Wash’ng and Iron’g

In the spring of 1851, a Chinese man named Wah Lee opened the first Chinese hand laundry in the United States. It was in a small, leased storefront and basement in San Francisco. He posted a sign that read: “Wash’ng and Iron’g,” and undercut the going rate for washing to “$2 for a dozen pieces”. Wah Lee was immediately overwhelmed by customers. In less than three weeks, he had twenty washer men working three shifts a day. Within three months, dozens of other Chinese hand laundries sprung up all over the city.

Chinese laundries were making money everyday whilst the gold diggers and fortune seekers were playing the slim odds of finding a few specks of gold in their trays. Like Levi Löb who figured out that people needed sturdy pants as much as anything else the Chinese backed on the fact that people liked their pants clean.

Are you looking in the right places to make your business work? Entrepreneurs are those who find the little rips in the fabric and pull.