Women in Laundry Series
As part of our 'Women in Laundry' series, we sat down with Kelli DeMicco, the owner of Spirit Dry Cleaners in Aurora, Ohio. Owning a dry cleaning business wasn't always on the career roadmap, in fact, Kelli originally started Spirit Gear, a custom apparel supplier established in 2018. When the chance to take over a well-established dry cleaning business came up, it offered the perfect opportunity to combine her apparel experience with a new customer base. Now, nearly a year later, Kelli shares her success and unique insights into the transitions and challenges of perfecting the blend of two businesses.
Please tell us your name, and a little bit about your background
My name is Kelli DeMicco and I’m the owner of Spirit Dry Cleaners in Aurora, Ohio,
Dry Cleaning isn’t necessarily the direction I thought I would pursue with my life. Before we bought the Dry Cleaners, we already owned a business called Spirit Gear which is a custom apparel supplier to local businesses, teams, and organizations. We started Spirit Gear in 2018 and it was doing well, but more and more we were thinking it would be useful to have a physical storefront, not just for us personally but for the customers we were serving.
The dry cleaning business has been in Aurora for about 30 years and the owner was looking to sell and buy a bigger location elsewhere. We were looking for a physical store and it all came together at the right time. We already had experience dealing with customers, and there are similarities between the two businesses so why not go for it. That was May 2023. Fast forward 11 months, and here we are.
What were those early days like?
I would best describe them as trial by fire! The store was in need of a makeover when we took it over. It had been here for 30 years but it hadn’t really been modernized or updated. It needed quite a bit of work to clean it up and get everything updated - even the lighting. It was so dark!
Could we have done things differently - probably! But we learned on the go and fast. I don’t regret it at all. Now, we have both businesses working together so we’re able to refer customers from the apparel business to the dry cleaners and vice versa. Both businesses seem to compliment each other well.
What services do you offer?
We’ve stuck to our core of dry cleaning through today. We can do wash and fold if a customer needs it, but it’s not something that we advertise heavily. I do not believe there is a huge need for it in the community, but if a customer comes to me and says my washing machine’s broken, then of course we will do their laundry.
We offer alterations but again, it’s not the core of what we focus on in our business. I’d say 40% of our business is laundry/pressed shirts and 60% is dry cleaning. We’re definitely seeing shirt volume steadily increase. I believe as we get further away from the pandemic, people are back at work and out and about. We anticipate the need for shirts will continue to grow.
We’re also starting to explore pick up and delivery (P&D). We haven't launched anything yet, but we have done a bit of research into Doordash with Clean cloud and I think it could work.
What are the biggest challenges that you have faced as an entrepreneur and laundry owner?
I’d say putting out a good product was the biggest learning curve that we faced. We were totally new to the industry so consistently producing quality pressed garments was difficult in the beginning.
In the beginning, we sent our shirts off site to be pressed. However, that meant we didn’t control the quality and timing. If a shirt got lost, damaged, or took longer than expected - all of that was outside of our control, but we still had to answer to our customers. So, we took shirt pressing/laundry in house. I think customers really like this and it definitely helped to set us apart from our competition. We’re able to say we handle everything on the premises. We know exactly where your garment is at any time and that makes it more personal which I think customers appreciate. Where I live, people like that personal touch. I know drop stores work well in some places, but here people prefer to come to the store. We get to know the person, so it makes sense that they prefer to know that when they drop their garments with us, they stay with us.
I also found the uncertainty quite a challenge. I’m a real planner, I like to know that on any given day I’m going to have X number of shirts and that means Y amount of revenue. But this business just isn’t like that, I never know what I’m going to get through the door. Some days we’re so busy we can’t see over the piles of laundry, other days will be really quiet. It just feels very unpredictable. I’ve gotten more comfortable with this uncertainty now and we are starting to see some patterns in terms of seasonality.
And what are the best parts of your job?
Without a doubt, the best part is the people. I love chatting with our customers and getting to know them. I think you have to like people to be in this industry. It’s a real community here. You get to know everyone, their personal stories, and their families. Building relationships with them is the best part for me.
What are the top 3 considerations for anyone thinking of entering into the laundry business?
I would say really understand your market share before starting out. Do your research and think hard about whether this really makes sense financially. Are there existing dry cleaners in the area that you’re going up against? How are you going to stand out? Dry Cleaners have been under a lot of pressure since Covid - people dress more casually, they don’t wear suits as much, and they’re doing their laundry more at home. So make sure your eyes are wide open before you commit.
Linked to that - know your costs. Equipment can be expensive. We were able to use some of the equipment that was already here but when we took the shirts in-house we had to purchase that equipment.
My final one, and this is a bit light hearted - you’d better like the heat! It gets HOT in a dry cleaners, and it sounds silly but I really hadn’t thought about that before. We have hard winters here but in the depths of winter you’ll find me in my shorts when I’m at work.
Having said that, would I do that all over again? Yes I would. If the opportunity came up to open a store in a different town, with a similar set up to what we have here. I’d do it all over again.
What are the most useful sources of information for anyone considering entering the laundry business? Are you part of any community groups etc that they should look at?
I am the wrong person to ask this question to! This is where I have to confess that I have no idea, I just jumped in - I’ve been very fortunate that it’s worked out, but essentially I’m learning on the job. I’ve joined some facebook groups and there are some useful pieces of advice and information on there. I’d say that’s a good place to start if you are looking to get into the industry.
What do you know now that you wish you’d known when starting out?
The heat! I’m kidding (but it is hot!) I wish I’d known that there is no rhyme or reason to the day to day. I’ve gotten over this now, but it did cause me some stress in the early days. Other than that I don’t know that there’s anything specific - I was lucky that I had a background in accounting and I’d had experience with the apparel store so I think I was fairly well set up. It’s terribly complicated, although I still manage to burn myself, but it does take patience.
What’s your best piece of advice for anyone looking to get into the laundry business?
Find a friend, someone who is doing what you’re doing, who understands the challenge and can give good advice. When you start out, it can really help to have someone to speak with about issues you face. The person we bought this store from actually bought a different store, so we’ve stayed in touch. He has been really helpful. One last thing - maybe do a little more research than I did!