How to Start an Online Laundry Business
Online businesses are starting up in every niche of society, and one of the surprising but profitable businesses is online laundry service. The company acts as your average laundromat service, only it saves you the hassle and time needed to leave your home and clean the clothes personally.
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Instructions
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Create a business name and plan. Do your best to form a catchy or unique business name. If nothing comes to mind, you could use "[Last Name] Laundromat." Contact your local government and apply to become an official business. Inform the secretary about the type of business you plan to establish and ask whether any other paperwork and/or actions are required for an online enterprise. Write up your business plan for investors.
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Purchase a domain name and set up a professional website. If possible, purchase the domain name of your company. If that is not available, try the initials or a close alternative to that name. Domain names are very cheap, as is the monthly cost of the server (some may combine the two costs). If you have little or no background in HTML, hire a professional web designer to create the site. Make sure you establish an electronic payment option so customers can easily pay you over the web.
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Invest in the infrastructure and goods needed to successfully operate your business. You'll need a decent-size building with a specific number of washers and dryers based on estimated demand. Make sure you have room to expand if the demand increases.
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Hire the appropriate number of employees. At first, you may get by as the sole operator. However, if the demand increases, you may need separate individuals to operate the washers and dryers, organize incoming and outgoing shipments, and run the website and handle finances. Begin with yourself and/or one other employee for starters.
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Set up the your preferred method for handling transactions over the web. Since you're business is online, you'll more than likely want to complete all customer-to-business transactions over the web. You should set up some type of escrow, such as with PayPal. This provides the customers reassurance that their money is being handled properly and their personal information is safe. You'll need to establish a secure page where buyers can enter in personal information such as name, address and credit card number. You may also accept checks, but it's probably not worth the extra hassle.
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Establish a deal with a shipping company and provide your rates on the website. You may want to invest in the extra costs to pick up the laundry personally because the point of your company is to provide laundry service without the customer having to leave home. However, you could also provide the boxes needed to ship the clothes and fund a portion of the shipping cost or the entire cost. Several options exist, and you may be able to cut a deal with a company such as UPS or FedEx. (Take a look at what Netflix has done, as its mail-based movie-rental business is incredibly popular.)
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