Become the Expert of Your Own Business

Most drycleaning owners are experts at cleaning and spotting clothes. Far fewer are experts at running a drycleaning business. That gap is where profit leaks, long hours creep in, and burnout lives.

If you want real growth—not just more work—you have to stop thinking like an operator and start thinking like an owner. That means becoming a student of every part of your business, not just production.

Know your numbers as well as you know your spotting techniques. Understand where margin is actually made, which services subsidize others, and where labor quietly eats your profit. Learn how marketing really works, not just “running ads,” but how customers find you, why they choose you, and what makes them come back without discounts. Get curious about sales, systems, leadership, pricing psychology, and customer behavior.

One of the fastest ways to accelerate this is to get out of your plant. Go to conferences. Not just the ones that teach you the latest machine or chemical, but the ones that challenge how you think. Seek out groups that attract owners who are growing, experimenting, and questioning the status quo. Communities like DLI and Mavericks exist because most traditional advice in this industry is designed to keep you average. You don’t need more tactics—you need better thinking.

The real advantage comes when you stop consuming information in silos and start integrating it. Marketing impacts production. Pricing affects customer behavior. Systems reduce labor stress. Leadership changes culture. When you connect these dots, solutions appear that aren’t obvious to someone stuck in one lane.

This is where leverage lives. Leverage points are small changes that create large results. Raising prices instead of cutting costs. Changing how you onboard clients instead of spending more on ads. Adjusting service mix instead of chasing volume. These moves don’t come from working harder—they come from greater awareness and working smarter.

The contrarian truth is this: you don’t need to do more. You need to understand more. Owners who win long-term aren’t the best cleaners. They’re the best thinkers and marketers in their market.

Action item: This week, block 60 uninterrupted minutes and audit one area of your business you usually ignore—marketing, pricing, hiring, or team development. Write down what actually drives profit there, what assumptions you’ve been making, and one small change that could create leverage. Do that once a month, and you’ll be ahead of 90% of drycleaning owners.

Your business will only grow to the level of your awareness. Become the expert in that, and everything else gets easier.

Have a great week, my friend!

Dave