Micro Business Highlight: Rose's Laundry & Dry Cleaning Business
- Admin
- Dec 15, 2016
- 3 min read
Getting dirty during your day to day activities is inevitable, regardless of what you do. However, sometimes it's hard to get time to do the cleaning. With most people’s busy schedules it is difficult to find an hour or two to do your laundry. Busy individuals opt to pay someone to do this task.
Operating a mobile laundry business can be a lucrative venture. With the country’s unemployment rates being as high as they are, any job is a blessing. Those not so fortunate to have steady employment, have to be creative in finding ways to make money. One such lady is my laundry lady and her story caught my eye. She has managed to build an impressive business operating a specialty laundromat business.
She is usually very specific about the day and time she comes to my place, and this prompted me into asking why, the reason is, she schedules time to do laundry at clients homes 6 days week and is off on Sundays
According to her, she cleans clothes for two people daily and depending on the size of the laundry and makes kshs. 1,000 daily. If you do the maths, working six days a week, four weeks a month can earn her Kshs. 24,000! Her creativity, hard work and consistency has created a livelihood for her and her family.
What makes her successful?
A Great Attitude- every time I look at her doing her job, I see passion and satisfaction. I see someone who is enjoying what she is doing. The reason for her passion is, she had once been employed but did not enjoy the freedom she has now. The other reason she loves her job so much is knowing that she has been able to provide for her family and has been able to pay for her children’s education.
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Professional and Punctual- She always makes sure she reports to work at agreed time. In case she won't make it due to certain emergencies, she ensures to inform the customer in advance and sets another day to do so.
World Class Service- By doing the job with passion, she ends up doing excellent work hence a satisfied customer. Getting a cleaning job is not as easy as you might think. You might not have a large group of clients, but trust me, doing a perfect job qualifies as a marketing tool. If someone does an excellent job for you, you will recommend them to other people who might be in need of similar services.
Boutique Services- There are lots of people in urban areas who required laundry cleaning services. However, if you want to succeed in this business, you have to avoid taking on too much. Taking too many projects than you can't handle will make you get fatigued and leave your clients unsatisfied. Provide excellent service to your manageable amount of clients.
Be trustworthy- This sounds obvious, but it’s as equally important as the others. Sometimes I am not around, but that doesn't mean my dirty laundry won't need cleaning. In this case, I just leave the key under the doormat, and when my cleaning lady comes, she does her business and returns the key. I have never had an issues with this arrangement.
With the high level of joblessness in Kenya, you cannot afford to choose work. You can start of by doing laundry and later on invest in commercial laundry equipment for a full fledged dry cleaning business. All you need to do is leave a trail of happy clients.
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