By Don Desrosiers, Tailwind Systems

A long time ago, someone probably told you, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”  It’s the kind of wisdom everybody knows, but still you must hear every now and again as sort of a reminder.  It’s true, you know.  Two wrongs, never make a right!  But guess what?  Employees think two wrongs do make a right and they try to get us to believe they are right.  This is one of the reasons why management makes us crazy.  Here are some examples: Continue reading “Management Can Drive You Crazy” →

Your Policy Should Prevent Bankruptcy If/When the Unthinkable Strikes

By John Paul Roggenkamp

Tragedy often strikes without warning. Blue skies can turn grey in the blink of an eye, unleashing torrential downpours. Debris can suddenly block an exhaust conduit, preventing the venting of hot fumes that then somehow ignite. In this piece, we’ll look at how four different drycleaners endured loss and rose from the ashes again – often literally. In three of our cases, having the right insurance was key to them bouncing back from the brink of ruin. Are you adhering to best practices as well as maintaining the right type of insurance coverage to keep the doors open? Continue reading “How Insurance Helped Four DLI Members Recover from Disaster” →

On many levels, Milt & Edie’s Master Drycleaners is a remarkable drycleaning business. Purchased by Milt Chortkoff in 1988 and renamed in honor of his wife in 2004, today’s store at the busy intersection of Alameda and Pass in Burbank, California, has tons going for it. Two of the more salient features of the business are its physical location and nearly obsessive approach to customer service. Visible from blocks away due to the bright magenta color scheme of its many signs and banners, most of the building’s external areas such as gables and walls support placards advertising that the company is open 24/7/365 – all day, every day. Even before you step inside you can smell the fresh cookies, hot coffee, and buttery popcorn. As soon as you enter through the automatic doors the maitre d’ is asking you how they may be of service, whether you’re in for picking up, dropping off, or tailoring.

Continue reading “Melissa McCarthy & Ellen Degeneres Pull On-Air Prank at Milt & Edie’s Master Drycleaners” →

You’ve spent good money attracting, hiring and training great employees. But what happens when your skilled workers retire or move on to other pursuits? Does all your investment go down the drain?

Maybe not. You can capture the skills and knowledge critical to your bottom line by having your top performers pass along their expertise to other members of your staff.

It’s done through mentoring.

Continue reading “How Your Best Employees Can Supercharge Your Staff” →

By John Paul Roggenkamp

In this article, we’ll look at how four different drycleaning professionals approach the rewarding challenge of using mentorship to turn promising individuals into talented and self-assured leaders. It’s usually helpful to start out by defining the topic at hand, so here goes: mentoring is the act of showing people what you do each day while also explaining to them a bit of the reasoning behind each decision (verbally, nonverbally, both, or neither) until they viscerally understand your provenly-successful modus operandi and can purposefully model their actions upon it. Continue reading “How Mentorship Helps Four DLI Members Succeed” →