What going back home taught me about life, laundry, and getting on with your neighbours

Building a business from scratch is one of the toughest things you can do, but with the help of friends, neighbours, and passing strangers, anything is possible

After I moved back home to Nyanga in Cape Town in 2015, I wanted to drop off my laundry at a laundromat, so I could chill at home and read on weekends. It was more a luxury than a need for me. Given that townships are enterprising, I was sure I would find a laundry service.

So one Saturday afternoon, I scouted the neighbourhood, and to my surprise, I didn’t find any. I thought, “Well, I’ll start one”.

A year later, Express Laundry is thriving, in spite of ups and downs. At first, my main concern was crime. I hired one employee to assist me, and we operated for a good six months without incident, dealing with cash mainly, as our customers prefer this method of payment.

Then we had a strange encounter with a “pretend customer” who appeared to be inspecting our premises. My instincts were on high alert immediately. The analogy that “it takes a village to raise a child” became a reality for me, as neighbours rallied around, assuring me that they were also on high alert. The mission was aborted by the would-be assailant.

Soon after establishing Express Laundry, I learnt that the key to success in running a business in a community is to be fully integrated into that community. This insight was also offered by my good friend who’s been running an internet café – now a collection and drop off point for my customers – in the area.

This also removed the sense that I was an ‘outsider’, as I had just temporarily moved back home from renting, and my intention was to always move to a better area. After that incident, we installed a bigger and more secure burglar gate, which made me feel safer, since I run the business from home.

This development not only made us safe, but it highlighted the house more as people started to notice the burglar gate and realised that we were running a business. The gate became a marketing tool for us.

I also learnt that people didn’t really know what we were doing even we had posters on the windows, marketing the business.

The great advantage of running a business in this community is the moral support I get as a child who grew up here. Since inception, I’ve hired and lost more than three ladies, who helped me in the business. These ladies were recommended and vetted by the community.

The challenge I had (and still have) with the ‘employees’ is authority. The older ladies, I found, were more subservient, but the younger ones, all younger than me, didn’t have the same level of respect.

Their role is to stand in while I attend meetings with my mentor, attend entrepreneur functions, or do the banking for the business. Although the job is not that strenuous, it still involves manual labour, especially when we had a water shortage last year.

I still go to bed after mid-night and wake up at 4am in order to do laundry, during month ends, as we get busy. This is also to meet our capacity as we have a domestic tumble dryer, which can’t keep up with high volumes of laundry, especially when we are pressed for time. This is also to keep our promise of convenience.

We have a good mix of customers with slightly different needs, but one thing is common for all of them: time, or the lack of it. Our customer base consists of taxi drivers, bank employees, retail workers and a mix of general labour workers.

Taxi drivers prefer to drop off their laundry in the morning, usually before 9am and pick it after 5pm. The other group of customers usually bring their laundry when they are off and want it the following day. We’ve learnt to prioritise the taxi drivers, as we know they are pressed with time.

The joy of running this business from home is the flexibility we have, which allows our customers to pick up their laundry when it’s convenient for them. However, I feel like it’s time to move to the next level and get the business out of the house in order to grow the business.

I’m currently in talks with a friend who is willing to replicate what I’ve done in this community in Khayelitsha, under our brand name. This is an exciting development for me and a great way to expand the Express Laundry brand.

The greatest joy for me is having built something that is now attracting other people’s interest. This is a milestone for me and the sky is the limit.