The Laundry List Blog

Do you want to make more money?

Have more freedom?

Make a greater impact?

The average person who has a regular job, or works in corporate America, has roughly 35-40 working years where they work hard, advance their career, get promotions, and save for retirement. Then they retire between ages 62 a...

Most drycleaning business owners exit their business WHEN they sell their business, or in many cases, AFTER they sell their business (typically in the case of an earn out agreement).

Here’s what usually happens:

#1 – the owner sells at an amount that is far less than optimal and has narrowed the typ...

Why Most Marketing Fails

You are not in the drycleaning business. Rather, you are in the business of marketing your drycleaner.

This does not sit well with the 60% of our industry who does not believe they need to market their drycleaning businesses. But therein lies the opportunity. When the majori...

One of the best ways to acquire new clients is to give an irresistible offer to people when they move into a new home or condo in one of your target areas. They are new to the neighborhood, and in many cases, new to the city. They often don’t know where to go for services, and so they are open to su...

In my previous article, I shared with you why I put so much energy into creating subscriptions for my businesses. Almost any business can create monthly recurring revenue (subscriptions, memberships, etc.) but for some reason, drycleaners have been late to the party.
 
One of the primary benefits to...

A few years back, when I started offering subscriptions to our clients (we call them Time Saver Plans), I had a blind spot. I didn’t realize it would be more challenging to periodically raise prices with the subscription plans than it is to raise per item prices.

We raise our regular prices twice pe...

The start of 2024 for many drycleaners proved to be sluggish at best. Not sure if I have a good answer why but many of my members reported a slow first quarter compared to the past couple of years.

If this was the case for you, and you are in a bit of a cash crunch, here are some ideas to increa...

For most drycleaners across the United States, the months of April / May / June are some of the highest revenue months of the year. I wanted to give you a few reminders as you enter this season so you can make sure to maximize both revenue and profits.

As you enter the change of seasons, you will st...

What is the Number One Challenge in your business right now?

Your number one challenge can easily preoccupy your resources, including your time, money, confidence, and energy.

Left unresolved, your number one challenge usually keeps you from seizing your number one opportunity.

Here are some of the...

I recently finished reading The One Thing by Gary Keller and he suggested asking yourself the following question:

What is the ONE THING I can do so that everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

What an awesome question! It asks you to focus on the one thing you can work on to create leverage t...

I ventured down a rabbit hole on YouTube recently and found myself watching a video of Warren Buffett. He was telling the stories of two companies – Nebraska Land Furniture and Enterprise Rental Car. Both of these companies were built from almost nothing – one with $2,500 and the other with 17 cars....

There are only three ways to increase your revenue:
1. Get more clients
2. Get current clients to come more often
3. Get current clients to spend more each time they visit
It is critical you have an intentional plan to acquire new clients. Even if you want to keep the same amount of top-line revenue fro...

Earlier this week, I talked to a prospective member about our new Warrior group. He said he would be interested in joining but wanted to make sure I would not make him discount his services. He was concerned such a thing would degrade his brand and he didn’t want to do that.

I get this all the time....

If you want to be a great marketer, it is important to understand what makes people tick. You are in the fulfillment business. A client or prospect has a problem and you have a solution to make their problem better. You are able to monetize this solution since it is valuable to your client or prospe...

One business owner in our industry might be 100 times more successful than another business owner in our industry. It’s not because the one with more success is 100 times more intelligent than the other. They are not using equipment or processes that are 100 times more advanced.

The more successful ...

In most parts of the United States, there are distinct seasons – spring, summer, fall, and winter. There are exceptions to this like Florida, southern Texas, and most of California, where the weather is much less volatile.

Like the weather seasons, there are also seasons in business. As the country ...

This will be a welcome break from my usual focus on the 80/20 rule (The Pareto Principle). I love the 80/20 rule and it applies to almost everything, especially when you are acquiring, ascending, and retaining your clients but the 10/20 rule is totally different.

I learned the 10/20 rule from Mike A...

If January or February is a relatively slow month for your business, consider launching a coat drive one of those months.

Years ago, before we had our January coat drive, January was our third worst month of sales in the year. The only worse months were the heat of summer in July and August.

That al...

There are tremendous benefits to your prospects, existing clients, and your company by installing a Live Chat widget on your website.
 
At In The Bag Cleaners, we have five to seven daily prospects ask questions on our chat widget, that they want answered before they start using our services. Usuall...

Don’t worry, I haven’t completely lost my mind! I know it’s not spring in the Northern Hemisphere but it is spring south of the Equator. Anyway, this article will help you whenever it is spring in your area...
 
The ups and downs of business and life are similar to the seasons.
 
Following each wint...