September 24, 2024 • 39 mins
Feeling overwhelmed with laundry and household chaos? In this episode, we sit down with Ally and Mary Catherine, founders of Lessen the Loads, a women-owned laundry and organizational service helping busy moms reclaim their time. They share their journey from friends to business partners, their unique approach to laundry pickup services, and the additional organizational help they provide to families. We dive into the inspiration behind Lessen the Loads, the challenges they faced in building a business, and how they stand out by offering in-home organization along with laundry solutions. Tune in to learn how this incredible team is lightening the load for families in southeast Pennsylvania.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dane Shoemaker (00:03):
Hi. This is Dane Shoemaker with the Shoemaker
Films podcast. I'm here with Aliand Mary Catherine with Lesson
the Loads. How are you guysdoing?
Mary Catherine (00:10):
Good. How are you?
Ally (00:11):
Thank you so much.
Dane Shoemaker (00:11):
Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for, being a guest on
here. Excited to learn a littlebit more about your business. I
feel like I reached out, I don'tknow, months ago now.
We had to keep rescheduling withthe summer and everything, but,
glad we got this on the books.Yeah.
Ally (00:24):
We're excited for a sec. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (00:26):
Yeah. So less than the loads, love the name.
Mary Catherine (00:29):
Thank you.
Dane Shoemaker (00:30):
So there's kind of like a dual, you know, that's
purposeful. Right? Right? So whydon't you tell us a little bit
about your your service and yourbusiness?
Mary Catherine (00:38):
Okay. I guess I'll start. So Less Than Loads
is basically a laundry andorganizational service. It
started out of, you know, a needwe've recognized in in the
market, kind of a a gap in themarket, And we can talk about
that a little bit later. ButSure.
Basically, you know, we hirelocal moms in our area of
(01:00):
service, and they pick up yourlaundry, bring it to their home,
do the wash in in their home,and then turn it around, fold
it, and bring it back, within 24hours. So basically, you know,
that's our bread and butter isthat we have, you know, the
pickup laundry service. But wealso have a lot of
organizational servicesavailable as well. So Okay.
Dane Shoemaker (01:20):
You
Mary Catherine (01:20):
know, anything from if you need your pantry
organized to your garageorganized, we can help you.
Dane Shoemaker (01:26):
Oh, awesome. Okay. Yeah. I can see how that
kind of goes hand in hand.
Mary Catherine (01:29):
For sure.
Dane Shoemaker (01:30):
Nice. And how long have you guys have been,
been in business?
Ally (01:33):
What's going on? It's two and a half years. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (01:37):
I was just thinking, I'm like, I think
it'll be 3 years in March.
Ally (01:40):
Yeah. It'll be 3 years next March.
Dane Shoemaker (01:42):
Okay. And you 2 are the owners?
Ally (01:43):
We
Dane Shoemaker (01:44):
are. Just 5050 split or Yep.
Ally (01:46):
We don't
Dane Shoemaker (01:46):
have to get into those details. So yeah.
Mary Catherine (01:48):
Yep. We'll tell you that's.
Dane Shoemaker (01:49):
That's awesome.
Ally (01:50):
We were
Mary Catherine (01:50):
high school friends,
Dane Shoemaker (01:51):
so that's kind of, you know?
Ally (01:53):
Yep. We always say always friends first.
Dane Shoemaker (01:55):
Yeah. Nice. Did you grow up in this area? Did
you go to high school aroundhere or?
Ally (01:58):
We did. We went to St. Pius in Pottstown, so, this is
where we currently are stilllive. But a lot of our clients
are obviously on the main line,Delaware County, Montgomery
County, Bucks County. We serviceall of those counties, and so we
spend a lot of time down there.
Dane Shoemaker (02:14):
Okay. Nice. So tell me a little bit about more
about your business. So youhave, you have kind of a network
of are they contractors? Arethey employees?
Ally (02:25):
Yes. So we hire all contractors. And the reason that
we've kind of gone this route inthis business model is because
most of the contractors that wehire are moms or and are stay at
home moms. And
Dane Shoemaker (02:37):
Okay.
Ally (02:37):
They're looking for a way to bring income into their
family, but don't necessarilywant a 9 to 5. That can be hard
with your own children. Right? Ahusband who maybe travels or has
a a busy job. So we really prideourselves on providing a
flexible income opportunity, agood flexible income opportunity
for them to bring something intotheir household, but really to
(03:00):
be able to maintain a schedulethat's conducive to having a
young family and and children.
Dane Shoemaker (03:05):
Yeah.
Ally (03:05):
So we hire all moms, in the counties that we serve. And
that's also why, I I think we'vebeen so successful is in in that
model because they love to work.Yeah. I love laundry.
Dane Shoemaker (03:24):
I mean, it seems for somebody who's a stay at
home mom or anybody who whodoesn't, you know, doesn't wanna
have a full time job, it seemslike a pretty flexible, you
know, you
Mary Catherine (03:34):
I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we also have
folks that they do have fulltime jobs
Dane Shoemaker (03:38):
and they're doing this
Mary Catherine (03:39):
as a, you know, a side gig or, you know,
something to just bring in alittle bit of extra income. So,
it really it's it's wonderfulbecause we're able to provide,
you know, opportunities thatotherwise they may not have been
able to have.
Dane Shoemaker (03:51):
Yeah. And I
Ally (03:51):
was going to say like, it is really hard to find flexible,
legit work these days.
Dane Shoemaker (03:58):
Yeah. You know,
Ally (03:58):
a lot of the, I feel like a lot of the things that you
find on Facebook are either likescams or you need to like bust
your butt for, you know, likereally hard. And, that's just
like not the case here. It's,it's a legitimate job. And, so
flexible, you can take yourhours, pick your jobs that you
want. You can take on
Mary Catherine (04:17):
as much as you want or as.
Ally (04:18):
Yeah. I was gonna say, we have, you know, we have
teammates who
Mary Catherine (04:21):
work maybe 2 to 3 jobs a week, and then we have
ones that are working, you know,10 jobs a week. Right. So it all
depends on their schedule andwhat they want. Yep.
Dane Shoemaker (04:32):
Yeah. Awesome. Is there like a typical, like if
I'm a contractor signing up towork with you guys, like how
many hours a week, roughly howmany loads, like, is there an
average or is it minimum? Youknow,
Ally (04:43):
so it's, It's so hard. We get this question all the time.
It is so hard because we have somany different scenarios, so
many different contractors. Theyall make it work with their
schedules. Like again, like wecould have somebody doing £300
of laundry a week, and thenmaybe we have somebody who's
doing 50.
Dane Shoemaker (05:02):
Okay. Right. So do you like pay by the pound or
how does that? We do
Ally (05:05):
for pickup drop off. We pay by the pound. And then for
our in home services, weobviously pay by the hour.
Mary Catherine (05:11):
Okay. Yeah. Which makes it a little
complicated. Yeah. It also, youknow, I lost my train of
thought.
Dane Shoemaker (05:18):
I have no idea what I was going to say.
Ally (05:19):
I was going to say, I think it also like sets our
business apart and like, that'skind of the difference between
us and other laundry services,right? There's other obviously
national laundry services thatour competitors in this area,
but none that also offer thosein home services. And and that's
where we also found the gap inthe market Okay. Is right. Like,
there are other pickup, drop offlaundry services, but there
(05:41):
aren't other laundry servicesthat will also come in and
reorganize your drawers, set itall up, and then continue with
that same method.
Dane Shoemaker (05:48):
Mhmm.
Ally (05:49):
Right? So you don't have to do any of that. It's all
great that you're that you havea pickup, drop off laundry
service, but what if that's nothow you fold your stuff?
Dane Shoemaker (05:56):
Right.
Ally (05:57):
Right. It doesn't work. Then what you have to refold
yourself.
Dane Shoemaker (06:00):
Okay. Because some people are very specific.
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (06:03):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And these are things we
didn't think about in thebeginning. And then we quickly
learned them real fast is like,we have to go in and basically
organize for you before, youknow, we can do your weekly
service.
Ally (06:15):
Yeah, we suggest that to anybody who starts our service,
whether you're doing pickup dropoff or are in home services.
It's really beneficial if wecome in, reorganize your stuff,
and then it you can maintainfrom there with our maintenance
services.
Dane Shoemaker (06:30):
So what what areas, like, geographically do
you cover? Is that
Mary Catherine (06:34):
So right now, we are in mainly south East
Pennsylvania.
Ally (06:38):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (06:39):
So you know, Burkes, Bucks, Montgomery,
Chester, Delco. And then we alsoare in a small portion of New
Jersey and North Jersey.
Dane Shoemaker (06:49):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (06:49):
Morris County. Yeah. So we we slowly are
expanding out into New Jersey.But, yeah, we started, you know,
in, like, this PottstownBoyertown area and then have
then, you know, expanded out.
Dane Shoemaker (07:03):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (07:03):
That way.
Dane Shoemaker (07:04):
I mean, I could see it being pretty, like,
scalable. Like, it's basicallyjust marketing and as long as
there's people there to fold andclean lawn do laundry.
Mary Catherine (07:13):
Like It's a fine line, though. It's a it's a
balancing act because you wewanna make sure that we have
enough team to perform the job,but we also don't want our team
members coming on board and nothaving enough work. Yeah. So
it's constant. You know, we hiresome people, and then we're
marketing like crazy in thatarea or vice versa.
We're marketing in that area tomake sure that we have jobs, and
then we're bringing people onboard quickly. So it's a
(07:33):
constant, constant balancingact.
Ally (07:34):
I was going to say, we definitely are really cognizant
about not over hiring so thatthe individuals on our team can
make the amount of money thatthey want to make. Right? Like,
I don't wanna oversaturate amarket where there's 15
contractors there, and thenthey're only getting, like, 1 or
2 jobs a week, each of them. Youyou know what I mean? Yeah.
(07:56):
So we're really thoughtful aboutthat, and I think that also sets
apart our business. Obviously,we're locally owned. We care
about the people on our team.Right? And I think that goes
really far.
Yeah. I think they feel that ifyou were to ask them for sure.
That we do truly care about themand want them to get what they
need from this business
Dane Shoemaker (08:14):
to. And we
Mary Catherine (08:15):
try and check it with them on a regular basis.
You know, I mean, we're, we'reconstantly, you know, talking to
them all day, every day, youknow, with different issues that
are happening or, you know,just, Hey, so and so needs their
laundry later this day, youknow? But in addition to that,
we are also making sure, youknow, we're checking in and
saying, you know, how's yourhow's your workload? Do you feel
like it's enough? Do you wantsome more?
Do you want less? You know,we're going into the holidays.
(08:36):
What does that look like foryou? We're going into the
summer. What does that look likefor you?
Dane Shoemaker (08:39):
Do you
Ally (08:39):
need some time off?
Mary Catherine (08:40):
Right. We're always trying to, like, check-in
and make sure that they're, youknow, in a good, you know,
headspace as well.
Dane Shoemaker (08:46):
So, I mean, let's talk about, like, more on
the customer side.
Mary Catherine (08:51):
Sure.
Dane Shoemaker (08:51):
You know? So I can see how this service would
really benefit working families.Maybe you have, 2 two parents
who are working. They don't havetime to do that. Like, do you
have, like, an ideal client
Mary Catherine (09:03):
Yes. That's it. You
Dane Shoemaker (09:04):
go after.
Ally (09:04):
That's what you just said.
Dane Shoemaker (09:05):
Okay.
Ally (09:06):
Working families with young children who value their
time more than doing laundry.
Dane Shoemaker (09:11):
Sure.
Ally (09:11):
Right? Like, for most people, and I'm speaking for
myself as well, I don't enjoydoing laundry. It's like a
dreaded chore for me. Yeah. AndI don't have the capacity to do
it either.
So, like, those two thingscombined is the perfect, so, you
know, it's the perfect solutionto outsource that task. Laundry
is the most time consuminghousehold chore out there
(09:32):
because it's not like, I alwayssay, you can go and scrub a
toilet real quick. Right? Youcould probably do it in 5
minutes. You can't do yourentire laundry process in 5
minutes.
Right? Like, you gotta collectit. You take it down. You gotta
put it in the washer. You gottawait for the wash and you gotta
transfer it to the hydrant.
Dane Shoemaker (09:49):
And then you gotta hold and put
Ally (09:50):
it away. I mean, there's all those laundry memes out
there for a reason, like, about,like, the process because it
it's so time consuming. So ourideal client and and most of our
clients are young families,working professionals. Right?
Usually.
And they have young kids to adegree. Now I will say we also
Mary Catherine (10:10):
we've gotten into different markets recently
by just, you know, byword-of-mouth and folks hearing
about us and they are saying,oh, we need your service, the
elderly for 1, you know, theycome up in age, whether they're
living by themselves or theyjust can't necessarily get down
to the basement to go do theirlaundry now, or it's too heavy
for them or, you know, all thesedifferent reasons. We have I'm
(10:32):
trying to think of, like, other,other clients that we've had
recently that we were like, oh,that's a market we didn't even
think about.
Ally (10:39):
Well, I was gonna say, like, we, this is just like an
unusual market, but we do, thefootball jerseys for a local
high school. So after everygame, right. Instead of, sending
them jerseys and pants insteadof like sending them out,
Mary Catherine (10:55):
Which I didn't even know as a thing,
apparently, you know, highschool send out their jerseys to
get cleaned and then they sendthem back to the school.
Ally (11:02):
It's our 3rd
Dane Shoemaker (11:03):
year doing
Mary Catherine (11:04):
it. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (11:04):
Yeah. And it's great.
Ally (11:05):
There's a lot of like,
Mary Catherine (11:06):
I got him hanging out back right
Dane Shoemaker (11:07):
now.
Mary Catherine (11:10):
But yeah, lots of different, you know, you
don't realize, obviouslyeveryone needs their laundry
done.
Ally (11:15):
Yeah. We always say like you, you obviously need clothes.
Right? Clean clothes.
Dane Shoemaker (11:20):
Yeah. I mean, it's it's yeah. Constant. It's
Ally (11:23):
a necessity.
Dane Shoemaker (11:23):
And especially if you have big family or small
kids,
Mary Catherine (11:27):
college students, that's another one.
You know, that's that's anothermarket that we've kind of tapped
into as well.
Dane Shoemaker (11:33):
Like working directly with the college on
that? Or
Mary Catherine (11:36):
We are working to get into colleges. We
haven't, like, actively,
Dane Shoemaker (11:39):
you
Mary Catherine (11:39):
know, gotten it, but it's just been, you know,
word-of-mouth. Oh, my son ordaughter is here. Like, could
you pick up at their theirschool? Or
Dane Shoemaker (11:46):
Oh, wow. Okay.
Mary Catherine (11:47):
You know, they're coming home for the
summer. They have a ton oflaundry that they're bringing
with them. Yeah. You know, thattype of thing.
Dane Shoemaker (11:52):
I don't have time to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I can think for, youknow, for myself, like, I have a
lot of things around the house,like mowing the lawn.
Those are some that's like well,I've outsourced that to somebody
now. I like doing yard work, andthere's plenty of other stuff
picking up sticks and things toget that scratch that ish a
little bit. But, like, mowing alawn, I think is, like, easy
(12:14):
enough for someone else to dothat you can kinda outsource
that.
Mary Catherine (12:16):
For sure.
Dane Shoemaker (12:17):
We also have a cleaning person. Right? And, I
will say that my my wife doesspend a lot of time every week
doing laundry. Right? So I
Ally (12:26):
mean So you're the ideal client?
Dane Shoemaker (12:28):
Probably. Yeah. Are there some people that are
kind of, you know, apprehensiveto hand off, you know, the
laundry services? I mean, Ithink in a way, she kinda likes
it a little bit because it'slike kind of a mindless I don't
know.
Mary Catherine (12:42):
I don't know. Also has, like, the control as
well. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (12:44):
She can put on a podcast or put on a show. You
know? Yeah. Kinda no one bothersher for, like, an hour or 2.
Ally (12:50):
You know?
Mary Catherine (12:51):
So I will say personally. So Ali, the whole
reason this business started wasbecause Ali had her 3rd baby.
And I can let you talk aboutthis. But basically, she felt
guilty for holding her baby andnot doing her laundry. And
that's how this kind of allstarted.
But long story short is that I'mthe friend that likes to do
laundry. Okay. And so she usedour service from day 1. Right?
(13:12):
Like, her she brought our teamto her house.
They do her laundry in and outfrom day 1. I probably it took
me probably, like, a year Yeah.To, like, actually let our team
do my laundry. Not because Idon't think I was afraid, but
just because I enjoyed doing it.I liked knowing that, like, you
know, my laundry was done aspecific like, I I want my
(13:33):
whites, like, OxiClean and mywhites,
Ally (13:34):
all that stuff.
Mary Catherine (13:35):
We have all those options,
Ally (13:36):
which we do. Right?
Mary Catherine (13:38):
Right. We do. Well, now we've, you know Yep.
Got all that on our list ofthings. But that's that's what
I'm saying is that people mightbe apprehensive.
But once they, you know, talk tous and we answer all their
questions or they go to thewebsite and they check out all
these options that we have, youknow, we can make sure that
we're washing your whites withOxiClean. We can we are always
treat. We can saint treat. We'realways only ever drying on low.
(14:00):
We're never drying on high.
So like, you don't have to worryabout anything like shrinking.
Ally (14:04):
Well, hang dry. If you have certain items like you,
that can't go in the dryer.Right. Basically we can
completely tailor the laundryprocess to like what you would
do at home anyways.
Mary Catherine (14:14):
Yeah. And now I'm obsessed and I would never
would go back ever, ever, likenever in a 1000000 years.
Ally (14:22):
I can't ever imagine doing my laundry ever again.
Mary Catherine (14:25):
It's crazy. And it sounds so ridiculous.
Ally (14:27):
No, it really does. But like,
Mary Catherine (14:29):
I don't even have children. It's just myself
and my fiance, like but Listen.It's huge. It's so huge. You
never go back.
It's life changing.
Dane Shoemaker (14:37):
No. I can I can believe it? Yeah. Because, I
mean, for, you know, busy, like,any any any anyone. Right?
Business owner or working, youknow, working 9 to 5. Like
Right. There's only a few hoursin the day, you know, that you
get to spend time with yourkids. If the kids have, like,
sports and school, homework Imean,
Ally (14:55):
I think about my household. We're running ragged
every single day from thing tothing. Like, to not think about
laundry is huge. I also have acleaning service. Our service,
our laundry service goes greatwith a cleaning service
Dane Shoemaker (15:07):
because a
Ally (15:08):
lot of cleaning services won't do laundry. Right? Maybe
they'll throw it in, but they'renot, you know, doing the whole
process. Yeah. Most of ourclients also have cleaners too.
Dane Shoemaker (15:18):
Okay. Yeah. Like, they they hire a cleaning
service.
Mary Catherine (15:21):
They are a cleaning service.
Dane Shoemaker (15:22):
They've already recognized, okay, this is hours
back in my week. You know?
Mary Catherine (15:25):
But we were talking about this earlier. I
think once you outsource onething, you realize the benefit
of having all the that timeback, and you're like, what else
can I outsource? And,
Ally (15:34):
like, for myself, time is probably the most valuable thing
whenever I, like, whatever I canoutsource, I'm doing it because
I I just need all the time I canget. Yeah. Especially with young
kids. Right? I mean Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (15:47):
You only get It's so hard. Years with them
before they're out.
Mary Catherine (15:50):
Exactly. Before they're
Dane Shoemaker (15:51):
out of the house, they don't even care
about you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.That's cool.
Yeah. I mean, it's I love thebusiness model. You know, it
seems like such a neededservice. Can you explain, you
know, how does, like, onboardingwork? If I'm somebody, like, do
I go to your website and fillout a form?
What does that process look likefor a customer?
Mary Catherine (16:12):
Yeah. For a customer. So right. You can find
us well, you can find us on alldifferent platforms. Right?
We're on all the socials and
Dane Shoemaker (16:18):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (16:19):
But also our website is kind of our main main
point of contact.
Dane Shoemaker (16:22):
Okay.
Ally (16:23):
You
Mary Catherine (16:23):
would go on contact us page, there's a link
you'd click, and basically, itwould just take all of your
information, you know, yourname, where you where you're
located. Basically, you know,what service you're looking for.
So we have a number of differentservices. Obviously, we're
talking about our pickup dropoff pickup drop off service,
which is our main kind ofservice that we offer. But, you
(16:43):
know, we do just folding aswell.
Like, if you can get yourlaundry washed and dried and you
just hate folding it and puttingit away, we'll do that too.
Dane Shoemaker (16:52):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (16:53):
So basically, you know, everything's laid out
there pricing all that click theone you want, you click on that.
And then your preferences, youcan fill out all of your
preferences. Do you want tosustain treat? Do you want us to
add oxy clean to your whites,like those types of things?
Anything else that you wouldlike to note?
You know, I'm going to pre sortmy items, you know, I'm going to
send them as is. Can you returnthem as is? Sure. Yeah. So we
(17:16):
can
Ally (17:16):
and then at the end of that, you pick your day and time
and submit,
Mary Catherine (17:20):
and then you'll hear from our admin Megan,
within probably the day, we tryto get back no later than the
day.
Ally (17:30):
It's it's like within the hour. Yeah. That you'll get a
confirmation, like confirmingyour appointment, which we send
via text.
Dane Shoemaker (17:35):
Nice. Yep. So it
Ally (17:36):
can be all done online from our website.
Dane Shoemaker (17:39):
That's great. Do you, and then in terms of like
the contractor, you know, whendo you get people reaching out
to you say, Hey, I want to workfor you. Or are you kind of
qualifying?
Mary Catherine (17:50):
You know, we're definitely qualifying.
Dane Shoemaker (17:52):
Yeah. Like
Mary Catherine (17:52):
we're not just taking any
Dane Shoemaker (17:54):
Joe Schmauer certification of like,
Mary Catherine (17:56):
yeah, they actually have to.
Dane Shoemaker (17:59):
Tell me about this. Tell me
Mary Catherine (18:00):
about this particular,
Ally (18:01):
which I think people think we're like crazy. I feel nuts
and not like, I feel like wekind of.
Mary Catherine (18:08):
Talk to them. We do kind of sound crazy. And then
I think they get on board andthey realize, oh, wow. Like,
this is, you know, this is whatthe clients are paying for.
They're paying for thataesthetic.
So we do need to get it right.
Ally (18:18):
And like we deliver things back ready for your drawers.
Like, there's no
Mary Catherine (18:24):
You can literally lift it up and plop it
in the drawer. Yeah.
Ally (18:27):
Yeah. So we are a little neurotic.
Mary Catherine (18:29):
A little bit. But I
Dane Shoemaker (18:30):
think people appreciate that.
Mary Catherine (18:31):
All good business people are a little
neurotic. Right?
Dane Shoemaker (18:33):
Yeah. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (18:34):
So anyway, the US about that process, right? So
they will apply. We have anapplication link on our website.
We have folks apply whetheryou're in PA or Jersey, you can
apply.
Ally (18:45):
And I mean, we get applications every day. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (18:48):
Every day. Sometimes we're reaching out and
saying
Ally (18:50):
every day,
Mary Catherine (18:51):
you know, can you, you know, we have specific
areas that we're looking. Wehave a high need for it that we
need in that that specific area.But, yeah, for the most part, we
are getting applications likeleft and
Dane Shoemaker (19:01):
right. Okay.
Mary Catherine (19:03):
So once they submit their application, we'll
review the application, and thenwe'll, you know, contact them
and say, you know, we'reinterested in interviewing you.
We bring them on for, you know,half hour interview via Zoom.
They're given a lot ofinformation prior to that
interview to let them understandwhat, you know, this job
entails.
Ally (19:22):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (19:22):
You know, what the pay rate is, what the, what
the expectations are, etcetera,etcetera. And then from there,
you know, if we think they're afit, we'll say, okay, next steps
are, we're going to send youthis one pager, it has the link
to our training videos, you'regoing to watch the training
videos, you're going to go toyour drawers, and then you're
going to turn back around andsend us pictures of your newly
(19:44):
folded drawers the way thatthese videos are showing you how
to do it.
Dane Shoemaker (19:47):
Right. Right.
Mary Catherine (19:47):
And then from there, we'll get back to them
and say, hey, you know, we thinkyou could crisp this up a little
bit or, you know, if theyobviously
Ally (19:54):
or like good enough, like, right,
Mary Catherine (19:56):
you know, like, we're gonna move you forward.
Dane Shoemaker (19:58):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (19:59):
And for the most part, I mean, it's not rocket
science to to fold, but it doestake a little bit of time to,
like, get
Dane Shoemaker (20:04):
I can't figure it out. So, yeah, it's
definitely
Ally (20:06):
Yeah. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (20:09):
But then then they, you know, they get through
that process, and then we putthem into, like, our onboarding
program. And our onboardingprogram is also a little bit, I
think, intense for a laundryjob. I think people think, oh, I
was just signing up to, like, dolaundry, but no. It there's
there's a little bit of astandard here.
Dane Shoemaker (20:26):
Yes. Good.
Mary Catherine (20:27):
Good. So then that last part of that process
is basically them jumping on aphone call with our, onboarding
coordinator, Brit, who basicallyteaches them the systems that we
use, You know,
Ally (20:41):
like the app, like, you know, how to like, like all, all
the nitty gritty.
Dane Shoemaker (20:47):
Right.
Ally (20:48):
Like we make sure they're a 100% comfortable, confident,
ready to go and to take on jobs
Mary Catherine (20:55):
before they
Ally (20:57):
before we're just like, okay, go and do somebody's
laundry. Like we are really,
Mary Catherine (21:02):
we're making sure they have the supplies on
hand that they need. We'remaking sure they know how to use
the systems and you know, thattype of thing. And, you know,
making sure they're just they'recomfortable.
Ally (21:12):
And then we send them into a home with another tenured
teammate as, like, a last final.Okay. Your folding's good and
everything, but, like, go meetone of our teammates. Go into a
client's home. Get the feel for,like, how does that feel?
Practice your folding. Getfeedback from a teammate who's
crushing it.
Dane Shoemaker (21:31):
Yeah.
Ally (21:32):
And then after that, they're good to go.
Mary Catherine (21:34):
Then they can fly. They've got their wings.
Ally (21:36):
It sounds so extensive. It does really, it sounds like
you're applying to like Googleand I
Mary Catherine (21:42):
promise you're not, but I mean, we do have a
standard.
Dane Shoemaker (21:45):
You have systems in place and I I'm really
impressed. So like, not that Ilike didn't expect that, but,
like Nobody had to to back youhave of somebody. Like, yeah. I
mean
Mary Catherine (21:53):
It didn't just happen in the beginning. Yeah.
We were just willy nilly saying,okay, you seem like a nice
person. Yeah. We're gonna bringyou on board.
Granted, we do background checksand everything. We're not
sending anybody into a home witheverybody.
Ally (22:04):
I have to have their clearances,
Mary Catherine (22:05):
auto insurance. They need, you know,
Ally (22:07):
even if they're doing pickup drop off, they have to
have their clearances, like say,say they're like, I can't do in
home services in client homeservices. I can only do pickup
drop off. They still have tohave their clearances. Like,
we're really adamant about that.
Dane Shoemaker (22:21):
Yeah. That's good. Yeah.
Ally (22:22):
We run a tight ship.
Dane Shoemaker (22:23):
Peace of peace of mind. Yeah. I mean,
Ally (22:24):
it's I mean, families want that. Right?
Dane Shoemaker (22:26):
Like Of course. Yeah.
Ally (22:27):
Yeah. And like some of the, not to talk about a
competitor, but some of theother laundry services, right.
You just go on the app, youapply, you get approved. There's
no kind of like fact checkinglike
Mary Catherine (22:38):
or vetting or anything like that.
Dane Shoemaker (22:39):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (22:40):
Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (22:40):
Yeah. Wow. So you were talking about a little
just kinda step back to, youknow, when you guys move into,
like, a new area or, like, youhave a you do some marketing and
then you have a contractor oryou get someone hired and then
you do some more marketingaround that. What kind of
marketing are you doing in thearea? You know?
Facebook. Facebook. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (23:01):
That is our
Dane Shoemaker (23:02):
Are you running ads? No.
Mary Catherine (23:04):
No. We've not. Groups.
Dane Shoemaker (23:05):
Okay. Mom groups.
Mary Catherine (23:06):
Mom groups.
Dane Shoemaker (23:07):
Okay. Tell me about that. That's interesting.
This
Mary Catherine (23:09):
is all how it started. I'm gonna let Allie
talk about this because this ishow we knew we had something
here. This was our marketresearch before we knew it was
our market research.
Dane Shoemaker (23:17):
Okay.
Ally (23:18):
Yeah. So I had posted well because I suck at laundry
despite owning a laundrybusiness, but like originally,
right? Like I was like, oh mygosh, I'm so overwhelmed. I had
my 3rd baby going back to workfull time. I need to outsource
everything.
Dane Shoemaker (23:31):
Yeah.
Ally (23:31):
And laundry was one of those things that cleaning
services didn't do. So I postedin my local mom's group and I
said, hey, who is looking forlike an extra 3 hours a week?
That's what I estimated. Ithought my laundry would take.
Who's looking for an extra 3hours a week?
I'm willing to pay. Who can justcome over and help fold and put
(23:53):
away my laundry?
Dane Shoemaker (23:54):
Yeah.
Ally (23:54):
I will wash it ahead of time. I just need you to fold it
and put it away in my drawers. Ihad so many comments on that
post. One saying, I wanna do it.Like, I'm looking for side work.
I can give you through I'm astay at home mom. I can give you
3 hours every single week. Butthen on the other on the other a
100 comments of that post was, Iwant the service too. Let me
(24:18):
know who you hire. You know, Iwant that same person.
Dane Shoemaker (24:21):
Wow.
Ally (24:21):
So I was like, hold up. So then I I hired somebody from
that post. She changed my life.She came in. Marie Kondo ed all
my drawers, closets, every like,it was I'm telling you, it was
life changing.
And then she came every week for3 hours to just fold and put
away my laundry. Game changerfor me. I felt, like,
(24:43):
immediately better. So I wastalking to MC, and I was like,
there is something here. Like,this just changed my life so
drastically.
And look at this post of all ofthese moms who wanna work, and
then look. There's all theclients sitting right there.
Dane Shoemaker (24:59):
Boom. Right there. It's Wow.
Ally (25:01):
What are we doing? And so she was like, let's give it a
shot. I was like, okay,
Dane Shoemaker (25:06):
here we go. Less than the lows is born. Yeah.
Ally (25:09):
Literally. And then the rest is history. We quickly took
off
Dane Shoemaker (25:13):
from
Ally (25:14):
there because I mean, I, we obviously like from that
post, like we knew
Mary Catherine (25:18):
There's, there's a market here.
Dane Shoemaker (25:20):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now the people that are
doing laundry, the contractors,are they at all going out and
selling a little bit orrecruiting or no? Okay.
Mary Catherine (25:30):
It's strictly. So back to the, you know, I
think your original question waswhere are you marketing? It is
all mom's groups that we use.
Dane Shoemaker (25:35):
Yeah. That's
Mary Catherine (25:36):
it. That's that's. And we're not paying for
anything.
Dane Shoemaker (25:39):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (25:39):
Like, I mean, granted now, you know, we do
different, you know,
Ally (25:44):
I was going to say there's like a few bigger groups, like
mainline parent community, whereit's like a membership to be
able to post in their group.
Dane Shoemaker (25:52):
Yeah.
Ally (25:53):
But that that has paid off tenfold. Yeah. So, like, there's
a few groups, like, mom groupsor parent community groups like
that that we do pay for, but themajority we don't, and we just
post our once or twice a week,whatever they allow, or maybe
it's like once a month. And thathonestly is how we grew our
business originally.
Dane Shoemaker (26:08):
Yeah. That's huge.
Mary Catherine (26:09):
I mean, we have still growing from those.
Ally (26:11):
Yep. And also a lot of it is word-of-mouth now from our
other clients, we have so manyclients because of other clients
now. Right. And that kind ofjust spirals from there.
Mary Catherine (26:20):
And I would say that's, you know, our team as
well. I think word-of-mouth, ourteam is whether or not we say
they're marketing or not, youknow, they're talking about the
job that they have and theservice they perform. So I
think, yeah, word-of-mouth, forsure. We
Ally (26:31):
have gained so many also teammates from current
teammates. So like we have apair of sisters on our team, 2
pairs of sisters on our team.Like, do you know what I mean?
Like friends of friends, it has,which are end up being the best,
teammates do.
Dane Shoemaker (26:49):
Yeah. Busy people hang out with busy people
typically, you know, and Yeah.Usually, you know, yeah, friend
groups and colleagues and peersthat, you know, yeah, I can see
how that, you know, just kindagrows organically like that.
Yep.
Mary Catherine (27:04):
It definitely does.
Ally (27:05):
Literally how it happened.
Dane Shoemaker (27:07):
Do you guys own any trucks or lawn, you know,
laundromat? I mean, is that anyof that stuff like in the future
Mary Catherine (27:13):
or. Might be.
Dane Shoemaker (27:14):
Might be
Mary Catherine (27:15):
the, the laundry. Okay. I'm not going to,
well, I'm not allowed to say
Dane Shoemaker (27:18):
it. The,
Mary Catherine (27:20):
I would say laundromat esque is, is
something that we have beenthinking about.
Dane Shoemaker (27:25):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (27:26):
Just mainly, you know, it would be great if our
team could just have a base todrop in and do larger orders
and, and such like that.
Dane Shoemaker (27:34):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (27:35):
If they wanted to. Right.
Ally (27:37):
And like as an additional option. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (27:40):
Sure.
Mary Catherine (27:40):
Yeah. But right now, no, we don't have trucks.
We don't have, you know, anyother areas aside from our own
homes. I mean, I'm getting asecond hookup in my house, but
that's about it.
Dane Shoemaker (27:53):
Yeah. Pretty low, like overhead. I mean, it's
not
Mary Catherine (27:55):
Oh, for sure.
Dane Shoemaker (27:56):
It's a pretty, pretty great business model. I
gotta give you a kudos to that.Mhmm. So anything, like,
anything that we haven't coveredor anything you wanna wanna talk
about?
Mary Catherine (28:08):
I mean, we could talk forever, but Yeah. Yeah.
No. I don't. I mean
Dane Shoemaker (28:12):
I mean, what's what's one of the biggest
challenges that you think you'verun into just from running
Mary Catherine (28:16):
That's a good question.
Ally (28:18):
We we did briefly talk about this recently. And because
our business model is so uniquein terms of hiring contractors
that are doing work in theirhome, but then also we have
services where they're goinginto a client's home and we
have, like, the reorganizationpiece too, or the organization
(28:40):
piece too. It's been a reallydifficult to find back end
systems that support thecomplexity of what we're doing.
Right? Like, our pickup drop offservices are by the pound.
Our in home services are hourly.Our reorganizations are
something else. And then to havea system that can support con 50
(29:01):
contractors assigned to certainjobs at different pay rates. And
like, it's a nightmare to bequite honest. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (29:08):
So you're talking about like a, like a
software, like CRM.
Mary Catherine (29:11):
Like an app or some sort.
Ally (29:12):
And like, everybody's like, oh, we'll just use like
the softwares that laundromatsdo who do, like, curbside
laundry and stuff. Well
Mary Catherine (29:19):
We vetted so many of them. We've been on so
many calls. We've done
Ally (29:23):
It just, like, doesn't work with our business model.
Mary Catherine (29:25):
Mhmm. So it's frustrating.
Ally (29:27):
Not having, like, a base or a laundromat to kind of run
it out of, which I don't thinkwe'll we would ever go that
route entirely anyways because,you know, allowing them our team
to have the flexibility and tobe able to do the the job from
home is is what is bringing themand keeping amazing teammates
Mary Catherine (29:48):
working.
Ally (29:48):
So, anyways, all that to say is the systems thing and
figuring that out for the lasttwo and a half years has been
nothing short of a nightmare.But Yeah. Here we are.
Mary Catherine (29:57):
Now we have, an amazing tech. We call her our
tech guru, Alyssa on our teamwho has done phenomenal in terms
of, you know, providing us withkind of shortcuts and helping us
integrate systems to speak withone another. But it definitely
took a while for us to getthere, and it's it's not perfect
by any means.
Dane Shoemaker (30:17):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (30:17):
It's still struggle on the regular. Yeah.
So, you know, we're hoping oneday we're making our own app and
having our own system. Sure. Butuntil then That's definitely
where we're headed.
But until then Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (30:30):
I mean, that's part of the part of running a
business. Right? Is justfiguring out all the Kinks.
Yeah. And figuring out how tooptimize everything and building
processes.
And for me, I feel like that's,like, one of the best funnest
parts or that's really where alot of the challenges come from
is, like, hey. How can I youknow, because we're a service
based business? We provide wemake videos. Videos are very
subjective and creative, but howdo we kinda systemize it? Like,
(30:54):
how we create it, how we come upwith the ideas,
Ally (30:56):
all that stuff.
Dane Shoemaker (30:57):
So Yeah. Yeah.
Ally (30:58):
I think about, like, where we started and, like, what we
were using then and what we areusing now, and I'm it's amazing
how much we've grown and, like,the things we've been able to
figure out.
Dane Shoemaker (31:09):
Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Look at
this guy.
Mary Catherine (31:13):
Oh, boy. Sorry. Yes. We're still recording.
Dane Shoemaker (31:17):
Who's this guy? That's Duke. Duke. Oh, my gosh.
Ally (31:21):
Our mascot, I guess.
Mary Catherine (31:22):
Yeah. Our mascot.
Dane Shoemaker (31:25):
So, yeah. Well, this is this has been really
great. Yeah. I mean Thank
Ally (31:30):
you so much
Mary Catherine (31:30):
for having
Dane Shoemaker (31:30):
us. Of course. Yeah. Anything, you know, coming
out in the future you want totalk about or anything else?
Ally (31:38):
Wanna. We do have a new website that is launching
hopefully on Monday.
Dane Shoemaker (31:43):
Oh, nice. Okay.
Ally (31:43):
That's. Will be awesome.
Mary Catherine (31:45):
We're very excited about that.
Ally (31:46):
Yep. That was like a long time coming. Other things coming
down the pike.
Mary Catherine (31:52):
I mean, we, we didn't talk about our newest
service, which is our last mustexpress, which we maybe can kind
of highlight right now. Yeah.Sure. This is also perfect for,
you know, our target audience.And going into the school year,
it's kind of prime, to use thisservice.
But basically it is, it is, Iwould say the
Dane Shoemaker (32:11):
Say it again and then
Mary Catherine (32:12):
talk about it. Less less mess express.
Dane Shoemaker (32:14):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (32:15):
So we call it our, LME for short. But
basically, it's an hour servicewhere we will come into your
home and basically tidy up foryou after say a crazy morning
with children getting them outthe door. We'll come in. We'll
make sure, you know, whateverspaces are the most important to
you, you'll let us know. Right?
You'll fill out a checklist andsay this is the areas that I
(32:36):
want you to focus on. We'll comein, and we'll tidy up that
space. So whether it's you wantthe kitchen cleaned up, you
want, you know, the dishes putaway from the dishwasher, the
dishes out of the sink, wipe thecounters down. We'll make sure,
you know, your toilet paper rollis refreshed, if the kids use
the last of it or
Ally (32:56):
Like all the toys picked up off the floor. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (32:59):
The all the little things that you are
leaving the house in the morningthinking, I wish I could just,
like, make it look nice so Icome in and my house doesn't
feel like a bomb went off.
Dane Shoemaker (33:08):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (33:08):
That's what less mess expresses.
Ally (33:10):
It's like a reset, right? Like it's, it's all of the
things that our laundry servicedoesn't do and that a cleaning
service typically doesn't havetime to get to.
Dane Shoemaker (33:20):
Yeah.
Ally (33:20):
Like in terms of like a lot of people say, like, I have
to clean for my cleaningservice. Right? Like, you have
to, like, pick up the toys andput everything away.
Dane Shoemaker (33:27):
Yeah.
Ally (33:27):
This service also would be perfect, like, right before
Right before your cleaning. Orlike the day before.
Mary Catherine (33:32):
Yeah. Yeah. It's really, really
Ally (33:34):
It's like a home reset. So you're walking back in your
door, everything's put away. Itlooks like Yeah. Nobody was
here.
Dane Shoemaker (33:41):
That's that's genius. Because, like, we
actually have a cleaning personat our house right now. I I
think they're here. They'resupposed to come at some point
today, but it's always, like,usually on a Thursday
Mary Catherine (33:50):
A scramble.
Dane Shoemaker (33:51):
Yeah. And so it's Wednesday night. Yeah.
Jesus Christ. So Yeah.
You got your cleaner. You gotyour hot zones. You got your
kitchen. Yeah. And then we haveour basement that's just like an
absolute disaster
Ally (34:00):
Right.
Dane Shoemaker (34:00):
Of toys and stuff. And, yeah. I mean, I can
see how that's, like an hour.You know?
Mary Catherine (34:07):
It's like an hour. Hour hour where you just
come in
Dane Shoemaker (34:09):
and make sure
Ally (34:10):
because you say too, like, if you need more than an hour
You don't need It's not then,like, a reset. Right? Like,
unless you have a really largehome, which we have a few
clients who are their homes areare larger than usual, and maybe
theirs is, like, 2 hours. Right?But if you need more than an
hour, then we're, like,cleaning, and we're not a
cleaning service.
This is just, like, a tidyservice to get you feeling like
(34:32):
you can walk back in the homeand
Mary Catherine (34:34):
not wanna leave again. No.
Ally (34:35):
You're breaking.
Mary Catherine (34:36):
I wanna turn back right back around.
Dane Shoemaker (34:37):
Yeah. Yeah.
Ally (34:38):
Absolutely. I often walk in my house and wanna turn right
back around.
Dane Shoemaker (34:42):
That's great. No. That's that's that's genius.
So less mess express. You havethe laundry service and then the
homework, reorganization.
Yeah. Yep. You got it. That'sawesome. Yep.
Okay. That's what we need. Anyother services you think you're
toying with down the road or No.
Ally (34:58):
That's keeping us plenty because, yeah, I think we're
good
Mary Catherine (35:01):
for right now. Yeah.
Ally (35:02):
We have like some other things that we kind of, you
know, bebop around, but want todo and nothing to
Mary Catherine (35:08):
write home about just yet.
Dane Shoemaker (35:10):
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. I like your logo. Where
what's the story behind that?
The,
Mary Catherine (35:15):
So the story is Allie made the logo and I made
the name.
Dane Shoemaker (35:19):
Okay.
Ally (35:19):
She came up with the name.
Mary Catherine (35:20):
Yeah. I came up with the name and Allie came up
with the name.
Ally (35:22):
Everybody loves our name.
Dane Shoemaker (35:24):
Yeah. I know.
Ally (35:25):
Everybody loves the trademark too because everybody
loves it.
Dane Shoemaker (35:27):
Oh, good job. Yeah. We
Ally (35:28):
got nervous. That every week had way too many
compliments on it.
Dane Shoemaker (35:31):
I mean, it's good. It's a great name, less
than the loads. It's like loadsof, you know, lots of laundry.
And then, but also like your,your, mental big, big pain point
for people
Mary Catherine (35:40):
like, you
Dane Shoemaker (35:41):
know, during the week.
Ally (35:42):
I mean, honestly like that is the reason we started the
service. The the service wasstarted because I could feel
that mental load in my head.Like, I felt that mom guilt,
which I'm sure so many peoplecan relate to about, like,
spending time with your kidsversus, you know, getting all
your household stuff done.Honestly, lesson loads, we just
wanna help people. That that iswhat it comes down to.
Mary Catherine (36:05):
Make a difference. Yep.
Ally (36:06):
Yep. We we say all the time, like, we quit our
corporate jobs to do otherpeople's laundry. Like, it
sounds That's great. We left 6figure jobs to do other people's
laundry. It sounds crazy.
People think we're nuts. Theythey they do.
Dane Shoemaker (36:22):
Yeah.
Ally (36:22):
But, truly, we believe so much in what we're doing here
and the impact that we're makingand, you know, the client
testimonials, I know we're inthe right place and doing the
right thing.
Mary Catherine (36:32):
Yeah. And I would also say the beauty of, of
owning a business is also beingable to give to others in times
of when, you know, they arestruggling. That's, that's
something we didn't even talkabout is our gifted services
that we offer. So that'ssomething that Allie and I have,
you know, obviously we'repassionate about our business
and our team and, you know, ourservices, but we're also
immensely passionate about ourgifted services and providing,
(36:53):
you know, a month of laundryservice for someone who's going
through a really rough time. Sowhether they've, you know, just
lost their spouse or have achild going through chemo or,
you know, anything under the sunthat you can think of, they've,
they had a fire in their home,and they, you know, have
Ally (37:08):
been really terrible scenarios.
Mary Catherine (37:09):
Yeah. But that's such I mean, that's that's what
it's all about. Right? At theend of the day is we're able to
do stuff like that. And justknowing that you're, you're
truly taking a burden off ofsomeone when it comes to.
Ally (37:22):
And I was going to say like, when we set out to start
the business before we evencould financially afford to gift
services, we did. So right?Like, me and MC were both still
working full time jobs. Like, itit it was more important for us
to gift services to those whoneeded it
Dane Shoemaker (37:41):
Mhmm.
Ally (37:41):
Than to to, like, give ourselves that money.
Dane Shoemaker (37:45):
Yeah.
Ally (37:45):
Yeah. Which, again, was not something our accountant
would have recommended oranything like that. But what
that's what I'm saying, though.Like, we feel so passionate
about what we're doing and whatwe're bringing. It's so
important that and people arelike, oh, it's just laundry.
Yeah. But for somebody who'straveling to CHOP every day to
see their kid who's goingthrough chemo, they need clean
(38:07):
clothes. Right? Like, to takethat burden off of them.
Dane Shoemaker (38:10):
Sure.
Ally (38:10):
Man, that feels good.
Dane Shoemaker (38:12):
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's great.
I yeah.
I mean, I I I do think that it'sa good business practice. Right?
I mean, I think it I believe insome of that woo woo stuff, and
you put good stuff out there.
Mary Catherine (38:23):
For sure.
Dane Shoemaker (38:24):
Because so good
Mary Catherine (38:24):
stuff comes out.
Dane Shoemaker (38:25):
And, like
Ally (38:25):
Oh, yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (38:26):
A lot of the free work that we've done made
videos for nonprofits and stufflike that. That has come back
tenfold in terms of business. SoThat's that
Mary Catherine (38:34):
was we were talking about this the other
day. We've gotten so muchbusiness from our gifted
services. It was not in theplan.
Ally (38:38):
It was never the intention, and it's not why we
did it ever. It's where theworld works.
Mary Catherine (38:42):
So Right.
Dane Shoemaker (38:43):
But yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So what's how
how how can people find you?What's your website and what are
your socials?
Mary Catherine (38:50):
Less than the loads.com. Okay. And our socials
are just Less Than the loads. Soyou can find a set I think,
Instagram's lesson dot the dotloads, but I'm sure if you just
punch in less, the loads willpop right up.
Dane Shoemaker (39:02):
And the
Mary Catherine (39:02):
logos, you know
Dane Shoemaker (39:04):
Yeah. Wash it with a heart.
Ally (39:05):
Yep.
Dane Shoemaker (39:06):
Nice. And, pricings is all up on the
website.
Ally (39:09):
Everything's there. Everything's there.
Dane Shoemaker (39:10):
People to feel out warm. Yeah. They wanna get
started. Yeah. Yep.
Awesome. Well, I'll leave her acabin.
Ally (39:15):
So nice to meet you.
Dane Shoemaker (39:16):
Appreciate it. Good luck with everything with
your business.
Ally (39:18):
Thank you.
Dane Shoemaker (39:21):
Thanks for listening today. Shoemaker Lab
is an original production byShoemaker Films, LLC. If you
enjoyed today's content, pleaseconsider subscribing on YouTube,
Spotify, Apple Podcasts, andwherever you get your content.
Follow us on Instagram atshoemaker.films. If you're a
business that's eitherinterested in our video
production services or wouldlike to be a guest on the show,
(39:44):
get in touch by using thecontact form on our website,
shoemakerfilms.com.
Hi. This is Dane Shoemaker with the Shoemaker
Films podcast. I'm here with Aliand Mary Catherine with Lesson
the Loads. How are you guysdoing?
Mary Catherine (00:10):
Good. How are you?
Ally (00:11):
Thank you so much.
Dane Shoemaker (00:11):
Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for, being a guest on
here. Excited to learn a littlebit more about your business. I
feel like I reached out, I don'tknow, months ago now.
We had to keep rescheduling withthe summer and everything, but,
glad we got this on the books.Yeah.
Ally (00:24):
We're excited for a sec. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (00:26):
Yeah. So less than the loads, love the name.
Mary Catherine (00:29):
Thank you.
Dane Shoemaker (00:30):
So there's kind of like a dual, you know, that's
purposeful. Right? Right? So whydon't you tell us a little bit
about your your service and yourbusiness?
Mary Catherine (00:38):
Okay. I guess I'll start. So Less Than Loads
is basically a laundry andorganizational service. It
started out of, you know, a needwe've recognized in in the
market, kind of a a gap in themarket, And we can talk about
that a little bit later. ButSure.
Basically, you know, we hirelocal moms in our area of
(01:00):
service, and they pick up yourlaundry, bring it to their home,
do the wash in in their home,and then turn it around, fold
it, and bring it back, within 24hours. So basically, you know,
that's our bread and butter isthat we have, you know, the
pickup laundry service. But wealso have a lot of
organizational servicesavailable as well. So Okay.
Dane Shoemaker (01:20):
You
Mary Catherine (01:20):
know, anything from if you need your pantry
organized to your garageorganized, we can help you.
Dane Shoemaker (01:26):
Oh, awesome. Okay. Yeah. I can see how that
kind of goes hand in hand.
Mary Catherine (01:29):
For sure.
Dane Shoemaker (01:30):
Nice. And how long have you guys have been,
been in business?
Ally (01:33):
What's going on? It's two and a half years. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (01:37):
I was just thinking, I'm like, I think
it'll be 3 years in March.
Ally (01:40):
Yeah. It'll be 3 years next March.
Dane Shoemaker (01:42):
Okay. And you 2 are the owners?
Ally (01:43):
We
Dane Shoemaker (01:44):
are. Just 5050 split or Yep.
Ally (01:46):
We don't
Dane Shoemaker (01:46):
have to get into those details. So yeah.
Mary Catherine (01:48):
Yep. We'll tell you that's.
Dane Shoemaker (01:49):
That's awesome.
Ally (01:50):
We were
Mary Catherine (01:50):
high school friends,
Dane Shoemaker (01:51):
so that's kind of, you know?
Ally (01:53):
Yep. We always say always friends first.
Dane Shoemaker (01:55):
Yeah. Nice. Did you grow up in this area? Did
you go to high school aroundhere or?
Ally (01:58):
We did. We went to St. Pius in Pottstown, so, this is
where we currently are stilllive. But a lot of our clients
are obviously on the main line,Delaware County, Montgomery
County, Bucks County. We serviceall of those counties, and so we
spend a lot of time down there.
Dane Shoemaker (02:14):
Okay. Nice. So tell me a little bit about more
about your business. So youhave, you have kind of a network
of are they contractors? Arethey employees?
Ally (02:25):
Yes. So we hire all contractors. And the reason that
we've kind of gone this route inthis business model is because
most of the contractors that wehire are moms or and are stay at
home moms. And
Dane Shoemaker (02:37):
Okay.
Ally (02:37):
They're looking for a way to bring income into their
family, but don't necessarilywant a 9 to 5. That can be hard
with your own children. Right? Ahusband who maybe travels or has
a a busy job. So we really prideourselves on providing a
flexible income opportunity, agood flexible income opportunity
for them to bring something intotheir household, but really to
(03:00):
be able to maintain a schedulethat's conducive to having a
young family and and children.
Dane Shoemaker (03:05):
Yeah.
Ally (03:05):
So we hire all moms, in the counties that we serve. And
that's also why, I I think we'vebeen so successful is in in that
model because they love to work.Yeah. I love laundry.
Dane Shoemaker (03:24):
I mean, it seems for somebody who's a stay at
home mom or anybody who whodoesn't, you know, doesn't wanna
have a full time job, it seemslike a pretty flexible, you
know, you
Mary Catherine (03:34):
I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we also have
folks that they do have fulltime jobs
Dane Shoemaker (03:38):
and they're doing this
Mary Catherine (03:39):
as a, you know, a side gig or, you know,
something to just bring in alittle bit of extra income. So,
it really it's it's wonderfulbecause we're able to provide,
you know, opportunities thatotherwise they may not have been
able to have.
Dane Shoemaker (03:51):
Yeah. And I
Ally (03:51):
was going to say like, it is really hard to find flexible,
legit work these days.
Dane Shoemaker (03:58):
Yeah. You know,
Ally (03:58):
a lot of the, I feel like a lot of the things that you
find on Facebook are either likescams or you need to like bust
your butt for, you know, likereally hard. And, that's just
like not the case here. It's,it's a legitimate job. And, so
flexible, you can take yourhours, pick your jobs that you
want. You can take on
Mary Catherine (04:17):
as much as you want or as.
Ally (04:18):
Yeah. I was gonna say, we have, you know, we have
teammates who
Mary Catherine (04:21):
work maybe 2 to 3 jobs a week, and then we have
ones that are working, you know,10 jobs a week. Right. So it all
depends on their schedule andwhat they want. Yep.
Dane Shoemaker (04:32):
Yeah. Awesome. Is there like a typical, like if
I'm a contractor signing up towork with you guys, like how
many hours a week, roughly howmany loads, like, is there an
average or is it minimum? Youknow,
Ally (04:43):
so it's, It's so hard. We get this question all the time.
It is so hard because we have somany different scenarios, so
many different contractors. Theyall make it work with their
schedules. Like again, like wecould have somebody doing £300
of laundry a week, and thenmaybe we have somebody who's
doing 50.
Dane Shoemaker (05:02):
Okay. Right. So do you like pay by the pound or
how does that? We do
Ally (05:05):
for pickup drop off. We pay by the pound. And then for
our in home services, weobviously pay by the hour.
Mary Catherine (05:11):
Okay. Yeah. Which makes it a little
complicated. Yeah. It also, youknow, I lost my train of
thought.
Dane Shoemaker (05:18):
I have no idea what I was going to say.
Ally (05:19):
I was going to say, I think it also like sets our
business apart and like, that'skind of the difference between
us and other laundry services,right? There's other obviously
national laundry services thatour competitors in this area,
but none that also offer thosein home services. And and that's
where we also found the gap inthe market Okay. Is right. Like,
there are other pickup, drop offlaundry services, but there
(05:41):
aren't other laundry servicesthat will also come in and
reorganize your drawers, set itall up, and then continue with
that same method.
Dane Shoemaker (05:48):
Mhmm.
Ally (05:49):
Right? So you don't have to do any of that. It's all
great that you're that you havea pickup, drop off laundry
service, but what if that's nothow you fold your stuff?
Dane Shoemaker (05:56):
Right.
Ally (05:57):
Right. It doesn't work. Then what you have to refold
yourself.
Dane Shoemaker (06:00):
Okay. Because some people are very specific.
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (06:03):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And these are things we
didn't think about in thebeginning. And then we quickly
learned them real fast is like,we have to go in and basically
organize for you before, youknow, we can do your weekly
service.
Ally (06:15):
Yeah, we suggest that to anybody who starts our service,
whether you're doing pickup dropoff or are in home services.
It's really beneficial if wecome in, reorganize your stuff,
and then it you can maintainfrom there with our maintenance
services.
Dane Shoemaker (06:30):
So what what areas, like, geographically do
you cover? Is that
Mary Catherine (06:34):
So right now, we are in mainly south East
Pennsylvania.
Ally (06:38):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (06:39):
So you know, Burkes, Bucks, Montgomery,
Chester, Delco. And then we alsoare in a small portion of New
Jersey and North Jersey.
Dane Shoemaker (06:49):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (06:49):
Morris County. Yeah. So we we slowly are
expanding out into New Jersey.But, yeah, we started, you know,
in, like, this PottstownBoyertown area and then have
then, you know, expanded out.
Dane Shoemaker (07:03):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (07:03):
That way.
Dane Shoemaker (07:04):
I mean, I could see it being pretty, like,
scalable. Like, it's basicallyjust marketing and as long as
there's people there to fold andclean lawn do laundry.
Mary Catherine (07:13):
Like It's a fine line, though. It's a it's a
balancing act because you wewanna make sure that we have
enough team to perform the job,but we also don't want our team
members coming on board and nothaving enough work. Yeah. So
it's constant. You know, we hiresome people, and then we're
marketing like crazy in thatarea or vice versa.
We're marketing in that area tomake sure that we have jobs, and
then we're bringing people onboard quickly. So it's a
(07:33):
constant, constant balancingact.
Ally (07:34):
I was going to say, we definitely are really cognizant
about not over hiring so thatthe individuals on our team can
make the amount of money thatthey want to make. Right? Like,
I don't wanna oversaturate amarket where there's 15
contractors there, and thenthey're only getting, like, 1 or
2 jobs a week, each of them. Youyou know what I mean? Yeah.
(07:56):
So we're really thoughtful aboutthat, and I think that also sets
apart our business. Obviously,we're locally owned. We care
about the people on our team.Right? And I think that goes
really far.
Yeah. I think they feel that ifyou were to ask them for sure.
That we do truly care about themand want them to get what they
need from this business
Dane Shoemaker (08:14):
to. And we
Mary Catherine (08:15):
try and check it with them on a regular basis.
You know, I mean, we're, we'reconstantly, you know, talking to
them all day, every day, youknow, with different issues that
are happening or, you know,just, Hey, so and so needs their
laundry later this day, youknow? But in addition to that,
we are also making sure, youknow, we're checking in and
saying, you know, how's yourhow's your workload? Do you feel
like it's enough? Do you wantsome more?
Do you want less? You know,we're going into the holidays.
(08:36):
What does that look like foryou? We're going into the
summer. What does that look likefor you?
Dane Shoemaker (08:39):
Do you
Ally (08:39):
need some time off?
Mary Catherine (08:40):
Right. We're always trying to, like, check-in
and make sure that they're, youknow, in a good, you know,
headspace as well.
Dane Shoemaker (08:46):
So, I mean, let's talk about, like, more on
the customer side.
Mary Catherine (08:51):
Sure.
Dane Shoemaker (08:51):
You know? So I can see how this service would
really benefit working families.Maybe you have, 2 two parents
who are working. They don't havetime to do that. Like, do you
have, like, an ideal client
Mary Catherine (09:03):
Yes. That's it. You
Dane Shoemaker (09:04):
go after.
Ally (09:04):
That's what you just said.
Dane Shoemaker (09:05):
Okay.
Ally (09:06):
Working families with young children who value their
time more than doing laundry.
Dane Shoemaker (09:11):
Sure.
Ally (09:11):
Right? Like, for most people, and I'm speaking for
myself as well, I don't enjoydoing laundry. It's like a
dreaded chore for me. Yeah. AndI don't have the capacity to do
it either.
So, like, those two thingscombined is the perfect, so, you
know, it's the perfect solutionto outsource that task. Laundry
is the most time consuminghousehold chore out there
(09:32):
because it's not like, I alwayssay, you can go and scrub a
toilet real quick. Right? Youcould probably do it in 5
minutes. You can't do yourentire laundry process in 5
minutes.
Right? Like, you gotta collectit. You take it down. You gotta
put it in the washer. You gottawait for the wash and you gotta
transfer it to the hydrant.
Dane Shoemaker (09:49):
And then you gotta hold and put
Ally (09:50):
it away. I mean, there's all those laundry memes out
there for a reason, like, about,like, the process because it
it's so time consuming. So ourideal client and and most of our
clients are young families,working professionals. Right?
Usually.
And they have young kids to adegree. Now I will say we also
Mary Catherine (10:10):
we've gotten into different markets recently
by just, you know, byword-of-mouth and folks hearing
about us and they are saying,oh, we need your service, the
elderly for 1, you know, theycome up in age, whether they're
living by themselves or theyjust can't necessarily get down
to the basement to go do theirlaundry now, or it's too heavy
for them or, you know, all thesedifferent reasons. We have I'm
(10:32):
trying to think of, like, other,other clients that we've had
recently that we were like, oh,that's a market we didn't even
think about.
Ally (10:39):
Well, I was gonna say, like, we, this is just like an
unusual market, but we do, thefootball jerseys for a local
high school. So after everygame, right. Instead of, sending
them jerseys and pants insteadof like sending them out,
Mary Catherine (10:55):
Which I didn't even know as a thing,
apparently, you know, highschool send out their jerseys to
get cleaned and then they sendthem back to the school.
Ally (11:02):
It's our 3rd
Dane Shoemaker (11:03):
year doing
Mary Catherine (11:04):
it. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (11:04):
Yeah. And it's great.
Ally (11:05):
There's a lot of like,
Mary Catherine (11:06):
I got him hanging out back right
Dane Shoemaker (11:07):
now.
Mary Catherine (11:10):
But yeah, lots of different, you know, you
don't realize, obviouslyeveryone needs their laundry
done.
Ally (11:15):
Yeah. We always say like you, you obviously need clothes.
Right? Clean clothes.
Dane Shoemaker (11:20):
Yeah. I mean, it's it's yeah. Constant. It's
Ally (11:23):
a necessity.
Dane Shoemaker (11:23):
And especially if you have big family or small
kids,
Mary Catherine (11:27):
college students, that's another one.
You know, that's that's anothermarket that we've kind of tapped
into as well.
Dane Shoemaker (11:33):
Like working directly with the college on
that? Or
Mary Catherine (11:36):
We are working to get into colleges. We
haven't, like, actively,
Dane Shoemaker (11:39):
you
Mary Catherine (11:39):
know, gotten it, but it's just been, you know,
word-of-mouth. Oh, my son ordaughter is here. Like, could
you pick up at their theirschool? Or
Dane Shoemaker (11:46):
Oh, wow. Okay.
Mary Catherine (11:47):
You know, they're coming home for the
summer. They have a ton oflaundry that they're bringing
with them. Yeah. You know, thattype of thing.
Dane Shoemaker (11:52):
I don't have time to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I can think for, youknow, for myself, like, I have a
lot of things around the house,like mowing the lawn.
Those are some that's like well,I've outsourced that to somebody
now. I like doing yard work, andthere's plenty of other stuff
picking up sticks and things toget that scratch that ish a
little bit. But, like, mowing alawn, I think is, like, easy
(12:14):
enough for someone else to dothat you can kinda outsource
that.
Mary Catherine (12:16):
For sure.
Dane Shoemaker (12:17):
We also have a cleaning person. Right? And, I
will say that my my wife doesspend a lot of time every week
doing laundry. Right? So I
Ally (12:26):
mean So you're the ideal client?
Dane Shoemaker (12:28):
Probably. Yeah. Are there some people that are
kind of, you know, apprehensiveto hand off, you know, the
laundry services? I mean, Ithink in a way, she kinda likes
it a little bit because it'slike kind of a mindless I don't
know.
Mary Catherine (12:42):
I don't know. Also has, like, the control as
well. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (12:44):
She can put on a podcast or put on a show. You
know? Yeah. Kinda no one bothersher for, like, an hour or 2.
Ally (12:50):
You know?
Mary Catherine (12:51):
So I will say personally. So Ali, the whole
reason this business started wasbecause Ali had her 3rd baby.
And I can let you talk aboutthis. But basically, she felt
guilty for holding her baby andnot doing her laundry. And
that's how this kind of allstarted.
But long story short is that I'mthe friend that likes to do
laundry. Okay. And so she usedour service from day 1. Right?
(13:12):
Like, her she brought our teamto her house.
They do her laundry in and outfrom day 1. I probably it took
me probably, like, a year Yeah.To, like, actually let our team
do my laundry. Not because Idon't think I was afraid, but
just because I enjoyed doing it.I liked knowing that, like, you
know, my laundry was done aspecific like, I I want my
(13:33):
whites, like, OxiClean and mywhites,
Ally (13:34):
all that stuff.
Mary Catherine (13:35):
We have all those options,
Ally (13:36):
which we do. Right?
Mary Catherine (13:38):
Right. We do. Well, now we've, you know Yep.
Got all that on our list ofthings. But that's that's what
I'm saying is that people mightbe apprehensive.
But once they, you know, talk tous and we answer all their
questions or they go to thewebsite and they check out all
these options that we have, youknow, we can make sure that
we're washing your whites withOxiClean. We can we are always
treat. We can saint treat. We'realways only ever drying on low.
(14:00):
We're never drying on high.
So like, you don't have to worryabout anything like shrinking.
Ally (14:04):
Well, hang dry. If you have certain items like you,
that can't go in the dryer.Right. Basically we can
completely tailor the laundryprocess to like what you would
do at home anyways.
Mary Catherine (14:14):
Yeah. And now I'm obsessed and I would never
would go back ever, ever, likenever in a 1000000 years.
Ally (14:22):
I can't ever imagine doing my laundry ever again.
Mary Catherine (14:25):
It's crazy. And it sounds so ridiculous.
Ally (14:27):
No, it really does. But like,
Mary Catherine (14:29):
I don't even have children. It's just myself
and my fiance, like but Listen.It's huge. It's so huge. You
never go back.
It's life changing.
Dane Shoemaker (14:37):
No. I can I can believe it? Yeah. Because, I
mean, for, you know, busy, like,any any any anyone. Right?
Business owner or working, youknow, working 9 to 5. Like
Right. There's only a few hoursin the day, you know, that you
get to spend time with yourkids. If the kids have, like,
sports and school, homework Imean,
Ally (14:55):
I think about my household. We're running ragged
every single day from thing tothing. Like, to not think about
laundry is huge. I also have acleaning service. Our service,
our laundry service goes greatwith a cleaning service
Dane Shoemaker (15:07):
because a
Ally (15:08):
lot of cleaning services won't do laundry. Right? Maybe
they'll throw it in, but they'renot, you know, doing the whole
process. Yeah. Most of ourclients also have cleaners too.
Dane Shoemaker (15:18):
Okay. Yeah. Like, they they hire a cleaning
service.
Mary Catherine (15:21):
They are a cleaning service.
Dane Shoemaker (15:22):
They've already recognized, okay, this is hours
back in my week. You know?
Mary Catherine (15:25):
But we were talking about this earlier. I
think once you outsource onething, you realize the benefit
of having all the that timeback, and you're like, what else
can I outsource? And,
Ally (15:34):
like, for myself, time is probably the most valuable thing
whenever I, like, whatever I canoutsource, I'm doing it because
I I just need all the time I canget. Yeah. Especially with young
kids. Right? I mean Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (15:47):
You only get It's so hard. Years with them
before they're out.
Mary Catherine (15:50):
Exactly. Before they're
Dane Shoemaker (15:51):
out of the house, they don't even care
about you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.That's cool.
Yeah. I mean, it's I love thebusiness model. You know, it
seems like such a neededservice. Can you explain, you
know, how does, like, onboardingwork? If I'm somebody, like, do
I go to your website and fillout a form?
What does that process look likefor a customer?
Mary Catherine (16:12):
Yeah. For a customer. So right. You can find
us well, you can find us on alldifferent platforms. Right?
We're on all the socials and
Dane Shoemaker (16:18):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (16:19):
But also our website is kind of our main main
point of contact.
Dane Shoemaker (16:22):
Okay.
Ally (16:23):
You
Mary Catherine (16:23):
would go on contact us page, there's a link
you'd click, and basically, itwould just take all of your
information, you know, yourname, where you where you're
located. Basically, you know,what service you're looking for.
So we have a number of differentservices. Obviously, we're
talking about our pickup dropoff pickup drop off service,
which is our main kind ofservice that we offer. But, you
(16:43):
know, we do just folding aswell.
Like, if you can get yourlaundry washed and dried and you
just hate folding it and puttingit away, we'll do that too.
Dane Shoemaker (16:52):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (16:53):
So basically, you know, everything's laid out
there pricing all that click theone you want, you click on that.
And then your preferences, youcan fill out all of your
preferences. Do you want tosustain treat? Do you want us to
add oxy clean to your whites,like those types of things?
Anything else that you wouldlike to note?
You know, I'm going to pre sortmy items, you know, I'm going to
send them as is. Can you returnthem as is? Sure. Yeah. So we
(17:16):
can
Ally (17:16):
and then at the end of that, you pick your day and time
and submit,
Mary Catherine (17:20):
and then you'll hear from our admin Megan,
within probably the day, we tryto get back no later than the
day.
Ally (17:30):
It's it's like within the hour. Yeah. That you'll get a
confirmation, like confirmingyour appointment, which we send
via text.
Dane Shoemaker (17:35):
Nice. Yep. So it
Ally (17:36):
can be all done online from our website.
Dane Shoemaker (17:39):
That's great. Do you, and then in terms of like
the contractor, you know, whendo you get people reaching out
to you say, Hey, I want to workfor you. Or are you kind of
qualifying?
Mary Catherine (17:50):
You know, we're definitely qualifying.
Dane Shoemaker (17:52):
Yeah. Like
Mary Catherine (17:52):
we're not just taking any
Dane Shoemaker (17:54):
Joe Schmauer certification of like,
Mary Catherine (17:56):
yeah, they actually have to.
Dane Shoemaker (17:59):
Tell me about this. Tell me
Mary Catherine (18:00):
about this particular,
Ally (18:01):
which I think people think we're like crazy. I feel nuts
and not like, I feel like wekind of.
Mary Catherine (18:08):
Talk to them. We do kind of sound crazy. And then
I think they get on board andthey realize, oh, wow. Like,
this is, you know, this is whatthe clients are paying for.
They're paying for thataesthetic.
So we do need to get it right.
Ally (18:18):
And like we deliver things back ready for your drawers.
Like, there's no
Mary Catherine (18:24):
You can literally lift it up and plop it
in the drawer. Yeah.
Ally (18:27):
Yeah. So we are a little neurotic.
Mary Catherine (18:29):
A little bit. But I
Dane Shoemaker (18:30):
think people appreciate that.
Mary Catherine (18:31):
All good business people are a little
neurotic. Right?
Dane Shoemaker (18:33):
Yeah. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (18:34):
So anyway, the US about that process, right? So
they will apply. We have anapplication link on our website.
We have folks apply whetheryou're in PA or Jersey, you can
apply.
Ally (18:45):
And I mean, we get applications every day. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (18:48):
Every day. Sometimes we're reaching out and
saying
Ally (18:50):
every day,
Mary Catherine (18:51):
you know, can you, you know, we have specific
areas that we're looking. Wehave a high need for it that we
need in that that specific area.But, yeah, for the most part, we
are getting applications likeleft and
Dane Shoemaker (19:01):
right. Okay.
Mary Catherine (19:03):
So once they submit their application, we'll
review the application, and thenwe'll, you know, contact them
and say, you know, we'reinterested in interviewing you.
We bring them on for, you know,half hour interview via Zoom.
They're given a lot ofinformation prior to that
interview to let them understandwhat, you know, this job
entails.
Ally (19:22):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (19:22):
You know, what the pay rate is, what the, what
the expectations are, etcetera,etcetera. And then from there,
you know, if we think they're afit, we'll say, okay, next steps
are, we're going to send youthis one pager, it has the link
to our training videos, you'regoing to watch the training
videos, you're going to go toyour drawers, and then you're
going to turn back around andsend us pictures of your newly
(19:44):
folded drawers the way thatthese videos are showing you how
to do it.
Dane Shoemaker (19:47):
Right. Right.
Mary Catherine (19:47):
And then from there, we'll get back to them
and say, hey, you know, we thinkyou could crisp this up a little
bit or, you know, if theyobviously
Ally (19:54):
or like good enough, like, right,
Mary Catherine (19:56):
you know, like, we're gonna move you forward.
Dane Shoemaker (19:58):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (19:59):
And for the most part, I mean, it's not rocket
science to to fold, but it doestake a little bit of time to,
like, get
Dane Shoemaker (20:04):
I can't figure it out. So, yeah, it's
definitely
Ally (20:06):
Yeah. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (20:09):
But then then they, you know, they get through
that process, and then we putthem into, like, our onboarding
program. And our onboardingprogram is also a little bit, I
think, intense for a laundryjob. I think people think, oh, I
was just signing up to, like, dolaundry, but no. It there's
there's a little bit of astandard here.
Dane Shoemaker (20:26):
Yes. Good.
Mary Catherine (20:27):
Good. So then that last part of that process
is basically them jumping on aphone call with our, onboarding
coordinator, Brit, who basicallyteaches them the systems that we
use, You know,
Ally (20:41):
like the app, like, you know, how to like, like all, all
the nitty gritty.
Dane Shoemaker (20:47):
Right.
Ally (20:48):
Like we make sure they're a 100% comfortable, confident,
ready to go and to take on jobs
Mary Catherine (20:55):
before they
Ally (20:57):
before we're just like, okay, go and do somebody's
laundry. Like we are really,
Mary Catherine (21:02):
we're making sure they have the supplies on
hand that they need. We'remaking sure they know how to use
the systems and you know, thattype of thing. And, you know,
making sure they're just they'recomfortable.
Ally (21:12):
And then we send them into a home with another tenured
teammate as, like, a last final.Okay. Your folding's good and
everything, but, like, go meetone of our teammates. Go into a
client's home. Get the feel for,like, how does that feel?
Practice your folding. Getfeedback from a teammate who's
crushing it.
Dane Shoemaker (21:31):
Yeah.
Ally (21:32):
And then after that, they're good to go.
Mary Catherine (21:34):
Then they can fly. They've got their wings.
Ally (21:36):
It sounds so extensive. It does really, it sounds like
you're applying to like Googleand I
Mary Catherine (21:42):
promise you're not, but I mean, we do have a
standard.
Dane Shoemaker (21:45):
You have systems in place and I I'm really
impressed. So like, not that Ilike didn't expect that, but,
like Nobody had to to back youhave of somebody. Like, yeah. I
mean
Mary Catherine (21:53):
It didn't just happen in the beginning. Yeah.
We were just willy nilly saying,okay, you seem like a nice
person. Yeah. We're gonna bringyou on board.
Granted, we do background checksand everything. We're not
sending anybody into a home witheverybody.
Ally (22:04):
I have to have their clearances,
Mary Catherine (22:05):
auto insurance. They need, you know,
Ally (22:07):
even if they're doing pickup drop off, they have to
have their clearances, like say,say they're like, I can't do in
home services in client homeservices. I can only do pickup
drop off. They still have tohave their clearances. Like,
we're really adamant about that.
Dane Shoemaker (22:21):
Yeah. That's good. Yeah.
Ally (22:22):
We run a tight ship.
Dane Shoemaker (22:23):
Peace of peace of mind. Yeah. I mean,
Ally (22:24):
it's I mean, families want that. Right?
Dane Shoemaker (22:26):
Like Of course. Yeah.
Ally (22:27):
Yeah. And like some of the, not to talk about a
competitor, but some of theother laundry services, right.
You just go on the app, youapply, you get approved. There's
no kind of like fact checkinglike
Mary Catherine (22:38):
or vetting or anything like that.
Dane Shoemaker (22:39):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (22:40):
Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (22:40):
Yeah. Wow. So you were talking about a little
just kinda step back to, youknow, when you guys move into,
like, a new area or, like, youhave a you do some marketing and
then you have a contractor oryou get someone hired and then
you do some more marketingaround that. What kind of
marketing are you doing in thearea? You know?
Facebook. Facebook. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (23:01):
That is our
Dane Shoemaker (23:02):
Are you running ads? No.
Mary Catherine (23:04):
No. We've not. Groups.
Dane Shoemaker (23:05):
Okay. Mom groups.
Mary Catherine (23:06):
Mom groups.
Dane Shoemaker (23:07):
Okay. Tell me about that. That's interesting.
This
Mary Catherine (23:09):
is all how it started. I'm gonna let Allie
talk about this because this ishow we knew we had something
here. This was our marketresearch before we knew it was
our market research.
Dane Shoemaker (23:17):
Okay.
Ally (23:18):
Yeah. So I had posted well because I suck at laundry
despite owning a laundrybusiness, but like originally,
right? Like I was like, oh mygosh, I'm so overwhelmed. I had
my 3rd baby going back to workfull time. I need to outsource
everything.
Dane Shoemaker (23:31):
Yeah.
Ally (23:31):
And laundry was one of those things that cleaning
services didn't do. So I postedin my local mom's group and I
said, hey, who is looking forlike an extra 3 hours a week?
That's what I estimated. Ithought my laundry would take.
Who's looking for an extra 3hours a week?
I'm willing to pay. Who can justcome over and help fold and put
(23:53):
away my laundry?
Dane Shoemaker (23:54):
Yeah.
Ally (23:54):
I will wash it ahead of time. I just need you to fold it
and put it away in my drawers. Ihad so many comments on that
post. One saying, I wanna do it.Like, I'm looking for side work.
I can give you through I'm astay at home mom. I can give you
3 hours every single week. Butthen on the other on the other a
100 comments of that post was, Iwant the service too. Let me
(24:18):
know who you hire. You know, Iwant that same person.
Dane Shoemaker (24:21):
Wow.
Ally (24:21):
So I was like, hold up. So then I I hired somebody from
that post. She changed my life.She came in. Marie Kondo ed all
my drawers, closets, every like,it was I'm telling you, it was
life changing.
And then she came every week for3 hours to just fold and put
away my laundry. Game changerfor me. I felt, like,
(24:43):
immediately better. So I wastalking to MC, and I was like,
there is something here. Like,this just changed my life so
drastically.
And look at this post of all ofthese moms who wanna work, and
then look. There's all theclients sitting right there.
Dane Shoemaker (24:59):
Boom. Right there. It's Wow.
Ally (25:01):
What are we doing? And so she was like, let's give it a
shot. I was like, okay,
Dane Shoemaker (25:06):
here we go. Less than the lows is born. Yeah.
Ally (25:09):
Literally. And then the rest is history. We quickly took
off
Dane Shoemaker (25:13):
from
Ally (25:14):
there because I mean, I, we obviously like from that
post, like we knew
Mary Catherine (25:18):
There's, there's a market here.
Dane Shoemaker (25:20):
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now the people that are
doing laundry, the contractors,are they at all going out and
selling a little bit orrecruiting or no? Okay.
Mary Catherine (25:30):
It's strictly. So back to the, you know, I
think your original question waswhere are you marketing? It is
all mom's groups that we use.
Dane Shoemaker (25:35):
Yeah. That's
Mary Catherine (25:36):
it. That's that's. And we're not paying for
anything.
Dane Shoemaker (25:39):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (25:39):
Like, I mean, granted now, you know, we do
different, you know,
Ally (25:44):
I was going to say there's like a few bigger groups, like
mainline parent community, whereit's like a membership to be
able to post in their group.
Dane Shoemaker (25:52):
Yeah.
Ally (25:53):
But that that has paid off tenfold. Yeah. So, like, there's
a few groups, like, mom groupsor parent community groups like
that that we do pay for, but themajority we don't, and we just
post our once or twice a week,whatever they allow, or maybe
it's like once a month. And thathonestly is how we grew our
business originally.
Dane Shoemaker (26:08):
Yeah. That's huge.
Mary Catherine (26:09):
I mean, we have still growing from those.
Ally (26:11):
Yep. And also a lot of it is word-of-mouth now from our
other clients, we have so manyclients because of other clients
now. Right. And that kind ofjust spirals from there.
Mary Catherine (26:20):
And I would say that's, you know, our team as
well. I think word-of-mouth, ourteam is whether or not we say
they're marketing or not, youknow, they're talking about the
job that they have and theservice they perform. So I
think, yeah, word-of-mouth, forsure. We
Ally (26:31):
have gained so many also teammates from current
teammates. So like we have apair of sisters on our team, 2
pairs of sisters on our team.Like, do you know what I mean?
Like friends of friends, it has,which are end up being the best,
teammates do.
Dane Shoemaker (26:49):
Yeah. Busy people hang out with busy people
typically, you know, and Yeah.Usually, you know, yeah, friend
groups and colleagues and peersthat, you know, yeah, I can see
how that, you know, just kindagrows organically like that.
Yep.
Mary Catherine (27:04):
It definitely does.
Ally (27:05):
Literally how it happened.
Dane Shoemaker (27:07):
Do you guys own any trucks or lawn, you know,
laundromat? I mean, is that anyof that stuff like in the future
Mary Catherine (27:13):
or. Might be.
Dane Shoemaker (27:14):
Might be
Mary Catherine (27:15):
the, the laundry. Okay. I'm not going to,
well, I'm not allowed to say
Dane Shoemaker (27:18):
it. The,
Mary Catherine (27:20):
I would say laundromat esque is, is
something that we have beenthinking about.
Dane Shoemaker (27:25):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (27:26):
Just mainly, you know, it would be great if our
team could just have a base todrop in and do larger orders
and, and such like that.
Dane Shoemaker (27:34):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (27:35):
If they wanted to. Right.
Ally (27:37):
And like as an additional option. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (27:40):
Sure.
Mary Catherine (27:40):
Yeah. But right now, no, we don't have trucks.
We don't have, you know, anyother areas aside from our own
homes. I mean, I'm getting asecond hookup in my house, but
that's about it.
Dane Shoemaker (27:53):
Yeah. Pretty low, like overhead. I mean, it's
not
Mary Catherine (27:55):
Oh, for sure.
Dane Shoemaker (27:56):
It's a pretty, pretty great business model. I
gotta give you a kudos to that.Mhmm. So anything, like,
anything that we haven't coveredor anything you wanna wanna talk
about?
Mary Catherine (28:08):
I mean, we could talk forever, but Yeah. Yeah.
No. I don't. I mean
Dane Shoemaker (28:12):
I mean, what's what's one of the biggest
challenges that you think you'verun into just from running
Mary Catherine (28:16):
That's a good question.
Ally (28:18):
We we did briefly talk about this recently. And because
our business model is so uniquein terms of hiring contractors
that are doing work in theirhome, but then also we have
services where they're goinginto a client's home and we
have, like, the reorganizationpiece too, or the organization
(28:40):
piece too. It's been a reallydifficult to find back end
systems that support thecomplexity of what we're doing.
Right? Like, our pickup drop offservices are by the pound.
Our in home services are hourly.Our reorganizations are
something else. And then to havea system that can support con 50
(29:01):
contractors assigned to certainjobs at different pay rates. And
like, it's a nightmare to bequite honest. Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (29:08):
So you're talking about like a, like a
software, like CRM.
Mary Catherine (29:11):
Like an app or some sort.
Ally (29:12):
And like, everybody's like, oh, we'll just use like
the softwares that laundromatsdo who do, like, curbside
laundry and stuff. Well
Mary Catherine (29:19):
We vetted so many of them. We've been on so
many calls. We've done
Ally (29:23):
It just, like, doesn't work with our business model.
Mary Catherine (29:25):
Mhmm. So it's frustrating.
Ally (29:27):
Not having, like, a base or a laundromat to kind of run
it out of, which I don't thinkwe'll we would ever go that
route entirely anyways because,you know, allowing them our team
to have the flexibility and tobe able to do the the job from
home is is what is bringing themand keeping amazing teammates
Mary Catherine (29:48):
working.
Ally (29:48):
So, anyways, all that to say is the systems thing and
figuring that out for the lasttwo and a half years has been
nothing short of a nightmare.But Yeah. Here we are.
Mary Catherine (29:57):
Now we have, an amazing tech. We call her our
tech guru, Alyssa on our teamwho has done phenomenal in terms
of, you know, providing us withkind of shortcuts and helping us
integrate systems to speak withone another. But it definitely
took a while for us to getthere, and it's it's not perfect
by any means.
Dane Shoemaker (30:17):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (30:17):
It's still struggle on the regular. Yeah.
So, you know, we're hoping oneday we're making our own app and
having our own system. Sure. Butuntil then That's definitely
where we're headed.
But until then Yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (30:30):
I mean, that's part of the part of running a
business. Right? Is justfiguring out all the Kinks.
Yeah. And figuring out how tooptimize everything and building
processes.
And for me, I feel like that's,like, one of the best funnest
parts or that's really where alot of the challenges come from
is, like, hey. How can I youknow, because we're a service
based business? We provide wemake videos. Videos are very
subjective and creative, but howdo we kinda systemize it? Like,
(30:54):
how we create it, how we come upwith the ideas,
Ally (30:56):
all that stuff.
Dane Shoemaker (30:57):
So Yeah. Yeah.
Ally (30:58):
I think about, like, where we started and, like, what we
were using then and what we areusing now, and I'm it's amazing
how much we've grown and, like,the things we've been able to
figure out.
Dane Shoemaker (31:09):
Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Look at
this guy.
Mary Catherine (31:13):
Oh, boy. Sorry. Yes. We're still recording.
Dane Shoemaker (31:17):
Who's this guy? That's Duke. Duke. Oh, my gosh.
Ally (31:21):
Our mascot, I guess.
Mary Catherine (31:22):
Yeah. Our mascot.
Dane Shoemaker (31:25):
So, yeah. Well, this is this has been really
great. Yeah. I mean Thank
Ally (31:30):
you so much
Mary Catherine (31:30):
for having
Dane Shoemaker (31:30):
us. Of course. Yeah. Anything, you know, coming
out in the future you want totalk about or anything else?
Ally (31:38):
Wanna. We do have a new website that is launching
hopefully on Monday.
Dane Shoemaker (31:43):
Oh, nice. Okay.
Ally (31:43):
That's. Will be awesome.
Mary Catherine (31:45):
We're very excited about that.
Ally (31:46):
Yep. That was like a long time coming. Other things coming
down the pike.
Mary Catherine (31:52):
I mean, we, we didn't talk about our newest
service, which is our last mustexpress, which we maybe can kind
of highlight right now. Yeah.Sure. This is also perfect for,
you know, our target audience.And going into the school year,
it's kind of prime, to use thisservice.
But basically it is, it is, Iwould say the
Dane Shoemaker (32:11):
Say it again and then
Mary Catherine (32:12):
talk about it. Less less mess express.
Dane Shoemaker (32:14):
Okay.
Mary Catherine (32:15):
So we call it our, LME for short. But
basically, it's an hour servicewhere we will come into your
home and basically tidy up foryou after say a crazy morning
with children getting them outthe door. We'll come in. We'll
make sure, you know, whateverspaces are the most important to
you, you'll let us know. Right?
You'll fill out a checklist andsay this is the areas that I
(32:36):
want you to focus on. We'll comein, and we'll tidy up that
space. So whether it's you wantthe kitchen cleaned up, you
want, you know, the dishes putaway from the dishwasher, the
dishes out of the sink, wipe thecounters down. We'll make sure,
you know, your toilet paper rollis refreshed, if the kids use
the last of it or
Ally (32:56):
Like all the toys picked up off the floor. Yeah.
Mary Catherine (32:59):
The all the little things that you are
leaving the house in the morningthinking, I wish I could just,
like, make it look nice so Icome in and my house doesn't
feel like a bomb went off.
Dane Shoemaker (33:08):
Yeah.
Mary Catherine (33:08):
That's what less mess expresses.
Ally (33:10):
It's like a reset, right? Like it's, it's all of the
things that our laundry servicedoesn't do and that a cleaning
service typically doesn't havetime to get to.
Dane Shoemaker (33:20):
Yeah.
Ally (33:20):
Like in terms of like a lot of people say, like, I have
to clean for my cleaningservice. Right? Like, you have
to, like, pick up the toys andput everything away.
Dane Shoemaker (33:27):
Yeah.
Ally (33:27):
This service also would be perfect, like, right before
Right before your cleaning. Orlike the day before.
Mary Catherine (33:32):
Yeah. Yeah. It's really, really
Ally (33:34):
It's like a home reset. So you're walking back in your
door, everything's put away. Itlooks like Yeah. Nobody was
here.
Dane Shoemaker (33:41):
That's that's genius. Because, like, we
actually have a cleaning personat our house right now. I I
think they're here. They'resupposed to come at some point
today, but it's always, like,usually on a Thursday
Mary Catherine (33:50):
A scramble.
Dane Shoemaker (33:51):
Yeah. And so it's Wednesday night. Yeah.
Jesus Christ. So Yeah.
You got your cleaner. You gotyour hot zones. You got your
kitchen. Yeah. And then we haveour basement that's just like an
absolute disaster
Ally (34:00):
Right.
Dane Shoemaker (34:00):
Of toys and stuff. And, yeah. I mean, I can
see how that's, like an hour.You know?
Mary Catherine (34:07):
It's like an hour. Hour hour where you just
come in
Dane Shoemaker (34:09):
and make sure
Ally (34:10):
because you say too, like, if you need more than an hour
You don't need It's not then,like, a reset. Right? Like,
unless you have a really largehome, which we have a few
clients who are their homes areare larger than usual, and maybe
theirs is, like, 2 hours. Right?But if you need more than an
hour, then we're, like,cleaning, and we're not a
cleaning service.
This is just, like, a tidyservice to get you feeling like
(34:32):
you can walk back in the homeand
Mary Catherine (34:34):
not wanna leave again. No.
Ally (34:35):
You're breaking.
Mary Catherine (34:36):
I wanna turn back right back around.
Dane Shoemaker (34:37):
Yeah. Yeah.
Ally (34:38):
Absolutely. I often walk in my house and wanna turn right
back around.
Dane Shoemaker (34:42):
That's great. No. That's that's that's genius.
So less mess express. You havethe laundry service and then the
homework, reorganization.
Yeah. Yep. You got it. That'sawesome. Yep.
Okay. That's what we need. Anyother services you think you're
toying with down the road or No.
Ally (34:58):
That's keeping us plenty because, yeah, I think we're
good
Mary Catherine (35:01):
for right now. Yeah.
Ally (35:02):
We have like some other things that we kind of, you
know, bebop around, but want todo and nothing to
Mary Catherine (35:08):
write home about just yet.
Dane Shoemaker (35:10):
Yeah. Yeah. Cool. I like your logo. Where
what's the story behind that?
The,
Mary Catherine (35:15):
So the story is Allie made the logo and I made
the name.
Dane Shoemaker (35:19):
Okay.
Ally (35:19):
She came up with the name.
Mary Catherine (35:20):
Yeah. I came up with the name and Allie came up
with the name.
Ally (35:22):
Everybody loves our name.
Dane Shoemaker (35:24):
Yeah. I know.
Ally (35:25):
Everybody loves the trademark too because everybody
loves it.
Dane Shoemaker (35:27):
Oh, good job. Yeah. We
Ally (35:28):
got nervous. That every week had way too many
compliments on it.
Dane Shoemaker (35:31):
I mean, it's good. It's a great name, less
than the loads. It's like loadsof, you know, lots of laundry.
And then, but also like your,your, mental big, big pain point
for people
Mary Catherine (35:40):
like, you
Dane Shoemaker (35:41):
know, during the week.
Ally (35:42):
I mean, honestly like that is the reason we started the
service. The the service wasstarted because I could feel
that mental load in my head.Like, I felt that mom guilt,
which I'm sure so many peoplecan relate to about, like,
spending time with your kidsversus, you know, getting all
your household stuff done.Honestly, lesson loads, we just
wanna help people. That that iswhat it comes down to.
Mary Catherine (36:05):
Make a difference. Yep.
Ally (36:06):
Yep. We we say all the time, like, we quit our
corporate jobs to do otherpeople's laundry. Like, it
sounds That's great. We left 6figure jobs to do other people's
laundry. It sounds crazy.
People think we're nuts. Theythey they do.
Dane Shoemaker (36:22):
Yeah.
Ally (36:22):
But, truly, we believe so much in what we're doing here
and the impact that we're makingand, you know, the client
testimonials, I know we're inthe right place and doing the
right thing.
Mary Catherine (36:32):
Yeah. And I would also say the beauty of, of
owning a business is also beingable to give to others in times
of when, you know, they arestruggling. That's, that's
something we didn't even talkabout is our gifted services
that we offer. So that'ssomething that Allie and I have,
you know, obviously we'repassionate about our business
and our team and, you know, ourservices, but we're also
immensely passionate about ourgifted services and providing,
(36:53):
you know, a month of laundryservice for someone who's going
through a really rough time. Sowhether they've, you know, just
lost their spouse or have achild going through chemo or,
you know, anything under the sunthat you can think of, they've,
they had a fire in their home,and they, you know, have
Ally (37:08):
been really terrible scenarios.
Mary Catherine (37:09):
Yeah. But that's such I mean, that's that's what
it's all about. Right? At theend of the day is we're able to
do stuff like that. And justknowing that you're, you're
truly taking a burden off ofsomeone when it comes to.
Ally (37:22):
And I was going to say like, when we set out to start
the business before we evencould financially afford to gift
services, we did. So right?Like, me and MC were both still
working full time jobs. Like, itit it was more important for us
to gift services to those whoneeded it
Dane Shoemaker (37:41):
Mhmm.
Ally (37:41):
Than to to, like, give ourselves that money.
Dane Shoemaker (37:45):
Yeah.
Ally (37:45):
Yeah. Which, again, was not something our accountant
would have recommended oranything like that. But what
that's what I'm saying, though.Like, we feel so passionate
about what we're doing and whatwe're bringing. It's so
important that and people arelike, oh, it's just laundry.
Yeah. But for somebody who'straveling to CHOP every day to
see their kid who's goingthrough chemo, they need clean
(38:07):
clothes. Right? Like, to takethat burden off of them.
Dane Shoemaker (38:10):
Sure.
Ally (38:10):
Man, that feels good.
Dane Shoemaker (38:12):
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's great.
I yeah.
I mean, I I I do think that it'sa good business practice. Right?
I mean, I think it I believe insome of that woo woo stuff, and
you put good stuff out there.
Mary Catherine (38:23):
For sure.
Dane Shoemaker (38:24):
Because so good
Mary Catherine (38:24):
stuff comes out.
Dane Shoemaker (38:25):
And, like
Ally (38:25):
Oh, yeah.
Dane Shoemaker (38:26):
A lot of the free work that we've done made
videos for nonprofits and stufflike that. That has come back
tenfold in terms of business. SoThat's that
Mary Catherine (38:34):
was we were talking about this the other
day. We've gotten so muchbusiness from our gifted
services. It was not in theplan.
Ally (38:38):
It was never the intention, and it's not why we
did it ever. It's where theworld works.
Mary Catherine (38:42):
So Right.
Dane Shoemaker (38:43):
But yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So what's how
how how can people find you?What's your website and what are
your socials?
Mary Catherine (38:50):
Less than the loads.com. Okay. And our socials
are just Less Than the loads. Soyou can find a set I think,
Instagram's lesson dot the dotloads, but I'm sure if you just
punch in less, the loads willpop right up.
Dane Shoemaker (39:02):
And the
Mary Catherine (39:02):
logos, you know
Dane Shoemaker (39:04):
Yeah. Wash it with a heart.
Ally (39:05):
Yep.
Dane Shoemaker (39:06):
Nice. And, pricings is all up on the
website.
Ally (39:09):
Everything's there. Everything's there.
Dane Shoemaker (39:10):
People to feel out warm. Yeah. They wanna get
started. Yeah. Yep.
Awesome. Well, I'll leave her acabin.
Ally (39:15):
So nice to meet you.
Dane Shoemaker (39:16):
Appreciate it. Good luck with everything with
your business.
Ally (39:18):
Thank you.
Dane Shoemaker (39:21):
Thanks for listening today. Shoemaker Lab
is an original production byShoemaker Films, LLC. If you
enjoyed today's content, pleaseconsider subscribing on YouTube,
Spotify, Apple Podcasts, andwherever you get your content.
Follow us on Instagram atshoemaker.films. If you're a
business that's eitherinterested in our video
production services or wouldlike to be a guest on the show,
(39:44):
get in touch by using thecontact form on our website,
shoemakerfilms.com.
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