Scaling Smarter: Dan Zimmerman’s Lessons in Laundromat Automation and Expansion

Jordan Berry [00:00:00]:
Hey. What’s up, guys? It’s Jordan with AlarmNet Resource Podcast. This is show one eighty eight, and I am pumped you’re here today because today, we have on the show Nick Fasile, who is gonna chat with us about all things repair, maintenance. Listen, this is one of the big critiques that comes up, with owning laundromats is that repairs and maintenance, costs can be, you know, through the roof. So we’re going to chat through a lot of that today and talk about how to kind of navigate that as an owner and especially if you’re getting into the business, kind of how to navigate that and, even talking a little bit about, okay, how do we know when it’s time to replace machines? So a lot of really great, great practical stuff today. All things laundromat machine repair. So I look forward to that. And, real quick as we jump into this, we got a quick little Fastlane tip here talking about optimizing your laundromat operations and getting this thing performing, you know, at top level here.

Jordan Berry [00:01:01]:
And if that’s something that you’re interested in or you need some help getting there with your laundromat, you’re looking to optimize, you’re looking to scale your business. And listen, we’ve got the Laundromat Playbook here where we have put together a proven playbook on how to actually operate that laundromat and also how to scale your business, whether that’s through offering services like wash, dry, fold, or pick up delivery, and or through building a portfolio of multiple locations. So if you’re interested in that, check out laundromatresource.com/playbook. We got one on one consultants that help you through that whole process as long as well as, you know, coursework, resources, a whole bunch of stuff to help you really optimize that business, not only for the most revenue you can get, but also to optimize your time. Because listen, a lot of us are in this business because we wanted to optimize our time. So, again, if that’s something you’re interested in, laundromatresource.com/playbook. Alright. Let’s jump into it with Nick.

Jordan Berry [00:02:03]:
Nick, thank you for coming on the show, man. How you doing?

Nick Fusilli [00:02:06]:
Good. Appreciate if you’re having me, man.

Jordan Berry [00:02:08]:
Oh, I appreciate you being on here. Super excited. We were just chatting before hitting record, and I am psyched for today’s, interview. And, listen. Let’s start with who are you and what do you do, and why are you in this weird business? And let’s start there.

Nick Fusilli [00:02:25]:
And so my name is Nick Fusilli. I own New Jersey Commercial Laundry Repair with some partners and been in helping with operations of laundromats for fifteen years. And three years ago, we started a repair company because the group got credit repairs. And, you know, I came from corporate accounting, and I do now run this business and run some real estate. And it’s hey, it’s it’s quite fun.

Jordan Berry [00:02:52]:
Well, listen. I mean, you know, coming from coming from the LA market, hearing that you there is a dedicated repairs company in New Jersey, number one, makes me jealous, and number two, it makes me think something needs to change real quick around here in LA. So maybe that’ll light a fire, under my or somebody’s, but to get that going, because we are always in desperate need of good service technicians here. I don’t know about over there, but over here for sure.

Nick Fusilli [00:03:20]:
Yeah. There’s, not not too many of us, and we found that out really quickly with, you threw a website up and been like, oh, we’ll just put a website up. Maybe we’ll pick a couple days of workout to give my guys a couple extra days, and it was like, why is the phone ringing?

Jordan Berry [00:03:36]:
Yeah. Uh-oh. We just published a site. Yeah. Yeah. I I have a feeling I would that’s what it would be like in a lot of major markets because I mean, listen. We’re in a we’re in a machine heavy business here, and, you know, machines break down. It doesn’t matter how good you take care of them.

Jordan Berry [00:03:53]:
You they just they just do eventually. So

Nick Fusilli [00:03:56]:
They they designed them to break. I hate your appetite. So

Jordan Berry [00:04:01]:
Yeah. Well, hey. It’s good business for you, though. It’s good business for you. Well, let’s talk about, I mean, listen. Again, this is this is cool. I don’t think we’ve had anybody who’s just a service tech, on on the or running a service tech company, at least, on the, on the podcast, yet. But, I mean, this is a unique perspective that we haven’t had.

Jordan Berry [00:04:21]:
So let’s talk about, like, what have you what have you gathered from, you know, being involved in that side of the business? What are you seeing? Let’s start with what are you seeing people do well and that’s working for them and maybe in specifically in regards to the the machine operations?

Nick Fusilli [00:04:40]:
So I think what, like, the big differential that we see from, like, a good operation and a bad operation I’m gonna say laundromat only here because, believe me, it’s it gets a little while when you start comparing commercial accounts, and apartment buildings is not the same. But Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:04:54]:
Yeah.

Nick Fusilli [00:04:55]:
Good laundromat operations, it’s like we explain it to people and, like, I know a lot not a lot of service techs are doing this, but it’s like, we’ll go in and say, hey. Like, we’ll give them a maintenance guide and say, hey, this is what you should be doing in your store. Like, this is how much you should flush your plumbing, get your plumbing plumbing jetted once a year. You know, it’s like get your ducks clean once or twice a year pending your setup. And like the people that are good at taking care of their store and keeping it clean, your repair costs go down regardless of the age of the machines. And that’s something like getting your staff on a good regular maintenance schedule can save so much money on repair costs. And that’s that. I think that’s the big separation that I’ve seen in, you know, I take a lot of the phone calls when our admin can’t and just speaking with people and understanding their pain points and how we can help them.

Nick Fusilli [00:05:52]:
You know, it’s like we did fit a really big niche in the industry in our area. So

Jordan Berry [00:05:57]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it you know, I I think a lot of I I think a lot more owners now are starting to implement some of these, like preventative maintenance type stuff, routine maintenance, you know, systems in place. But I think for a long time, there there were none of those things. Like, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who’ve bought, like, an old laundromat only to realize that the the ducts have never been cleaned. And you know what I mean? Like, that’s pretty common, across the board there.

Nick Fusilli [00:06:30]:
We just had our first one the other day. We came in. My tech took a picture behind the machine, sends it to our Discord, and goes, I don’t think these guys have cleaned out behind their machines ever. And it’s like, we tell them, hey, guys, you, like, really have to he tells them you got to clean it, goes and fixes the dryer, fire department, most or lit up.

Nick Fusilli [00:06:51]:
He put

Nick Fusilli [00:06:52]:
it out with a fire extinguisher. So we bought him a little hat as a joke, a little fire hat. But, like, yeah, that was again, he vacuumed out the machine, but, like, as soon as it went up into the ducts, lit lit the

Jordan Berry [00:07:06]:
whole floor. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, that is a risk. Right? Like, lint lint lint is like the bane of a laundromat owner’s existence because it’s super flammable, but it also wreaks havoc on electronics and gets everywhere. There’s nowhere it doesn’t get really.

Nick Fusilli [00:07:22]:
It goes out the duct in the top and then someone else complains that it’s in their HVAC. It

Jordan Berry [00:07:27]:
Yeah. Yeah. Or it’s back into your HVAC and then right back into the store. Like, what a nightmare. Yeah. But, you know, that’s that’s I I had, one of the laundromats I bought when when I first, you know, was inspecting and stuff. Like, there were, like, dead birds in in the vents, there. So it was like, dude, they have never ever cleaned this thing ever before.

Jordan Berry [00:07:54]:
Craziness.

Nick Fusilli [00:07:56]:
Again, that’s just regular maintenance. So

Jordan Berry [00:07:59]:
I know. Yeah. So okay. So, I mean, obviously, regular maintenance is important, but what’s you know, if if, let let’s say, like, we’re, we’re going to buy a laundromat. How do we know if a store has undergone regular maintenance? I mean, are there telltale signs like this owner’s been taking care of their stuff, this owner has not been taking care of their stuff?

Nick Fusilli [00:08:23]:
So what’s actually funny is this is, like, a selfish plug here is we had looked at so many laundromats over the years, like our group. So we took our system and put it in play into our software system and design an entire inspection process. And we do inspections for people pre purchase for their stores. So we break it down from, you know, obviously, you’re you’re gonna check vents. How how are the vents set up? How is the plumbing set up? Like, if your events are going to the roof or if they’re going right out the wall, those are two very different things from a maintenance perspective. That’s if if you have a long run events, you gotta get your vents cleaned twice a year. If they’re just shooting out right to the wall, you can go once a year and you’re fine. That’s that’s something to determine, like, hey.

Nick Fusilli [00:09:11]:
Is your plumbing have a trough system? Or is everything properly draining out of the store? Is there any still water? Because if they’re using hard pipe versus flex line and I mean, this is all coming from someone that runs a company and isn’t a tech. Like, this is just things that, like, you know, I’ve learned from, you know, just looking at the stores. Look at the electric panel. Mhmm. Hey. If I wanna make changes to the store, do they have open slots? Can I add machines? Can I move stuff around? Look at how is it pads? Is it actual mounts? That’s a big difference as well. Look at the age of the hot water heater. Look at the age of the HVAC.

Nick Fusilli [00:09:54]:
Look at the lease. These are all just common things that you need to look at when you’re walking into a store. And I mean, we all would love to all buy card stores because you can print a report and you know how much money they make. But Yep.

Jordan Berry [00:10:07]:
For

Nick Fusilli [00:10:07]:
coins, if you wanna hear the nitty gritty, if you wanna know what you’re really making before you go in, you have to sit there and count. And there’s no other way to do it. And, look, we’ve done it on cameras and we’ve done it in person. We don’t offer that as a service, but, like, when we’ve done our own stores, that’s a big thing for people that you can’t look at. You got I’m not here to dis on anybody, but, like, you got honest owners and you got people that are covering stuff up. One of the stores that our group got, they had a workaround on the utility meter for the water. So we looked at the water bills as the first store ever purchased, so we didn’t know any better. And we’re like, what’s going on with the water bill? Like, it’s so low.

Nick Fusilli [00:10:53]:
We opened the drywall up. He had a workaround to split in the water after the meter.

Jordan Berry [00:11:01]:
That’s crazy. Crazy. That’s one that I I mean, that doesn’t surprise me, but that’s one that I I’ve never personally seen.

Nick Fusilli [00:11:08]:
Forty years, you got away with it.

Jordan Berry [00:11:10]:
Forty years. How’d the water company not know? I I mean, I guess it was in the wall, but that’s crazy.

Nick Fusilli [00:11:17]:
That’s wild stuff. But, like, you know, that’s not normal. But, again, like, you wanna just kind of, like, you know, you look. Cockroaches, look. We’ve all experienced that. They find every store. But that like look for anything in the corners. Look at those storage closets.

Nick Fusilli [00:11:37]:
Look at where everything is. And like you overall, if they have POS systems versus no POS system, do they have wash and fold processes? You can never gauge, like, employees that well at the beginning, but, you know, any process is nice for a laundromat. If they don’t have one, if it’s just a true mom and pop, like, run out of a bank account, we don’t have financials. Like, you gotta do some hard auditing on that store. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:12:06]:
Or you’re

Nick Fusilli [00:12:06]:
gonna buy it at a huge discount. But engine machines, that’s the one thing. Like, five year, ten year, fifteen year, those three, that’s what you gotta think about, in my opinion, from if you’re at fifteen years and those haven’t had bearing repairs, you gotta think about every machine. All those washers are gonna get one bearing repair. That’s a expensive fix. At the ten year mark, you’re gonna start thinking about motors. You’re gonna start thinking about inverters and boards. Like, when you’re going to buy the store, ask those questions.

Nick Fusilli [00:12:42]:
Hey. What’s been repaired? What hasn’t been repaired? Take the little keys, the service keys, open the top. Look at those machines. Like, feel feel the hot water, feel the cold water. Those are all little things that you can kinda pick up on when you’re looking at those stores to make sure you’re getting the right temperature on everything.

Jordan Berry [00:13:00]:
Yeah. I mean, you just dropped a whole bunch of, like, super practical tips there all in one chunk, which is awesome. I I love the five year, ten year, fifteen year, Mark. How how long I mean, coming from your your business and and in just your opinion, like, I know there’s various opinions, on this question, but how long should we be planning on keeping machines?

Nick Fusilli [00:13:24]:
So we run all of our business. We have this thing called a repair accrual. 10% of revenue goes to repair and machine accrual. That is a gross revenue number that we like to keep in there running as that should be your machine replacement and repair cost over the time. The farther you get down that line, that percentage goes up a lot higher. So I think the sweet spot for most machines, and this is coming from the perspective of getting OEM parts, which is directly the proper parts, no knockoffs. I think the twenty year spot is when any time you’re going after that, if you take really good care of them, you’ll get what we call bonus time. But that’s when you’re going to start looking at those heavy repairs because when you open Pandora’s box on those old machines, you fix one thing, the next thing breaks.

Nick Fusilli [00:14:20]:
Like, you know, you go and you clean a machine out that hasn’t been cleaned out in fifteen years. All of a sudden, okay, you replace the valve. The next day, something else breaks. The next day, something else breaks.

Jordan Berry [00:14:32]:
So

Nick Fusilli [00:14:33]:
Figure out I think dirt was

Jordan Berry [00:14:34]:
holding everything together, after you clean it out. And you’re like, oh, I just removed.

Nick Fusilli [00:14:38]:
For those dryer those dryer sensors, those dryer sensors adapt to when they’re covered in lint, and that was something I’ve that’s something I learned from this. You know, that was like, what do you mean? Wouldn’t they the sensors just work, but they get used to the lint being there, and they think that’s normal? Yeah. Doesn’t make any sense to me. That’s what my techs told me. So but, yeah, I think overall twenty year sweet spot pending on brand. Like, Dexter’s, I I gotta give them credit. They keep those parts coming for a long time on their machines. Alliance and Laundry Lux saying twenty years is pretty much where it starts to go.

Nick Fusilli [00:15:14]:
We don’t really like any other brands generally because we fix all of them, but those are that’s what we like the main three. So if we base it off of that twenty years.

Jordan Berry [00:15:24]:
Yeah. How how much does it matter? I mean, because we always talk about this in in time. Right? But how much does it matter if your store is doing three turns versus seven turns. I mean, does that accelerate? I mean, I’m assuming it accelerates. Right? I mean, is there any, like, rule of thumb or framework to kinda think about that? Or is it just, like, inspect it and see what condition it’s in?

Nick Fusilli [00:15:52]:
Two two fold answer on that.

Jordan Berry [00:15:54]:
So Okay.

Nick Fusilli [00:15:55]:
If you have the data, which is what we like, that’s why we’re pro card Mhmm.

Jordan Berry [00:15:59]:
Is if

Nick Fusilli [00:16:00]:
you have your your data on your machine from a card, like, you can turn around and you can go look at one of your stores and say, hey. My big 80 pounder gets used on average six times a day for a week, you know, and you take it on the whole year and you know your actual data. On the coin stores, it’s a lot harder to track it, but the usage will drastically determine like, think about the usable wearable parts. It’s the same it’s just about the usage. Like so you see hotels that run these machines twenty four seven. I mean, they smoke machines, smoke them. So it’s the same concept. Are you running twenty four hours a day? Are you getting three turns, seven turns, 10 turns a day? It’s you have to pay attention to your maintenance on those machines.

Nick Fusilli [00:16:45]:
Like and even, like, the littlest thing as an owner, those little, like, those little, like, valve gasket, those little circles, the diaphragm. Sorry. Mhmm. Just, I mean, keep a handful of those at your store. You could swap those out with a screwdriver. Like, those are little things you dial. You you have to replace those a lot faster on those heavy term machines, but bearings are coming. Your bearings only last so long.

Nick Fusilli [00:17:09]:
That’s that’s the main that’s the main. That’s the key. Honestly, that’s the killer. That’s the best. The one of the worst repairs in my opinion. Yeah. So

Jordan Berry [00:17:16]:
Yeah. Heavy, heavy labor, heavy cost, heavy time commitment, to cost. Yeah. Yeah. In a in a similar vein, do you have any do you have any? I guess it would be a prediction because we don’t know yet. But do you have any predictions on do you think that twenty years is gonna hold? Like, so up until pretty recently, our machines have been kind of mostly mechanical in in simple electric parts. Now we’re getting, you know, touch screen technology, just a little more more software, stuff like that. Do you think that twenty years is gonna hold? I mean, there’s no nobody knows.

Jordan Berry [00:17:59]:
I’m just kinda curious what you think about that.

Nick Fusilli [00:18:02]:
So this is this is something that we’ve talked about at some of the trade shows that we’ve been through. It’s like you see those new touch screens and, like, you know, we’re at the shows and I don’t wanna even say the names because we’ve been to all of them. So it’s like you’re like, we’re whacking the touch screens. They’re like, well, why are you doing that? And I’m like, I I can see the back of it. Like, I see it moving if I’m whacking it with a screwdriver, and I’m like, thinking, well, how much does it cost to fix this? And, like, what happens if we break the glass? Like, I think there’s gonna be some dumb, dumb repairs that have to happen with touch screens. Honestly, I don’t I don’t love them just because, look, it’s right for the right clientele, but I know it may you can add so many cool things with the machines. But at the end of the day, I think laundromats will benefit more from basic machines. Look, mechanical timers, I’m happy those are gone because those are terrible.

Nick Fusilli [00:18:56]:
But They

Jordan Berry [00:18:56]:
are.

Nick Fusilli [00:18:56]:
I had

Jordan Berry [00:18:57]:
some mechanical, and they’re terrible. Yeah.

Nick Fusilli [00:18:59]:
We have, like, five machines total left in our entire layout of all of our stores that they just won’t die, so we’re not getting rid of them. But that that’s the, I I do think that what would be nice if they did kinda straight away to, like, you know how, like, the cars have a thing you could plug in, and it tells you actually what’s broken?

Jordan Berry [00:19:21]:
Yeah.

Nick Fusilli [00:19:21]:
We would love them to add that. Yeah. Like, that would be

Jordan Berry [00:19:24]:
great. Code reader of some sort. Right. Yeah.

Nick Fusilli [00:19:26]:
Other than the codes coming up because, like, you get some of these codes in the manual. It can be seven things. Like, what what are you doing? Like so it’s like, can they think about it from a repair standpoint? Maybe. But, like, overall, let’s just say, I think simple is better for laundry mats. And at the end of the day, not a lot of people are gonna be trying to play around with features and all these extra add ons and boost this, boost that, add this. Like, end of the day, I think less is more, but we’ll see if the distributors agree.

Jordan Berry [00:20:00]:
Yeah. Well, I mean, I know the touch screens will be getting more and more popular. We we’re doing renovations at our house here right now. So our we don’t have laundry. So we’ve been going couple different laundromats kinda in the area just, you know, checking them out and doing our laundry and stuff. And, there’s one down the street that has new touchscreen, Speed Queen machines, which actually, I mean, honestly, like, you know, all the all the brands that have the touchscreen, like, I think customers like the touchscreen. I like I think they like it. I think it’s a good user experience.

Jordan Berry [00:20:35]:
So I think it’s good in that sense. But but more than half of those screens were already broken in. And I, and, you know, I think that particular laundromat, I think is a little bit rough. It’s an open air laundromat. It’s just stuff’s getting used a little rougher over there. But, Yeah, I’m just I’ll be curious to see. I just know that as like, like, I have an old ’67 Mustang convertible car. I can tear it apart and put it all back together by myself probably in, like, a week.

Jordan Berry [00:21:05]:
Right? Like, my, you know, even my, like, 2015 Chevy Colorado that I have, you know, sitting in the driveway. Like, there’s very limited things I can do to it, and there’s a lot more things that go wrong with it. Right?

Nick Fusilli [00:21:18]:
And I know I I a % agree with that because if you look at some of the older machines, like, they were a lot easier to fix. They were. Not that we can get parts for them, but, like, there’s a reason why there’s a whole aftermarket for these 30 year old machines that people are still keeping alive.

Jordan Berry [00:21:35]:
So Yeah. The downside, though, I mean, I think I think the newer machines obviously do a much better job with utility costs and, you know, all that. I mean, there’s I don’t wanna, like, put down all the new machines. I think we’re doing I think we’re going in a good direction. I think, you know, generally speaking, like, we’re trying to optimize utility usage. We’re trying to make the user experience, but, like, that’s what we should be doing. Right? But also that, you know, there’s just something to be said for, you know, some of these other just like you said, simple machines that do the job. You know, when it all said and done, we people just want clean clothes in a in a easy experience doing it.

Jordan Berry [00:22:11]:
So

Nick Fusilli [00:22:12]:
I I agree. And, like, I will go on that. Like, with the the new machines with some of those, like, eco sensors, basically, that pretty I mean, honestly, everyone has them. Like, you can’t even, like, single anybody out. Like Yeah. The sensing the so you don’t waste water. Hey. The clothes are dry.

Nick Fusilli [00:22:27]:
We’re gonna stop. Like, that’s all amazing for utilities, and it’s better for the user experience as well. They’re out of the store faster. Like, that’s the you know, think think about just about the the speed that the machines can spend now versus what they used to be able to spend. Like, the extraction cycle is amazing from that. Now your dry time is lower, which, I mean, nobody makes money in dryers in this industry. So it’s, you know, it’s about how fast can you get them out of like, how fast can that wash help them? And then if they’re in you know, they only got to dry for forty minutes, that’s great. Yeah.

Nick Fusilli [00:23:03]:
Or less.

Jordan Berry [00:23:05]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, the quicker, the better if it gets the job done. Yeah. I mean, awesome. I I love that. And I I think it’s, like I said, I I think we’re going in a good direction in terms of machines. I was just kinda curious to see your thoughts on, you know, just the going forward because they’ve only been around for a couple years now.

Jordan Berry [00:23:25]:
Right? And we’ve got Yeah.

Nick Fusilli [00:23:27]:
The the one that we’re still questioning is some of the new soft mounts because I don’t know like, those repairs suck. So this is strictly not from performance standpoint. I’m speaking just from how are they gonna hold up. That’s a question mark for us because we just haven’t seen people with fifteen, twenty year old soft mounts. Yeah. So that’s the only thing because, I mean, you need an insane tool to pull that drum out to do the bearings and stuff. So, you know, I’ve only seen a couple bearing jobs that well, we actually we don’t even have the equipment. We we know the one guy in the state that has it, so we call him.

Nick Fusilli [00:24:10]:
And, I mean, it’s like the, you know, who makes it? It’s on low laundry. It’s like a $15,000 machine that you have to bring on a trailer, put it in, and it pulls the whole drum out. But we’ve done some shock repairs. They’re not fun. I mean, we have to use, you know, talking about cars before it’s like, we have to use carjacks. Yeah. To jack up. Machine up to put the shocks in.

Nick Fusilli [00:24:33]:
And, I mean, it’s a it’s a two guy, three guy job on some of those, 80 pounders. Crazy. Sixty and eighty pounders, like, the shock jobs suck. So, again, let’s see let’s see what happens. I mean, they’re warrantying these things for ten years. So okay. Yeah. Good for them.

Jordan Berry [00:24:50]:
Yeah. Well and, you know, listen. This is this is, like, the natural progression too. Right? If, like, we’re trying something new, there’s gonna be some growing pains and some, you know, a learning curve. And, you know, right now, you gotta have $15,000 machine to pull the drums out and carjacks. And, but then they’re hopefully. Gonna keep innovating and, you know, doing some R and D and, and figuring out how to make that easier to work with and last longer or maybe not last longer. I don’t think they’re really trying to do that too much, but, but easier to work with and, you know, better user experience, all that stuff.

Jordan Berry [00:25:23]:
So I don’t know. We’ll see. I like you said, I I think it’s interesting. I think it’s interesting the way, you know, manufacturers, I feel like, are being forced to try some new things because forever, I feel like there wasn’t really anything new, you know, going on in the in the manufacturing industry. It seemed like

Nick Fusilli [00:25:46]:
I mean, it it’s definitely nice, like, some of the changes. And, I mean, like, we we mess around in our shop all the time, and, like, we have and we mess around trying to, like, fix stuff. Like, hey. Like, can we add, like, you know, couple different things to this machine to is this gonna help, or is it gonna make it worse? You know, we’re we’re at the same time, it’s like we’re looking at it from our perspective. What are the main things that we have to fix? Can we help prevent that for somebody? Or, hey, manufacturer. Like, we came up with this. Maybe you like it. Like, that’s how we’re trying to we’re trying to be as innovative on our side where repairs as well, see if we can, you know, figure something out to add some value to either distributors or people, you know, I mean, only in New Jersey for us right now.

Nick Fusilli [00:26:32]:
But yeah.

Jordan Berry [00:26:33]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s funny, like, as you’re as you’re talking about that, I was just kind of flashing back. I I was just talking to a, a sales, like a regional sales manager for one of the manufacturers, and he represents sort of the West Coast in Hawaii where I’m at right now. And he was telling me about an owner that’s down the street from my house, who, you know, does some of his own innovations. You know, there’s like a fight, and I say innovations sort of facetiously here because he’s, you know, you know, just a little bit janky, janky stuff going on, but stuff that he feels like, really works. So it’s really it’s interesting.

Jordan Berry [00:27:21]:
This industry just has traditionally attracted interesting, but innovative people like, you know, he I think he’s doing some stuff that makes sense to him. To me, it maybe doesn’t make a lot of sense. But, like, man, I gotta give, I gotta give us credit that I think that it part of the reason some of these owners have done some of these innovative things. I’m hearing lots of owners doing innovative things now that are not janky, right, and like utilizing technology and stuff like that in their in their business in very innovative ways. But I I think that that is a symptom of the lack of innovation for a long time in our industry. And so we’ve just kind of had to innovate ourselves. And I mean, it’s similar to like what you’re doing, right? Is you’re you’re filling around in your own shop trying to figure things out, you know, better ways to do things, stuff like that. Here’s manufacturer.

Jordan Berry [00:28:17]:
Maybe this will help you out. But I I feel like that’s a symptom of we’re we’re just sort of ramping back up into innovation here because it’s been a long time since we’ve done that.

Nick Fusilli [00:28:28]:
I I I think I I can’t agree anymore because of, like, look at what happened to the other service industries, though. And look at what happened to all these other industries that started, like, getting those big capital investments and stuff like that, and people are looking at them, private equity stepping in, that kind of stuff. And you’re seeing these huge roll like, or hold roll ups on service companies. But for some reason, like, repair doesn’t exist for laundry. You know? It’s like, at the same time, it’s like we’re trying to incorporate that. You know, being the younger guys here, like, you know, it’s like, how can we incorporate some technology? And I think that was, like, we’re us making sure we had a software system to track repairs, help. We’re not just cash. You know, like, that was kind of the stuff that we started looking into to just be like, you know, if you worked with us, hey.

Nick Fusilli [00:29:21]:
You sign in on our portal, and you have access to everything that we’ve ever done on every one of your machines where we thought, hey. Who else has that? I don’t know anyone that has that. So let’s try to keep going in that direction even on the repair side. But hopefully the manufacturers are gonna think the exact same way because you can make this stuff. I mean, I don’t think they’re gonna change the longevity on it, but still, like, they can make it a little bit easier for people to do this.

Jordan Berry [00:29:48]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I well, I mean, I’m glad you mentioned that that that’s what you’re doing because it it is furthering my envy of that. Like, out out my repair guy is great. He knows machines backwards and forwards. He can fix anything. But at the end of the day, I pay him cash, and he gives me one of those little yellow tickets that he wrote down. Here’s a couple things I did.

Jordan Berry [00:30:11]:
I promptly lose that immediately and now have no record of, like, what I’ve done, you know, when it comes time to sell or anything, right? Like, it and if I don’t put it in my, you know, accounting stuff right away, then I forgot that I did it. So now I’m not that’s not coming out as an expense or, you know, like, I’ve done all that stuff before. Right. And it’s it’s tough. So, I mean, it’s interesting. Can you talk a little bit more about that, like, what you guys are doing,

Nick Fusilli [00:30:39]:
Mhmm.

Jordan Berry [00:30:39]:
You know, in terms of your CRM and, in software and

Nick Fusilli [00:30:43]:
stuff? Yeah. So that was, like, that was one of the big things. Like, we were about a year in, and, you know, we were put we were keeping track of everyone’s stuff on, like, Google Sheets and just kinda figuring it out as we were going. And Yeah. I sat down with my other partners, and I was like, hey. Like, let’s start trying to shop for a CRM. I know our business isn’t too big. We’re bootstrapping it, but, you know, let let’s look into it.

Nick Fusilli [00:31:10]:
And we started working we had about 15 different pieces of software that we were going through, all the service company software that you could imagine. And finally, we found one that worked with us, and they were like, you’re the first company that’s ever come to us before that’s in that industry. And, I mean, it was a lot easier because we weren’t gonna develop a software this early in the game. I do think down the road, that’s something that we look into because I think it can be a double sided software where you can just give it so even you having a store, Oh, hey, they did machine number washer number 12. This date they put these these repairs in. All right. Just keeps track of it. But on our side, we do that to be now we know, hey.

Nick Fusilli [00:31:54]:
We came in. We diagnosed these things this day. We believe these parts are what’s needed. We order parts. We come back the next day. Hey. Is it a pass or a fail? All of that’s documented, and we have it by machine, by store. Owners own multiple stores.

Nick Fusilli [00:32:08]:
We can keep track of them individually. We can bill individually. You can set up the contacts. Like, hey. Like, everyone’s got a different store manager. Everyone’s got, hey. Call this person before you go. Like, those are all things we were trying to think about this as, hey.

Nick Fusilli [00:32:23]:
We’re laundromat owners. What do all these other service guys what are they not offering that we can fill that gap and offer a better service that is just overall easier for the customer? And how can we make it just as transparent as possible? Like, we’re not trying to hide anything here. Like, we we started this business to help other people that were laundromat owners because they don’t they’re just the PURE guys don’t exist. And, yeah, the it’s a business, but, you know, we’re we try to help people out as much as possible. Like, I mean, we offer people to, like, hey. Here’s the parts that you need for your machine. Do you want us to order them or you? If we order them, we gotta mark them up because if we don’t use them, they go back in our inventory. If not, you keep them on your shelf.

Nick Fusilli [00:33:10]:
You can keep parts in your shop to help your repair guys. I mean, better service. You have the stuff there and you’re gonna save you’ll save a little bit of money on the parts depending on, you know, who’s doing your repairs. But

Jordan Berry [00:33:22]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, there’s a couple of things I really love about that and what you’re talking about here. So number one, I mean, obviously, you know, one of, one of my personal values and also one of the values of Laundromat Playbook, which is, you know, the group of people that we got, going together who are, you know, really just trying to up their game, in the Laundromat business. One of our values is clarity. Right? And having something where I can just reference, okay, I have clarity on the condition of machines because I can see what machines had what problems, how they were fixed, when they were fixed, all that stuff. I’ve got that. That helps me manage my business better.

Jordan Berry [00:34:03]:
So kudos to you guys for doing that because that’s a huge service that you’re giving to the owners in New Jersey, that I think probably most of the rest of the country’s missing out on. But also number two, I mean, you talked about like, Hey, we love card systems, you know, and we’d all love to buy a card system because you can just kind of print it out. Well, guess what? I look at deals all day every day with people from all over the country and beyond. And I will tell you that the probably the biggest line item that is the biggest lie in most, you know, PNLs is the maintenance. Right? There’s I’ve seen that line item not be there. I’ve seen that item be that line item be there. And there’s almost no money dedicated to it. I’m like, man, these are magic machines.

Jordan Berry [00:34:53]:
We should get some of these, whatever they are. You know, and it’s hard to know. Like I said, most service techs, they’re just giving you a little paper receipt. Lots of owners don’t keep them. Don’t keep them organized. It’s really hard to know what’s been done to the machines and what kind of condition they’re in. So that is also not necessarily not only just making it easier to acquire a laundromat for anybody trying to do that, but it also literally makes our stores more valuable because there’s more certainty there and people are willing to pay for more certainty, which is where a card system again comes in and provides a lot of value. So that’s

Nick Fusilli [00:35:33]:
that’s huge. Multiplier. Better multiplier. Like, think about if you went to buy a store and you said, oh, hey. I just printed you an asset report from my portal, from my repair guy. Here’s all my maintenance for the last five years. And they know every single machine, every single thing that we touch, every part that we put in. There you go.

Nick Fusilli [00:35:53]:
Well, to me, that’s just value.

Jordan Berry [00:35:56]:
Oh, man. That’s, yeah, that’s that’s nothing but value right there. That’s huge. In fact, like, transformationally huge. Like, everybody should have that.

Nick Fusilli [00:36:07]:
I know this isn’t exactly on target with laundromats, but it happens to be in apartments. So we had an apartment client come to us, say, hey. You know, our Fannie Freddie loan, they need the maintenance report on the laundry equipment. Well, okay. I just jumped in my system, gave them the locations they asked for, sent them an email, took literally one minute. And they had their full report and the and everyone was happy, and they had no issues at all. So that’s the kind of stuff, like, we you know, again, like we say, it’s like, we’re not trying to be the cheapest ones out there, but we’re trying to give you the best value for your dollar spent where we’re, like it’s just like we’re trying to guarantee that your experience is gonna be better. And that’s that’s what we’re trying to sell here.

Nick Fusilli [00:36:54]:
It’s not the, you know, we’re not the the discount people. It’s, hey. For your dollar spent, I feel like you’re gonna get the most value from our services, and that’s how we that’s how we work with customers.

Jordan Berry [00:37:06]:
Well, I’m about to give you the super secret formula to dominating in your business. Number one, pick up the phone. Number two, if you can get there within a week or two, I will be ecstatic. If you can do any anytime before that, you’ll be my new best friend. You’ll probably be the best man in my wedding if I’m not married yet. You know what I mean? Like, that’s the secret formula. Pick up the phone and then send somebody out to help me fix my stuff as quickly as possible. Like, that’s what it comes down to.

Jordan Berry [00:37:36]:
And, like, all this stuff be beyond above and beyond is it’s just pure value, to to help me manage my business and to make it more valuable and easier to sell and all that stuff.

Nick Fusilli [00:37:50]:
Yep. And, like, my my thing, like, when I’m working with people is if they’re gonna come to me and ask for price first and not talk about what they their problems are, I’m like, there were probably not the right people for you because I’m trying to give the five star experience and go well above and beyond and make your life so easy that you don’t even care what the bill is because it’s it’s not even though I’m like I would say, like, we’re pretty much right at market, it’s still, like, the value is what we try to offer. And, you know, it’s, like, give more or, like, you know, you go into the relationship and, like I was saying before, we give the maintenance guys or, hey Hey. We need dryer duct people or plumbing guys. Well, I mean, we know all the guys that the ones who we use, and we know the ones that service those areas that are good to use. Like, again, this is the same thing you’re talking about. It’s just like it’s the clarity, the value that you do. How can you just give people more for what they’re paying for? And that’s just what we try to do is like go above and beyond.

Nick Fusilli [00:38:51]:
And it’s reflected with, you know, having really, really good clients that trust us. And I mean, everyone knows you can go direct to manufacturers and you can get your machines from them most of the time for probably the best price. And we have some people that get machines from us only, and I really appreciate every one of them knowing that we have to charge five to 10% more because, I mean, we’re not we’re sub distributors. So it’s just how the game works, but we’re gonna come in there. We’re gonna lay your store out. We’re gonna make sure that you have the right electric. You have the right plumbing hookup. So when those machines show up and get installed, they don’t go, oh, yeah.

Nick Fusilli [00:39:29]:
They don’t work. See you later. You gotta get a plumber. You got an electrician. Like, go figure it out.

Jordan Berry [00:39:35]:
Yeah. Yeah. That’s huge. That’s huge. And, you know, just to kinda give, like, a little I I just wanna mention this because, you know, sometimes sometimes we could use a perspective shift as owners. Like, we get stuck in our our day to day problems, and we don’t get a chance to kind of pull back and think about how we think about the problems that we deal with regularly. But, you know, just for, like, a little bit of perspective, if you can, you know, you’re talking about this price thing, right, of, like, how much you have to charge versus how much, you know, your independent service technician, whoever is charging, whoever, right, is charging, you know, number one, I mean, the the stuff you’re talking about in terms of having that that clarity and that accountability of in that record of repairs done and all that stuff. I mean, I think that immediately ups the value of what you guys are doing.

Jordan Berry [00:40:30]:
But also, you know, in my experience, a lot of times these these in because there’s not in this may be different in New Jersey than LA market, but a lot of the independent guys, you know, they’re they’re busy because there’s not a lot of options out there. And there’s more demand than there is time for those guys. You know, my my guy who has worked on my loaner mats for a long time now, I don’t think he’s taken new clients for a long time because there’s just he’s got too much demand. But, you know, one thing I I also wanna kind of put in there is, like, when somebody is running a professional business like this as opposed to, you know, kind of an independent thing and not saying that all independent people are like this, but a lot of times it takes me or takes the independent guy another day, two days, week, you know, to finally actually get out there and do those repairs. A lot of times communication is not that great. You know, and so it’s not clear as to when they’re going to be able to get there a lot of times. I’m saying this anecdotally from my experience, but also just from talking with a lot of people. You know, and and one one exercise that might be bring some clarity on, you know, paying a little bit more to have sort of this five star service.

Jordan Berry [00:41:44]:
Right. Is, you know, how how much does it cost you per day to have a machine down? Right. And, you know, if you can get, you know, five star services bringing you already the more value, but you can get it done on a predictable time. Like you can say, hey, we’re gonna be here between this hour and this hour on this day. Man, there’s just a lot of real bottom line dollars associated with every single day of that machine being up versus being down on long run.

Nick Fusilli [00:42:14]:
And and that’s something like, you know, we our goal is usually I mean, it I mean, this does totally depend on our schedule because most of the time, we’re like, if you call Monday, we’re usually there by Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And, again, it matters where you are because if you’re grouped up with another job, I mean, look. Like, I’ve had people where they call and I call my guys and I say, hey. Look. There’s a guy ten minutes away. Like, when you’re done there, just zip over. And, you know, it’s like, you know, we’re running a different operations. Like, we have an admin and or myself, you know, on and off if we have multiple calls coming in, like, we’re on the back end with another person who’s just doing parts, secondary diagnosis, like making sure we got the right stuff for the right jobs and organizing our warehouse and all stuff like that, as well as having tax.

Nick Fusilli [00:43:07]:
And it’s a lot different when you’re running, like you’re saying, a bigger operation. Our goal like I said, our goal is always we try to do seventy two hours. But, again, you never know. Like, some weeks you get all the parts for all of the back order things that you have, and then you’re like, well, we’re booked for a week and a half. And once we started being booked out for two or three weeks, we’re like, hey. We gotta hire someone. And that’s gonna be the same thing again for us. Like, we know that breaking point.

Nick Fusilli [00:43:36]:
It’s it you’re never gonna be able to get same day. Like, that’s just not a thing in our business. Like, we’re always scheduling out a day or two just to, like, group jobs that are local. When you do the lot of the state, you’re trying to, like, okay. Like, that region today, this region tomorrow. Like, even with two we have two guy like, two trucks going usually one with two people, one with one person, depending on size of jobs. So

Jordan Berry [00:44:04]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, listen. Again, I I’m just super psyched about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. And I hope I hope this model kinda catches on. Right? And we even we even were chatting before we hit record. And I’m like, hey.

Jordan Berry [00:44:19]:
We should probably chat some more because I think there’s more to this and more to be and even as you’re talking, I’m I’ve been jotting down notes, not only on what you’re saying, but on, like, man, here’s some ideas. Like so this this has gotta be this this needs to be ubiquitous. This this needs to be happening everywhere, for all of us. We’ve talked a lot on this podcast About, professionalizing our businesses and, you know, upping our sophistication and stuff. And we’ve talked a lot about, like, card systems and collecting data and knowing your numbers and, you know, insert, like, all this stuff. Right? Technology. One thing we haven’t talked about in terms of professionals or businesses is is this repair because there really hasn’t been a whole lot of options to help us to do that. But I love hearing what you guys are doing and how you’re doing it, because that’s that’s sending us in the right direction.

Jordan Berry [00:45:16]:
I feel like

Nick Fusilli [00:45:17]:
That that’s really what the goal was. And I mean, like, look, I a % admit that our laundromats took a back seat in growth because the repair company crew and we realized that we had something and we were doing it right. Yeah. So, I mean, look, like, you guys do I love listening to everything and all the new test stuff for laundromats. And, like, we know that we could do more, but it’s the same time we’re like, but we’re also servicing everybody else in the area even though there are competitors. It’s like, you know, you’re still servicing everyone and you’re doing it with a smile on your face just because, you know, look, the we we service the three closest stores to the biggest store that our group has that does the best. You know, you kinda

Jordan Berry [00:46:05]:
just sabotaging them?

Nick Fusilli [00:46:06]:
Like,

Jordan Berry [00:46:07]:
loosening a bolt here or there? Or

Nick Fusilli [00:46:10]:
Believe me. That’s

Jordan Berry [00:46:13]:
gotta fight that temptation.

Nick Fusilli [00:46:15]:
No. It’s we just realized, like, the greater scalability of what we’re doing. And, honestly, it’s like, this is the one we just look at it as, like, this is the missing piece. Yeah. Like, that’s the piece. Like, if you have three, four, five, six laundromats, like, what are you gonna do? You’re not gonna fix that yourself. You have you’re gonna have to have somebody. You’re never gonna keep up with it unless you love putting new machines in every ten years.

Nick Fusilli [00:46:40]:
But if you got money for that, god bless you.

Jordan Berry [00:46:44]:
Well, which is I mean, listen. There are like, I I have a good buddy who’s he’s scaling his business like crazy right now. And their their business model is every eight years, they replace their machines every eight years. Right. And so you’ve got sort of that. That’s one of the reasons I asked you kind of from the repair side of things because there’s different philosophies on this, right? Probably most common from what I see from a lot of high level operators around that fifteen year mark people are replacing. But I’ve got good friends who are on the we replace them every eight years side of the spectrum to they’re gonna go as long as they go, like, thirty, forty years. They’re the guys hanging on to them forever.

Jordan Berry [00:47:32]:
Right? And I’ve got people all in the middle that, you know, have different philosophies of how that is. So I was just kinda curious from the, you know, from the repair technician side of things, kinda your perspective on that. So I appreciate you sharing that.

Nick Fusilli [00:47:46]:
Yeah. It’s, it’s definitely a different one. And, like, I I know that guy with the eights. He’s he’s he’s on the ten years as your motors, your bearings, your boards. Like, he’s like, nope. We’re done. Like, ship them off. We’re gonna go send them and resell them, sell them used, recoup what we can, go buy new ones with warranties.

Nick Fusilli [00:48:06]:
Done.

Jordan Berry [00:48:07]:
Yep. Start the tax depreciation schedule all over again and keep it rolling. Another model. Yeah. It’s different. Yeah. It’s a different model, but they’re they’re crushing it. Right? And, like, I think the point is is that there’s no there’s no right answer, necessarily.

Jordan Berry [00:48:22]:
And it’s going to be a lot of model dependent and location dependent, you know, and usage dependent, like all those things. Because also kind of going back to earlier, like eight years old at three turns a day is different than eight years old at nine turns a day. So I mean, if you’re is factoring.

Nick Fusilli [00:48:41]:
Think about the people that are doing, like I mean, there’s a guy there’s a guy here in New Jersey that we service this time. He does daytime. He’s open. He closes at, I think, nine or ten p I think 10PM. And then he runs a graveyard wash and vault because he’s killing it. Mhmm. Like, look. Those machines are gonna get beaten up.

Nick Fusilli [00:49:03]:
End of story. But you know what? I a sitting machine is not making you any money. If you just use it, use the crap out of it.

Jordan Berry [00:49:12]:
Yeah. Which also, man, surprisingly, is also a little bit controversial because I I mean, I agree. Like, hey, if you got it, use it anytime it’s not being used, it’s not making you money. But there’s also highly successful people that once they hit that seven or eight turns a day, which is a lot, Once they hit that six to eight turns a day, they know it’s just time to raise prices again because they don’t want to do more turns than that because it’s going to wear on the machines.

Nick Fusilli [00:49:45]:
I we admit those people as well. And, honestly, it’s mind blowing when we look at their prices, and we’re like, who comes here? Like, you’re like, I mean, some there’s there’s paces, like, up north for us in New Jersey, though. Like, there’s so much competition. And the one guy’s model was, I do not want people that are gonna disrespect my store. I will pay people. I want extra staff on. I will keep this place spotless, but I’m gonna charge a lot for it. And you know what? He’s still at 5 to 7 turns a day at top dollar, and his margins are 40%.

Nick Fusilli [00:50:23]:
So, like, what you can’t argue. It’s whatever you wanna make your model. It’s I think it’s fully demographic based, though, too.

Jordan Berry [00:50:31]:
Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot to consider there, but it is interesting. Like, right, like, I don’t know. For for me, it was like, yeah. No brainer. Keep your machines running. And then I you know, one of the benefits of having this podcast and just talking to people outside of the podcast is I get to hear how a lot of people think.

Jordan Berry [00:50:47]:
And and we all get to hear, like, if you’re listening. Right? Mhmm. We all get to hear how a lot of people think about this business and how they approach it and what their model is. And I’ve been surprised on many occasions where, you know, somebody is like, Yeah. As soon as I hit seven turns a day, I’m raising my prices or, yeah, I replaced my machines every eight years, you know, or, yeah, Everybody’s trying to add service and I’m going the opposite direction and I wanna be as automated as possible, you know, or whatever it is. Right? Like there’s there’s a model for everyone and it it really speaks, I think, to being aware of your market, your demographics, your business, and how you want to run it. And and there is no one size fits all, for everybody.

Nick Fusilli [00:51:36]:
No. I I cannot agree more with that. You know, it’s like everyone’s gonna run their business and have a different niche, different specialty. Like, I I just I love I love seeing people succeed as well. So it’s like, however you make it work, you make it work.

Jordan Berry [00:51:52]:
Yeah. Okay. My I think my last question, unless you feel like we we need to hit something else, but I think my last question is, you know, speaking speaking to owners here. Right? What what are the best things we can do for our machines, whether, I guess, whether we’re repairing them ourselves or hiring somebody, you or somebody else, to do it for us? What are the best things that we can be doing that, you know, are are relatively simple, that anybody can do, but that will make a a big impact?

Nick Fusilli [00:52:30]:
Again, like, we’re not even gonna talk about the normal maintenance because we did, like I think, like, the next tier to that is actually understanding your equipment. And this is something I learned strictly from, like, my other partners in this who are the hands on ones in the operations. And they were saying just there’s a reason why there’s manuals. And if you’ve never looked it up or had the manual for your machine and, like, popped the top, looked at it, kinda understood what’s going on. Like, why would this leak? Why would that leak? Like, those air codes, anyone can look up the air code. But, like, if you take the time to learn your machines inside and out, I think that’s one of the most underrated things for an owner because you can give us way better data where if you’re gonna say, hey, machine 12 or doesn’t work. Okay. Or, hey, I open the top.

Nick Fusilli [00:53:35]:
I see there’s a leak out of this valve or this valve is not turning. The this I see that, you know, the drain’s a little it’s it’s slow draining or, hey. This is making noise on this machine or it shuts off at this stage or I think it’s getting shaky. Like, any extra information you can learn about your equipment with, again, YouTube, listening to your podcast, and stuff like that from other people talking about issues. Like, actually take the time to learn your equipment. This is not a passive business. It no matter what anybody says, like, the more you can learn about your industry, I think that’s probably the biggest takeaway that I’ve seen of people that know their equipment. Because, I mean, I get emails that are so nicely detailed for me and my admins to put in our system versus, hey.

Nick Fusilli [00:54:30]:
I have seven machines now. I mean, at least give the number. Like, anyway, it was it’s like that that I think that’s a really good thing to kinda talk about, like, from, like, an owner perspective. Like, not even just preventative. Learn the machines that you have. Like, hey. I have Electrolux or, hey. I have Speed Queen.

Nick Fusilli [00:54:52]:
I’m gonna look up my models. I’m gonna look at this. I’m gonna research them to see what other people on forums and Facebook and podcasts have talked about this model that they’ve had issues with. Like, let’s try to educate ourselves a little bit more on the ass because they’re assets that you have. They make you money. Treat it like any other asset. Like, research it, figure it out, know even if you don’t know how to fix it, just know the issues and where stuff’s coming from to give whoever’s gonna fix it the most data that they can. Like, the diagnostic process and laundry repair is the longest thing other than a handful of repairs that it is like, you know, it’s like our diagnostic can be one minute to three hours on a machine.

Nick Fusilli [00:55:42]:
Yeah. So try to make it as easy as possible for anyone that’s gonna do the work for you. And I think you doing that can save your bottom line because repair costs are strictly expenses. If you can shave 10% a year from you knowing how to diagnose you or at least give better feedback to your repair guys, I think you will save so much money doing that. And the people that do that for us, it actively shows on their bill.

Jordan Berry [00:56:09]:
Yeah. Well, that I mean, I’m glad you said because I wrote down as you were talking cost because one of the biggest questions I get is, like, how much, you know, should I budget for repairs? Or you’ll hear the popular I mean, the the really popular thing to say in this industry, especially from the old timers, is you have to repair your own machines. You can’t make it work if you don’t repair your own machines. And that’s been like a long held belief in this industry, which I don’t agree with, actually. Although to your point earlier, I think there are some very simple things that it’s for sure worth learning how to do because if there’s something simple, like cleaning out a coin drop or replacing a diaphragm or even maybe unclog in a clogged drain or something like that,

Nick Fusilli [00:56:59]:
you should definitely do that. That is so easy.

Jordan Berry [00:57:02]:
Yeah. If I can

Nick Fusilli [00:57:03]:
do that, well, can I joke about it? Or, like, if I know how to do it and I really don’t touch machines, it’s like, you can do that. Like or like a gasket, the dumbest thing. Hey. It’s leaking on the bottom. Just rotate it. Yeah. Rotate the gasket. And people are like, wait.

Nick Fusilli [00:57:18]:
What do you mean?

Jordan Berry [00:57:19]:
Like, I tell them on the phone.

Nick Fusilli [00:57:20]:
They’re like, they think I’m a god. Like, it’s like, oh my god. I can’t believe that worked. You know, like, it stopped leaking. I’m like, got worn out on the bottom.

Jordan Berry [00:57:29]:
Kind of a big deal over here. Yeah. Yeah. So, my you know, those things are going to save you money. But also, you know, kind of going back to what I was saying earlier is like, if I can rotate a gasket or change a diaphragm and have a machine that broke down today back up and running later today, that’s going to save me or it’s going to help me to continue to make real money, real real money in my to to the bottom line there, by having those machines up and up and going. Right? So it’s gonna save that. But, I guess, kind of to your point, I mean, you’ve already mentioned a whole bunch of stuff, like a lot of that preventative maintenance stuff that you can do, keeping stuff clean, you know, and, you know, all all the stuff you were saying about understanding your equipment and, you know, kinda communicating as best you can to repair people. I one thing I’ve experienced right on on that note is, you know, before I knew anything, I would say, hey, this machine went down.

Jordan Berry [00:58:26]:
I’m not really sure what’s happening with it. It’s just, like, not working. Right? So then a lot of times what happens is the service tech has come out, do a diagnostic on it, say, oh, okay. We need this part. I don’t have that in the truck. So then they have to leave and then I have to schedule another time for them to come back out, which sometimes is just unavoidable. Right. But if I can say, hey, you know, there’s a, you know, it looks like the drain valve is stuck.

Jordan Berry [00:58:51]:
Here’s the equipment I got, you know, then it’s possible that that service tech can have a replacement drain valve or whatever it is. Right. It, you know, in the truck. So when they come, if they figure out they can’t fix it, they can just swap it out.

Nick Fusilli [00:59:05]:
And, the one thing on that, the parts in the truck thing, I mean, I will tell you, we try to keep all the valves, the drain valves in stock and stuff, but every year, every model, every serial Yep. It’s like they make it as hard as possible for us in this industry. We’re we’re not plumbers or electricians. We’re everywhere you go, it’s the same thing.

Jordan Berry [00:59:28]:
Yep. You

Nick Fusilli [00:59:29]:
know, I have probably a hundred and $50,000 worth of parts in my warehouse, and that’s not even holding a candle to what we need. Yeah. Like, it’s ridiculous. But, you know, it’s a at the same concept, it’s like anything like, hey. We can we can order a belt or a drain valve before we go. And then it comes in in three days, and then we show up the fourth day instead of going in three days, ordering it, then coming back another three or six days later. Yeah. That’s the that, you know, that’s that concept there.

Jordan Berry [00:59:59]:
Yeah. So all that I mean, all that helps kinda save costs. And, I mean, there’s no getting around, like, maintenance costs are just that’s a part of the business here. Like, you you’re not gonna buy a laundromat and not have maintenance costs even with brand new machines, mind you. Now some of that warranty can cover some of that stuff, but there’s still costs associated with that.

Nick Fusilli [01:00:18]:
We don’t cover labor. Watch that. That’s the thing. And, like, we do like, that’s why, like, we try to help people out. Like, we give a free year of labor when we do machines versus someone else to try to help that gap in pricing. But still 5% on new machines, 10% on old machines. Just assume you got to spend it. And if you don’t, don’t take the money out of the business.

Nick Fusilli [01:00:42]:
It’s a business. It’s not your it’s not your piggy bank. Like, that’s the way I think is a good way to look at it on that on the topic of everything you guys talk about. Like, you gotta have that money there to fix fix your machines or they’re not gonna make you any money.

Jordan Berry [01:00:56]:
Yep. Okay. Well, let’s wrap up with, any any Maybe we’ve covered them all, but any final things that you feel like owners can do to save money on repairs? Anybody who’s, like, concerned about that?

Nick Fusilli [01:01:10]:
Yeah. Like, we we did hit a lot of stuff.

Jordan Berry [01:01:14]:
So No. I just wanted to make sure we’ve got a good list going. I mean, I think we do have a good list going there. You know, and aside from maybe doing repairs yourself, which honestly, you know, again, there’s there’s people on both sides of that coin, and I kinda lean more towards, not do as a as a, you know, kind of a natural DIY guy. Like that’s kind of my natural bent. I actually think that it in the long run, it costs you more to actually do your repair your own repairs. If you consider that time and how it’s being spent, I would rather spend that time figuring out how to bring in new business to my business, how to grow my business, how to add another location to my portfolio, learning a new skill that’s going to help me grow my business, like, you know, thinking about the time value of, you know, or the value of your time and figure out how to best allocate that is huge. And as a kind of a chronic DIYer, I actually think that outsourcing it most times if you use that time wisely is more profitable.

Nick Fusilli [01:02:25]:
I think the on that I agree. Like, the DIY like, we like to say if it’s not quick, if you can do that in less than fifteen minutes and it also it’s an economy of scale, though. If you have three stores, I hate to break it. You’re probably not doing a lot of repairs. But at the same time, hey. You’re gonna go do your lap at your three stores for the week. If it’s something you can do there on the spot, 15. That I think it’s how much you value your time.

Nick Fusilli [01:02:58]:
And they talk about this in a lot of business, you know, a lot of business stuff. It’s, you know, back into what you want your hourly to be. Am I making more or less than I’m paying for repairs? Most likely, you’re making more and you don’t even realize it. So think about it from that perspective. Like, hey. If you’re doing your lap around your store and you got a moneymaker down, yeah, go fix you know, if you can swap a valve, swap a gasket, something like quick. If it’s not that, you gotta you gotta fix you know? Don’t get me wrong. My guys fix stuff on Friday Friday nights all the time on the moneymakers in the you know? But it’s like because you don’t want them down for the weekend.

Nick Fusilli [01:03:36]:
But if Yeah. You think about it from that perspective. Like, is this machine gonna make me the money if it’s down, or can I just call someone and get it fixed?

Jordan Berry [01:03:44]:
Yep. Yeah. Not is yeah. You’re right. It’s not I mean, it’s not always a straightforward, things, a lot of variables. But, listen, I think us as I guess my point is us as owners, we need to value our time a little bit more. You know, we, you know, should probably at least, own businesses to help build the lives we want. We don’t build the lives we have to build in order to own businesses, and do repairs and stuff.

Jordan Berry [01:04:10]:
Now, you know, we got to do we got to do. But, you know, I think we need to up the value of our time and look to maximize the value of our time and what we’re doing. So yep. Awesome. Nick, first of all, this has been awesome. A lot of like crazy good, just practical stuff in here. So appreciate you taking the time to come on. If anybody wants to get ahold of you guys, they want to see more about what you’re doing, or maybe they’re in New Jersey, which I know a lot of people who listen are in New Jersey, and they’re looking for somebody to help with repairs.

Jordan Berry [01:04:40]:
What’s the best ways for them to find you?

Nick Fusilli [01:04:44]:
So you can always call our call our office number, (732) 226-7053. If you type New Jersey commercial laundry repair into Google, we just come up. So that is generally the easier one. But our email sales@NJClaundryrepair.com, You know, we’re we try to answer the phone as best we can. And, you know, we’re on voicemail or we get our voicemails first thing in the morning. I mean, hell, when I’m getting, you know, people text our number to, like, email everything. You know, we just like, you’re talking about it’s the communication. We try to communicate as best we can without interfering with our livelihoods.

Nick Fusilli [01:05:32]:
So, I mean, look, I’ve taken I’ve talked to people on a Saturday to help them do stuff if I wasn’t doing anything, but we try to keep it Monday through Friday. Yeah.

Jordan Berry [01:05:42]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it’s I mean, it’s generally not the best time to come in repairing stuff on the weekend either unless there’s some kind of emergency. It’s too crowded. So

Nick Fusilli [01:05:50]:
We honestly, we keep that. It’s it’s it’s really just not even plausible most of the time for weekends. We’re we’re we’re Monday through Friday, and we just try to stay as communicative as we can.

Jordan Berry [01:06:03]:
Love it. Love it. Well, hey, listen. We’ll have all the links and numbers and everything in the show notes page, so make sure you check that out. If you wanna get in contact with Nick. Again, thank you so much for coming on. I love, love, love what you guys have got going on over there. Continue doing that.

Jordan Berry [01:06:20]:
I cannot wait, to hear when you have your own software, out one of these days and are crushing it with that, as well. So I appreciate you coming on, man.

Nick Fusilli [01:06:31]:
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me, man. Thank

Jordan Berry [01:06:33]:
you. Any anytime. Anytime. Alright. Hope you loved that episode with Nick. Listen. So much good stuff in there. A lot of really practical things in there.

Jordan Berry [01:06:41]:
As always, every single week, take some action, pick something, put it into action this week. Actually, do the things you’re learning on this podcast, on any other podcast or audiobook or whatever, content you’re consuming. If you can’t put it into action, maybe you shouldn’t be listening to it or watching it. So I don’t know. Just out there, put it into action this week, and we’ll see you next week. Peace.

En este episodio del podcast “Laundromat Resource,” Jordan Berry entrevista a Nick Fusilli, dueño de New Jersey Commercial Laundry Repair. Hablan sobre la importancia del mantenimiento y reparación de las máquinas en los laundromats y cómo estos costos pueden ser significativos. Nick comparte su experiencia en el negocio, destacando la necesidad de un mantenimiento preventivo regular para reducir costos de reparación. También mencionan la importancia de entender el funcionamiento de las máquinas y la posibilidad de invertir en sistemas de gestión para optimizar las operaciones. Además, discuten la expectativa de vida útil de las máquinas y la creciente popularidad de las nuevas tecnologías en la industria, como las pantallas táctiles y sistemas más eficientes. Jordan elogia la transparencia y los servicios ofrecidos por la empresa de Nick, destacando el valor que aportan a los dueños de laundromats al ofrecer claridad y mejorar la gestión del negocio. Al final, enfatizan la importancia de aplicar el conocimiento adquirido en el podcast para optimizar los negocios de lavanderías.