When I was in college there was a group of people (I think some college students) who would come to your home and pick up your clothes once a week and bring them back all cleaned. It didn't cost very much. I loved it. The company just put a flyer on my door. I only stopped using them when they washed my white shirt with something blue and ruined my shirt. Although they tried to fix it, I was just a little afraid that it would happen again. My point is that I think this could work. If you can market it to students or busy people I think it could really take off.
Hi. think that is very great idea , never cross my mind. l for one hate ironing. l think you should type any question you have about ironing on google, there sure are people doing it. you may also consider using yahoo keyword tools and see how much demand you have. l just search this on google advice on setting up ironing and alot come ups
It can work well. Just find some corporations downtown. Drop your sales pitch offering picking up and dropping off wash and dry cleaning. You can monetize in two ways: bringing the clothes to another dry cleaning business or doing the washing and dry cleaning yourself. Either way, you just charge a bit more then the other businesses and you offer pick up and drop off. One thing to keep in mind, and this is critical, charge per item. You can find out how to charge and then you just up the charges a little bit. Count on volume and pick up/delivery to justify the charges. I personally know two people who are living comfortably offering these services. Once again, charge per item and don't take any less than five dollars per item - socks would be the cheapest serviced item. I have seen that there is definately a demand for this service. Young men and executives - especially - will be eating out of your hand. You can charge a decent premium, especially if you perform pick up and drop off services. Newbie Shield
Convenience is more important to me than price because my life is so hectic. But...instead of picking up at my house, which I am never home, you should set up a "Drop-off" and "Pick-up" center at local Day Cares. I mean, we already have to go to the day care twice a day anyway. You could give the day care a % of your monthly profits or pay a flat space rental fee. I know I would pay double for ironing if I could pick it up at my day care and not have to make another stop. I live way out of town and would not expect someone to deliver to me. Just a thought.....
Re advertising: From experience promoting my own services I have found that flyers are effective. If you live in a high density area then you can get a lot out pretty quickly. My advice is don't post them too far from where you live/work. And don't worry about making them look flash. They can just be photocopied strips with text only. Main thing is to get as many out as possible -- but of course respect "no junk mail" signs! (If you have a website then it goes without saying to put this on the flyers, too.) Also, one of the best techniques is to put leaflets up on community noticeboards at shopping centres. If you have your contact details hanging off the bottom people can tear them off. This is really cheap, it definitely does work, and you can track the response by going back a week or so later to see how many strips have been torn off.
I think this is an excellent idea but definitely one that it culture-sensitive. For example, I live in Brazil and the majority of middle-class households have a maid and one of her duties is doing the ironing. So although I believe this to be an excellent business idea I don't think it would work everywhere, but I guess for the States and the UK, where it's not common to have a maid, it probably works very well as a niche market. One extra idea you might consider is to pay someone to collect and deliver the clothes for you thereby reducing the amount of time you spend not doing your 'core' business of ironing. Presumably there would be more money to be made from actually ironing than the part of collecting and delivering. You want to be in one place with the clothes coming to you in order for you to add 'your' value rather than spending your time going from address to address waiting and collecting. Much better to pay someone a relatively small amount to do that task for you. I don't know if that helps any of you but I think that's how I would approach this business if I got involved. Good luck to all of you who have this type of business.
I'm considering getting a home based ironing business going as well. I took a trip to a local dry cleaner and was able to negotiate the sale of an steam iron they plan on replacing. Anybody have any experience with professional irons?
I am also going to be starting up a home based ironing service and am so torn whether to charge per hour or per item. I see many people suggest "per item" but how much is too much? I would love some guidance on how much to charge per item. I want people to be interested and not put off by prices but i need to make profit too. I found a great place to buy wholesale disposable garment covers on a roll. I think they said something like 500 covers on a roll for $40 which I thought was reasonable. Now i need to find wholesale hangers like the ones used in Dry Cleaners. I have a chevy suburban so i think that is going to be big enough for deliverys. ANything else anyone would like to share? Would be great if we could all help each other out .....as long as we are not in the same towns....LOL take care
Hi there, I'm here to briefly post my experience. I started my ironing business about 4 years ago. I started with one customer and decided to charge by the hour. I use a Rowenta steam generator iron (I would never do this business with any other iron). Initially, I took my own 18" wide ironing board, but it was a pill to lug into every job, so now I just use the customer's ironing board. I prefer to iron in the homes of my clients, but do bring some ironing home if they are small jobs (less than 10 pieces). If I did this from home, I would just sit and look at it or find other things to do. If I go to their homes, I get the job done and I am outta there. Besides ironing, I will fold clothes and throw a load or two in the wash to keep it going. I also put away the clothes if asked to. I had a hard time deciding whether to charge by the piece or by the hour. I chose by the hour ($10). It was too hard to decide what price to set on each type of clothing (shirts, pants, t-shirts, sheets, etc.). This works for me, especially if I get a good mix of knits and cottons (i.e. polos and dress shirts). I started this business because I didn't want to go back to a structured office job (9 to 5) after my son was born and I stumbled into this with the help of a friend who wanted me to iron for her. I started with the one customer and ironed for her for about a year before I started taking on more customers. By that time, I felt confident of my late-in-life new talent that I didn't even know I had. It was a blessing to be able to bring money home and be here for my child and not have to put him in daycare. I now iron every day of the week and I am home before the bus drops off my son. Some days are 5-6 hours, some are 2-3. I would have liked to have raised my rates when gas was 4.00 a gallon, but I didn't. So glad it has come down now. The farthest I travel is 22 miles one way from my house for 2 days every other week. Some of my clients are weekly, some are every other week. I had some really cute business cards made up on line at Vista Print. They had an ironing board business card. My title is "Iron Maiden". LOL Good luck to all of you who undertake this endeavor. It is profitable, relaxing (to me), and I have made some wonderful new friends. Kelly
Hi kelly so glad you replied to this posting because i wanted to find someone in the US who has done this. I have been doing some research over the last week and I can't find any Ironing only services (apart from the local dry cleaning company) who work from home. So i think i might be in for a good thing. I am still in the planning stages, just got myself a website with Homestead and have also had some business cards made up with Vista. I have been doing some research into the best steam irons and the Rowenta Professional range seem to be the best and the one I am particularly interested in is $94....i think it maybe the one you mentioned in your post. It has a self cleaning plate, auto shut off, etc and is commercial approved. Also been looking into garment covers and have found a company who supply the disposable ones on a roll. I am going to do this from home. I have a finished basement with a spare room which is just ready for me to get going. I am looking into an insurance to cover me from any damages and have had a car decal made up with my website and business details on which i got for $14 on ebay. Now i am still deciding on what to do about the charge per item or per hour. My problem with the hourly charge is that some people might think that I am deliberately going slowly just to make the money so i have come up with charging $30 for the first 20 items then an additional $0.75c for each additional adult garment and $0.50 for each child item. How does that sound? So i am hoping this will work, I have to register my business and get a sales tax id before i start and will hope to start in the new year or even before. I am excited about this. Also what advertising do you do...if any? I have the website, going to advertise on my truck and going to put some flyers out. Hopefully getting one or 2 regulars a week and then relying on word of mouth. sharon
just to update that I have now launched my website, got listed in google and I come up in the first few listings which is great, i have been practising with my new rowenta professional pressurized steam ironing system it is an amazing thing. It cuts my ironing time in half. I love it!!! My business cards are here, i have my garment bags, clothing rails, baskets, hangers, starch, new ironing board and have registered my business. Now...all i need are customers....lol. I am so nervous though. I have my flyers ready and my email in draft to send out to everyone in my local area. I will let you know when i get my first customers. how is everyone else doing? sharonx
alistinker: just to update that I have now launched my website, got listed in google and I come up in the first few listings which is great, Congratulations Sharon!
Hi Alistinker, That's great news Sharon. I bought my wife a high end Rowenta a couple years ago and she loves it. I guess they're the best. I wish you well in your venture and please let us know how it goes. ~Newbie Shield~
anyone have any ideas on who i should send out flyers to in the mail? I don't want to walk the streets and put them in the doors (As putting them in the mailboxes here is illegal unless in has paid postage)! I have had some lovely glossy over-sized postcards made up with Vista and have the envelopes too. I was thinking about Daycares...busy parents might have a need for this service. Any other ideas greatly appreciated. Also want to hear from anyone who is doing really great at this business. thanks in advance sharon
Hi Sharon, You need to define a target audience. 1. Who likes to have their clothes ironed (dry cleaned, patched, and what ever additional services you intend to provide)? 2. Who among your list would be willing to pay for this? Who has no time or desire to do these things themselves? Then you need to figure out where and how to reach them. Finally, which mediums will they be most receptive to. You already have a website and that's a good idea. Can you find and interact with your target audience on forums and blogs? You would need to find places that will allow a link leading back to your website. I don't know if you've noticed, but most of our forum members have links to their sites in their signature file. You can add yours by going into your profile and following the link titled "How to make links clickable". It's right below the Signature box. Then just place the link in your signature box and add some text if you like. You can currently use up to 255 characters including the link coding. How will you pick up and drop off the clothing? In person? Through the mail? In the future, through a pick up and delivery service? Is it local residents only? Will you be offering anything in addition to ironing service? If so, what? As you've suggested, daycare centers might be a potential target. You might determine some additional targets. Read some sites about dry cleaning services or seamstress sites and see if they don't outright who they think their target audience is. Same thing with forums and blogs. Look around to see what you can find. You might even look at iron ads. I would think that executives would be short on time and many would rather let others take care of their clothing. You might figure out a way to target mothers with five or more children, single fathers, folks with disabilities, etc... ~Newbie Shield~
Thank you for all the great advice. This forum is so very helpful and I appreciate all the imput. I will be so excited when I get my first customers.....my family's ironing is looking pretty fantastic right now lol ..i need other peoples clothes to work on. sharon
Congrats, Nice to see someone take action on their dream and make it a reality. Marketing is required in all businesses, and getting on google is good first step with any business, especilly a home business. One of the best means of advertising is lawn signs, I use them for several businesses I have and they are the most cost effective means of advertising I have used, and I have researched and tested every medium there is. Cable TV can be effective as well, and reasonable with the right knowlege. Since you are local oriented, you have to focus in your own town, so try some signs to start, or a magnetic sign on your vehicle is an old main stay for home businesses. Personally, if I was you, I would put out a few ironing boards, one in yard with sign, or put your car in driveway with ironing board on roof. lol I am sure you could catch some free press if you take picture and send it to all newspapers. In your face advertising is always more effective and powerful than an ad in a newspaper. Another idea is to get door hangers shaped like ironing board or iron, again, let the picture do the talking, as curiosity is a great way to get attention. Same can be put in grocery stores, and get bumper sticker shaped the same or door stickers which you can ask you local businesses if you can put one on their door. Good luck, Mike
My parents used to work from home as sub-contractants in clothing. We would have a bunch of people working in the basement sewing pieces together to make a skirt, shirt, pants, then there's a team working in the garage ironing those. We did not have a small iron bought at $10-$15 at Zellers. It was an industrial equipment. The guys (yes that's a guys job in the industry! lol) could iron thousands of clothes weekly. At least a few hundreds a day, per person. So are you considering ironing a small amount of clothes? If not, I suppose you would consider acquiring an industrial iron. Then also consider the electricity bill. There are different types and models. I wish I could help more, but I can only share my experience. I was only a kid when my parents had this business. And they no longer have it due to political and economical situations in 1995 affecting the industry drastically (in Quebec, Canada). Hope all work out for any of you going for this venture!
Do you think with the recession that there is still a demand for this kind of service? I have my flyers and door hangers ready to market but i am holding back because I am not sure if it will be worth my while? Is anyone actually doing this business and still doing well? Would love to hear from you if you are. I just need some encouragement and confidence. Surely there are still people out there looking for domestic help. Could you email me at [email protected] thanks sharon
