Adam Nelson quite his job to focus on laundromats and wants to capitalise on what he believed could be a cultural shift. (Source: Supplied)Earlier this year, Adam Nelson quit his “high paying” job to focus on what many Aussies might think is an unusual business in a country famous for inventing the Hills Hoist – the rotating clothesline that became a staple of Aussie backyards in decades past. But he believes that when it comes to washing our clothes, there’s a quiet cultural shift taking place. And he is cashing in.
He opened his first laundromat in 2016 and it nearly sent him broke. At the time, he had a mortgage he “couldn’t afford” and his wife had just had their first child, so he asked his then-boss for advice on potential business opportunities to bring in more money.
That’s when his manager showed him the numbers on a laundromat business he owned.
“I was like, ‘Who the hell even uses laundromats?'” Nelson recalled to Yahoo Finance.
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But he ultimately decided to follow him into the industry and soon found a site for lease in Tweed Heads South, in northern NSW, and set the business up.
“I had maybe $50,000 equity my house at that time, and I ripped it out as collateral to get a small loan to fit it out,” he said.
“To be honest, the first two years, it nearly sent me bankrupt.”
He later realised his boss had shown him the numbers of a high <a t it.
“I had my expectations set quite high… It didn’t perform that well for at least two or three years,” Nelson said. But eventually it came good and continues to show steady growth.
The self service laundromats require no staffing and little overhead once fully set-up
In 2022, he opened his second laundromat across the border in Coomera, Queensland, which he said was practically an “instant success” and reached profitability in about seven months.
In June, he quit his job and set up laundromat number three in Southport, Queensland.
He has also signed leases for two more sites and has ambitions to begin turning the business into a franchise model.
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According to Nelson, most people assume such a business is onlyk the space for washing facilities and there is critical mass of population
“But it’s not what you think,” he said.
“The real secret with it is renters,” he told Yahoo Finance. “So all those large land developments where majority of it is bought by investors and then they’re obviously rented out. That’s sort of the secret sauce. I can’t really put my finger on why that’s the case, it’s just that a high amount of renters equals high amount of customers.”
