Content about Massachusetts

PEMBROKE, Mass. — Dry cleaners lose customers all the time. There’s a fight and the cleaner knows the customer will never come back.

A wholesale account calls to complain about pricing and announces it will find somewhere else to do business.

A customer is so annoyed that the cleaner didn’t have the order ready as promised that she’ll never be seen again.

Most dry cleaners shrug, and say they’ll do better next time. They also feel they tried their best and nothing more could be done.

This is the wrong approach. The dry cleaner should resolve to make up the lost customer by replacing her with new business. In fact, this should become the dry cleaner’s mantra: I will not let business go without replacing it.

This tactic will stop you from accepting of whatever the market brings, and could propel you forward. It should. This practice could be called “determined progress.”

PEMBROKE, Mass. — Tax time is here again. Before I give you some tax tips, I want to tell you to pay your fair taxes. I know that not all of you do.

Having said that, you should take full advantage of legitimate deductions.

Some Available Deductions

Basically, profit determination is a process of starting with revenue and deducting all expenses and costs from all activity that went into creating that inflow stream. Any amount of expenditure is deductible if it helped you, in any way, shape or form, to run your business.

Don’t forget to include:

CHICAGO — The filing deadline for 2011 federal income taxes is not far off, but you still have time to make sure you’ve done everything you can to keep Uncle Sam’s paws off as much of your money as possible. Here are some last-minute ways to do that by reducing your 2011 income tax bill:

Save More for Retirement

One of the most important tax-savings steps you can take is contributing the maximum to your 401(k) or other tax-deferred retirement plan. If you haven’t done so, max out your retirement savings now by bringing your contribution up to the legal limit. For 2011, you may put as much as $16,500 into a 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plan. If you’re over age 50, you may add an additional $5,500.

Every dollar you contribute means you will pay less income tax. Except for Roth IRAs, all contributions to tax-deferred retirement plans are tax-deductible in the tax year for which you make your contribution.

If you can’t come up with the maximum, bump up your contribution as much as you possibly can. It may seem painful now, but you’ll benefit greatly in the future.

PEMBROKE, Mass. — Family Drycleaners, in Hull, Mass., sells children’s toys in its front-counter section. Dolls, games and wooden toys are its stock in trade. Management says this adjunct business does well because no one else in town carries children’s toys. If a customer wants a nice wooden toy, say, as a gift, they have to buy it at Family Drycleaners.

Such selling of unrelated products goes against the conventional wisdom of Drycleaning Management 101. Do what you do well—process clothes efficiently and cleanly. Peddle ancillary trade—alterations, shoe repair, etc. And, if you sell anything in the front, make sure it’s related to garment care—lint brushes, stain stick, clothing bags and the like.

Sometimes, you go against conventional wisdom because selling unrelated products makes sense. In Marfa, Texas, there is a Laundromat/coffee shop/ice cream parlor—a three-in-one business. The reason it works is because Tumbleweeds Laundry is the only laundry, the only ice cream shop and the only “pure” coffee shop in the small town of 2,200.

PEMBROKE, Mass. — I meet lots of drycleaners who are looking to sell. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there is a time to sell and a time not to sell. This is a time not to sell. Wait a few years, and it should be a better market. You might even double your price if you wait. Here’s why.

The current economic situation is quite tenuous. Now, nobody is ever really sure what’s going on, but the last few years have been particularly iffy. In 2008, the economy almost collapsed. We have not experienced such a crisis since the Great Depression. Government tinkering averted a complete meltdown, but the fear of that almost-catastrophe lingers.

The economic situation is looking up. Major companies such as Microsoft, Intel and Exxon have billions in their tills. The stock market has recovered, and the future looks promising. If you’d invested $100,000 in the market at the depth of the recession, you might have $140,000 now.

BROCKTON, Mass. — Zoots, Massachusetts’ premier drycleaning company, and Tweeds Dry Cleaning, the No. 1 family-owned operation in New Jersey, announced they have merged. Together, the companies will have sales in excess of $15 million per year, employ 300 workers and serve more than 150,000 customers.

DETROIT – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California recently dismissed an environmental contamination case against Hoyt Corp., a drycleaning equipment manufacturer formerly based in Wesport, Mass. The plaintiff, Hinds Investments LP, claimed Hoyt Corp. was responsible for perchloroethylene contamination on its property and was seeking damages for environmental remediation costs.

HANOVER, Mass. — Lapels Dry Cleaning stores collected more than two tons of clothing during the annual Lapels Clothing Drive to benefit the Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation and Big Sisters of Rhode Island.

Patrons of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Lapels Dry Cleaning stores collected more than 200 bags of clothing, totaling approximately 4,000 pounds.

WEYMOUTH, Mass. — A man witnesses say was wearing a black ninja outfit and wielding a sword attempted to rob Galaxy Cleaners, Weymouth, Mass., according to police.

The man, sporting a black ski mask and wearing a sword in a sheath on his belt, first walked into the nearby Tedeschi convenience store, according to police Sgt. Richard Fuller.

WASHINGTON — Several small-business proposals within a recent economic stimulus package within a bill being discussed in the senate are designed to help alleviate the credit crunch, providing help to entrepreneurs stressed by a worsening economic climate.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Banking, are urging their Republican colleagues to put politics aside in support of the package.

FALL RIVER, Mass. — American Dryer Corp. (ADC) has secured capital funding up to $300 million to allow the company to strategically acquire complementary businesses.

CINCINNATI — Zoots Corp. has sold Widmer’s Cleaners, the large Cincinnati-based chain it bought out in 1999, to the operation’s management team. Last week, Zoot’s sold or closed nine Connecticut stores, and appears to be consolidating nationwide.

Widmer’s changed ownership early this month, says Steve Carico, managing member, after about six months of talks. Newton, Mass.-based Zoots purchased Widmer’s shortly after startup to learn the business, in hopes of becoming a nationwide drycleaning brand.