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February 16, 2012
Loyal Team May Be Best Profit Center

LOS ANGELES — During that first hard year of building my personal management company, I had lunch with Michael Levine, a celebrity publicist who seems to show up on TV every time a star overdoses, heads to rehab or goes to jail.

“Rick,” he said, “what you need is revenue. Doesn’t matter if you believe in the clients or not, it only matters if they help pay your rent.”

Several years later, with my company now mature and well established, he called me to remind me that it was his advice that led to my subsequent success.

“I do have to thank you,” I told him. “Every time I thought about taking on a client I wasn’t passionate about but was making money, I thought of your advice and chose not to take on the client.”

My business success was predicated on casting directors and producers believing in my sense of taste. How could I have asked the buying community to trust my belief in my clients if I didn’t believe in them?

September 13, 2011
Survey: Three Out of Four Perform All or Most of Basic Maintenance Tasks

CHICAGO — Performing their own plant maintenance is nothing new for the majority of drycleaners who responded to this month’s Wire survey. Half of the drycleaners polled said they perform “most” of their plant’s basic maintenance, while another 28.3% perform “all” of their maintenance.

Thirteen percent perform a “little” of their plant maintenance while the remaining 8.7% perform “none.”

And even though performing maintenance seems to be fairly common among the drycleaners polled, having a formal, written maintenance schedule is not. Only 36.2% have such a schedule; 63.8% perform their maintenance tasks without one.

The type of work they perform ranges from the most basic cleaning and parts replacement to “All, everything, if it needs doing, I do it,” according to one respondent.

“Fixing leaks, bad steam traps, filter changes, lights, analyzing problems via equipment manuals,” summarized one drycleaner. “If I can’t fix it, then I call an expert, but I usually know what needs to be done when I do.”

August 24, 2011
StatShot: July Sales Droop in Most of Country

CHICAGO – Only one of the four regions managed sales gains in July compared to the previous year, according to the most recent AmericanDrycleaner.com StatShot survey.

The West registered the only July-to-July sales boost, and a minimal one at that, of 0.9%. The South saw sales plummet 9.3%, while Midwestern sales fell 4.6%. Sales were nearly flat in the Northeast, which suffered a 0.7% drop.

Some operators, particularly in the Midwest, blamed higher-than-average temperatures for the poor sales month.

“Too hot to do any business! No one is wearing any ‘drycleanable’ clothing in this heat,” wrote one Midwestern operator, while another proclaimed, “One of the hottest Julys in recorded history.”

But there were many more comments about our country’s struggling economy and its impact on small business, particularly in the South.

“Business seems to be declining rapidly,” lamented a Southern operator. “People are trying to save money any way they can and reducing their drycleaning use is one of them.”

March 8, 2011
Most Operators Plan to Attend Clean ’11

CHICAGO — More than half (53.6%) of the operators surveyed in this month’s Wire say they plan to attend this year’s Clean Show, set for June 6-9, 2011 in Las Vegas.

CHICAGO — More than half (53.6%) of the operators surveyed in this month’s Wire say they plan to attend this year’s Clean Show, set for June 6-9, 2011 in Las Vegas.

Many are looking forward to the industry’s biggest convention and exhibition. “I always come back from a show with new ideas and a renewed zest for the business,” says one operator.

November 26, 2010
Un-Orthodox

NEW YORK — Vasken Ohanyan sits at his work table in the middle of Continental Cleaners in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Piled around him are measuring tapes, fabrics and thread. The walls are lined with racks of cleaned garments. By the storefront picture window, there’s a fitting room and a rack of abandoned garments for sale.

October 29, 2010
Good Business Is Good Business

CHICAGO — I like business. I’ve spent most of my adult life helping grow businesses—first as an advertising executive, where I got to learn about high-end stereo chains, foot-pad manufacturers, hair salons and real estate; then as a personal manager, where I was the ad hoc chief executive officer in charge of developing the careers of actors, writers, directors and comedians.

June 11, 2010
Saving Face at The Front Counter

CHICAGO — Your store’s front counter is its primary point of customer contact. What your customers think about your business is mostly formed there, through interactions with your staffers. You should do everything you can to make sure these encounters go smoothly.

May 14, 2010
The End of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Sell’

One reason entrepreneurs enter the drycleaning industry is to build meaningful businesses that grow into bigger and better enterprises. Add the freedom of “doing it your way and getting paid for it,” and they have a powerful motivator to take the risks.

Then, the reality strikes that things don’t always go exactly as planned. Since costs rarely shrink or go away, they try to hedge their bets by finding new ways to boost revenues. The logical solution is to sell more, but cleaning is, unfortunately, a need-based business.

March 31, 2010
Awareness Is Key to A 'Green' Message

Being “green” can create great opportunities, and with opportunity, there is always risk. But to ignore the trend or create an appearance of apathy is, I think, the greatest risk of all.

Some cleaners just buy a banner that says “Environmentally Friendly Cleaning” and don’t change a thing. Others follow “green” ideals to the letter. There are drycleaners all over the “green”-marketing spectrum, from “greenwashers” to “treehuggers.”

July 8, 2009
Going Commercial

RICHFIELD, Minn. — Pilgrim Cleaners in Richfield has done a good business laundering lab coats for a local dentists’ group for the last 12 years. And operator Jim Fingerman didn’t even go looking for the work — he was asked by the dentists.

December 10, 2008
Resisting a Financial Panic

Since the end of summer, times have been getting tough. It seems like the financial establishment is collapsing from within. In Washington, our current leaders are running around plugging holes in dikes, only to see new holes appear a few feet away.

January 16, 2008
Promote Yourself Boldly

Every drycleaner spends money on advertising and promotions. But how many do it wisely? One marketing guru has figured out that only 10% of advertising dollars spent are effective. That’s 10 cents on the dollar — not too outstanding a return.

November 21, 2007
Give An Employee A Piece of The Action

Your key person is capable. He (or she) follows directions well. He doesn’t miss work days. He gets along well with customers. You trust him completely. But something is missing.

Perhaps it’s a certain fire. A desire to see the business take off. An active mind that comes up with new ideas constantly. A knee-jerk dissatisfaction when cashflow needs are not met. In other words, the entrepreneurial spirit.

June 20, 2007
Put Your Business on Autopilot

Dave Davenport, a former drycleaner with a 25-employee operation, once said to me: “This business only works when the boss is there. In the last eight years — except for long weekends — the only time I missed work was my honeymoon.”

Is that the case — that a drycleaner must work 52 weeks a year? That he must open and close the store because his help might be stealing? That he can take a vacation only at great peril? That when he’s gone, the help will goof off and the work won’t get done?