Let’s say you are at a party and you run into friends you haven’t seen in a while—maybe since college or they could be old neighbors or work colleagues. And the first question naturally would be “What have you been up to?” And how many times have you heard the response that indicated that nothing had changed “I’m pretty much the same person.” How sad. Who wants to talk to the 55-year-old high school quarterback whose lifetime highlight was the winning season he had in 1963. Isn’t it a lot more fun and interesting to talk to someone who has lived, gone on to do different things, evolved and grown into the person they are today? I think so.
These same scenarios happen with businesses and it’s not good in those cases either. No matter how successful you are today if your business is not changing or adapting it will eventually catch up with you. It is probably easier to make changes when your business is stagnant because the impetus to make changes is there—you have are real fiscal reason to make the changes. When things are going well I’ll admit it is harder to make changes. Why fix something that isn’t broke? Because eventually it’s going to break and it never happens when you’re prepared for it.
As an industry we want to be in the position of telling everyone we have evolved. We have changed. We are not the same old industry. DLI wants to be that interesting person at the party who has grown into a new and inspired version of themselves. When I meet people at conventions or trade shows, I can’t wait for that inevitable question “What’s new?” because then I get to chat about all the changes we’ve made. We strive to never rest on our laurels and to consistently bring you new and different offerings to help you along your own path to staying relevant.
In this issue you will find the first bulletin in a new bulletin series “Laundry Logic.” We all know drycleaning piece counts are down for any number of reasons but primarily our business world has become more casual. People are not wearing suits and ties except maybe for weddings or funerals and even then there are exceptions. So, we have a couple of courses of action, one of which is to branch into wash-dry-fold or more laundry work. This type of work is different than what you are used to getting as a drycleaner. In many cases not only is the work itself different but the skill set necessary to process is different and even the mindset of the customer is different. The “Laundry Logic” series will explore all these nuances and hopefully expose you to the possible opportunities. I’d love to hear what you think and as always: please let us know what we can do to make sure we are always new and inspired!
