Laundromat Ownership

This week the host is the guest. Ian Gollahon sits down with Beau Hamilton on the SourceForge Podcast to explain what a laundromat POS system does, which laundromats need one and what to compare when choosing a laundromat POS.SourceForge is a software review site, similar to Capterra, where business owners read and write reviews of the software they use. Beau asks the questions a first-time buyer would ask, and Ian answers from two sides: as co-owner of Liberty Laundry, three stores in the Tulsa area, and as co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS.Ian explains the difference between a self-serve payment system and a laundromat POS, why unattended stores usually do not need a POS and why a generic retail POS like Square stops being useful once a wash-dry-fold order is rung up. He covers the costs that matter more than the monthly subscription, how machine start integrations tie attendant machine starts to orders, and why first-time owners who start with delivery often struggle.What's covered:• Laundromat POS systems vs. self-serve payment systems• Attended vs. unattended laundromats• Why Square and other retail POS systems fall short for wash-dry-fold• Total cost: processing fees, hardware and training time• Self-serve payment and machine start integrations• Machine start ratio and attendant theft• Timestamps and audit trails for lost laundry• Time clocks and attendant to-do lists• Why delivery should come after a busy wash-dry-fold service• Scaling one dashboard across multiple stores and LLCs• Picking a POS that fits your priorities• How Wash-Dry-Fold POS uses AI in development, websites and support00:00 Introduction: Ian on the SourceForge Podcast00:48 Meet Ian Gollahon and Wash-Dry-Fold POS02:58 Liberty Laundry as the Testing Ground04:44 What a Laundromat POS System Is06:43 Does Every Laundromat Need a POS?09:08 Why Square Falls Short for Wash-Dry-Fold12:19 What to Compare When Choosing a Laundromat POS16:18 Self-Serve Payment and Machine Start Integrations18:39 Audit Trails, Lost Laundry and Employee Theft22:01 Time Clocks and Attendant To-Do Lists24:55 The Biggest Mistake: Starting With Delivery28:55 Scaling From One Store to Many30:52 Is There One Best Laundromat POS?33:50 How Wash-Dry-Fold POS Uses AI37:45 The AI Support Chatbot39:17 Where to Learn MoreIan Gollahon is co-owner of Liberty Laundry, a three-store laundromat chain in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area that did $2.5 million in revenue in 2025, and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point-of-sale system for laundromats. He has spoken with more than 3,000 laundromat owners over the last decade.washdryfoldpos.comwashdryfoldpos.com/choosing-a-laundromat-pos-sourceforge-podcast/sourceforge.net/articles/laundromat-pos-system-laundry-software-wash-dry-fold-pos-sourceforge-podcast-episode-135/libertylaundryok.comlaundromat-ownership.com

Gross revenue, SDE, EBITDA, free cash flow and net income all describe what a laundromat earns, but each one measures something different. Ian Gollahon explains what each metric includes, how they compare to each other and when a buyer, seller or bank would use each one.This is Part 3 of Ian's laundromat valuation series, written alongside his Full Cycle Magazine article from the CLA. Part 1 covered leases and assets, and Part 2 covered gross revenue and SDE. This episode focuses on EBITDA and free cash flow.EBITDA takes out the costs that depend on who owns the business, so it shows what the laundromat could earn for any owner. Free cash flow works the other way. It reflects your own loans, your own taxes and the cost of replacing machines, which is why banks use it to judge whether a laundromat can carry its debt.What's covered:• Gross revenue, SDE, EBITDA, free cash flow and net income: what each one measures and how they compare• Why EBITDA takes out interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization• Why a buyer's interest, taxes and depreciation could be higher or lower than yours• How entity type affects what a laundromat pays in taxes• Asset sales, depreciation and goodwill• CapEx and the cost of replacing machines• How banks use free cash flow• Where the owner's salary shows up in each metric• Why laundromat listings often use these terms loosely00:00 Introduction and Part 3 of the Valuation Series01:04 Recap: Leases, Assets, Gross Revenue and SDE03:29 What EBITDA Is05:06 Earnings Before Interest07:03 Taxes and Entity Type09:00 Depreciation and the Asset Sale10:59 Amortization and Goodwill11:52 Why EBITDA Differs From Net Income12:28 Free Cash Flow13:11 CapEx: Who Pays for New Machines14:56 EBITDA Depersonalizes, Free Cash Flow Personalizes15:33 Why Banks Use Free Cash Flow16:38 Owner Salary and Free Cash Flow vs. SDE18:00 Next Episode: Net Income18:38 Clearing Up the Confusion in Laundromat ListingsIan Gollahon is co-owner of Liberty Laundry, a three-store laundromat chain in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area that did $2.5 million in revenue in 2025, and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point-of-sale system for laundromats. He has spoken with more than 3,000 laundromat owners over the last decade.washdryfoldpos.comlibertylaundryok.comlaundromat-ownership.comlaundryassociation.org/fullcycle/2026/09/how-much-is-your-laundromat-worth/

Carmen Cardiel helps run 55+ laundromat locations across Arizona and Southern California. She joins Ian Gollahon to break down the systems that hold up at that scale, and the ones that quietly fall apart.Carmen has been with Coinless Laundry for 12 years. She runs operations from the Arizona corporate office, which manages 33 stores, with a satellite office in Santa Ana covering Southern California. Fourteen stores offer wash and fold, three processing plants handle the commercial and bulk work, and almost 200 employees make it run.Coinless documents every machine outage twice a day, on the AM and PM shifts, and keeps separate on-call rotations for maintenance and for systems. Carmen's own request for a plain "is this machine operational, yes or no" filter changed how Wash-Dry-Fold POS handles repair tickets, because sorting a squeaky washer from a dead one matters differently at 55 stores than at three.Carmen also walks through running Cents and Wash-Dry-Fold POS side by side, and why Coinless consolidated onto one system. Her deciding factors were what her staff could learn and use at the counter, plus the long-term math on subscriptions and card processing across every location. Ian explains why processing terms barely register at low volume and turn into one of the largest line items as a chain grows.Then there is the hardware. Coinless runs true Windows PCs at the counter, not Android tablets, because one commercial customer makes her staff log into an outside portal and upload photos into someone else's database. The POS is the brain of the laundromat, so it has to drive the weight scale and the label printer, and still open a browser.Topics covered:• Running 55+ locations across two states from two offices• Windows POS hardware compared to Android tablet systems• Why card processing scales into a major cost at multiple locations• Running Cents and Wash-Dry-Fold POS side by side, and why they consolidated• What a laundromat processing plant is, and why you cannot start with one• Training almost 200 employees on the same procedures• Why Arizona laundromats slow down in summerChapters:00:00 Intro00:42 Carmen's background and 55 stores across two states02:31 Wash and fold locations and three processing plants03:44 Training almost 200 employees05:15 The two biggest challenges at any scale06:01 Maintenance and twice-daily machine reporting07:45 The repair ticket filter Carmen asked for09:41 What a laundromat processing plant actually is11:55 Why you cannot open a processing plant first14:53 From paper tickets to a POS system17:32 Running Cents and Wash-Dry-Fold POS side by side19:38 Subscriptions and card processing at scale21:03 Features compared to ease of use26:05 Windows PCs compared to Android tablets30:33 The craziest thing Carmen has seen, and the FBI34:17 ClosingIan Gollahon is co-owner of Liberty Laundry, three laundromats in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point of sale system for laundromats.https://coinlesslaundry.comhttps://www.washdryfoldpos.comhttps://www.libertylaundryok.comhttps://www.laundromat-ownership.com

Stephen Gramaglia spent 21 years at Eastern Funding watching laundromats succeed and fail before he ever owned one. Then he built CleanFresh Laundromat into four of the largest, cleanest, fully attended stores in the New York City area, and his busiest location now moves thousands of pounds of wash-dry-fold every week.Stephen opened his first store in May 2020, in the middle of the COVID shutdown, and went against everything the industry was known for: small, dark, and unattended. He built big, spotless, "bougie" laundromats in densely populated Manhattan and Yonkers and ran them as a premium full-service experience. In this conversation he explains what 21 years of financing laundromats taught him about why owners fail, why undercapitalization is the number one killer, and how he runs high-volume wash-dry-fold across multiple locations without living at the store. He and Ian also get into commercial hardware, the dashboard numbers that drive staffing, tracking employee card usage to catch theft, and building a multi-generational family business.What you'll learn:• Building large, clean, fully attended laundromats against the industry grain• 21 years inside Eastern Funding and what really makes laundromat loans go bad• Why undercapitalization is the number one reason new owners fail• Running high-volume wash-dry-fold across multiple locations• Attendant ownership of every order, from sort to wash to dry to fold to bag• Weighing orders in and out to catch missing items fast• Why commercial POS hardware beats a cheap laptop at scale• Employee theft and the machine start ratio that exposes itTimestamps:00:00 Introduction01:39 Four large NYC laundromats and the "bougie" positioning04:27 21 years at Eastern Funding08:33 Why laundromat loans go bad: undercapitalization14:02 How much cash you really need to start14:35 Revenue mix and high-volume wash-dry-fold18:00 Operating at scale: systems and accountability22:52 Weighing orders in and out to catch missing items24:39 Why commercial POS hardware beats a cheap laptop31:06 Building the dashboard operators actually need34:06 Laundry cards, WashLynx, and tracking card usage36:37 Employee theft and the machine start ratio39:44 Building a multi-generational family business46:15 The craziest things he's seen in his storesIan Gollahon is the co-owner of Liberty Laundry in Tulsa, Oklahoma — three stores, $2.5M in revenue in 2025 — and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point of sale system built specifically for laundromats.washdryfoldpos.comlibertylaundryok.comlaundromat-ownership.comcleanfreshlaundromat.comeasternfunding.com

Two numbers tell you almost everything about what a laundromat is worth: gross revenue and SDE. Ian Gollahon breaks down both — what they mean, how they connect, and exactly what belongs in seller discretionary earnings and what does not.This is Part 2 of a 4-part series on laundromat valuation, running alongside Ian's ongoing feature in Full Cycle Magazine from the CLA. Part 1 covered the asset sale and the lease. This episode moves to the earnings side: gross revenue as your quick gut-check, and SDE as the number brokers, the SBA, and most buyers actually price a laundromat on.You'll learn why laundromats typically sell for one to two times gross revenue, why Eastern Funding often lends on 50 to 70 weeks of revenue, and why you can never make an offer on gross revenue alone. Then Ian walks through SDE line by line — the owner's S-Corp salary add-back, and the difference between the costs you add back and the income you strip out.What's covered:• Gross revenue: why 1x to 2x is the typical range, and what it hides• The Eastern Funding 50 to 70 week rule of thumb• Why the SBA recommends SDE for businesses under $5 million in revenue• The S-Corp owner salary add-back — the single biggest SDE adjustment• What to ADD into SDE: owner salary, unnecessary personal vehicles, trade show and conference travel (Clean Show, Excellence in Laundry), redundant family payroll, lifestyle extras like magazine subscriptions• What to LEAVE OUT of SDE: non-operating interest income from cash in an investment account, one-time equipment sales, and cash windfalls like COVID-era city or state grants• Why roughly 3x SDE lands you right back at about 60 weeks of gross revenue• How SDE differs from EBITDA, and when each one mattersTimestamped chapters (estimated — verify before uploading):00:00 Introduction and Series Recap01:30 Gross Revenue: The Big Number03:15 The 50 to 70 Week Rule05:00 What Gross Revenue Hides06:15 SDE: Seller Discretionary Earnings07:45 The S-Corp Salary Add-Back09:15 What to Add Into SDE11:30 What to Leave Out of SDE13:15 3x SDE and How the Numbers Line Up15:00 What's Coming on EBITDAIan Gollahon is co-owner of Liberty Laundry, a three-store laundromat chain in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area that did $2.5 million in top-line revenue in 2025. He's also co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point-of-sale system for laundromats, and has spoken with more than 3,000 laundromat owners over the last decade.washdryfoldpos.comlibertylaundryok.comlaundromat-ownership.comlaundryassociation.org/fullcycle/