CFD 282 – What Do Laundromats and Cashflow Have in Common?
On this special episode of the Cash Flow Diary podcast, which is a little rough and raw as we try out some new recording technologies (plural), we have three guests from to diverse areas of the world that all share the same focus: Investing in laundromats! Guests Cisco and Doris Calderon are in California earning impressive cashflow with theirs; Thomas Landenburger does the same in Italy!
Thomas wasn’t always a real estate entrepreneur. He attended college in Wisconsin and then entered the Marine Reserves. After seeing the hottest desserts and coldest winters in Wisconsin, he left the Marines and hit the road to travel the world. He met a woman in Greece, got married and opened a pastry shop. Then he opened a bed and breakfast in far-off lands, sort of like the movie Under the Tuscan Sun. Thomas was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug pretty hard, which brought him to opening his first laundromat in Italy.
As for Cisco and Doris, their path was a little different. They met in a dance class at Cal Poly Pomona, fell in love and headed to Arizona. Facing some struggles they decided to return to California. Because they were in the tech industry, which bottomed out in about 2008-ish – which also meant they no longer had good jobs – they were forced to look at their future a little differently. Like they’d have to create their own future through being entrepreneurs. The couple decided that owning laundromats would be the ticket to success. (But it wasn’t an easy decision, according to Doris, because Cisco is a full-speed-ahead kind of guy and she’s an on-the-edge-of-the-cliff-of-fear sort.)
So why laundromats? Because they serve people who need them very badly. In California, the Calderons’ customers don’t have a washer and dryer at home. For Thomas laundromats make sense because in Italy dryers are a luxury item. He says it’s funny to him because he feels like he’s changing the tradition in Italy. He adds that even little old ladies who have always hung their laundry out on the line are using his dryers!
If you want to know how to open a laundromat, this is the episode for you. You’ll enjoy the personal stories from our guests. You’ll even learn what it cost them each to start their first laundromats, plus the differences between the businesses. You might want to reach out to these individuals through Facebook. Learn more. LISTEN NOW.