01:00 AM EST on Sunday, March 12, 2006

BY KATHLEEN YANITY
Journal Staff Writer

Bryant students turn an assignment into service for fellow classmates

Four Bryant University undergraduates see money in piles of crumpled, smelly laundry.

From an idea developed in an introductory business class, the four finance majors have formed a private company, Expedient Laundry, to provide laundry service for their fellow classmates.

On Mondays, the three sophomores and a senior collect black nylon bags bulging with clothes from students' rooms. On Tuesdays, they deliver neat, plastic-wrapped packages and hangers of clean and folded laundry. Since its launch in January, the service has been gaining customers every week.

"Expedient is the most informative class that we have taken at college. We are putting concepts that we are learning in the classroom into action," said Joseph M. D'Ambrose, 19, a sophomore from Middletown, Conn., and one of the four owners.

About a year ago, D'Ambrose and sophomore Matthew P. Kelleher, 20, from Glastonbury, Conn., were in their freshman year. One annoyance they shared was doing laundry. There weren't enough washers and dryers in the dormitories, and often they were in use or in disrepair.

Both students were enrolled in the same section of Business 101, a mandatory class for all business majors. They became friendly when they were randomly assigned to a team for a class project. Joining them were Michael A. Hajjar, 20, from Cohasset, Mass., now a sophomore, and Anthony T. DeAngelis, 22, from East Greenwich, now a senior.

Their project "was to create a business, one for on- or off-campus, and pretend they were running it," said Barry Bayon, lecturer in the College of Business who taught the class. Inspired by their real-life experiences and hoping to find a better way to deal with washday angst, the group investigated starting a laundry service.

They surveyed fellow students to see whether they would pay for such a service. The would-be entrepreneurs took an inventory of all coin-operated machines on campus and quantified that there were too few to adequately serve all 2,600 residents in 16 dormitories. They made inquiries about services at other local colleges and found that most had outside companies offering the service, which averaged about $310 per student for a 16-week semester. They realized that Web-based order taking, payment, service scheduling and tracking would make operations very efficient.

By the project's end, they all received an "A" grade, but more importantly, "we realized that we were like-minded, that we had the same attitudes about business, and that a laundry service at Bryant might actually work," said DeAngelis.

Their instincts were correct, said Tom Eakin, Bryant's vice president for student affairs and dean of students.

"There is a real market out there for a laundry service," he said. Given Bryant's business bent, "the clientele here is a bit more button-down than on your average college campus."

Bayon, their teacher, said what happened next is unusual for college students.

"Even though they were preparing something for inside the classroom, they had resolved to put their idea, which they thought was a good one, into practice. I'm very proud of them, but I have to say, that I had very little to do with it. They took the ball and ran with it."

The four put together a more detailed marketing plan and searched for possible suppliers. They got a list of local commercial laundries off the Internet, piled into a car and went on a road trip to check them out.

They found Louis E. DeCiantis, 62, owner of Lou's Laundry in Warwick. He operates a commercial laundry, a coin laundry, and linen and towel supply companies from a small strip mall on Elmwood Avenue. Nearly a decade ago, DeCiantis developed a proprietary system for quickly turning around large volumes of small laundry loads. Lou's Laundry services more than 400 commercial and residential accounts each week.

From the start, he was impressed by the students' professionalism. "They approached their business with a highly intellectual mindset. They are very organized, not running it helter-skelter," said DeCiantis. He liked their backgrounds, in which all have had a hand in running their families' small businesses. While in high school, D'Ambrose started a Web design business and Kelleher, a landscaping company. Both continue to operate those ventures while attending Bryant.

DeCiantis has been an informal mentor since being selected to process Expedient's laundry. "I know that I've got to make them successful in order for me to be successful," he said. He asked questions and made suggestions as they organized their company.

"They are young and impressionable and you try to guide them down the path. You can't just say 'do this or do that,' you have to let them use their own minds," he said.

Finding a supplier turned out to be the easy part.

"We see ourselves as separate from the school, but when we first started making inquiries about starting the business, Bryant officials initially steered us toward the Student Senate, which sanctions undergraduate clubs and activities. That wasn't the right channel for us," said Hajjar.

The four made an appointment to see Eakin, the dean.

"We talked about how to run the business on campus, and because it was a service being provided to students, it couldn't create problems, for either the students, or the university," said Eakin. He also told them that the toughest sell for the four would be with their fellow students. "Students are real wary of other students' ventures, probably more than even administrators," he said.

Still, he encouraged them, he said. "If the students could deliver laundry service on time and at a good price, it has potential to grow."

Eakin made them get approval from both Residential Life and Support Services, which oversees the coin-operated machines. He wanted to make sure Expedient would be an acceptable addition to the existing laundry mix. He also insisted that they form their company in accordance with local and state laws, including legal advice and appropriate service agreements for students.

"We have the same expectations for Expedient Laundry that we do for other outside vendors. They have to deliver on their promises," said Eakin.

The partners divvied up the management tasks. D'Ambrose created the Web site and focused on customer service. Hajjar planned operations and scheduling. Kelleher focused on finances, and DeAngelis on supplier relations and finances.

The process dragged on into the fall semester, yet the group persisted. "These students started this when they were mostly freshmen. Most college freshmen don't have that kind of stamina. They had to put a partnership together and jump through hoops," said Eakin. "There were times when they could have gotten discouraged and said 'the heck with it,' but they didn't."

DeAngelis said Bryant administrators, professors and students kept the new businessmen going. "Their support was very important, very helpful, and we wouldn't be here today without it."

By late fall, the business had its permissions in place. The university rented Expedient space in a defunct student pub, adjacent to the residence halls.

The partners took turns scanning the Bryant student directory, a public document, into a computer to make a customized database. They circulated e-mail notices, distributed fliers and put up large banners to advertise the service's spring semester start. Twice, they created and mailed 3,000 postcards to students' home addresses, hoping parents would buy the service for their children.

Although the four did much of the work themselves, each also contributed about $1,000 for start-up costs. The Expedient Laundry business plan won second place in a campus competition, and they added the $500 prize to their capital.

They spent between $4,000 and $5,000, including several hundred dollars in fees for contracts and other legal paper workand $200 to the state to incorporate the business. They bought customized laundry bags. Marketing materials and postage cost nearly $2,000.

For a membership fee of $289 for the 16-week semester, a student once a week stuffs an Expedient Laundry bag with as many dirty items as it can hold. The Monday pick-ups, within a 30-minute window, are scheduled between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday returns are during the same hours. A van from Lou's Laundry arrives at the Expedient office shortly after 5 p.m. on Monday to collect the gathered bags; it brings the finished packages back early Tuesday afternoon.

The service started with about two dozen customers and now stands at several dozen, said DeAngelis, and about 80 percent of the customers are male. Since students can sign up at any time, the membership fee is pro-rated as the weeks of the semester pass. There is even a one-time option, for $25.

"We're not looking to be a low-cost service, but mid-range, focusing on high-value, customer-focused business," said D'Ambrose. He won't reveal exact revenues, but said barring any unforeseen problems, the company should be in the black by semester's end.

"As soon as my mom found out about this service, she gave it to me as a Christmas present," said Sloane Tabisel, 19, a freshmen from Long Island, as she signed one recent Tuesday afternoon. Doing laundry last semester "was a disaster," she said. Often, when she was ready, she couldn't find a free machine and several loads would accumulate. "I'd end up having to resort to a marathon of laundry, starting at 8 p.m. and going until 3 a.m.," she said.

Anthony Sorbera, 18, is another freshman from Long Island. His neat abode is a sharp contrast to most college dorm rooms. In the few weeks that he has been using Expedient, everything has come back in pristine condition, with many of his shirts on hangers, he said. "I'm very happy with the service," he sais, grinning broadly as he accepted his 22 pounds of clean underwear, socks, shirts and pants.

DeAngelis said that as the popularity of the service grows at Bryant, Expedient may have to hire fellow students to help. "We've already had people asking us if they can work for us," said D'Ambrose.

In addition to traditional rooms with just two occupants, some Bryant dorms are made up of six- and eight-person suites. "Once you get one person in the suite to be a customer, other people see the service and it grows," said DeAngelis.

DeAngelis said Expedient is making inquiries into expanding the service to Providence College, which has no such service.

DeCiantis, of Lou's Laundry, said the students' accomplishments so far are admirable. "I tell these guys, you have a golden opportunity here. If you do things right, you can sell your share of the business to other students. You are creating equity, you have value that you can sell."

The experience of starting a business has already been invaluable for DeAngelis, he said. During college, he has worked in the accounting departments of a few corporations in Rhode Island, but his work on Expedient, he says, helped him land his first full-time job. He has accepted a position in the audit services department at the Providence headquarters of Textron, the Fortune 500 conglomerate. He starts there after his May graduation.

Eakin said he thinks Expedient Laundry may catch on. "I hope they do really well, because it is a great service if they can pull it off and it's a really great example of student entrepreneurism."

He's rooting for Expedient for more than purely professional reasons.

"I know that my family and the president's [Ronald Machtley] family, both who live here on campus, are very interested to see if this thing goes, because we might become customers, too," he added.

kyanity@projo.com / (401) 277-7097