I don’t know if I’ve met a dryer outside of America
I’m sure somewhere, but the places I lived, warm or cold, always involved me hanging my clothes from a rack to dry – even in freezing temperatures.
Being an American there can be a lot of things you miss living overseas, but I was fine with everything until it came to not having a dryer.
Not only that but I’ve never used a duvet cover before living overseas. I’ve always had a large comforter that gets washed at the laundromat in a giant industrial washer.
So this isn’t a new idea but one to me of convenience.
If you were to look up on YouTube passive sources of income you’re going to come across:
Vending machines
Self-storage
Car washes
And laundromats
That’s because while there is some initial investment they, for the most part, run themselves. A self-service laundromat is a facility where garments are washed and drained without the assistance of a professional.
Imagine a large room, a bunch of washers and dryers, a few TV’s, folding tables, and vending machines with laundry soap in them. You come in, wash your clothes and leave. Simple right?
Here’s some quick stats about this industry which are also linked below:
The global dry-cleaning & laundry services market size to be valued at USD 79.91 billion by 2027 (I believe it currently sits around 60 billion)
Availability of laundromat services on smartphone applications has boosted online demand for laundry services.
The Asia Pacific emerged as the largest shareholder in 2019 and emerging economies, such as India and China, with a growing working population, and rising spending on dry-cleaning and laundry services are expected to drive the market.
Europe is expected to witness significant growth attributed to increasing disposable income, coupled with a growing working population.
Here is an infographic from transparency market research showing the global market shares:
That’s how the clothes cleaning industry will grow, but it wasn’t only laundry mats. Dry cleaning as well and wash and fold services fit into the market.
When I originally thought my small town abroad needed a laundromat, I was like, how will I find machines that take the coin of the local currency. Then I decided that people could pay at the door to use the machines at a certain set price for the number of washes and dries, and it would eliminate that issue.
There has been so much automation in this industry as of late that there are better ways to put this to work in your home country.
Apps. My apartment’s machine lets me scan a QR code, add money to the app, pay for the wash as I use it and the dryer as I use it.
Apps again. Wash and fold services will allow you to go online or on your phone, schedule a pickup of your clothes as well as a drop off, pay from your account and have clean, folded clothes without hardly lifting a finger.
Card readers. Some machines now come fitted with card readers which eliminate the need for coins.
I don’t know if you follow Codie Sanchez but she said find boring but stable businesses and automate them. I think this is a great industry to do that in.
Maybe this seems like a big idea to you, but what is the simplest way to do this?
Maybe in your small town you buy a dryer, you are the only one who has one and you charge a price for people to bring their things to dry. Simple.
Or you’re in a large city and want to offer full dry cleaning or wash and fold services to busy moms, college students or rich expats.
There is so much opportunity here for an industry that seems unglamorous.
Don’t forget that if you have no interest in buying machines, there are always indirect opportunities that pop up. Maybe you develop apps specifically for the laundry industry, or you become the mobile delivery service to laundromats that already exist, but don’t deliver.
If you were to do a YT search you would find people who go into existing laundromats and offer to wash and fold the clothes of people who come in for a fee, which part is paid to the owner and part stays in your pocket.
Again, there are so many possibilities with this. I’d like to hear in the comments about how you feel this can be adapted to your area or, if you are already doing it, and what success you’ve found or other opportunities you see.
For more content like this about opportunities around the world, connect with me on Instagram and download my 31 days of opportunity book.
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