About Jason Taken, Business Broker at HedgeStone Business Advisors
Jason Taken is a business broker with HedgeStone Business Advisors, working nationwide with a background in finance and lending. This site is his laundromat practice: representing owners selling coin laundries, representing buyers acquiring them, and publishing the sourced valuation, financing, and market data the work is built on.
Key takeaways
- Business broker with HedgeStone Business Advisors, working nationwide across small-business verticals, with a background in finance and lending.
- This site is a dedicated laundromat practice, because coin and card revenue verification, utility analysis, equipment life, and lease infrastructure clauses do not survive a generalist process.
- Contact is direct: jason.taken@hedgestone.com, and one calendar link. No forms, no gatekeeping, no drip sequence.
- Every number published on this site carries a source and a year, and where no credible source exists, the page says so.
The Practice
Two kinds of engagement.
Sell-side. An owner wants out — retirement, burnout, relocation, portfolio rebalancing, or an unsolicited offer they want tested. The work is pricing the store from evidence, assembling the package a buyer and lender will demand, marketing it without anyone local finding out, qualifying buyers before disclosure, and holding the transaction together through diligence, financing, and landlord consent.
Buy-side. Someone wants to own a laundromat, or a second one, or a group of them. The work is defining a buybox that is actually financeable, sourcing on-market and off-market, screening fast, verifying revenue rather than accepting it, getting the buyer lender-ready before an offer, and structuring contingencies that let them walk if the numbers do not hold.
Both sides share one commitment: numbers get verified, not repeated.
Why a Site Full of Data Instead of a Site Full of Claims
Most broker sites make claims about the broker. This one publishes the data the broker works from.
That is a deliberate choice, and there are two reasons for it.
First, it is more useful. An owner wondering what their store is worth needs the closed-sale distribution, the normalization method, and the drivers — not a testimonial. A first-time buyer needs the actual SBA equity-injection rule with its effective date, not a paragraph saying financing is available.
Second, it is checkable. Every statistic here carries its source and its year. Where a number is a trade-survey median it says so. Where it is a program maximum rather than a quoted rate it says so. Where no credible number exists — the "laundromat failure rate" being the clearest case — the page says so instead of inventing one. You can verify any of it, and you should.
The practical consequence is that some pages on this site will talk you out of a deal. A store with a five-year lease and undocumented cash is not a good purchase at any price a seller will accept, and saying that plainly is worth more than another page of enthusiasm.
What a Finance Background Changes
Coming to brokerage from finance and lending changes what gets attention first.
A deal that cannot be financed is not a deal. So the credit file gets built early rather than late: which lenders actually do laundromat acquisitions, what they will discount, whether the buyer's post-closing liquidity survives underwriting, whether the lease term covers the loan term, whether add-backs have source documents, and whether an independent business valuation will land where the price does.
The alternative — market the store, take an offer, and discover in week eight that no lender will fund it — is common and expensive for everyone involved.
The Two Engagement Types
| Sell-side | Buy-side | |
|---|---|---|
| Who calls | An owner exploring an exit, testing an unsolicited offer, or planning 12-36 months out | An individual or group buying a first, second, or fifth store |
| First deliverable | A value range built from closed-sale evidence and your actual documents | A buybox that is financeable given your real post-closing liquidity |
| Core work | Pricing, document package, confidential marketing, buyer qualification, diligence management, landlord consent | Sourcing on- and off-market, four-gate screening, revenue verification, lender readiness, contingency structure |
| What gets refused | A store that should spend six months on documentation first, priced as if it already had | A store whose revenue cannot be documented or whose lease expires before the loan |
| Fee | Negotiated in a written engagement agreement before any marketing begins | Negotiated in writing before a search begins |
| Cost to start | Nothing. The intro call carries no agreement. | Nothing. Same call, different questions. |
Both engagements begin the same way and neither begins with a signature. The first conversation is diagnostic: what do you have, what do you want, and is there a workable path between them.
What This Site Will Never Do
- Publish fabricated listings. There is no inventory here. Store details are never posted publicly, and a seller's identity stays confidential until a qualified buyer signs an NDA.
- Publish invented testimonials or client names. Confidentiality is the product on the sell side. Clients do not get used as marketing.
- Guarantee a price, a timeline, or a financing approval. Nobody can, and a broker who does is telling you something useful about themselves.
- Give legal or tax advice. Allocation, bulk-sale notice, sales tax on equipment, non-compete enforceability, and depreciation treatment turn on facts and current law. That is what your CPA and attorney are for, and the pages here say so where it matters.
- Cite a source that was not actually retrieved. Every source list on this site is a list of documents that were read.
Contact
Direct, and there is only one action on this site.
Jason Taken · jason.taken@hedgestone.com · HedgeStone Business Advisors
The intro call is 20 minutes, costs nothing, and carries no agreement. Sellers: bring two years of returns and the lease. Buyers: bring your capital, your target markets, and your timeline. If you have a specific store in hand, send the listing, the P&L, and the lease first and the call gets far more useful.
The Next Step
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Jason Taken?
Jason Taken is a business broker with HedgeStone Business Advisors, working nationwide across a range of small-business verticals with a background in finance and lending. On this site he represents laundromat sellers and laundromat buyers, and publishes the sourced data the practice works from.
What is HedgeStone Business Advisors?
HedgeStone Business Advisors is the business brokerage firm Jason Taken works with. It represents owners selling small and lower-middle-market businesses and buyers acquiring them, across a range of industries and nationwide.
Are you licensed in my state?
Licensing for business brokerage depends on the state and on what the transaction includes. Several states require a real-estate license to broker a business sale, and requirements change when real property, a lease, a seller note, or an equity interest is part of the deal. The applicable requirement is confirmed for your specific transaction before an engagement is accepted, rather than assumed.
Do you work only on laundromats?
This site is specifically a laundromat practice. HedgeStone's broader work covers many verticals. The reason for a dedicated laundromat site is that the mechanics that decide these deals — coin and card revenue verification, water and sewer analysis, equipment remaining life, lease infrastructure clauses — are specific enough that a generalist process misses them.
Is there an office near me?
No. This is a nationwide practice with no physical office in each market. The state and metro pages on this site describe the market and the rules that apply there; they do not claim a local storefront. Most of the work happens by phone, video, and document review, with site visits scheduled as the deal requires.
This page is general information about laundromat transactions, not legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a guarantee of sale price, timing, or financing approval. Verify current rules with your own CPA, attorney, lender, and the relevant state or municipal agency before acting.