Do you earn so little from your job, or you don’t even have any? Having so little or nothing to settle bills at the end of the month can have many negative consequences.
For example, deadlines for children’s tuition fees and rent among others, are missed and that could be extremely embarrassing.
An impression is created, as you consistently give excuses for your failure to meet your various payments deadlines.
Often times, you blame the government, the state of the economy or your former employer, instead of looking inwards for small businesses you can do to earn a living or extra income.
One of such businesses, which requires little capital, as low as N20,000, is the laundry business.
You might be seeing epileptic power supply as a great challenge to the business, but the hurdle can be surmounted with a charcoal or stove iron as a backup for the electric iron
While a potential investor or operator can spend as much as N1 million to set up his medium-scale laundry outfit, a low-scale starter, who cannot afford the luxury of such fortunes, can start the business from home with N20,000 or less.
Many people do not have the time and the wherewithal to wash their clothes themselves, but at the same time, they love to wear clean and neatly ironed clothes.
You stand a chance of making a lot of money, because people like that would definitely seek your services, while you smile to the bank. To wash and iron a shirt, for example, an average medium scale laundry outfit charges about N500.
In your own case, you do not need to compete with such medium or large scale operator, all you need to do is to fix your price for washing and ironing at N250 pershirt to attract more customers.
With this strategy, you can wash as many as 20 shirts daily, making as much as over N5,000 everyday, considering other clothes you wash.
The quantum of money you make depends on how many regular customers you have, and that depends on the quality of your services and charges.
All you need to start, according to an operator, Mr. Samuel Akinbuwa, are clean water, ironing table, electric or stove iron, washing basins, detergents and dryers.
Other items are laundry baskets, pegs, hangers, big plastic nylons for packaging of laundered cloths, among others.
“A spacious ironing environment will not only make your job faster and more comfortable, it will also give you a sense of balance and relaxed feelings. It is better if you carve out a considerable part of your home for a wide ironing table, which is very important for your business,” he explained.
Aside from the required items, an important virtue an investor in the laundry business must possess is careful handling of clothes. Lack of this asset could cause more trouble than gain, by wreaking havoc on your customers’ clothes and your reputation.
You might be seeing epileptic power supply as a great challenge to the business, but the hurdle can be surmounted with a charcoal or stove iron, as a backup for the electric iron. Don’t be scared, the backup can be used without staining clients’ clothes.
This is where the expertise of experienced hands are required. You can start your marketing with words of mouth within your neighbourhood, as there are several people looking for cheap laundry services.
After a while, you can adopt some promotional strategies, like discount rates, which can be reviewed over time. Do a house-to-house sales call, and let your neighbours know that you are offering such service.
Visit offices, workplaces and corporate organisations, and let them know the type of services you offer.
Place directional sign post (you can use banners) at strategic locations within your neighborhood, and explore social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and blogs, among others.
The truth about the laundry business is that it is highly competitive, as there are many people in the business already, but the only way you can have an advantage over stiff competition is meeting up with your customers’ delivery deadlines, and to achieve this, always ensure that you adopt strategies that would help you meet up with set targets.
RECALL
- Start-up capital is little
- Can be done in the comfort of one’s home
- The business gives you time to do other things
