Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Salvador.
Carlos, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started this company as a school project during my MBA program. We were tasked with coming up with a small business that could be done over the 10 weeks I was in class at CSUSB. I came up with this idea because I had doing laundry and figured I wouldn’t be the only one. In the beginning, I would only service students in college dorms. I started this business with literally $120 dollars that I spent on starting a very simple plain website, 100 flyers, and one t-shirt that had my self-made logo. It took about two weeks before I finally got my first customer and that was because I offered them a free trial. I would walk around campus after work and passed out flyers and talked to students who lived in the dorms about the laundry service. Students were a little uneasy with sending their laundry with someone they didn’t know. So by offering a free trial it allowed them a chance to try the service and this my only chance to make a good impression. My first customer was so happy and excited he setup a next pickup and told all his fraternity friends about the laundry service I was providing. At the end of the quarter when I had to turn in my final results I had 12 customers. Outside of my school project I realized there was a demand for this type of service. I still had my day job and after work I would work on picking up and delivering laundry. I reinvested my profits into more marketing and better laundry bags with my logo printed on them. I had to bring in my girlfriend to help me with the pickups and deliveries because I alone couldn’t handle it. At the end of the first year we had 46 weekly customers. One of the students who used our service asked if also did residential service because his mom was looking for service. She was my first residential customer and that begun the expansion into residential services. I was doing all this from the garage of my parents’ house. With hard work and dedication, I am proud to say we not only provide service to students and households but we also service companies and their employees.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This was definitely anything from a smooth road. In the beginning the biggest struggle was to get students, families, and companies to trust us with their laundry.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Sal’s Laundry Service – what should we know?
We provide laundry service to students, families, and businesses. We pickup from your home or office and deliver your laundry back to you washed, dried, and folded. We are known for our personal service and always make things right with our customers. We never fail our customers’ expectations and in the odd case we do we do everything in our power to go above and beyond to make things right.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My parents deserve a lot of credit for allowing me to do this from our garage even when the garage was full of laundry bags. My wife who always supported me and was my girlfriend who helped me in the beginning when I began expanding the business.
Pricing:
- $1.67 per pound of laundry
- No delivery or pickup fee (for orders over $20)
Contact Info:
- Website: www.salslaundry.com
- Phone: 951 384 7374
- Email: contact@salslaundry.com
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