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April 11, 2013
No Passive Path to Increasing Profitable Sales (Part 2)

SAN FRANCISCO — With no magic bullet in sight, profitable sales require multi-pronged, sustained effort

SAN FRANCISCO — In our consulting practice, we field many questions, but the most common question has long been “How do I increase sales?”

When this question arises, we always encourage the person who is asking to modify it to “How do I increase profitable sales?”

How many of you have tried Groupon, delighted initially at the large number of respondents, but then evaluated the retention rate on those deeply discounted sales and vowed never to use it again? These promotional efforts can be used as a marketing introduction for a new service or new location, but resulting sustained sales are rare. They have the added disadvantage of training your customers to think that your service is not worth your normal price.

So what is the answer?

First, there is no silver bullet. Profitable sales require a multi-pronged, sustained effort. There is no passive path to increased profitable sales.

September 25, 2012
Maximizing Your Dry Cleaner’s Value (For a Sale or For Yourself), Part 1

SAN FRANCISCO — If you are not actively selling your business, you are actively re-buying it yourself every day

SAN FRANCISCO — Owners often ask how to prepare their dry cleaning business for an optimum-priced sale. Generally, the answer is the same as the answer to an entirely different question: “How can I improve my business?”

To optimize the value of a business, make it the best it can be. Is that an oversimplification? Yes. Is it true? Yes.

IF YOU’RE NOT SELLING, YOU’RE BUYING

Whether you are preparing your business for an arm’s length sale, for a transfer to the next generation that you hope will be as passionate about dry cleaning as you are, or you have no sale planned, you are still preparing the company for a “sale” at some value.

If you are not actively selling your business, you are actively re-buying it yourself every day. You are making a conscious or subconscious decision to continue to exchange your capital investment, time, effort and equity (whatever the current value) for ongoing ownership of your company.

Optimized value benefits you whether you sell or not because the business is more valuable as a profit generator over the long and short terms.