The Laundry List Blog

The greatest opportunities for increases in revenue come at the changes of seasons during the spring season months of April and May and now during the fall season months of October and November.
 
The goal is to make the spikes of “high season” spike even higher. Think of it like adding more logs on a...

After 25 years in the business, I thought I knew what type of experience our clients wanted when they visited In The Bag Cleaners.
 
In the Midwest, we pride ourselves on being friendly, and taking the time to visit with our clients. I thought all our clients wanted to spend time with our retail team,...

There was a lot of new technology to see at Clean 2025:

• Presso has a new spotting machine that uses AI to identify stains, and then automatically removes the stain and dries the fabric.
• Sankosha has an updated version of their folding machine for Wash, Dry, and Fold.
• Metalprogetti has the abili...

If you want to be in the top 5% of the industry, you have to see the “game of business” differently than the other 95%.
 
You have to be different.
 
Your team has to be different.
 
Your business has to be positioned in the marketplace differently than the other players. Much different.
 
You must see your...

Sales and marketing can generally be put into three categories:

1. Repair
2. Improvement
3. Opportunity

Let’s take a broken toilet, for example.
 
A company who wants to add value by taking care of your problem (broken toilet) can position themselves as: 

1. Repair – they will send someone to fix your ...

If someone came along and offered to buy my company In The Bag Cleaners, but told me I could keep just one service.... I know without question what service it would be.
 
I would want to keep cleaning comforters for our clients.
 
Comforters are the most scalable high profit item (only more profitable i...

Last week, I travelled to Upstate New York to a NEFA (North East Fabricare Association) conference.
 
The conference included a tour of both Cleaners’ Supply and Wedding Gown Preservation Company, thanks to brothers Jeff and Michael Schapiro.
 
It was great seeing a lot of old and new friends interested...

In my experience, there are four primary ways to grow your route business:

1. In-person, face-to-face selling in your dream neighborhoods, when someone is likely to be home
2.  Emails, texts, direct mail, and your website promoting your route service
3.  Leaving a bag, gift or some other mechanism offer...

One of the most common mistakes drycleaners make is trying to be everything to everyone. 
 
Make sure to define your ideal client—the person who will give you the most money in return for the value you are providing. Think of your ideal client as a target on a dartboard.
 
The top 5% of clients make up ...

Most drycleaning owners don’t know their numbers. When I get on an introductory call and I ask the business owner what their Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was last year, or what their production payroll percentage is year-to-date (YTD), or their revenue per...

At the age of 52, I have been an entrepreneur for over 25 years, sold over $150 million worth of services and have failed many more times than I succeeded. My failures did not define me but instead redirected me to having a “rich life.” Here are 52 lessons I learned over the past 52 years:
 

1. Succe...

As an entrepreneur you must stay motivated by creating a future that is always greater than your past, regardless of how great your past has been. You always want to be moving forward, gaining more skills and knowledge and learning how to apply that knowledge to increase your earnings, your impact, ...

To get a post, video, or ad to be shareable on one of the social media networks (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tik-Tok, etc), your content must be share-worthy. 
 
Instructing people to share your content usually is not good enough if the content does not pass this threshold of being entertaining and...

Prospects are not always ready to buy when you want them to buy.
 
A compelling, irresistible offer will help you get more prospects to change their behavior and become paying clients but many will still say no.
 
It is important to understand that “no” does not mean “never” but instead usually means “n...

The game of entrepreneurship is 51% money management.
Most drycleaning owners don’t realize this until it’s too late.
 
As an owner, you must strategically put yourself in a position to:

1. Grow revenue – a number of factors contribute to revenue growth, but the most important is what you spend your ma...

Last week, our Warriors Group met in Wichita for our quarterly meeting.

We talked about a lot.

Marketing tactics that are working.

Team Development to increase our freedom from the business.

Growing our routes.

Completing acquisitions.

But one of the most profound and simple concepts was:

Be ...

A company without a secret sauce will be commoditized in the eyes of the consumer. 
 
A company with a secret sauce will become exponentially more valuable, in the eyes of the consumer, and in the valuation done by prospective buyers of the company.
 
In marketing terms, we call this differentiation. 
 
H...

As we reach the end of the school year, now is the perfect time to reach out to schools to secure the cleaning of their band uniforms, choir outfits, and the costumes they use for theatrical performances.
 
Most school districts like to have this work arranged well before the end of the school year, a...

As an entrepreneur, you will always be looking to go to the next level. Regardless of the success you have achieved. 
 
Most of us have worked our way up from the bottom, learning the technical parts of our business. Customer service, cleaning, pressing, inspection, assembly, bagging, and maintenance....