Category: Q3 2018

Q3 2018

Demystifying Social Media

How Four DLI Members Tackle this Tough Subject

By John Paul Roggenkamp

Drycleaners looking to grow their brand and attract new customers are increasingly turning to social media to both engage directly with the public and showcase their garment care skills. Using social media to interact with the public has many advantages, chief among them the ability to connect with members of the community wherever they may be via the devices they use every day – their cellphones. Keep reading to see how four different drycleaners and one marketing maven approach the world of social media.

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Q3 2018

By the Numbers

By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

Sometimes change can cause problems in the workplace. Some people don’t like change and fight it, tooth and nail.  I met a cleaning business owner who made a name for himself as a numbers guy. Outward appearances suggested he ran his company “by the numbers.”  Forget personalities and employees with personal issues. Forget any resistance to change, his company was run by the numbers.  Except it wasn’t.  In a private conversation with this gentleman, coupled with a glance at his labor hours, it was very clear to me that he was wasting labor in his shirt department.  It was a waste of 12 hours per week.  In PiecesPer Labor Hour terms: Three pieces per labor hour (PPLH) wasted.  When I called this to his attention, he was blunt.  “If I make any changes, the presser will quit, so I will forfeit the three pieces per labor hour.”

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Q3 2018

Hot Weather Cooling Problems

By Bruce Grossman

With summer upon us your drycleaning machine’s cooling system will be under greater stress. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a water tower, chiller, or city water for cooling, conditions that weren’t an issue during the cooler months may become problems as the ambient (surrounding) temperature rises. Most cooling problems rear their ugly heads during the drying segment of the drycleaning cycle. Drying, in the drycleaning machine sense, is all about moving heat energy. The media which moves all this heat is called a refrigerant (most machines use R22 Freon. Some of the newer models and K4 machines use R400 Freon as refrigerants) and some form of coolant (generally water or a water and glycol mixture). It doesn’t matter which Freon used, the process itself requires a device called a REFRIGERATION CONDENSER which changes hot, vapor rich, Freon gas back into liquid Freon which is constantly being recycled during the drying segment of the drycleaning cycle. In almost every case this condenser is cooled by a liquid (there are a few air-cooled condensers which are not the topic of this article). Hot, compressed Freon gas if forced by the REFRIGERATION COMPRESSOR into the REFRIGERATION CONDENSER where it is cooled and condensed by water (called a COOLANT) In this case we are transferring the heat from a vapor rich, hot, compressed Freon gas to the coolant flowing through the refrigeration condenser.  Continue reading “Hot Weather Cooling Problems” →

Q3 2018

How Will Tax Overhaul Impact You and Your Business?

A Look at the Highlights of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

By: Richard Weisinger

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 represents the most sweeping tax legislation since 1986.

Included among the many provisions of this new law is the abolition of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) penalty, an across-the-board reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, a doubling of the estate tax exemption to $11.2 million per decedent ($22.4 million per married couple), an elimination of the deduction for meals and entertainment, and a substantial curtailment of the applicability of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

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Q3 2018

DLI & NCA Team Up for Winter Conference in St. Maarten

The 2019 DLI and NCA annual Five Star Brainstorming conference will be held January 17 – 20, 2019 in St. Maarten at the Sonesta Oceanpoint resort. Members of both organizations are invited to attend for a long weekend of adventuring, relaxing, and entrepreneurship.

With only 129 rooms on the property, the Sonesta Ocean Point resort is a smaller property than the associations have used in previous years. The resort is a Five-Star adults-only property that includes food, liquor, room service, mini bar, WIFI, taxes, gratuities, and other amenities. 

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Q3 2018

Mystery Shopping Customer Service Award Winners

“Best of 2017” – Balfurd Cleaners, State College, PA

BALFURD NORTH (L to R): Anna Ruzek, Rebecca Loesch , Genevieve Logerie, and Jonah Kendle.
BALFURD BEAVER (L to R): Jessica Coleman and Julia Shive.

Each year, DLI’s Mystery Shopping partner firm, MarketWise Consulting, awards the best customer service teams it has evaluated. This year’s winner is Balfurd Cleaners in State College, Pennsylvania. Balfurd took the “Best of 2017 Award” in The Essential Customer Service category. The award represents overall excellence in counter and customer service. Scoring includes: use of name, asking about spots and stains, customer engagement and suggestive selling.

 

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Q3 2018

DLI Self Study Courses Move Online

The Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI) will offer its Self-Study Course series online beginning May 14, making the educational materials more accessible. The first courses placed online will be the Fibers & Fabrics and Wetlceaning courses. The online self study courses are open to all cleaners. Cleaners may register for the courses at DLIonline.org/Self-Study, then download the materials for independent study on their own schedule. When ready, students may take the course’s online examination. Passing grades are rewarded a certificate of achievement.

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Q3 2018

DLI Presents Diamond Achievement Award to Buster Bell

DLI Chairman Mike Nesbitt awards Buster Bell DLI’s Diamond Achievement Award.

“For His Deep Commitment

And Lifelong Dedication

To Helping People Succeed In

The Drycleaning Business”

DLI presented Walter “Buster” Bell with the Diamond Achievement Award, DLI’s highest honor, June 7 at

the South Eastern Fabricare Association Southern Drycleaners & Launderers Show. Through the course of his life, Bell repeatedly demonstrated his passion as a champion for every cleaner. His belief in a better industry caused him to strive to develop certification programs cleaners could use to offer the best, and safest, services.  

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Q3 2018

New Marketing Video Series Free for Members

In a recent Drycleaning & Laundry Institute survey, members indicated that Internet Marketing was one of the top things they would like to learn more about to help their business. Brian Rashid, a speaker at a 2017 conference covered this topic very well for drycleaners in the audience. DLI asked Rashid to produce a set of short videos to explain how members can begin marketing online.

This video series is available free to all members and was designed exclusively for drycleaners. Members may learn online, at their own pace—even with no marketing or technology experience.

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Q3 2018

Join Me In My Journey As DLI President

I am a second generation drycleaner who started in the business after graduating high school in 1976. I tell people after that I went to the college of Hard Knocks. I did not have the opportunity to go to the DLI school so I learned the business from the back to the front.

I started on the SEFA (Southeastern Fabricare Association) Board in the early 1990s and served as President in 1998-1999. The knowledge I obtained while serving on that board was priceless. The DLI and the SEFA boards allowed me the experience and knowledge of being part of a cost group. DLI and JSA (Joint State Association) membership has so much for you to be a part of and learn. We hear it all the time “What does being a member do for me?” There is a list a mile long, if you go to DLIonline.org or just call 800-638-2627 they will tell you. If you are interested in applying to be a director just pick up the phone and give us a call.

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