What I wish somebody had told me before I put the first machine in a stranger's house.
Jovian Cabrera · TGM Washers · Houston, Texas
I started TGM Washers in August 2025 with a handful of machines and a spreadsheet.
I'm at about 200 machines now across Houston Metro.
Most of what I learned, I learned by getting it wrong first. Machines I never got back.
Customers who stopped answering. Weekends spent driving around collecting sixty dollars
at a time. None of that was necessary and most of it was avoidable.
This is the short version of what I'd tell someone starting out. It's not theory.
Every piece of it cost me something.
What's in it
The physical job
1Before the machine leaves your truck
2The install itself
3Tools, routing, and the day
The money
4Monthly beats weekly, every time
5Why auto-pay doesn't work here
6What actually gets you paid
7The truth about collections and pickups
8Repairs: swap, don't fix
The business around it
9Getting customers
10Pricing
11Protecting yourself
12The numbers to watch
13What breaks at 30, 50, and 100
A piece of it
The conventional advice is obvious: put everyone on a card, charge automatically,
problem solved. It does not work here, and the reason is simple. Auto-pay works on
people who have money in the account on the day you charge. A lot of our customers
don't.
Section 3 — Why auto-pay doesn't work here
That section is the one most operators argue with, right up until they've run a year
of failed charges. There are nine more like it.
Some of what it says
Weekly billing is 52 chances a year for someone to be short. Monthly is 12. Every billing date is a collection event.
A pickup run can cost more than the machine is worth. The arithmetic nobody runs, and when it is still worth driving out.
Swap the machine, repair it at the shop. One trip instead of two, and your techs don't have to be diagnosticians.
Post fresh, don't renew. The single biggest thing on Marketplace, and the slower plays that compound.
Collected versus billed is the real number. Machines out means nothing if half of them aren't paying.
Level it, test it, and don't leave until it runs. The full install checklist, including which dryer cord matches which outlet and why the bonding strap matters.
Insurance before you think you need it. A burst hose in somebody's house is the claim that ends an uninsured operation.
Late is not the same as lost. The distinction between a business that works and one that bleeds.
Break-even per set. A $250 set at $60 a month is a four-month bet. Run it before you decide how fast to grow.
Two things it won't do
It won't make you money fast, because nothing does in this business. And it won't cover
everything, because the back half of this business is systems and that's a longer
conversation.
I'm a working operator, not a guru. If you run into something specific and want to talk
it through, reach out. I answer most messages.
Get the guide
—
One payment, plus sales tax. 18 pages, PDF, emailed to you.
Optional. It tells me who is actually reading this, and I write the next one for them.
Payment is handled by Stripe. The guide is emailed to whatever address you pay with,
and you get a download link on this page straight away.