How She Beat Out An Industry Vet and Bought Her Dream Business for $65K

START HERE

Meet Erin, Owner of Crossway Laundromat:

Erin is a mom of three who taught elementary school for 15 years in Naples, Florida making about $70,000 a year.

After beating cancer, the way she thought about time shifted dramatically, and she wanted to figure out a way to spend more of her life with family.

So Erin spent a year searching, considered almost every business category imaginable, and even lost about $15,000 on a bad deal.

Juuuust when it looked like it might not happen, she closed on a Tallahassee laundromat for $65,000.

One month in:

Here's how she got there, and what it can teach anyone who thinks they have to go big to get going.

"Every other month I'd say, okay, now I'm looking at this one. My family thought I was the girl who cried wolf."

Here's what Erin did before she bought anything: spun her wheels for a full year.

(She also lost about $15,000 along the way.)

On one deal, Erin put a deposit down, paid the attorney to review the lease, and then watched it all fall apart. Her husband was practically ready to stage an intervention.

Which is why we tell every single member on day one: figure out what you want before you go shopping.

I’ve talked about it before, but you absolutely MUST fill out your Deal Box.

If you don't, you're gonna end up with a cart full of shiny bullshit that can't sustain you.

And I know it can be tough to go through the process, which is why when you join the Academy or Boardroom, you get to use BizScout for free.

One of the tools lets you create multiple Deal Boxes across as many industries as you’re interested in, scrapes thousands of listings, and delivers perfect fit businesses to your inbox.

You can even turn on “Radar” and have AI do a 24 hour continuous search across the entire internet for the newest businesses.

That way you don’t waste hundreds of hours scrolling listings or spin your wheels investigating dead-end businesses.

We’ll go over all this in more detail at Main Street Millionaire LIVE.

When Erin finally sat with the question honestly, the answer was almost embarrassingly simple.

She didn't NEED a $300K-SDE company, it just sounded better on paper. What she actually wanted was to replace her teacher salary, keep her lifestyle, and not give her husband a heart attack.

Turns out, a $65K laundromat met her needs perfectly.

The lesson isn't that small is always right. It's that "what do you actually want?" is a hard question to answer.

Take the time to fill out your Deal Box and find your perfect fit.

So how exactly did a busy teacher/ mom beat an experienced buyer who already owned 7 laundromats?

It starts with snail mail.

While she was still teaching full-time, Erin took some advice from Codie's book and mailed 150 letters to laundromat owners in Tallahassee.

Out of over a hundred letters, only a small percentage responded...

But that's all it takes, because one of those responses was the laundromat she now owns.

The owner wasn't ready to sell right away though. His parents had owned the spot for 20 years, but now had dementia. The brother-in-law kept the books, and there was a lot of sentimental value tied up in the business.

And if that wasn't enough, the guy also didn't like talking on the phone. So Erin just kept texting him, checking in and building trust.

When the business finally listed, the broker put it on BizBuySell for about 30 minutes, then pulled it down.

Turns out, Erin had a competitor.

A portfolio operator with seven or eight locations wanted another one for his son at Florida State.

He called the broker nearly every day hoping Erin's deal would crack, sending his kid in to do loads of laundry, basically staking the place out one dirty sack of clothes at a time.

The owner wanted $65K and got an offer for the full amount from both buyers, but he sold to the teacher who'd been texting him for almost a year.

When you hear people talk about how business is about relationships, this is what they mean.

Erin had put in the time to warm up the owner, so when he was finally ready to sell, he went with the person he knew better.

(And the one who respected his communication style.)

"My husband said fire them on day one. I said I don't know anything yet."

(I know, it sounds harsh, but it came from a good place. The laundromat was spending the majority of its revenue on labor, and he was trying to protect her upside.)

Still, we tell new buyers in the Academy to spend the first month listening, not changing.

So even though Erin's husband wanted her to walk in on day one and let the staff go to get to profitability faster, she didn't.

And that's the right move.

There were two employees who had been running that laundromat for 10 and 20 years, so they were the ones who knew which machine needed the handle yanked to start, how to pull a stain out of anything, and how to actually fold a fitted sheet.

Erin's words: "I just ball one up and shove it in my closet."

There's nothing wrong with needing to learn. After all, you don't know what you don't know.

Which is why she spent a whole month learning from them before she started making changes.

But once those 30 days were up, she got to work.

After the learning month, Erin started making moves.

She audited the expenses, found holes, and started patching.

INSURANCE: Renegotiated right away. Saved $8,000 a year.

CABLE: Comcast was running over $200 a month. She got it down to $120.

PRICING: Google reviews said she was the cheapest game in town, so she raised prices on every machine to match the market.

VENDING: The snack machine that used to generate $6,000 a year was empty. It's now restocked and on track to bring in $8,000+.

LABOR: Overtime had labor eating into profits. Not anymore. She closes herself two nights a week to help margins.

The best part?

None of this required industry expertise.

It's just about finding what's being ignored and cleaning it up.

Here's where the story gets extra spicy.

The books showed $220,000 in revenue and about $10,000 in profit.

For a laundromat of that size, that's thin. Real thin. The kind of number that makes you scratch your head.

So Erin started emptying the coin boxes herself every night to investigate. And the data didn't match the story on the spreadsheet.

Based on what she was bringing in every day, the business was tracking closer to $250,000.

Turns out, somebody had been skimming the quarters.

Probably for years!

"I kept telling my husband the numbers just don't add up. Turns out I was right."

Needless to say, she watches the cameras a little closer now.

And this all boils down to a simple lesson: trust, but verify.

Erin's plan for Tallahassee is to close off the wash-and-fold area with a roll-down gate, lock the bathrooms, and let the self-serve side run until 9 PM without an attendant.

More hours with less labor means she can maximize profit at her current location, and she's already thinking about what comes next.

Back in Naples, she's been building a relationship with a laundromat owner named Peggy for over a year, and they've become friends.

Peggy calls her regularly just to check in and offer advice, and Erin suspects she's getting closer to being ready to sell.

This isn’t about trying to build a massive portfolio, though.

Erin is replacing a teacher's salary, staying close to her kids in college, and showing them what it looks like to bet on yourself at 49.

Because when you start down the road of ownership, paths you didn't even know about open up, and it's important to remember your why and take it one step at a time.

For Erin, it’s more about the freedom to spend time with her family than building an empire…

At least for now.

Erin is absolutely CRUSHING it with her first business.

And I hope this inspires you to start thinking about what’s possible when you decide to bet on yourself.

See you next week,

-Codie

Main Street Millionaire Live is our 3-day, virtual event for people who want to gain the practical skills and tools to buy a profitable business.

It’s also the last time we’re doing this in 2026.

So if you miss it, you’re gonna have to wait until 2027 for us to run it back…

Led by world-class experts in deal sourcing, financial analysis, negotiation, and operations, you’ll leave ready to take meaningful action.

(Ever hear of Chris Voss, former FBI negotiator? Yeah, he’s the one teaching you how to get what you want from the other side. THAT’s the kind of expertise we’re bringing.)

After three days, you’ll walk away with everything you need to become an owner.

Just check out some wins from people who’ve attended past events:

And we’ve helped literally thousands more people buy their first business.

Plus, this is the last time you’ll be able to snag a ticket before the price goes up again.

So if you want to learn how to buy a business in just three days: Click HERE