The Bare Minimum Needed to Accept Customers

It’s weird that I’m posting twice in as many weeks, when I went 18 months without writing a thing.

I wanted to write this down because I know I’m going to go through this again and I want to document it so that next time I have reference.

In my last post I discussed how I was opening an oil change shop in the building behind my current store. Here, I want to discuss the difference between opening this business and opening Feather Laundry back in 2016. And that difference is mostly how much time and money I have.

I went through and read some of the stuff I wrote back then and there was a lot of lofty stuff. Things like Mission Statement, Value Proposition, Core Competency, etc. It’s not that these things are not important, they are. It’s that other things take priority, especially when time is concerned.

And what are those priorities?

The bare minimum needed to accept customers.

That means I need to build a payment acceptance infrastructure, which entails a bank account, which entails company registration with the State of Texas. It also means a customer waiting area and hopefully working bathrooms. But I don’t even know if there’s plumbing to the warehouse. The good news is that my laundry store is right next door so I can send customers in there to use the bathroom in the meantime.

The way I’m thinking about this is from the perspective of the customer. So if I need an oil change, first thing I do is Google it. That means the business needs to be on Google Maps ASAP. As, a customer, I may need to call them. Then I go there. When I get there, there should be at least 1 sign on the door so I know I’m in the right place. I tell them what I need done, and they tell me how long it’ll take and how much it will cost. I only need an oil change so should be 30 minutes tops. I go into the waiting area. A TV is not necessary, just AC and Wifi and some chairs. Ideally they finish much faster than they told me. I pay and I leave.

Here’s a list of the bare minimum that needs to be done on the back end to allow this customer experience:

1. Company Registration with the State of Texas.
2. Federal Employer Identification Number.
3. Bank Account.
4. Business Phone Number.
5. Business on Google Maps.
6. Payment Acceptance Hardware and Software (iPad w Square).
7. Sign in and Queue software.
8. Mechanic.
9. Tools.
10. Inventory of Popular Motor Oils and Filters.
11. Sign on the Door.

Notice there are important things that should be on this list but are not. Turning on the water and electricity, for example. But in order to do that you need a Certificate of Occupancy from the city or the power company won’t turn it on. Last time it took me 4 months to get that certificate. But supposedly, if you are not changing the function of the building from the previous tenant (which I am not with this one, but I had to on the last one), then it takes less than a week. We will find out. In order to get that certificate I need a copy of the lease with the landlord.

1. Lease.
2. Certificate of Occupancy.
3. Water.
4. Electricity.
5. Waste Disposal.
6. Running Bathroom.
7. Internet and Wifi.

Now you must be thinking how the hell are you going to have an AC in the waiting room without electricity? I’m going to run an extension cord from my store! I know it sounds crazy, but the purpose of this post is to lay out my plan for myself. The goal here is to accept customers as soon as possible. Honestly, it’s November and the AC is not even necessary! I could use the extension cord to charge the iPad! How will I offer wifi? I’ll use the iPad as a local hotspot. lol.

The first list are things that absolutely have to be done to open. The second list are things that I can bypass, only if necessary, because my other store is right next door and my apartment is right above that.

Why the urgency to open the door? Because I believe I can generate at least 1 or 2 oil changes a day immediately by running some ads on Google. That money, even $100 a day, is going to matter just to pay the employees. Otherwise it’s coming out of my pocket. By the way, this is going to cost a shit ton of money. I’m guessing $5,000 bare minimum. I always underestimate.

I made the decision to do this on Thursday. As I write this, it’s Saturday, and this is my plan. All of this is purposeful. I cannot waste a single minute or I’m risking utter failure with both businesses. Feather Laundry is entering a rough patch. I have a 9 month window. I think I’ll get through it, but just in case I’m opening another revenue source. It is going to be much easier to get a new company from $0 to $600 a day than taking Feather Laundry from $600 to $1,200 a day. I was nearly there before the pandemic but I’ve lost a lot of corporate customers since. Lost roughly 50% of my business seemingly over night. I believe entering a new market will be easier than doubling my sales in the current one.

The good news is, I already have the company name, logo, and .com.

This story is part of a series documenting the journey of a Dallas startup called Feather Laundry. For your reference here is the Table of Contents for the series.

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