There are many advantages of a laundry business in the Philippines. That is why there are many dry cleaning and laundry businesses opening up across the neighborhood. But while we are aware of the advantages such as recurring business clients, low maintenance costs and growth in business opportunities, there are challenges that laundry shop owners face on a regular basis.
Let us identify these issues to better gauge whether this business is suitable for you.
There are places in the Philippines where water supply is unstable. For obvious reasons this can be a problem for an aspiring laundry business. Without water supply the business cannot operate. Idle machinery, rental costs and employee wages need to be paid even if your shop yields no revenue.
Even if water is available sometimes the quality can be bad. This affects the quality of your laundry too.
As a result the entrepreneur could be operating in the red once water supply or water quality becomes an issue.
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Equipment breakdown.
Continuous operation could strain the equipment, risking it to breakdowns. Once this happens the operation is temporarily halted and costs for repair could way down company profits. Worse, loyal customers could also desert the business in favor of a competitor with a more dependable machine.
Misplaced clothes.
Untrained staff who have no prior experience in systematic sorting of clothes or overworked ones might contribute to missing items and spike the volume of customer complaints. This is especially true when you have a growing business and understaffed shop. Misplacing sure shirts, trousers, and underwear to other customers laundry bags is potentially ideal breaking incident as it turns off customers who think you don’t care enough.
Stained fabric.
There are different types of clothes that require different types of washing. If you or your staff are not careful about sorting them, stained clothes can become a common occurrence. Such carelessness doesn’t bode well for clients who could easily share negative reviews or post they’re bad experience and social media, thereby painting your business a negative picture. Replacing such damaged clothing therefore is not your worst fear at this point.
Burnt clothing.
Just the same as accidentally staining clothing, burning them is also a possibility if you or your staff are not careful when using the industrial pressing iron. This is what happens if you do not read the label on washing instructions. For example you might use the same temperature when ironing silk or cotton. Burnt clothing can be costly on replacements, and a surefire way to lose a customer.
Unstable power supply.
if you are operating in a location where are electrical supply is not stable, you stand to lose the business because just like water. power is what runs your laundry and dry cleaning shop. You might want to buy and install power generator but this is also a costly expense newcomers to the business might not be able to afford.
Meeting delivery times.
Just like any other business your drive cleaning shower will need to manage customer expectation. This means if you promise customers their laundry will be ready in 24 hours be prepared to fulfill this promise. Otherwise you become untrustworthy business partner and lose out to competitors who fulfill their pledge.
Variety of customer preferences.
As a business you expect to face different people with different preferences. For example one customer would like a certain detergent brand, while another doesn’t want to use fabric softener. You need to balance these preferences so as to meet their requirements. Failure to do so will drive them away from your business.
Lost items.
While misplaced clothing is a troubling possibility losing them is equally annoying. Although socks and hankies are the ones that get lost quite often, losing expensive items takes a toll on your revenue.
Now that you know the different challenges and concerns entrepreneurs in the laundry business face, carefully discern whether these issues can be minimized, if not totally prevented. Investing in this business involves huge amount of effort time, and financial resources.
You would rather start in a small shop that is easily manageable and expand with the right amount of space, equipment and human resources to deal with growing number of clientele, instead of taking big steps without anticipating potential laundry business concerns and problems associated with them.
