Let’s start with what coin laundry is.

A coin laundry, also called self-service laundry, is where you wash and dry your clothes using the equipment provided without professional help. Many of us grew up doing laundry at home or outsourced to a full-service laundromat.

The concept of self-service laundry has only gained popularity in Malaysia in the last decade. However, this business is not new. The first store opened in the United States in 1934. Since then, it has attracted many people in Malaysia to invest in a self-service laundry business. Many succeed, and many fail at the same time. Therefore, it is crucial to educate yourself more to ensure you are making the best decision and opening a profitable coin laundry shop.

List of benefits of owning a coin laundry business:

• No need to worry about inventory.

Unlike other businesses, coin laundry does not require a lot of physical inventory. Imagine running a grocery store, convenience store, or restaurant. These businesses are required to monitor product expiration dates.

In addition, you have to order, rotate or throw away the defective product. In a coin laundry, the only inventory may be the chemicals (detergents & softeners) needed to operate the business. However, it has a longer shelf life and is easy to store, making it less likely to be an issue.

• Customer complaints are less likely to happen.

The coin laundry business requires customers to wash their clothes.

Therefore, they have to manage the whole process and take responsibility for consequences as a result of any unfortunate events. Only when the customers are affected during the equipment breakdown, then you have to deal with the complaint.

If we are to compare with other businesses where complaints are more frequent and varied, the complaints you face in a coin laundry business are minimal.

• Require lesser time or effort to manage.

Some said coin laundry is like an automatic money-making machine, where you enjoy the benefits of maintaining your current lifestyle with additional passive income.

With coin laundry, you don’t have to assign someone there to run the business. You only need to organize your time to clean and collect money from the store yourself.

• Easy to expand the business to multiple locations.

The business model of the coin laundry business is very scalable. Once you have started your first outlet, you can look for other locations for the next shop. Unlike others that must consider various aspects, it is relatively easy for business expansion.

The cons of owning a coin laundry business.

• A large amount of capital is required to start this business.

Like most businesses, it takes money to get started. The initial capital for a new coin laundry business is around RM150,000 to RM400,000.

You will have to pay more if you want to equip your shop with foreign brand machines. To keep costs down, some people will choose a regular household/ secondhand washer and dryer to start the business.

• Competition is fierce in the market.

What attracts you to the self-service laundry business is that you see many similar shops popping up on almost every corner.

Then, you might think that it must be a good business. However, as self-service laundries become popular, more people will step inside them.

Nowadays, you can easily find several coin laundry shops operating in one location. All of them compete on price. When that happens, avoid setting up shop there at all costs.

• Spend a large amount of repair cost on the machine.

The core of a self-service laundry business is the machine.

Malicious sabotage doesn’t happen often. However, there will be man-made sabotage due to a lack of cherishing when in use. Due to many customers wanting to save money, they like to stuff up, so the wear rate of the machine is very high and often broken. Of course, if the machine breaks down, we need to call the machine supplier to repair it, which means we need to give them a small part of the profit.

• It’s hard for customers to stay loyal because of brands.

In other businesses, customers can differentiate brands based on products and services. For example, you like to eat KFC not because it’s close to you or cheap, but because of the taste.

On the other hand, coin laundry is fundamentally about price and location from the customer’s point of view. And most customers won’t care about the type of machine offered, as long as it can get their regular laundry done.

So it depends on your ability to find the best location and pray that there are no other competitors to compete with you.