laundry business plan mission statement

Laundromat Business Plan Template & Guidebook

Opening a laundromat can be a daunting prospect. It requires a significant amount of research, planning and preparation to get everything in place to make it successful. The #1 Laundromat Business Plan Template & Guidebook is here to help simplify the business planning process for those considering taking on this venture. Written with professionals and experienced investors in mind, this comprehensive guide offers detailed advice and tools to help you start up, manage and grow your business from the ground up.

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How to Write a Laundromat Business Plan in 7 Steps:

1. describe the purpose of your laundromat business..

The first step to writing your business plan is to describe the purpose of your laundromat business. This includes describing why you are starting this type of business, and what problems it will solve for customers. This is a quick way to get your mind thinking about the customers’ problems. It also helps you identify what makes your business different from others in its industry.

It also helps to include a vision statement so that readers can understand what type of company you want to build.

Here is an example of a purpose mission statement for a laundromat business:

Our mission at [Laundromat] is to provide affordable, quality laundry services to our customers in a clean, safe, and comfortable environment. Our commitment to our customers is to exceed their expectations and provide them with exceptional customer service. We strive to build lasting relationships with our customers while providing an exceptional experience.

2. Products & Services Offered by Your Laundromat Business.

The next step is to outline your products and services for your laundromat business. 

When you think about the products and services that you offer, it's helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my business?
• What are the products and/or services that I offer?
• Why am I offering these particular products and/or services?
• How do I differentiate myself from competitors with similar offerings?
• How will I market my products and services?

You may want to do a comparison of your business plan against those of other competitors in the area, or even with online reviews. This way, you can find out what people like about them and what they don’t like, so that you can either improve upon their offerings or avoid doing so altogether.

3. Build a Creative Marketing Stratgey.

If you don't have a marketing plan for your laundromat business, it's time to write one. Your marketing plan should be part of your business plan and be a roadmap to your goals. 

A good marketing plan for your laundromat business includes the following elements:

Target market

• Who is your target market?
• What do these customers have in common?
• How many of them are there?
• How can you best reach them with your message or product?

Customer base 

• Who are your current customers? 
• Where did they come from (i.e., referrals)?
• How can their experience with your laundromat business help make them repeat customers, consumers, visitors, subscribers, or advocates for other people in their network or industry who might also benefit from using this service, product, or brand?

Product or service description

• How does it work, what features does it have, and what are its benefits?
• Can anyone use this product or service regardless of age or gender?
• Can anyone visually see themselves using this product or service?
• How will they feel when they do so? If so, how long will the feeling last after purchasing (or trying) the product/service for the first time?

Competitive analysis

• Which companies are competing with yours today (and why)? 
• Which ones may enter into competition with yours tomorrow if they find out about it now through word-of-mouth advertising; social media networks; friends' recommendations; etc.)
• What specific advantages does each competitor offer over yours currently?

Marketing channels

• Which marketing channel do you intend to leverage to attract new customers?
• What is your estimated marketing budget needed?
• What is the projected cost to acquire a new customer?
• How many of your customers do you instead will return?

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4. Write Your Operational Plan.

Next, you'll need to build your operational plan. This section describes the type of business you'll be running, and includes the steps involved in your operations. 

In it, you should list:

• The equipment and facilities needed
• Who will be involved in the business (employees, contractors)
• Financial requirements for each step
• Milestones & KPIs
• Location of your business
• Zoning & permits required for the business

What equipment, supplies, or permits are needed to run a laundromat business?

• Laundry machines (washing machines, dryers)
• Coin-operated equipment (if applicable)
• Vending and coin-counting machines
• Folding tables and chairs
• Security cameras (if applicable)
• Wash/dry/fold supplies (hangers, detergents, fabric softeners, etc.)
• Products for sale (snacks, coins, phone cards, etc.)
• Business license/permit from local government

5. Management & Organization of Your Laundromat Business.

The second part of your laundromat business plan is to develop a management and organization section.

This section will cover all of the following:

• How many employees you need in order to run your laundromat business. This should include the roles they will play (for example, one person may be responsible for managing administrative duties while another might be in charge of customer service).
• The structure of your management team. The higher-ups like yourself should be able to delegate tasks through lower-level managers who are directly responsible for their given department (inventory and sales, etc.).
• How you’re going to make sure that everyone on board is doing their job well. You’ll want check-ins with employees regularly so they have time to ask questions or voice concerns if needed; this also gives you time to offer support where necessary while staying informed on how things are going within individual departments too!

6. Laundromat Business Startup Expenses & Captial Needed.

This section should be broken down by month and year. If you are still in the planning stage of your business, it may be helpful to estimate how much money will be needed each month until you reach profitability.

Typically, expenses for your business can be broken into a few basic categories:

Startup Costs

Startup costs are typically the first expenses you will incur when beginning an enterprise. These include legal fees, accounting expenses, and other costs associated with getting your business off the ground. The amount of money needed to start a laundromat business varies based on many different variables, but below are a few different types of startup costs for a laundromat business.

Running & Operating Costs

Running costs refer to ongoing expenses related directly with operating your business over time like electricity bills or salaries paid out each month. These types of expenses will vary greatly depending on multiple variables such as location, team size, utility costs, etc.

Marketing & Sales Expenses

You should include any costs associated with marketing and sales, such as advertising and promotions, website design or maintenance. Also, consider any additional expenses that may be incurred if you decide to launch a new product or service line. For example, if your laundromat business has an existing website that needs an upgrade in order to sell more products or services, then this should be listed here.

7. Financial Plan & Projections

A financial plan is an important part of any business plan, as it outlines how the business will generate revenue and profit, and how it will use that profit to grow and sustain itself. To devise a financial plan for your laundromat business, you will need to consider a number of factors, including your start-up costs, operating costs, projected revenue, and expenses. 

Here are some steps you can follow to devise a financial plan for your laundromat business plan:

• Determine your start-up costs: This will include the cost of purchasing or leasing the space where you will operate your business, as well as the cost of buying or leasing any equipment or supplies that you need to start the business.
• Estimate your operating costs: Operating costs will include utilities, such as electricity, gas, and water, as well as labor costs for employees, if any, and the cost of purchasing any materials or supplies that you will need to run your business.
• Project your revenue: To project your revenue, you will need to consider the number of customers you expect to have and the average amount they will spend on each visit. You can use this information to estimate how much money you will make from selling your products or services.
• Estimate your expenses: In addition to your operating costs, you will need to consider other expenses, such as insurance, marketing, and maintenance. You will also need to set aside money for taxes and other fees.
• Create a budget: Once you have estimated your start-up costs, operating costs, revenue, and expenses, you can use this information to create a budget for your business. This will help you to see how much money you will need to start the business, and how much profit you can expect to make.
• Develop a plan for using your profit: Finally, you will need to decide how you will use your profit to grow and sustain your business. This might include investing in new equipment, expanding the business, or saving for a rainy day.

Frequently Asked Questions About Laundromat Business Plans:

Why do you need a business plan for a laundromat business.

A business plan is an essential document for any new business, including a laundromat. It outlines the business's goals, strategies for achieving those goals, potential obstacles and solutions for overcoming them, and the financial information needed to make well-informed decisions. A business plan allows you to think ahead and anticipate potential problems before they arise. It also provides an easy-to-follow roadmap for getting the laundromat up and running and keeping it operational and profitable in the long term.

Who should you ask for help with your laundromat business plan?

There are many different professionals who can help you with your laundromat business plan. These include small business consultants, business lawyers and accountants, experienced entrepreneurs, industry-specific experts, bankers and venture capitalists, and local economic development organizations.

Can you write a laundromat business plan yourself?

Writing a business plan can be a daunting task, but there are many helpful resources available to help you create a comprehensive and effective business plan for your laundromat. A good starting point is to research the local market and competition. From there, you can begin to develop a business model based on the information you find. You should also consider the financial commitments of the venture, such as start-up costs, ongoing costs and revenue projections. Lastly, be sure to include a solid marketing strategy and ensure you have all of the necessary permits and licenses.

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Laundromat Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and laundromat owners create business plans to start and grow their laundry businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Laundromat Business Plan Template here >

What is a Laundromat Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your laundromat business as it stands today, and lays out your business growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes research to support your business plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for a Laundromat

If you’re looking to start or grow a laundromat, you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your laundromat in order to improve your chances of success. Your laundromat services business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your business grows and changes.

Source of Funding for Laundromats

With regard to funding, the main sources of funding for a laundromat are bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your laundromat business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

The second most common form of funding for a laundromat is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will not fund a laundromat as they tend to focus on modern technology companies with quick and explosive growth potential.

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How to Write a Laundromat Business Plan

Your own business plan should include 10 sections as follows:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your laundromat business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each key component of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of laundromat services business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have a laundromat that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of laundromats.

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the laundry industry. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target market. Provide a snapshot of your laundromat marketing plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial and sales forecast.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of laundry business you are operating.

For example, you might operate a traditional laundromat in which you offer coin-operated washers and dryers. Or, you might (also) offer fluff and fold laundry services in which your staff washes and folds your customers’ laundry. This wash and fold service could also include home/office pickup and delivery. Be sure to explore all dry cleaning and laundry services that could be of benefit to your target demographic.

In addition to explaining the type of laundromat you operate, the Company Analysis section of your laundry shop business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales forecasts, goals you’ve reached, new store openings, etc.
• Your legal business structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your legal structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the laundry business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the laundromat industry educates you. It helps you understand the market in which you are operating.

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards fluff & fold, it would be helpful to ensure your plan calls for offering such a service.

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section of your laundry shop business plan:

• How big is the laundry industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s future growth over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your business. You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section of your new laundromat business plan must detail the patrons you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: college students, sports enthusiasts, soccer moms, techies, teens, baby boomers, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of laundromat you operate. Clearly, baby boomers would want a different atmosphere, pricing, and product options, and would respond to different marketing promotions than teens.

Try to break out your target customer base in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the ages, genders, locations, and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most laundromats primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target customers. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do in attracting and retaining your customers. For example, middle-class households may value clean laundry above all else, while upper-class households may value convenience most of all.

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Competitive Analysis

In this section, you should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other laundromats.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren’t direct competitors. This includes laundry machines/dryers in consumers’ homes or living environments (e.g., in college dorms). You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who needs their clothing washed frequents a laundromat.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other laundromats with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be laundromats located close to your location.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of clientele do they serve?
• What laundry services do they offer (self-serve laundry, wash & fold, dry cleaning, etc.)?
• What are their business hours?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. And don’t be afraid to stand outside your competitors’ locations and ask customers as they leave what they like most and least about them.

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior laundry services?
• Will you provide additional services that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you make it easier or faster for customers to acquire the services offered?
• Will you offer any additional amenities such as a coffee bar or free Wi-Fi access?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?
• Will you offer more payment options suitable for your customer base?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.  

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, the marketing section of a business plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For a solid laundromat business plan, you should include the following:

Product : in the product section, you should reiterate the type of business that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific laundromat services you will be offering. For example, in addition to washing and drying machines, will you offer fluff & fold, dry cleaning, etc.

Price : Document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place : Place refers to the location of your laundry business. Document your strategic locations and mention how each location will impact your success. For example, is your business located next to a heavily populated office building, or gym, etc.? Discuss how your location might provide a steady stream of customers. Also, if you operate or plan to offer fluff & fold services, detail the geographic area you will serve.

Promotions : the final part is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will create awareness and drive potential customers to your location(s). You might consider the following strategies to help promote your laundromat services:

• Making your storefront extra appealing to attract passing customers
• Marketing on social media platforms
• Marketing in local papers and magazines
• Local radio advertising
• Banner ads at local venues

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your laundromat business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your business such as serving customers, procuring supplies, keeping the store clean, maintaining laundry equipment, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your X,000th customer, or when you hope to reach $X in sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch a new location.  

Management Team

To demonstrate your ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a business.

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience in the laundromat business. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in laundromats and/or successfully running retail and small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you serve 100 customers per day or 200? And will your sales strategy help you grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheet : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your new laundromat, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business, and make sure you never run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key startup costs:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• Start-up expenses if starting a new business
• Cost of laundry equipment like washers and dryers
• Cost of fixtures like folding tables, laundry carts, vending machines, counters, and lighting
• Cost of supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your store design blueprint or location lease.

Putting together a new business plan for your business is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the industry, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing strategy and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful laundromat.

To further help you, we have other articles on key aspects of how to start your laundromat and running it effectively. Specifically, our laundromat marketing plan will help you develop the best promotions strategy. Our laundromat startup costs post will let you know what costs to expect.

Laundromat Business Plan Template PDF

You can download our laundromat business plan template PDF to help you get started on your own business plan. We also offer a sample laundromat business plan to further provide guidance on how to craft you own laundromat business plan.

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