80% of business owners work IN their business. They are either a technician, pressing/cleaning/assembling/delivering orders or they manage the technicians working in their business. By working IN the business, the owner can only focus on the daily operations.
 
To ascend into the 20% of...

A lot of drycleaners want to do more Wash-Dry-Fold (WDF) business, but they have limited washers and dryers, and they are nervous about mixing up tons of very small orders.
 
A great place to start is by getting a few commercial clients that give you consistently large orders of easy to...

The two most important words in marketing are “differentiation” and “specialization.”
 
Differentiation is all about how you are different from the other options you compete against. Notice I did not say “different from all of your competitors.” In some...

Recently, one of my Mastermind Groups came to Wichita for our annual Maverick Summit. We take three days together, learn a lot about ourselves, our businesses, each other, new trends in the marketplace, and set goals to take our businesses to the next level. I also open In The Bag Cleaners for...

Almost every day, I see marketing done by fellow dry cleaners, and it is all about them. How great their service is, how their quality is second to none, how they have the best deals, and the friendliest CSRs, and so on. Most websites are the same way. The focus is on the business.
 
This is...

“You can have everything you love in life as long as you give up what you hate.”
 -Dan Sullivan

This past April, I attended the Cleaners Showcase in Dallas, Texas, and it was an awesome conference! As the only live equipment show this year, the expectations were high. The...

Recently in church, at the beginning of the service, the congregation stood and the first song started playing. It was a familiar tune but I couldn’t quite place it. So, I did the one thing I probably should not have done – I pulled out my cell phone and Googled the chorus,...

I closed my previous article with these words:

“Today, I would like to invite you to make the same decision. I want you to commit 100% to learning the business skills to create a strong product and service (operations), high top line sales (marketing), efficiency (finance), and joy...

About 15 years ago, I made a decision that changed my life profoundly.
I was struggling in my personal life. I was in a dead end marriage and was working out how to get out of it. 
 
I was struggling with my business. I had a lot of sales because I loved marketing but I was not making much...

 Have you ever tried fishing without bait on your hook?
 
If you haven’t, I will save you some pain.
You will catch very few fish (if any at all) without having bait on your hook.
No matter how shiny your hook is.
 
In marketing, an offer is your bait.
The more irresistible the...

One of the most powerful concepts I learned in Alcoholics Anonymous was the idea of “taking one day at a time.” This August will be 10 years without a sip of alcohol, and it has easily been the best decade of my life. While I know I will never drink alcohol again, and I...

 Common sense tells us that specialists make more money than generalists. If you go to your family doctor (generalist) and she tells you that she has some concerns about your heart, your doctor will likely refer you to a heart specialist. Is there any question who makes more money –...

Your ability to create relationship equity is the #1 way to make your life easier and make yourself more successful. 

Let me explain.....

I like to think of Relationship Equity like a bank account. Deposits increase the balance of the account. And withdrawals decrease the balance of...

The more I have worked with business owners with all different levels of business sales, business profit, and income, it has become clear that there is a golden thread across owners with more success. They intentionally set aside more time to think. There is actual white space on their calendar,...

Over the holiday break, my wife and I took our daughters to Maui. With our daughters now at the ages of 5 and 8, we thought they were ready for the long flight over the Pacific Ocean. And they did great. We went whale watching one day, and got within 50 feet of a whale with its new born baby. We...

There is no shortage of ideas. After all, there are great ideas, good ideas, and bad ideas. As entrepreneurs, we have them flying around our heads at all times. And on top of that, there are also those bright, shiny objects that fly by, distracting us from what we know we should be doing. 

...

As a reminder from my article last week, four steps comprise the journey of business ownership:

Step 1 – You are a technician working in your business. You are doing the work of a team member and are trading your time for relatively low financial results. 

Step 2 – You are a ...

There are five steps that comprise the journey of business ownership:

Step 1 – You are a technician working in your business. You are doing the work of a team member and are trading your time for relatively low financial results. 

Step 2 – You are a manager working in your...

Amazon, along with other big retailers, have leveled the playing field by commoditizing prices for products (and some services). If you want to buy a pocket calendar for next year, you get on Amazon, and it spits out all of the options, delivery timeframes, and prices for what you are looking...

Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend and speak at the Wash-Dry-Fold (WDF) conference on the north side of Chicago. The collaboration was amazing and it started with both Coin Laundry Association (CLA) and DLI joining forces to help make this conference a success. Almost 200 were in...