JAHOPE LAUNDRY
It feels just like yesterday when my best friend and I got talking about money and how broke I was and wanted to open a laundry house just to have a source of income at least. Since I graduated in April 2014 I haven't been able to secure a job and it's six months already, just been staying home idle
watching TV. He looked at me calmly, and said, "omo iya" meaning "my mother's child" in our native language, what is the basic things you really need to start the business now? I said, a table and an iron. Both of which I had. Since you have the basic tools go and start. If you're ironing and something goes wrong with the iron, go to your neighbor and borrow. If while using your neighbor's he comes calling for it, give it back and go borrow from the next neighbor and get the job done. He sounded so funny that we both laughed for a while. It was all the motivation I needed as it turned out. That same week,
I started with my own laundry by washing, starching and ironing all my clothes which I beautifully packaged and displayed them in my mini pick up office. Truly, it isn't what you don't have that keeps you stalked but rather what you have but failed to use rightly.
It might surprise you to know that less than two months later I was able to develop a simple business plan that major on the following; vision, mission, niche, marketing and advertising, budgeting and accounting, bookkeeping and records, customer service and feedbacks, and evaluation. These keys guided me using simple approaches like for instance,
regarding my niche, I concentrated on my immediate environment while picking on certain types of customers before eventually including other neighboring environments in my town years later. Kept it simple still with bookkeeping, stocks, marketing and advertising and stayed within my means all through. I remembered buying a color printer back then which I used to print fliers that I designed with my laptop and shared in my neighborhood and church, banks as a means of advertising and it was quite effective. I created and designed low cost laundry packages services for various types of customers to choose from which included home services and delivery.
Within a year, I was able to successfully register my business with the cooperate affairs commission. Customers generally gave us positive feedbacks regarding our services which they enjoyed. This was sort of easy for me as a person because being a Christian who believes in loving and treating others with God's love as I would like to be treated as well. This made being nice to each and every customer easy that it simply became my personality and I never stopped preaching it to my employees. Turns out each and every customer had a unique experience with us each and every time which made them kept coming back to patronize us. Today, we do business with hundreds of people from my town varying from students to singles, working class, married couples, the rich, kings and corporate institutions like hotels and it's been nine years
Already. Oh, we also broke the sole proprietorship laundry house don't go pass five years jinx. Proverbs 22:29,
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. Honestly, I can't really say there is a trick to all of this but one thing I have done is keeping to the basic business plan that I started with given its
I have come to realize that it's not the absence of money that makes anyone poor but the absence of value which he can bring to the market place for exchange. 2Timothy 2:20-21, 20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
I strongly believe that anyone can create wealth if value is identified and refined and brought to the market place to be exchanged for a price of choice.
