Meet Brent from Clean Tide Laundry! He slayed a Zombie-mat and created a thriving self serve, wash and fold, and pickup & delivery operation. Plus he shares his techniques on acquiring commercial accounts!
In just six months, Brent from Clean Tide Laundry has grown his wash and fold revenue to five digit numbers and is experiencing stellar month over month revenue growth. His secret? He went with Curbside Laundries wash and fold POS solution, which helps him retain customers and includes an SEO optimized website that ranks #1 and #2 on Google AND BING! In addition, he shares his approach to gaining commercial accounts and how to close them. Brent went from watching Curbside Podcasts to starring in one and he shares the details to his and his wife's success.
0:00 Introduction
0:43 Getting started in the Laundry Business
1:47 Starting Wash and Fold
2:13 The Laundromat Website
2:49 Acquiring Commercial Laundry Accounts
4:15 Automating Customers Communications
4:46 Closing Commercial Accounts
6:59 Visiting Super Suds
8:44 Laundromat Software
10:35 Automated Commercial Invoices
Show Notes
Click here to see a demonstration of the Curbside Wash and Fold & Pickup and Delivery solution
Follow Curbside Laundries on Twitter
Join the Laundromat Community on X
Meet Brent from Clean Tide Laundry! He slayed a Zombie-mat and created a thriving self serve, wash and fold, and pickup & delivery operation. Plus he shares his techniques on acquiring commercial accounts!
In just six months, Brent from Clean Tide Laundry has grown his wash and fold revenue to five digit numbers and is experiencing stellar month over month revenue growth. His secret? He went with Curbside Laundries wash and fold POS solution, which helps him retain customers and includes an SEO optimized website that ranks #1 and #2 on Google AND BING! In addition, he shares his approach to gaining commercial accounts and how to close them. Brent went from watching Curbside Podcasts to starring in one and he shares the details to his and his wife's success.
0:00 Introduction
0:43 Getting started in the Laundry Business
1:47 Starting Wash and Fold
2:13 The Laundromat Website
2:49 Acquiring Commercial Laundry Accounts
4:15 Automating Customers Communications
4:46 Closing Commercial Accounts
6:59 Visiting Super Suds
8:44 Laundromat Software
10:35 Automated Commercial Invoices
Show Notes
Click here to see a demonstration of the Curbside Wash and Fold & Pickup and Delivery solution
Follow Curbside Laundries on Twitter
Join the Laundromat Community on X
I'm super excited to introduce Brent Goldman from Clean Tide Laundry. He's over in Venice, California. We just started with curbside laundries not that long ago, about four or five months ago. And his trajectory is just amazing and he is having tremendous success getting commercial accounts as well, which is the Holy Grow in Wash and fold because those clients just spent a lot of money and they're loyal in their repeat business. We've interviewed a lot of people, been with us for a year, two years, but I think Brent really brings in a lot because he's been with us for less than six months and his business has grown tr tremendously and he also took over a laundromat and just revitalized it. So just fascinated to hear that story. So without further ado, Brent Goldman with Clean Tie Laundry and just curious as far as like how you got into the laundry business.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Matt. Yeah , so me and my wife, we got into the laundry business. We have a couple Airbnbs and we also had a little cleaning business, so we were constantly in laundromats doing linens and, and cleaning for, for, for houses. But we have looked at some laundromats that we really enjoyed washing at and we got inspired and we kind of looked into it ourselves. We obsessed over laundromats for like a whole year and we listened into podcasts, including curbside was a big one. We got really inspired from watching a lot of , uh, curbside podcasts and just obsessed over it. And we came across this zombie mat as it's as it's called in Venice, and we found a really cool opportunity and we got ahold of the owners and we, we retooled, we, we redid everything and that's how we got into it.
Speaker 1:How many square feet is, is your laundromat? It's
Speaker 2:About 1700 square feet. It's not the biggest laundromat, but you can do a lot.
Speaker 1:Did you know what you bought the laundromat that you're gonna be doing wash and fold from the start or is that something you introduced later?
Speaker 2:That was something from doing the research that we've done, we absolutely wanted to add a wash and fold service in our, in our uh , laundromat. We saw the opportunity, especially in Venice Beach, but also with commercial. I knew I was gonna really try to go after a lot of commercial accounts. We did it and it's been incredible. It's been an incredible journey.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. And you know, one thing we've found is it takes about three months for the website to really get traction and to get ranked. And you know, that's also another reason I know a lot of people go with curbside laund is because we help with the SEO and their web ranking. It also illustrates you want to go with the right website from the get go because you won't find out if it works or doesn't work at for after three months. Your trajectory, I'd say is even higher than most. You know, what you've done is incredible. What's really impressive to me is your Delta, that's the month over month change is much higher than the average laundry owner that just gets started. And then I noticed a lot of them were commercial accounts as well. Commercial does take longer to get those accounts. There's fewer of those leads. There's generally more residential, commercial is great for a whole bunch of reasons. They spend more, you're dealing with one person, they're great accounts to get. So I'm just curious, what's your secret? Like how have you been able to attract so many commercial accounts?
Speaker 2:It's a good question. I used a lot of the , my background in , in some marketing that I've done in the past, you gotta hit 'em, you gotta get in there and you gotta be annoying <laugh> , you gotta just go in and I've seen it takes at least two times to going in and introducing yourself and kind of telling them what you do. We saw that you have to go in at least two times and show face and bring them a box of donuts, you know, or something. You just kind , just kind of building that, that relationship and that network and you, you get out what you put in. When I have free time, I'm, I'm out there. I'm going door to door on businesses that I see some opportunity with spas, gyms, restaurants, hotels, even. We've got into some hotels out here with the website that curbside has provided to us and all the data and the structure of the website is a huge help with our ranking on Google and just with, with searching, that has been also a huge help for us too. We love our website. We've checked a couple other ones out and we're just, we're very happy with with the results we're getting from our website. And we hear it all the time from our customers too that they're so happy with. Um, you know, even the, the text message updates, the when , when we are on the way, when when we've delivered the laundry. I mean these customers love that, you know, there's not very many laundromats that are doing this type of service and this just adds to the success of our business. Our customers are so happy, it's all about the customers and with the , without the software, we wouldn't be able to do what we're doing today With the commercial side, it's really just, you just have to organize yourself. One day I'm gonna go and hit all the motels, all the hotels, and then the next day I'm gonna hit all the, the gyms and then the next day I'm gonna do this and then that. And then you always wanna follow up . If you get like a a maybe you go back the next week <laugh> and then
Speaker 1:Maybe it's a yes
Speaker 2:Or a
Speaker 1:Yes on
Speaker 2:The way relationship with them. And then by the third time you pretty much have closed the account. Just this morning I closed another one.
Speaker 1:What industry is is it,
Speaker 2:It's a membership based work space. So you go in and they have a huge restaurant up bar top upstairs and we we're gonna be doing all their linens and their cleaning rags and their tabletops
Speaker 1:And that is fantastic. You're hustling and then it probably helps also have the right mindset. So is that why you do just like hotels on one day and gyms on another? Yeah,
Speaker 2:It just helps me organize my marketing plan. I mean, I have a spreadsheet and I go, I have it organized by hotels. I write my little notes like not interested or maybe check back on next week or you know, and these are things that I've learned just from previous jobs I've had from my bosses and just took that into this industry and you get back what you put in. It's a numbers game.
Speaker 1:And the other part that's real interesting as well is you don't give up after the first try. It's pretty cool that you're bringing donuts, you're bringing something of value as well because sometimes it's your ticket to to the game because if you value your time, your time is what's so valuable. And then you might as well, like if you could grease the wheels for, you know, a few bucks and bring them something nice, you know, they're gonna think that much more positive, you know, of you.
Speaker 2:I have a good idea on the area and all the businesses that are about to open up or opening up, like we did this bar down the street. I saw that they were gonna be opening soon, so of course I went right in there. I brought my little box of donuts with our marketing material taped on the donuts so they <laugh>
Speaker 1:That's great.
Speaker 2:Know who we are and, and of course we landed that one which is, which is great just seeing opportunity, you know, to welcome somebody to the community and this is what we do. If we can be of any help, these are the services we provide.
Speaker 1:Nice. And you also visited Superset so we're not too far away over in Long Beach from my understanding, my, my mom gave the tour and also provide some behind the scenes as far as how to get started. And I know she mentioned she was really impressed with you and your wife. She said they're gonna go far. She just knew that you guys were very tenacious and smart and you know, real go-getters and just was curious as far as your experience visiting Supersets
Speaker 2:Man, I mean I have the chills even just thinking about it when we found out you guys were a whole family owned business with the laundromat and then you guys with the software. I mean we love that. One of the things I loved about signing up for curbside is that you guys offer some free training for all of the employees. That was a big deal. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. And we did the training, I had the opportunity to, to meet your mom and what an incredible person. Your mom is so helpful with, how busy everybody, I mean, picks up the phone right away, takes the time out of her day to just answer any questions or give me any advice that I, that I have, which I've done before. Seeing how your guys' facility is ran. We've gotten a lot of really cool ideas from you guys and forever we're gonna be grateful for that. We had an incredible experience checking out your guys' facility. Went on a a couple drives with the drivers to show me how all the, the software works when you're doing deliveries and I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the experience I had going to your guys' facility
Speaker 1:For sure. That's fantastic. And we recommend for all of our clients to take advantage of that opportunity because everybody gains something different. It's like, oh, there's that and , and you never know what it is that's really gonna resonate of what you're gonna be taken back with you. Another part you kind of mentioned as far as the process, we made our software where it's, it follows the wash and fold process, the the , the way we do things, but it's got the flexibility so it makes it easy for the attendance just to go, okay, step one, step two and it follows it along. The feedback we've gotten with some of the competitor software is one tried copying us on the process, but they got the process wrong. So it's actually <laugh> better off not doing a process if it doesn't work. And the second one is, there's another solution where it's just, it's a free for all and then a lot of the business is still in your head. We've got the best of both worlds. You've got the flexibility to do stuff individually on individual orders, but you could just follow the process and help eliminate mistakes and order mixups because man, before the software we had <laugh> we made a lot of mistakes and we knew we needed something
Speaker 2:I could imagine with, you know, the type of, the amount of orders we're doing per day. I mean it's, we're still not where we would like to be, but we're doing , we're very happy with where we're at with just in a , in, in five, six months. I don't know how we would be able to organize all the orders or ha or I mean, 'cause trying to keep track of everything in my head is just not gonna work the process of taking in somebody's order and it's so user friendly. We've been able to do just light training with our staff to be able to get them to use it. It's been so wonderful and absolutely recommend to go to the facility. They're so helpful. I don't know other software companies that would do stuff like that. It's just been incredible being able to customize each and individual order from person to person to commercial account. I mean, you can put a special pricing for somebody. I mean it's endless. The the types of services that can be, that are, that are provided by curbside.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it used to be the Wild West where people would use Excel spreadsheets and they'd have all their commercial accounts and how much they pay per pound. And, and so a lot of times the billing took so long to get out because somebody like the manager or the owner would have to go through the Excel spreadsheet and look at the order and how many pounds and mistakes were pretty plentiful.
Speaker 2:Well , yeah, I could imagine. It's a flawless system and we're very grateful. I mean, it's, it's so smooth.
Speaker 1:If you'd like to learn more about the curbside laundries wash and fold and pick up and delivery solution that helped Brent get ranked number one and number two on binging and Google, go to curbside laundries.com. And don't forget, we've got a conference coming up. So if you want an early bird rate, go to curbside laundries.com/ 2024 . Talk to you later.