National Clothesline

Before I start on the topic I would like to thank my dear departed friend, Stan Caplan, for encouraging me to go into consulting, for his mentoring and most of all, his friendship. My only wish is that I would be able to continue to learn from him. Stan and I had a meeting in February of this year. He could not wait to show off his new Corvette. I know Stan is driving that new Corvette on the highway in the sky.

What direction is your business taking? Are sales up, flat, or down? Do you know why your sales are going in the direction they have taken? Have you taken the time to find out or are you simply crying because sales are down? Flat sales, unless acted upon, are usually an indicator of future down sales. If your sales are going up, do you know why or do you care?

Your business is like a living organism. Unless you feed it, it will not grow. It will not live. The process of feeding is what makes your business a live vibrant place to walk into. Have you been nurturing your business? Have you made any changes to your company to make it stand out from the generic cleaner crowd? By the way, you can find generic cleaners all over the place. They don’t put their name on their sign; it simply says “CLEANERS.” I call them “Gene N’ Eric’s Cleaners.”

Dropping, or flat, counter sales, are not unusual in today’s drycleaning market. Have you shifted customers to a route? Have you considered diversifying to make up for the sales drop? Is your customer data base shrinking? Have you personally called lost customers to find out why they left you?

Are you too close to the spotting board to see the customers? Are you doing the cleaning and spotting? Do you have a CSR working the counter while you handle production?

You, as the owner, can deal with a customer better than anyone you hire. You have the knowledge and experience to handle customer issues. Give up those few extra dollars, hire a cleaner-spotter, and get to the front of your plant. You are the best salesperson your company can have.

Are you worried about the spots not coming out? Have your spotter set aside any garments with problems, and you can handle those pieces during a slow period or at the end of the day.

Go outside your store and look at it objectively. How inviting is the appearance? If you were new to the neighborhood, would you want to go into your store? How clean are the windows and floor? Are bags of clothing dumped on the floor instead of being put into baskets? How is the lighting? You are a cleaner. Is your plant bright and clean? Look at the work stations. Are dust bunnies above and below? An employee’s environment will contribute to an employee’s attitude.

Sam Walton said “There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

Do you have counter sales people who wear a uniform or is it a t-shirt and jeans operation? How professional are the people who serve your customers when you are not there? Do they understand what Sam Walton said?

When was the last time you did any marketing? Do you have a marketing budget? Have you thought about a company website? Marketing is changing in all industries. I spoke with Darcy Moen, the Canadian Wonder, and he told me he was building a website for a printing company. What does that tell you?

Have you shopped your competition? How does their work stack up against yours? What does their packaging look like? Who makes the customer’s garments look like they just came out of a department store? What drycleaning company in your area does the most business or seems to be a jumping place? Look at that company and see what the competition is doing. There is nothing wrong with copying a successful operation.

There is a company in the Los Angeles market that does a fantastic amount of counter sales business. I visited them, looked at their product and everything else they did. The product was not remarkable but the energy at the counter was outstanding. They had a popcorn machine, a coffee bar, and other goodies for the customers. A host greeted every customer who walked in and directed the person to a counter that was numbered. They were open and in production seven days. This is a customer centric business, selling convenience and service.

After visiting their operation, guess what I did? My counters were changed, I started dispensing goodies to our customers. Counter sales hours were expanded to late evenings and Sundays. Production went to two shifts daily plus weekends. Bingo! There was a 25 percent increase in sales within one year. Your hours of operation are for the customers’ convenience, not yours. Thank you, Milt Chortkoff, for demonstrating what great customer service and convenience is.

Do you have a computer system? If not, why not? Your current customers are your greatest asset. The data base information that your computer system provides is the pay-back for your investment. Use that information to market your current customers.

There are other benefits. You get consistent and correct pricing, and employees might find it a little more difficult to keep those extra cash dollars for themselves. Without raising prices, we experienced an immediate 10 percent sales increase when we put in our first computer system.

How do you diversify? Routes, garment restoration, carpet and upholstery cleaning are a few of the ways to expand your market and grow your company. Expansion through diversification is not an easy task. It is like starting a whole new business. If done correctly you will need a business plan and working capital to get it started correctly.

Peter F. Drucker said, “Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” It will not be easy to make that “courageous decision.” It means a financial commitment. It means a commitment of time. You will have to buy or download business planning software. Then you have to put yourself in front of a computer, and really think about what you want to do when that software asks you to input information.

The question is how valuable is the time you will spend planning your diversification? The answer to that question is, “the time spent is priceless.” I spent more than 40 hours writing the business plan for my routes.

If you can go through the laundry list of things to do, and questions to answer, you will be taking the first small steps needed to reverse the down or flat trend you have been experiencing. You can be pro-active or reactive, the choice is yours. What direction is your business going to take?

You are the fat smiling Cheshire Cat. Do you know why sales are up? Do you even care about the reason or reasons? You are making more money than you have ever made and life is good. You have nothing to worry about. Or are you missing something you should be worrying about?

That reminds me of a story about “Worry,” my dad, Ben, used to tell. My father is the reason I am in the drycleaning industry, but that historical tale is for another time.

My dad’s story about “Worry” went like this: “There are only two things in life to worry about, whether you’re rich or poor. If you’re rich, you have nothing to worry about; if you’re poor you only have two things to worry about — whether you’re sick or healthy. If you’re healthy you have nothing to worry about. If you’re sick, you only have two things to worry about, whether you live or die. If you live, you have nothing to worry about; if you die, you only have two things to worry about, whether you go to heaven or hell. If you go to heaven you have nothing to worry about and if you go to hell, you still won’t have anything to worry about because you’ll be too busy shaking hands with all your friends. So why worry?”

Next month I will discuss the issues that a plant with a sales increase faces. Yes, there are potential and real problems that can occur. I have been there and done that so take my word that growth is not always easy. It is like going from adolescence to adulthood.

Harvey Gershenson currently operates Sterling Dry Cleaning Consulting. A second-generation drycleaner, he has been in the industry since he was in high school. He has served as president of the Cleaners and Dyers Guild of Los Angeles and has served on the boards of directors the International Fabricare Institute and the California Cleaners Association; he currently serves on the CCA’s membership committee. He is also a guest lecturer for the California Department of Corrections. He can be reached by e-mail at consultme@msn.com.