As the laundry needs of a business expand, it becomes increasingly likely that it will benefit from a commercial wash service. These types of services specialize in offering high-quality laundry services at an affordable rate. When you factor in the opportunity cost of doing laundry on your own, it is often cheaper or comparable in cost to pay another company to do it (and much more convenient).
Laundry & Opportunity Cost
Many types of businesses have some level of laundry need. Uniforms, linens and just about any other cloth or cloth-like material will get dirty over time, especially with significant use. If a business wants these items to stay clean and presentable, laundry is a necessity.
For businesses with a small laundry need, such as those that only need to wash a couple uniforms or tablecloths every week, commercial wash services may not be a necessary consideration. However, as a business’s laundry needs increase, issues can pile up quickly.
It can seem intuitive that doing your own laundry is cheaper than paying someone else to do it. This can sometimes be true. However, many businesses fail to account for opportunity cost. Doing laundry takes time and resources. It isn’t free to do on your own.
Gain Time, Gain Money
A business needs employees to dedicate labor time to do laundry. That is time that needs to be paid for and could have been spent doing something more profit driven. In effect, this can cost double — once for the time that is required to do the laundry and again for the fact a business is spending on time that could have instead been used to generate cash flow.
If a business is spending significant amounts of time on laundry, especially if multiple employees are needed to perform the task, it becomes increasingly likely that they may make money by using a commercial wash service. This is because using a commercial service gives a business time. An employee can be reassigned to a more profitable, important task because a different company can now handle the relatively low-skill, high-time commitment required to do laundry.
This time can also be “pocketed,” meaning that a business can decide it doesn’t need to reassign an employee who would normally do laundry in a given period and can instead not schedule those hours. This essentially offsets the cost of paying for a laundry service more directly. The laundry service costs X, but the employee who ordinarily would have done the laundry costs Y, so the total savings or loss is X minus Y.
The Value of Specialization
Specialization can be highly beneficial when it comes to reducing costs and improving quality of service. Consider how effectively a business like a reputable commercial washing service can clean linens and similar items. The business is highly incentivized to become more efficient and better at cleaning.
Because of its business model, it is also cleaning on a much larger scale than the average non-cleaning specialized company would when addressing its own needs. It will have larger machines, more efficiently sourced cleaning materials that can be bought in bulk and more. It costs such a business less to clean to the same standard than it would cost a nonspecialist, meaning it can often offer services at an appealing rate while still making a profit.
Making use of a specialist also allows your own business to better specialize. Rather than spending resources trying to do something secondary, an expert can do it. You can instead spend your resources improving on what you’re already good at, gaining an edge in your industry and appealing to your market for many of the same reasons a commercial wash service appeals to its market.
Choosing a Commercial Laundry Service
A commercial laundry service needs to be able to properly serve the needs of a business at a competitive rate. Make sure to research the companies you are considering using. Assess whether they can meet your needs and if any alternatives might be available that can offer the same quality of service at a better price. Some common considerations you should make are whether a business can operate at the scale you need; how often it can pick up and deliver laundry; and if it is capable of handling particularly sensitive items, such as those that can only be dry cleaned.
How Alsco Can Help
If your business is spending significant time and resources on laundry, consider if a commercial wash service might be a better option. Making use of a specialist company comes with many benefits, especially if meeting your own needs has been a hassle in the past. It’s also convenient and allows a business to focus on what it was designed to handle.
Alsco is more than capable of handling a wide variety of laundry needs. We’re a well-established, well-loved laundry company (and more), and we have been helping businesses maintain their linens for many decades. Read about what we can offer, and contact us with any questions.