Joe D’Ambrose

What started as a Business 101 project more than two years ago has now been active for more than a year. During our first semester in operation, my partners and I were walking around all afternoon on Mondays and Tuesdays, knocking on dorm room doors for laundry. The fall 2006 semester got a lot easier. Our manager and employees did an excellent job of carrying out the operation while my partners and I observed and analyzed our processes to gain a better understanding of our operation. Just before the holidays, Bryant informed us that we were to move to a new on-campus location which will be located in Hall 4. We look forward to this coming semester. Our customers have been re-subscribing for their service and we even gained a couple of new sign-ups.

On Wednesday, January 24th, my partners and I will be making a presentation to kick-off the spring 2007 Business 101 speaker series. If you’re on campus, come check it out from 6:00pm to 7:00pm in Janikies Auditorium!

Happy birthday to me. I’ve just turned 20 on December 12th. Every so often I think about my plan for after graduation. I foresee paying off student loans, further developing the businesses, and attending graduate school for an MBA. I’m thinking of spending the “in-between” period in Hawaii..? If possible, I’d like to apply to graduate school during my senior year, defer my application by 1 or 2 years, and move out to Kauai with some friends and run the businesses from out there. I’m strongly considering it, anyway. Other than dreaming, I’ve also been finishing up my course work for the end of the semester. I have only one final exam left, and then I’ll be home for Christmas break for more than a month. Ahh. This Christmas break will be a great time to reunite with friends and family in Connecticut. But this is also an exciting time for the three businesses: 

It’s re-subscription time for Expedient Laundry. Any semester customers need to re-subscribe for next semester. We’re moving out of the Cornerstone Pub, our home on Bryant’s campus, and moving into the basement of Hall 4. Thanks to Residence Life for hooking us up with that new spot.  Normal Kings is actively working on several projects, many of which are in the finishing stages. Baldwin has a lot of new work for us as well. We’re going to be interviewing some potential part-time employees as our work load increases.

Javalids has come a long way since my last blog post. We’re going to be moving forward with our initial partnerships with charitable foundations and coffee shops during the holiday break. When we return to school, the student team will be engaged in a directed study in sociology in which we will develop the business, learn, and receive course credit. We’re going to be seeking funding and really launching. I understand that I’m not revealing nearly enough details, but for now there is a private Javalids blog for interested people, so you can e-mail me for a password if you’re interested. All Javalids information will become readily available to the public by February!

Very exciting. We’re now accepting new laundry subscribers, as of July 20th. We’re hoping to obtain 125 or more customers, so let’s see what the next few weeks bring! Bryant helped get the word out by including our brochure in their mailing to new incoming freshman.

In response to the Projo article, Expedient Laundry showed up on the homepage of the Bryant University website on March 14, 2006. (Check it out) Thanks to Bryant for helping our business.

This was amazing publicity for Expedient Laundry. Thanks to Anthony’s persistence, there was a huge write-up on Expedient Laundry featured on the front page of the Providence Sunday Journal on March 12, 2006. Click here to see the article on Projo.com.