In this article, we’ll be providing you with proven practices to incorporate into your laundry business in Nigeria if you want it to be successful. If you adhere to the pro tips that we would reveal in this article, you’ll be sure to record increased profit and scale your laundry business, regardless of the competitors that may exist around your place of business.
Read on.
How to run a successful laundry business in Nigeria would be discussed below:
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Choose the Right Location for Your Laundry Shop
Where your laundry shop is located will greatly determine how your business fares. To improve your laundry business’ chance of succeeding, you’d want to open a shop in an area populated by the target population you seek, whether it be in a university vicinity or a large city. It is recommended that you find a space near where people live, such as a residential estate
or apartment building. Another thing to put in mind when choosing a space for your shop is that there should be sufficient parking space so your customers would not have to carry heavy laundry from the street before they reach your shop. Finally, make sure you don’t open a shop where there are already existing competitors.
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Give Your Staff Regular Training
If your laundry business employs people, it is important to provide them with ongoing training from time to time on customer service techniques, how to use laundry equipment, and safety procedures. Investing in periodic training for your staff can greatly improve your laundry business as the efficiency of your staff translates to an efficient business. If you run a one-man laundry business, you also need to undergo ongoing training to improve yourself to be more efficient.
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Upgrade Laundry Equipment in Your Shop
One of the ways to stand out among your competitors in the laundry business is to upgrade the old and outdated equipment in your shop to those that are more energy-efficient and have improved capabilities. Using old and outdated equipment such as washers and dryers can impact the efficiency of your laundry business as they take longer cycle times and consume more electricity than recent laundry equipment that is energy-efficient and much faster. So, upgrading your laundry equipment will give your business a boost.
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Pay Close Attention to All Transactions
As an owner of a laundry business that employs staff, you should make it a point of duty to monitor all the deliveries and transactions goes on in your shop every day. To monitor the transactions that take place in your business, it’s best to have a point-of-sale (POS) machine at your shop to limit cash transactions as well as to track necessary information. Other important tools you’ll need to help monitor transactions in your business include cash reports, order reports, sales, and delivery reports, to name a few. As the owner of the business, ensure to go over these reports daily to know the transactions that were done and which of your staff handled them, as well the number of garments that were delivered and the number that would be delivered the next day.
Paying close attention to your business would keep you in control of your laundry business as well as let your employees know that you know about the goings on in the shop which in turn will discourage theft and pilferage.
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Monitor Garment Deliveries in Your Shop
One of the common reasons that make customers stop patronizing a laundry shop is a wrong delivery or a lost garment. Apart from losing a customer, wrong delivery or the loss of a customer’s garment causes the business to compensate the customer with the cost of the garment. So, if you want to prevent losing customers as a result of garment loss and wrong delivery, your laundry business should have a tool or application that your customers can use to track their garments in your shop. If you want to do the garment tracking manually, ensure that your laundry shop keeps a delivery report that provides information on deliveries taking place in your business.
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Customer Service is Paramount
How you and your staff relate with your customers will tell if they return to patronise your laundry business or not. As we have established earlier in this article, it is important to train your staff in customer service techniques so they know how to relate to customers in a friendly and courteous manner. If your customers are attended to courteously, they are likely to recommend your laundry shop to their friends and family members.
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Measure Your Business’ Performance at Regular Intervals
You can’t know how your laundry business is performing if you don’t measure your business comprehensively. To comprehensively keep track of your business growth (or decline), you must keep measuring your business at regular intervals so you can make efficient decisions that can improve how your business runs. If you fail to measure the performance of your business, your decision-making would be impulsive since you don’t have the right data to make informed decisions that can spur your business to success.
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Perform Routine Maintenance on Your Laundry Equipment
Laundry equipment such as commercial washer-extractors, tumble dryers, front-loader washing machines, etc requires a regular maintenance schedule to operate efficiently. Also, the recommended maintenance tips for each laundry equipment should be strictly adhered to prevent breakdown, repairs, and replacements.
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Offer a Wide Selection of Services
Offering a wider selection of services as a laundry shop will differentiate your business from your competitors as it would bring in extra money than if you focused on a few services.
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Know Your Peak Operating Hours
One of the proven tips that can increase the profitability of your laundry business is to know when the peak periods of your business are and to ensure that your shop is open at such times. Weekends are usually the busiest days for laundry businesses, so ensure that your shop is always open as early as possible during the weekends.