Before I get into this, I need to explain that laundry service is not actually new for me.
I built one before.
I ran it for about a year, got it up to approximately sixteen clients, and then moved on to other things.
Looking back, I should have sold it.
I had already done the hard part. I had customers. I had proven that people would pay for the service. I had created something that somebody else could have taken over and continued operating.
But I did not think about it that way at the time. I just stopped doing it and went on to the next thing.
Lesson learned.
So, this current laundry experiment is not me starting from scratch. It is a rebuild.
This time, I am paying much closer attention to the pricing, policies, service radius, minimum order, recurring-client potential, and whether I could eventually build something valuable enough to sell.
I already know there is a market because I have done it before.
What I do not know yet is whether I can rebuild it into a more profitable, more organized, and more sellable service than the first version.
That is the experiment.
And almost immediately, Facebook decided to get involved.
I posted about a $200 pickup-and-delivery laundry package in several local groups. The package included up to four standard loads, washing, drying, folding, pickup, and delivery within a ten-mile radius.
You would have thought I had proposed stealing people’s washing machines.
There were plenty of comments about how ridiculous the price was, how nobody would ever pay it, and how people could simply do their own laundry.
The public shaming was definitely present, and for a minute there, I thought Facebook might actually become violent.
Because Facebook will choose violence every single time you post a price people do not like. (JK)
People can also clean their own toilets, but residential cleaning is a $52 billion industry this year.
Clearly, plenty of people are willing to pay someone else to do something they are perfectly capable of doing themselves.
The fact that someone can do something themselves does not mean they want to do it themselves.
It also does not mean they are my customer.
Facebook cannot see your math
When people hear “laundry service,” they think about putting clothes into a washing machine.
They see detergent, water, and someone pushing a button.
They do not see everything that happens before and after that button gets pushed.
The first part of the experiment this time is that I have to drive to the customer’s house, pick up the laundry, load it into my vehicle, bring it back, weigh it or count the loads, sort it, check it, wash it, dry it, fold it, package it, communicate with the customer, drive back to the house, and deliver it.
If something needs to be washed again, that costs more time and money.
If the laundry is covered in pet hair, smells like heavy nicotine, contains something that should have been dry-cleaned, or has items shoved inside that should never have gone through a washing machine, that changes the job.
If I arrive and the laundry is not outside, I have still spent my time and gas driving to the house.
And no, I cannot build a profitable service around wandering up to someone’s porch and hoping their laundry is there.
The customer is not just paying for soap and water.
They are paying for me to remove the entire problem from their life.
That is the service.
You need a minimum
One of the first inquiries I received during this rebuild was for approximately twenty pounds of laundry.
That immediately forced me to look at the smaller-order question.
If someone only has a couple of loads, I still have two drives, customer communication, loading, unloading, washing, drying, folding, and packaging.
My costs do not disappear because their pile is smaller.
That is why I came up with a $100 minimum for up to thirty pounds within a ten-mile pickup-and-delivery radius.
Will that remain the final price forever?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Again, this is an experiment.
But there has to be a minimum because I am not starting my car, driving across town, processing someone’s laundry, folding it, packaging it, and driving it back for thirty-five dollars.
The math does not math.
And this is where cleaning business owners get themselves into trouble.
They price the visible portion of the job and forget everything surrounding it.
We do this with cleaning all the time.
We calculate how long we think it will take to clean the house, but forget the estimate, scheduling, drive time, supplies, credit-card fees, laundry, employee training, quality control, cancellations, and the twenty-seven text messages the customer sent before the appointment.
Then we look at the money left over and wonder where the profit went.
It did not disappear.
We never priced it in.
A rebuilt service still needs rules
One of the things I am doing differently this time is building the policies along with the service.
What happens if I arrive and there is no laundry waiting for me?
There needs to be a show-up fee.
What happens if the bags have bed bugs or another infestation?
They are sealed and returned. I am not storing them or bringing that situation into my home or around another customer’s belongings.
What happens if the clothing smells heavily of nicotine and needs to be washed two or three times?
That is not a standard load.
What happens if something is dry-clean-only and accidentally gets mixed into the bags?
There must be a clear policy covering that.
What detergent do I use?
I use a natural enzyme-based detergent. I do not use fabric softener because I hate that stuff. If a customer requires something different, we will have to decide whether that works within the service.
And what about putting the laundry away?
That sounds simple until you think about walking into a house with four people’s clothing mixed together and trying to figure out where everyone’s underwear lives.
So, if I offer a put-away service, it will likely be for recurring clients, with the clothing separated by person and a walkthrough the first time.
These are not tiny details.
These details determine whether the service runs smoothly or becomes a pain in my ass.
A service without boundaries is not a service.
It is a collection of random favors you keep agreeing to.
Stop letting the wrong people price your business
The Facebook response was interesting, but it did not prove that the service was overpriced.
It proved that a bunch of people in those particular groups did not like the price.
Those are not the same thing.
Some of them may never pay for laundry service at any price.
Some were comparing it to doing laundry inside their own homes.
Some may not value the convenience.
Some probably just wanted something to argue about on Facebook that day.
None of that tells me whether the right customer will buy.
My customer may be a busy professional who works sixty hours a week.
It may be a mother who is completely buried and cannot handle one more pile of laundry.
It may be someone caring for an aging parent.
It may be a person recovering from surgery.
It may be a family that does not have a working washer and dryer.
It may be someone who has the money and simply does not want to spend the weekend washing and folding clothes.
That person is not buying laundry detergent.
They are buying their Saturday back.
That is what we forget when we let random people online tell us what our services are worth.
Not everyone is your customer.
They are not supposed to be.
Do not lower the price every time somebody complains
This is another pattern I see constantly with cleaning business owners.
We put a price out there, somebody gasps, and we immediately start negotiating against ourselves.
Maybe I should lower it.
Maybe I should add more.
Maybe I am charging too much.
Maybe nobody will book.
Calm down.
One loud person on Facebook is not market research.
Before lowering the price, I need actual information.
How many qualified people inquired?
How many booked after hearing the complete offer?
How much laundry did they have?
How long did the entire order take from pickup through delivery?
How many washes were required?
How much did I spend on supplies, utilities, gas, and packaging?
Did the customer book again?
Was the order profitable?
Did I still like the idea after doing it several times?
That is the information that matters.
Comments are not conversions.
Views are not recurring customers.
And a full schedule does not necessarily mean you created a profitable service. You can stay very busy doing work that makes absolutely no money.
Ask me how I know.
The goal is not to prove I was right
When business owners try something new—or rebuild something they have done before—we can become emotionally attached to proving the idea was good.
That is not the goal.
The goal is to find out what is true before spending too much time and money building the wrong thing.
Maybe the $200 package is exactly right.
Maybe the $100 minimum becomes the more popular entry point.
Maybe recurring clients are profitable, but one-time orders are too much work.
Maybe the put-away option becomes the most valuable add-on.
Maybe the service needs a smaller radius.
Maybe I get fifteen or twenty monthly clients, create a nice little revenue stream, and stop there.
Maybe I grow it to thirty-five recurring clients at $200 per month and create $7,000 in monthly revenue.
Maybe I build it properly this time and eventually sell it instead of simply moving on and leaving the value sitting on the table.
Or maybe I decide I would rather eat glass than fold another stranger’s underwear.
I do not know yet.
That is why I am testing it.
The advantage I have this time is that I am not starting from zero.
I know people will pay for laundry service because I have already had paying customers.
Now I am trying to determine whether I can rebuild it with better pricing, stronger boundaries, recurring revenue, and an actual exit plan.
That is a completely different experiment.
The smartest thing you can do with a service is give yourself permission to learn instead of demanding that the first version—or even the second version—be perfect.
Set the price based on real math.
Create the boundaries.
Test it with actual paying customers.
Track what happens.
Then adjust based on evidence instead of Facebook opinions.
Because Facebook cannot see your labor, your expenses, your goals, or the business you are trying to build.
You can.
And if you do not run that math before adding or rebuilding a service, you may accidentally create another exhausting job instead of another profitable revenue stream.
How long do you think it will take for me to get 16 laundry clients again??