What is Prádelna Zlín?
Prádelna Zlín is a social laundry in the city of Zlín, Czech republic. Started in 2018, our laundry service was the first social business in the city, giving job opportunities to people with disabilities. As a social enterprise, all of our revenues are reinvested in the sustainability of the business and the wellbeing of our colleagues in the workplace. We try to keep up with the challenges they face at work and do our best to level the playfield without ever compromising on the quality of our service.
Who We Are and What We Do
We are a mother-daughter duo, Martina and Alexandra, who decided to start a social business in the form of a Laundry in the center of Zlín. We wanted to have a space to work with individuals with disabilities while offering a high-quality laundry service to local companies and individuals. Starting a business like this is no easy task, and when COVID-19 hit, social businesses like ours took a strong hit, which is why we are here asking for your help to save our working space!
We cater to local businesses and individuals, particularly hotels and small businesses that require clean laundry on a regular basis. We're a small company, and our staff consists mostly of us and seven other people who have worked with us throughout the past two years. The idea of Prádelna Zlín was creating both a space for our work and a space for people to share, so where the on-demand washing machines were, we tried to make a space to just hang out, with comfy areas to sit as well as books and magazines to read. All of this came to a halt as the first wave of coronavirus made this open space unusable, and local businesses, because of dwindling tourism and movement, could not afford regular laundry the way we used to do. As the second wave of COVID-19 came to the Czech Republic, government measures did not assist laundries with loans or payments, but businesses that required our services were still not able to open, which left us hanging in the balance.
Social Business and Why Crowdfunding
Our intention from the get-go has been to create a workplace and service that includes people with disabilities as our colleagues while also offering a high quality laundry service for our business partners. Social businesses in the Czech Republic are still in a period of development, and social inclusion of people with disabilities is still a matter to work on. We are firm believers in social inclusion in the workplace, and Prádelna Zlín was one of the few local businesses daring to put this vision to action. Martina's previous work experience on preparing individuals with disabilities to enter the job market served as a bridge to this independent business, and after a lot of planning and work, the image we had pictured to ourselves finally took shape in one of the downtown red brick buildings inspired by pre-war architecture.
Then everything came to a stop once COVID-19 spread throughout the Czech Republic. The fast action of the local authorities meant that people were kept safe at first, but at the same time businesses, particularly in the tourism sector, took a big hit. While we tried to keep working, our partners simply couldn't afford to continue their businesses, which meant we couldn't keep our business open. As banks carried with unfulfilled promises of deferred payments, our debt kept mounting up and government aid never materialized. The second wave of coronavirus in Europe brought us to a tipping point. With no aid from the government as our business was allowed to keep operating, we decided to turn to regular people in a plea for help to save our social business. Now, with the third wave of COVID wreaking havoc in the Czech Republic, as we try to stabilize our finances, consolidating debt and using the minimal compensation from the government that we did receive, we find ourselves in a desperate situation, asking you here to help us.
We hope that people who have seen their communities suffer understand our plight too. We won't give up that easily, and will fight for this initiative to keep working throughout such trying times!
Zlín, Czech Republic
While the Czech Republic is mostly known for the beautiful sights of Prague, the rest of the country has so much to offer! Zlín, our town, is a small, but lively community and the home of Bata shoes as well as the Tomas Bata University, decorated by the red brick architecture that characterized the early industrial era of our city. Zlín is a small city of about 75 thousand people in Moravia, known as the wine region of our country, and though cold in winter, its greenery is something we enjoy every day!
Accountability and Sustainability
We took the option of crowdfunding because our calls for help through official channels were unheard. But because of that, we feel a strong commitment to the community around us that has shown us their support, be it our friends, business partners or coworkers. It is because of them that we want to be as transparent as possible, letting you know how we plan to work through the financial hurdles we are facing in order to create a sustainable environment for our business and people to thrive.
We want you to know what is going on every step of the way, precisely because we feel left behind by the authorities and banks, reinforcing our commitment to our community and partners. As we ask you to support us during these harsh times, and we also plan to work on a sustainable environment for us, our colleagues and our business partners. The changes COVID-19 brought to our region have also made us conscious of the higher efforts a social business like ours require during times of crises, and we want to be ready for the challenges lying ahead. We're optimistic about it and hope you feel that way too!
How will we make use of your financial help
We expect that through your help we will be able to cover our delayed rent payments as well as the other fixed costs that we haven’t been able to afford since the pandemic.
Stretch goal
As our laundry machine and large drier were obtained through monthly leasing, we hope that your help will allow us to cover the payments and allow us more freedom at work without having to worry about the extra bills while the restrictions here remain in place.
You can check us out on our websites https://zlinpradelna.cz/ and facebook page https://www.facebook.com/zlinpradelna.cz.
