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 summer

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:42 Carmen's background and 55 stores across two states

02:31 Wash and fold locations and three processing plants

03:44 Training almost 200 employees

05:15 The two biggest challenges at any scale

06:01 Maintenance and twice-daily machine reporting

07:45 The repair ticket filter Carmen asked for

09:41 What a laundromat processing plant actually is

11:55 Why you cannot open a processing plant first

14:53 From paper tickets to a POS system

17:32 Running Cents and Wash-Dry-Fold POS side by side

19:38 Subscriptions and card processing at scale

21:03 Features compared to ease of use

26:05 Windows PCs compared to Android tablets

30:33 The craziest thing Carmen has seen, and the FBI

34:17 Closing

Ian 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.com

https://www.washdryfoldpos.com

https://www.libertylaundryok.com

https://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 it

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

01:39 Four large NYC laundromats and the "bougie" positioning

04:27 21 years at Eastern Funding

08:33 Why laundromat loans go bad: undercapitalization

14:02 How much cash you really need to start

14:35 Revenue mix and high-volume wash-dry-fold

18:00 Operating at scale: systems and accountability

22:52 Weighing orders in and out to catch missing items

24:39 Why commercial POS hardware beats a cheap laptop

31:06 Building the dashboard operators actually need

34:06 Laundry cards, WashLynx, and tracking card usage

36:37 Employee theft and the machine start ratio

39:44 Building a multi-generational family business

46:15 The craziest things he's seen in his stores

Ian 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.com

libertylaundryok.com

laundromat-ownership.com

cleanfreshlaundromat.com

easternfunding.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 matters

Timestamped chapters (estimated — verify before uploading):

00:00 Introduction and Series Recap

01:30 Gross Revenue: The Big Number

03:15 The 50 to 70 Week Rule

05:00 What Gross Revenue Hides

06:15 SDE: Seller Discretionary Earnings

07:45 The S-Corp Salary Add-Back

09:15 What to Add Into SDE

11:30 What to Leave Out of SDE

13:15 3x SDE and How the Numbers Line Up

15:00 What's Coming on EBITDA

Ian 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.com

libertylaundryok.com

laundromat-ownership.com

laundryassociation.org/fullcycle/

Laundry lockers are one of the most requested features in laundromat software, and Wash-Dry-Fold POS just shipped them. In this episode, Ian Gollahon sits down with Cole Norton, one of the developers behind the new laundry locker system, to break down how it works and why it opens up new ways to make money.

Cole walks through the full customer experience, from scheduling a locker online through the My Laundry Order app to dropping off laundry at an unattended store after hours. He explains why the system was built to work with any setup, whether you have high-tech smart lockers or just a box with a master lock on it. Ian and Cole also dig into the unattended laundromat angle: how lockers let customers drop off and pick up around the clock without staff behind the desk.

If you run a laundromat and want to grow drop-off and wash-dry-fold revenue without adding labor, this conversation lays out exactly what the new locker feature does and how to put it to work.

What you will learn:

• How the laundry locker system works with smart lockers, simple drop boxes, or anything in between

• Why lockers make unattended and after-hours drop-off possible

• How customers schedule, pay, and leave instructions through the My Laundry Order app

• Why the customer never sees a third-party marketplace, only your branded store

• How to point customers to your locker page with a website link or a printed QR code

• Why laundry lockers are included free for all Wash-Dry-Fold POS subscribers

Topics covered:

• The new Wash-Dry-Fold POS laundry locker feature

• Drop box vs. individually numbered lockers

• Running an unattended or after-hours laundromat

• Online scheduling and payment through My Laundry Order

• Branded, marketplace-free customer experience

• Growing pickup and delivery and wash-dry-fold revenue

Chapters:

00:00 Cold open

00:57 Welcome and introductions

01:58 Why laundry lockers, and how AI tools made it possible

02:50 Do you need a specific brand of locker?

04:04 Drop box vs. individual lockers

05:27 Running an unattended laundromat with lockers

07:37 The customer drop-off experience

09:04 Using lockers with or without the online app

09:39 Website links and QR codes

10:54 A branded experience with no third-party marketplace

11:28 How many lockers can you add?

13:52 Included free for all subscribers

14:10 Cole on tech support and customer feedback

15:15 Development hours and the AI advantage

16:13 Wrap-up

Hosted by Ian Gollahon, co-owner of Liberty Laundry in Tulsa, Oklahoma and co-founder of Wash-Dry-Fold POS, the original point of sale system built for laundromats.

washdryfoldpos.com

libertylaundryok.com

laundromat-ownership.com

Omer Khan is a second-generation laundromat owner running four fully attended Skyline Laundromats in Atlanta. He grew up pulling quarters on the weekends, spent a few years in corporate America, and came back to build the business into a 24-person operation where pickup and delivery is now starting to outgrow self-service.

This conversation is loaded with operator-level detail you can actually use. Omer breaks down why he's converting his back storage into a dedicated processing facility — and why Ian has watched that model succeed for owners with existing stores but fail for people who try to launch delivery-only with no demand behind it. They get into the real logistics of running self-service and wash-dry-fold under one roof without running off your self-serve customers.

Omer also tells the story of the employee who threatened to quit when he switched from Clover to Wash-Dry-Fold POS — and stayed after a Spanish-speaking coworker trained her on it in three days. Plus the night Brian built a feature request overnight at a conference, why Omer sells retail at both the counter and the vending machines, why he ripped out his ATMs, how he handles homeless activity at one tough location, and the bill breaker jams that led to Brian 3D-printing a fix. The two crazy stories at the end are worth the listen alone.

• Opening a processing facility: why it works for existing operators and fails for delivery-only startups

• Designing space for both self-service and pickup and delivery without losing your self-serve base

• The employee who almost quit over a new POS — and why she became the best on the system

• How Brian built a requested feature overnight at the Elevate Conference

• Why you sell soap and snacks at both the counter and the vending machines

• Why ATMs aren't worth the $2 fees and the headaches they bring

• Handling homeless activity and the equipment that attracts it — including the bill breaker he left out of the wall

• Bill breaker jams and Brian's 3D-printed workaround

• The ceiling heist: a thief who came in through the AC unit and cut every wire

• The phone scam that nearly cost $4,000 — and how to train your staff against it

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

01:21 Meet Omer Khan and Skyline Laundromats

03:01 Owning vs leasing the real estate

04:44 Parking lots, water lines, and the cost of ownership

06:32 Revenue mix and pickup and delivery growth

09:08 Opening a processing facility: why it works and why it fails

13:22 Dedicating space and an animal wash station idea

16:33 The employee who almost quit over a new POS

19:11 Brian builds a feature overnight at the conference

23:41 Card systems, CCI, and Laundroworks

24:33 Machine start integrations

26:39 Why sell retail at both the counter and the vending machines

29:05 Why ATMs aren't worth the $2

30:04 Dealing with homeless activity and the equipment that attracts it

32:57 Bill breaker jams and Brian's 3D-printed fix

34:38 The craziest stories: a ceiling heist and a phone scam

44:25 Train your staff: scam red flags and metal doors

Ian 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.com

libertylaundryok.com

laundromat-ownership.com

skylinelaundromats.com

Ian Gollahon and Brian Henderson join Randy Radtke on Alliance's Laundry Nerd Podcast to break down the new Speed Queen and Huebsch Alliance Insights API integration with Wash Dry Fold POS — the first point-of-sale system with direct machine-level access to Alliance washers and dryers.

This is a recast of the Laundry Nerd episode, shared here for owners running Speed Queen, Huebsch, or Quantum machines. Brian and Ian explain how Wash Dry Fold POS negotiated with Alliance to become the first POS partner granted this integration — it was not a public API release — and the specific employee theft and efficiency problems it solves on the wash-dry-fold side.

You'll also hear the 10-year origin story of Wash Dry Fold POS, why the company stayed "an inch wide and a mile deep" on laundromats, and the real-world results customers like Philip in Missouri are getting after enabling the integration.

Topics covered:

• How the Alliance Insights API integration with Wash Dry Fold POS actually works

• Why WDFPOS is the first and currently only POS with this level of machine integration

• Starting Speed Queen and Huebsch machines by credit card at the register

• Tracking the vend-to-wash-dry-fold ratio (around 37% benchmark) to catch employee theft

• Closing the loop between order tracking and machine starts

• The 10-year history of Wash Dry Fold POS and the 2020 cloud rebuild

• How to enable the integration (API key + equipment pairing)

• What's next on the roadmap

Chapters:

00:00 Intro from Ian — why this Alliance recast matters

02:00 Welcome to the Laundry Nerd Podcast

03:00 How Wash Dry Fold POS got started

07:00 Inch wide, mile deep on laundromats

10:00 What separates WDFPOS from dry cleaning and delivery systems

14:00 The equipment problem log and why the Alliance API fit

16:00 Why most manufacturers stayed closed — and how WDFPOS became the first partner

18:00 Top use cases: credit card starts and attendant efficiency

21:00 Philip's store in Missouri — real-world example

23:00 Connecting the two systems

25:00 Going live at Clean Show 2025 — Sharon Brinks as the pilot store

27:00 Shoutout to Alliance's digital product team

28:00 What's next — development never finishes

29:00 Where to find Wash Dry Fold POS and the podcast

Ian Gollahon co-owns Liberty Laundry in Tulsa, Oklahoma (three stores, $2.5M in 2025 revenue) and co-founded Wash Dry Fold POS, the original POS built specifically for laundromats. Over 1,200 systems sold in all 50 states.

Wash Dry Fold POS: https://www.washdryfoldpos.com

Liberty Laundry: https://www.libertylaundryok.com

Laundromat Ownership Podcast: https://www.laundromat-ownership.com

Alliance Laundry Systems: https://alliancelaundry.com

Speed Queen: https://speedqueencommercial.com

Huebsch: https://huebsch.com

Sole proprietorship, LLC, S-Corp, or C-Corp — which business entity actually makes sense for a laundromat owner? Ian Gollahon walks through every structure he's personally owned and breaks down when each one is the right call.

This episode is for anyone buying their first laundromat, scaling to multiple stores, or staring at a tax bill wondering if there's a smarter way to be set up. Ian covers why an LLC is non-negotiable before you sign a lease, the exact net profit threshold where filing as an S-Corp starts saving real money, and why C-Corp status almost never makes sense for a laundromat unless you have a very specific exit plan.

Topics covered:

• Why sole proprietorships are the most common and most underrated entity

• Why a general partnership for a laundromat would be "psychotic"

• The asset protection reason every laundromat needs an LLC before closing

• How an S-Corp election cuts the 15% self-employment tax on distributions

• Why $80K–$100K in net profit is the realistic S-Corp threshold (not the $60K marketing pitch)

• How the salary vs. distribution split actually works inside an S-Corp

• When a C-Corp makes sense — QSBS, five-year flips, and distributor showroom stores

• Why most laundromat owners should never convert to a C-Corp

Chapters:

00:00 Intro and why this matters

00:35 Sole proprietorships explained

03:00 Why partnerships are off the table for laundromats

03:45 LLCs — the asset protection vehicle every operator needs

05:15 S-Corp basics: tax filing status vs. business entity

06:30 The self-employment tax problem

08:00 How the S-Corp salary plus distribution split works

10:30 Why C-Corps rarely fit laundromats

11:15 QSBS, five-year flips, and distributor exceptions

13:00 C-Corp double taxation explained

14:30 The evolution: sole prop to LLC to S-Corp to C-Corp

16:00 Wrap-up

Ian Gollahon is the co-owner of Liberty Laundry (Tulsa, Oklahoma — 3 stores, $2.5M revenue in 2025) and co-founder of Wash Dry Fold POS, the original point-of-sale system built for laundromats.

https://www.washdryfoldpos.com

https://www.libertylaundryok.com

https://www.laundromat-ownership.com

Before Liberty Laundry hit $2.5 million in revenue in 2025, Ian Gollahon was selling billboards. This is a recast of his original interview on the Laundromat Millionaire Show — the conversation that started the Laundromat Ownership Podcast.

Ian covers how he and Brian Henderson acquired a turnkey three-store chain at $2.1M in revenue and grew it to $2.5M, all while running Wash Dry Fold POS. He breaks down the team structure behind a semi-passive laundromat — attendants, store managers, an ops manager, and a facilities manager — and explains why each layer exists.

He also gets into the fires. Three dryer fires in the first 12 months of ownership. Ian explains what caused each one, how full attendance made the difference, and why he now runs dryers at 170–175°F instead of the factory default of 190°F.

On the software side: cloud-based mobile dashboards, the first-ever Alliance machine start integration, Laundry Works and Wash Links, employee theft detection via machine start ratios, and how Wash Dry Fold POS compares to CleanCloud, Curbside, and Cents.

• Growing Liberty Laundry from $2.1M to $2.5M in revenue

• Laundry Works card system: removing coins from all three stores

• Team hierarchy: attendants, store managers, ops manager, facilities manager

• Trevor the facilities manager — the hire that changed everything

• Hiring via Indeed: filtering 100 applications down to 3 solid interviews

• Three dryer fires in year one — causes, response, and what changed

• Wash Dry Fold POS vs. CleanCloud, Curbside, and Cents

• Alliance machine start integration: what it actually does

• Catching employee theft with the 30% machine start ratio

• Credit card processing at 2.65% vs. the industry standard of 4–5%

Timestamps (verify before uploading):

0:00 Intro

1:48 Laundromat Millionaire interview begins

7:20 Acquiring Liberty Laundry

8:03 Growing revenue from $2.1M to $2.5M

11:22 The semi-passive income reality

12:37 Removing coins with Laundry Works

22:16 What semi-passive actually requires

26:35 Building the team hierarchy

33:10 The facilities manager hire

44:22 Three dryer fires in year one

48:05 Lowering dryer temps to prevent fires

53:50 Wash Dry Fold POS updates

1:01:07 Alliance machine start integration

1:08:59 Catching employee theft with machine start ratios

Ian Gollahon co-owns Liberty Laundry (Tulsa, OK — three stores, $2.5M revenue in 2025) and co-founded Wash Dry Fold POS, the original point-of-sale system for laundromats.

washdryfoldpos.com

libertylaundryok.com

laundromat-ownership.com