The Business of Laundry: Models That Work

In today’s laundromat industry, one truth holds across every market, model and mission: success requires more than just machines. Today’s operators must choose business models strategically, execute consistently, and lead with intention. Some lean into simple,...

Green is Good Business 

Green Operations Increasingly Important to Feed Consumer Demand  When Green Laundry Lounge co-owners Pulin and Krishna Dasai got into the vended laundry industry, they wanted to change a narrative: laundromats are water and energy-intensive businesses.   “The...

Metrics That Matter 

Profit, Performance, and Planning in Vended Laundry  The laundromat business is like most businesses in that you need to do a lot of things right to be successful. But how do you know if it’s working? According to successful owners, you just need to look at the...

Safety First, Last… Always

The Laundromat Owner’s Guide to Preventing Accidents, Protecting Your Business, and Controlling Your Insurance Costs As more and more entrepreneurs are discovering, running a laundromat can be a hugely rewarding business. But it also comes with its own set of risks...

PlanetLaundry Podcast

America’s #1 Resource for Vended Laundry News & Info

PlanetLaundry is the official publication of CLA and is trusted by thousands of laundry professionals to deliver the latest news and industry-specific topics.

Building a Winning Team

Building a Winning Team

Finding, Attracting and Retaining Great Employees The numbers are sobering, if not downright depressing. Studies suggest that the annual turnover rate for hourly employees hovers around 50 percent. What’s more, these figures vary broadly by industry and by business....

Laundries Connecting Communities

Laundries Connecting Communities

Celebrating the Work of the LaundryCares Foundation In essence, it all began with Hurricane Katrina. “For a while, I and many of my peers in the business felt an appreciation and a gratitude for the opportunities we’d all enjoyed and the livelihoods that had been...

Meeting Families Where They Are: The Powerful Role of Laundromats

Meeting Families Where They Are: The Powerful Role of Laundromats

Please take a moment to picture the face of a child you care about. This child may be your own son or daughter, a niece or nephew, grandchild, a youth you may have coached, or a little one who runs into your laundromat with her mom each week. I think of my own two...

Headlines

Wash with Wally: Cleaning in Cold Water

I’m considering switching to a cold-water detergent for my wash-dry-fold business in order to save some money on my natural gas bill. Does this make sense? I don’t want to sacrifice the quality of the wash I offer my full-service customers. No, that does not make...

Be Better Tomorrow Than You Were Yesterday

Are You Running a Finite Laundromat Business or an Infinite One? Let me start with a very simple question: did you “win” at business last year? Huh? I’m serious. I’m talking about the battle with your competitors. Did you win it last year? If your answer is yes, my...

Magic in a Box

How LaundryCares Family Read, Play and Learn Centers Are Impacting Communities and Changing Lives Before jumping into the “what” and the nuts-and-bolts of the LaundryCares Family Read, Play and Learn Centers, we need to take a step back and examine the “why.” How did...

SpyderWash, Wash-Dry-Fold POS Announce Cross-Platform Integration

Laundry payment system provider SpyderWash, a Setomatic Systems company, and Wash-Dry-Fold POS, a point-of-sale system developed for laundromats, recently announced they have teamed up on a cross-platform project. SpyderWash enables laundromat customers and employees...

New Benefits Added to CLA Health Insurance Program

The Coin Laundry Association – which is working with LIG Solutions to offer comprehensive, affordable health coverage designed for laundromat owners, as well as their families and employees – has announced a newly added element to this health insurance program. The...

HappyNest Expands Further into Long Island

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest has expanded further into central Long Island, N.Y., through its partnership with The Laundry Closet. HappyNest now serves the east end of Suffolk County – from Bay Shore to Sayville to East Setauket. “We decided to...

Get Down to Business

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Boost Your Bottom Line with Commercial Accounts In the laundromat business, idle machines represent missed revenue that can never be recovered. Every store operator knows that it’s all about “turns per day.” And no one understands...

Create Enthusiasm for Your Wash-Dry-Fold Business

Four Basic Steps to Marketing Your Full-Service Offerings Wash-dry-fold services can be an incredible boon to your customers. You’re offering them a time-saving, hassle-free way to get their laundry done. You’re helping today’s customers stay on top of their busy...

Wash with Wally: Cleaning Yoga Blankets

I have been approached by a potential commercial client about cleaning yoga blankets. They are heavy wool blankets about the size of a twin bed sheet. This client doesn’t want to dryclean the blankets. What’s the best way to wash them? And how would I dry these items...

What, Me Worry?

You’ll Never Eliminate Anxiety from Your Business Life, But Here’s How to Control It “Stop worrying about what can go wrong, and get excited about what can go right.” I’m confident you’ll agree that owning a business such as (but not limited to) a laundromat can be,...

A Change of Heart

The Laundry Doctor Reconsiders His Perspective on the Profitability of the Wash-Dry-Fold Business For 20 years, I’ve warned laundromat owners against letting their wash-dry-fold operations interfere with and encroach upon the self-service end of their businesses....

PlanetLaundry Podcast Episode 21: An Interview with Neal Shapiro

In this episode, you will hear PlanetLaundry Editor Bob Nieman interview Chicago laundromat owner Neal Shapiro. In 2014, Neal – and his wife, Kate – purchased their first laundromat in Chicago. Since then, the Shapiros have become fully immersed in the laundromat...

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Business Solutions

Laundromat Marketing

CleanCloud talks to industry experts about the tactics they use to attract new customers and encourage repeat business in our latest webinar

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September Magazine Issue

This Month's Issue

 

  • Tech on the Rise: How Operators Are Using Innovation to Run Smarter, Faster Laundromats: From AI phone systems to real-time data tracking, operators and suppliers share how technology is reshaping the modern laundry business and what’s coming next.
  • Business Profile: Delivering a Superior
    Laundry Experience
  • Member Spotlight: Rick Rome –
    Innovating Laundry, One Customer at a Time
  • Guest Column: How AI Changed Google Reviews (What Laundromat Owners Need to Know)
  • And More…

THE LATEST ON LAUNDROMATS

Industry News

LIG Health and Wellness Roundup

The Coin Laundry Association works with LIG Solutions to provide CLA members with health care insurance, as well as prescription drug services. Below are some articles LIG has provided to help expand your health and wellness awareness, and to learn about new health...

P&G, Supermarket Chain Partner in Flood Relief Effort

Procter & Gamble and supermarket chain Food City recently teamed up – through the Tide Loads of Hope mobile laundromat – to help provide clean clothes and some needed relief to those affected by the recent flooding in southwest Virginia. “During times of disaster,...

LaundroLab to Add Boston Location

Laundromat franchise LaundroLab is set to launch its first location in Boston, spearheaded by local money manager Bill Shean. After more than 30 years as a professional money manager, Shean decided it was time for a career change. “I think it’s interesting to do...

HappyNest Expands Commercial Business

Laundry pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest recently expanded its commercial laundry services in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, and Colorado, with further expansion planned in the coming months. In addition, the company now offers a per-bag pricing model...

KioSoft Names CTO

KioSoft has appointed Charlie Lim as its new chief technology officer. Lim has more than 20 years of experience in driving cross-functional global programs, international partnerships, technology investments and initiatives. In his new role, he will oversee KioSoft’s...

FROM YOUR FAVORITE INDUSTRY EXPERTS

Columns

The Laundry Doctor

Playing ‘Tag’ with Wash-Dry-Fold Business

Playing ‘Tag’ with Wash-Dry-Fold Business

Originally posted - Jun 25, 2013 As your wash-dry-fold business grows from doing just a few loads at a time to handling several loads simultaneously, one of the biggest challenges you'll face is simply keeping track of all the orders that come in. It's critical to...

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The Business Mind

Head Games

The Psychological Aspects of Entrepreneurship – And the Six Primary Emotions That Inevitably Grip All Business OwnersA number of years ago, it was quite common in Detroit and other larger cities to have actual elevator operators in tall buildings. And, while riding in...

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Wash With Wally

Viewpoint

Avoiding Surprises

Running a small business is far from an exact science. And operating a self-service laundry – with all of the market-by-market idiosyncrasies this entails – at times can be even less of a sure thing. With PlanetLaundry's cover story in May focusing on industry myths...

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Digital Marketing

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Strategic Corporate Allies Program

Our Strategic Corporate Allies support CLA’s mission through advocacy, education, and innovation to strengthen the industry, advance our members’ businesses, and prepare the next generation of laundry professionals for the future.

Interested in becoming a Strategic Corporate Ally of CLA? Contact President & CEO, Brian Wallace via email at [email protected] or call (630) 491-0499.