The Laundry List Blog

First Quarter Coat Drive Jan 08, 2024

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...

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Website Chats are Powerful Dec 11, 2023

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...

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Spring is Rich with Opportunities! Dec 07, 2023

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...

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The #1 Quality of a Great Leader Dec 04, 2023

Does a great leader bring you down or raise you up? When a great person walks into a room, does the positive energy increase or decrease?
 
The best leaders energize other people. They are battery chargers rather than battery drainers. People generally feel better about themselves after...

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Positioning Your Premium Services Nov 30, 2023

Why do people buy a Mercedes automobile? 
 
If you guessed safety features, an upscale dashboard display, a robust engine, tight suspension, or fine leather, you would be wrong.
 
People buy from an emotional level and they justify the emotional purchase with logic.
 
The...

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Are Price Increases Leaving You Feeling Empty? Nov 27, 2023

Each week, I talk with a handful of prospective mastermind members about their outlook for future growth – both in revenue and profit. We discuss how to do this while building their teams to take care of daily operations.
 
There have been some positive trends over the past couple of...

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Overcoming Limiting Beliefs Nov 20, 2023

After 23 years of owning my own business, and now four years of coaching other business owners, I have learned a business owner almost always loses by beating himself/herself.

 

Please - do not have limiting beliefs in yourself. I have seen many a business owner self-sabotage because they...

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Overcoming Growth Hurdles Nov 16, 2023

There are revenue hurdles we face as drycleaning business owners.
 
For some reason, the top-line revenue hurdles come in 1s, 3s and 5s.
 

  • $500,000
  • $1,000,000
  • $3,000,000
  • $5,000,000

 
Why do you get stuck at each of these levels?
 
For one of two reasons – 

  1. there...
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Does Direct Mail Work? Nov 13, 2023

Does Direct Mail Work?

Absolutely.

Direct Mail is my top choice to acquire new clients – for a number of reasons.

For target clients, we usually do not have their cell phone number – and a phone call or text would not be warmly received if the prospect does not trust us yet –...

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The Most Common Marketing Failure Nov 09, 2023

If your marketing is about you or your business, you’ve already failed.
This applies to all industries, not just dry cleaning.

All great marketing relies, at its core, on building a sense of trust with your clients.  You don’t build trust by talking endlessly about...

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Growth Simplified Nov 06, 2023

As dry cleaning business owners, we are always looking for tactics to get more clients. The goal is for these new clients to create more revenue.
 
We might try to create more awareness of our brand.
 
We might look for the right direct mail postcard or digital ad that will create a...

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What is Marketing? Nov 02, 2023

The definition of “marketing” from the Oxford Languages is The activity or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
 
Let me give you some additional ways to think of marketing:

Marketing is:

    • What you say (the message)
    • ...
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Commercial Wash-Dry-Fold Accounts Oct 30, 2023

The primary objection most drycleaners have to scaling retail wash, dry, and fold (WDF) service is they don’t have the right equipment mix. If you are limited on washers and dryers, you might want to expand your commercial WDF lines instead of your retail WDF lines.

The advantage to...

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Strategic Partnerships Strengthen Sales Oct 26, 2023

Why is it critical to have a constant flow of new clients to your business?

Acquiring new clients is one of only three ways to increase your top-line sales. The other two are to increase the average frequency of your clients’ visits and to increase the average monetary value of each visit.

...
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Harness the Power of Chat GPT Oct 23, 2023

If you haven’t played around with Chat.openai.com, sign up for a free account and start playing around with it. As an example, I typed in “show me the most powerful marketing tools for a dry cleaner” and this response came back in about 12 seconds:

Certainly, here are some...

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The Difference Between a Pixel and a Cookie Oct 19, 2023

One of my Maverick members asked me last week, “Dave, what’s the difference between a pixel and a cookie? How does it impact my digital marketing?” Great question! Here’s how I replied:
 
You first need to know what a web server and an ad server are. A server is a...

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You Are What You Think About Oct 16, 2023

Earl Nightingale in his famous recording “The Strangest Secret” summarizes this powerful concept. You become what you think about. Think about your rotten customers and you will have rotten customers. Think about not having money and you’ll never attract it.
 
Think about...

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Give to the Givers, Compete with the Takers Oct 12, 2023

In life, there are givers and takers.
 
Givers love to give, with little to no expectation of receiving anything in return.
Givers have an abundant mindset and understand there are plenty of resources to create the life of your dreams.
Givers find their batteries recharged once they give to...

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Hitting Singles Oct 09, 2023

 In baseball, the greatest home run hitters become household names and heroes. Guys like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Hank Aaron, Ken Griffey Jr., and Babe Ruth. I’m not a big baseball fan but these guys are legends.
 
I was a home run hitter for many, many years. I...

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Fail Your Way to Success Oct 05, 2023

A month after I bought my first drycleaning store, I was sitting on my heels, behind the store, at almost midnight. I was crying, not knowing what I got myself into. It was the coldest winter in history for Wichita, Kansas, and I had left the boiler on low fire. It was New Year’s...

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