From Flint, Michigan to a Different Future

"I grew up really poor as a young kid, in Flint, Michigan," Dave Menz says. "And I was never very good at school, and I didn't see a traditional corporate path for me. It just wasn't in my DNA. I didn't know anyone that was an entrepreneur or a business owner. But I was always just, from afar, admiring people that were without knowing them."

There was no blueprint and no mentor in those early years — only an instinct that he wanted something different than the life he was born into.

A Mindset Built on Grit

What Dave did have was a refusal to accept limits.

"I don't like limitations. I don't like people or organizations or things telling me that I can't accomplish x," he explains. "I like to believe that if I spend enough time and gain the knowledge, and have the right mentors, and the right opportunities — good ol' fashioned grit plays a part in that, for sure — that I can accomplish almost anything that I want to. Or at least I'm going to die trying."

That mindset, Dave says, is what called him to entrepreneurship. He didn't start as a business owner, but he always had a keen interest in how businesses were run — preparation that would pay off when he was finally ready to take over his own.

Years of Preparation and a Craigslist Find

When Dave knew he was ready, he and his wife began saving and spent three or four years preparing for what would become their first laundromat. He found it on Craigslist, after careful research into the kind of business he wanted to own.

"I just started down the path of due diligence with every business that I found on Craigslist or anywhere else," he says. "And every time, I came to a point where there was either a red flag or multiple red flags, that just said 'this isn't for you.'"

Dave describes himself as somewhere between analysis paralysis and reckless — a detail-oriented researcher who doesn't get too hung up on choices and knows when to walk away. With this laundromat, there were no red flags he could find. So he went for the deal.

The Beginning of the Laundromat Millionaire

When Dave bought the laundromat for $85,000, it was losing money. But he saw an opportunity, and he understood his market.

"I don't know a lot about business, but I do understand the laws of supply and demand. And I know my community," he says. "It's a thriving, growing suburb in Cincinnati. It doesn't appear that any of these laundromats are serving this community well, and so if I fix it up and make it a nice place, seems to me like it should grow and should become profitable."

Over four years of saving, he and his wife had put away $35,000, and they used $20,000 as a down payment. Getting a bank to back them was another story — they were rejected 25 times before securing an SBA loan through a local credit union. About 11 months later, the first laundromat was bringing in $3,000–$4,000 a month.

On Rejection and Perseverance

The rejections are almost a story of their own. Dave is candid that the process was painful — two or three rejections can crush most people, let alone 25.

"If you really just bleed business ownership, and you know you're ready, and you know you want to do this, and you know you're going to go after this like most of humankind has never seen anybody go after something — it just rips your heart out," he says.

What made it harder was that on paper, everything was perfect: good credit, a sizeable down payment, a nest egg, a couple living below their means, and a plan to keep his job while running the laundromat. But the banks saw a bad gamble — he had never run a business, didn't have a college degree, and the laundromat was already losing money. The rejection didn't change his mind.

Buying the Next Laundromat

Once the first location was profitable, Dave realized he could replicate his results and become a full-time owner. His second laundromat — within a 20-mile radius of the first — had closed down entirely. He approached the owner of the shopping center, struck a deal, and was even given nine months rent-free to complete the renovations. He worked unbelievably long hours to make it happen.

"My upbringing was very simple. We're on Earth to serve others," Dave says. His mentor in the laundromat business — whom he met through buying equipment, and who came from a similar background — taught him that if you focus on serving others, everything else falls into place.

Buying up failing businesses and renovating them can look reckless from the outside, as Dave readily admits and the banks clearly believed. But within the first 30 days of opening the second laundromat, he was netting a few thousand dollars — results that typically take one to three years in his industry.

The Discipline of Delayed Gratification

Dave credits much of his success to the discipline to save and reinvest profits — learning, as he puts it, to keep his hand out of the cookie jar.

His goal was to eventually leave his job, and he understood that once he did, he'd be fully reliant on the laundromat income. So rather than inflating his lifestyle to match his growing income, he and his wife kept living as they always had and saved everything they could. That diligence gave them the foundation and confidence to operate the businesses full-time. Dave is a master of long-term thinking — putting in the work over several years to reap outsized results.

Serving a Community

"Every penny I've ever made in my life, I've made in servitude to others. Every penny. And I sleep really well at night knowing that. And how beautiful of a thing that it is to know that I can elevate my family," Dave says.

He extends that mindset to his team — now 40 employees, members of the community he serves, with a monthly payroll over $100,000 and many roles above entry-level. He's relentless about learning, pulling "golden nuggets" from books, podcasts, blogs, and magazines, then building a team to apply that knowledge.

"I don't have to be an expert in accounting, but I need an expert in accounting," he says.

Raising the Bar for Everyone

Over the years, Dave has improved both locations into a multi-million-dollar business — choosing to upgrade all of his locations on an ongoing basis rather than one at a time. Because he's committed to serving his community, he doesn't see himself in competition with anyone, including himself. His only goal is to be better than the day before.

"I'm not a keep up with the Joneses kind of guy," he says. "I'm the opposite. I'm happy to show the Joneses how I did this if they genuinely want to know." He'll even offer to take a competitor to lunch and help them — because servitude to his community matters that much.

A Better Family Future

One of the reasons Dave got into business was to give his wife and children a better reality than he had growing up poor, in a rough area. Financial security has always mattered to him — but not at the cost of who he is.

"The beauty of that is, you don't have to choose between money and character," he says. "The beauty of business ownership and entrepreneurship, when done correctly, is that if you're focused on serving others and meeting needs in the community, and that's important to you, what ends up happening is, even if the money doesn't follow, that's okay." His time is spent doing work he finds rewarding — a gift he gets to pass on.

"The only thing more powerful than what I know today, and what I'm able to accomplish with those things at 45 years old, is teaching it to kids that are 10."

The Laundromat Millionaire

Dave "Laundromat Millionaire" Menz is an entrepreneur, husband, and dad from Cincinnati, Ohio, and the owner of the Queen City Laundry chain. He turned a struggling laundromat bought off Craigslist into a cash-flowing, multi-million-dollar asset, and shared his playbook in his book The Laundromat Millionaire (2021). He's active on LinkedIn and Facebook as Dave Menz, Laundromat Millionaire.

What Aspiring Owners Can Learn

Whether you're eyeing an independent business or a franchise, Dave's path is a reminder that ownership is earned through preparation, not luck. Do the due diligence and trust the red flags. Expect financing to be hard — and have a plan B like the SBA when the banks say no. Live below your means so the business, not your lifestyle, gets your profits. And anchor the whole thing in genuine service to your community, because that's what makes the work worth doing even before the money follows.

Adapted from an interview and profile of Dave Menz, the Laundromat Millionaire. AboutFranchising.org shares this story for educational purposes.