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Content about Nora Nealis

April 1, 2013
Dry Cleaning Pros Exchange Best Practices During Conference

CANCUN, Mexico — DLI, NCA members share ideas, soak up sun

CANCUN, Mexico — When was the last time you shared ideas with industry peers on how to make your dry cleaning business more efficient, expand your customer base, or boost your bottom line?

More than 100 dry cleaning professionals traveled to a Cancun resort in January to exchange best practices during a joint conference sponsored by the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI) and the National Cleaners Association (NCA).

Brian Johnson, DLI’s director of education and analysis, called Secrets The Vine resort a “fantastic venue.” Attendees learned each other’s business secrets at daily, three-hour seminars. For example, motivational speaker and author Jack Mitchell discussed his “Hug Your Customers” philosophy that helps his business operating men’s and women’s specialty stores to thrive.

“His methods were fascinating,” says Johnson, explaining that “hugs” are unexpected gestures like placing a birthday card in a customer’s suit pocket.

November 13, 2012
What Dry Cleaners Are Doing to Thrive Today

LONG BEACH, Calif. — A common goal: improving the industry and helping operators learn how to build better businesses

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Mary Scalco, CEO of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), and Nora Nealis, executive director of the National Cleaners Association (NCA), visit a lot of dry cleaning operations in their work. They are direct competitors, but they share a common goal: improving the dry cleaning industry and helping its operators learn how to build better businesses.

And so the two recently collaborated on an educational seminar, offered during the California Cleaners Association’s Fabricare show, that demonstrates What Cleaners Are Doing to Thrive Today.

SEE THINGS DIFFERENTLY

If you want your dry cleaning business to thrive, Scalco says, there’s something you must do. “You change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change.”

You’re no doubt familiar with the FedEx logo, as it can be seen on the delivery company’s trucks, on billboards, in TV commercials, and more. But did you ever notice that the logo contains within it an arrow? It is an ingenious way to depict movement, she says.

April 7, 2008
NCA Launches ‘Drycleaning Dramas’ Contest

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The National Cleaners Association (NCA) announced last week that it is sponsoring its first “Drycleaning Dramas” video contest, which will will award a $2,500 prize to an aspiring filmmaker who features drycleaning prominently in a 30- to 120-second video. ≈

February 4, 2008
NCA’s ‘Brainstorming’ An International Success

New York, N.Y. — More than 40 operators from the U.S. and Central America joined last month in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for the fifth annual “Brainstorming with The Best” conference, sponsored by the National Cleaners Association (NCA).

Speakers on this year’s seminar schedule included Jeff Hargett, of the Ritz Carlton Leadership Center; David Merrman, best-selling author and viral-marketing expert; and Scott and Joe Hallak, operators of Hallak Cleaners in New York, N.Y.

January 23, 2008
Industry Descends on New Jersey to Fight Perc Ban

TRENTON, N.J. — In an incredible show of solidarity, more than 120 members of the industry convened in New Jersey on Friday to deliver testimony against a proposal from the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to ban perchloroethylene use in drycleaning completely by 2021.

March 7, 2007
In Defense of Perc: When is Enough Enough?

A Recent CBS Report Again Plays On Consumers' Cancer Fears. Can A Fragmented Industry Respond?

February 23, 2007
Early Show Targets Perc as Possible 'Cancer Danger'

CBS News’ Early Show aired a report this morning, “Cancer Danger from Dry Cleaning?” that questions the safety of perc use in drycleaning and wearing drycleaned clothes.

Launching the report with an interview of Mori Mickelson, a woman who experienced health problems while living above a New York City drycleaning plant in the 1990s, the segment casts suspicion on perc as a neurotoxin and possible carcinogen.