National Clothesline

Make sure your success is in the cards

More and more cleaners are trying to find more and more ways to keep in contact with their customers. The more successful cleaners in the industry are more likely to have every angle covered. It’s not enough to have a business phone number and a web site anymore. Now, you should also have an e-mail address, a cell phone number and social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or MySpace. Printed-out newsletters used to be the standard of excellence, but nowadays crafty plant owners offer e-mail newsletters and blogs that don’t even require postage or a client to stepping foot into your business.

Of course, you still have to find a way to get all of that information to your customers in the first place. While advertising is often a stress-inducing word for entrepreneurs, there are still some truly inexpensive and effective ways for owners of even the smallest of business to make formidable inroads in communicating with customers.

Perhaps the best single tool available is one that has been around since the 15th century. Back then, royal dignitaries in China presented ornate and artistically detailed cards to people they visited so they would be remembered long after their face-to-face encounters ended. Now, that practice has involved into a billion-dollar industry because sometimes the simplest methods are the most successful ones.

While the business of business cards is a big one, the individual cost still is relatively cheap. However, those who are willing to spend a little extra on them to give them a much cleaner, crisper and more professional look will generate a better image in the minds of their potential customers. The idea is for your business card to make you look as impressive as possible. Al Capone’s card used to say that he was a used furniture dealer. Now that is some seriously smart marketing.

This month, columnist Bill Bishop offers up five strategic tips (see page 8) on how to get the most results from business card marketing. A typical business card may only be about 2" by 3 1/2" in size, but that is all the space needed to display tons of essential information, like your business name, what you specialize in and, of course, all of your phone numbers, e-mail addresses, web sites and various social media links so that your customers can actively seek out your services.

Are you ready for the recession to end?

So how is your recession survival tour going? If you’re still on the road — and many cleaners have dropped out — you have probably done some good things for your business. You have probably taken steps to improve productivity, reduce costs, and eliminate waste. You now have a more efficient, if not more profitable, operation.

You are in a good position for better days ahead. There are hopeful signs that the business climate is improving and as that trickles down to the street level where drycleaners work, those profits should begin improving.

If you have been bold enough, you have taken steps to aggressively market your business, thus taking advantage of the weakened position of some of your competitors. If the average drycleaning customer, also feeling the economic pinch, is cutting back on drycleaning, the only way to keep volume up is to find more customers. The fact that you are not the only drycleaner in your neighborhood is evidence that those customers are out there. Are you the best drycleaners around? The lowest priced? The friendliest? The most community-minded? Whatever it is about you that differentiates you from the others is the point you must get across to get those customers coming to you.

The other reason to market through a recession is to make sure drycleaning is not forgotten. Some customers may have eliminated drycleaning completely from the household budget. When their economic position begins to improve, make sure they remember that their clothes always looked better when they were professionally cleaned. Get them coming back; don’t let them forget. Besides, it is doubtful that they have developed a fondness for handling all their clothing care themselves.

The last two years have been difficult, but some good may come out of this recession. Or perhaps we should say the good cleaners will come out of this recession. A rising tide can lift all ships, but the leaky vessels will lag behind while those that are most fit to sail will win the race.



								National Clothesline






						Make sure your success is in the cards More and more cleaners are trying to find more and more ways to keep in contact with their customers. The more successful cleaners in the industry are more likely to have every angle covered. It’s not enough to have a business phone number and a web site anymore. Now, you should also have an e-mail address, a cell phone number and social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and/or MySpace. Printed-out newsletters used to be the standard of excellence, but nowadays crafty plant owners offer e-mail newsletters and blogs that don’t even require postage or a client to stepping foot into your business. Of course, you still have to find a way to get all of that information to your customers in the first place. While advertising is often a stress-inducing word for entrepreneurs, there are still some truly inexpensive and effective ways for owners of even the smallest of business to make formidable inroads in communicating with customers. Perhaps the best single tool available is one that has been around since the 15th century. Back then, royal dignitaries in China presented ornate and artistically detailed cards to people they visited so they would be remembered long after their face-to-face encounters ended. Now, that practice has involved into a billion-dollar industry because sometimes the simplest methods are the most successful ones. While the business of business cards is a big one, the individual cost still is relatively cheap. However, those who are willing to spend a little extra on them to give them a much cleaner, crisper and more professional look will generate a better image in the minds of their potential customers. The idea is for your business card to make you look as impressive as possible. Al Capone’s card used to say that he was a used furniture dealer. Now that is some seriously smart marketing. This month, columnist Bill Bishop offers up five strategic tips (see page 8) on how to get the most results from business card marketing. A typical business card may only be about 2" by 3 1/2" in size, but that is all the space needed to display tons of essential information, like your business name, what you specialize in and, of course, all of your phone numbers, e-mail addresses, web sites and various social media links so that your customers can actively seek out your services. Are you ready for the recession to end? So how is your recession survival tour going? If you’re still on the road — and many cleaners have dropped out — you have probably done some good things for your business. You have probably taken steps to improve productivity, reduce costs, and eliminate waste. You now have a more efficient, if not more profitable, operation. You are in a good position for better days ahead. There are hopeful signs that the business climate is improving and as that trickles down to the street level where drycleaners work, those profits should begin improving. If you have been bold enough, you have taken steps to aggressively market your business, thus taking advantage of the weakened position of some of your competitors. If the average drycleaning customer, also feeling the economic pinch, is cutting back on drycleaning, the only way to keep volume up is to find more customers. The fact that you are not the only drycleaner in your neighborhood is evidence that those customers are out there. Are you the best drycleaners around? The lowest priced? The friendliest? The most community-minded? Whatever it is about you that differentiates you from the others is the point you must get across to get those customers coming to you. The other reason to market through a recession is to make sure drycleaning is not forgotten. Some customers may have eliminated drycleaning completely from the household budget. When their economic position begins to improve, make sure they remember that their clothes always looked better when they were professionally cleaned. Get them coming back; don’t let them forget. Besides, it is doubtful that they have developed a fondness for handling all their clothing care themselves. The last two years have been difficult, but some good may come out of this recession. Or perhaps we should say the good cleaners will come out of this recession. A rising tide can lift all ships, but the leaky vessels will lag behind while those that are most fit to sail will win the race.