Do you want to start a laundry business but you want to go niche and be unique? If YES, here are 22 best laundry related business ideas / opportunities for 2021. As long as there is life, there would always be dirty laundry. This fact alone has designated any business that is related with laundry as profitable.

The laundry industry comprises of establishments that primarily engage in providing self-service laundry and dry-cleaning facilities for public use; providing dry cleaning and laundering services; laundering and supplying laundered uniforms, linens and other fabric items; and providing other laundry services.

According to available statistics from year 2014 to 2015, 30,000 companies in the laundry and dry cleaning business made over 10 billion dollars in annual revenue. These companies served about 30 million people. Statistics further reveals that out of these 30,000 companies, 70% of them were retail laundry and dry cleaning operations while 30% were coin-operated laundry locations.

Without doubt, the laundry industry is a huge one and has got real growth potentials. If you want to be part of this very viable and lucrative industry, here are a few profitable businesses that you should consider starting.

22 Best Laundry & Laundromat Related Business ideas for 2021

  1. Manufacture laundry detergent

Detergent would always be used for washing laundry, and so there must always be a need for detergent. If you have the capacity to go into manufacturing, you can veer into the manufacturing of laundry detergent. Since there are different brands of laundry detergent already in the market, you have to look for a way to make your product competitive.

You can focus on manufacturing detergent for wet laundry machines, or detergent that can be used in eco-friendly washing machines. This business is capital intensive and as such may not be for everybody.

  1. Start a laundry delivery business

One way to key into the laundry industry without necessarily having your own laundry facility is to start delivering laundry for those who own the facilities. It is common to see people who let their laundry stay for weeks at the cleaners because they do not have the time to pick them up. These are the people your business would appeal to. To get started, you need to approach laundries in your area and offer to deliver laundry to their clients for a fee.

The laundries can recoup their expenses by further charging their clients a token fee for the delivery. You can as well approach people in your neighborhood and offer to ferry their dirty laundry to and from the dry cleaners to save them that stress. This business requires no startup capital, and it would be more efficient if you own a bicycle or a car.

  1. Manufacture Laundromats and washing machines

This is yet another capital intensive laundry business idea. It is only for people who can afford the huge finances that the business requires. You can focus on manufacturing industrial washing machines and coin operated Laundromats, or you can manufacture household machines that have lesser capacities. If your products are of good quality with a lesser price than is obtainable in the market, you may be able to break even real quickly.

  1. Become a laundry machine/Laundromat distributor

Without distributors, industry products would never reach their final consumers. This is a very big aspect of the market and it is very lucrative. If you want to be part of the laundry industry but you want to stay clear of the heavy finances needed in manufacturing, and you want to also stay clear of messy laundry, you can start distributing laundry machines to retailers. You can as well also double as a retailer if you can handle the responsibilities.

  1. Start an at-home laundry business

A laundry business is great way to make money at home because of the low start-up costs and the ability to set up your own hours. If you have a washing machine and dryer at home (which you most likely do), you can use them for your home laundry business. In addition to the washer and dryer, you will need a supply of laundry soap, stain remover, and dryer sheets or fabric softener.

Have a variety of soaps at hand to allow for differing tastes and health concerns. Delivering clean clothes on time will be the most important key to your success. Your pricing structure will be another important factor. You must charge enough to cover expenses and make a profit, but still make your laundry service attractively priced for customers. It is much more favorable to set prices accurately in the beginning than change them to a higher price later.

  1. Start a wet cleaning service

Wet cleaning refers to methods of professional cleaning that, in contrast to traditional dry cleaning, avoids the use of chemical solvents, the most common of which is tetrachloroethylene (commonly called perchloroethylene or “perc”). Providing wet cleaning services gives your business an eco-friendly outlook and can enable you take care of delicate garments and textiles without damaging sensitive fibers.

Wet cleaning reduces water, energy and detergent costs, and cycles are much faster and more versatile than traditional dry cleaning, saving time and maximizing profitability. Professional wet cleaning machines use water in its cleaning process.

However professional wet washing machines comes with various programs and functions that control all the elements of the cleaning process such as amount of water, solvents, detergents and even temperature. Professional wet cleaning machines can be set to have more delicate spin cycles by reducing forceful mechanical movement of the linen making them able to wash more delicate garments.

To prevent shrinkage of the garments, the machine will also set itself to wash in a lower temperature and less mechanical movements for a few moments. Instead of drying on a clothes line, in a professional wet cleaner, the garments will be transferred to high tech dryers that can sense humidity and can dry garments quickly under pressure at high temperatures.

7. Start a Mobile Laundry Service

Dirty clothes is usually a problem for a lot of people. It is time-consuming, menial, and costly to get them clean. This sounds like an opportunity to create a mobile laundry service that lets busy people outsource the chore. You can start a mobile laundry business where you provide services to your clients on a weekly or bi-weekly pick-up basis.

You come by and grab the bags of dirty laundry and return them freshly cleaned. Customers no longer have to worry about going to the Laundromat and wasting a lot of time there. You can start this business from your neighborhood on a small scale basis, because your home washing machine can only handle as much clothes.

8. Start a washing machine or Laundromat repair business

Washing machines and Laundromats are facilities that are put to work quite frequently. Because of the frequent usage, they can easily develop problems. If you are a certified technician who wants to start a laundry related business, you can start repairing broken down laundry machines or Laundromats.

You can comfortably start this business on a mobile basis while delivering your services in your client’s homes or laundries. Because of the nature of the business, you can run it alongside your day job without problems, just ensure you fix your repair timings to suit you. You can also align your services with washing machine or Laundromat retailers or wholesalers to effect repairs for them or their customers.

  1. Sell laundry machine repair parts

Selling laundry machine repair parts is another business one can start in the laundry niche. Because laundry machines would always develop faults due to constant usage, their malfunctioning parts would always need to be changed to make them efficient once more.

You can start sourcing for and retailing these pats to laundry repair technicians who need them. The key to success in this business is effective marketing. You would need to market your services for people to know what you have and where you can be found.

  1. Sell laundry equipment

When we hear of going laundry, we only ever think of the washing machine, but there are various equipment that are used to make for a complete laundry service. These equipment are mostly seen in commercial laundry facilities, and they are industrial dryers, washers, ironers, drying cabinets etc.

You can start selling these equipment both on wholesale or retail basis. You would need to be a good marketer to be able to succeed in this business. Endavour to stock equipment that have better and newer options like water efficiency and speed wash abilities.

  1. Open an online laundry equipment retail store

If you do not have the finances to open a brick and mortar laundry equipment store, you can open an online laundry retail store. This business would save you lots of overhead on opening a store, but would still enable you to sell your products to people. The key to getting ahead in this business is to build an updated user friendly website and you endavour to have it SEO optimized so that people can see it easily when they search laundry equipment on Google.

  1. Review laundry powders and additives

The fact remains that there are a lot of washing powders in the market, and many people tend to get confused on the best product to use. You can help them out by using the various products yourself and reviewing them for your readers.

This is a good business to run on a blog if you own one. If you are very good and reliable with your reviews, people would come to trust the decisions you make about products. In this way, you can get endorsement deals from detergent manufacturers.

  1. Open a self-service laundry business

A self-service laundry business, or Laundromat or coin laundry, or coin wash is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. People visit the self-service laundry, armed with coins or they can purchase their coins from the laundry attendant. With the coins at hand, they proceed to inset them into the laundry machines to enable them do their washings.

Coin operated laundry businesses are equipped with industrial cleaning units (washing machines) and professional drying units (dryers) with varying degrees of capacity. This is a very lucrative business because people would always need to wash their clothes, and not all houses have washing machines. The only drawback to this business is that it would require a very significant startup capital.

  1. Open a laundry pick-up station

If you are still uncertain if you want to go full time and let go of your hard earned money, you can decide to open a laundry pick-up station. Here, you can partner with a fully established laundry or laundries for their customers to drop off their laundries at your station, after which you would take the clothes for washing and deliver them back to their homes or your station for pick-up, as the case may be.

The commission will have to be agreed upon by the two parties. By doing this kind, you are actually building up your own market. When you feel like you have enough market, you can open up your own laundry business.

  1. Open an industrial laundry business

An industrial laundry is a laundry facility that has the capacity to carry a lot of washing at the same time. This business requires huge capital investment because of the heavy duty machines normally used in the facility.

An industrial laundry utilizes a tunnel washer and/or a heavy duty front load washer with big capacity, about 50kgs up per machine. If you have the capacity to carry out this business, you can open it and affiliate it with hospitals, hotels, motels, spas and etc. as these businesses usually carry out a lot of washings every day.

  1. Start a fluff and fold service

A fluff and fold service is another niche laundry business idea. To run this business, you are required to visit your client’s homes or offices to pick up their dirty laundry. You get to wash, dry and fold the clothes nicely before returning them back to their owners. In running this business, you would typically charge more for your services because you are offering pick-up and delivery alongside washing, drying, ironing and folding.

  1. Start a dry cleaning business

Dry cleaning is the process of cleaning clothing and textiles using a chemical solvent other than water. The cleaning fluid that is used is a liquid, and all garments are immersed and cleaned in a liquid solvent. The fact that no water is used is why the process is called “dry.”

This method is used to clean fabrics that degrade in water, and delicate fabrics that cannot withstand the rough and tumble of a washing machine and clothes dryer. Dry cleaning, in addition to eliminating labor-intensive hand washing, also preserves clothing materials. This a viable business one can start in the laundry industry, and with enough publicity, you would make headway in it.

  1. On Demand Laundry/Uber for Laundry

With the speedy proliferation of technology, a lot of things are changing, and entrepreneurs are steadily thinking of how to make lives easier for people and as well put more money in their pockets. With the Uber taxi service having taken off with a bang, a lot of other industries are keying into that Business model. One of such is the laundry industry with the establishment of the Uber laundry service.

Entrepreneurs have successfully created and launched mobile apps by which a user can request the pick-up of dirty clothes by providing his location along with a suitable time and get them delivered to his doorstep after they are washed. The ease of getting one’s clothes washed with the help of tapping a button on a smartphone has caught the fancy of people in a huge way.

Often called “Uber for Laundry”, the on demand economy has integrated so well with this industry that traditional laundry set ups are almost on the verge of being extinct. If you own a laundry, it is time to tap this technology and reinvent your business model in terms of the on demand sector.

  1. Build laundry apps

With the advent of the Uber for laundry, entrepreneurs would start looking for good laundry apps to launch their businesses on. If you are a software programmer who knows his onions, you can start building such apps for sell. Once your app is well detailed and meets the need of the market, you would make a name for yourself in the industry.

  1. Sell insurance for laundry businesses

Coin laundry or dry cleaning service owners know how important insurance is to their various businesses. From a customer’s wedding gown to the expensive equipment that’s vital to your business, there is a lot to think about protecting — and that’s where the right business insurance policy can help.

Choosing the right coverage for your laundry or dry cleaning company can help ensure that you’re ready to handle the unexpected, whether that means an accident, a fire or another event that causes damage and disrupts your business. If you are in the insurance line, you can key into this industry by selling industry appropriate insurance to laundry business owners.

  1. Manufacture and sell laundry eggs

A laundry egg is a plastic shaped egg that contains mineral pellets that generate suds in the washer to clean clothes completely, naturally and without chemicals. The typical laundry egg can clean clothes in the washer for up to three years without liquid or powder detergents, pods, or fabric softener.

The pellets inside refreshes clothes by dissolving stains, spots, and grime found in fibers, while separating dirt from fabric and ionize the water to further remove filth from garments and soften the water. This is a new entrant into the laundry industry and it is still available for investors to invest.

  1. Open an eco-laundry

Eco-laundry is laundry done with machines that combine affordability with durability and produce laundry that is clean while minimizing chemical, water, and energy use. According to research, residential clothes washers and dishwashers account for approximately 3 percent of household energy use and more than 20 percent of indoor water consumption. Starting an eco-laundry would enable a business cut that statistics by more than half. This is a good business to start for one who wants to start a laundry business.

Ejike Cynthia