Most people picture their escape from burnout as a long vacation, not a room full of washing machines.
Yet that is exactly how one former nurse, Cami, rebuilt her life. After roughly 13 years in nursing, she traded night shifts and hospital alarms for the steady hum of dryers and the rhythm of pickup routes. Her Arizona laundromat brought in about $475,000 in 2024, and she now works around 5 to 6 hours a week in the business.
Her path was not magic. She sold her starter home to fund the deal, used seller financing, cleaned up a tired coin laundry, added pickup and delivery, then turned the whole journey into a growing online brand.
If you have ever wondered whether a simple local service can become a real startup, this story breaks down how she did it, what the numbers looked like, and what you can borrow for your own path.
Why a Burned-Out Nurse Chose a Laundromat as Her Startup Escape Plan
Cami did not hate nursing. She liked helping people and she appreciated a steady paycheck. What wore her down were the long shifts, the holidays missed with family, and the emotional load that comes from caring for very sick patients year after year.
The stress of 2020 pushed everything to a breaking point. Hospitals were short-staffed, the pressure was constant, and she could see that more schooling would only push her deeper into the same life, just with more student debt.
She wanted more control over her time, but she did not want another degree. She wanted a startup that could produce cash, grow over time, and eventually free her schedule.
So she started searching.
She looked into cash-flowing assets, especially mobile home parks and storage units, a common path for people drawn to real estate. She even went under contract on a mobile home park, only to have the deal fall apart. At the time, it felt like a loss. A few weeks later, she saw a laundromat listing, and that “failed” deal suddenly looked like a lucky break.
A friend connected her to an older relative who owned two laundromats. On a phone call, this veteran owner told her something that stuck: if he could go back in time, he would skip college and just buy laundromats. To him, laundromats “screamed money.”
That single conversation clicked for her. Laundry is simple, repeatable, and always in demand. No app can make dirty clothes disappear. For a first-time startup owner, that sounded a lot less scary than a trendy concept that might fade.
Her story has since been covered by outlets like People, where she shared how she now earns around three times what she made as a nurse.
From stable paycheck to startup mindset: why she walked away from nursing
For about 13 years, Cami showed up as a nurse, collected her paycheck every two weeks, and did what many people do: traded time for money.
She liked the meaning in the work, but the schedule owned her. Twelve-hour shifts often ran longer. Holidays were not really holidays. Her life rotated around staffing needs, not personal goals.
The chaos of 2020 made her ask a hard question: “Do I want to be doing this in another 10 years?”
That is where the mindset shift started. Instead of asking, “Which job should I apply for next?” she started asking, “Which business could I own?”
She spent about a year researching, saving money, and studying other owners. Hearing other laundromat entrepreneurs share their stories in interviews and on podcasts, such as this conversation with Cami on Witness Business, helped her see that “regular” people were buying local businesses and turning them into serious income.
She went from seeing herself only as a reliable employee to seeing herself as an owner who could build a small, system-based startup that did not depend on her being in the building every hour.
Why a laundromat beat out mobile home parks and storage units
On paper, mobile home parks and self-storage looked great. They offered recurring income and ties to real estate. She got far enough along to be in escrow on a mobile home park.
When that contract fell apart, she was discouraged, but it opened space for something better. Within a few weeks, she found the laundromat listing.
Laundry had a few big advantages for her:
- Simple, steady demand: People always need clean clothes, linens, and napkins. There is no trend risk.
- Straightforward service: Wash, dry, fold, repeat. The work is hands-on but easy to explain and train.
- Room to improve: The store she visited was dated and not very welcoming, which meant she could add value.
That phone call with the veteran laundromat owner sealed it. His confidence in the model gave her enough courage to move forward, similar to how other laundry founders, like the entrepreneur behind a multimillion-dollar laundry business featured in Business Insider, used laundry as their launchpad.
She decided this laundromat would be her startup escape route.
How She Bought the Laundromat: Numbers, Financing, and First Fixes
Big life changes often start with a big bet. For Cami, that bet was selling her house.
She knew she needed a chunk of cash for a down payment, and a nurse’s salary alone would not cover it fast enough. So she looked at her “starter home” and decided it could fund her dream.
Selling her house to fund the dream: the down payment and deal structure
She sold her home for about $310,000. After paying off the remaining mortgage, she walked away with roughly $150,000 in equity.
She added around $50,000 of her own savings to that, which gave her about $200,000 in cash. That money became the down payment for the laundromat purchase.
The seller agreed to finance the rest. They structured around $100,000 as seller financing at about 6 percent interest, paid over 2 years. Instead of a bank, the seller acted like the lender, and the business itself helped pay down the note.
This kind of creative structure is common in small business deals, especially for laundromats. If you want to understand how seller financing works for these deals in more detail, guides like this breakdown of laundromat seller financing give helpful examples and show why so many buyers and sellers like this setup.
The key point is simple: she did not pay for the business in full on day one. She used home equity, savings, and a seller-financed balance to step into ownership.
Simple upgrades that made a tired laundromat feel like a fresh local startup
When she first walked the store, she could see it needed love. The layout was cluttered, the look was tired, and the space did not feel very welcoming.
Instead of gutting the place, she planned smart, simple upgrades. She put about $20,000 back into the business in the first few months:
- Fresh paint and better lighting
- Cleaner layout and more open sightlines
- Small décor touches to make it feel safe and homey
At that stage, it was still a traditional self-serve laundromat. Customers walked in, loaded their own machines, paid, and left.
Later, in 2022 and 2023, she invested in new machines. That added some equipment debt, but it also meant more reliable washes, fewer breakdowns, and a cleaner, more modern feel. Upgrades like that help owners stand out, as seen in stories like Top Wash Laundromat’s remodel, where new equipment and systems turned an older store into a modern operation.
Her renovated shop became the base for what would grow into a serious laundry startup.
The $475K Growth Playbook: Pickup, Delivery, and Smart Systems
Renovations made the space nicer. Revenue really took off when she changed the business model.
About six months after buying the laundromat, she added pickup and delivery.
Instead of waiting for people to walk in, she sent her vans out to bring laundry to her.
Adding pickup and delivery turned a simple laundromat into a real startup engine
Pickup and delivery is simple to describe: customers schedule online, her team picks up their laundry, processes it at the store, then delivers it back clean and folded.
She launched this service in April 2021. Looking back, she calls it one of the best decisions she has made for the business.
Why it worked so well:
- It let her serve busy families and professionals who value time more than money.
- It opened the door to commercial clients, especially wedding venues, caterers, and event planners who need large volumes of linens and napkins cleaned on schedule.
- It turned each driver and route into a moving sales channel.
She bought two vehicles for the routes and had to learn a new kind of math: how many pounds of laundry her team could process per day, how many drivers she needed, and how to return every order on time.
Other owners who have focused on pickup and delivery have seen similar results. Fresh & Clean Laundry in San Diego, for example, shared how they grew pickup and delivery revenue by 24 times in four years in a case study with Curbside Laundries.
Cami followed a similar path, and pickup and delivery became the growth engine that helped her laundromat hit about $475,000 in revenue in 2024.
Here is a simple snapshot of how her main income streams stack up inside the laundromat:
| Income Source | What It Looks Like |
|---|---|
| Self-serve laundry | Customers use washers and dryers on-site |
| Pickup & delivery | Residential and commercial wash and fold service |
| Sublease rent | Salon tenant pays monthly rent for space |
| Vending & extras | Soap vending, extra cycles, and small add-on fees |
Extra income streams: sublease rent, add-on services, and vending
One of the smartest parts of her model is how she layered different income streams inside one location.
Along with self-serve and pickup and delivery, she added:
- Sublease rent: She subleased part of her space to a salon. That tenant pays her rent every month, which helps offset her own lease cost.
- Vending: She kept a soap vending machine and other small machines. Customers can buy detergent, softener, and other supplies on-site.
- Flexible payment options: Cash, cards, and an app to load money onto a laundry card. The easier it is to pay, the more volume she can capture.
None of these are huge on their own, but together they smooth out slow days and help the startup feel more stable.
Also Read: How I Made $20K Before Launching My Startup Idea (Beginner Strategy)
From working 40 hours to 6 hours a week: systems, staff, and leadership
At the start, this was nowhere near a passive income story.
For the first few years, Cami put her head down. She worked many hours in the laundromat, learning every task and solving problems in real time. The business needed an owner who was present.
Over time, she hired and trained a team of about six employees. One or two are part-time, who come in when order volume spikes. She wrote simple systems, from how to process pickup orders to how to clean and close the store.
Her biggest learning curve was not laundry. It was leadership. She had always been an employee with a manager. Now she was the manager. She had to learn how to:
- Set clear standards
- Hold people accountable
- Stop doing every task herself
As those systems settled, she finally stepped back. Today she spends roughly 5 to 6 hours a week in the laundromat, mostly focused on growth and big decisions, not loading machines.
In 2024, she paid herself about $66,000 from the laundromat, still keeping plenty of profit in the business for debt payments and growth.
From Local Laundromat to Online Brand: How Social Media Supercharged Her Startup
Most laundromat owners stop at the four walls of the store. Cami did something different.
In July 2024, she started sharing her story on TikTok as @laundromatgirl and later on Instagram as @laundromatgirlofficial. She posted behind-the-scenes clips from her routes, money breakdowns, and honest talks about leaving nursing.
That content pulled in curious viewers, future laundromat owners, and local customers. It also turned into a second startup.
By early 2025, her income from social media beat the money she was taking home from the laundromat itself. Public interviews, such as her feature in VoyagePhoenix, helped spread the story even more.
She is on track to earn around $200,000 in 2025 from social media alone.
TikTok and Instagram turned wash cycles into a six-figure creator business
Her online journey moved fast:
- July 2024: Started posting regularly on TikTok
- October 2024: First platform payments hit her account
- December 2024: Shifted serious attention to Instagram as well
- February 2025: Social media income passed her laundromat income for the first time
Her content is simple and honest:
- Day-in-the-life videos as a laundromat owner
- Revenue and cost breakdowns for curious startup founders
- Lessons from leaving a stable career
- The messy parts, not just wins
She did not rely on fancy production. She focused on clear storytelling from inside a real business, similar to other laundry founders featured on CNBC and across business podcasts.
Over time, brand deals, platform payouts, and other digital income streams turned her into a six-figure creator on top of being a local business owner.
Why pairing a local business with content is a powerful startup strategy
Her laundromat gives her endless content ideas and real proof that she knows what she is talking about.
Her content, in turn, does three big things for the laundromat startup:
- Attracts new pickup and delivery customers who find her online
- Builds trust with potential partners and commercial clients
- Opens doors to new revenue, like courses, sponsorships, and speaking
Today she is really running two connected startups:
- A local laundry service with self-serve and pickup and delivery
- A media and education brand built on TikTok, Instagram, and podcasts
You do not need a laundromat to copy this pattern. Any small, steady business, from cleaning to pet care, can become the base for a content-driven brand if you are willing to share your journey.
Key Lessons for Your Own Startup: Freedom, Risk, and Playing the Long Game
It is easy to look at the current numbers and miss what it took to get here.
She did not go from night shift to 5-hour workweek in a month. Her path is a clear example of what a patient, service-based startup really looks like.
What it really cost her: money, time, and lifestyle trade-offs
Here is what she actually put on the line:
- She sold her house and gave up the comfort of homeownership.
- She used her savings and took on loans for new machines and vehicles.
- She worked long, hands-on days for the first few years.
- She missed some time freedom up front so she could gain more of it later.
Only after hiring, writing systems, and reinvesting did her schedule open up. Now she enjoys weekends off, holidays at home, and the freedom to plan her days. That lifestyle is the delayed payoff from all the early grind.
How to think like Cami when choosing your own startup path
You might not want a laundromat, and that is fine. The deeper value comes from how she thinks:
- Pick simple services people always need: Laundry, cleaning, basic repairs, storage, pet care.
- Look for tired assets: Old shops that feel worn but have good locations.
- Add real value: Cleaner space, better service, modern payment options, or pickup and delivery.
- Be willing to learn leadership: Managing people is a skill, just like learning to run a machine.
- Layer income streams: Subleases, vending, add-on services, and, if it fits, content.
If you want more examples of how everyday people turn laundry into strong startups, stories like this mom who built a $24,000-a-month laundromat from a side hustle, featured on Benzinga, can spark ideas.
You do not need to copy Cami’s exact steps. Copy her mindset: take a clear-eyed look at your skills, pick a simple model, start small, and be patient with the long game.
Conclusion
Cami's journey from burned-out nurse to laundromat and content founder is not a fairy tale. It is the story of an everyday professional who sold her house, bought a tired shop, added pickup and delivery, built systems and staff, and then stacked a social media brand on top until her income and time freedom looked completely different.
Her path shows that a startup does not have to be a flashy app. It can be a small, steady business in your own city, as long as you are willing to add value and stick with it.
If her story hit a nerve, take a walk through your neighborhood this week. Look for one simple, always-needed service where you could improve the space, the service, or the story. That might be the first step toward your own version of trading scrubs for suds.
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