Advice: Girlfriend wants to buy a Laundry Shoppe

[Shilo 371]

My girlfriend and I have been living together for the past 2 years and for what it's worth.... marriage is something that I think could be in the future at some point. I bring this up just to point out that she and I have a history and I have every reason to believe that I can trust her. And that I have a pretty good idea of her strengths and weaknesses.

 

But the point of the post is to ask for some advice on backing a Thai lady's desire to own a small business.

 

We live in the View Talay 2 complex. She has a friend who owns one of the small laundry shoppes on the ground floor. It seems that the current owner is about to move to Europe with her husband and wants to sell the business.

 

Asking price is 150K to be paid in 10 equal payments of 15K each over 10 months. This price is for the business it's self and all of the equipment: washers, dryers, irons ect.

 

Expenses:

 

Rent 10K

Power and water 2K

2 employees: 8K (combined)

 

We have all seen a ton of this shoppes around town and just about every condo complex has 2-3 on the ground floors. Has anyone any experience in backing one of these operations?

[bratpack 91]

Too many mate,but do your homework and hang about the shop and do the maths.Ask all the people in the condo complex,to see if they use this place or not.What incentives can you give to the non users to bring their business to you.

 

You realy havent given enough thought to this so how can we help you.

[agogogaran 0]

the laundry business in patts has been wrinsed out already, i would not like to see you hung out to dry.

[Ripe1 0]

I suggest you look at their books.

They are bound to have records of the customers & money collected.

 

Take that info & guesstimate how long it would take you to return your 150k investment + rent/electric/ etc. & see if your TGF is interested then.

 

I would guess they are charging 500b each for the customers for a month's worth of laundry.

If they had 50 customers that's only 25k income/month

After the rent, electricity & personnel costs you'd be making almost no profit.

I haven't even brought up equipment repairs & costs for water, soap/detergent, & starch.

[backdoorboy 0]

OSS, also known as The Jock Bomb used to have a missus who owned a laundry, ask him.

[bratpack 91]

I suggest you look at their books.

They are bound to have records of the customers & money collected.

 

Take that info & guesstimate how long it would take you to return your 150k investment + rent/electric/ etc. & see if your TGF is interested then.

 

I would guess they are charging 500b each for the customers for a month's worth of laundry.

If they had 50 customers that's only 25k income/month

After the rent, electricity & personnel costs you'd be making almost no profit.

I haven't even brought up equipment repairs & costs for water, soap/detergent, & starch.

 

 

BOUND TO HAVE RECORDS

 

LOL,WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THAIS YOU KNOW

[Ripe1 0]

Every laundry lady I've ever done business with in LOS had a ledger they wrote everything in.

They'd write down when you paid them & how many pieces they had washed for you so far, etc.

[agogogaran 0]

Every laundry lady I've ever done business with in LOS had a ledger they wrote everything in.

They'd write down when you paid them & how many pieces they had washed for you so far, etc.

 

i prefere bar girls and freelancers myself, but whatever floats your boat

[agogogaran 0]

 

You've been warned.

 

 

just a bit of light humor!!

[halfaboy 31]

No need to earn the 150K. If case of future sale of the business you get your money back (hopefully)

[joekicker 53]

BOUND TO HAVE RECORDS

 

Well... in this case, they would have some. No employee is going to keep track of every pair of socks and knickers in their head -- not unless there is nothing to track of course. No records means no laundry.

 

.

[Darley 0]

the laundry business in patts has been wrinsed out already, i would not like to see you hung out to dry.

 

 

LOL

[darkmancomes 75]

BOUND TO HAVE RECORDS

 

LOL,WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THAIS YOU KNOW

 

You beat me to it! No hab paper

[joekicker 53]

A couple of things you need to know. First, the lease, and is the landlord okay with continuing it, or do you have to rewrite it, etc. Second, what's in the laundry, and the condition of it. A list, please, to be checked off on takeover day. And third thing, let's see the laundry (customer) lists for, oh, say, the last week.

 

That's where I'd start "due diligence". Anything funny here, drop it or prepare to change what's obviously broken.

 

.

[jacko 8,813]

It is a frequent desire of theirs to have a little business, to be a boss. It is also a frequent desire to transfer wealth, yours to her family.

Is the aim to actually make a profit, or to keep her 'occupied'...?

A laundry business isn't going to make much money, is your GF the type to commit herself and work herself and not lose interest later on?

 

(I recall a post sometime back of some guy buying the TGF a convenience store, but she soon lost interest in getting up to open the place)

 

I think 150k is a bargain if you desire more time to yourself, and your shirts would look good, but is she up to the job?

[Shilo 371]

Well, still to soon to say where this will end up...

 

But I mentioned a few things to my girl just to get her thinking more about the down side.

 

1.) there is a good chance that after paying the rent, wages, power ect along with the monthly ptm of 15K to the old owner that my girl is possibly looking at working for at least a year without pay. Maybe longer if we have another very slow low season.

 

2.) there is a chance that I may have to return to the states later in the year for any where from 3-6 months. Then again, I may not have to go.... but I've considered looking into a finance visa so she could join me, see my home, do some traveling, and meet my friends and family. If she buys the business then she has to stay here in LOS.

 

3.) we don't go out all that much but we do enjoy staying up late to watch TV shows and football. Then sleeping in the next day.... she'll be looking at getting up everyday by 9am (at least) and maybe in bed by 10-11pm. Not a big burden but a huge adjustment from our normal patterns.

 

I think that the "cake" was looking a little dry once I started to scrap off some of the icings

[Ripe1 0]

Any good laundry should be open at 6am to take laundry from those on their way out to work.

[Obsession 571]

I used the buakaow laundry. I noticed from the ticket numbers, that they didnt seem to have many customer. I think it was around 25 a day. I have no idea the average price, but mine was around 100bht . Not a big turnover.

[agogogaran 0]

a good idea , if you were to take up the business, would be to try and get the linen cleaning contarct for some of those guest houses and new hotels springing up, at least you would have a guaranteed income then

[torrenova 644]

I lived in VT2 building B for a couple of years (don't know if you are in A or . When I moved in there were two similarly priced and set up laundries and another cheaper one. I had been getting 80 pieces for Bt500 in town but they only wanted to give out 60 prices. I got 70 and was never to tell anyone ! Some time after I moved in, another laundry place opened so now you had 4 (or 3+1) as I thought about it. In the beginning I tried them all and then stayed with the best one for the years I was there. More than once I semi crunched some numbers on the laundry business but at the time had much more to think about.

 

Some observations.

 

When I moved in, I didn't know which laundry to choose. I guess many people use the first one or the nearest one to the lift or in the shop. I guess people don't change either. No-one advertises the Bt500 schemes as they want everyone on the per piece prices. So really, there is not much to differentiate between them apart from the cheaper one who does not have driers.

 

Not one of them ever opened when they said they would or closed when they were supposed to. Many was the time I'd come home at 8pm and expect them open until 9pm and they had closed. I learned to live with it but it pissed me off. Sometimes you'd go for your clothes and they would be part ready. Many times they would not have cut off the coloured string. Adding up of the item count versus your 70 pieces was haphazard. Basically, the service was amateur and unreliable. It was Thai.

 

I guessed that if you went on a marketing drive, then others would maybe chuck a brick through your window. Someone with moderately deep pockets could put the others out of business in weeks with price cuts but I don't think that is the answer. I would have taken a reduction in pieces for a more reliable service. I'd also have been happy to receive a pick up from my condo and delivery to my condo when finished.

 

I reckon that managing things better than your average Thai you could do ok in a relative sense but I'd question the rent and the lease you have. 10k a month seems a little low for a normal sized shop. I'd also look at the restrictions on hours you can open and hours you can operate machinery. There are restrictions.

 

If the power and water is only 2k then the business is not doing much business I think. As for the price, then old machines are worth next to zero. Front loaders are expensive and large top loaders, big enough for the duvets cost about 10k and upwards. They won't have proper power steam irons, just domestic ones and they are a couple of grand each.

 

What does your GF think it is making and if it is really making 15k a month, then why aren't the 2 employees taking it on ? I think the reason is that it does not make 15k a month. Can you really see where 150k is going or is the equipment only worth about 20k second hand and maybe 50k to replace new ?

 

There is scope but I'm not sure what would be a fair price. If there are 3 other laundry shops between this one and the lift, then it might be worth nothing at all.