A laundry business can grow immensely if you know how to start and operate it ideally. You can either start your own laundry store or join a successful laundry franchise. And, in both of these ways, a well-built laundry business plan remains imperative. There are 10 crucial components that sums up in an ideal business plan. Let’s have a look at them:

10 Important Components Of A Laundry Business Plan

1. Figuring out an ideal location

The first thing to consider under a laundry business plan is finalizing a perfect location to set up your business. By “perfect” we mean a place where people (your potential customers) can see and get attracted towards your shop. It cannot be any random area in your city. Hence, you will have to carry out intense research on:

• Population
• Demographic
• Market Competition

To execute your laundry business plan, you will have to start by visiting all markets in an area you are willing to run your business. Then, shortlist a set of markets or locations where you see a stable population to avail of your service and less competition.

2. Figuring out an ideal shop

After finding the perfect location or market, the next step of a laundry business plan is finding the right shop. It is again a time consuming and laborious task as there are multiple factors that you will have to consider. For example, your shop should have enough space to install machinery, a counter, a customer waiting area, etc. Next, there must be proper arrangements for water and electricity usage. It is best to have some parking space available near the shop. Another highly important aspect is the visibility of the shop. It must be located at a place from where you can get maximum footfall.

Along with all of these things, the rent or lease amount of the shop must be as per your budget.

3. Finalizing the layout of the shop

Next step of a good laundry business plan revolves around the design of the shop. While many people don’t consider it important, mindful shop layout is crucial. Because it impacts the functionality of your business to a great length. You will have to work on multiple designs or layouts including electrical, civil, plumbing, mechanical and vastu (optional) layouts as well. If you have an in-house architectural team then they will do this for you. Otherwise you will have to get the layouts from an architectural firm.

4. Monitoring contractual work during store construction

The construction of your shop can go wrong in many places if it will not be monitored properly. Hence, have a clear thought on how you will monitor the entire process of construction. It will include communicating with contractors, keeping an eye on the labourers, etc.

You will also have to supervise the activities daily, weekly and monthly to ensure that your store gets constructed within the stipulated time. While it may seem easy, it takes a lot of time and effort to deal with contractors. Hence, make sure that you allocate proper time to the supervision of contractual work in your laundry business plan.

5. Finalizing the best machines and chemicals

The success of any business depends on the satisfaction of its customers or clients. In a laundry business, your services must be top-notch for this purpose. Mainly because this business sustains on customer retention or repeat business.

In order to provide top-notch laundry service to your customers, you will need high-end machinery and chemicals. Hence, you will have to research and find the best quality machinery and chemicals available in the market. Remember, this will directly impact the performance of your business. So, do not refrain from investing time and effort into this activity. If you are new to the industry, it will take you some time to study what sort of chemicals and machines are best. There are tons of options available. Hence, make sure you allocate enough time for research while making your laundry business plan.

6. Finding reliable contractors and vendors

Three things can impact your business in negative ways:

• Not having an on-time and ample supply of raw materials like chemicals and packaging materials.
• Not getting timely maintenance for your machines.
• Not having enough marketing materials such as leaflets, brochures, and visiting cards as and when required.

In order to ensure time and ample supply of all these things you will need to find trustworthy vendors and suppliers. This should be one of the prime tasks in your laundry business plan.

7. Setting the right price for your services

You will have to carry out in-depth research at the ground level as well as online to set the right price benchmark. If the prices of your services will be too higher than your competitors, it is less likely that customers will prefer your services. On the other hand, if your services will be priced too low, your profit margins may suffer. This will slow down your financial growth. Hence, your laundry business plan must have a clear process on how will you set your price benchmark

8. Staff recruitment and training

To operate a laundry business you will need three types of employees: Manager, Washer men & Delivery executives.

It is crucial to hire the right people and train them to perfection. Dishonest, non-skilled and rigid people can never offer quality service to your customers. Hence, your laundry business plan must focus on ideal recruitment and training. While recruitment is often a no-brainer, many people don’t understand laundry workers also need intense training. The quality of laundry service directly depends on your workforce, especially washermen. Hence, your washer men will need training on several crucial things, such as:

• Cleaning different types of fabrics
• Removing different types of stains
• Handling embroidered or embellished clothes
• Ironing different fabrics

While you can outsource hiring to Human Resource agencies, and train store managers and delivery boys yourself, you cannot do such arrangements to train employees, especially workers. Hence, you should have a clear understanding on hiring and training your staff.

If you want the best of the laundry workers (washermen) then you can join a Tumbledry franchise. Tumbledry has established India’s first and one-of-a-kind manpower training academy for laundry workers where they are trained to perfection for 14 days. Due to this rigorous training, Tumbledry’s washer men can provide better quality service to the customers.

9. Marketing strategies for business promotion

Without effective marketing, your laundry business will not flourish to its fullest. Hence, your laundry business plan must include promotional strategies. It should be centred on both traditional (offline) and digital (online) marketing.

The strategies must be convincing. You should aim to attract as many people as possible towards your business and convince them to try your services. It will require substantial research and effort. Some people may suggest you outsource marketing & promotional activities to agencies. However, it is less likely to give you far-reaching results.

10. Management of business operations

A laundry business requires consistent effort and involvement. You will have to manage operations and monitor your staff, and customers and maintain communication with the vendors. You should have a clear plan on how you will manage these things entirely. Here is what you need to figure out while creating your laundry business plan:

• How your staff will be satisfied with their job – This is crucial to avoid manpower attrition which can affect any business adversely.
• How will you maintain a cordial relationship with suppliers and vendors – This is crucial to ensure you get an on-time supply of essential raw materials.
• How will your customers get accurate information about your services and their orders – This is crucial to address their complaints and queries and maintain customer satisfaction.

If you don’t have a perfect plan to handle all of these things, it is better not to take the responsibility on your shoulders. Otherwise, your business will face frequent hurdles. You can think of joining a franchise.

If you will start your own business from scratch, the entire load of activities like research, construction, maintaining supply chain, marketing and tons of other things will remain on your shoulders. Whereas, if you will join a successful laundry franchise, a huge part of the responsibility of business set-up and operations will remain with the franchisor.