GUIDE
Lower, Base, Higher: Test a Laundromat's Monthly Cash With Your Own Numbers
Before you sign a lease or make an offer, you can see what monthly cash your plan leaves if sales come in lower, as expected, or higher. You need five numbers, a clear split between upfront and monthly money, and about ten minutes.
1. Sort your money: upfront or monthly
Most early mistakes come from putting a cost in the wrong place. Sort each amount into one of these:
- Upfront installation and startup cash. Equipment purchase and installation, plus other upfront startup cash such as permits, utility connection and opening cash needs. A listing price is not your total outlay, so ask for the written quotes you are missing.
- Monthly fixed cash costs. Rent, service charges, insurance, fixed staffing and other recurring operating bills. Convert annual recurring bills to monthly amounts. Loan payments are financing, so keep them out of this list.
- Variable cash cost per paid unit. Metered utilities, consumables and payment fees that rise with each paid wash or dry cycle. A total bill is not a unit cost: match usage-linked bills to the paid units in the same period.
- Selling price per paid unit. What customers actually pay after discounts and refunds. A posted or competitor price is not your realized price.
- Expected units sold per month. Paid, non-refunded units. Machine capacity, footfall and seller claims do not show paid demand.
2. Say where each number comes from
Next to every number, record its source: Quote, Published source, My estimate or Unknown, with a note and a date. If you have not got a figure yet, leave it empty. An empty field is not treated as zero; any result that needs it waits until you add it.
3. Read three sales levels side by side
The Planner compares three cases. Only the units sold change: Lower (×0.8), Base (×1) and Higher (×1.2). Price and costs stay the same. The multipliers are a simple stress test, not a forecast, and you can edit them.
4. A worked example (fictional)
Fictional example: every number below is invented to show how the tool works. It is not market data and not a benchmark for any real business.
Inputs: upfront cash $100,000; 3,000 wash cycles a month; price $4 per cycle; variable cost $1 per cycle; fixed cash $6,000 a month; 10 years; 10% annual discount rate.
| Result | Lower (×0.8) | Base (×1) | Higher (×1.2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Units sold per month | 2,400 | 3,000 | 3,600 |
| Monthly operating cash (before tax and financing) | $1,200.00 | $3,000.00 | $4,800.00 |
| Break-even units per month | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| Simple payback | 83.3 months | 33.3 months | 20.8 months |
| Net present value | −$11,518.23 | $121,204.42 | $253,927.07 |
How to read it:
- Each cycle leaves $3 toward fixed cash ($4 price minus $1 variable cost). That is why break-even is 2,000 cycles a month in every case.
- At Lower sales the plan still produces monthly cash, and its simple payback of 83.3 months falls within the 10 years. But when each year's cash is discounted at 10%, the discounted cash flows over the 10 years do not cover the upfront investment. That is what the negative net present value means: nominal payback and discounted value answer different questions.
5. Your next step
- Run your own numbers: Start with my numbers. Quick Check runs in your browser, and your numbers stay in this browser. Save a project file to continue later.
- See how a full study lays it out: See the sample pages of the worked laundromat feasibility report. Its workbook groups the inputs you change into capacity and utilization, prices and payment fees, utilities and variable costs, fixed costs and staff, and investment and financing.
All results are before income tax and financing. They come from your inputs; they are not a forecast, an approval or advice.