National Clothesline

In my ongoing pursuit of developing 21st century drycleaners, I am quite often discouraged about how often management and ownership get in the way of growth.

My motto is “Developing Your People To Develop Your Business” and sometimes this starts with you, the owner or your leadership team. The question is, are you willing to accept the fact that you may be the one who needs training and are you willing to make a 180-degree mindset change in order to succeed.

Quite often the struggle is for me to “fix” you before I can move on to the ones that make it happen.

Let’s start with the concept of customer service. Too often I hear, “finding a good CSR or driver is hard to do.”

Again, is this really true or are you not giving them the proper training, tools, incentives or leadership?

Someone once said, “Take care of those who take care of your customers.” This doesn’t mean pay them $20 an hour, but I am amazed at the lack of training many customer service agents receive and then fail, trying to learn on their own.

A driver who shows up everyday is great, but then he or she is asked to build the route by doing what the previous person did. It isn’t that simple.

Hourly-minded/driven employees have different motivational goals and your job is to identify them. Some are money-driven, while others strive to succeed. One might be motivated by job security more than one who has the desire to advance in the company.

You must recognize which is their number-one motivational goal and use that to your advantage by laying out goals and incentives based on their desires — not yours.

Again, you don’t have to give them the farm, but it will make your job seem more of guidance for the good, versus being a babysitter like many of us end up being. In addition, your attitude towards customers affects how they react to them as well.

A second mindset change I work on is getting you to be “constructive” minded versus “productive” minded. Too often we are so focused on cutting costs that we get to a point where growth would be a bad thing. Plus, we examine efficiency in all our work and are quite often unhappy with our marketing results.

Building a route takes a little time, patience and investment. Many businesses cut their advertising budget when times get tough, but those who prevail and persevere beef up their marketing efforts in order to reach their goal.

But again, if you drain all the blood out of your business by working on a skeleton crew, then it becomes harder to “muscle up” when you are weak.

Be constructive minded by focusing on forward motion, growth, and potential and striving to have million-dollar routes. Yes, it takes money to grow, but your competitor is out their like a hungry lion, taking your customers away and nabbing other potential business. You either sit on your hands and wait, or get out there and build your business.

Quite often I see ownership working in the business, not on the business. It is a shame that some of you value yourself as much as an $8 an hour employee. If you keep up that mindset, your business will close and then your competition can at least hire you for that much.

Finally, many routes fail due to a lack of a system. The past three years, I have had to re-lay a foundation for many of you in order for growth to occur. Unfortunately, many of you fail in this area and don’t even realize that you are.

As I continue to develop our management group, the number-one focus is having a system that makes the management of the routes easier. “Organize or Agonize” is another way to put it.

A system involves operations, customer service, sales and marketing, and finally, accounting and billing. Too often I discover “uncollectable or forgotten” money. One client had to write off $45,000 because of the lack of a system. He felt like everything was fine in the organization, but not so much.

A lot of the problems are really not due to a lack of money, but more of a lack of time and commitment. I feel for those second-, third- and fourth-generation owners, since they have to deal with their father’s mindset: “That’s the way we have always done it.”

Move into the 21st century by making some changes in the three above areas. The industry has changed and you must change with it. Separate you from your competition, maybe this will take you getting out of your own way.

I am becoming even more amazed at how many owners who have just gotten into the business are showing growth, while many who have been in it for years do not. I believe that it is because the new owners are not married to the way drycleaning was done in the past. In order for your company to make a change for the better, the first move may have to start with you.

This past spring reiterated much of the above as I traveled from coast to coast. I was so amazed how individuals — owners, managers, drivers and other staff — seemed to get in their own way with either selfish comments or hard-headed ideas.

I often write and coach about sticking to the basics with your routes. We all know the K.I.S.S. principle and we should really stick to it. But when push comes to shove, routes do take hard work and a mindset change that is very difficult. In the long run, you have to work smart to have an efficient and successful route.