Time for New Equipment

Regardless of whether you own a Laundromat or deal with On Premise Laundry, there will come a time when you will need to purchase new equipment. At that point you will have to ask yourself, “What should I do with my used equipment?” In this scenario, there are several options, but here are the two most obvious ones that you will be confronted with.

Option 1: Shop around to your local Laundry Equipment Distributors and see which ones offer Trade-In value for your equipment. Most of them should, so it is important to keep a record of how much they will offer. However, more importantly, it is imperative that you factor in how much they are offering you against the price of the new equipment they would be selling you. At the end of the day, the one offering the highest Trade-In value is not necessarily the one that will provide you with the best economical choice for your business. It also goes without saying that you will need to inquire if the package being offered includes service, warranties, and anything else you will require to make it an overall smart purchase.

Option 2: You can attempt to sell your equipment as a private seller. There are pros and cons to this option. The obvious con is that this option requires a bit more time and energy to get the process rolling. It will also take some out of pocket expenses to create a classified listing, whether in the paper, a trade magazine, or online. The pro to selling a machine yourself is that you will no doubt get a higher monetary return that you can then put towards your new equipment. At the end of the day, it once again becomes a question of economics. Deduct the cost of listing the machine privately against the probable sale price to determine if you are creating a greater financial return than the value in doing a quick Trade-In? Is it just a nominal increase in profit? And a question that often is not asked, but very important, what is the value of my time? At the end of the day, this is all a business decision and one that each individual will have to make on their own, but if you ask the above questions to yourself, you will come to an answer that will allow you to proceed confidently.

Here are some other bits of advice. Before the Dealers start to give you their Trade-In valuations of your machinery, have your own personal service tech go through the machine so you know the real condition of what you are trading in and you can go into this process “eyes wide open”. For example, if the machine you are trading in just recently received a new motor, make sure you are receiving credit for that brand new part. But if the computer board just blew, be aware that it will go against you when the Trade-In offer comes back to you.

At the end of the day, as with all business, you have to do your due diligence. Shop at multiple Dealers and ask questions. There should be nothing that is off limits. As the old saying goes, "if you don't ask, you don't get." This saying is true in the Commercial Laundry business as well.