Q&A: The Laundry Woman’s revolutionary laundry service goes world

Beginning as a solo operation, Laundry Woman has remodeled the common-or-garden laundry service into a versatile enterprise mannequin empowering a whole lot throughout Australia and even past.

We speak to founder Susan Toft to study extra about how she recognized a spot out there, leveraged know-how to scale sustainably, and constructed a purpose-driven enterprise that champions flexibility, empowerment, and innovation within the laundry trade.

ISB: What impressed you to supply one thing distinctive for the laundry service trade?

ST: It was actually about filling that market hole – not a laundromat DIY possibility, and never giant business scale. I wished one thing that will go well with busy households, small enterprise homeowners and aged care (plus NDIS right here in Australia), with the comfort of pickup and supply. On the identical time, I envisioned a enterprise mannequin that will assist on a regular basis individuals in their very own work-from-home endeavours.

From being a solo operation, what was essentially the most difficult facet of increasing the enterprise and the way did you overcome it?

Within the early days, I used to be utilizing a number of off-the-shelf methods to handle buyer bookings and contractor scheduling, and a handbook fee course of. Laundry Woman wanted extra superior digital reserving platforms and processes to onboard the next quantity of contractors to maintain up with demand, and assist progress – all on a bootstrap funds! Programs and processes are vital foundations for growth, particularly when you’ve a geographically dispersed workforce and buyer base. Laundry Woman collaborated with a developer on a retainer foundation, and in late 2023, we rolled out a market-first digital platform (TimeBoss) that integrates superior AI applied sciences, managing each stage of a buyer’s laundry service. It’s an trade first!

How vital are your Laundry women and lads to your online business, and the way do you assist them in return?

Our Laundry Women and Lads (we now have 400 of them throughout Australia and New Zealand, and shortly Canada) perform the precise providers and are vital to our enterprise. We’re proud to champion girls, offering them with alternatives for flexibility, monetary independence, private empowerment, and extra time. Ninety per cent of our contractors are feminine. We additionally assist individuals whose first language isn’t English. We accommodate varied cultures and backgrounds. They be part of us as a result of they’re on the lookout for versatile work-from-home choices, with low start-up prices and ongoing assist.

We assist get our contractors the shoppers to allow them to begin incomes rapidly on the capability they determine. Serving to our Laundry Women and Lads to realize their very own versatile companies is what evokes me on daily basis in constructing this enterprise. I’ve simply launched a brand new podcast, The Spin Out, which is on the market for everybody to take heed to, however positively has our workforce of Laundry Women and Lads in thoughts as we talk about the elusive work-life steadiness and share actual tales of individuals taking management of their time and future.

How have been you in a position to develop the enterprise abroad?

Earlier this 12 months we efficiently raised $1million in seed funding to gas growth into Canada and the UK. The oversubscribed spherical was led by Karl Jacoby and supported by Brisbane Angels, AngelLoop, AI entrepreneur Dr Catriona Wallace, and different South East Queensland-based angel traders. The spherical included assist from Federal and State Governments, together with the Queensland Authorities’s Feminine Founders Co-Funding Fund and Austrade’s Export Market Improvement Grant, bringing the overall to $1 million.

What’s your imaginative and prescient for Laundry Woman within the subsequent couple of years?

Internationally, we’re launching in Canada in November and the UK subsequent 12 months, constructing on our profitable New Zealand growth mannequin. These markets align completely with our values round versatile work and comfort, plus they’ve beneficial enterprise environments for our contractor mannequin. We’re additionally persevering with to develop our footprint in Australia and New Zealand – there are nonetheless loads of areas the place busy households and companies want our providers! We’re going for progress on a number of fronts.

If there’s one recommendation you’ll be able to impart to somebody who desires to begin a enterprise as a way for constructive change, what would it not be?

Have a transparent imaginative and prescient from the beginning about why you might be beginning the enterprise. It will kind your long-term values and tradition. For me, it was all about creating flexibility in individuals’s lives. Your why says every little thing about who you might be and what your online business is. Folks will be part of you as a result of they resonate with this.