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Laundry shop payback period: how long to get your money back
By the Labahan team · October 18, 2026 · 4 min read
“Kailan babalik ang puhunan?” is a fair question for anyone putting savings or a loan into a laundry shop. You can’t know the exact month in advance, but you can work out a realistic range, and you can track it every month once you open.
The formula
Monthly net profit = sales − all monthly costs (rent, staff, electricity, water, LPG, supplies, repairs, fees)
Two things trip people up. First, “investment” means everything you spent to open, not only the machines: renovation, deposits, permits, first supplies. See what it costs to open a laundry shop. Second, “profit” is after all costs, including your own salary if you work in the shop. If you don’t pay yourself, the payback looks faster than it really is.
A worked example
Example figures only. Suds & Fold Laundry spends ₱800,000 to open. Once the shop is known in the area, it expects ₱120,000 in monthly sales and ₱90,000 in monthly costs, so ₱30,000 net profit a month.
The simple formula says ₱800,000 ÷ ₱30,000 = 26.7, so about 27 months.
But new shops rarely start at full speed. Say the first 3 months make only ₱10,000 profit each, and months 4 to 6 make ₱20,000 each, while customers discover you. From month 7 the shop makes the full ₱30,000.
| Example period | Profit in period | Recovered so far | Still to recover |
|---|---|---|---|
| Months 1–3 (₱10,000/mo) | ₱30,000 | ₱30,000 | ₱770,000 |
| Months 4–6 (₱20,000/mo) | ₱60,000 | ₱90,000 | ₱710,000 |
| Months 7–12 | ₱180,000 | ₱270,000 | ₱530,000 |
| Months 13–24 | ₱360,000 | ₱630,000 | ₱170,000 |
| Months 25–30 | ₱180,000 | ₱810,000 | paid back |
At the end of month 29 the shop has recovered ₱780,000; month 30 takes it past ₱800,000. The slow start alone added three months.
Break-even month vs payback
These are two different finish lines:
- Break-even month is the first month when sales cover all of that month’s costs. In the example that happens in month 1, because even the slow months make a small profit. Many shops lose money in their first months; if yours does, those losses add to the amount you must recover.
- Payback is when the total profit adds up to the whole investment.
To find your break-even point in loads, divide your monthly fixed costs by what you keep from each load after its own costs (detergent, water, power). Our guide to cost per load shows how to work out that second number.
What stretches the payback
- A slow start. As shown above: 27 becomes 30 months.
- Repairs. One ₱40,000 repair (example) eats more than a month of profit: payback moves to month 31.
- Low-sales months. School breaks, long weekends when people go home to the province, or a new competitor nearby can cut sales. Two months at ₱10,000 instead of ₱30,000 push the example to month 33.
- Rising costs. Higher rent at renewal, higher electricity rates or a new staff member. Check how much rent you can afford and what a staff member really costs.
- Prices set too low. A ₱10 difference per load, across hundreds of loads a month, changes payback by months. See how to set your price list.
Keep a cash reserve
Don’t put every peso into the build. Keep a separate reserve, commonly 3 to 6 months of operating costs, so a broken dryer or a slow month doesn’t force you to borrow. In the example, that would be ₱270,000 to ₱540,000 (3 or 6 × ₱90,000). Count the reserve as part of your investment when you work out payback, because it is money you can’t use for anything else.
Track it every month
- Write your total investment at the top of a page.
- At each month-end, write that month’s sales, costs and net profit.
- Subtract the profit from what is still to recover.
- Re-estimate: remaining amount ÷ average profit of the last 3 months.
After a few months, your real numbers replace the guesses, and you will know whether to cut costs, adjust prices or simply wait. See also why laundry shops lose money.
How Labahan helps
On the Pro plan of Labahan Manager, you record expenses by category and see your profit and cost per load, with monthly reports of sales by week and busy days, which gives you the monthly profit figure this formula needs. The machine log on every plan keeps repair notes and next service dates, so maintenance is planned instead of a surprise. Turn on Rent and payback in Owner → Features, enter your setup cost and opening date, and the monthly report shows how much has come back so far and about how many months are left.
