Diaper Service

I have had so many converstations about this, I thought I should probably write it up. Not as much for everyone elese, but to make sure it really did sound like a good idea, and not another one of my whacky ideas with no legs. I figured if I saw this in writing, it would be pretty obvious if this would work.

One of the things I have heard from so many new mothers is that they would love to go off disposable diapers, and use cloth as much as possible. The main problem is that there is alot of work involved in making this happen. There has been much written about using the new types of cloth diapers, but there is still a bit of work involved.

How great would it be if you could have someone do the collecting, cleaning, and maintenance of these diapers?

The Service

Cloth diapers are not the same diapers we wore as kids. Before pampers, our moms would attached a stylized bandana to our butts and hope for the best. Now, cloth diapers are made with new leak proof materials with kid safe closures. The only problem with this, is there might be a bit of expense getting a business stocked up with these diapers. My first suggestion would be to contact the manufacturers and see if you could work out a deal to get diapers in bulk and on the cheap.

The service would enlist new moms at a weekly (or monthly) charge, and every few days, pick up their soiled diapers, and leave clean ones. One trip to the laundromat could clean a great big pile of such diapers. Yeah, I know it sounds kind of nasty for the ones who use the machine after you, but I am guessing that at a public laundromat, many more hideous things have been through the spin cycle.

It seems like with a minimal investment (enough to only bootstrap the business), such a business could get started for a very small amount of money (two hundred bucks?). Once the business starts making money, the first thing to attend to would be gathering more diapers and clients. It seems like it would scale very well.

Clientele

If it were me, I would do the following:

• Keep an eye on the local newspaper. Send a postcard announcing your service to all new parents.
• Keep all of your current clients stocked with postcards that they can give to their friends.
• Maintain a Facebook page so that your new clients can share baby photos and stories. Above all, they can share their testimonials.

Does this have legs?

The more and more I think about it, this sounds like a great idea.

• It is a nice local niche business that will not soon be outsourced.
• It scales well. It would take a good deal of diapers to fill up an industrial sized load. Once you do fill one up, a second load does not take more time to process.
• It appeals to the consumer's green sensibility.

As always, if anyone decides to try this, and makes it work, I would love to hear from you!