?

This is the attitude of someone who will succeed. Sometimes it doesn’t matter the vocation we choose. What matters is our attitude towards it and how much belief we have in it. Now look around your neigbourhood and see what you can offer there.

Whatever the size of your laundry, the initial investment can be relatively small. Everyone needs clean clothes and linens; they are a basic to life. When you bring laundry services to the community, you are enhancing quality of life and at the same time increasing your profit potential.

This business is becoming competitive; you need to differentiate yourself from the crowd. Make sure you get a good location, know the number of laundries in the area, know how your would-be competitors are doing and then find a way to be enticingly different.

If you want to outsmart your competitors, you must adapt to doing things differently. The priority is to satisfy your customers and keep them.  

Steps on starting a laundry business

Take an inventory into the laundry industry: Look around in your city for such business and see if they are there. You can observe how they operate and if possible know their lifeline, knowing their weak point because this is where you are going to be different. This tour will help you with some information and to write your business plan. Also try to evaluate your prospective customers. Busy people should be your target and I believe they are found in every city, so naturally, that is taken care of.

Business plan: You will be seeing this business plan writing first in every business you see in this book. The importance of business plan cannot be overemphasized.

In your business plan, list the services you provide. Make sure you add something your competitors don’t offer. Special delivery, special packaging with your business name and contacts on it, picking up items to be laundered from customer’s homes. Brainstorm on how to get your customers pleased. That’s the way to go.

In the plan, write out your long term expectations, things you would love to improve on, when you are likely to have a branch, materials that are needed for the take-off etc.

Your business plan is a road-map and gives you a vivid idea of what you are going into. It should therefore capture every area of the business. This is not something someone will do for you, you have to sit and put your brain to work. You want good income and something call your own, so you are going to put it over. Tell yourself you are not going to try, tell yourself you are going to do it.

Location: Don’t be in a hurry to pick any available space you see. Chose a place that is populated and accessible to your prospective customers. It should be easily located without any hassles. It shouldn’t necessarily be in the heart of a city. Every city has somewhat a suburb where you can get a good shop at a moderate rate where you can have a physical presence and operate from. Most of the average earners live at the fringes of the towns. Sometimes people operate from their homes, reach out to the people in the neighbourhood and then spread out to the entire suburb if you can’t afford a place, but this will make you put much hard work in advertising and you might have to include home delivery and pick up.  

Equipments: There are many laundry equipments available in the market out there but you can start with the normal house equipments, remember you are just starting and there is room for improvement buckets. If you can afford a mechanized laundry, that’s alright. But if you can’t then you are good to go with the normal laundry equipments you have at home (reservoir tanks, big bowls, the one we call baff here in Nigeria, lines for drying the clothes) etc. They can serve for a start.

Here are some of the equipments you will need:

Reservoir tank or any other reliable source of water

Buckets, big bowls

Any generator that can power pressing irons

Reasonable amount of detergents (mild and strong) and soaps

Laundry carts (or lines) for drying

25 liters industrial starch

2 industrial irons

Packaging (paper bags are eco-friendly). You will also learn how to make paper bags in this book.

Wood shelves

Table

Receipts

Note: If you have huge capital then you can include industrial washing machines and other logistics. However you can start minimally with simple items.

You will also need laundry liquids and powders (stain removers, detergents, destainers, sours and softeners) etc. Some laundry chemicals contain some corrosive components. This is where you should make good research to know which ones would be good for you. You also note that there are laundry chemicals for different types of fabrics. Wools, denims, cottons, linens, etc should have chemicals suitable for them. Have you ever wondered why some clothes have some tags like rayon, linen or polyester on them? We wear these clothes everyday but most of us don’t know what they mean. A good fabric would be worthless in no time if you don’t know how to maintain it.

I will write about how to care for some of the fabric types under this topic. As a general rule, remember to check the tag on the fabric before you start to wash. You should keep yourself acquainted with the fabric symbols to know which is which. Though some African clothes don’t come with tags, you should use your discretion to know how to handle them.

Register your business: Choose a business name of your choice, go to the relevant government agency (Corporate Affairs Commission), it is in every city, pay the fee and get your business legal. It takes about 2 weeks to a month to be cleared. A name with “enterprise” should do. The name you choose should reflect your concept and pass a message. Sit down and think out a good name. It must not be a reflection of your biological names. Put creativity in it. That’s the first thing people notice.

Open your business: When you have put all of the above in place, you are ready to start operation. I suggest you do the services by yourself initially, when the business begins to pick up (surely it will) then you can find other hands. This will also help you feel the pulse and master every area of the business. You can’t open a business and then leave it in the hands of people who didn’t initiate it. You have to take every responsibility.

Advertise! Advertise! Advertise!: Now that your business is ready, you have to reach out to people, be seen and heard. Print fliers, business cards, go online and have a presence. I suggest you have a Facebook page, it is free. Ask your friends and family to help and share your presence online. It’s a good way to push your business. I am a witness.

Innovation: Don’t drift along in business. Always find a way to improve and be different. If you open your business, sit there and relax probably because you have customers, you will be dazed when new innovative people comes, overtake or run you over.  It happens always. There are people you are probably going to run over now. So keep the dream and enthusiasm alive. Before you know it, you would see another branch would be necessary. That’s the way to go.

Types of fabrics and how to clean them

Acrylic: Acrylic fabrics have been around for a long time. This fabric feels more like a wool or cashmere. It can be very warm which is why it is used to make sweaters, winter, socks and other winter garments. It is best to warm-wash with fabric softener. Acrylic materials can be ironed if need be, but you have to use the low heat settings.

Cashmere: Cashmere is in the wool family of textiles since it comes from goats. Cashmere is actually a type of hair. When it comes to cleaning and maintaining fabric using very mild soap or detergent is best. Dint iron or machine-dry, and don’t wring the fabric out. Just lay it on a surface as it loses its shape when hung.

Cotton: Cotton is the standard bearer of clothing materials and the fabric of our lives. It is made from the fiber found in a certain family of seedpods. Cotton is understandably the most popular fabric in the world. It is cheap, durable and easy to manufacture.

Cotton is very simple to clean. It can be washed in a machine, tossed in the dryer and ironed very well. However, the colours choose water temperatures. For instance, white can be washed in hot water but coloured cottons should be washed in cold water.

Denim: Denims are the everyday jeans we wear. They are actually made from cotton; they were just woven into hard materials using a type of weave called twill. They are tougher than cotton; you absolutely should not wash jeans in washer. Denims are seriously dyed and the dyes come off almost always. So it doesn’t need harsh treatment. Water itself will wash away the denim’s colour over time, and soap will only hasten the process. Try soaking the denim in cold water and vinegar instead of washing. Add one cup of vinegar to a bucket of water enough to soak the denim and leave for an hour. Hand and lay to dry. This technique locks the dyes colour, keeping your jeans fresh and your furniture clean. Hang your jeans outside but away from direct sunlight.

Suede/leather: Suede and leather are highly vulnerable to dirt and dehydration. There are four things that can cause leather to deteriorate: chemical damage from oils and compounds in the environment, oxidation, chafing and abrasion. Leather should be cleaned with mild soap and warm water. As for suede, you can wash with wool detergent and scrub with a suede brush.

Linen: Linen is a fiber derived from the flax plant. It keeps the wearer cool in hot weather and like cotton, it is washing-machine-friendly. It is best to be washed with chlorine-free bleach in warm water and letting it dry on a cloth line. If you want to dry on your drier instead, be sure to dry it on medium heat.

Nylon: Nylon is a synthetic (plastic-based) fabric and it is made from one of the most commonly used polymers in the world. As with other synthetic materials, nylon is rugged and easy to clean. It is machine-washable, moisture resistant and can be cleaned in warm or cold weather. You should use low heat setting in drying to prevent wrinkling.

Polyester: Like nylon, polyester is a synthetic fabric made from plastic. The only difference is the type of polymer used to spin it into thread. Polyester is less durable than nylon but still strong. You clean polyester more or less the same way you clean nylon, although a warm wash is ideal. Low heat is advised in ironing.

Rayon: This is a synthetic fabric too. It is actually made from wood pulp, same stuff used to make paper. However, rayon is not as durable as other chemical-based fabrics, heat and laundry will make it shrink and lose colour.

If you want to clean rayon fabric, you are either going to have to get it dry-cleaned or wash it in cold water and let it air-dry.

Silk: Silk is one of the most luxurious fabrics in existence and for good reason. Few materials can match the soft, plush fiber that comes from the silkworm. It is delicate however, and that’s why it should be dry-cleaned. You can also hand-wash with warm water and mild detergent. Some silk garments can even be cleaned using washing machine’s delicate cycle.

Spandex: This is the super-stretchy synthetic fabric used in sports. It is pretty sensitive to heat. It is better to hand-wash in cold water and avoid ironing.

Wool: Wool is a natural fabric. Sheared off of sheep, wool makes for great warm clothing like sweaters, caps and coats. And like other items, wool is machine-washable. Some washing machine may even have wool setting, just make sure you keep it out of the drier.

Final note

Laundry business is very lucrative in Nigeria no matter the scale you are launching from. The most important thing is to stay true to the course and improve on the services and approach.