The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Laundry

  • Setting up laundry/dry-cleaning business

    As laundry awareness is greatly increasing, more Nigerians are beginning to embrace the need to engage the services of professional cleaners for the homes, offices and clothings.

    A lot of people in all woks of life do not have the time, chance and all it takes to wash, iron and keep their cloths neat, so the only alternative is to employ the services of the professional cleaners.

    You will agree with me that the task of washing, rinsing, drying, and ironing clothes is very tedious and time consuming that the low income earners would consider buying machine for this purpose. In Nigeria, the poverty level at present and the epileptic power supply is a great discouragement to most homes that can afford a washing machine.

    For this reason, most people however engage the services of cleaners in the home and offices twice or thrice on the yearly bases. This is the case of general cleaning services.

    Methods:

    1. Manual: This involves physical strength. The washer man has to put water in a washing basin, add soap as needed, then wash manual with the hands.  After this, would hang on the cloth lines, and must put pegs to avoid cloths dropping from the lines and getting stained.

    The clothes are ironed, folded, and packaged neatly thereafter.

    1. Automated: This process involves the use of washing machine. The cloths are sorted, and various colours are separated, washing detergent is measured and added into the washing machine and it is turned on to spine, rinse and dry, after which it would be ironed, folded and packaged in a branded nylon with label.

    Note that Washing machine has capacities, but it will be determined by the amount of money you wish to invest.

    Machineries/equipment

    1. Washing machine: Washing machine makes the job easier, faster and more reliable. The size of the washing machine you chose to acquire depends on the amount of money at your disposal for investment. On a small scale bases, I will advise the use of 14KG top loader washing machine, as it can wash up to 40 clothes at a go, and for the generating set to easily power it in case of power outage.
    2. Ironing table: Ironing table a priority in this business, ironing and folding of cloths professionally is done on this table. The table must be large enough and smooth to give the expected result.
    3. Laundry iron: At least, two efficient steam electric iron must be made available for the purpose of this business.
    4. Coal and Stove iron: Coal and stove iron become very necessary as a back-up in case of situation of power outage.
    5. Water storage tank: This is to ensure regular supply of water for the business.
    6. Washing basins: Washing basins are part of the necessary tools for the business to flourish.

    Number of staff needed varies from 2 to above 10, depending on the capacity of the investment.

    Other materials:

    1. Laundry detergent
    2. Stain removal chemicals
    3. Standby generator.
    4. Packaging Nylon
    5. Labels
    6. Hand bills
    7. Hand dryer for urgent services.
    8. Liquid and spray starch
    9. Cloth hangers
    10. Wardrobes and shelves

    for ironed cloths.

     

    Profitability: It is highly lucrative. The ever growing population is an indication of large market.

    Rate of returns on investment is equally very high.

    Monetary involvement: From N250,000 to N10M and above.

    Note: The amount of money invested in the laundry business depends on you investment capacity and the business plan you want to execute.

     

    • For response and equaries:

    chalicon@yahoo.com

  • Lord of emotional flies

    WHAT a place to be at this time of the day! It was mid day and everyone was at work or busy doing one business or the other. Sola’s heart and mind was lost and he just didn’t know how to fix the emotional knots that had fallen out of place. Perhaps what he needed was an emotional cleansing or was it laundry?

    While he was still thinking of the emotional way forward, the flies buzzing around just kept intruding and distracting him. They kept on perching on his eyes, nose and lips in a very irritating way. What do they have to offer, running up and down in an irritating manner? He decided to deal with them in his own way. In a few minutes, he became the hero, killing about half a dozen flies.

    Naturally, the other members of the crew took off and peace returned to the atmosphere. Yes, it was time to think straight, but again he realised that killing the flies did not bring a solution and he was back to square one.

    The emotional avenue can be as good as it can be. At such moments, you get carried away and lost to everything else. Conversely, the table can be upturned and at such moments, you may never find your bearing again. In the midst of such emotional confusion, you become a lost voice travelling in an emotional desert and heading to nowhere in particular.

    A quick search at the events that finally culminated in the emotional wars he fought and truly you find that it wasn’t really his fault that things turned out this way. “I actually put in so much into the last relationship and didn’t want it to go the way of the others. But somehow I realised that the more I tried to make it work, the more elusive it became.”

    On the surface, they looked like the best emotional bargain on the love shelf, the type any man would want to pay a fortune for. Tall, beautiful and full of life, these women fit perfectly into his definition of a real woman. But as soon as the emotional journey took off, he realised that it wasn’t what he thought it was.

    Painfully, he discovered that these faces do not match the hearts he so desperately craved for. Instead, they turned out to be wild, wicked and emotional flies. He could not catch up with them and emotional ‘deaths’ became the only viable option. At different points, he tried to ‘change’ them but it turned out that they preferred to bite the emotional fingers that fed them with love.

    Too late? Yes, it was. Everyone was in the picture and their expectation was to see him walk down the aisle with his beloved. Unfortunately, that was not to be and all that he is left with are bitter tales of romance gone awry. Sometimes, there is an element of luck to these things and if you are unlucky to be with the wrong partner (s) then you cannot save the situation on your own.

    Tears? Yes, Sola had been crying all day. Tears of frustration, tears of rejection and tears of anger. Wait a minute! What is going on here, how can he descend this low to cry because of a woman? The handkerchief in his pocket comes to the rescue; nobody must see our dear friend in this state. Shedding those tears was a good relief, indeed.

    It helped to purge away some of the emotions that had been bottled up. Relief that was also temporary. The reality of being bitten twice and more was not a pleasant thing at all. Three wonderful relationships had gone down the emotional drain, flushed away into the archives and stored away forever. Any attempt to revisit to find out what transpired in this (ese) emotional arena (s) would definitely bring affectionate tears, scars of frustration and humiliation.

    The love that he cherished has been thrown into the dustbin of emotional history and there was really nothing he could do about it. Whatever he attempted to say or do became counterproductive.

    Sola’s experience can be compared to Williams Golding’s first novel, Lord of the flies, which takes us through what we want as opposed to what we get from life.

    Even though the novel was not a great success when he first wrote the book, it later became a bestseller and the Nobel prize winner reaped so much later. It was later adopted for film twice. In 2005, the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best English Language novels from 1923 to 2005.

    So what is the message from the book? It is about a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island and they try to govern themselves with disastrous results. Its stances on the already controversial subjects of human nature and individual welfare versus the common good. Here, the uninhabited island represents the desert which is the opposite of paradise. Most times what we crave for is emotional paradise with all the goodies. But instead of getting our dreams, what many are stuck with are emotional deserts that do not take care of their individual needs.

    In desperation, they try to fix the missing gaps, fulfilling selfish desires that end up thwarting the general interest. This leads to what we may consider to be the common good in a relation. This is also very controversial because what is common between Mr. A and Mr. B may not necessarily be the same with Mr. A and Mr. C.

  • Laundry soap making

    Laundry soap is one of the most essential house-hold items that humans

    use daily. It commands regular or constant demand in the market place.

    It is in the group of useful commodities like food items, water, clothes, and shelter that we can not do without. Little wonder that the soap making business has not suffered any set back in spite of the global economic melt-down.

    Soap making business is lucrative and offers reliable and constant revenue for business men and women who are producing and those marketing soap wholesale or retail. If you are in doubt, please ask the nearest soap seller on your street how often he or she visits the market to replenish his or her stock.

    Different types of soap are produced daily and they include laundry soap, bathing soap, antiseptic soap, detergent and a host of others. The modes of producing them the chemicals used are slightly different.

    Our focus here is on how to produce laundry soap on a small scale. There are various methods of production, but two are outstanding. The hot and cold method. The hot method involves boiling the chemicals in a mixture. The cold method, which is easier and does not involve boiling, is being exposed here.

  • Laundry starch production, ‘a money spinner’

    Laundry starch production is a money spinner. Many Nigerians buy starch for laundry. Most consumers buy it from hawkers.Well-packaged starch in shops attract higher prices. Investing in the business is quite rewarding.

    Starch is produced from cassava. Several stages are involved in its production. These include peeling and washing of the cassava tubers; grating/pulping follows with the use of a rotary grater or a harmer mill.

    This procedure will reduce the tuber to a state whereby the starch from these tubers would be nearing extraction. To extract the starch from these tubers, water is added to the milled substance. Screening and sieving of the resulting suspension follows. This is allowed to settle for some time. Through the use of a mechanical or hydraulic press, dewatering and cake-breaking follows. The procedure is followed by drying through the pneumatic/tunnel dryer to a moisture content of about seven per cent.

    The next step is the grinding/ milling of the starch to fine particle sizes after which it is allowed to cool before being weighed and parked for sale to consumers.

    Machines and equipment required for all the stated process include peeling machine, grater, slurry tank, sieving machine, hammer mill, weighing and packaging machines. All operations can to be automated. These machines and equipment are available locally. This project will capitalise on the increasing social awareness of Nigerians, particularly those in the medium and high income earning categories, our ever- increasing population figures and finally the increasing number of laundry and dry-cleaning outfits and hotels in the country.

    Prospective investors should note that in as much as the project is viable, it is capital as well as labor intensive in nature. For this project, initial staff strength of seven will suffice. Staff strength will expand the moment the company consolidates itself in the market. In addition, the promoters should ensure that the finished products are packed in well designed and attractive labels to increase sales volumes.

    Cost of setting up this project on a small scale is estimated at N2.5 million. This amount can be scaled down or increased, depending on the financial strength of the promoters. The plant in mind is capable of producing two tonnes of finished products a day.

    Working for a minimum of 250 days in a year, the total production will be 500 tonnes, which is equivalent to 500,000 kilograms. It should be noted that finished products would be packed in grams sizes using the weighing machines. A unit, made of 250 grammes, is being considered in this analysis. This will give a total of two million units. At a wholesale price of N25/ unit, annual sales will be N50 million. A conservative pre-tax profit of 35 per cent or N17.5 million is realised in the first year of operation. The viability of this project is not in doubt considering its high turnover and envisaged profit margin.

    This project stands a good chance of attracting finance from the banks, where individuals or corporate bodies are assisted with funds ranging from N500,000 to well over N50 million.A well-packaged feasibility report is pre-requisite to securing finance for the project. This can be provided on request.

    For details on how to implement this project or any other, contact Kris-Ed Brilliant Limited, 395, Borno Way, Harbert Macauly Road, Sabo-Yaba, Lagos State. E-mail: krisedbrilliant@yahoo.com