Has anybody noticed a slight slowdown in business in the past few months? Well, you are not alone, but the economy will rebound, the housing market will pick-up, the unemployed will begin going back to work and the world will look right again. Nobody knows how long business will suffer from the recent events. Some are predicting months and some are predicting years.
There are a number of drycleaning plants closed in the last year or so. There will be more as time goes by. These tend to be the ones who are of retirement age and finding no buyers for their businesses. Another group who are leaving the business are the ones who really never got a handle on the management of the business, the technical aspect of the business or the customer service part of the business and which they have found out is an incredibly important part of any service business.
In the end, whenever that is, there will be fewer cleaners and those will probably be above average operators. They will be the ones who always kept a reserve fund to help carry them through the summers or slow seasons. They are the ones who learned the technical aspect of textile cleaning and were able to clean virtually anything that came into their plants for servicing. They learned how to safely remove stains that their now gone competitors would simply say the stain could not be removed. The better operators kept their equipment maintained rather than let it simply degrade until it took the operator longer to clean or press the work that came through the plant, creating inefficiencies for the production employees.
Some of the surviving operators will take advantage of the high unemployment to begin ranking their employees as to how valuable they were to the business then replacing those who went to the bottom of the list with better workers or simply nicer people. They are the operators who honed their customer service skills and made a special effort to let their customers know they were very valuable to the health of the business. They devised ways to show their customers how much they are appreciated.
The successful operators will take the decline in business to hold more training sessions for the employees, spruce up their call offices, clean their equipment, install energy efficient lighting and possibly getting an energy saving grant to help with the cost.
If you want to be one of the survivors, you must tighten up your operation and cut out the waste in supplies, utilities and labor. You also may save a lot of money by getting competitive quotes on your total insurance package. If you have a lease renewal, you need to know that the property owner will bargain on the rent or reduction of costs to you. They may offer more space for the same amount as your current lease and make other concessions as they are also feeling the effects of the economy. Perhaps your old drycleaning machine is beginning to require more maintenance and repairs and this may be a good time to purchase a new machine with one of the alternative solvents. Many times the machine will help pay for itself through efficiencies and the bonus is that you will get a solvent with far fewer restrictions and requirements, and even fewer additional taxes that perc has.
This is an excellent time to rethink your business and make any major changes that will benefit it in the future, such as adding routes, branching out into other aspects of textiles such as restoration, repairs, or even sales of household items or clothing, and perhaps shoe repairing. You can add to profits by adding leather cleaning to your skills, purse cleaning, Ugg cleaning, shoe repair carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, on-site drapery cleaning and a host of other services. Even when business is down and money is tight there are economies that can be gained and a savings plan can be put into effect, which will help to provide a financial cushion, when business further deteriorates.
If you decide to take your company in a different direction and/or add additional services, this is an excellent time to call all of your employees together and let them know exactly what is going on with the company and their chance of continued employment. Too frequently, business owners or managers simply clam up and say nothing. When sales are down, they need to talk to their suppliers and let them know what they are doing to survive. They need to let the employees know that everybody is in the same boat but with everybody’s efforts and perhaps a general reduction in hours, all can still be employed but with fewer hours. It is also time to communicate with your customers either by e-mail or direct mail, or in person that the business climate is down, like all others and will be tightening their belts but maintaining quality and not cutting corners is a mandatory priority. There may be reduced hours or the plant closed one day a week in order to reduce costs but you intend to weather the storm. Believe me, your employees will appreciate an up-front and honest explanation on how you plan to conduct business during these times and reassure them that you are aware of their financial obligations. There are times when as a business owner you must be brutally frank with your employees and to keep the lines of communication open. Several times, I have been hired to go to a plant and explain to the employees what the changes are going to be in a plant, which could have been done, much easier and more believable by the owner, and at far less expense.
It cannot be over emphasized that now is not the time to cut training costs, and to start employee training if you haven’t done so in the past. Customers that remain with you during the downturn are the ones who appreciate, and even demand prompt and courteous service people. This is the time to work with your counter people on fibers and fabrics, basic cleaning and spotting and how important packaging is to an expertly pressed garment. The best cleaners do not reduce their training costs during lean times; frequently they will take advantage of the slow time to increase their training. This might be a good time to hire an outside trainer or consultant to work with your employees or to work with you on management and how to reduce costs while enhancing the business; it is usually money well spent to get a new perspective and learn how to immediately save money and increase production and quality.
Pricing may need to be adjusted temporarily in order to encourage your customers to visit you a bit more often. Too many business owners think that simply lowering prices will bring in more customers. This is not always the case. This usually brings out the one-time price shoppers with no loyalty after the sale is over. If you are going to lower prices, make sure that there will be an increase in orders or you have simply given money away. Better than lowering prices to attract new customers it, might be better to offer an incentive that the customers will find valuable such as a loyalty program or three for two offer.
Now is the time to reward your best performing employees and be on the lookout for competitors who are letting go the good employees instead of rewarding them. They may even come to you for a job but always try to upgrade your employees’ as they are the ones who will help you make your business succeed, but on the other hand this could be an excellent time to get rid of some bad apples.
There are some national and local mainstay companies that have already gone bankrupt or will be going out of business. This will reduce your potential customers but it will also release some really good workers that you can take advantage of to increase your professionalism. Companies like Circuit City, Sharper Image, Linens ‘n Things and a host of others have already gone out of business and there will be more before the economy recovers to where it was.
This is the time to ask if the glass is half full or half empty. The business people who are poised to take advantage of the business climate are the ones who will survive and prosper, and be much stronger when this is over, but it will take a whole different way of thinking than what we have been used to in the past.