How to Open a Commercial Laundry Business: A Complete Guide

Study the market in your target area to determine the need for a commercial laundry. If you’re purchasing an existing laundry business, review its past business records to predict its future profitability. If establishing a new business, make sure you are not entering a market with more existing laundries than the area can support. Identify an area that needs, and can support, your new business venture.

Determining the type of commercial laundry equipment your business may require will depend largely on the types of services you plan to provide. In addition to high-volume, commercial-grade washers and dryers, you may need green technology tools, delivery vehicles (if you plan on offering laundry delivery service), and more. When writing your business plan, bear in mind that it might be possible to package the facility purchase with the equipment purchase in a single loan arrangement, as long as you are able to identify and describe the types of equipment and technology you will require.

Carefully consider the location for your laundry business. People are constantly looking for convenience and rarely want to stray from their daily commute, so a dry cleaner is likely to attract more customers if it’s located near office and housing complexes, schools, and other areas with high, consistent traffic. For larger commercial laundries, consider locations near hospitals, hotels, or busy downtown areas where there is likely to be repeat high-volume business cleaning items like linens and uniforms.

Your business plan is a formal declaration of your professional goals and plans for attaining those goals. It will serve as the blueprint for your commercial laundry business and will be necessary to secure funding if you intend to take out a loan. A good business plan should include:

Lay out your business’s managerial structure, professional qualifications and background, and your plans for maintaining ownership of the company.

Describe your proposed services in great detail, including any factors that separate your business from similar concepts and potential competition. You should also include a description of any existing, pending, or predicted filings for copyrights or patents related to your business.

Describe how you’re planning to enter the market, strategies for growing your business, channels of distribution and promotion, and how you plan on marketing your business to attract and retain customers. Develop a sales strategy that includes your proposed sales force and projected sales activities.

If you will be seeking loans to fund your business, draft up a request that outlines your current financial needs, projected financial requirements, and strategic financial plan. Include a financial projection that details historical financial information (if you’ve been in business before) as well as anticipated earnings and losses for your new business.

Opening your commercial laundry business with a winning franchise include benefits like the support and structure to get your business launched with the backing of years of experience and industry-leading success in both dry cleaning and laundry services. Franchise owners receive guidance and assistance in finding the best franchise location, hands-on training, and ongoing guidance and marketing support.

Tide Cleaners offers prospective franchisees the opportunity to make their dreams of owning a commercial laundry business come true with a brand consistently ranked No. 1 in its Dry Cleaning & Laundry category by Entrepreneur. Tide Cleaners is known world-wide as the preeminent cleaning service, and we invite you to explore joining the team.

Contact us to learn more about Tide Cleaners franchise opportunities.