Self-service laundrettes aren’t something new in Malaysia. Likelihood is, there’s most likely one not too removed from you proper now.
When you stay within the Klang Valley, one model you could be accustomed to is dobiQueen. Based by Nini Tan and Senglee Tan, the corporate now has 82 shops throughout the area.
Earlier than founding dobiQueen, each Senglee and Nini labored as digital advertising and marketing managers with Foto-ZZoom, a images providers firm. In 2015, although, the 2 determined to start out their very own enterprise.
The inspiration to embark on the self-service laundry enterprise got here from private experiences, Nini instructed Vulcan Put up.
The co-founder defined that when she began residing on her personal, she struggled with juggling family chores alongside her demanding profession.
“Once I was younger, I witnessed my mom experiencing the identical struggles with family chores,” she shared. “There have been days I remembered after I begged my mom to learn bedtime tales to me however she couldn’t relent as there have been piles of laundry and different family cleansing to be sorted.”
Realising that she shared the identical struggles along with her mom, Nini felt compelled to offer an answer. However as talked about, self-service laundry outlets are nothing new.
But, she felt like there was one thing lacking.
“In my years of discovering the self-service laundry business and constructing dobiQueen, I seen a niche available in the market the place prospects needed to rush again to the laundromat to switch their moist garments to be put within the dryers as a result of absence of employees,” she identified.
“That was when an concept got here to thoughts on how the laundry business could possibly be drastically improved.”
Revamping the business
Beginning dobiQueen, Nini and Senglee needed to revolutionise folks’s notion in direction of laundry.
What differentiates dobiQueen from its rivals, Nini believes, is innovation and comfort. That is underpinned by the observe of getting a supervisor at every retailer who can help with prospects’ laundry.
“With an assistant prepared to help with transferring moist garments to dryers in addition to garments stacking, our prospects are free to go off to have a meal, train, or stroll their pets as they’ve been granted one hour of free time,” she defined.
Including to the comfort issue, Nini stated dobiQueen rents parking areas in crowded areas to make sure prospects can simply drop off their laundry.
Basically, dobiQueen hits a candy spot between self-service and repair.
Nini additionally believes that dobiQueen stands out due to the standard it gives, because it utilises branded detergents and softeners comparable to Downy and Breeze. Additionally they provide superior machines, together with crease-free dryers.
However maybe probably the most distinctive service provided by dobiQueen is its door-to-door six-hour laundry pickup service, which is supposedly the primary of its sort in Malaysia.
By means of this service, dobiQueen permits prospects to have their laundry picked up, cleaned, folded, and returned to them in as quick as six hours.
“I consider we’ve got been fairly impactful by our progress which has expanded from 5 shops to 82 in simply eight years,” Nini stated. “That speaks volumes about our progress within the business.”
This yr, dobiQueen goals to open 20 extra shops. Up to now, all shops are self-owned, however Nini talked about the opportunity of franchise alternatives down the highway.
Giving again to the group
Past providing laundry providers to the group, dobiQueen additionally empowers the workforce that it employs, specializing in hiring ladies, particularly these from the B40 and single moms’ communities.
“All of it goes again to my very own experiences rising up,” Nini stated, recalling her mom’s struggles.
“However what struck me was that this isn’t simply my story. It’s the story of numerous ladies on the market. Girls who’re working tirelessly, usually with out recognition, to maintain all the pieces working easily at house and work.”
So, by means of dobiQueen, Nini needed to do extra than simply run a enterprise. Relatively, she additionally needed to make a constructive influence on humanity, particularly to moms.
“That’s the place the title dobiQueen is available in,” she stated. “It’s a nod to the queens of the family, the ladies who usually bear the accountability of retaining all the pieces working easily on the house entrance.”
Aligning with this, dobiQueen is all the time cognisant about providing job alternatives to ladies, empowering them to tackle management positions as nicely, each on the managerial stage in shops and inside the company workforce.
“Now we have, to this point, efficiently employed eight single moms,” Nini added. “Apart from that, our firm is devoted to supporting ladies by buying pageant items from NGOs.”
Some NGOs dobiQueen has labored with are Dignity for Kids Basis the place they collaborated with refugee moms, Kintry, which is run by a single mom entrepreneur, and The Asli Co., the place they engaged with aboriginal moms to handcraft soaps.
This yr, the laundry firm has additionally collaborated with Komuniti Tukang Jahit (KTJ) to create handmade pouches.
Rising and altering with the instances
“Being an entrepreneur shouldn’t be all easy crusing,” Nini mirrored on her journey. “Like every other enterprise, we’ve got confronted our fair proportion of challenges alongside the best way.”
What has helped, although, is practising a progress mindset. Very like creating muscular tissues, Nini believes that with progress comes ache, however it trains them to beat obstacles and adapt to modifications quick.
She elaborated, “Challenges will all the time come our approach, and with the expansion mindset, seeing problem as an setting that promotes progress, and rising consciousness, we’ve got been capable of preserve transferring ahead.”
As such, the entrepreneur has learnt over time that it’s vital to put money into folks and their progress. At present, dobiQueen invests in numerous trainings for its workforce, comparable to ones for efficient communication.
Nini believes that investing within the workforce, which is the spine of the corporate, will permit dobiQueen to attain its final objective—turning into the dominant, primary participant in Malaysia’s laundrette business.
Driving this objective is similar imaginative and prescient Nini has had since day one, which is to scale back the burden of family chores, permitting folks to reclaim their time and vitality.
“We measure our success not simply by the variety of shops we’ve got, however by the influence we make in folks’s lives,” the co-founder shared.
“Once we see households spending extra high quality time collectively as a result of they don’t have to fret about laundry, or when working adults have extra time for themselves after a busy day, that’s once we’ll know we’ve ‘made it’.”
Be taught extra about dobiQueen right here.
Learn different articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: dobiQueen
