Today we’d like to introduce you to Sylvia Chloupek.
Hi Sylvia, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was a business major in college, and my father is a self-made entrepreneur who had to wait until later in his life to get started because he grew up in a communist system where small business ownership was not allowed. So I always had in mind that creating and running a business would feel the most fulfilling. My first business was in the export-import natural gas industry. Then when my husband and I moved to Maryville, Missouri, I started an at-home bakery that I ran successfully for five years. One of our spare rooms in the house retrofitted into a full bakery with industrial equipment. This helped me develop a customer base and to become acquainted with many people in Maryville. It also helped me understand customer service, efficiency, and logistics at a much deeper level. I have now used all of that existing knowledge and experience to start my current laundry business. At the end of the day, it is about service and customer relations.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been anything but smooth. We searched Maryville for an existing building to renovate into a commercial laundry facility but found nothing, so we decided to build our own. We purchased a lot in south Maryville near the main street and built our own laundry facility from scratch. This added a year to my timeline for opening since getting permits, inspections, and lining up contractors was a slow process. Three weeks after I opened my newly logo-wrapped electric delivery vehicle died and the main battery had to be replaced. One washing machine needed a circuit board replaced almost immediately, so there are always road bumps. But this is to be expected. Its part of being your own boss. Nobody is going to solve these problems if you don’t.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are the first of our kind of service in Northwest Missouri. Pick up and drop off laundry service was not available except in some much larger surrounding cities like Des Moines and Kansas City. A driver picks up all of our customers’ laundry orders from their porches, then brings the laundry directly to our custom-built facility to be processed right away. Laundry gets checked in, sorted, washed, dried, folded, and packaged. It then gets delivered the next morning back to the customers’ doorsteps. Think of an Uber or Door Dash for laundry but full service and all done in-house. Whenever you see a list of most hated household chores, laundry is usually at the top, so I wanted to offer a service that would make people’s lives easier and for which there was an untapped market. I’m proud to have created literally every aspect of this business, from the very facility itself to all of the branding and logos. It’s not a chain or a franchise. Truly, it is a mom and pop small business offering a brand new service in our town of Maryville.
What matters most to you?
The thing that matters most to me is my relationship with my customers. I want them to feel relieved when they send their laundry off to me, and I want it to brighten their day when they find it freshly laundered back on their doorstep. I also want to make sure that they trust me, they like the process, and that they are pleased with the high level of service..
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.LocalLaundry.io
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/locallaundrymo/
Image Credits
Clayton White Photography
