While those skills are important, indeed essential, successful drycleaners also need a sound head for business and an entrepreneurial spirit. Training and technical skills will go to waste if nobody knows about them. Relying on passing trade will not increase revenues. Drycleaners need to be active in finding potential customers and bringing into the shop.
The drycleaners in our feature on boosting profits not only have the right skills, they also market them.
They are active in their communities as they realise the benefits of local knowledge and actively set out to be well known and respected figures in their areas.
Talking to schools about everyday objects might sound a long way from the drycleaning industry but it gets the business and its owner recognised. Know and be known is a good motto.
While the term “drycleaner” is still commonly used, modern practitioners think of themselves as much more.
A portfolio of services is essential and a more accurate description is professional textile care. Look at the list of services available in the best businesses and it will include not only the traditional garments such as suits, coats, skirts but also a wide range of clothes, household textiles – upholstery, carpets and curtains and other items such as toys or leather goods.
Cleaners no longer rely on one method. Laundering and wetcleaning are also taking their place alongside solvent-based cleaning. Where there are several branches within a group, there may even be a choice of solvents, which again helps to broaden the range of goods that can be handled.
Most cleaners will have access to a local worker who will carry out sewing but repairs and alterations are a good example of a service that can be marketed to great effect, especially if they are carried out to a high standard by a trained and experience worker who can be seen in the shop.
Accessories are another route to extra profits. They may not suit every business but if well displayed and marketed will help to make the most of a prime street location. Staff can be encouraged to point them out to customers – the shoe retail industry is well aware of this.
Training and skills must be kept up to date to make sure the marketing can do its work effectively. They are the foundation for a professional image but that entrepreneurial spirit is an ingredient of success that can no longer be ignored.
