Toronto Laundromats

There are a few
Japanese and Korean restaurants here but most people prefer the North American Style
faire served at the popular restaurants. The best of those would be the Grizzly
House Restaurant, Wild Bill's Legendary Saloon & Cookhouse (no children),
Earls Banff Restaurant, The Elk & Oarsman Pub, The Bison Mountain Bistro
& General Store,

The Mount Royal
Hotel, Evergreen Restaurant in Delta Banff Royal Canadian Lodge, and Phil's
Restaurant for their breakfast menu. Try a Bison or Elk Burger at the Bison
with its relaxing atmosphere, vaulted ceiling and great views of Tunnel
Mountain and Sculpture Mountain. The scenery is a big part of a restaurant
visit here.http://24hourlaundromatanddrycleaners.com/

The Best Apartment Rentals When you are looking for a place to live, sometimes it can be hard to find what you are looking for. Here are some simple bits of information that can make it easier for you to find good apartment rentals in the Toronto area. Before you go around looking at the number of bedrooms you need, always first consider your most frequent places that you will be travelling to. If your work is at Young and Bloor and your apartment is is Mississauga, you could be spending literally hours either driving or in transit every day. Obviously the closer you are to your destination, the less time that you will have to spend in transit. Your needs for accommodation may only be for you. Or, you may need an apartment that will house you and your family of four. Once you have chosen the area in which you need to live in order to be close to your destinations, look through advertisements listing accommodations with the number of bedrooms you will need. Take the time The cost of rental housing can vary greatly, depending on location, number of bedrooms and the amenities that are included in your rent. In most apartments in the Greater Toronto area, you can expect that you will have a refrigerator and stove included in your apartment. Some may have a washer and dryer in the unit. Others will allow access to a laundry room in the building for the use of the tenants. Some smaller apartment buildings or private rental arrangements may require you to find a nearby laundromat to do your laundry. While you may consider heat and electricity to be necessities for living, your landlord may or may not include the cost of utilities in your rent. As a result, make certain when calling to inquire as to the costs of renting whether they are or not. If they are not, find out what kind of heat is being used. Electric heat can be very expensive in winter, you may need to make arrangements with the hydro company for equal payments in order to prevent the shock of getting a three hundred dollar heating bill in winter. Better yet, just make sure you rent a place that includes heat and hydro in your costs. Some buildings are cleaner than others. There are plenty of apartments for rent. Before you complete the application to rent in a building, go hang out nearby or ask some of the tenants how clean the place is kept. While you are touring the apartment you are looking at, look behind the refrigerator and stove if you can to see if there are cockroach corpses. If this is your first time renting an apartment in Canada, you will need to provide some information to your prospective landlord. They will want to know where you work, how much you earn, where you go to school and who will be responsible for paying the rent. If you are new to the renting process, they will ask for an adult who has a credit history (who has bought a car, a home, or who has been working in Canada for several years) to cosign the application to ensure that they will get paid. When you do finally find and secure the place of your dreams, you will be happy that you took the time to do your research. Now you can sit back and relax in your new apartment in Toronto.

the Beaches Solar Laundromat

The Beaches Solar Laundromat Over the last couple of years I have had the opportunity to interview many interesting personalities: tourism experts, authors, philanthropists, and enlightened entrepreneurs. For my article series about Toronto's Beach neighborhood, I have specifically been looking to interview business owners who have come up with socially and environmentally innovative business ideas. Michael Prue, the Provincial Member of Parliament for the Beaches / East York, pointed me in the direction of Alex Winch, owner of the Beach Solar Laundromat. You might think - a laundromat, how can that be an interesting business? Well, read on and you will see that this business and its owner are definitely outside the norm. Early this cold Thursday morning I met Alex at his premises on Queen Street East and got an introduction to this unusual business. When Alex bought the laundromat in 2002 it was outdated and dingy, so Alex got to work and replaced almost half the washers and dryers with new high-efficiency machines. He also put the place through a complete cosmetic overhaul and brightened it up considerably. But where it gets really interesting is behind the scenes, where the entire operational process of the laundromat was redesigned. Alex always wanted to turn this business into a leading-edge environmentally sustainable business. So in October of 2002 he ordered eight solar panels which were commissioned in December of 2002. Alex had planned all along to use solar energy for heating the water needed in his laundry facility. Alex explained that the eight solar panels on his building's roof measure about 250 square feet and were installed by a company named Solcan, located in London, Ontario. The thermal panels include a layer of black copper with a four inch copper vane that contains a three/eighth's inch copper tube with antifreeze flowing through it. This antifreeze consists of food-grade propylene glycol and transfers the heat energy from the roof through the entire system down to a heat exchanger in the basement. Even if there was a leak in the antifreeze conduits, this would not contaminate the water supply. The anti-freeze has a freezing point of -25 degrees Celsius at which point the glycol gels, shutting down the solar water heating system since the glycol simply stops moving inside the tubes. In this case a natural gas backup boiler system kicks in and starts heating the water. In the interest of making his business more environmentally sustainable, Alex has also replaced the lighting system and installed new high-efficiency fluorescent tubes that are under an aluminum reflector. The reflector essentially doubles the light output of the actual fluorescent tubes. Combined with high-efficiency electronic lighting ballasts, this measure alone has resulted in lighting energy savings of 72%. Alex adds that these energy-conservation measures are important since the lights in his business are on for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of the first things that Alex explained to me was an air handler above the door which draws warm moist air in from the Laundromat, runs it through coils and dehumidifies the air. The condensation is captured and gets transferred through a pipe system into a basement drain. The condensate water is not re-used in the laundromat out of concern for lint contamination of the water. To illustrate the operation of his company's solar water heating system, Alex took me into the basement where he showed me an assortment of water tanks, piping and sophisticated measuring equipment that calculates the actual energy output and natural gas displacement provided by this solar water heating system. In the basement there are two different water heating systems: the solar heating system that works with a heat exchanger and a 200 gallon warm water storage tank, and a backup natural gas heating system that uses a natural gas boiler with a separate a 100 gallon hot water storage tank. The separate 100 gallon storage tank replaces two 200 gallon storage tanks that were previously used. The new natural gas boiler can heat 100 gallons of water in seven minutes, and this new smaller and more efficient system provides "just-in-time" water heating, and only heats water when needed. The additional benefit of this system is that it stores a much smaller quantity of hot water which significantly reduces energy losses from water storage. The building's brick chimney was knocked down to roof-level and now serves as a conduit for the pipes holding the glycol that circulates up to the solar panels on the roof. From the panels the heated glycol then travels back down to the basement, passes through a heat exchanger and heats the hot water for the laundry facilities. A second heat exchanger heats water that circulates through the radiators and provides the space heating for the building. An air conditioning system links three different air handlers in the building The water temperature for the laundry is 120 degrees Fahrenheit (about 55 degrees Celsius) which is just enough to dissolve laundry soap, resulting in no additional heat loss. All the heating and cooling processes are controlled by thermostats, and a sophisticated measurement system calculates how much natural gas has been saved by using solar energy. This measurement system is connected to a website on the Internet (www.bslvideo.com) which provides live energy monitoring to anybody who is curious. The website also provides a "live laundry cam" that allows customers of the Beach Solar Laundromat to see how busy the Laundromat is. Alex has installed a low-resolution camera to improve customer service so his clients can conveniently check from home when a good time for doing laundry would be. A second high-resolution camera, whose images are not publicly available, was installed for security purposes since the laundromat is not regularly staffed. Some of the clients were originally concerned about the cameras' intrusion on their privacy, but once Alex explained that the low resolution cameras would not provide sufficiently clear pictures to identify them (or their dirty laundry), those concerns were alleviated. Obviously Alex has a great connection to technology, and as he was trying to explain the intricate details of his solar heating system to me - a total novice to things such as heat exchangers and volumetric flow meters - I asked him if he was an engineer. He explained that he graduated in 1985 from engineering physics at Queens University. Four years later he added the designation of chartered financial analyst to his resume and set up his own company to sell research about Canadian stocks to US hedge funds. In 1990 he started his first hedge fund which was followed in 1993 by the opening of an office at 667 Park Avenue in New York City. Based on his success, he retired in 1995, an event he refers to as "Freedom 31". After that point he became a major shareholder in a casino company, volunteered as head of investor relations and became the Chairman of the Board. Alex was not happy with the way things were run at that company and demanded that various changes be made. When management did not respond to his concerns he left in 2002 and launched a hostile proxy fight threat, in other words he threatened to take over the company. Alex had talked to all the shareholders, and they were prepared to vote for change. Alex demanded that the President resign or he was going to "kick him out". Management initially ignored the threat, and three days later all of the management and the Board of Directors resigned and named him as the contact for the company. Alex explained that in a public company you cannot do that, officers cannot simply walk away from their responsibility. His lawyers advised him not to do anything. A few days later another discussion ensued with the management and Alex stated that he was not going to file the hostile proxy papers. Instead he wanted management to make the changes he had requested, otherwise he would sue them for willful damages. The casino company's management responded by issuing a statement rescinding their resignation and implementing the changes that Alex had demanded. Over the last few years the stock value has multiplied seven times, the company is profitable and Alex Winch is one of the largest shareholders. At that time Alex was generally disenchanted with public capital markets, and decided to create his own small business. Living just five minutes away, he immediately looked at the laundromat when it became available for sale and concluded that it might be an opportunity for an interesting engineering project. And that's how the story started. Alex' interesting business model for the laundromat also includes a wash and fold service that is offered by two local ladies from Monday to Friday between 1 and 7 pm. The "fluff and fold" service affords customers the convenience of simply dropping off their laundry and picking it up completely done later. Alex does not charge the two ladies for running their business out of his laundromat, but his business benefits from greater capacity utilization and load-shifting from the busy evening and weekend hours to less busy daytime hours, creating a win-win situation for his business, the wash and fold service providers and the customers. Alex Winch always strives to find solutions that will provide the greatest possible benefit to everyone concerned. But Alex's knowledge of renewable energy generation and innovative business models did not stop with the Beach Solar Laundromat: Alex combined his unique process of on-site energy generation and monitoring and turned it into a successful international commercial venture. Alex founded Mondial Energy, a company with global capabilities to install solar water heating equipment, complete with the requisite monitoring systems, that generates solar thermal energy at the customer's site and charges for the solar heat energy generated, regardless of where they might be located. The advantage to the customer is that they do not have to invest in the expensive up-front capital costs to get their solar water heating systems up and running. Instead, Mondial owns and operates the hardware to generate the energy, and it assumes the maintenance responsibility for the equipment. Customers are then billed at a fixed monthly rate, based on how much energy the equipment generates. For customers the ability to lock in energy costs is an important factor in an environment of fluctuating and increasing energy prices. In addition, the price of the solar energy delivered is lower than the cost of a comparable amount of natural gas, making this an increasingly attractive alternative to conventional natural gas water heating. Last, but not least, energy production is completely green, free of greenhouse gases. Today, Alex is involved in several large-scale sustainable energy retrofitting projects in Toronto: In November 2006, Mondial Energy commissioned a renewable thermal energy system for the domestic water needs at a 172 suite senior's residence, operated by a local non-profit organization called Neighbourhood Link Homes. Mondial installed 60 flat plate solar panels which are expected to reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 40.3 tonnes and will bill Neighbourhood Link monthly at affordable rates. Solar energy generated by Mondial Energy will also provide water heating at Wood Green Community Housing Inc., a 170 unit social housing site on Queen Street East in Toronto. 108 solar panels will displace an estimated 32,000 cubic meters of gas, resulting in 53 tons of greenhouse gas emission reductions per year. Alex explains that at the present time his system is most well-suited for commercial or multi-unit residential buildings. The economics for single-family private homes do not yet work so well, particularly since Canada offers very few incentives to switch away from conventional energy sources. As a result he focuses on medium to large size projects. Several substantial commercial projects are currently being negotiated, including a major hotel in Atlanta and a casino hotel in Reno. Mondial Energy is also bidding on a large-scale solar water heating project in Hawaii. Contacts throughout the United States have been very receptive to his unique way of on-site thermal energy generation. In a way, Alex explains, he has come full circle: he went from being involved with big corporations to becoming a small entrepreneur and is now back to dealing with big business. For his innovative sustainable energy efforts Alex has received numerous awards, including the Bremen Partnership Award (the "Bremer Umweltpreis" - The Bremen Environmental Award) for providing high customer value, wide use in the community, sustainable use of water and solar energy and for providing additional value in terms of "social dimensions". Alex himself is so highly committed to sustainable energy that his company Mondial Energy has become a partner in creating the Annual Tourism Climate Change Awards. Two awards of $10,000, sponsored by Mondial, will be handed out in November 2007: o A World Tourism Responsible Energy Award with a global focus o A Mission Africa Responsible Energy Award focusing on Africa The Judging Panel for the Award will include prominent figures from global organizations such as Maurice Strong from the Rio Earth Summit, Jose Maria Figures (past-president of Costa Rica), as well as representatives of the National Geographic Society and the UNWTO (World Tourism Organization). With this award Alex has indicated his commitment to raising the profile of finding Climate Change Solutions for the tourism sector. Alex demonstrates his commitment to sustainable living even in the selection of some of his personal accessories: he showed me his Citizen Eco-Drive Watch, a stylish looking timepiece whose face is a photovoltaic cell that powers the watch, eliminating the need for batteries. Alex said the watch will work for 270 days without exposure to light and Citizen's marketing slogans often refer to this timepiece as "unstoppable". Unstoppable is a moniker that could equally be applied to Alex Winch - Alex will not stop until his mission to do his part in reducing greenhouse emissions is accomplished.

So you think the coin laundry business is for you? Easy money you collect once a week? Place runs itself? Consider these factors when looking at the coin laundry business.

1. Change Machines Good coin laundries run on change machines. If a customer cannot get change, they are going somewhere else. How many change machines does the store have? A Standard change brand change machine can hold about $3000. You can easily check the specifications on their website. On change machine means the owner is running a tight ship. Two change machines means the place is hopping. No change machine means people either have to ask the grumpy guy behind the counter or the place is not really a laundromat. 2. Store Sign Look at the store sign. Does it light up? Is half of it missing? Does it clearly tell people what that it's a coin laundry or does it just say "Bob's"? The store sign will tell you everything you need to know about how well the store has been run. A great store has a great sign. 3. Top Load Machines With today's utility costs, it is very difficult to make money with Top load machines. If the store you are looking at has them and the place is busy, this is the kind of store you DO want to buy cheap and replace the top load machines with 3x - 5x front loads. You will have to invest in new machines but you will increase you prices and profits. If the store has top load machines and is empty, drive around to see what competitor just popped up that has all new front loaders. Stay away from this store 4. Brand of Equipment The Maytag man you see falling asleep in the commercials on TV should go visit some Maytag equipped coin laundries. While Maytag is a good household name, they don't make all there own commercial laundry equipment and quality has suffered. The top brad in the industry is Wascomat. Who is Wascomat? Ever heard of Electrolux? An all Wascomat store is a very good sign. Go look at a Wascomat beside any other brand and chances are, you will want to use the Wascomat. Try it! 5. Utility Bills There is a commonly understood method that your utility bills are 14% of your sales. Be careful with this as old equipment will be more like 20% of your sales. I don't recommend looking at utility bills unless you are calculating consumption. This means that you are making a calculation based on the total amount of water being used divided per laundry load divided by the vend price to try to get approximate wash revenue. If you can do this calculation, this is good. 6. Conversion There may be a big difference in how you would run a store versus how the store is being run by the current owner. Are you friendly and ongoing? Do you care about your customers? Will you fix the store sign and make sure you always have change and washers available? The owner of the store affects conversion more than any other factor but is not the only factor. New bigger equipment also helps but at the end of the day your personality will drive the business. I should say you "consistent" personality. Once you lose interest, sell the business before you kill it. 7. Neighborhood Get the population demographics from the city. You want a good mix of ethnic backgrounds and the more kids (the more dirty laundry) the better. A neighborhood full of retired people is bad news. A neighborhood with too high average household income is no good. Low rise 8 plex to 24 plex are better than the giant high rise buildings because they generally have poor laundry rooms. Also, rental properties in the neighborhood trump condos for coin laundries. 8. Parking Make sure there is either plenty of parking or an awful lot of people within walking distance. Imagine how far you would carry your laundry if you had to walk to a laundromat. You really want to have a lot of parking if possible. If you don't have parking in the front of the store, you likely will not have a drop off laundry business. Also as a side note, if the road directly in front of the store has an island that separates traffic, you will have to stand outside and watch traffic flow into the store. Traffic islands are generally small business killers. 9. Wash and Fold I would suggest to anyone looking at the laundry business to ask themselves what the benefit of having a drop off laundry counter is. I have seen many real estate agents claiming that you can increase your business by adding a wash and fold counter. You can increase your business, but not the way you think. Getting a new revenue stream from drop off laundry means committing to the effort of building up that business and paying someone to be there for extended hours. It is rare (but they do exist) that a laundromat exceeds it's cost of staff in wash and fold sales.If you are running the place yourself full time then do it, you are there anyway. If you are buying as an investment consider this. If you have a full time person already doing wash and fold and plan to eliminate it, count on a 10% to 40% drop in your self-serve traffic. The real prize in having an attendant comes from the comfort you give to the person doing self- serve laundry. 10. Consistency Well run laundries are consistent in everything. I mean EVERYTHING! This includes (but limited to) your store hours, staff, method of cleaning, cleaning schedule, wash and fold method, machine brands, available change, soap, supplies etc etc. The less consistent you are, the less consistent your customers will be. I have run 3 laundromats for 5 years now and unfortunately for me, its time to exit the business. I have learned a lot and met many new wonderful people. I sold 2 of the three stores I had and both new owners took my advise to heart and have made good use of there new investments. I have one store left for sale and I'm torn to see it go. Profitable coin laundry for sale in Toronto. Cash business, good income, turn key operation.

Cheap Hotels Are the Key to Vacation Deals

California is a grand state in more ways than one. Not only is it one of the largest states but it also has more tourist attractions and tourist destinations than any other single state in the Union. For some people, the only problem with vacationing in the Golden State is that they wish they had more time to take in all the sights. Often, when people are able to get rooms at cheap hotels they can afford to stay a bit longer and explore the state more thoroughly. For most people who do not have the luxury of an unlimited amount of time and money to take in all of the sights and tourist destinations that California has to offer, the best way to go is to target a certain area where there are a number of different activities that appeal to everyone who is traveling on the trip. Finding a cheap hotel is a good option as a "base camp," not only for the budget-friendly factor but because most of the vacation time is not going to be spent in hotel rooms but will be spent out enjoying the tourist attractions that you came to see anyway. Many times people spend a lot of extra time fussing about the amenities in their hotel rooms and then end up barely doing more than sleeping, showering and changing clothes in the room. In that case, why not save some money by booking cheap hotels and put more cash in your pocket to use as you go out and about exploring all that the area has to offer. There are many options for cheaper hotels all around California. The majority of these are still very nice, clean and comfortable places to stay. In most instances, the rooms found in low-cost accommodations have everything you need to be comfortable and usually include the extras, such as high-speed internet access as well. Many of the cheaper hotels, especially in the Golden State, have pool facilities and often have laundry facilities on site. Having access to a washer and dryer to freshen up your wardrobe can be especially nice if you have tried to pack light but are staying for more than just a few days. The good thing is that the cost of the laundry facilities will be similar to taking your clothes to a Laundromat, but much more convenient, and also much cheaper than the laundry services of some of the more expensive hotels in the area. When traveling around California, it is quite easy to find cheap accommodations quite close to all of the major tourist attraction destinations. Especially during the off season, rooms are abundantly available and hotels will even be fighting over you to get your business. In addition, there are many package vacation deals that you can find that will include your hotel rooms, your air tickets, your car rental and even the passes for the major theme parks that are nearby. More and more, you will be able to find a selection of hotels that will cut their rates when you reserve a room for a longer period, usually for a week or more. There are extended stay properties, which qualify as cheap hotels because they offer exceptionally low rates for longer stays. The main trade-off is that a housekeeper won't visit your room daily, but for many people the savings outweighs that slight inconvenience. coin laundromats in Toronto .