Service-based businesses not only allow people to save time on doing chores, but also can make their founders truly wealthy. That is why the idea of starting a laundry business in Nigeria is so hot right now. Find out how to start a laundry business in Nigeria!
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1. Choose your laundry business type
Until you get into the dry cleaning business, you may think that all laundry locations are exactly the same. However, laundry service business ideas can be divided into three main groups:
- Laundromats – a type of laundry service where the customers are doing the work by themselves, from loading the clothes into the washing machine to removing and folding the clothes. Laundromats are operated by coins.
- Staffed laundries, where most of the work is done by customers, but there is staff in place who can ensure normal operation of the laundry service, help customers, and exchange cash into coins.
- Full service washes, where every step of the laundry process, from clothes pickup to ironing, folding, and giving it back to the customer is done by laundry staff. Some full service washes even offer delivery of clothes to your location.
2. Pick the location
The challenge of choosing a location for a laundry business in Nigeria depends on the scale of your laundry service. If your laundry business plan includes operating from home, then picking the right location is out of question.
However, if you plan to rent a space to operate a laundry service, the location is crucial. Pick a place with a lot of foot and car traffic, but not too remote from residential areas in case you’ll also be doing pickups and deliveries of clothes from the customers’ locations.
3. Buy the equipment
The importance of finding the right equipment needed to start a laundry business is clear: you need to work efficiently and supply top-quality services to your customers, and that’s exactly what good equipment will help you with.
Here is a minimum of equipment you’ll need for a medium-sized laundry and dry cleaning business:
- Washing machines. Laundry machines for business will likely be the most expensive part of your laundry service business plan – the best washing machine in Nigeria with industrial capacity can cost up to ₦5,000,000.
- Washing basins – they need to be large and there has to be enough of them to soak different fabric types and colours.
- Garment conveyor for hanging and giving out finished clothes.
- Ironing table with an industrial-level press iron.
- Water tank.
- Power generator.
- Professional laundry detergent and starch.
- Tags for identifying the clothes.
- Shelves for storing the clothes.
With an exception of a home-based dry cleaning business in Nigeria, you will also need employees; you can start with two. One will manage the reception, taking the clothes in and out and dealing with customers, and the other one will run the laundry process.
Read also: best washing machine brand in Nigeria
4. How much does it cost?
By now you know a lot about how to start a laundry business, except for the expenses. Laundry and dry cleaning are often included on the lists of business ideas in Nigeria with low capital, but what is the exact cost of starting a laundry business in Nigeria?
Once again, the price of launching a laundry business depends on the scale of the operation. You can open a home-based laundry service for ₦50,000, using your own washing machine and being your own employee, although you’ll likely have to invest in a generator.
As for a full-scale laundry business, there is no cap on your potential expenses – it all depends on how many machines, irons, conveyors, generators, and employees you’ll need. The cost of opening a standard laundry starts at ₦300,000.
Find all kinds of laundry and dry cleaning equipment in Nigeria on Jiji
