Australian Mum Started a Laundry Side Hustle — 'The Laundry Lady' Scaled to $12 Million Across Three Countries

Susan Toft, the Queensland-based founder of The Laundry Lady, was a corporate professional with a toddler and a spare room buried under laundry when she landed on the idea that would eventually generate AU$12 million — roughly $8.6 million (£6.4 million) — in annual revenue. She would wash other people's clothes.

Thirteen years later, the Australian pickup-and-delivery laundry platform operates across three countries with roughly 490 independent contractors and not a single franchise agreement.

Toft, speaking on the Side Hustle Show podcast, laid out the financial mechanics of a business built on an 80/20 revenue split heavily in favour of its contractors. A margin so thin most service-industry operators would not touch it.

'I'm one of the least domestic people,' Toft said during the interview. The irony has not been lost on her.

A Contractor Model That Pays Better Than Uber

The average customer pays about $72 (£54) per service, with most booking weekly or fortnightly pickups. Contractors, largely working mothers using their own homes and equipment, keep 80% of every job. Average weekly earnings sit between $1,074 and $1,432 (£804-£1,072). Those going full-time can reach $2,148 (£1,608).

'They can earn a lot more than driving for Uber,' Toft told the podcast.

Toft rejected franchising outright. No exclusive territories. No six-figure buy-ins. No rigid structure that would shut out the very people she wanted to recruit.

'We really wanted to be able to give this opportunity to lots of different people,' she said. 'That might be mums who don't have a lot of money and just want to start earning some money.'

Contractors work under an Uber-style arrangement, choosing their own hours, coverage areas and volume. The company's 20% cut feeds directly back into digital marketing and platform development. No middle layer. No royalty.

The customer base splits roughly 60/40 between residential clients and small businesses — beauty salons, medical clinics, Airbnb hosts — in the low-to-mid volume range that larger commercial operators typically ignore.

From Shark Tank Record to Tripling Revenue

Revenue stood at $2.7 million (£2 million) when Toft appeared on Shark Tank Australia in October 2023. She pitched for $537,000 in exchange for a 10% stake. Robert Herjavec, who also sits on Shark Tank US and Dragon's Den Canada, countered with $716,000 (£536,000) for 30% — the largest deal of the season, SmartCompany confirmed.

The television exposure outweighed the capital. Contractor applications surged from around 100 per week to more than 500. The website crashed on air. Years later, a significant share of new applicants still cite the programme as how they first found the brand.

Revenue climbed to $6.2 million (£4.6 million) by the 2024–2025 financial year. By early 2026, the company hit $8.6 million (£6.4 million), quadrupling the business in roughly three years.

'You still feel in the day-to-day grind like it's happening very slowly,' Toft admitted. 'But that's only kind of two or three years and we've four times the business.'

Three Countries and Counting

Canada launched at the start of 2026 with 10 contractors across two provinces. The UK is next, likely before the end of the year. The United States is pencilled in after that, though Toft acknowledged it would need more backing. 'The States is a much bigger beast for us to tackle,' she said.

Australia's laundry and dry-cleaning services sector is valued at $1.8 billion (£1.3 billion), according to IBISWorld data for 2026. The Laundry Lady's share remains small, but the growth curve is hard to dismiss. Contractor numbers jumped from eight in 2020 to more than 450 in Australia alone, with another 30 in New Zealand.

The underlying logic is simple enough. Clothes keep getting dirty. Households keep getting busier. And a low-barrier contractor model, Toft believes, can cross borders faster than any franchise manual could.

Her advice for anyone starting out had nothing to do with laundry. 'Go and be part of some kind of accelerator-type programme,' she said. 'If I had, I think it would have really pushed me a lot faster.'