From Laundry Loads to Scaling Up | Susan Toft | Ep 217

Susan Toft  00:00

I don't think there's really any secret to success. Just keep going, and it's that persistence. Find another way, if you are stuck in something, find a different way, you know, just keep banging on doors until you find the right solution around that.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:21

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Better Business, Better Life. I'm your host, Debra Chantry-Taylor, and I'm passionate about helping entrepreneurs lead their ideal lives by creating better businesses because life is too bloody short.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  00:41

I work with established business owners and leadership teams to help them live their ideal entrepreneurial life using EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. And I use this podcast to bring on guests to share practical tips and tools about how EOS can help you in your business and your life to get more of what you want. Today's guest is not an EOS expert as such, but she has managed to appear on Shark Tank and get offered $1 million. As a new parent, she started her own business, and as a single mum, she grew that business to $9 million of revenue with 10 head office staff and more than 300 contractors. And she's also the creator of time boss, an AI driven platform that provides a B to B, soccer as a service, scalable solution for service industries. She's going to share with us her journey, how she got on Shark Tank, some of the pitfalls she's had along the way, how she balanced that whole work and life kind of balance, and also how she's managed to really scale the business as she's now looking at entering into the US and the Canadian markets. Susan Toft is the CEO and founder of the Laundry Lady, and she's joining us today from Australia. Welcome to the show, Susan, it's great to have you on board.

Susan Toft  01:54

Thank you so much for having me excited to be here.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  01:57

Absolute pleasure. I have been reading about you, and I've been looking at all you know, your bio and what you have done, and it just amazes me. So you've gone from being a single mum who I guess was kind of looking for somewhere to support herself through looking after her two boys, to being on Shark Tank to being a $9 million business and what, 10 staff, over 300 contractors throughout Australia and New Zealand, and I know you're now talking about launching into the US as well. So Wow. What a journey. Where do we start? Can you tell us about how that all came about?

Susan Toft  02:25

Yeah, it has been a really big, long journey. And you know, there's no straight line in business, I think in bris, in business journeys, I have this slide that I show to investors that shows a bit of a roller coaster. And that's certainly what the journey has been like. So I started. I actually started back in 2012 I was a new mum, and I'd been working in a corporate career, working for Austrade and in international marketing, and I was really struggling with, you know, my work life balance and being a new mum, which I think a lot of you know, mums go through, in particular when they when they have their kids, and they've had a career, and so I wanted to do something really different, and that, you know, could give me some flexibility to be at home. And so I came up with this idea walking past my spare room, seeing my own clothes piled high, and thinking about how much I also needed a service like this. And so that was really where the idea came from, and jumped in and began the Laundry Lady. So in the very beginning, I was the original laundry lady. I went out and picked up the laundry in my local area and took it back to the customer the next day. And that was, you know, found a good insight for me into how the business could work, how the model could work, you know, what customers wanted, how to structure the pricing, scheduling, all of those sorts of things. And so, you know, I had these big, grand plans that I wanted to be able to scale the business and bring the same opportunity, particularly to other women out there who I thought, you know, might be looking for the same kind of flexible business. But in the beginning it was just me just going out and doing the laundry. So, you know, a really great insight on the ground that you, you know, you could do years and years of market research and never get that kind of insight.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  04:14

So I was actually going to say, you cut, you kind of built an MVP in some respects, right? So, I mean, no, that's usually your software terminology. You built an MVP. You went out there, you trialled it. I'm guessing you learned, as you went through that what worked, what didn't work, how you could improve things before, yes, you tried to grow it.

Susan Toft  04:30

Completely MVP. And then there's actually been a few phases of MVP, because then around four years after that, I got a small, little $5 $5,000 grant from government to create a digital platform. So before that, I just had a website and the phone number, and that was it. And then I got my $5,000 grant, and I went off to my designer and said, I want this uber style platform, and here's my budget. And he kind of laughed at me and said, You're not going to get that or. You know, even mates rates going to be like a good $50-60,000 for what you're trying to do. And he said, Go and find an off the shelf system. And that's exactly what we did. I went and researched and researched every off the shelf scheduling payment system I could find. And found one called Timely, which a lot of salons use today still, and we use that. That off the shelf platform actually helped us grow to about 6 million in revenue. So we got a really long way using that, which was great, because we I never had any money to put into the business to be able to create my own tech platform. We definitely outgrew that quite a few years ago, and so we only really launched platform about 12 months ago, and that's been really game changing for the business in terms of, you know, giving us operational efficiencies and things like that. That's going to really help us with our future scale. But again, it was, you know, having that MVP of using the offer shelf platform, you know, gave me that insight into exactly what we needed for when we did come around to creating our own platform. And so then it was a lot cheaper and easier to get that off to the ground, because we already had kind of tested and knew exactly what we needed.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  06:10

What worked, what didn't work. And again, it's another tiny reminder, isn't it? Sometimes you don't have to invest that huge amount of money up front. Is get an MVP, see how it works, look for things that do work, things that don't work. And it's a bit like living in a home for a while before we do any renovations, just understanding what it feels like to live there, what is going to work for us, where we would like to change things?

Susan Toft  06:31

Yeah, exactly. I see a lot of people start the other way, where they get, you know, money and try and build this great platform, and then they launch it, and they don't even know what to do then, you know, they don't know how to market and how to get customers and, or if customers even want what they're what they're selling. And so I think, you know, if you can find a way to do it, you know, cheaply and, and, and, like an MVP in the beginning, then that's going to really help you, you know, get started and get moving with the business.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  06:56

Perfect. Um, so yeah, 2012 is when you first started it. So tell us a little bit about that journey from that very first day to becoming what you would call perhaps a real business in terms it wasn't just a job for you, but you suddenly started employing people. Tell us about that journey.

Susan Toft  07:12

Yeah. So after I got that $5,000 grant and you got that that integrated system, I got my first few contractors on board. So I had about four contractors on board. And again, that was just, you know, early stages gave me the opportunity to learn how contractor model would work, and if that would work for us and the types of people who would, who would want to join, and, you know, and it was very much what my vision have been in the beginning. Like a lot of women who are looking for a flexible work from home, business and, and, and so, you know. And it was really get them in on board, and then get them customers and, and the business sort of operated a little bit like that for another good few years, and, and I became a single mom, and I had to go back to work full time for a period of within that because I needed extra income to, you know, get myself back on track. And then it was really when COVID hit that gave me the opportunity to come back to the business I was a little bit stuck in that, you know, I need. I knew if I came back to it, it would really grow, and I had all the, you know, kind of foundations in place, but I didn't, I couldn't commit to leaving paid income and coming back to the business. And so COVID was a little bit of the icing on the cake for me, that it did give me that opportunity to come back and commit to it full time and everything, all of the growth and everything that's happened has really been in the last four or five years since COVID. So that was, you know, me committing to the business, getting staff, getting my first staff member in head office. And I think we were about 20 or so contractors at that point in time. And then every year it's just been growing, growing, growing those contractor teams, and growing our head office team. So now our head office team, there's 10 of us, and we support just over 300 contractors. And you know, we've really just focused on getting the contractor, getting them customers, and just continuing to repeat that in all different locations. Repeat, yeah, rinse and repeat, yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  09:18

So why the contractor model? I'm kind of interested to know. Why did you go down that route rather than an employee route?

Susan Toft  09:27

Yeah. So I actually, in the beginning thought it would be a franchise model. But in Australia, franchising is quite complex in terms of, you know, getting it set up. It's very expensive. I had, remember, I only had the five grand budget, so it was just never going to happen for me that way. And there was a lot of things that were just starting to happen around contractor models like Uber that. I, you know, was looking at and thinking, Well, that could work. I can see how that could work. And I was also involved in certain things like that, like I was selling dermo Meeks and. Thermomix as a, you know, a contractor model like that. And I think the flexibility that that contractor model could provide was really aligned with what our values were, and our values have been very strong right from the beginning, because it was always about creating flexibility, both for our contractors who are joining us, but also for our customers who are helping get their laundry done. And I think staying true to those values right throughout has been a really important part of the journey. So yeah, it really the contractor model kind of presented itself and aligned to what those values were. So you know that that's what we've done and, and that certainly got more complex, because there's a lot of changes around employee versus contractor law and things like that in all different countries. But we, we give, you know, so much flexibility to our contractors in the way that they work that that that contractor model still really fits for that definitely no employees.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  10:53

Okay, that's cool. You just mentioned values. I'd like to dig a little bit deeper on that so as an EOS implement, it's one of the things we talk about with our clients, is being really strong about who you are, and therefore which people actually fit your organisation, which people don't fit your organisation. Did you have a strong sense of that right from the beginning? What those values would be?

Susan Toft  11:12

Yeah, because I think the values were really about my own life, and you know, where I was at, which was just that struggle of work life balance, and, you know, needing to have income, but also needing to be at home so I can pick up my son from school, and all of those sorts of things. And, and it's really, really hard. You know, even in workplaces where there's they say that they're flexible, they're often not. You know, it's hard to get time off to be there for your kids. And you know, when they're young, that that stuff's really important. I've got a teenager now, they're more important. And, you know, and so, and this is, you know, pre COVID as well, when they was no working from home, and all of those sorts of things. So, you know, it was very, very much, really creating that flexibility for our contractors and for our customers, and bringing that into our values. And you know, we've stopped and rethought our values along the way, as we've grown, and it still just comes back to that. It's just still such an important part of it. Our contractors are not joining us because they love doing laundry. They're joining us because they want that flexibility. You know, they want to be able to work from home, and they might have kids that they're looking after, or elderly parents that they're looking after, or whatever it is, and we give them so much freedom that, you know, they're working. They can work at night if they want to. They can work in the day. They've basically got a 24-hour window to get the laundry done and get it back to the customer. And they can be earning as little or as much as they want. So you know, they're earning anywhere between $303,000 per week, depending on, you know, where they're at. And some of them might start just wanting to earn that little bit and then go, hopefully this is great. I can fit this around my life, and it's easier, and then they increase that and we'll do more and more work. So we're, you know, we're really, like, feel very proud that we have that that model available to them, and that it does align to those values. So, you know, I think it's so important for businesses to understand that about who they are and, you know, keep checking in. Is that still who you are?

Debra Chantry-Taylor  13:12

Yeah, because it can change over time, that's for sure. So in terms of when you're looking to employ somebody as a contractor, is there a particular process that you go through to make sure they are the right person, and they actually fully understand what the role is about and what they need to do, yeah. So

Susan Toft  13:27

we have a whole recruitment process, and we've tried to automate that as much as possible so that we can, you know, bring, bring people in at scale, um, particularly like when we go to the US, you know, we want to be able to really do that at a much bigger, faster scale. So we've got that, you know, a whole process. And so they will watch videos and read information packs and all of those sorts of things, and it really strongly tells them about our values as well as you know what they can earn and how the model will work and all of those sorts of things. So they go through all of that before they before we onboard them and offer them. The decision also really comes down to location. So, you know, because they're working from their own home. So, you know, we don't want to have too many people in one area. We want to be able to help them all get to the capacity that they want us to get to. So we, you know, really carefully manage that in our head office team to make sure that we're, you know, constantly looking at the capacity versus demand, and, you know, meeting that in the middle beautiful.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  14:28

And so from a branding point of view, it's called the Laundry Lady. But you don't just employ Ladies, do, you know?

Susan Toft  14:37

And we have the laundry lad brand as well. So yes, yes, he's our cute little brand that we that we also have. So it is predominantly women we have. Probably around 80 to 90% of our contractors are female, but then there's a lot who also might work with their husband or they you know, or their kids or family members or. Or whoever it is. So it's, you know, a really flexible business for all kinds of different people. And we're certainly, you know, attracting more men to the business as well. So you know that it started with the original laundry lady, which was me, and now a, you know, a brand that's really grown from that.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  15:17

And had, because you've got 300 plus contractors, that's a lot. It's going to get even bigger. When you go to the US, right? I imagine that's gonna almost exponentially scale. How do you ensure that they still represent your brand, like, what, what measures or what systems do you have in place to ensure that they're actually delivering on what the laundry ladder or the laundry lad promises to the customers?

Susan Toft  15:37

Yeah, so there's lots of things that we do, and there's lots of things that we'll be adding soon as well. That will help us with that. So some of the things are looking at key data. So from the data, you know, we know that we have a very high recurring rate. So in fact, over 80% of our customers have a weekly or fortnightly service and 95% of them will use us more than once. So we know that's our company average, and we can look at data like that, and if people are dropping way below that, then perhaps there might be an issue that we need to look into. We certainly ask our customers, and our customers will tell us if there is an issue, and that that's usually the best way. And we'll soon be building some more feedback models into our platform as well, to get you know really instant kind of feedback around that that we can use to manage. We have a support team who are managing our contractors on a daily basis, and, you know, really helping them with anything that they need, around supporting their business and supporting them. So, yeah, so it's definitely, you know, and it will get even more challenging as we get a lot more contractors, like we've got 300 at the moment, we're forecasting that just within Australia and New Zealand, we'll get to about 10 times that in the next four or five years. And then obviously US will be a whole another game. So US and Canada is the areas that we're looking at and that will, yeah, really change the business dynamic, I think, as we grow into those. But we've, we've got so much good, you know, foundations that we've been able to develop from, from the way that we've grown and the way that we've built the business that can really help us within those new markets.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  17:20

Beautiful. Well, I tell you what, what's been the biggest challenge that you've had in growing the business? Like, if you think back over the years, what do you reckon was the biggest challenge that you faced?

Susan Toft  17:31

Uh, look, it's always money and people. So I think, you know, on the money side, like this, business has been completely bootstrapped. I never had anything to put in, um, other than that nice little $5,000 grant in the beginning. You know, I never had any money that I could put into the business, and that was really why it took so long to get to the stage of having our own tech platform and things like that. At the moment, we're trying to raise investments so that we can, you know, really speed things up in terms of the way that we grow the business. But that's been a constant challenge all the way around, because when you are just growing from your own profits, then you know, you're reinvesting all of those profits back in as a service business. We're very low gross profit margins. So we have to, you know, be very careful with how we very lean and how we operate. And so, you know, just managing that as you grow is definitely a challenge, and I think anyone in business should go and do an accounting degree. I think everyone should be taught that at school, rather than the mass that they get taught. So, you know, and then obviously people, and we're a very people centric business, but you know, as you grow, you have more people come into the business, more HR issues to manage, finding the right people, keeping them, all of those sorts of things is super tough and again, me, it's just always really come back to values. And I find that if I can be really aligned to those values, then it attracts people into our pain guru aligned to those values. And you know. So even in our head office team, flexibility is a is a really high priority, you know, my staff don't need to ask the time off if they need it for to code of something at school or anything like that, you know. And they have a lot of flexibility in terms of working from home and being hybrid and all of those sorts of things, as well as employees. And so, you know, that that is really important to us, to you know, and I think that attracts staff who are who are much more aligned to the business and stick around and all of those sorts of things. But, yeah, it's definitely, you know, always a challenge growing, growing a team, and managing a team, and, you know, and I think also as a leader, you've got to recognise what you're good at and what you're not and, you know, I certainly find that I can't be involved in that day to day operations anymore, and I can't be involved in managing all the people anymore. You know, over 300 contractors that would just, you know, I'd never sleep. So, you know, it's really been about bringing in people. That I can empower to be able to, you know, make those decisions and manage, manage those people, so that I can step into the next phase of development of the business.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  20:09

We call it Delegate and Elevate. It's really important. I think, as you grow I know I work with a VA company where the, again, they were all contractors. And so Justine, as the owner, had got 50-60, contractors working with her, and she was trying to do everything herself, and it just wasn't working. Because at the end of the day, as you said, as you grow, it just becomes impossible. And what we sort of, we realised as we worked through with her, there were certain things that, yeah, she could do, but it wasn't things she loved doing, wasn't that she was great at doing. And so there you go, right. Okay, so then what could we have as a role that could take away that stuff that stuff that you're not so good at, that you're not so that you don't love or don't like, and give that to somebody else. And once she started forming a leadership team, it actually changed the entire way the business was run, because suddenly it wasn't one person trying to hurt all the cats and get things going. She had a team that was supporting her, and they were doing what they loved and what they were great at. Therefore that the team as a whole was just on fire.

Susan Toft  21:01

Yeah, I think that's so important. Because I think people get really, you know, that we're all very attached to our businesses. They're our babies. We've grown them, and it's hard to let go of some of those things. I think I'm actually quite good at letting go of it, maybe too good, and then I worry about let go too much. But, you know, and for me, my background is marketing and growth, and that's really what I'm very good at. And you know, when you're running a business, compared to when, you know, when I was in a career, I'm better at different things as well. So, you know, I was quite good at managing people and all of those sorts of things then, but now when it's when you're trying to do that, as well as managing budgets. And, you know, pay, pay everything on time, and do all, you know, run every part of the business like it. Can it. You tend to not be good at some things. So, you know, I always have just got to a point where I thought, What am I spending my most, most of my time on at the moment? And that's the next role. So, in fact, you know, even as a marketing background, My first hire was a marketing person, because I recognised that, you know, doing social media takes so much time and, you know, even though that was what I had the skills in and could do, it was, it wasn't a good use of my time. And so bringing someone in to manage that, you know, really, really helped to for me to be able to focus on the next things and the next things, and so I just keep handing over the bit that I don't like.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  22:26

I love it. I actually was looking from a marketing background to any of my own marketing these days. Because the same sort of thing is that you got to look at what, where do you really add the most value? And I think what, I think, a really important point that you said there is what you were doing in your corporate world may not be what you actually really excel at. So I think when I was in corporate world, you know, I was a GM for a company that had 220 staff and really good at holding them all accountable and having their measurables and really, you know, being a great leader and manager. But in my own business, it's quite, quite different, because I don't know what changes, but suddenly you realise there are other things where you actually had a whole lot more value, and so those things aren't as important anymore. And also, I think, as your own business and your the owner of business, it's really more difficult to sometimes have those difficult conversations and hold people accountable. So I always say to people, if you're going to be like, if you can, one of the first highs you should have is somebody who can actually take care of all that people stuff, absolutely, absolutely, so tell Shark Tank I'm really keen to hear. Yeah, what? How did you get onto Shark Tank? How did it go? What were the lessons you learned from that?

Susan Toft  23:32

Yeah, so we were on Shark Tank in 2023, so just, just about a year and a half ago it aired. Sorry, the shark tank had stopped showing since before COVID, and then it and that was going to be the first year that it had come back, and all new sharks. And so we just saw the ad for it. And, you know, it's not always been a dream to go on Shark Tank. I didn't think it through too much. It just applied, which was quite probably quite good. If I'd had too much time to think about it, I might have talked myself out of it. But, you know, look, I think when you are in business, you are not in business, to not tell anyone about it like you are there to tell everyone about it as much as possible. You have to, you know, get over yourself if you are, you know, scared to do that, because no one's going to know about your business if you're not out there tell, you know, spooking it all of the time. And so, you know, applying for it was just another part of our marketing strategy, and, and, and then, you know, and then it all happened very quickly. We got accepted. A couple of weeks later, I was flying to Sydney to go and film the show and giving them set designs and all sorts of things like that. And so I went on. It was the first time I'd ever done a pitch, which is a really great idea on national tv. I was terribly sick, and I had very bad tonsillitis, and I but I knew I just had to get through it. And so you go in and you do, you have to stand on the. Circle, and you hear this music, and your heart's in your throat, and, and then you stand there for a couple of minutes, and then go into your two or three minute pitch. And although I was so, so nervous just to get that pitch right, because I thought, if I stuff it up, that's what they will play over and over again. Um, and, and I hadn't been getting it great that morning, but I did it perfectly, and, and then it just went straight into questions, which was the most intense, full on thing, and, but that actually, I that was the point where I actually relaxed and forgot the cameras were there. Because, you know, I know my business, and I'm passionate about it, and I know my numbers, and, you know, and I was excited to tell people about it So, but, you know, it's quite full on. They're all shouting over each other and all of that sort of thing. So did all of the questions, and then got an offer from Robert Herjavec, of the biggest ever offer on Australian TV. So a million, million dollar offer. And so, yeah, but, you know, it was never really about chasing the investment for us. It was more just about the marketing exposure. And the marketing exposure has been gold for us. You know, it's, you have no idea how much power there is in those words of as seen on Shark Tank. You know, we get so many more clicks and all of that in our ads whenever we have that playing, you know, we've got a whole lot of reels of famous people saying very nice things about our business. Thank goodness they said nice things. So, you know, that's all testimonials that we can use in our in our recruitment interviews. We still get people, you know, even 18 months later, turning up to interview and talking about it. So it increased our application for contractors by about five times immediately after, and we saw that continue for quite a while. So, you know, it was just a great exposure for the business. And everyone asked me about it still. And so, you know, it was, it definitely a great way to just kind of get your business name out there.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:03

Certainly, shows tenacity going on there when you've got tonsillitis. And I know what that what effect that can have on your brain as well. The brain turns to mush. But I think you made a really valid point there as well as I actually you know you should know your business numbers. You should know what you're talking about, which means, actually, the questions are the easiest part. It's the pitch that can be bit challenging.

Susan Toft  27:20

Yeah, and I think that's really important no matter what you're doing in your business, because you're always going to be talking to a bank or talking to a supplier or a potential partner, and if you don't know that off the top of your head, then it, then it, you know, it makes you look silly. So you've got to really know that and know that well and be ready to talk about it at any point in time, so yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  27:41

Did you get the investment or not?

Susan Toft  27:45

Well, I can't actually say, but we are chasing investment at the moment. So we are raising for the first time at the moment, and that will just really help us to accelerate our growth. But we have come a really long way without any kind of investment. So you know, I think it will be, we will continue to grow and interlock the new markets, whether we have investment or not.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  28:06

I think the bootstrapping thing is actually really interesting thing. I think a lot of people go into business and they kind of, they immediately think they're going to get investment. And I, I actually have a girlfriend who wrote a book on bootstrapping over here in New Zealand, Sarah Perry, and she talks about the fact that, you know, she had opportunity to bring up people on board, but she really wanted to, I suppose, maintain a bit of control. Because when you actually get investment, it doesn't come with no strings attached. It comes usually with some quite strong personalities, have some quite strong ideas. And the bootstrapping thing enabled her to kind of keep control for a period of time. But it also meant that you looked at every single dollar you spent, because I'm sure you would have been in the same situation where you're looking at and kind of going, if I spend this dollar, I probably can't spend it here. So which one provides the best return on investment, and how do I best do that? Whereas, if you're throwing a whole bunch of money, which I've seen through the Ice House, working at the Ice House, where businesses get thrown a lot of money, it actually makes it a little bit easier. And so sometimes you're not quite as what's the right word, you're not quite as focused on what it's going to be the return for that investment? Would you say that's fair from your journey?

Susan Toft  29:03

Absolutely, yeah, I've had to count every dollar, every step of the way, and you know, and be very creative in the way that I accessed any money to be able to do anything. You know, as a single mom, trying to get a credit card to run a business is a very impossible to do when you, you know, are just a small business. Even now, it's still difficult because, you know, banks don't, don't look at business owners in the same way that they look at employees. So, you know, it's so tough, you've got to count every dollar. And I think that's a really good mentality to have, whether you have investment or not. And we certainly still have that in our bootstrapping and trying to, you know, always look for efficiencies in every single thing, because every dollar counts, and every extra dollar we can get is $1 we can put into our marketing to get, you know, more customers for our contractors. And so, you know, we're really, like, very focused on that all of the time. It certainly would be nice. To be on the other side of that for a while, but, but if not, then we'll just continue bootstrapping. You can get a long way.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  30:07

You can, and I think also, though, if nothing else, by the time you do get invest, which I'm sure that you will, you will have a very, very different mentalities. When I actually had my own businesses very early on, then I went into corporate world. And by the time I got into corporate world, I treated every single day like it was my own, because I'd run my own business. I knew what it meant. I knew what it you know what that you had to look after the dollars and the cents. And then it actually took me a long way in the corporate career as well, because all of a sudden there was somebody who actually, genuinely cared. I'd go with spending money on that. Why are we doing that? That doesn't make any sense. Whereas a lot of corporate people who've always been corporate will actually just, they've had big budgets, they don't think about how they spend it. So I think, if nothing else, it gives you a really good baseline to be looking at everything in a very objective way, rather than a bit of a subjective way.

Susan Toft  30:52

Yeah, definitely. I agree.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  30:55

I'm really keen, because you are a marketer, and obviously the industry that you're in, it's, it's probably pretty easy to copy, and I would suggest it's almost on the on the point of being commoditised, in terms of it is just a service that anybody could actually do. How do you differentiate yourself?

Susan Toft  31:09

Our brand, for sure. 100% it's just really focusing on our brand and making sure that, you know, as I talked about before, the values are very strong in our brand. I'm a big part of that brand because of my story. So people really resonate with my story of why I started, you know, being, being a new mom, and then later being a single mom and, you know, and have dinner to, you know, have a business that I could have flexibility. And so we really push that so hard in our marketing, and that's what really attracts people. And, you know, that's hard to do well, and I think that's something that we've been really, really good at, and, and, and, you know, I don't even give it enough credit sometimes, because marketing just sort of, you know, is, is a natural thing to me, and something that we just do, and has always been a priority and a focus for us. But, you know, when I step back and with all the questions that we've had from potential investors in the last year, and, you know, and that is something that a lot of them will ask us, and it's really, you know, because it's so it's so hard to actually break down the, you know, the real tangible benefits of that marketing. But you know, investing in that and investing in a really solid brand that encompasses your values, you know, and making sure that in everything that you do, I think, is what's really helped us to get to where we are.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  32:29

Yeah, completely agree. Now you have got two sons. They're 15 and 10. Now, is that right?

Susan Toft  32:34

Yes, yes, 15 is a lot.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  32:38

I saw that you said that. You know that the things I'm most proud of, but also some of the biggest challenges for you, are the boys involved in the business at all? Or have they shown any interest?

Susan Toft  32:48

So not really they I have a very pink branded car, and it's very embarrassing for my teenagers to be dropped at school in his pink car. And in fact, he, at the moment, in in school is doing a shark tank pitch, and he hasn't told his teacher or anyone in his class about that his mum was on Shark Tank. And I'm, I'm like, Can I run in and tell your teacher what Brent made you? So, yeah, mum's a little bit embarrassing at the moment for to, for her to really care. But, you know, they, they do know, like, because we have such a, you know, flexible, open business, like we would bring the kids into the head office in school, holidays and things like that. I don't tend to do that too much anymore, because they're more trouble than they've to bring in there. But, you know, they, and my son's been helping out in the warehouse, sometimes helping, you know, pack the starter kits and things like that. I think now that he's 15, he's starting to really understand a lot more about what, what the business is about. But it was certainly exciting for them to see Mum on Shark Tank, you know, and to be able to see that and because they Yeah, and my, my eldest always tells me how terrible I am at doing laundry as well, which is kind of funny. So I'm like, you know, that's laundry pays our bills. But anyway.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  34:02

That's awesome. Okay, that's, yeah, well, I'd be interested to see if they do actually want to get involved. I do a lot of work with family businesses, and, you know, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, and that's absolutely fine, but it'll be interesting to see how they how they feel about it. As a little bit older, I suppose.

Susan Toft  34:19

I like to critique our marketing. I tell you what, my marketing manager gets very upset, because he gives it he because he thinks that he knows tick tock better than anyone, because he's 15, and he probably does, so he likes to critique us about that, but yeah, well, we'll see. We'll see what the future holds.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  34:36

Well, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what the future does hold. Obviously, expansion plans are pretty good. Hopefully get an investor on board, which will help in terms of people listening in, who are listening to your story going, you know that, wow, that's amazing. What will be the kind of the three top tips or tools that you might give them that they could go away and action, if they're I don't know, maybe, maybe feeling a bit stuck, because I must have been having gone through a couple of businesses myself where I bootstrapped it. There are times where it's really tough, right? And there's times when. You, you know you really want to do something, but maybe you can't afford it, or you, you get offered opportunities that you think like to take advantage of that, but it's not the right time. So for people who are kind of sitting there, perhaps in that kind of thing, or even just thinking about expanding or starting a business, what would be your top tips or tools?

Susan Toft  35:17

Yeah, so I too, the first one is to just get started or keep moving, keep going. I don't think there's really any secret to success. I don't think there's any secret to why some people do better than others. Other than that, they just keep going, you know. And it's that persistence. Find another way. If you are stuck in something, find a different way, you know, just keep banging on doors until you find, find the right solution around that. And, you know, and sometimes it's okay to take some time out as well. I think, you know when you are feeling a little bit like that, but, you know, I always say just, just keep swimming. And that's really, you know, what's kept me going through all the business again, it really has come back to values. And so I think getting true to your values is something that's really important, because that has kept me going a lot in in times where I've thought, oh my gosh, I can't do this anymore. But remembering, you know, all these contractors who joined us because they've got these same values, you know, I want that flexible business, and the fact that we can provide that to them, that that's something that that you know, does drive me and keep me going. So understanding your values and what they are and how they align, I think, is really important. Again, I would say, you know, talking about the MVP, like, don't think that things have to be perfect in the beginning. I heard someone say the other day, progress, not perfection. And I think that's so true, because you can get really caught up in, you know, trying to perfect something, and then you would never make any progress. So just get in and get it to do a workable level, you know, like, there's still so many things in our booking platform that you know, can be improved. And I know that, and I'm very conscious of that all of the time, but you we focused on what's going to be a workable solution, what's going to get us to the next stage, and we can come back to those other things later when we when we have money to do so. And, you know, I think I just read so I'm not a very disciplined type of person, and I'm a little bit disorganised and I hate mornings, but I just read at the start of the year the 5am club and by Robin Sharma and so I've been getting up at 5am and doing a workout every morning, which is very, very hard, like me. And I have to say, that's been really game changing for me this year, because it's just made me more motivated, made me have a clearer head by the time I start. Just got rid of that, that I'm always in a rush kind of feeling. Because, yeah, I just feel a lot more calmness in the morning as a result of that. So you know, if you can incorporate something like that into your life, I think that's a that's a good strategy to have. It certainly is a lot healthier than past strategies I've had. So yeah, so I think is that three have I said three.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  38:10

Four or more, that's great. That's cool. Keep going forever. You, you would obviously have learned a lot through it's interesting. The morning club things I've actually, I was never a morning person in my early days, and particularly when I was working in corporate, I was definitely a morning person, but I think for the last 15 years I've definitely been an early morning person. And I think you're right, it's like getting up, we go for a dog walk, I do a gym session three times a week, and just having by the time I get to seven o'clock in the morning, I feel like I've always done half my day, but it means that I'm clear for the rest of the day, which I think is really helpful. And I notice when I don't do it, and as if I do decide I want to have a sleep and it actually, it does really affect the way that you feel for the rest of the day. So I would highly, yeah, highly recommend that early mornings can be a blessing as opposed to a challenge.

Susan Toft  38:55

Yeah, it was definitely a struggle to get started with it. And the book is really good at talking about, you know, the how you go through those struggles, you know, how change can be very messy at the beginning, and all of those sorts of things, and how to get around that. And that gave me some really good strategies to get through it. And, you know, I definitely feel like that, like I it, I don't feel good if I haven't done it, so I'm making sure I'm doing it at least on every weekday and trying to do it on weekends as well where I can. And I think it's just it's also just made me calmer with the kids in the mornings, because mornings are always stressful, trying to get them, you know, two of them off to different places and juggle work and everything at the same time. So I'm definitely feeling like my stress levels in the morning have reduced greatly from it. But yeah, hopefully I can keep it up. Let's check in again.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  39:49

Yeah, let's do because, yeah, absolutely. Because that certainly becomes, it does become just the norm, like I actually wake up naturally now at that time, and I've been thinking about it, the other thing I just want to make point of is, you know, you talked about is a magic formula. There was no my. For business. I think sometimes consistency, tenacity, just showing up. And as you said, always taking a step forward. And sometimes it feels like you take a step forward and you take two steps back, but that's okay, as long as you take the next step forward. If you keep taking the steps forward, you know you're eventually going to get there, but also knowing when, when you are stuck. So you know, be able to reach out for help and kind of go, Hey, look, I am stuck. And you have, I'm assuming you have good peers, good people in your head office you can actually talk to when things are getting a bit difficult.

Susan Toft  40:26

Yeah, and certainly, you know, going through investment raising, I feel like I've had every mentor coming out of coming out of everywhere trying to give advice and, you know, and that can sometimes be a bit much as well. It's like when you become a new mom and everyone wants to give you parenting advice, and at the end of the day, you've got to trust, trust your gut and go with that. But, but, yeah, you know, sometimes it can just be like going to a networking event and talking to some other businesses over a glass of wine that can make you just knock out of whatever you know thing you've been stuck in for a while and doing those sorts of things. Because, yeah, there's, you know, that there is no secret. You just got to keep going. Keep going, keep going. And, you know, assistance is the key to success, they say.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  41:16

So, you know, just, you just got to do that progress, not perfection. Just keep taking that step forward. That's brilliant. Yeah, hey, Susan, if you would like to find out more about what you're up to. Where could they get hold of you?

Susan Toft  41:23

Yeah, so they can go to our website, laundrylady.com.au or in New Zealand, laundrylady.co.nz and find out about our services. And there's a join the team page for a contractor. If anyone's interested in becoming a contractor, our socials, you'll find lots of information there. And, and if you want to connect with me personally, then LinkedIn, you can find me there. So lots of lots of different information online, and, and, yeah, make sure you go and check out our services, because if you are in business yourself, you probably need a bit of time back to yourself. So we can help you get on top of your laundry at least, and give you some time there. So that was my other tip. I should have mentioned, is outsource, outsource as much as you can.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  42:07

It's completely. We talk about delegate and elevate. We talk about, you know, you either delegate to somebody else in the team, or you outsource it, or sometimes you can automate it. Sometimes you stop it. And I have to say, laundry is here the bane of my life. I don't know how there's only two of us in our household, but I don't know how we get through so much washing once you've got children, everything else, you know, it's even worse. So.

Susan Toft  42:26

It's never ending.

Susan Toft  42:27

Never ending. Yeah, I love it.

Susan Toft  42:29

Well, you can now book our services. Check it out.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  42:33

Absolutely I will. Hey Susan, thank you so much for your time. I really, really appreciate it, and I wish you all the best with your investment raising and breaking into other markets,

Susan Toft  42:40

Thank you. Thanks so much.

Debra Chantry-Taylor  42:33

Pleasure. Thank you.